Gong Rui, Gong Zhiyu and Gong Huiyu were the most naturally gifted among all of Gong Qiang’s adopted children. Several times, Gong Qiang had wanted to make use of the twins in his gold cultivation experiments—but was stopped by Gong Rui.
Perhaps it was because Gong Rui had been with Gong Qiang for the longest and had already become a grown man—as a result, Gong Qiang would sometimes pay heed to Gong Rui’s pleas.
However…
This did not mean that Gong Qiang would tolerate Gong Rui’s undermining of his authority.
The legend of the giant soldier god had always held a powerful attraction to Gong Qiang. He had put in years of hard research before finally discovering the way to bring the giant soldier god to life.
Human sacrifice.
Replacing the crystal core of the giant soldier god with a powerful, live human being could resurrect it. But it could not move and fight on its own. The giant soldier god would require another person on the outside to operate it with his mind and spirit.
At the beginning, Gong Qiang had chosen Gong Zhiyu and Gong Huiyu as he believed that being twins, they would naturally be closely linked in mind and spirit. They were the most suitable candidates for this experiment.
Gong Zhiyu had a gentle and serious personality, whereas Gong Huiyu was harder to control. Therefore, Gong Qiang had been prepared to imprison Gong Zhiyu inside the giant soldier god as a sacrifice.
Discovering his intentions, Gong Rui debated with Gong Qiang for a long while. In the end, Gong Rui finally changed Gong Qiang’s mind by offering to become the sacrifice, while having Gong Zhiyu become the giant soldier god’s controller.
All this was carried out without Gong Zhiyu’s knowledge. After agreeing with Gong Qiang, Gong Rui sought Gong Zhiyu on his own to tell him that he had something to do outside of the Free Valley and would be gone for a long time. He requested Gong Zhiyu to take good care of his brothers and sisters during his absence.
Gong Zhiyu readily believed him as he was still a teenager then and did not know of Gong Qiang’s dark side yet.
Little did he know that would be the last time he would see Gong Rui.
The next day, Gong Qiang had Gong Rui brought to the laboratory and carried out the gold cultivation modifications. He then secretly imprisoned Gong Rui inside the giant soldier god. Gong Zhiyu remained in the dark about all these—he only knew that he was to be mentally linked with a giant soldier god.
Even though Gong Rui had replaced Gong Zhiyu—to ensure a secure mental connection with the powerful giant soldier god, one must undergo an extremely harsh training. Every single day for a whole year, Gong Zhiyu’s mind was repeatedly crushed by the power of the giant soldier god. His physical self had also deteriorated day by day.
This was why the second young master Gong had such a weak constitution now.
All this time, Gong Rui was trapped within the giant soldier god, paralyzed and unable to speak. Even so, he could hear everything and see everything…
He realized he had made a mistake. He thought that his actions had protected his own brothers and sisters. Instead, he had unknowingly fallen into Gong Qiang’s trap.
Gong Huiyu was also naturally gifted, but was not strong enough to form a mental connection with the giant soldier god. Right from the start, Gong Qiang had been targeting Gong Rui and Gong Zhiyu. Unfortunately, it was too late by the time Gong Rui discovered that. For a long time, Gong Qiang had been displeased by Gong Rui’s constant shielding of his brothers and sisters—but he had hidden his displeasure all those years as he did not want to waste Gong Rui’s strong aptitude by harming him.
But now that Gong Rui was imprisoned and Gong Zhiyu had also become abnormally weak because of the giant soldier god—Gong Qiang no longer held any inhibitions.
