Sometime later...
Feng Ling, Levi, and Dominic stood next to Yanhuan’s bed inside the conference’s medical center. Nothing special about the room, except for the feeling of coziness and relaxation produced by the natural elements incorporated into the design.
After the match ended, Yanhuan was taken straight to the hospital due to his severe condition... Besides the injuries Levi inflicted, Yanhuan suffered the most from the Overload mutation that brought him closer to Evolutionary Collapse. A hospital was a must to stabilize his condition and avoid activating the self-destruct button.
These three had entered Yanhuan’s room after his teammates came to check on him first and got sent by Dominic to prepare for the Faction’s war.
As for his father? He was never seen again after Yanhuan’s defeat, seemingly afraid of being mocked for his son’s failure.
"Little brother, huh..." Levi smiled wryly as he glanced at Feng Ling. "That’s a curveball I haven’t expected."
Feng Ling had already told Levi a little about his relationship with Yanhuan after being caught off guard when he was the one who saved him from the fall. If Dominic hadn’t been around, Levi would have been the one to save Yanhuan, as he never considered their strained relationship severe enough to justify letting him die.
"He is my half-brother..." Feng Ling corrected calmly. "Our mothers are different but share the same fate under that man’s cruel hands... Deceased."
"I am sorry for your loss," Levi sighed.
He didn’t have to ask Feng Ling what he meant by that... he could tell from Wei-Lan’s treatment of Yanhuan that he had absolutely no such thing as ’love’ or ’compassion’ in his ice-cold heart.
If he could treat his own son in such a despicable manner, imagine what would happen to his wives if they overstepped or questioned the way he taught his sons?
As expected, Feng Ling didn’t include Levi in this gathering to leave him without answers... he wasn’t much of a talkative person, but in this matter, he felt like he needed to get it off his chest.
"That shell of a human has immense power and authority within his region... he could make almost anyone disappear without being questioned for it," Feng Ling shared, his tone calm, but his eyes reflected an untold amount of loathing. "He killed my mother in cold blood after she tried to fight him off when he wanted to force me into signing a Daywalker’s contract with a nightcrawler that utilizes his Aspect... Immersive Cloud. I refused to abide by his decision, as I wanted to carve my own path... I was twelve years old and finally had enough of my entire life micromanaged by him. But I was so foolish... I knew how he is, I knew what he is like, and I still went against his orders."
"My mom paid the price for my stupidity, as I knew that he killed her to show me the ending of those who disobeyed him... I tried to rat him out to the authorities, but all of them merely showed sympathetic looks and said that my father had divorced my mother and exiled her to a different region."
Feng Ling let out a long exhale as he kept pulling a cigarette out of the box and returning it over and over again...
"They told me to be tough... to be a man, and listen to my father’s orders, as I am destined to lead the Imperial Sun Lineage in the future." Feng Ling shook his head. "Their words have broken me, but more so awakened me to my reality... I am nothing more than a product born to continue the legacy of that sub-human."
"So... you ran away?" Levi asked.
"You can’t just run away from that man." Feng Ling showed a small, bitter smile. "The only way to escape from him is to make him realize that you aren’t the destined one to continue his legacy... and so, I refused to sign the Daywalker contract, and it’s the only thing no one has any control over besides you."
"It’s a daring risk... I am still surprised Wei-Lan hadn’t gotten rid of you as well." Dominic shook his head, knowing all the details already.
"He couldn’t... faking my mother’s exile was one thing, but doing the same to me as well in the same year would raise unnecessary questions from the public... especially when he kept boasting about me, that I am the most talented Earthling to be born and destined to lead his Holy Region and Lineage to greatness... if he went for it, he would get judged negatively by the public, which would damage his noble reputation... and that man hates nothing more than that."
Levi nodded in understanding... with everything he had learned about Wei-Lan, he began to understand his wicked and insecure mentality. His ego and reputation were above everything else... he didn’t doubt for a second that he would sacrifice his entire family if it meant keeping his glorious reputation intact.
"I ran away four months later when he brought a new woman home... I realized then that he had given up on me and was about to create another replacement." Feng Ling showed a hollow smile as he gazed at Yanhuan’s ghastly face. "As a child, I felt happy to be relieved of such a fate... I left home and never looked back, but as I grew older... and listened to the news about Yanhuan, I felt nothing but guilt... even when he demonstrated qualities resembling those of the old man. I always felt sorry for him, but I had no power to change his mind or help him escape his father."
"He had to do it on his own," Dominic sighed.
Even Levi shook his head in disappointment about the whole situation. Many could blame Feng Ling for not returning home to save his little half-brother from the same horrible fate he left him to carry on his behalf.
But... everyone saw Yanhuan and how he was when he felt himself to be at the top of the world for his generation.
Who could change his mind or affect the deep obsession of wanting to make his father proud of him? Wei-Lan must have gotten even stricter with him and used psychological methods to make him seek nothing but his approval, like a loyal dog on an invisible leash.
If Feng Ling were to get close to him and attempt to help him, the only thing he would get in return would be disdain and hatred from Yanhuan.
After all, he wouldn’t see him as his brother, but someone who had betrayed his father and their family... worse, he was going to share the news with his father.
Clearly, Wei-Lan had no clue that Feng Ling was his firstborn, as it had been decades since the day he left home.
For someone like Wei-Lan... he no longer gave a shit about his firstborn the moment Yanhuan started proving himself to be worthy of becoming his heir.
However, if Wei-Lan were to find out that Feng Ling was trying to cleanse his son’s mind from the poisoning, he wouldn’t hesitate to hunt after him.
Not because he cared for his son... but because he sought to destroy his hard work in building the best product to continue his legacy.
"Yanhuan had to sever his connection with Wei-Lan on his own... he had to understand that he is no father, and will never be one." Feng Ling reached out with his hand, caressing Yanhuan’s face. "Only then... can he be free from that cursed surname and Lineage like me."
As Levi looked at Feng Ling’s soft expression while gazing at his little brother, he finally received the answer to a question that had haunted him for over a decade.
Why did Feng Ling cry when he saved him during that cursed night?
With a father like that, he must have felt shattered when he saw his parents’ attempts to save him, but to no avail... the murder scene painted a vivid image of two parents going through hell for their son, and even while drawing their final breath... the only thought that went through their minds was Levi’s safety.
That kind of love... that kind of genuine bloodline connection to one’s children... it was something that Feng Ling had longed for from his father, but all he had gotten in return was a broken image of what it meant to have a family.
To fail saving them... he felt like he had failed to save his own dream, where Levi should have lived with his parents... the dream of being raised by loving parents.
Instead, he saved a blind child, who became an orphan just like him.
How could he not cry?
’I truly feel sorry for them...’ Levi sighed inwardly, ’Having a shitty father or mother is just a nasty contract signed for a life of hell and hardship... and worse, if the child was too mentally scarred like Yanhuan, one can never know if that’s his personality or his father’s personality projected on him as he was the sole lead model he has in his life... to be micromanaged from birth, is that really Yanhuan or a miniature version of Wei-Lan?’
Levi hated the notion of being an orphan, but he never regretted for a second being born as a Larson, even if he had spent a mere seven years as their son... seven years was enough to shape him into the man he was today, a man seeking vengeance for their death.
On the opposite side of the world, Yanhuan had spent eighteen years under his father, and only now... could he claim himself to be an orphan, free of his tyranny.