"Kau jelas... hanya membunuh beberapa klonnya," kata Serene, bersandar di kursinya. "Saat Moon berfusi dengan planet, dan mereka menangkapku, semuanya terasa seperti akan berakhir. Tapi ancaman 'guru'ku masih ada. Ketiadaan jimat atau harta pelindung padaku membuat mereka ragu, tapi mereka tak bisa mengambil risiko. Jadi... kami mencapai kompromi.
"Tapi kali ini, syaratnya dariku. Aku bersumpah di depan Damian bahwa aku tak akan punya anak lagi supaya dia tak bisa memanfaatkanku. Itu membuatnya mundur, karena meskipun dia tak paham potensi Moon, jelas dia luar biasa. Semakin hebat dia, semakin Damian menghargaiku.
"Karena dia tak bisa menculikku langsung, dia mencoba bernegosiasi. Saat itu, ayahmu dan aku secara nominal kembali ke keluarga Williams, mendapat planet pribadi, bahkan akses ke sumber daya luar biasa. Kami juga bisa bertemu anak-anak lagi, tapi kau dikecualikan. Sebagai gantinya, aku membantu keluarga Williams dengan hasil pengetahuanku.
"Aku merancang klon baru, yang bisa mempertahankan kepribadian, dikendalikan dari jarak jauh oleh orang lain, dan memberi akses ingatan mereka kepada aslinya. Kami dan anak-anak memakai itu untuk... sedikit menjalani hidup normal di Bumi bersamamu sambil kami fokus memperkuat diri. Klon itu salah satu hal yang paling Damian minati, jadi aku memberinya cara membuat klon lemah dan cacat. Dia tak bisa membedakannya.
"Sementara itu, kami juga mengawasi semua ramalan oracle, dan semuanya jadi kenyataan. Semakin seperti ini, semakin buruk perasaanku karena aku makin yakin oracle punya agenda tersembunyi. Aku bahkan berpikir dia mungkin diam-diam bekerja dengan Damian di belakang layar. Meski bukan, aku tak bisa menghilangkan perasaan seperti boneka di tali-tali miliknya.
"Apa pun itu, kami memusatkan seluruh perhatian untuk memperkuat diri. Dalam waktu hanya sedikit lebih dari satu dekade, ayahmu tumbuh hampir mencapai Earth Immortal. Aku juga terbiasa memanfaatkan warisan itu dengan berbagai cara, menciptakan teknik kultivasi dan teknik spiritual yang tak terhitung jumlahnya.
"Tapi saat itu, keadaan sudah kacau. Moon tak bisa diambil karena terhubung dengan planetnya. Belle tak punya jejak spiritual yang ditanam padanya, sejauh yang kutahu, tapi dia sudah dicuci otak. Dibesarkan di keluarga Williams, dia diajari mentalitas khas keluarga kultivasi: mengutamakan keluarga di atas segalanya. Dia pikir satu-satunya cara mendapat kebebasan dan membantu keluarga adalah menjadi kepala keluarga.
"Liz baik-baik saja di sekolahnya, tapi tekanan politik yang diam-diam diberikan Damian padanya sangat mengganggunya. Kau... sepertinya satu-satunya yang baik-baik saja. Tapi mungkin sebagai kompensasi atas ketidaknormalan hidup kami, karena tak bisa hidup bebas atau menghabiskan waktu dengan anak-anak, lewat klon kami mungkin berlebihan dalam membangun kehangatan keluarga."
Lex mengangkat alis. Itu salah satu cara mengatakannya. Alasan dia pindah ke New York adalah untuk mendapat privasi dan waktu sendiri—bukan karena dia tak menyukai keluarganya saat itu. Dia hanya tumbuh dewasa dan ingin kebebasan menjelajahi hidupnya sendiri.
"Saat kami makin dekat dengan kemampuan kabur, kami dihadapkan pada kenyataan bahwa kami mungkin harus meninggalkan anak-anak. Pikiran itu tak menyenangkan, jadi kami mulai memikirkan cara untuk setidaknya menebusmu.
"Sekitar saat itulah kami menerima laporan bahwa kau entah bagaimana menjadi kultivator di Bumi. Kami tak yakin apakah itu bertentangan dengan perintah oracle, jadi kami memutuskan menjaga jarak demi keamanan. Lagipula, efek fisikmu jauh lebih jelas dan nyata dibanding Belle, karena itu kami pikir lebih baik menjauhkanmu dari Damian. Kami pikir saat akhirnya kabur, kami akan membawamu. Tapi seperti biasa, rencana tak berjalan mulus, meski untuk sekali ini Damian bukan penyebabnya. Aliansi Humanoid mulai mencari harta di alam Origin, diam-diam. Lewat akses ke warisan, kami bisa merasakan bahwa Devil Dao Lord mulai menyisir alam Origin secara pribadi.
"Bahkan jika target mereka bukan warisan itu sendiri, bagi makhluk tingkat itu, mudah mendeteksi tanda-tanda aktivasi warisan. Kami tak punya pilihan selain bersiap pergi lebih awal. Begitu kami mulai, kekacauan menimpa kami.
"Seolah-olah kekuatan tak terhitung diam-diam merayap mendekati kami, tapi begitu mereka mendeteksi kami akan kabur, mereka menyerang, meski persiapan mereka belum matang. Satu hal baiknya, kekuatan yang menyerang kami sepertinya belum menemukan identitas kami, dan menyerang warisan sebagai gantinya.
"Lewat karma, lewat takdir, lewat hubungan dengan ras manusia, warisan itu diserang berulang kali. Akibat gangguan itu, bukan hanya manusia, tapi semua ras humanoid di seluruh alam Origin mulai mengalami nasib yang makin buruk. Henali terlibat, begitu pula Fuegan.
"Pertempuran senyap, jauh di luar kemampuan kami untuk mendeteksi, terjadi di seluruh alam. Satu-satunya alasan kami tahu apa yang terjadi adalah perlindungan warisan yang makin menipis. Begitu penghalangnya ditembus, semuanya akan hilang.
"Sekitar waktu itu, karakter di tubuhmu yang menyembunyikanmu juga memudar. Keluarga Williams mendeteksimu, tapi yang lebih penting, warisan itu mendeteksi anomali padamu. Saat itulah kami sampai pada kesimpulan. Suatu... kekuatan tak pasti, mungkin oracle atau siapa pun di belakangnya, mungkin memanfaatkanmu sebagai umpan atau pelacak. Melaluimu, mereka mencoba menguji kami. Saat itulah kami tahu kami harus kabur apa pun yang terjadi, atau kami akan gagal dalam misi yang kami terima bertahun-tahun lalu.
"Itu bukan pilihan mudah, Lex. Sama sekali tidak mudah. Tapi kami hanya fana, hidup di alam semesta yang penuh Immortal dan makhluk Dao. Demi kebaikan umat manusia, kami harus membuat pilihan sulit. Karena opsi lain tak tersedia, kami harus membawa warisan itu dan kabur ke Arch-Heaven."
Lex bersandar di kursinya dan menggosok matanya. Haruskah dia menyebut orang tuanya cerdas, atau bodoh? Kalau dia bilang bodoh, itu tidak akurat karena kemampuan mereka menghasilkan teknik dan fisik seolah tak ada apa-apa. Kalau dia bilang cerdas, dia harus mengakui banyak cara situasi mereka bisa ditangani lebih baik.
"Apa kau tahu aku pernah punya tumor otak?" tanya Lex. "Apa kau tahu alasan aku mulai berkultivasi adalah untuk mencari solusi tumorku yang tak melibatkan operasi otak? Bahkan jika kau hanya punya klon di Bumi, bukankah itu sesuatu yang seharusnya bisa kau deteksi?"
"You definitely... only killed a few of his clones," Serene said, leaning back into her chair. "Once Moon was fused with the planet, and they had captured me, everything felt like it was going to be over. But the threat of my ’master’ still existed. The lack of any protective charms or treasures on me caused them to have doubts, but they couldn’t risk it. So... we reached a compromise.
"But this time, they would be on my terms. I swore in front of Damian that I would never have kids again so that he couldn’t exploit me anymore. That put him off, for even though he did not understand the potential Moon had, it was obvious that she was incredible. The greater she was, the more he valued me.
"Since he couldn’t outright kidnap me, he tried to negotiate. At that point, your father and I nominally returned to the Williams family, got our own private planet, and even gained access to a tremendous amount of resources. We also regained access to our children, but that left you out. In exchange, I helped the Williams family by providing them with the fruits of my knowledge.
"I designed new clones, able to retain personalities, be able to be controlled by others remotely, and give access to their memories to their original. We and the kids used those to... somewhat live out a normal life on Earth with you while we also focused on growing stronger. Those clones were one of the things Damian was most interested in, so I provided him with some means of producing weakened, faulty clones. He couldn’t tell the difference.
"Meanwhile, we also kept an eye out for all the predictions that the oracle made, and all of them came true. The more it was like this, the worse off I felt because I was increasingly sure that the oracle had some hidden agenda. I even thought that he might secretly be working with Damian from behind the scenes. Even if that wasn’t the case, I couldn’t shake the feeling of being a puppet on his strings.
"Whatever the case may be, we focused all our attention on growing stronger. In just a little over a decade, your father grew to the point where he was almost an Earth Immortal. I also got used to utilizing the heritage in different ways, creating countless cultivation and spiritual techniques.
"But, by then, things were more or less a mess. Moon couldn’t be taken away because she was linked to her planet. Belle had no spiritual cues planted on her, as far as I could tell, but she had been somewhat brainwashed. Growing up in the Williams family, she was taught the typical cultivation family mentality of putting everything for the family first. She thought the only way she could gain freedom, and help our family out was by becoming the family head.
"Liz was doing well in her school, but the political pressure that Damian was exerting on her subtly was interfering with her tremendously. You... seemed to be the only one doing well. But maybe as if to make up for the abnormality in our regular lives, unable to live freely or spend time with our children, through our clones we maybe over did it with the family bonding."
Lex raised an eyebrow. That was one way to put it. The whole reason he had moved to New York was to get some privacy and alone time - not that he had disliked his family or anything back then. He was just growing up and wanted some freedom to explore life on his own.
"As we came closer and closer to being able to run away, we were faced with the reality that we might have to leave our children behind. The thought was not pleasant, so we began to think of ways in which we might, at least, redeem you.
"That was around the time we got the report that you had somehow become a cultivator on Earth. We were not sure if that contradicted what the oracle told us to do, so we decided to keep our distance just to be safe. Besides, the effect of your physique was much more apparent and obvious than Belle’s, which is why we thought it would be best to keep you away from Damian. We had thought that when we ultimately escape, we’ll bring you with us. But, as always, things did not go as planned, though for once Damian wasn’t to blame. The Humanoid Alliance began to search for treasures in the Origin realm, discreetly. Through access to the heritage, we could sense that a Devil Dao Lord had begun to personally sweep the Origin realm.
"Even if their target was not the heritage itself, for beings at that level, it would be easy for them to detect hints of the heritage’s activation. We had no choice but to prepare for an early departure. The moment we started that, chaos descended upon us.
"It was as if countless forces had been silently creeping up on us, but the moment they detected that we were about to escape, they attacked, even if their preparations weren’t ready. The only good thing was that the forces attacking us hadn’t seemed to discover our identities yet, and were attacking the heritage instead.
"Through karma, through destiny, through the connection to the human race, the heritage was attacked again and again. As a result of that interference, not just humans, but all humanoid races across the Origin realm started to encounter increasingly worse luck. The Henali became involved, and so did the Fuegan.
"Silent battles, far beyond our ability to detect, were being fought all across the realm. The only reason we knew anything about what was happening at all was the heritages’ ever decreasing protection. Once its barriers were breached, all would be lost.
"Around that time, the characters on your body hiding you also faded. The Williams family detected you, but more importantly, the heritage detected some anomalies on you. That’s when we came to a certain conclusion. Some... uncertain force, maybe the oracle or whoever was behind him, might have been using you as a lure or a tracker. Through you, they were trying to test us. That’s when we knew we needed to escape no matter what, or we would fail the mission we got all those years ago.
"It was not an easy choice, Lex. It was not easy at all. But we were mere mortals, living in a universe filled with Immortals and Dao beings. For the greater good of humanity, we had to make the hard choice. Since the other options weren’t available to us, we had to take the heritage and escape to Arch-Heaven."
Lex leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes. Should he call his parents smart, or dumb? If he called them dumb, it would be inaccurate because of their ability to produce techniques and physiques like nothing. If he called them smart, then he would have to acknowledge the many ways in which their situation could have been better handled?
"Did you know I had a brain tumor?" Lex asked. "Did you know that the reason I started cultivating to begin with was to find a solution to my tumor that didn’t involve brain surgery? Even if you only had clones on Earth, shouldn’t that have been something you should have been able to detect?"
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