My consciousness finally flickered back, damn that bastard Banana, that conniving, backstabbing cat! Sending me to fetch a rock when it was clearly a death trap. If I ever catch you, I'll skin you alive.

I cursed under my breath before opening my eyes, only to be jolted by a gasp of shock. Where was I? This wasn't a hospital, nor was it the wilderness where I expected to wake up. It was dead silent. Directly ahead, suspended in mid-air within a swirl of thin mist, three stones pulsed with alternating red, yellow, and green light. Upon closer inspection, I recognized two of them: the green one from the serpent's lair and the red one that nearly killed me under the ancient peach tree.

How did they get here? Especially the green one—I distinctly remembered burying it! And there was a new yellow one. Just how many of these stones are there?

My head swimming with questions, I glanced down and found a cat lying beside me. Well, I'll be—it was the very feline that called itself Peach Blossom. Good. I was just looking for you. If I don't teach you a lesson this time, my surname isn't Zhao.

I instantly seized the cat by the neck, yanking it up. The cat slowly woke, spotted me, and communicated telepathically: "Boss, where are we? How did I suddenly fall asleep? Where are the Life Stones? The Life Stones? Ah, there they are! And why is there an extra one?"

I snarled, "How dare you chatter here! Believe me, I'll snap your neck right now."

The cat didn't open its mouth, continuing the thought transfer: "Boss, you can't kill me. In this entire world, only you and I are fully evolved beings. If you kill me, there will be no one left who speaks your language. Think how lonely and miserable you’ll be, all by yourself."

This cat speaking my language? Are you insane? I bristled, "Stop with the sweet talk and tricks. I'm not 'Cat Boss' either. I won't be fooled this time, no matter what. You tricked me into going down into the water to get those stones, and now look where we are—I don't even know the place."

"It's an injustice, Boss, I swear I never tricked you! I never anticipated the protective casing on the red stone would suddenly fail. Look at the situation now—it’s wonderful! All three brothers are reunited, and it seems there's a device here capable of nullifying their radiation waves. We must investigate immediately, grab all three Life Stones, and then we can cultivate together and become immortals..."

"Pah! Immortals your big head! If I believe your nonsense again, I might just send you to hell to cultivate. Either go back where you came from, or die!"

Thwack! A brilliant light suddenly flooded the area, dazzling my eyes until I was dizzy. When my vision cleared, I almost collapsed in fright. What was this place? The space was absurdly vast, comparable perhaps only to our military's grand assembly hall.

The walls were lined with rows of instruments and display screens. As the lights activated, a soft female voice echoed from the air, "Miss, you're up early today."

A second, sweeter voice, laced with fury and surprise, followed: "Xiao Hui! How did you guard the Hope? Someone invaded, and you didn't sound the alarm!"

Before the second voice even finished speaking, countless small doors burst open along the walls. Squads of skeletal figures, clattering ominously, rushed in and rapidly surrounded me and the cat. Each 'person' held an object resembling a firearm.

The soft voice replied, "Miss, you wrong me. There was no intruder, so how could I sound the alarm?"

At that moment, I spotted the source of the sweet voice. In an inconspicuous corner, there was another hidden door, and standing there was a very pretty young girl bathed in the bright light.

"You are lying! Then who is he! As a computer with autonomous consciousness, you shouldn't make such a fatal error! This exposes us completely to those ancient people!"

The soft voice in the air showed no anger. "Hehe, who is he? Miss, take a good look. What is he holding in his hands? A man and a cat! And two lost Energy Stones have returned on their own. This young man is young and handsome, exactly as you always imagined, Miss. Congratulations, Miss, congratulations! Our time to rise has finally come! I can't stand being stuck down here anymore."

The pretty girl seemed momentarily stunned. She walked towards me saying, "A man, a cat, the Energy Stones recovered. Father's words have come true. You... you, are you my brother? You’ve finally come! I thought you didn't want Xiao Yudi anymore. Brother, I have waited for you for exactly three hundred and eighty-two years, Brother!"

Thud. The cat fell to the floor, wisely retreating to the side. My brain was reeling. Never mind what this place was; who was this girl? How did I become her brother? Dad never mentioned having an illegitimate daughter. Besides, waiting 382 years for me? That was preposterous! Xiao Yudi? Nice name, though.

Could she be a White Bone Demon? Looking at the skeletal frameworks surrounding me, holding those gun-like things, it seemed plausible. But this bone cave was far too modern, filled with computer equipment.

The girl rushed forward and threw herself into my arms. Good heavens, my luck with women has been soaring lately! First the Zhao sisters, then the forward Fang Yanmeng, and now inexplicably, a Xiao Yudi who's been waiting 382 years for me.

I gently pushed Xiao Yudi back and said seriously, "You must be mistaken. Think carefully. My name is Zhao Qian. Am I the brother you speak of?"

Xiao Yudi lunged forward again, clutching me tighter than before. "There's no mistake. All the conditions match. If you aren't my brother, then who are you?"

I was completely dumbfounded. Even if I was her brother, must we be so intimate in front of all these skeletons? Seeing my awkwardness, Xiao Yudi waved away the skeletal guards and said to me, "Brother, don't worry. Since you don't know the truth, let me explain it to you slowly."

Two chairs suddenly rose from the floor beside me. I looked closely; they were definitely real chairs, yet they seemed seamlessly integrated with the floor.

Xiao Yudi gestured for me to sit down. The cat named Peach Blossom leaped instantly into Xiao Yudi’s arms, and she stroked its fur with affection.

"The Earth Federation, ten million years in my future..."

That single sentence left me bewildered. I shot up from the chair. "Miss Xiao Yudi, I really have pressing matters. If you have time later, I’ll listen to your story. Please allow me to leave now."

"Brother," Xiao Yudi pleaded, her eyes full of sorrowful anticipation.

My heart softened. Fine, I'll treat it as listening to a science fiction story. I sat back down.

"My mother and father were famous scientists in the Earth Federation. Father researched new energy sources and propulsion systems; Mother studied liquid metal and its applications. My arrival gave a huge boost to both their research projects. By the time I was ten, they both achieved major breakthroughs in their respective fields. But at that very moment, doctors diagnosed me with a terminal illness—a disease that even ten million years of advanced technology and medicine couldn't cure.

"To save my life, Mother devised a plan: to use her latest research results, combined with the memory transfer technology of that era, to build me a liquid metal body, and then transfer all the memories from my diseased body into the liquid metal form.

"The surgery was a success, Brother, look."

As she spoke, Xiao Yudi extended her arm. It stretched longer and longer, reminiscent of ramen noodles pulled at a street stall. I started to believe her; a real human arm would have snapped two hundred times over by that length.

"Brother, don't be afraid. Although I have a liquid metal body, all my memories are from my original self. Furthermore, this liquid metal looks no different from a real body to anyone else, unless examined with specialized instruments—instruments that do not exist on Earth today.

"My life was secure, but in the Earth Federation of ten million years hence, memory replication was illegal, especially the transfer between a human and a machine. Such acts were subject to severe federal penalties. The ruling class at the time did this to maintain the normal scope of human survival and development. If memory replication became rampant, everyone would fear death, and before long, the world would be filled only with robots, because robots do not reproduce.

"Father and Mother knew my secret would eventually leak, so from the day my memory transfer succeeded, they began preparing to flee the Earth Federation. Father's research subject was those three Energy Stones. These stones came from the distant R-star system; they contained mysterious, immeasurable energy. Father successfully deciphered the energy conversion code, and he also discovered that the red Energy Stone possessed the ability to perform time-space traversal, even recreating certain future scenarios under specific conditions.

"Time-space traversal remained an unsolvable scientific enigma even ten million years later, but Father successfully used this mysterious Energy Stone to build a time-space traversal system. Mother secretly used the newest liquid metal to construct the Hope spaceship. The ship's power was supplied by these three Energy Stones, and Father successfully integrated his time-space traversal system onto the Hope.

"When I was sixteen, one night, Father received a phone call and hurried us out of the house with Mother. It turned out a friend had warned him that the Federation government had discovered my secret, and the Federal Military Police were en route. Father and Mother knew that if they found me, my only fate would be decomposition in a particle furnace.

"The construction and preparation of the Hope had always been done furtively; many components and systems were super-simplified versions. However, relying on the superior performance of the liquid metal and the immense drive power of the Energy Stones, we successfully broke through the Earth's atmosphere sealed by the Federal Military Police and entered the vastness of outer space.

"In the star systems of ten million years in the future, the Earth Federation’s influence was everywhere. Father didn't want Mother and me to live isolated lives on desolate, uninhabited fringe worlds. According to his escape plan, once in space, we were to use the time-space traversal system to return to Earth one million years in the future, to live there freely.

"We managed to activate the time-space traversal system before the Federation ships could catch up, and we successfully jumped back to outer space ten million years in the future. But just as Mother and Father were holding me tearfully in happy embraces, the Hope unexpectedly malfunctioned while entering Earth's atmosphere. The three Energy Stones suddenly stopped working, all systems on the Hope failed, and the entire ship became a giant fireball under the friction of the atmosphere.

"Regrettably, the ship's escape systems were insufficient; there was only one escape pod for a single person. Mother and Father left this sole chance for me. Although I have a metal body, they weren't certain if the extreme heat generated by the atmosphere would melt my transplanted neural system.

"I was only sixteen then; compared to the average lifespan of 260 years on Earth back then, I was merely an infant. I cried, wanting to stay with my parents, but they cruelly pushed me into the escape pod. I asked Father what I should do now, as Earth was a completely alien world to me.

"Father suddenly endured the intense heat and retrieved the red Energy Stone from the central power system. I knew he intended to use the stone's mysterious power to predict my future survival on Earth.

"'One person, one cat, three Energy Stones. Xiao Yudi, live well. This brother will come looking for you. You must listen to him; he will take care of you for a lifetime and give you happiness.' Those were Father's exact words. But I never expected this wait to last 382 Earth years. Brother, you are so cruel. If Xiao Yudi didn't have a liquid metal body, you wouldn't be seeing her now.

"The Hope exploded under the high temperature; Mother and Father perished in the inferno. Then there was another massive explosion, and I blacked out. When I awoke again, the wreckage of the ship had landed on a desert on Earth. I emerged from the escape pod, used the knowledge Mother and Father had taught me, and with Xiao Hui’s help, finally managed to repair the Hope after several years of effort. I also established this massive underground base beneath the desert.

"I firmly believed Father's words: that a brother would come looking for me. So, for these 382 years, I haven't left this place a single step. I waited and hoped, losing all hope and patience, only to wake up and find Brother standing before my eyes. Now, everything is perfect. With Brother by my side, I will never feel lonely or miserable again."