LGHTNOVELBOOK Chapter 233 - Atom
When Mai Zixuan saw that the anonymous sender of the messages was named Atom Xi, he immediately thought of someone.
“Sis, isn’t this Atom the same…?”
“Yes, he’s Lucy’s biological father,” Mai Dongzi confirmed.
She was extremely shocked when she first saw the information. Right away, she recalled the man that Ren Guang had encountered in the desert oasis on Liva Star. That man was most likely Atom.
If Atom was their father, then Mai Dongzi couldn’t help but think back to the time when Mai Zixuan traveled to Liva Star to see her. Back then, all three of them had been on Liva Star, but they had unfortunately missed the chance to meet.
Mai Dongzi had always considered her and Mai Zixuan’s rebirth to be a coincidence. However, there was already one other confirmed reborn individual—Li Ruiyou, who was now Prince Arthur. If their father had also been reborn as Atom, then calling it a mere coincidence was becoming harder and harder to believe.
Moreover, there were other reincarnators in this world. The Blue-Black Empire’s government had officially confirmed that Zhao Fenni and Bai Zhizhi were reborn individuals. When the government revealed information about the impending apocalypse, they stated that their knowledge of it came from reincarnators.
Additionally, there was a reincarnator from Country V. Although the government of Country V had always denied his status as a reborn individual, he had previously publicly “predicted” several events—all of which later came true. As a result, many people believed he was indeed a reincarnator.
One of his most shocking prophecies was that Country V and its neighboring nations would soon be engulfed in war, leading to the complete destruction of the country and the near extinction of its population.
While this prediction had yet to be verified, Mai Dongzi and her brother knew it was true—after all, it had been clearly written in the book they had read.
These three reincarnators were different from them. They had returned from either the Apocalypse Purge or its aftermath, reincarnating into their own bodies.
From what Mai Dongzi knew, three individuals had been reborn from the future, while she and three others had reincarnated from over a thousand years ago.
At this point, the world was either being traversed or reincarnated into so frequently that it was practically riddled with holes—how could this possibly be a coincidence?
Mai Dongzi reasonably suspected that this wave of transmigrations and reincarnations was being manipulated by some unseen force.
Could it be that, with the imminent apocalypse in the Dagula Star System, the native lifeforms—particularly humans—would suffer catastrophic losses in the near future?
Perhaps some unknown entity or force, wanting to preserve the indigenous life of the Dagula Star System, had selected specific individuals to bring into this world while also sending people from the future back to the past.
Maybe their goal was to use these people’s foresight and abilities to change the tragic fate of the Dagula Star System.
—
“Wait! Wasn’t Atom supposed to have died when Lucy was just a few months old?” Mai Zixuan exclaimed in shock. That was publicly known information.
Previously, Mai Dongzi hadn’t thought it was important, so she never told Mai Zixuan that Atom might still be alive—which explained his confusion.
“Apparently, he didn’t die. The charred corpse found at the fire scene wasn’t him but the assassin sent to kill him,” Mai Dongzi explained briefly.
“Then… If the one who sent me these messages is Atom, that means Atom is most likely…?” Mai Zixuan still found it hard to believe.
“Our father,” Mai Dongzi completed his sentence.
That one confirmation from Mai Dongzi suddenly made Mai Zixuan’s mind snap back into focus. A realization struck him—something that could strongly prove Atom was indeed their father:
“If Atom wasn’t our father, he would have only sent these messages to you, not to me. More importantly, he wouldn’t have known that we read that book in our past lives.”
“And… he’s heading to Water Blue Star at this moment…” Mai Zixuan continued, his voice trembling slightly. “Sister, the message said that Atom has a woman with him—one who’s in a vegetative state. That woman… could she be…?”
Mai Dongzi shook her head. “This woman is probably not our mother. The message says this woman is Lucy’s biological mother, Zhuang Yuelan. Zhuang Yuelan has been in a coma for nearly twenty years, so don’t get your hopes up too much. Our mother likely didn’t reincarnate into her.”
“Then why isn’t Atom looking for us? Why is he taking this woman to Water Blue Star?” Mai Zixuan said.
He found it hard to accept that their father had chosen another woman over them. After all, this wasn’t the previous life. They had all reincarnated after death. It was one thing if their father didn’t know of their existence, but now that he did, it seemed he still didn’t want to meet them.
“I’m not sure,” Mai Dongzi said. “If Atom isn’t our father, then there must be a very important reason. Maybe he’s trying to protect Zhuang Yuelan as much as possible, even to the point of not having time to come see us. But that doesn’t quite make sense either. If he’s sending you anonymous messages, it means he doesn’t want us to know his identity.”
“Then I’ll send him a message and ask,” Mai Zixuan said, visibly frustrated.
Mai Dongzi nodded. She didn’t overthink things as much as Mai Zixuan, but it still bothered her that their father, knowing they existed, didn’t make contact. Although she understood he likely had his reasons, it still felt off to her.
No matter how capable they were, in the eyes of the parents who once loved them, they were still their little princes and princesses.
Mai Zixuan immediately sent a message to Atom.
At first, Atom didn’t respond. Mai Zixuan wasn’t the kind of person to be dismissed easily. If he didn’t answer, fine—he’d just keep calling and calling…
“You brat, how are you still like this?” Finally, a voice came from the other end of the communication.
Since Mai Zixuan had enabled sharing permissions, Mai Dongzi could clearly hear the conversation between the two.
Though the voice was unfamiliar, the tone of helplessness was so familiar.
“Dad!” Mai Zixuan cried out, his eyes turning red.
When he first called, he had been furious, but once he confirmed it was really his father, he was a completely different person.
“Dad!” Mai Dongzi also called out. While her eyes weren’t as red as Mai Zixuan’s, her voice still trembled slightly.
“You two should stay at Imperial Capital University. Don’t leave until the Apocalypse Purge is over,” the man sighed, and this statement effectively confirmed his identity.
“Father, since you’ve known about us all along, why didn’t you come to find us or contact us?” Mai Zixuan asked.
“You two are doing well. I didn’t want to change the trajectory of your lives, so I decided to wait until after the Apocalypse Purge before finding you,” their father replied.
Mai Dongzi couldn’t recall what happened to Atom after the Apocalypse Purge. However, she remembered that when Lucy joined Prince Arthur’s group, she was alone. At that time, the Xi family had already split up. Prince Arthur had taken Lucy into his group out of gratitude toward Atom.
Did this mean that Atom was no longer around by that time? Otherwise, Prince Arthur’s gratitude should have been directed toward Atom, not Lucy.
Ren Guang said that the man he encountered on Liva Star, who was suspected to be Atom, was already a level 7 cultivator.
If a level 7 cultivator could survive the Apocalypse Purge, they would at least be able to become an 8th-level cultivator, and would certainly be qualified to join Prince Arthur’s team.