Yama Reborn-Chapter 515 - 512 【Chen Nuo, you don’t want to...】
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Chapter 512 [Chen Nuo, you don’t want to...]
Lu Xixi was startled when she saw Seed, who had fattened into a spherical shape. She then quickly stood by Chen Nuo’s side, looking at Seed with a complex expression.
"Speaking of which, you two should know, if it wasn’t for me stepping in a few days ago, you both would’ve been done for, right?" Seed said with a resigned smile. "So, for your savior, shouldn’t you humans at least be a bit more courteous?"
Chen Nuo thought for a moment. "There are also those who bite the hand that feeds them."
"Commonly known as ingrates," Lu Xixi added emotionlessly.
Seed chuckled, walked over, and gently patted Chen Nuo’s shoulder. "I haven’t eaten yet. Add a set of tableware for me."
The meal was a simple home-cooked dinner prepared by Chen Nuo, consisting of one meat dish, one vegetable dish, plus a bowl of tomato and egg soup.
However, as is the custom in Jinling, when a guest visits, Chen Nuo went downstairs to the local marinated food store at the entrance of the residential complex and bought half a salted duck to serve.
This was considered adding a substantial dish to the meal.
Seed wasn’t very interested in the salted duck—after all, it wasn’t sweet. He just ate a duck leg to be polite and had half a bowl of rice before putting down his chopsticks.
After dinner, Lu Xixi seemed to know that Seed must have something to discuss with Chen Nuo, so she said indifferently, "I’ll go check on our daughter at our mom’s place. You two talk."
"Mm, I’ll yell if there’s something," Chen Nuo stated blatantly.
Seed rolled his eyes.
After Lu Xixi left, Chen Nuo brewed a cup of tea and took out a can of cold Coke from the fridge to give to Seed.
Since this guy likes sweets, tea definitely won’t be to his liking.
"Go ahead. You obviously have something to say if you’re suddenly visiting me."
Seed first chugged half a can of Coke before letting out a comfortable sigh. "I need your help with something."
Chen Nuo’s eyes swiveled. "Dangerous?"
"Don’t worry, it’s not dangerous. It just needs some time."
"Then I refuse."
Seed was dumbfounded.
Where’s the logic in this conversation?!
Chen Nuo shook his head. "A friend of mine is missing. Until I see her return safely, I don’t have time to travel far. I’m still trying to find her."
Seed frowned. "Looking for someone? I clearly saw you at home eating dinner when I arrived."
"Because I can’t find her," Chen Nuo sighed. "I’m not going to blindly stumble around the streets hoping for luck like ordinary people."
The bastard slowly sipped his tea.
"...You don’t seem very worried," Seed retorted, rolling his eyes.
Chen Nuo stared at Seed for a while, then said softly, "Has anyone told you... you’re becoming more and more like a human?"
Seed was taken aback, then shook his head. "How did your friend go missing?"
Chen Nuo hesitated for a moment before slowly speaking up. "This has to do with Zero."
Once Zero was mentioned, Seed’s expression soured. He found the Coke in his hand no longer sweet and silently put down the can.
"That Fourth Seed, oh, what you call ’the Tree,’ its Chosen One..."
"Its Chosen One, isn’t that your woman?" Seed gestured with his lips toward the house door. Lu Xixi had just left a few minutes before. With Seed’s sensing power, he could naturally sense that Lu Xixi was in the house across the doorway.
Chen Nuo ran his fingers through his hair, hesitating again internally, but finally spoke out.
Firstly, Seed is on my side.
Secondly, Seed is the strongest. If there are problems I can’t solve, maybe Seed actually can.
As for the third... the key is Zero! Although Gray Cat said Zero might be dead, there’s no guarantee it’s true. Finding Zero is something I can’t manage, but maybe Seed can.
Seed, indeed, would also want to find Zero.
"Simply put, the Tree originally had a Chosen One, who later died for some reason. The soul and body split in two. The body was stuffed with another person’s soul by Zero—turning into the current Lu Xixi. And the original Chosen One’s soul was taken by Zero and stuffed into my friend’s body. Then... a few days ago, she suddenly woke up. She took over my friend’s body, like in a case of Body Seizing. A big mess followed, and it even drew the Tree into it. Well, you know the rest."
Chen Nuo kept it brief but delivered all the key information, and then added, "I haven’t fully told Lu Xixi about this... because, if I tell her that she actually died long ago, and this current body was made for her by someone else... it would undoubtedly be very hard for her to accept."
Complicated as it was, Seed was Seed, after all. After some thought, he somehow got it.
He looked at Chen Nuo. "...It is a bit complicated indeed."
"More complicated than you think," Chen Nuo said with a bitter smile. "I’ve met Zero."
Seed sat up straight.
"He set up a trap and sent me back to the eighties. Then..."
It took Chen Nuo a few minutes to broadly go over the events.
Seed frowned.
Upon hearing the last part, Seed’s eyes suddenly lit up!
He looked at Chen Nuo and suddenly said with a smile, "So... in the end, it should be us who won?"
Chen Nuo was startled!
Seed picked up the can of Coke again. "That guy Zero is the most troublesome because I can never catch and kill him. He can travel through time and space anytime, anywhere, so he sets up many disgusting traps, and you can’t really catch him."
After a pause, Seed looked at Chen Nuo. "His targeting you... is actually targeting me. This is because I’m the Seed, and you’re my Chosen One. If it weren’t for my existence, you would be a mere mortal. He would have no need to set up such a complex trap for a mortal. So, in actuality, he’s targeting me. With such traps and schemes in place to target me, could it be... in the future he knows, in this evolutionary competition, I actually won?"
Chen Nuo’s heart skipped a beat.
However, since he was willing to reveal these things to Seed, Chen Nuo had already thought it through and didn’t mind letting Seed know.
Perhaps knowing would be a good thing.
"So there’s something I’ve always been unable to figure out, and now..." Seed asked with a smile. "I’ve always been clear that I didn’t know you at all before we first met, but you had my life mark on you; you are my Chosen One. Such marks can’t be faked! I’ve always wondered about one thing: I clearly don’t know you, I’ve never taken you as my Chosen One, but we do have the connection of the life mark."
Chen Nuo smiled. "It’s like a virgin who is definitely a virgin, yet suddenly she has a child. After a DNA test, this virgin happens to be the mother of the child?"
"Right, that analogy is very vivid," Seed sighed. "So I’ve always been unable to figure this out. But if it’s related to that bastard, Zero..."
He blinked. "Chen Nuo, tell me, you’re not from this timeline, right? You... were you brought to this timeline by Zero, from the future? In the future, I made you my Chosen One, and then, you were brought to this timeline by Zero? Otherwise, it really isn’t possible to explain this."
That Seed could come up with such a line of logic didn’t surprise Chen Nuo.
Because the ability to travel through time and space was something only Zero had mastered.
Someone from the future returned to this timeline. Chen Nuo became Chen Nuo, becoming the Chosen One in this timeline whom Seed, strangely, did not know but with whom he shared the life mark.
In this part, Seed guessed almost everything right!
The only thing he didn’t guess was that Chen Nuo returning to this timeline wasn’t arranged by Zero.
It was because Chen Nuo himself had evolved into a Four-Dimensional Life form.
However, concerning this point, Chen Nuo planned to keep quiet and not tell Seed.
Otherwise, with Seed’s intelligence, he would soon grasp even more critical issues!
In the future, how Seed won.
How he killed other Seeds.
And then... All Chosen Ones must die!
"Can you tell me if we won in the future?" Seed looked curiously at Chen Nuo.
Chen Nuo shook his head. "I don’t know."
He spoke very frankly, very sincerely, his heartbeat unchanged, and not a muscle twitched in the corner of his eyes.
Seed stared at Chen Nuo and then said, "I know you’re lying to me, but... this isn’t important at the moment. But I think I’ve guessed what you’re afraid of."
Seed continued, then smiled. "You’re afraid that I’ll kill the Tree, right? If I kill the Tree, your wife will die."
Chen Nuo slowly nodded. "Yes!"
There was no way to hide this; a little thought would make it clear.
"So I say that human emotions are really superfluous," Seed sighed. "Many things get you tied up, and you can’t go all out."
Chen Nuo, however, shook his head. "Do you know, in human society, we also have a specific term to define your kind of statement? It’s called: antisocial personality."
Seed, not caring about Chen Nuo’s retort, nodded. "So your current problem is... you need to find the girl named Sun Keke, figure out a way to remove the other soul inside her body, and restore Sun Keke to a normal person. Furthermore, going a step deeper, the best would be to find... Zero! Finding this behind-the-scenes manipulator would allow you to completely sever all hidden dangers."
"Gray Cat said that guy might be dead," Chen Nuo said slowly.
"That Gray Cat is almost dead itself," Seed shook his head, saying coldly, "If it’s still trying to play the role of a fence-sitter, I will personally kill it."
"MEOW?!"
A cat’s cry came from outside the window, and Seed looked out. "How long have you been eavesdropping there?"
There was no sound outside the window.
Chen Nuo walked to the windowsill and looked out, only to see Gray Cat desperately fleeing across the complex grounds.
Seed, standing beside Chen Nuo, suddenly shouted loudly, "You better not get involved in anything anymore! Otherwise, I’ll make cat jerky out of you myself!"
In the distance, Gray Cat fell from a step, then leaped up fiercely, running even faster, quickly disappearing among the buildings.
"It has been missing for several days," Chen Nuo shook his head. "I can’t find it, but I’m sure it’s definitely nearby."
"It needs to absorb some Life Force," Seed shook his head. "Otherwise, it would starve to death."
A thought struck Chen Nuo. "Is this... also a secret? I’ve always been curious why Gray Cat needs to absorb our Life Force."
"Because it has no Chosen One anymore," Seed waved his hand.
Then, he solemnly told Chen Nuo, "When the Mother created us, She gave us different forms of life. The most special..."
"The most special is Zero?"
"Right, the most special is Zero. Zero possesses the ability of Time. With this ability, he is almost immortal. Relative to himself, he can exist within the periods of Time he has lived through, never dying. But the tragedy is this: if he cannot complete his evolution during his life, then he is essentially trapped in a Time prison forever."
It’s as if you could live for a hundred days, but your opponent succeeds in evolving on the 101st day... you are indeed powerless.
This point had been made to Chen Nuo by Zero when they faced each other.
"But the second most special is Gray Cat."
"What?" Chen Nuo was startled!
Gray Cat? Special?
𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦
This lazy, death-fearing creature, whose strength is arguably the weakest among all the Seeds.
It’s also a special existence?!
"You already know about the relationship between Seeds and Chosen Ones," Seed spoke slowly. "In all Seeds, the relationship with the Chosen Ones is that the Seed dominates, and the Chosen One follows. This master-servant relationship, you understand, right?"
Chen Nuo nodded.
"But Gray Cat is different. When the Mother created us, in order to come up with many different paths, She made many different attempts because evolution... might require trying many paths, yet it’s possible that only one of them is the correct one. So, She created many different models. Zero is a different model. Gray Cat is also a different model. The difference with Gray Cat is that it too has Chosen Ones, and it can choose humans or other creatures as its Chosen Ones. But... its relationship with Chosen Ones is different from our model!"
Chen Nuo looked baffled.
"Our kind of Seed and Chosen One relationship is a life-level sharing; if the Seed dies, the Chosen One also dies. If the master dies, the servant dies too. Just like if I killed the Tree, then Lu Xixi would also die. But if the servant dies, the master does not die. The master only experiences a decline in strength until they find a new Chosen One, a new servant. Then, they slowly recover strength or undergo evolution. You could say, every Chosen One is an experiment for our Seeds to evolve. If the experiment fails, the Chosen One dies, and we have to start again. Over the long years, this is how we have all come to be.
Let’s put it this way: you humans are three-dimensional beings. But we Seeds are not; we are actually three-point-five-dimensional. Or you could say, pseudo three-point-five-dimensional. A Seed without a Chosen One is three-dimensional. A Seed with a Chosen One becomes three-point-five-dimensional. Then both the master and servant work hard, trying to evolve from three-point-five to four. This is our pattern.
But Gray Cat is different. The pattern of relationship between Gray Cat and its Chosen One is... after Gray Cat has a Chosen One, the Chosen One’s own strength does not get any life-level boost. That is to say, if it picked a normal person to be the Chosen One, this Chosen One would not become an Ability User. Nor would they get any boost in talent or upper limit for abilities. And Gray Cat itself also does not get any boost in strength. But it can gain a special ability."
"What is it?"
"Lifespan."
Chen Nuo frowned.
Lifespan?
Perhaps for ordinary people, lifespan is precious.
But for Seeds?
Whether it’s Seed or the Tree, or the Octopus Monster, these guys, who lacks lifespan?
They’re all ancient monsters who have lived for who knows how many years.
"The difference, firstly, is that we’re just long-lived, not eternally undying. The Gray Cat, theoretically speaking, is truly undying. As long as this planet isn’t destroyed, it can always continue to draw Life Elements from others through having Chosen Ones. This allows its own Life Force to stack infinitely, without end. And the second point, that’s its specialty. The Mother created Gray Cat to let it completely experience the evolutionary process of this planet. In other words, Gray Cat actually has a more extensive and complicated experience than ours.
We Seeds were created powerful, blessed with formidable abilities, and placed at the pinnacle of this planet’s ecological hierarchy. We can transform into any creature of this planet. I have transformed into a Mammoth, a Saber-Toothed Tiger... Even when we first met and after a great battle, I ran off as an American Jaguar and also became a Forest Python. I can change my life form.
But Gray Cat is different; it can’t transform! When it was first created, it was very weak, just a very ordinary, very feeble creature of Earth. Then, it evolved slowly into the cat we see today."
A sudden realization struck Chen Nuo!
What does that mean?
It evolved into a cat by itself?!
It evolved into a cat of modern times...?
Modern cat?!
It evolved on its own?
"No way, you can’t fool me with my scant reading. The process of biological evolution is extremely lengthy. Earth’s creatures evolved from the ocean... Don’t tell me Gray Cat started as a single-celled organism!!"
"Of course it wasn’t that far back. The Mother arrived on this planet when life had already begun," Seed said as he finished the last gulp from the can, squashed it effortlessly, and tossed it into the trash can in the corner of the room.
"You know, the evolution of life takes countless generations. For example, you humans have Homo sapiens as ancestors, and further back, Ancient Apes," Seed paused, then continued with a slow smile, "You can understand it this way: when Gray Cat was born, it was an Ancient Ape. Then, it slowly evolved from an Ancient Ape to Homo sapiens, and from Homo sapiens to human beings."
Chen Nuo immediately shook his head. "That’s... a bit far-fetched, isn’t it?"
"Not at all exaggerated."
"But what’s the point of the Mother creating such Seeds?"
"I told you it’s an experiment," Seed said with a smile. "Creating Seeds is not about producing a group of powerful subordinates. It’s about exploring the direction of life’s evolution. Strength or weakness is meaningless. What truly matters is the process of evolution and the results that follow. Your humans were originally weak too but eventually became the masters of this planet, didn’t you?"
In the end, Seed added a piece of news that shocked Chen Nuo even more, "At the beginning, the Mother created a batch of Seeds like Gray Cat to try different paths of evolution."
"A saturation test, right?" Chen Nuo said with a wry smile.
"Yes, but today, Gray Cat is the only one left of its kind," Seed said slowly. "Because the other Gray Cat-like Seeds have all died. Some perished during the process of evolution, and some... were killed by us, the other Seeds!"
"Theoretically, an existence like Gray Cat actually has infinite possibilities—if its lifespan is limitless, it is most likely to reach the finish line. So, we other Seeds saw it as a great threat and decided to exterminate all Seeds of Gray Cat’s kind. Being timid, Gray Cat chose to drop out of the race. It declared it would no longer participate in this evolutionary competition and would no longer seek any Chosen Ones for itself."
"But it’s still... drawing Life Force from me and Lu Xixi?" Chen Nuo exclaimed. "Doesn’t that mean Gray Cat has made me and Lu Xixi its Chosen Ones?"
"No, it is merely absorbing your Life Force as daily nourishment. However, it cannot extend its lifespan any further. Its lifespan was fixed the moment it declared it was no longer seeking Chosen Ones. But, we have no idea how much lifespan this guy had accumulated before. Maybe 10,000 years, maybe 100,000, maybe 1,000,000 years—or perhaps, just a hundred more years left. Who knows?"
After pondering for a moment, Chen Nuo shook his head and said, "I still don’t understand. If you consider the Seeds of Gray Cat’s kind a huge threat, why did you simply let Gray Cat go? You don’t know how long it can live. What if... it’s a very long time? What if it can complete its evolution?"
Seed looked deeply at Chen Nuo, but this time... he did not answer.
The two stood by the window—by then, they could no longer see Gray Cat.
The creature knew how to conceal its presence very well; at that moment, Chen Nuo couldn’t sense Gray Cat’s essence.
He suspected Seed could still do so.
But Seed said nothing.
Chen Nuo took out a cigarette, lit it, and took a couple of drags.
"I came here this time to ask for your help," Seed said slowly, smiling. "You know, I became like this because I ate too much. After devouring half the Life Force of the Tree... In theory, I need to go into hibernation again to slowly digest this nourishment, just like last time you found me in the rainforest of South America. But Chen Nuo, if I go into hibernation, I won’t be able to protect you. As long as I am awake, anywhere on this planet, I can sense you if other Seeds try to kill you. But once I’m asleep... in hibernation..."
Seed looked at Chen Nuo with a mischievous glance. "As the current leader of this competition, other Seeds will target me. They don’t have the power to deal with me. However, getting rid of my Chosen One is the best way to weaken me. Chen Nuo, you don’t want them to know I’m hibernating, do you?"
