Artifact Report

Chapter 423 Chai Si - The Person Who Truly Defeats Chai Si
Chai Si is not the type of person who overthinks or doubts himself.

Every idea, analysis, and decision he makes is clear and firm; once it takes shape, it becomes the solid ground beneath his feet.

Throughout his thirty years of life, Chai Si has always known where he is headed – he has never been afraid of falling or taking the wrong path.

So now, for the first time in his life, Chai Si felt as if he had sunk to the bottom of the sea and become a seaweed; undercurrents and waves came from all directions, pulling him, pushing him, and striking his thoughts so hard that the world was turned upside down and he was swaying back and forth, unable to grasp any foothold.

What happened? Who was that person?

Has Uncle Kai fallen for another trap?
He kept calling out—calling out—calling out for his son.

So, it must be... it's calling itself, right?

Aside from oneself, in this world—

Chai Si raised his eyes again.

The figure standing tall on the distant slope was clearly not a normal human being, but merely a pure, pitch-black shadow—looking like a shadow cast on the ground that had stood up on its own.

No details of clothing or physical outlines exist; only a dark silhouette remains.

Was he a hunter using an illusion?
Are you a resident?

Is this one of the strange phenomena that occurred after the original liquid was injected into the human world?
Why am I afraid?
Chai Si opened his mouth, wanting to call out to Uncle Kai, wanting to tell him that he was here.

You don't need to go any further, don't go any further, I'll just stand here.

But his instinctive turn triggered a violent, raging pain in his chest and abdomen, cutting off his voice and preventing him from uttering a single word—

The next moment, Keronan took another step and brushed past Chess.

He couldn't utter a sound; he could only stare blankly at Kaironan's profile. That was the person he knew best, the only guiding light he knew in this dimly lit world.

Kaironan seemed not to see Chase and walked past him.

It doesn't take a genius to see that Keronan had been heading towards the figure on the slope from the very beginning.

But...why?
It must be some kind of illusion causing him to think that Chess was standing on the slope. If Uncle Kai continues walking like this, he will definitely be in danger.

He had to stop him; the broken bones in his chest and abdomen could pierce his internal organs at any moment with a single movement, but he had to stop Uncle Kai first and warn him—

From among the row of cars in the distance, Aunt Hai suddenly let out a scream.

Her first cry was actually a jumble of words, as if she had suddenly lost the ability to speak, leaving only a heavy, useless tongue; she staggered out of the convoy, almost as if she were blind.

Half a second later, Chai Si realized that she really couldn't see anymore—she couldn't see the Kai family's caravan, the Kai family's hunters, her husband, or even Chai Si.

The only thing Haiper could see at that moment was the figure of a person on the slope.

"Damian!"

Heaper's heart-wrenching screams echoed through the parking lot. With incredible speed, she rushed past her husband and stepson to the dark figure, repeatedly calling out, "Damian! Damian! Damian!"

Chai Si Ning stood there, motionless. All sound, both in her mind and in her body, vanished.

...Perhaps there really is a God in the world.

The God had heard his wish from half an hour ago, his desire for time to stand still. So the God reached out and seized his world and time, squeezing them tightly and slowly suffocating him. With a single name, God cut off all his life and breath, rendering him immobile.

impossible.

It's an artifact effect; someone must have used some kind of—

Chai Si finally managed to straighten his stiff, cement-like neck, his gaze following Aunt Hai as they climbed the slope. He endured the pain and managed to call out, "Aunt Hai, be careful—"

"oh,"

A soft, unfamiliar male voice, a mature male voice he had never heard before, gently rang out in the concrete space. Somehow, it seemed to float above Aunt Hai's screams. "Brother Chai, I forgot, you can't seem to see me."

The shadowy figure lowered its head, seemingly doing something, but Chai Si squinted, unable to discern its movements.

When he looked up again, he had blond hair.

Compared to his sun-kissed golden hair as a child, his adult hair is now a deep gold with a dark brown hue.

Mingming disappeared from this world when he was twelve years old and still a child.

No one knew what Damian would have looked like if he had had the chance to grow up over the past seventeen years—but Chai recognized his features at a glance.

...He is my younger brother.

He is a younger brother who died seventeen years ago, but now looks like an adult.

Only his eyes were different. Damian's eyes had now turned completely black.

It was as if that appearanceless, pure black figure had been fitted with the shell of "Damian"; beneath the shell, it gazed silently and coldly at the world through its two eye sockets.

...However, it was precisely because of these eyes that Chai Si realized that he had come to believe that the person in front of him was Damian.

"Hi,"

Damian chuckled softly, his gaze sweeping over Highper, then over Keronan, and finally landing on Chais.

The next second, he looked away again, as if his gaze had merely swept across a brick. Damian looked back at Heper, who had stopped in front of him.

After a brief silence, he said softly, "I'm back, Mom."

One word shattered Aunt Hai's spirit.

As she took her final step toward Damian, it was as if she shattered from her knees down, collapsing and stumbling to the ground, kneeling before him.

Heper knelt on the ground, looking up at him like a most devout believer gazing up at the one and only god.

She reached out her hand, trembling, and Damian obediently bent down.

Chai Si couldn't bring himself to shout "Don't touch him"—even the thought that "Aunt Hai might be in danger if she touches him" made him realize how ridiculous he was.

Highper's hand, like a dying butterfly, trembled as it landed on Damian's face.

"It's you...it's you...you're really back,"

Chai Si couldn't see her, but he knew she was crying.

"Damian, you're back, it really is you..."

Caronan slowly took the last step, finally reaching behind his wife and standing in front of Damian, where he stopped.

"What...what's going on?"

He was, after all, a hunter, and was still trying to find an explanation. Staring at Damian, he said, "You...you really did die back then...I saw you die before my eyes, after all attempts to resuscitate you failed. What happened? You, you are now..."

Damian remained silent as Haiper stroked his face. It took a long time before he finally straightened up little by little.

“Dad,” he said, his dark eyes fixed on Kaironan. Only his face was smiling. “You didn’t know?”

"Know what?" Keronan asked, as if possessed.

No, it wasn't just him.

Everyone in the parking lot, including the other Kai family hunters, seemed to be possessed, in a daze. Damian's death was never a secret within the Kai family.

Chai Si glanced at them; the core hunters were just staring blankly at the family of three on the slope.

Seventeen years later, Chai Si finally returned to the role he was meant to play in the Kai family—a supporting character.

He stood in the parking lot, afraid to move, unable to go anywhere, and could only quietly await trial and exile.

“Mom,” Damian smiled again, lowering his head to look at his mother kneeling at his feet. “You didn’t tell him anything?”

“Tell me what?” Kronan bowed his head to his wife, as if tonight were the first time he had ever seen her.

Haiper seemed to finally calm down and come to his senses.

She held Damian's hand tightly, supporting herself with her son, now a young man, as she stood up. She glanced at her husband first, then suddenly turned to look at Chais.

Those two eyes gave Chai Si a strange sense of comfort: it was as if he and Uncle Kai were indeed allies.

"I'm not an idiot."

Haiper's voice was slightly sharp, "What exactly happened that night, even if no one tells me, I can roughly guess."

She turned her eyes away, her gaze returning to Chai Si's face, and asked, "This question has been on my mind for seventeen years. I've guessed, I've probed him, but only today can I finally ask it."

Chai Si stood there, frozen in place.

Damian has grown into a young man, but he seems to have returned to the age of thirteen.

"Why did you kill my son?" Haiper demanded angrily. "Because he opened the passage? Were you jealous?"

Before Chai Si could shake his head, she said first, "No, that's not it. I watched you grow up. No matter how much I hate you, I know you wouldn't kill Damian for that reason, not even for Keronan."

Heper gave a cold laugh.

"Is it because of the way your mother died?"

Chai Si felt his face suddenly freeze.

“Your mother didn’t want the residents to enter the world… Of course she didn’t want them, she even died because of it. So, you killed my son while carrying the weight of her death.”

Her choice of words was subtle; she still described Damian as a dead man. She herself seemed unaware of this.

Haiper burst into laughter.

“I thought I was just daydreaming… I thought I was just refusing to accept reality. Do you know how hard I had to work? Do you know how many years I waited and waited, how many times I doubted myself, how many times I blamed myself? I had no way out, I couldn’t do anything. Do you know how much torment I was going through?”

She seemed to be questioning Chess, or perhaps Keronan; her laughter echoed through the parking lot, the sound waves striking the walls and reverberating as if they were countless "Damian".

“Don’t you understand? I won, Chess. I beat your mother, I beat you. My son is back.”

Heper tilted his chin up.

“The Tomb of Damian, which we visit every year, is empty. I will not allow you to get any closer to it.”

(End of this chapter)