Tang Ci had already prepared the guest list for the wedding and handed it to Xiao Lou. Thanks to Long Sen's timely use of Marble Bricks to seal off the area around the church, no one was able to escape.
What just happened was too unbelievable— cloning, self-healing abilities, limb regeneration… it was like watching a movie, making it impossible to believe it was real!
Once the church quieted down again, no one dared to speak. Most of the guests kept their heads down, trembling with fear. The church was so quiet that even breathing could not be heard.
Xiao Lou glanced around and said calmly, "The media will not report anything about what happened in the church today. Everyone here should know what they should and shouldn't say."
He looked at Yu Hanjiang, who nodded. Yu Hanjiang walked to the prince's side and said coldly, "His Majesty was old and frail. He suffered a stroke due to excessive excitement at the wedding and died unexpectedly. On their return journey, the prince and princess were ambushed. The princess and General Lin were killed by the assassin while protecting the prince. The assassin's name was Rhode Bell, a Space Pirate wanted by the Strand Federation for many years."
Hearing the Royal Guard captain calmly utter these words, everyone present gasped.
He's distorting the truth and confusing the public; not a single word he said is true!
However, His Majesty is, after all, the King of the Luoke Empire and Xiao Lou's biological father. If he doesn't find a suitable excuse, how can Xiao Lou explain that he burned his father, sister, father-in-law, and fiancée to death at the wedding banquet?
What will the public think of him?
Moreover, the cloning project has already crossed the line of scientific ethics, and making it public will only cause panic among the public. What's even more worrying is that if some mad scientists hear the truth and become interested in gene cloning again, and start related research again... who knows what kind of clone 4.0 they might develop.
The best course of action would be to bury this secret forever, destroy all data and information about Noah's Ark, and completely stop the replication of the human genome.
Xiao Lou decided to use hypnosis to make the guests present forget what had happened that day.
Back then, Lu Jiuchuan and Tang Ci underwent hypnosis after being rescued by the Merfolk Clan. The Merfolk Clan is most skilled in hypnosis. Before the wedding, Xiao Lou had already managed to inform Liu Qiao that Senior Old Gui was on his way to the Luoke Empire and would arrive soon.
Outside the door, Lu Jiuchuan flew the Arrow Starship, which had been prepared in advance, to the helipad above the church. Long Sen put away the marble floor tiles, and everyone inside the church was escorted by Lu Jiuchuan and Yu Hanjiang to the Starship and secretly sent to the manor that had been prepared in advance.
That evening, Empire News published a somber obituary—
"At Prince Xiao Lou's wedding banquet, His Majesty suffered a stroke due to excessive excitement and died despite all efforts to save him; on the way back, the Princess Consort and General Lin were killed by assassins, and His Highness the Prince was injured and is being sent to the hospital for treatment."
The joyous occasion turned into a tragedy, and the public was very worried about Xiao Lou's condition. Reporters surrounded the hospital entrance.
Royal Guard Captain Yu Hanjiang told reporters with a cold expression that His Highness had only suffered external injuries and was currently in stable condition. However, having lost a loved one on his wedding day, His Highness Xiao Lou was deeply saddened and did not wish to give any interviews at the moment.
At the forum, many people spontaneously offered flowers to His Majesty and prayed for the prince.
Dark clouds loomed over the empire, and the people were filled with anxiety.
None of the people who attended the wedding banquet went home that night.
When they woke up the next day, their memories of the wedding banquet were almost identical to those described in the news. However, they felt that their memories of the banquet were somewhat vague, as if something was amiss, but they couldn't quite put their finger on what had gone wrong.
At this moment, Prince Xiao Lou, who had publicly claimed to have been "assassinated and injured," was standing in the laboratory on the top floor of the Royal Hospital.
In front of him were two petri dishes containing his closest family members in this world.
On the left is His Majesty, and on the right is my elder sister, Xiao Rou.
Both of them were in a state of "brain death," meaning that their bodily organs and tissues were still functioning normally, but their brain cells had lost their activity, making them like two vegetative patients who would never wake up.
After dealing with the reporters, Yu Hanjiang arrived at the rooftop laboratory and found Xiao Lou standing in front of two petri dishes, looking serious and thoughtful.
Yu Hanjiang walked to his side, gently put his arm around his shoulder, and asked, "Is there anything you still haven't figured out?"
Xiao Lou said, "The Xiao Rou in the lab looks to be only around 20 years old, the same age she was when she got married. Obviously, her body was frozen here before she got married. In other words, the Princess Xiao Rou who married into the Azure Empire 20 years ago is actually a clone."
Yu Hanjiang looked at the young girl in the petri dish, a hint of regret flashing in his eyes. He whispered, " Before Xiao Rou got married, she hugged you and told you to grow up quickly... Was that girl the real Xiao Rou, or a copy of her? "
In my childhood memories, my older sister walked down the long red carpet of the palace in a pure white wedding dress, but her expression showed no joy as a bride; instead, it revealed a hint of loneliness. When she leaned down to speak to Xiao Lou, her voice was very gentle.
Xiao Lou always felt that the person was real; the reluctance in her tone and the lingering affection in her eyes didn't seem feigned. Besides, Clone had no need to pretend in front of 5-year-old Xiao Lou.
Xiao Lou took a deep breath
Qi kept her mind calm and said softly, "The sister who left the palace in a wedding dress must be real, and she was switched on the way. 20 years ago, Xiao Rou saw the cloned me and herself in the lab. She should have also seen Rhode Bell —the Space Pirate —in the clone lab at the time."
After thinking carefully for a moment, Yu Hanjiang speculated: "In other words, Xiao Rou met Rhode Bell in the lab, and it's very likely that he encouraged her to let Clone marry Azure Planet in her place?"
Xiao Lou nodded: "This Space Pirate is extremely cunning. At the time, Xiao Rou was just a naive princess. She didn't want to marry a man she didn't love, so she was temporarily bewitched by the Space Pirate and agreed to let a clone marry in her place. So, she cooperated with the Space Pirate in a play, leaving the palace in a wedding dress, and then switched the clone with her halfway through."
Following this line of thought, Yu Hanjiang said, "Unfortunately, she didn't expect that the so-called 'replacement' was a true replacement—from then on, she was cloned into Princess Xiao Rou, while she was put into a petri dish by Space Pirate and never woke up again?"
Xiao Lou nodded: "Yes, what I said to her in the palace when I was 5 years old was actually a farewell."
Yu Hanjiang frowned and said, " Xiao Rou's clone was likely already conscious at that time and very obedient to Rhode Bell, the Space Pirate. She and the Space Pirate worked together to guide General Lin's Egret. " Starship, on Azure Planet Did Merfolk Clan crash into a whirlpool in the deep sea?
Space Pirate has been traveling around the universe for years, selling precious minerals. He likely knew about the Merfolk Clan all along and used them to kill an entire human crew on a starship.
The rest of the story is pretty much a guess.
Rhode Bell, having fused with Zerg genes, survived in the deep sea, altered data from the Noahs Ark Project, and collaborated with the fake Xiao Rou to build a secret laboratory in the Merfolk Clan.
On the surface, Princess Xiao Rou was being monitored by her husband, Herman.
Actually, it should be the other way around—it was the fake Xiao Rou who was monitoring her husband Herman and, through him, keeping track of the Empire's movements and reporting back to Rhode Bell.
Therefore, when Rhode Bell developed version 3.0 of Clone, he sent the Invisible Man to Gemini Palace to find Xiao Lou and guide him to investigate clues. Once Xiao Lou discovered Azure Planet, the fake Xiao Lou lured them to investigate the fishing village, gradually leading them into the trap of the Mermaid Royal Palace in the deep sea.
Rhode Bell is the Hunter, and the fake Xiao Rou is a tool he uses.
Yu Hanjiang took Xiao Lou's right hand, looked at the ring on his finger, and asked, " How do you explain the Spirit Fox activation ring His Majesty gave you?"
Xiao Lou looked at the petri dish and asked, "How old do you think Father looks in the petri dish?"
Yu Hanjiang glanced back and said, "About the same age as His Majesty who was burned to death yesterday."
Xiao Lou said, "Is it possible that the Emperor we met when we first entered the secret room was actually the real one? So, he summoned you to test whether you could distinguish between the real and fake Xiao Lou, and then gave you the starter for the intelligent mecha."
Yu Hanjiang was quite surprised by Xiao Lou's speculation: "You mean, the first Emperor might have been real, and he still had some fatherly affection for you, the genuine prince, so he gave you the mecha for self-defense—and the later Emperor was switched out by the clone?"
Xiao Lou said, "It's very likely that the Hunters failed to kill us in the Mermaid Royal Palace, failed to make us crash with the Dark Night Starship, and we also broke through their encirclement of us in the Zerg underground labyrinth. After three consecutive failed operations, they had no choice but to take a desperate gamble and issue an ultimatum to us at the Capital Star."
If that's the case, then the real emperor was probably killed in the last few days and replaced by a clone.
Although His Majesty is crazy and perverted, he will not kill his own son. He only has a "breeding plan" to make all the children compete fairly. Since Xiao Lou, the No. 2, has the self-healing ability of the Zerg, he gave his biological son a mech to balance the strength of the two.
How did he die? And when was he cloned and replaced?
A figure flashed through Xiao Lou's mind, and he suddenly said, "By the way, what about that Xiao Lou number 3?"
Yu Hanjiang was slightly taken aback: "You mean, the slow-witted, obedient Xiao Lou No. 3 that I saw by His Majesty's side back then?"
Xiao Lou said, "We met three Xiao Lous with self-awareness in this secret room." Clones: Number 2 attended the engagement and birthday parties, and his demeanor and temperament were most like the original; Number 3 was the obedient and well-behaved prince you'd seen, extremely subservient to His Majesty; Number 4 was taken away by General Lin, fell into the deep sea, and was rescued by the Merfolk Clan; Number 5, an improvement upon Number 4, became the prince of the Merfolk Clan, and a Hunter at that.
He paused, turned to look at Yu Hanjiang, and said seriously, "Number 4, Number 5, and all the Xiao Lou replicas of the Merfolk Clan have been burned by us. Number 2 was killed by us at today's wedding banquet, but... what about Number 3?"
Yu Hanjiang was startled: "Number 3 has never shown up. I've only seen him once."
Moreover, it was through analysis of behavior and eye contact that it was determined that Xiao Lou, who was beside His Majesty, was not the same person as Xiao Lou who attended the birthday banquet. Yu Hanjiang defined the two as replicas No. 2 and No. 3.
During this period, it was always number 2 who made public appearances, and he was also the one who most resembled Xiao Lou.
Of all the clones, number 3 has the weakest presence. He always stays by His Majesty's side, silent and unnoticed, like a well-behaved and obedient pet...
What if he suddenly attacked His Majesty?
His Majesty will be caught off guard.
Clones are a community of shared interests, and with the existence of the 3.0 version chip, they are easily controlled by Rhode Bell.
Xiao Lou said, "On our way back to Capital Star, Space Pirate took control of Xiao Lou No. 3 and ordered him to attack His Majesty, kill him, and hide him in the laboratory on the top floor of the Hospital. Then, they activated His Majesty's clone to replace him. They originally planned to eliminate us at the wedding banquet, but they overlooked one person— Zhang Shaohua."
Since Xiao Lou found no genetic material of Zhang Shaohua in the remains discovered from the shipwreck, he deduced that the Professor Zhang from Capital Star was the real one.
Zhang Shaohua, feigning madness, helped Xiao Lou find the original information, allowing them to confirm that His Majesty and Xiao Rou's identities were questionable. They then made detailed plans in advance and carried out a swift and decisive counterattack at the wedding banquet.
Rhode Bell's hunting plan has failed once again.
Xiao Lou said, "I wonder if he will come back to cause trouble again? I need to stabilize the situation as soon as possible."
Yu Hanjiang nodded, looking at him gently and said, "Don't worry, I'll take care of it."
***
The following day, reporters announced that Prince Xiao Lou had been discharged from the hospital.
The Imperial Cabinet held an emergency meeting and successfully passed a proposal to have the only prince, Xiao Lou, inherit the throne.
On the day Xiao Lou ascended the throne, the Royal Guard, led by Yu Hanjiang, escorted him all the way. Yu Hanjiang held Xiao Lou's arm and personally escorted him to the gate of the largest palace in the Imperial Palace.
Dressed in imperial robes, Xiao Lou appeared calm and dignified as he gracefully ascended the white steps toward the exquisite and luxurious throne.
He turned around, facing the officials from all walks of life in the hall, and slowly sat down on the throne that symbolized supreme power.
Everyone placed their right hand on their chest and bowed in unison, saying, "Your Majesty."
Xiao Lou smiled and raised his hand: "Please, everyone, no need for formalities."
Almost simultaneously, a notification popped up in the floating window in the upper right corner of Xiao Lou's profile—
[Congratulations to Xiao Lou's team on successfully completing Q Secret Room: Interstellar Voyage]
[You can return to Personal Space to claim your reward, or stay in this secret room and live out the rest of your life.]
[Please select: A. Stay, B. Return to Personal Space ]
Xiao Lou pressed option B almost without hesitation and returned to Personal Space with his teammates.
For him, having cleared this room, there was no need to stay any longer; they had to hurry to the next room and leave Card World as soon as possible.
The clone in level Q left a deep psychological scar on the teammates.
In subsequent escape rooms, they had to verify the authenticity of each teammate before meeting them. They almost suffered a total wipeout due to a single oversight, a thought that still sends shivers down their spines. As for the final boss of this level, Rhode Bell, the leader of the Space Pirates, they not only failed to defeat him, but they hadn't even met him.
This person never appeared until the very end.
Passing through the secret room does not require them to kill Hunter.
The Hunters are in the shadows, while they are in the light. The next level, K, remains uncertain, but with only two levels left, they can leave this eerie Card World.
They must give it their all.