In the room filled with the pungent smell of embalming, an old man with a silver beard hanging down to his knees sat on a dilapidated wooden chair carved from roots, looking through the papers on the table, and kept recording something in his hands.

Richer and Sabrina followed the servants, standing behind the old man.

The former lowered his head and waited for the old man to speak with a respectful face, while the latter clenched the dagger in his arms with a wary face.

Writing down the last letter on the paper, the old man sighed softly, took off the crystal glasses on the bridge of his nose, and turned his head to look at the two "visitors".

"Richel, you always like to say goodbye without saying goodbye, and you always like to show up suddenly. Eliad twisted her aching back and looked at the woman in front of her with soft eyes: "Before you exhaust my patience, you'd better make it clear." ”

Richer didn't speak, but took a brand-new, printed book from her bosom and gently placed it on the table.

Eliad picked up the book and opened it at random, and when he looked at it, he was amazed by the neat words and neat typography of the book.

"This is the printing technique of Twilight," Illid touched the faint marks on the paper and said, "Unlike the engraving in the South, Twilight uses movable blocks...... A bunch of smart guys, funny. ”

Looking at Eliade's expression, Rachel breathed a sigh of relief, and then said, "Elder, could you please turn to the title page and see who the author of this book is?"

Eliad put his glasses back on, flipped to the title page, and a familiar name jumped into his eyes, causing him to laugh.

"Terrence ...... That old stubborn, not only is he not dead, but he still has the strength to write a book?"

The smile on the old man's face finally made Rachel completely relaxed.

"Let me see what this old fellow has written...... The molecular theory of the microcosm? What is this?"

Eliad frowned and looked at a few pages, put the book down, and asked Rachel, "Is this really written by Terrence?"

Richer smiled, "Elder, do you think I'm going to use a book to trick you? This book is indeed the work that Master Terrence has just completed, and it is available everywhere in Twilight City as an advanced textbook for Twilight University. ”

Eliad looked at the theories and diagrams in the book again, shook his head and said, "There should be more than this theoretical system......

As if playing a trick, Rachel took out six more books from his bosom and put them in front of Eliade: "These are all textbooks for microscopic theory, and Master Terrence is responsible for the last one, and the first few books are compiled by many scholars. ”

Looking at the books on the table, Eliad looked at Rachel with a headache: "Rachel, these little cleverness of yours always make people helpless. Seriously, you shouldn't come back here. ”

Rachel smiled wryly and shook her head, looking around the room for furnishings, the biological organs soaked in glass jars, the surgical instruments in the cabinets, and the neatly stacked books and drawings, which made her whisper with emotion: "I was born here, I belong here." ”

The old man pointed his finger at Sabrina and said to the masked servant, "Take her to the next room to rest." ”

Sabrina, who was listening to the conversation between the two, stood up puzzled, and just wanted to open her mouth to question, but after seeing Eliade's expression, she immediately gave up the idea of resisting.

Eliad watched as the masked servant led Sabrina to the next room, and he arranged the books into a stack and placed them on the side of the table, and his face full of furrows showed a hint of regret: "Reicelle, since you are back here, there are some things I had better tell you...... Your birth is my fault. ”

"Decades ago, Eleanor, who was seeking eternal life, found a secret method of reproducing the human body from the collection of the Presbyterian Church. Eliad shook his head slightly: "As long as you get a part of the human body, through the effect of the ability and the immersion of the potion, you can raise exactly the same copy in the cultivation tank." ”

Rachel lowered her head quietly, listening to the old man's narration with a calm face, but her nails had already pierced the skin of her palms.

"At that time, I was very interested in this technology, and I wanted Eleanor to tell me how it worked. What I didn't expect was that she made a condition that shocked me: she asked me to help raise one of her clones. ”

Eliad stood up and looked at the huge glass trough in the corner where the ashes had already fallen: "I asked her why...... She told me that if she could have an identical replica, she would be able to get everything she needed from the replica once her human body had reached its limit due to aging...... Organs, skin, blood, ......"

"At first I was very resistant to this approach, but the appeal of the secret method eventually forced me to compromise. After that, you are born. ”

Rachel brushed the hair around her ear and said in a mocking tone, "So, I'm like a backup toolbox, and the parts on my body will be removed and replaced at any time?"

Ignoring Reichel's mocking tone, Eliad continued, "After you were born, I treated you like an experiment at first. However, as time goes by, watching you grow from a baby to a young girl, all the things you have experienced in the process have gradually changed my mood a little. ”

Iliad touched his beard and recalled, "I remember it was a winter evening. You're three months away from your coming-of-age ceremony, and Eleanor came to me and asked me if your body was 'mature'?"

Rachel's eyes were cold, and he didn't say a word.

"At that time, I suddenly realized that I didn't know how to reply. After sitting in the lab all day, I finally made a decision...... I've done some tricks on you. ”

"Hands and feet?"

"I use some special drugs that are mixed into your daily diet and they can cause some toxicological reactions in your body and make you no longer fit to be a backup for Eleanor. ”

Hearing this, Rachel was a little surprised: "Those physical diseases I had in the past were actually not because of natural defects, but because you secretly took drugs?"

"Even though I used drugs to make you show signs of poisoning, Eleanor still had no intention of letting you go, and she wanted to destroy her own copy of yourself more than once, that is, you. Eliad looked at Richel's face and said slowly, "As for the reason, you should be able to guess it." ”

Rachel lowered her eyelids, thought for a moment, and said with a smile, "Because she sees another self in me." ”

"That's right, as a clone of Eleanor. At that time, you were exactly the same as Eleanor in appearance, figure and temperament. According to the woman's personality, it is impossible to tolerate the existence of another self. ”

Richer suddenly raised her head, looked at Eliad, and asked in a deep voice, "Please tell me the truth, is Mia's death also related to me?"

The latter was stunned for a moment, was silent for a while, and finally shook his head: "That's a tragedy, it's just that her corpse can just get you rid of Eleanor's endless entanglement." ”