He stepped forward and offered his own head as a guarantee, claiming that there was absolutely no way I could have committed such an act..."
Then he personally charged into the black market, arresting a vast number of mercenaries, submitting them to severe torture and interrogation... In that most savage, yet most direct manner, after two months and twenty-seven days, he peeled back the layers of truth one by one, uncovering the real mastermind behind the arms trafficking who had the capability to pin the blame on me... It was a prince from the Imperial Family..."
Three days, just three days short... If he had taken a moment to breathe, to doze off, I would have already been dead, turned to ashes long ago..."
The Emperor wanted to spare that prince from execution, sentencing him to twenty years of imprisonment. He disagreed, arguing that the nation had its laws, the family its rules... If national and military laws were to be arbitrary, they would become obsolete with favoritism... He pressured the Royal Family to execute the prince in the same manner they had intended for me..."
Perhaps, that was also one of the sparks that ignited the situation... The Royal Family was already deeply wary of him, exceedingly fearful of his family, eager to eradicate them root and branch for relief..."
As he recounted this deeply buried, age-old story, the old man’s eyes once again reddened, his hand holding the cup starting to tremble lightly.
Afterwards, afterwards... He was killed, not just him alone, but also his family, his wife, his newly born child... The entire lineage of his family was wiped out..."
The Bloodshed Night of Phoenix City... Arresting by day, killing by night... Stubbornly killing for thirty-nine days..."
They say the groundwater in Phoenix City was dyed red, that year the rats and roaches underground grew fatter than in previous years..."
A vicious smile crossed the old man’s face, his voice cold and mocking, "Do you know for what crime he was killed?"
Tang Fei didn’t answer.
He knew the old man didn’t need his response.
He just needed to be a silent listener, what the old man needed most now was an audience.
Tang Fei could see that these words had been pent up in his heart for far too long.
Kept inside until it changed his nature, until he became gaunt, until his hair turned white and his face full of wrinkles.
He was a skilled Cultivator, according to his age he should be full of vitality, looking a good ten or twenty years younger.
But now, he truly looked old beyond his years...
He appeared even older than an ordinary person of the same age.
"Treason," the old man laughed out loud, laughing until he was hoarse, bending forward and backward, tears and snot mixing together. "Treason... Enlisted at sixteen, served for twenty-three years, experienced over two hundred military campaigns, bearing more than three hundred scars... On several occasions, he nearly perished, dozens of times it was his brothers-in-arms who carried him back from the brink..."
"The arrogant Aus Empire had its backbone broken by him, and could not raise its head before the Phoenix people... Those Seventeen Small Countries that were restless and wanted to take advantage of the chaos, he beat them until they could no longer protect themselves, eventually forming the Kaman Federation..."
"Such a man... A man who devoted everything to the Empire, who risked his life from birth to death... To be executed for treason... What a disgrace that is?"
"What’s even more ridiculous is, to set an example by killing the chicken to scare the monkey, they burned him at the stake... and broadcast it live to the whole world through video equipment..."
"Ha ha ha, those fools, as stupid as pigs and dogs, they actually believed it... They actually believed he had betrayed the country... Truly believed that his whole family was plotting a rebellion..."
"They heaped abuse on them, humiliated them, said they got what they deserved... How utterly shameful, how utterly hateful..."
"They were burned alive, reduced to ashes... Those to whom he had given his loyalty raised the slaughtering knife against him. Those he had desperately protected slandered him to the utmost..."
"Tell me, how absurd is this world..."
"These people, do they deserve to die?"
"Do they all deserve to die?"
By the end, the old man had tears brimming in his eyes, covering his face and sobbing painfully.
His heart harbored hatred.
So many years had passed, without fading, without diminishing.
Even like aged wine, it grew stronger over time, every recall tearing him apart, setting his insides ablaze.
Countless times, he wanted to speak out unrestrainedly.
Many a night, he longed to cry freely.
He had to protect Tang Fei, to safeguard the young sapling that was Tang Fei.
Until he had grown into a towering tree, revealing even a bit of his identity would be a devastating blow to him.
He was all too familiar with the feeling of helplessness, how painfully frustrating it was to seek revenge but have no starting point, how despairing it made one feel...
Day by day, it devours a person’s mind, transforming them into a violent, twisted monster.
The best way to handle it is to let Tang Fei grow up free and easy, living carefree.
He bestowed all his kindness on Tang Fei, keeping all the suffering to himself in silence.
Unexpectedly, Tang Fei picked up a phoenix while hunting...
Was this the arrangement of fate? Was this the chance for revenge given to them by the heavens?
Originally, he wanted to wait longer; he felt that Tang Fei was still too fragile, too insubstantial. It was not yet time for him to stand up and shoulder all the responsibility.
But unexpectedly, Tang Fei encountered Lu Siyu in the Mechanical Department, and both of them became suspicious of him:
Lu Siyu wondered if he had returned, Tang Fei doubted his relationship with Lu Siyu...
As a result, Tang Fei followed Lu Siyu and was taken into the Lu Ban Array.
At this point, it was no longer realistic for him to hide his identity.
With the fellow’s cunning nature, he probably already knew the answer.
Tang Fei poured a cup of tea for the old man and then sat quietly beside him, waiting.
After the old man’s emotions had subsided, Tang Fei handed over the prepared tissue.
The old man did not accept it, wiping away the tears with his own sleeve instead.
"The friend you mentioned..." Tang Fei looked at the old man and asked, "Is it Tang Li?"
For some reason, when he uttered this name, Tang Fei’s heart fluttered.
There was a strange feeling, as though there was some old acquaintance between them or some kind of connection.
He felt he must have seen him...
Maybe admiring his charismatic character, lamenting his tragic fate...
Or perhaps because of the old man’s brotherly love, if the old man hadn’t been implicated by him, he wouldn’t have fled to the Old Land.
If he hadn’t fled to the Old Land, he wouldn’t have had such a... family member.
The old man looked at Tang Fei with a strange expression and asked, "Do you know him?"
"I do," Tang Fei nodded and said, "When I was in the Old Land, Phoenix also said he wanted to become a General, said he wanted to be a Great General who was respected far and wide like Tang Li..."
"I learned the name Tang Li from her, and heard some stories about him... After coming to New Star, I often saw that name... But I couldn’t find the video of the fiery execution from back then..."
"How ironic," the old man said with a trace of scornful smile on his lips. "The traitor personally identified by their ancestors has become a role model for the younger generations."
"So..." Tang Fei looked at the old man’s look of desperate sorrow and spoke up, "It’s because of that friend that you left New Star and fled to the Old Land..."
"Yes," the old man picked up his tea, drank it in one gulp, and said aloud.
"This doesn’t make sense..." Tang Fei shook his head and said, "With the strength of the Gongshu Family and their developmental trend over the years, clearly, in that incident, they should not have been involved, and might even have been beneficiaries..."
"If that’s the case, they would have more than enough resources to protect a direct descendant of the family, wouldn’t they? There’s no reason to let a talented mechanic escape far away to the Wasteland..."
Tang Fei pondered as he looked at the old man and asked aloud, "What did you do that not even the family could protect you? So you had no choice but to leave?"
"Yes," the old man nodded and said, "I took away Tang Li’s son."
Suddenly, Tang Fei felt his heartbeat accelerate, his breathing became heavy, he looked at the old man with widened eyes and said, "What do you mean?"
"Tang Li’s son didn’t die, it was someone else’s son that died..." the old man said with a solemn expression, looking firmly at Tang Fei.
"Is you," the old man declared decisively. "Tang Fei, you are Tang Li’s son."