OVPBM 23 Part 1

Chapter 23 – “I Will Offer the Empire and My Life to You.”

The black mecha emblazoned with a poppy totem shot into the sky. The intense force of its sudden acceleration almost made Lu Yunwan unable to breathe.

That familiar wave of dizziness washed over him in pulses.

Lu Yunwan had undergone mecha piloting training on a simulator, but his understanding of complex weapon systems remained at an introductory level.

So he chose a different approach.

Clenching his teeth, Lu Yunwan drove the mecha straight toward Planet L-6409 and the three colossal mechas stationed there.

* * *

Borrowing the tremendous reactive force generated at the instant the starship disintegrated, the escape pod carrying Chu Xuanzhou was flung in the opposite direction of Planet L-6409.

At the very moment the flames faded, Chu Xuanzhou saw the small black mecha was using itself as a weapon, darting swiftly through the cosmos, forcing the three giant mechas toward the direction of Planet L-6409.

Lu Yunwan’s movements were agile, bold, and bordering on madness.

The slightest lapse in concentration could cause him to collide with another mecha or plunge directly into the volcanoes of Planet L-6409 and shatter into pieces.

In the interstellar era, the stronger a pilot’s mental power, the greater their control over a mecha.

At this moment, Lu Yunwan was like a rattlesnake weaving through an interstellar jungle, astonishingly nimble and vicious.

The three massive mechas, by contrast, were its clumsy and foolish prey.

Under Lu Yunwan’s relentless pressure, they retreated, utterly unable to break away to capture the escape pod carrying Chu Xuanzhou.

The scene before him made even Chu Xuanzhou, who had never been interested in mechas or warfare, hold his breath.

For the first time, he fully understood what it meant to be “the only human in the interstellar realm with a maxed-out mental power value.”

—The Regent was not only elegant and ruthless; most importantly, his power was unmatched.

Only such a Lu Yunwan deserved to be called a “legend.”

“Cough… Cough…”

Inside the mecha, Lu Yunwan’s condition was far from good. His coughing only worsened, and the severe psychological condition inherited from the original host made his head feel as if it were splitting apart.  

Dark red blood dripped down from his pale chin, soaking a patch of his black military uniform, yet he paid it no mind.

At this point, Lu Yunwan was piloting the mecha purely on instinct and intuition.

An overwhelming surge of exhilaration crushed any fear of death and took complete control of him.

His mind was so intensely focused that it even overcame the limitations of his body.

“Your Highness.”

At that moment, Lu Yunwan’s voice reached Chu Xuanzhou’s ears.

Along the deep-space route, countless interference signals filled the void.

The escape pod carrying Chu Xuanzhou was drifting ever closer to the cosmic black barrier zone, where no signals could be received.

Lu Yunwan’s voice therefore sounded faint and indistinct. To the young man, it suddenly felt unfamiliar.

“Your Excellency the Regent, how are you now?” Chu Xuanzhou asked, unable to hide the urgency in his voice.

“Cough, cough, cough…”

A soft cough echoed in Chu Xuanzhou’s ears, followed by Lu Yunwan’s familiar laughter. “Don’t worry,” His Excellency the Regent said gently.

The escape pod continued falling into deep space. With the naked eye alone, Planet L-6409 was now almost impossible to see.

Lu Yunwan coughed again, as if he were about to cough up his lungs this time.

Chu Xuanzhou heard Lu Yunwan, who was piloting the mecha through the cosmos, steadying his breathing and, in a voice unbelievably gentle, comforting him, “Your Highness, do not be afraid.”

“Rest at ease beneath my wings. I will offer the Empire and my life to you…”

Just as the signal was about to vanish, Lu Yunwan’s promise reached Chu Xuanzhou’s ears.

It was the first promise he had ever received in his life.

For the first time, Chu Xuanzhou forgot his doubts.

In his heart, there remained only the fear of losing something.

A few seconds later, silence returned to Chu Xuanzhou’s ears.

Only Lu Yunwan’s final promise remained, echoing over and over, crashing against his heart like waves, one after another.

* * *

“You useless trash!” On the Capital Planet, Chu Zhengxu, who was remotely commanding the battle, could not help but curse aloud. “If you retreat any further, you might as well crash into Planet L-6409 and kill yourselves!”

Through clenched teeth, he ordered, “Go capture Chu Xuanzhou now. Do not let him escape!”

Blinded by rage, Chu Zhengxu swept everything off the table in one motion. After a brief pause, he burst into loud laughter. Before departure, he had illegally modified the mechas.

With a cold sneer, Chu Zhengxu activated his optical-brain and swiftly entered a string of complex commands into the remote control system.

In the blink of an eye, the holographic projection at the center of the room was swallowed by flames.

Chu Zhengxu remotely controlled two of the mechas, directing them to attack Lu Yunwan from the front and rear as they self-destructed within the atmosphere of Planet L-6409.

Another mecha swiftly bypassed the explosion and charged toward Chu Xuanzhou’s location.

All of this happened in an instant.

Bracing both hands against the table, Chu Zhengxu stared fixedly at the holographic projection in the center of the room, his eyes gleaming with barely restrained excitement.

At that moment, the gray cabin door slid open.

A sparse round of applause sounded behind him. When Chu Zhengxu turned around, he saw Pei Zhaoan standing at the doorway, smiling as he looked his way.

“Mr. Pei?” Chu Zhengxu subconsciously moved around the desk, attempting to block the holographic projection behind him.

“Don’t bother hiding it, Your Highness the Fourth Prince,” Pei Zhaoan walked in and stopped beside him. With a faint, ambiguous smile, he glanced at the holographic projection and said dispassionately, “You can’t kill Lu Yunwan.”

His tone was utterly cold.

The words made Chu Zhengxu’s heart tighten. How did Pei Zhaoan know what he was doing right now?

“Why can’t I kill him?” Chu Zhengxu retorted stubbornly.

Pei Zhaoan narrowed his dark green eyes. He did not toy with suspense. Instead, he shot Chu Zhengxu a disdainful look and said with absolute certainty, “His mecha hasn’t crashed.”

“You…” How do you know?

The rebuttal rose to Chu Zhengxu’s lips, but realization struck him almost at once.

Pei Zhaoan had planted a spy at Lu Yunwan’s side and installed surveillance equipment aboard his starship!

… But who could possibly have such high-level authority, able to move freely within Lu Yunwan’s starship and install monitoring devices?

There was no time to think further. The flames on the holographic projection gradually dimmed.

Just as Chu Zhengxu had feared, the mecha bearing the poppy totem burst out from the blaze!

It shot forward at high speed, like a beam of light, closing in on Chu Xuanzhou and the last remaining giant mecha.

“See? I knew it,” Pei Zhaoan said, wearing an expression that clearly said as much.

Chu Zhengxu ground his teeth and forced a smile. “So you came here on purpose to watch me make a fool of myself, Mr. Pei?”

Pei Zhaoan spread his hands, feigning innocence.

His silence only enraged Chu Zhengxu further.

“Heh… Do you think I can’t see it? You’ve always harbored that kind of intention toward Lu Yunwan, that human,” Chu Zhengxu said in an exceedingly suggestive tone, casting Pei Zhaoan a contemptuous glance. “The people around you keep changing, and each new face resembles the Regent a little more than the last.”

Pei Zhaoan lowered his head and lightly rotated the ring on his finger.

Unexpectedly, he did not deny it. Instead, he smiled and nodded.

“Yes,” he admitted with startling frankness. “To feel desire for such a beautiful human is nothing shameful.”

“You—”

While they were speaking, the holographic projection showed that Chu Zhengxu’s last mecha had already captured the escape pod. Lu Yunwan had also arrived nearby and was beginning a forced landing.

“You’d better not forget how many of your own people have died at his hands,” Chu Zhengxu said through clenched teeth. “Or is it that you actually take pleasure in it, Mr. Pei?”

Pei Zhaoan shook his head. He glanced at the holographic projection, then slowly made his way toward the door.

“I admit I harbor a desire for him, but that does not conflict in the slightest with my being able to kill him at any time,” he said shamelessly.

“I will always be loyal to the royal family.”

Chu Zhengxu could not help but sneer.

Just as Pei Zhaoan was about to step out, he suddenly stopped.

“Oh, I almost forgot. I only came to remind you of something, Your Highness. If nothing unexpected happens, Lu Yunwan has probably already realized that you were behind this. Since you’re so confident, when he survives and comes to take revenge on you, I won’t be interfering.”

At those words, Chu Zhengxu slammed his fist heavily onto the table. Even the holographic projection in the center of the room trembled.

Pei Zhaoan did not spare him another glance. He left directly and boarded his own starship.

A young human dressed in a black shirt stood timidly in the corridor, watching him.

When Pei Zhaoan entered, the human could not help but take a large step back.

“Mr. Pei, y-you… What’s wrong?” Fear was written all over that face, which bore five or six parts of resemblance to Lu Yunwan.

Pei Zhaoan cast him a brief glance and activated the holographic projection.

The footage from inside the mecha just minutes earlier reappeared before his eyes.

—Lu Yunwan was covered in blood, his face pale, yet his gaze burned with a rare excitement.

He stared fixedly at the viewport, piloting the mecha as it tore through the flames and flew toward the deepest reaches of the universe.

Just as Chu Zhengxu had guessed, Pei Zhaoan had indeed planted a spy beside Lu Yunwan and had even installed monitoring devices inside the cockpit.

As he watched the holographic projection before him, Pei Zhaoan’s gaze gradually turned obsessive, his breathing growing uneven.

It had been ages since he had last seen Lu Yunwan piloting a mecha…

Clearly, he was a human whose limits were defined entirely by his own fragility. And yet, Lu Yunwan carried an overwhelming presence that seemed to stand above all things, capable of destroying everything.

He was like a god of slaughter from legend, dwelling in the underworld.

Before long, Lu Yunwan’s familiar voice sounded in Pei Zhaoan’s ears.

“Your Highness, do not be afraid. Rest at ease beneath my wings. I will offer the Empire and my life to you…”

At those words, Pei Zhaoan, who had been silent just moments before, suddenly turned around. Irritation filled his face as he looked at the fragile human standing before him.

The other man instinctively stepped back. In the next second, the back of his head slammed heavily against the cold, hard inner wall of the starship.

Pei Zhaoan leaned down and kissed him on the lips. A fragmented, indistinct murmur reached the man’s ears.

“Why didn’t you die?”

Pei Zhaoan said it with a sense of relief.

The next instant, he fixed his eyes on Lu Yunwan in the holographic projection and seized the human before him by the throat.

“Ugh…”

“Why didn’t you die!” Pei Zhaoan repeated the same words. Unlike before, his voice now brimmed with fury and hatred.

It was as though he wished he could grind the person in front of him into dust.

* * *

At the very instant the flames extinguished, the escape pod carrying Chu Xuanzhou was captured by the giant mecha.

An overwhelming surge of hatred and unwillingness swept over him.

A sudden, sharp pain shot through his mental core. His brows drew together, and his eyes slowly drifted shut.  

The sensation was utterly unfamiliar to Chu Xuanzhou.