The Impostor Young Master in "The Real and Fake Young Masters"

Sanity returned, and Liu Yi gulped in air, feeling as if she had been given new life. She slumped to the ground.

It was as if she had just awoken from a nightmare—one so vivid that even recalling it was agony, as though a rasp had ground every inch of flesh on her body into pulp, making her shrink from the very memory.

Wait—where had those thugs gone?

With a metallic clang, the black coffin casing finally gave way, cracking open to reveal a crystal sarcophagus within.

The shrill beeping of alarms from the machinery still rang in her ears.

She gathered up the broad, silken snake skin and dragged herself toward the crystal coffin, not daring to get too close, peering from a distance.

Inside lay a young man, his body pierced with numerous transparent tubes that disappeared into the crystal lid beneath him.

At his head was a curved computer screen—the source of the warning sounds.

His eyes were gently closed, as if in silent slumber. He looked no more than twenty, his figure long and slender.

Only his lower abdomen was covered with a white blanket; the rest of his body bore the marks of surgery, with every wound stitched tightly shut with fine surgical thread.

Both his hands and feet, as well as his neck, were shackled with black metal chains. Electrodes connected him to machines that displayed streams of data.

If not for the faint rise and fall of his chest, he could have been mistaken for a corpse.

He seemed strangely familiar—where had she seen him before?

She edged closer for a better look.

The machine displayed the language of the island nation. Roughly translated, it read: “Subject energy anomaly—danger! Danger!”

SS… Wood Element. Behind it, a trail of red warning characters.

There was no time to read further. As if sensing her presence, the young man opened his eyes—cool, deep, like an abyss, utterly devoid of life.

Though his body was battered and weak from torment, his striking features remained—chiseled as if by a divine blade, brows sharp as swords, a proud nose, flawless contours, exuding a chilling aura.

Were it not for the surgical stitches marring his skin, he would have been the epitome of masculine beauty.

Liang Zuan?

The impostor among the Di family’s true and false heirs.

She recalled how, after their identities had been restored to their rightful places, unscrupulous media had fought to report the story—not only vilifying the impostor’s family but even stooping to personal attacks.

No wonder he later vanished without a trace. So he had been taken by the laboratory for experimentation.

And all at the prime of his youth!

Images of the island nation's hearse and packaging with foreign script flashed through her mind…

So the island nation was using people from China for human experiments!

How vile…

No matter Liang Zuan’s character, the fate of a Chinese person was not theirs to decide.

She wondered what connection this lab had to the one from her previous life.

Blinking, Liu Yi slowly regained her composure and began typing rapidly on the nearby computer.

“Password incorrect! Preparing for self-destruction—sixty, fifty-nine, fifty-eight…”

Liu Yi froze.

She wanted to run.

But when she glanced down, she met Liang Zuan’s chilling gaze—eyes deep as the night, brows faintly knotted, a beauty tinged with fragility.

Even with a frown, a beautiful face was pleasing to behold.

She drew back the step she’d started to take, and kept working at the computer.

Not until the last moment would she give up.

Liang Zuan watched her, his gaze serene and profound.

In his memory, even strangers had always harbored malice toward him—so why was this girl helping him?

The setting sun cast a hazy silhouette across her delicate features, softening her disarray. Draped in the snowy white snake skin, she looked like a spirit fallen to earth.

Her dark almond eyes sparkled like a sky full of stars…far lovelier than the red vertical pupils.

Liu Yi racked her brain, searching for some overlooked detail from the past.

The hearse had been found near the Di family’s base—there must be some hidden connection.

She tried her cousin’s birthday as the password, but the error message persisted.

She remembered that one day her cousin had stumbled upon the secret of the Di family’s refuge and tried to claim it, only to suffer a terrible backlash—her skin had festered, leading to the later skin transplant.

Back then, her cousin had nearly died. Di’s young master had done everything to save his beloved, and in her gratitude, her cousin had said something…

It was a line both familiar and ancient:

“When mountains crumble, rivers run dry, thunder roars in winter, snow falls in summer, and heaven and earth unite—only then would I dare part from you.”

A clear beep sounded from the machine.

Almost simultaneously, the metal chains binding Liang Zuan and the transparent tubes sewn into his flesh withdrew one after another.

“Go now, you’re free.” She still had grand plans ahead, and couldn’t be burdened with an invalid.

“The authorities have issued an earthquake warning. At one in the morning, a massive quake will hit. Everyone has evacuated to shelters—you’d better go, too. It’s not easy to get into the shelters, so find the highest place you can…”

She had no idea whether, since the great reservoir had failed, the floodwaters would reach them.

The glow of the setting sun bathed the land, and Liang Zuan’s dark pupils reflected her image.

He hadn’t expected that after his self-destruction, he would be reborn before the apocalypse.

In his previous life, on the eve of the world’s end, he too had been secretly transported to the laboratory by the hearse. Unfortunately, after being injected with massive doses of ability suppressants and enduring successive surgeries, his body had all but failed.

The morning he regained consciousness, he had immediately absorbed the energy of the guards, but the suppressants and the specially designed coffin for powered individuals had kept him trapped; only slender vines could creep through the air holes.

The vines were his eyes, his hands and feet.

While she was absorbing energy crystals, he had used the vines to take a few for himself.

In an instant, his abilities from his previous life returned, but merging them with his current body would take time and patience.

What astonished him most was this girl. She had absorbed so many crystals, yet her emotions remained steady, with no sign of mutation—completely out of the ordinary.

He couldn’t help but watch her more closely.

She had dragged him over two hundred kilometers away, then busied herself as if nothing had happened. Despite her injuries, she worked tirelessly, buzzing back and forth like a little bee.

Since the tragic skin grafting of Patient 666 in his previous life, he hadn’t seen anyone so full of life.

Later, some thugs targeted her and nearly abducted her.

The more he looked, the more she resembled Patient 666. Just as he was about to intervene, she suddenly mutated.

Those who, through experiments, awakened abilities would experience a dramatic enhancement of all physical functions after breaking through their genetic limits, but the success rate was abysmally low. Even if they survived, their powers were usually limited to one of the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, or earth.

Animalistic mutations were one in a million, exceedingly rare.

Forced mutation would drive a person mad, their body unstable—especially one as massive as hers, like a small iceberg. After a brief surge of power, she would almost certainly lose control during subsequent experiments.

Perhaps if the surplus energy were drawn out, she might have a slim chance of survival.

By nature aloof and averse to owing favors, he nevertheless felt that, just for carrying him out of the Di family’s territory, she was worth helping.

Seeing she was about to break down, he moved his fingers slightly, sending vines sweeping through the air toward her.

At that moment, his body, fused with the energy crystals, had recovered to fourth-tier strength from his previous life, but he was still far from as adept with his powers as he once had been.

He could only do his best, hoping to keep her from self-destructing at death’s door.

Her power was fierce and wild, crashing through his limbs and bones like raging waves, nearly overwhelming him, too.

Fortunately, she regained her senses just in time…