Chapter 114: The Big Reveal

Chapter 114: Chapter 114: The Big Reveal

[A/N: Target For Next Bonus Chapter. PS: 42/100, GT: 7/10 Review: 6/10. I also voted so let’s aim for that Bonus Chapter.]

Keira pressed a button on the console.

The upper door clicked open ten feet above the padded floor.

Derrick bent his knees and leaped straight up through the doorway.

He landed lightly inside the control room, wiping sweat from his forehead as he caught his breath.

Keira tapped the screen, pulling up the recorded footage from his three-hour session.

Slow-motion clips began playing across the main monitor.

"Your flexibility and body control are incredible," Keira said, scrubbing through the video.

"Honestly, it’s some of the best I’ve ever seen."

She paused the screen on the moment he got trapped at point fifty.

"But look right here," she said, pointing to his awkward stance on the display.

"When you get pushed into a bad spot, you rely entirely on raw instinct to twist yourself out."

"You need to learn how to execute complex movements in tough situations where you have no other choice."

"Right now, you’re using pure flexibility to save yourself, but it wastes energy and leaves you open."

"If you master those awkward transitions beforehand, even a deliberate trap won’t throw off your rhythm."

Keira’s phone buzzed sharply against the metallic console.

She picked it up and glanced at the glowing screen.

Her eyes narrowed instantly.

"It’s happening," Keira announced, locking her phone. "We need to go."

Derrick didn’t ask questions.

They rushed out of the control center, their footsteps echoing down the long, empty corridors.

They sped through the estate and finally stopped right outside General Chen’s private room.

Before reaching for the handle, Keira turned her head toward Derrick.

She looked straight into his eyes and mouthed a single question: Are you sure about this?

Derrick gave her a firm, unhesitating nod.

He reached out and pushed the door open.

The door snapped back with a soft click.

Inside, General Chen was sitting quietly on his bed, watching a nurse standing right beside him.

She was tapping a glass syringe, preparing an injection for him.

Derrick’s eyes locked straight onto the fluid glowing inside the needle.

It was the exact same injection he had seen in Alchemist Feng Yuan’s pockets.

He didn’t look worried at all. A strange look of joy and anticipation filled his face.

At the sudden intrusion, the general’s bloodshot eyes whipped toward the door.

The nurse panicked, her hands shaking violently as the heavy syringe slipped from her fingers.

"NO!" General Chen screamed.

He watched everything in slow motion but sadly his body was weaker than a normal human at this point.

So, there was nothing he could do but watch as...

CRASH!

The glass sides of the metal syringe slammed onto the floor and shattered into pieces.

Dark liquid spilled out across the tiles, sending sinister vapors into the air with a heavy weight of dream and despair.

WOOSH!

The sky outside seemed to shake from the rising pressure.

Before the aura could spread any further, Keira swept her arm forward.

WHOOSH!

A wave of her power swept across the room, wiping out the toxic mist in an instant.

General Chen stared down at the ruined floor, his eyes wide with horror and despair.

"What have you done?!" he bellowed, turning on Derrick and his granddaughter. "That was my last chance!"

Derrick took a calm step forward, a faint smirk appearing on his face.

"I knew it was you who was behind it all," Derrick said.

No one would have expected that the respected general who had been honored by several medals for his grand achievement had been the one who was behind all of this.

General Chen snapped his head toward Derrick.

His chest heaved, his face twisted in a mixture of desperation and fury.

"What do you know?!" the old man hissed, his raspy voice shaking.

Keira stood beside Derrick, completely frozen.

The strong, immovable woman who usually commanded every room looked small now. She stared at her grandfather with wide, empty eyes, as if looking at a stranger she barely recognized.

Derrick slowly began to walk around the room.

His footsteps were steady, echoing quietly against the floor.

"When Keira and I went out earlier, I warned her," Derrick said, his voice calm.

"I told her there was a high possibility someone inside this family was working directly with the alchemist."

He paused, glancing at the trembling nurse cowering against the wall before looking back at the general.

"I also told her what that syringe was really for."

Derrick stopped near the shattered glass on the floor, staring down at the dark, wet stain on the tiles.

"It was filled with sinister energy, sure," he continued. "But it wasn’t meant to kill you. Not directly."

"It was meant to change you."

Derrick took another slow step, pacing around the edge of the bed.

The air in the room felt heavy, suffocating.

"I wasn’t entirely sure about it back then," Derrick said softly. "But watching your desperate reaction just now... now I know."

General Chen clenched his fists, his breathing coming in ragged gasps.

"The alchemist wasn’t poisoning you to weaken you," Derrick said, his eyes locking onto the old man.

"He was preparing you for this day. Preparing your body... step by step."

Derrick stopped right in front of the general.

The room went dead silent.

"Preparing you to be able to host the demonic energy of the beasts within your body," Derrick said coldly, "so you can return to your peak state of power and take back what has been slowly stripped off of you."

General Chen stared at Derrick, his bloodshot eyes bulging with wild, uncontainable rage.

A harsh, ragged scream tore from his throat.

"Why couldn’t you just stay in that training room?!" he bellowed, his voice echoing off the walls.

"I had it all covered! Everything was going according to plan!"

The vein on his forehead throbbed as years of buried bitterness rushed out all at once.

"My own son..." the general spat, pointing a trembling finger toward the doorway. "Stripping away my power piece by piece while I sat trapped in this bed!"

"He thinks he’s fit to rule? With his personality and weak resolve? He is going to lead this family straight into ruin!"

His raspy voice cracked, turning into a dark, bitter laugh.

"And the royal family..." He clenched his chest, gasping for air. "I bled for them! I gave them my entire youth, my health, my life!"

"And the moment my body broke, what did they do? They discarded me like garbage!"

"They treated me like a dog that outlived its usefulness!"

He glared at Derrick and Keira, his face twisted in desperate madness.

"I was going to fix it all," he whispered hoarsely, his body shaking with fury. "I was going to take back everything that was stolen from me!"

Just then,

"Father..." Every head snapped to the entrance of the room and saw them standing there. Chen Feng, Chen Weian and Feng Yuan, detained by two guards. He seemed like his soul had been stripped from his body and his whole was trembling in fear.

The one who had spoken was none other than Chen Feng, "I knew you did not approve of me as the family head but I did not think you harbored such hatred for me."