Evil Emperor Zun

Chapter 2022 Seed Feather's Deadly Strike
"You don't need to worry about these things, I'll handle them. Both cloning machines will eventually be in our hands. At that point, no matter how powerful your older brother is, it's only a matter of time before he's taken over."

"As for strength, you'll gradually unlock the data package once you become your true form. Since I'm willing to invest in you, you should also believe in yourself."

His confident tone was quite convincing, and Lan Shiyu's anxious mind miraculously calmed down. It also realized that Chu Tianyao now gave it a similar feeling to Hei Shiyu; its older brother was always composed in front of it, rationally guiding it through each step, a reliable presence like a calming anchor. But precisely because of this, a question grew increasingly strong in its mind.

"Why are you helping me? Why didn't you choose my older brother?" It couldn't rest easy until it figured this out. "Although we inherited the same genome, it's superior to me in both intelligence and strength. You'll be better off following it."

Even the same gene tree can produce different fruits. Black Ten Feather was the best fruit of this batch, while Blue Ten Feather was just an ordinary one. From an outsider's perspective, Black Ten Feather would naturally be considered more deserving to stay; the Gnawing Clan would mostly hope that their future subordinates would be like Black Ten Feather; even Blue Ten Feather itself admired Black Ten Feather—but even so, even knowing it was unworthy, it still hoped that "itself" could survive.

Even ants struggle to survive. Lan Shiyu both despised and found this survival instinct, which required "sacrificing others," to be perfectly justified. But Chu Tianyao was different. He clearly had a choice. What reason did he have to turn down a better collaborator and become a babysitter for a defective product like himself?

Stared intently at by its gaze, which held a mixture of hope and timidity, Chu Tianyao curled the corners of his lips without a hint of a smile.

"Don't get me wrong. I've said from the beginning that I don't care which one of you I work with. I will only work with people who are 'useful to me'."

"As you said, it's far superior to you in every way, and it's almost certain to take you back. Even if I help it, it might not be grateful; it'll just think that's how things should be. But if I help you, it'll be a real lifesaver. You should remember this favor and properly 'thank' me, right?"

Someone who habitually thinks from a self-interested perspective will feel you're trying to deceive them if you talk about feelings. Only when they realize you're also acting in your own self-interest will they believe you're being sincere.

Moreover, Lan Shiyu had personally witnessed Chu Tianyao betray Chen Shiyu without hesitation in pursuit of power—Chen Shiyu was a long-time friend of his, and his memory bank could easily find many testimonies of their friendship. Now, how could he possibly believe that such a person, who had only known him for less than a day, was actually starting to value loyalty and righteousness, and would never betray him even if it harmed his own interests?

Therefore, after hearing Chu Tianyao's rather unfriendly explanation, Lan Shiyu felt much more at ease. It even filled in the logical gaps itself:

Just like in a team, there will always be a leader and a follower. Chu Tianyao and Hei Shiyu are both leadership talents. However, two tigers cannot share one mountain. Two intelligent people with high aspirations may not be able to cooperate well.

Partnering with Kuroyuu, he could only stand in the "subordinate" position. But partnering with himself, he could stand in the absolute "master" position. Perhaps this was what he wanted.

Some people aren't very bright, yet they have a ton of ideas, each one more disastrous than the last. Others, knowing they're not smart enough, simply give up thinking and rely entirely on the clever people around them for advice. Lan Shiyu is the latter. Before, it relied on Hei Shiyu, and now it's relying on Chu Tianyao.

And it finally made up its mind to carry out Chu Tianyao's plan!

As it charged into the battle circle carrying a faint burst of energy, Chu Tianyao leisurely emerged from his hiding place to meet Ye Yunyan.

"Yunyan, I'll keep the copying machine for you for now. You should go and help Shiyu quickly."

When Ye Yunyan first saw Chu Tianyao, she was somewhat stunned and also pleasantly surprised. But soon, she seemed to realize something, and her expression immediately became wary.

"Stand there and don't move!"

"That cloned talent just appeared, and you followed right after. You two are definitely in cahoots, aren't you?"

Upon hearing this, Chu Tianyao obediently stopped in his tracks, a feigned look of regret flashing across his face.

"Oops, you've been found out."

He stood there, maintaining a gentle smile, and showed Ye Yunyan the copying machine in his hand.

"It may be a bit rude, but could you please not move?"

As he spoke, his eyes darkened once more. The instant Ye Yunyan met his gaze, she seemed to be struck by some unseen energy, her body stiffening and motionless, her eyes momentarily losing their luster. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Chu Tianyao leisurely captured her in the frame and pressed the button.

With a click, another identical Ye Yunyan floated out of the original body.

"Stand in that corner over there." Chu Tianyao began giving instructions to the clone Yunyan. "You don't need to do anything, just stay where I can see you and maintain your posture. Can you do that?"

Even when facing a clone that had not yet developed consciousness, he maintained that deliberately crafted, almost hypocritical politeness. He even smiled and nodded at the clone after it obediently moved to the designated spot.

After he finished doing all this, Ye Yunyan regained consciousness. The blankness left by the few breaths she had been deprived of returned to her consciousness immediately. Something must have happened during that time... She glanced around and noticed the clone of herself in the distance.

Even if she possessed the cloning machine, she couldn't retrieve it from this distance. This also reveals Chu Tianyao's purpose in arranging it this way: to make her "see it, but not reach it."

"For the sake of our friendship, I advise you not to resist." Seeing that she should have understood her situation, Chu Tianyao smiled, his gentle voice gradually becoming laced with a poisonous edge. "There are our people all around here. If you don't cooperate, we can simply kill you and replace you with something else."

"No one will know that you have disappeared, and no one will know that the 'you' they see again is no longer the original you."

"Furthermore, there are likely many players inside and outside this mysterious space who fully trust you. I cannot guarantee what kind of deception and misfortune they will suffer because of this trust after we take over 'your' identity..."

"Of course, the fact that I'm still willing to stand here and talk to you means that I don't want things to come to that." He skillfully used the "slap and then sweet" tactic, and then extended an olive branch to her, "You need to know that since we've taken action, we're definitely going to get rid of Chen Shiyu, but you don't have to die with him. You can stand with us and enjoy everything that's within your reach in the future."

“If you understand me, put down the copying machine and step back, back to a place where you can’t touch it.” “Of course I will step back too, and I won’t touch that machine.” As if to show his sincerity, Chu Tianyao took a step back when he said this. “I just want to make sure you won’t cause us any trouble, that’s all.”

"Let it go, believe me. Once you let go, you won't have to worry anymore." His tone was gentle and slow, as if guiding a lost soul to the right path. "This is not your responsibility. You have done very well. It's time to free yourself."

The three, Chen Shiyu and his companions, engaged in battle, were also closely monitoring the negotiations. Seed Feather, lurking in the shadows, was also watching intently. Under the pressure, both overt and covert, from everyone present, Ye Yunyan finally gave her answer.

She bent down, placed the copying machine on the ground in front of her toes, and then backed away step by step.

Shui Wunian noticed that Ye Yunyan hadn't said a single word to Chu Tianyao throughout the entire process. She was probably utterly disappointed, after all, she had just vouched for him in front of Chen Shiyu last night, saying he was trustworthy, but the result proved she had completely misjudged him.

Furthermore, the fact that he made the decision to side with the enemy while in a state of lucidity indicates that he believed siding with the Gnawing Clan was more beneficial than siding with the players. Even if you criticize him, it won't change the balance in his mind; he'd rather save his energy and find another solution.

She is an absolute rationalist. An ordinary, emotional girl would be hurt by a friend's betrayal, find it hard to believe, and question repeatedly, but she can quickly accept the situation, arrive at the most rational answer, and then think about what she should be thinking about most at that moment.

Seeing Ye Yunyan retreat, Chu Tianyao also spread his hands and took large steps back again. In the blink of an eye, a large, spacious area was cleared where the cloning machine had been placed.

This is the distance that Chu Tianyao specially left for Seed Feather, implying that it should "come and get" it.

Seeing this, Lan Shiyu couldn't help but mutter to himself. The cloning machine was right there, so close that they could win if they just grabbed it. Why was he being so generous at this crucial moment? And he could clearly control Ye Yunyan with his corrosive power, so why didn't he just take the machine directly instead of going through all this trouble to make her let go on her own? Was he even genuinely trying to help him?

It wasn't particularly bright, and being in the midst of battle slowed its reactions even further. It took it a while to realize: That's right, if it had obtained the cloning machine from the beginning, Seed Feather, knowing it had no hope, wouldn't have reappeared. It might have chosen to quietly retreat and then hide in the shadows, becoming a thorn in its side.

Rather than that, it's better to lure it out first by laying bait. But Lan Shiyu was still somewhat uneasy—according to Chu Tianyao's analysis, Seed Feathers would only risk showing themselves when they had Chen Shiyu under their control. In such a short time, could Chu Tianyao really find a way to both retrieve Chen Shiyu and eliminate Seed Feathers? What if he failed and allowed Seed Feathers to successfully seize the replication machine? Wouldn't that be shooting himself in the foot?

It wasn't just Lan Shiyu who had something on his mind; even Hei Shiyu stared at the open space for several moments with a gloomy expression.

It could certainly see that Chu Tianyao was giving it a chance. But it couldn't be sure whether the other party was showing goodwill or had carefully set a trap.

Their alliance with Chu Tianyao was always maintained through a one-way communication between Lan Shiyu and him. It would negotiate with him according to his instructions and then report the progress to him regularly. They were "more familiar" with each other, but that was all.

Putting that aside, neither general human nature nor Chu Tianyao's personal character traits support his unwavering devotion to Lan Shiyu. A wise bird chooses its tree; siding with him would be the best and most reasonable choice for him.

However, "should do it" doesn't mean "will definitely do it." Who knows what other thoughts he might have? Hei Shiyu never easily draws conclusions about things outside its control. It always maintains a degree of vigilance to prepare for any eventuality.

On the other hand, the strength displayed by Chen Shiyu also surprised and puzzled it.

While replicants possess all the abilities of their original counterparts, in practice, they can indeed fall slightly short. Take playing the piano as an example: a true pianist's performance is a perfect blend of superb technique and passionate emotion. A replicant's performance, however, only possesses technical skill—pressing the appropriate keys at the right time—but lacks the soul that emotion can imbue it with.

For example, a real athlete, when faced with an unplanned situation, can react quickly and efficiently thanks to their rich experience and the physical reflexes honed through long-term training. A clone, however, can only act rigidly according to the memory bank, processing things that have precedents in the memory. If a similar situation hasn't occurred before, a clone's on-the-spot reaction can never match that of the original.

This is understandable, as abilities obtained through mechanical replication and those honed through personal experience cannot be 100% replicated.

However, the gap in combat power between Chen Shiyu and himself was not limited to this. Even if he could unlock all the data packets, it wouldn't be enough to bridge the gap. It seemed that a considerable portion of his abilities had not been copied... This was Hei Shiyu's assessment of the "content" of the two, based on his personal experience as a "container" with an identical appearance.

As a container, it's a replica of the original body in its corrupted state, also containing a portion of the Devouring Clan's memories and power. Following these memories, it's known that there has never been a case of "incomplete replication" in history; otherwise, they wouldn't have gone to such great lengths to create a half-finished product. Even stranger, these failed transfers of abilities seem to be unknown even to Chen Shiyu himself. What's going on? What secrets does he hold within him?
Hei Shiyu struggled to calm himself. Chen Shiyu and Chu Tianyao were, respectively, an open threat and a hidden threat. Lan Shiyu, the only one who could temporarily be considered an ally, was not only unhelpful but could also become a weakness vulnerable to exploitation. The longer this battle dragged on, the more disadvantageous it would be for him; he had to find a way to break this deadlock as soon as possible!

After exchanging another magical blow with Chen Shiyu, Hei Shiyu made up his mind, deliberately focusing his gaze behind Ye Yunyan, and shouted, "Snatch the copying machine for me!"

This was a decoy, a two-pronged strategy. It wanted Chu Tianyao to believe his target was the cloning machine. If Chu Tianyao had ulterior motives, he would surely act now to prevent the machine from falling into Chu Tianyao's hands, thus revealing Chu Tianyao's true allegiance. The real order it gave to Seed Feather via telepathy was to attack Ye Yunyan!
If she were successfully injured, it would inevitably distract Chen Shiyu. If she could create that fleeting opportunity… she might be able to control him!

As it expected, Ye Yunyan was misled by its performance, thinking that the enemy had silently approached from behind, and subconsciously turned her head.

Unexpectedly, as Ye Yunyan turned around, Chu Tianyao struck out with lightning speed, the force of his palm sweeping through the space, creating a wave of energy that landed heavily on Ye Yunyan's shoulder!

Caught off guard, Ye Yunyan was struck and sent flying backward, her toes barely touching the ground.

In the shadows, a scope connected to the cannon barrel locked onto her from above.

The young man operating the cannon remained calm and collected, crouching like a seasoned hunter, blending into his surroundings and patiently tracking the movement of his prey. A few strands of silver hair slipped down, and for a fleeting moment, they met his sharp blue eyes, taking on a cold glint.

"boom"!
A dazzling flash of light emanated from the cannon barrel.

Everything that belonged to Ye Yunyan was completely frozen in this moment.

Her head exploded like a shattered watermelon, her body swaying with the momentum before finally collapsing to the ground. Her pure white dress spread out on the ground like a withered flower, abandoned forlornly in this cruel world. Blood gushed out, quickly forming a pool beneath her.

A beautiful woman, her life tragically cut short!