Transmigration
“Achi, I never thought Yan Wanqiu would survive this long after being poisoned. Blizzard City is so remote and backward, and frozen all year round. You followed Yan Wanqiu into exile for my sake. Do you resent me?”
A pitiful voice came through the smart brain. Xie Chi blinked in confusion.
What Blizzard City?
Wasn’t that the city where the tyrant Yan Wanqiu had been exiled in his youth, over three thousand years ago? The city had self-destructed after Yan Wanqiu was defeated by Yan Huishi. Yan Wanqiu and all his loyal followers had been buried there, leaving behind only a memorial monument for future generations.
He’d been in the middle of an assassination mission. What was he doing at the ruins of Blizzard City?
A flood of questions flashed through Xie Chi’s mind in half a second.
Professional instinct kept him from speaking right away. Tensing his body, he silently surveyed his surroundings, his expression blank as he looked toward the source of the voice, trying to figure out what was happening.
He was sitting on a crude bed in a bare room with outdated furnishings. It looked like some kind of slum.
In front of him was an antique wrist-mounted smart brain. On the light screen it projected was a delicate-looking man with long white hair, so frail he seemed as if a breeze might knock him over.
When Xie Chi didn’t answer, the man looked on the verge of tears. His voice grew even more affected. “Achi, you’re the only one who can help me. I heard Yan Wanqiu discovered thermal ore in Blizzard City and plans to use it to get through the freeze season, which starts in three weeks. You know how serious the energy shortage is across the country, and how important this new energy source in Blizzard City could be. I’ve already asked Imperial Father for permission. I’ll arrive in Blizzard City to inspect the mine in a week, and I’ve told Yan Wanqiu to prepare to receive me in person. You’ll help me get rid of him and take control of the thermal ore mine, just as we planned, won’t you?”
Xie Chi gave a quiet “Mm,” while his mind raced.
Yan Wanqiu discovering thermal ore in Blizzard City, wasn’t that something that happened three thousand years ago?
Could he really have traveled back three thousand years?
Anyone who killed for a living knew that skill alone wasn’t enough to pull off a flawless assassination. What mattered more was what you knew.
Orphaned and raised from childhood by an underground assassin organization, Xie Chi had received the organization’s full compulsory education. Of course he’d studied interstellar history.
Yan Wanqiu was a notorious villain, the tyrant remembered in the founding histories. He was the subject of the very first lesson in the history books, a figure familiar to everyone in later generations. Xie Chi immediately recalled how it had all happened.
The tyrant Yan Wanqiu, cursed by generations to come, was currently the Second Prince of the Alberis United Kingdom.
Three thousand years ago, before Year One of the Star Calendar, the various races had yet to establish contact with one another. The Alberis United Kingdom, home of the ABO race, was entering an era of rapid development.
Starnet intelligence, starships, and new weapons had all emerged. But the old energy sources were running out, and the country had been plunged into one energy crisis after another.
Yan Wanqiu was the first S-rank alpha the ABO race had seen in a thousand years. He had extraordinary talent in energy and machinery. As he drove a revolution in new energy, he also advocated exploring and expanding beyond their borders. For a time, he was the center of attention, and his elder brother, the First Prince Yan Huishi, also an alpha, saw him as a thorn in his side.
Taking advantage of Yan Wanqiu’s trust in him, the First Prince took charge of the exploration program and concealed its progress. In secret, he colluded with the mechanical civilization, more technologically advanced and in the grip of a worse energy crisis than their own, promising to share energy in exchange for more advanced weapons and genetic drugs. Then he poisoned Yan Wanqiu, slowly and methodically.
Yan Wanqiu had once been upright and kind, devoted to the people. But prolonged poisoning threw his pheromones into disorder and changed his temperament. During a joint military exercise, he went berserk and attacked several representatives, causing a scandal of staggering proportions.
It was only after Yan Huishi seized power that Yan Wanqiu realized he’d been betrayed by his brother.
The aging king had always been suspicious and wary of this prince. He had tacitly condoned Yan Wanqiu’s poisoning from the start.
To appease public anger, the king even took the opportunity to exile him to Blizzard City, the most remote settlement in the Northern Domain star system.
Everyone thought he was as good as dead. But with only three hundred personal guards, Yan Wanqiu discovered an entirely new energy source beneath Blizzard City: thermal ore.
Yan Huishi and the mechanical civilization were desperate to get their hands on the new energy source. Yan Huishi ordered the Third Prince, Yan Baiyue, to contact an inside man and set a trap for Yan Wanqiu, hoping to kill him and seize the mine without a trace.
Yan Wanqiu survived by sheer luck. His pheromone disorder worsened, making him more extreme than ever, and he lost all faith in others. The Third Prince and the inside man were both flayed alive.
From then on, Yan Wanqiu lived only for revenge. Tormented by his pheromone disorder, he grew ever more brutal. With the new energy source and an iron fist, he quickly established himself on Northern Domain Star, declared himself king, and openly defied the Capital Star.
Just as Yan Wanqiu was on the verge of conquering the entire frontier, Yan Huishi resorted to any means necessary. He sold off the kingdom’s territory and resources to secure an alliance with the mechanical civilization, then caught Yan Wanqiu off guard with its advanced weapons.
In the end, Yan Wanqiu and the few personal guards still with him were driven back to Blizzard City. With no help in sight, they chose to blow up the city and take their enemies with them.
The explosion left the mechanical civilization badly weakened. Yan Huishi seized the chance to unite the two races.
The different civilizations of the stars formally began to mingle, and the universe entered the interstellar age.
History was written by the victors. Yan Wanqiu, the last tyrant before the interstellar age, became the villain taught in the first lesson of every history book.
And now…
Xie Chi looked at the old smart brain’s light screen. The delicate-looking white-haired man on the other end was still speaking, his face full of feeling.
“Thank you, Achi. I knew you were the only one who could love me this much.”
Xie Chi ventured, “Yan Baiyue?”
The white-haired man gazed at him with open affection. “What is it, Achi?”
Xie Chi shuddered.
Partly because the man made his skin crawl, and partly because he’d realized who he himself was.
He was the inside man who’d helped the Third Prince, Yan Baiyue, betray the tyrant, only to be tortured to death afterward.
Yan Baiyue didn’t notice anything off about Xie Chi. He was still laying on the charm and dangling promises in front of him. “Once you succeed, I’ll take you back to the Capital Star with me. You’ve earned it, and Eldest Brother will surely approve of us.”
Listening to Yan Baiyue make promises, Xie Chi felt his scalp prickle.
He couldn’t see even a glimmer of hope for the future. All he could see was himself being tortured to death, so he refused without thinking. “No need.”
For one thing, if he and Yan Baiyue kept plotting treason, they’d both end up corpses. For another, Xie Chi’s sexual orientation was perfectly normal. Even in the ABO race, he was still straight. He had no interest in bringing a man home as his husband.
Yan Baiyue froze.
It was the first time Xie Chi had ever turned him down.
But “Xie Chi’s” reputation as a simp was so firmly established that Yan Baiyue soon came up with an explanation of his own.
“Don’t worry about who I’m supposed to marry.” Yan Baiyue put on his best show of helpless innocence. “Those engagements are all Imperial Father’s doing. If I can prove myself, I’ll have a reason to refuse them. Achi, you’re the best alpha I’ve ever met.”
Xie Chi: “…”
Xie Chi was an orphan with no race. He’d never been an alpha, let alone an omega. Now he’d suddenly transmigrated, and he couldn’t bring himself to say anything sweet to Yan Baiyue. So he stayed silent and focused on thinking through his options.
Judging by what Yan Baiyue had just said, the original owner hadn’t made a move yet. There was still time.
As long as his relationship with Yan Baiyue hadn’t been exposed to Yan Wanqiu, he still had a chance of surviving.
There was no happy ending for a disposable underling who stuck with a doomed prince.
He was only eighteen. He hadn’t even saved up enough money to get married yet. T^T
He hadn’t decided what kind of wife he wanted, but his coworkers all said that having a wife meant you had a home, and that was when life really began.
Thinking of the family and home his coworkers had described, Xie Chi drifted off for a moment, then couldn’t help smiling, his lips curving gently.
Yan Baiyue held his nose and kept the simp placated. He’d been about to say goodbye and cut the call, to keep Yan Wanqiu from finding out.
But when he saw Xie Chi’s expression, Yan Baiyue paused.
How had he never noticed how good-looking Xie Chi was?
For some reason, the face of the old “Xie Chi” was strangely blurred in Yan Baiyue’s memory. He only remembered that the man hadn’t been too ugly, and his rank hadn’t been too low. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have flirted with him in the first place.
But Xie Chi had been so dull and boring, and though his fighting skills were decent, Yan Baiyue had lost interest after just a few conversations. He was young, too, and that hadn’t helped.
But now, the young man seemed to be thinking about something that made his eyes shine. The beauty mark at the outer corner of his left eye looked even more alluring, and faint dimples appeared by his lips.
His features were delicate, his lips red, his whole face clean and lovely. Even that small, understated smile made him look like a heartbreaker.
Yan Baiyue had never seen Xie Chi like this before.
He couldn’t help asking, “What are you thinking about?”
Xie Chi answered seriously without thinking. “Saving up so I can afford a wife.”
Yan Baiyue thought he meant himself. His heart gave a slight flutter, and he even felt a little touched.
He was just about to say something when a soft creak sounded, and a cold voice came from behind Xie Chi.
“Who are you talking to?”
The man’s voice was low, his words clipped and quiet, with a chilling edge.
“I-Imperial Brother?!”
Yan Baiyue’s face filled with panic. Xie Chi jolted to his feet, the hairs all over his body standing on end.
How had the tyrant caught him already? That wasn’t what the history books said!
He tried to shut off the smart brain, but he had no idea how to use the antique. All he could do was toss it onto the bed and, steeling himself, slowly turn to face Yan Wanqiu.
One look was enough for Xie Chi to understand why the man had been called “the last tyrant.”
The man had long white hair and blood-red eyes. His features were sharp and deep-set, his nose straight and prominent. He had a fiercely intimidating face.
His gaze was dark as a frozen lake, and a shadowy aura hung about him. The faint smile on his lips did nothing to hide the madness and cruelty beneath.
As he swept in with the cold wind from outside, the icy pheromones of an S-rank alpha filled the room.
“What were you discussing with Yan Baiyue? I thought I heard you talking about getting married.”
Yan Wanqiu’s voice lifted slightly, but his pheromones were savage, crashing down on Xie Chi.
Caught off guard, Xie Chi felt a spike of pain stab through his brain. His face went deathly pale, and he stumbled a few steps, cold sweat breaking across his forehead.
The instincts of a killer told him plainly that Yan Wanqiu really did want to kill him.
An S-rank alpha’s rage could make a lower-ranked alpha drop dead on the spot. Xie Chi didn’t know what rank he was, but he could already feel his breathing grow labored and his mind begin to waver.
Thinking of the traitorous shadow guards’ gruesome deaths in the history books, Xie Chi bit his tongue to force himself to stay alert.
No. He couldn’t die here without even knowing why.
There had to be some way out of this.
Yan Baiyue was also afraid that if Xie Chi were caught, he’d lose his only source of information. He hurriedly explained over the video call, “Imperial Brother, you’ve got it wrong! Xie Chi and I aren’t like that. You know I have a fiancé…”
“Did I ask you?” Yan Wanqiu shot Yan Baiyue a cold glance.
Even through the screen, Yan Baiyue could sense the killing intent in Yan Wanqiu’s gaze.
Yan Wanqiu was a madman who had nothing left to lose. Even Yan Baiyue was a little afraid of him, and he immediately fell silent.
Yan Wanqiu turned his gaze back to Xie Chi.
This shadow guard had been with him since he was sixteen. Quiet, honest, and skilled, he’d never drawn much attention. Yet when Yan Wanqiu was exiled, he’d followed without hesitation all the way to Blizzard City.
It was impossible not to be moved. In return, Yan Wanqiu had made Xie Chi chief shadow guard and even entrusted him with the thermal ore mine.
So that, too, had been part of his good imperial younger brother’s scheme.
After all, Yan Baiyue and Yan Huishi had the same mother. There was no way Yan Baiyue hadn’t taken part in Yan Huishi’s plot against him.
His anger reached such a pitch that Yan Wanqiu couldn’t help letting out a soft laugh.
He was laughing at himself.
How ridiculous, that even after falling this low, he’d still thought he could trust someone.
Wasn’t it the betrayal of everyone closest to him that had brought him to this?
He wanted to tear every last one of them to pieces.
A dull ache started up at his temples again. Yan Wanqiu knew his emotions had flared and brought on another episode of his pheromone disorder.
He ran his tongue over a sharp canine tooth and narrowed his eyes dangerously. He’d run out of patience.
He had important business to attend to tonight. He had no time to play guessing games with Xie Chi about who was a traitor.
“If you can’t explain yourself, then for seducing a member of the royal family, you’ll be dragged away and…”
“Your Highness, I can explain!”
To make himself heard, Xie Chi forced out a little of his own pheromones, just enough to tear through Yan Wanqiu’s crushing pressure. His voice nearly broke as he shouted.
He stopped caring about anything else. Driven by the instinct to survive, he steeled himself and pointed at Yan Baiyue on the light screen, babbling, “Actually, I’m a gay alpha! The Third Prince and I are just close friends! We’re both into the same kind of alpha, and the Third Prince has been stressed about his wedding lately. That’s why he came to ask me for advice!”
Yan Wanqiu: ? Yan Baiyue: ?