Chapter 323: A Father's Plea

The colossal sword, which had been moments away from striking Im, suddenly halted mid-air. Drake's pupils shrank, and the sense of unease gnawing at his heart surged to an absolute peak.

Why... why do I feel this suffocating dread...?

"Drake! She... she is the person I've been searching for all this time!" Daolang cried out.

Though even he found it hard to believe, the reality was laid bare before him. That familiar, beautiful face was one he could never forget in a lifetime.

Yubohua D. Yunshang!

The wife who had vanished from his life so many years ago.

"Yunshang! Is it really you...?"

"What?!"

Drake's entire body trembled. Though he had no personal memory of what she looked like, that name had been deeply engraved into his soul since the day he arrived in this world.

She was the very first person he had desperately sought when he first inquired of the System, only to be met with silence.

And now, the answer... was standing right before his eyes.

"He's right. The data on this person... matches your biological mother in this lifetime! Yubohua D. Yunshang!" the System informed him with a rare, heavy tone.

Even the System hadn't anticipated this turn of events.

How could things have ended up like this?

Why was Drake's mother, who had been missing for over a decade, standing here as the legendary Im?

"What is going on?!"

A torrent of unnamable confusion and boiling fury rushed into Drake's chest. What the hell was the truth behind all of this?!

BOOM!

Without warning, a streak of black light pierced straight through the Demon Warder, and a massive serpentine dragon formed entirely from swirling dark mist coiled violently around the hull.

"Why aren't you cutting down?!"

With a ferocious roar, the misty dragon head snapped its jaws shut around the vessel, sending the Demon Warder hurtling backward across the open ocean surface like a skipping stone.

An eerie, unnatural smirk touched Im's pristine face. Dark mist writhed around her hands as she prepared to close in and execute Drake in one definitive strike.

"Stand back!"

A sudden figure materialized directly in Im's path.

Daolang hovered in the air using his flight device, standing face-to-face with Im. His gaze was a chaotic storm of complex emotions—nostalgia, bewilderment, shock, and deep, aching tenderness...

"Who are you?!" Im raised her chin slightly. The dark fog around her fingertips condensed rapidly, transforming into a blade of pure obsidian. "Step aside! I have no interest in killing you."

Listening to that chilling voice devoid of a single shred of human warmth, Daolang felt as though his heart were being shredded. He remained entirely motionless, simply staring with a desperate, longing gaze at the person he had yearned for across countless sleepless nights.

"Still won't move?" Im frowned, a flash of annoyance crossing her features. She couldn't fathom why this man was blocking her path.

Not that it mattered.

Once she finished off that metal scrap of a ship, every single soul gathered here would share one inevitable fate: a watery grave at the bottom of the sea.

"Yunshang... are you... doing well?"

"Hm?!"

Only then did Im notice the strangeness in Daolang's demeanor. Subconsciously, she reached up to touch her face, and the moment her fingers grazed her cheek, her entire body froze.

The mask... has shattered!

"Hey, hey, hey! System, what the hell is going on here? Explain!" As they hurtled backward, Drake demanded frantically, "Is my missing mother really that Im woman?!"

"My mind is an absolute mess—none of this makes any sense..."

After a moment of heavy silence, the System replied, "Yes, and no."

"To be precise, she simply hijacked your mother's physical vessel. I believe I mentioned this before: Im is a figure from eight hundred years ago."

"She attained the most miraculous power in the world during that era, leaping to the absolute summit of strength while acquiring a bizarre, immortal constitution."

"However, to sustain that eternal life, she must periodically replace her vessel by seizing the bodies of others. And right now... she happens to be inhabiting your mother's flesh."

Drake, who had been listening in absolute silence, widened his eyes in horror.

"You mean... that person isn't actually my mother?"

Simultaneously, a profound wave of relief washed over him. If his mother's actual soul and consciousness had been Im all along, he honestly wouldn't have known how to handle the situation.

Raising a hand against his own biological mother was something he could never bring himself to do, no matter what crimes she had allegedly committed.

Even if she had descended into absolute wickedness.

"Is she... still alive...?" When Drake forced the question out, his voice trembled involuntarily.

Though he possessed almost no personal memories of a mother in this life, the instant he saw that face, his instincts told him the truth.

She was his mother—his closest blood relative in this world.

That instinctive, bone-deep resonance of shared blood had already begun influencing his decisions and emotions without his conscious consent.

"About that..."

The System hesitated for a fraction of a second before relaying its deductions to Drake. Hearing the explanation, Drake's expression morphed from lingering doubt into stark horror.

SWISH!

A flash of black light tore through the air. Without an ounce of hesitation, Im drove her blade straight through Daolang's chest.

"Who do you think you are? I'm sorry to break it to you, but she died long ago!"

"No... Yunshang... could never die!" Daolang's pupils contracted as a line of fresh blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

Ugh...

In the next instant, a heavy torrent of crimson erupted from his lips, splattering downward before being swallowed by the churning waves of the vast ocean below.

For an endless sea, a few droplets of red meant nothing at all.

"Is that so? Heh heh... How fascinating. I never imagined that after all these years, a blood relative of this vessel's original owner would still be alive."

"Let me tell you a secret: she screamed so miserably when she died. That look on her face... truly nostalgic. Ah, hahaha..." Im whispered right into Daolang's ear before bursting into mocking laughter.

Daolang's pupils constricted into pinpricks as his hands clenched into tight fists, bulging veins throbbing across his arms.

"You..."

"Don't worry, I'll send you right down to keep her company... Heh heh..." Following those words, Im slowly began to wrench the blade out of Daolang's chest, leaving a geyser of blood to pump freely from the wound.

Finally, with a cold glint in her eyes, Im yanked the sword clear.

The severed pressure sent a high-pressure column of blood spraying into the air, draining nearly every ounce of life-fluid from Daolang's body as he plummeted into a freefall toward the sea below.

Such a death suits you best, Im thought, a faint, cruel curve forming on her lips.

SNAP!

Suddenly, a massive mechanical hand shot out and clamped firmly around her wrist, refusing to let go.

"You..." Im narrowed her eyes. She hadn't expected him to still cling on at this stage.

"I spent a full twelve years searching for you! H... How could I... How could I ever let go just like that?!" Channeling a reserve of strength defying human limits, a raw, beast-like roar tore from the depths of Daolang's throat.

His grip around Im's arm tightened further, locking on with a death-like tenacity.

He would not let go, even in death!

"Then I suppose you can lose that arm!" Im twisted the hilt of her obsidian blade, slashing upward in a vicious vertical arc.

"Old man!"

Drake warped forward instantly. If his only father perished right before his eyes, he might as well draw his own sword and end his life on the spot.

"Get out of the way!" Waving the spatial blade, Drake manipulated coordinates to forcefully displace the empty space around them, catching Daolang as he fell.

"Sever!"

BOOM!

The spatial rupture forced Im back. Drake slowly opened his hand, revealing Daolang, soaked in blood, resting upon the palm of the Demon Warder.

At that moment, Drake's heart hammered against his ribs in an uncontrollable, frantic rhythm.

The raw emotion paralyzed his thoughts.

"D... Drake..." Daolang slowly fluttered his eyes open. Catching sight of the colossal mechanical titan, he knew it was Drake.

"I know I have no right to ask you for anything... but... but I am truly powerless now. She is right there before my eyes, yet I can't save her!!"

"The strength I've always been so proud of... turned out to be completely useless. I hate this... I hate how weak I am!"

"Drake! Your mother... she must still be alive somewhere inside. I've always believed that! So I'm begging you... please bring her back. Bring her back to us, safe and sound!"

"This is the only request I will ever make in my life..."

Drake's frame shuddered violently. A bitter ache seized his throat, and hot tears welled up in the corners of his optical array. Bowing his head low, he whispered softly, "I know! I will bring her back... I swear it!"

"Hahaha..." Daolang smiled peacefully. His eyelids drifted downward, and his voice faded into eternal silence...