Chapter 1411: Breach

"Next, we announce the final verdict of the Nine Great Bases regarding the biologist Ye Mu..."

"Defendant Ye Mu, during your time living in the South Sea Base, you illegally conducted human-calamity fusion experiments, kidnapped children aged 15-18 for human experimentation, used your position to secretly dispose of bodies, utilized your status within the medical system to purchase and hoard patient organs, and illegally manufactured psychoactive drugs laced with calamity cells..."

"Following deliberation by the high-level officials of the South Sea Base and submission to the joint judgment of the Nine Great Bases, the final sentence is to strip the biologist Ye Mu of all political rights for life, expel him from the South Sea Base, and forbid him from ever stepping foot into any human base for eternity."

Blinding lights shone upon Teacher Ye. A majestic and firm voice came from above, echoing through the vast courtroom.

Numerous figures stood at the judge's bench, coldly looking down at the harmless-looking research scholar in the shirt below, making no effort to hide the wariness and disgust in their eyes...

At the defendant's stand, Ye Mu’s chest heaved violently.

"No... no!! I didn't!! I challenge the verdict of the Nine Great Bases!!" His face flushed red as he spoke in anger.

"Ye Mu, which part do you challenge?"

"All of it! I challenge all of it!!!" Veins bulged on Ye Mu’s neck. "I have never done any of the things you mentioned!! You know me; I am a biologist with a conscience! I have never conducted human experiments... let alone kidnapped children or hoarded organs!!"

"Are you implying that the Nine Great Bases of humanity have colluded to frame you?" A voice from the judge's bench snorted coldly.

Ye Mu paused, but immediately retorted:

"I don't know, I don't know why you would do this... but I can be certain that I did nothing!"

"Stop quibbling. We have conducted systematic screenings this month. The facts prove that apart from you, no one else had the authorization to do these things. Everyone in the laboratory has an alibi; only you... perfectly missed every time the incidents occurred."

"Then where is the evidence?! If you want to judge me, you must provide evidence!! Do you have any eyewitnesses or physical evidence for those charges?!"

As soon as Ye Mu said this, the entire courtroom fell silent.

"Nothing! You have nothing! You want to pin these crimes on me based on some screenings and speculations?? Is this the fairness and justice of the Nine Great Bases of humanity?!" Ye Mu roared, nearly screaming.

"We don't know what method you used to influence those people and erase their memories of you... nor do we know how you managed to make the victims voluntarily lie on the experimental table without leaving even a single fingerprint... but all the suspicious points lead to you."

"I, Ye Mu, swear to heaven that I absolutely did not use children for human experiments without authorization!! I absolutely did not sell organs, nor did I sell addictive drugs in the human bases!! The disappearance of those children really has nothing to do with me... really... really..."

Ye Mu truly didn't know how to prove his innocence. Filled with rage and frustration, he could only fix his gaze on the figure at the very center of the courtroom.

"Chu Changqing!! I am your teacher!! Don't you know what kind of person I am?!"

The young figure standing at the judge's bench remained silent.

"I see... so it was you." Ye Mu laughed bitterly.

"I was wondering why you stole my thesis on fusion, as well as my own blood samples... Are you worried that I’ve cracked the secret of fusion, threatening the uniqueness of you, the high-and-mighty South Sea Lord? So you came up with this method to expel me from the human realm?"

With his cyan hair draped over the courtroom floor, the young man standing at the very top finally spoke for the first time during the trial:

"I took the thesis and the samples..."

"Chu Changqing, you..."

"I just can't figure it out." Chu Changqing paused for a moment. "I know where my uniqueness lies, I know why I can fuse with those calamities, and I know what I had to sacrifice to fuse with them... But Teacher, I really cannot understand...

How did you, an ordinary person, fuse with a world-ending calamity? Not only without any side effects, but you even became younger after the fusion?

Even though I was once your student and we worked on so many complex projects together... I actually can't understand your papers, those data points that came from nowhere, and those inexplicable references...

Teacher, your fusion, and my fusion...

Are they really the same?"

Ye Mu was slightly stunned. Under the blinding lights, he saw the look in Chu Changqing’s eyes...

Those cyan-tinted eyes were veiled with a faint trace of tears. His former prized student was looking at him with suspicion and fear, as if he were no longer human, but some kind of monster wearing a human skin.

"That was a thesis I wrote with my heart and soul, a summary I made after my brain was enhanced by the fusion! Of course you can't understand it!" Ye Mu retorted angrily.

Ye Mu roared hysterically at the defendant's stand, labeling his once-proudest disciple as an "ingrate" and a "selfish villain," denouncing the injustice of the South Sea Base and its collusion with the other nine human bases.

Lacking concrete evidence, everyone present hesitated. Their eyes turned to Chu Changqing, seemingly waiting for his final decision...

Finally,

Chu Changqing slowly closed his eyes.

"This base carries one-ninth of humanity's future... Regardless of anything else, there cannot be any uncontrollable risk factors." Chu Changqing turned around and walked slowly out of the courtroom.

"Execute the verdict. I will bear all the consequences alone."

Numerous figures rushed onto the defendant's stand, bound Ye Mu, and dragged him toward another direction.

"No!!"

"I do not accept the joint verdict of the Nine Great Bases, I do not accept it!!!!"

……

On the scarred and desolate land, Teacher Ye opened his eyes abruptly!

Cold sweat slid down his temples, and his back was completely soaked. He stood there, pale, as if he had just woken from a nightmare. The hem of his shirt fluttered in the wind, which was mixed with the scent of blood...

"Where... am I?"

Teacher Ye looked around in a daze.

The mangled corpses of the Pu family lay on the ground beside him. Bone-chilling seawater had already submerged his heels, and the wailing cold wind blew into the completely shattered turtle shell, instantly freezing the blood-mixed seawater into crimson frost...

Teacher Ye slowly pulled his feet out of the bloody frost. Only then did he react with delayed realization.

"We... have we been breached?"