OVPBM 23 Part 2

In a hazy blur, he sensed that someone had opened the hatch of the escape pod.

Though his eyes remained tightly shut, his subconscious told him with absolute precision that there were fourteen people surrounding him.

This was mental power perception.

For now, no one had realized that Chu Xuanzhou’s mental power was awakening at a speed bordering on madness.

—Lu Yunwan’s earlier remarks about “soft-heartedness” had opened Pandora’s box.

And the image of him vanishing into the flames had become the catalyst.

Chu Xuanzhou had never felt such unrest before.

What happened next completely ignited the hatred, unwillingness, and thirst for power buried deep within the youth’s heart.

A needle-like stabbing pain spread across his mental core.

The agony radiating from it had already far surpassed the limit any living being could endure.

Yet Lu Yunwan’s words supported him, allowing him to cling to reason amidst the excruciating pain:

‘Your Highness, pain is also a blessing of life.’

Clenching his teeth, the young man tried to follow the method Lu Yunwan had taught him during previous experiments, sensing the existence of his mental core within the pain.

At that moment, Chu Zhengxu’s subordinates dragged Chu Xuanzhou out of the escape pod. Caught off guard, he was thrown heavily to the ground.

Blood seeped from his forehead. Without warning, Chu Xuanzhou’s dark violet eyes snapped open.

His purple pupils contracted instantly into thin slits, his gaze filled with killing intent and hatred too dense to dissolve.

“You—”

Even though they knew Chu Xuanzhou possessed no mental power, Chu Zhengxu’s subordinate still took a large step back.

Realizing he had lost his composure, he immediately steadied himself and gestured to the people behind him, signaling them to eliminate Chu Xuanzhou at once.

But before the man in the rear could even raise his gun, Chu Xuanzhou, still lying on the ground, pressed a hand against the floor and slowly rose to his feet.

His waist-length white hair had at some point become stained with blood, soaking into his dark blue shirt.

The fabric clung to his waist, outlining the lean yet powerfully muscled form of the merman.

A slow smile spread across Chu Xuanzhou’s face, innocent and cruel like that of a beast.

“Do it! What are you standing there for?!” For some inexplicable reason, the sight of him made them think of Lu Yunwan…

The person closest to him immediately stepped back and shouted a warning to his companions.

But before they could act, the unexpected happened first.

—In the original novel, when Chu Xuanzhou was tortured to the brink of death, a surge of intense hatred erupted within him, and under its control, his mental power awakened.

He used that mental power to strangle everyone around him and finally escaped from Planet Cangrui, beginning his life on the run.

Now, that long-delayed plotline had finally arrived.

The only difference from the book was that today, in addition to overwhelming hatred, a powerful sense of unease was also spreading wildly through Chu Xuanzhou’s heart.

Chu Xuanzhou attempted to mobilize his mental power, instantly severing the starship’s connection with the outside world.

Immediately, waves of agonized screams rang out beside his ears.

“Ah!”

“Help… Help!”

The man closest to Chu Xuanzhou had a streak of bloody tears slide from the corner of his eye. He staggered back with a scream, then went rigid where he stood, eyes stretched wide.

He could feel it clearly. A long crack had split open across the mental core in his forehead.

And this was only the beginning.

The dozen or so people behind him all revealed twisted expressions of agony.

It felt as if an invisible hand had reached into their minds, slowly tightening its grip and crushing their mental cores.

“Please… Please, Your Highness,” one of them dropped to his knees with a thud at Chu Xuanzhou’s feet. Struggling, he stretched out a hand, trying to grab the young man’s hem. “We… We were sent by the Fourth Prince. He’s the one who ordered your death… please spare me, spare—”

Before he could finish speaking, Chu Xuanzhou bent down.

“Ahhh!!”

In an instant, the merman’s sharp fingers pierced through flesh and bone, directly crushing the man’s mental core.

Blood flowed along Chu Xuanzhou’s fingers, dripping onto the floor in a steady rhythm.

This was nothing short of a massacre.

Chu Xuanzhou had always been an excellent student. He remembered Lu Yunwan’s words and acted exactly as he had been taught:

‘Hunters are never merciful.’

‘Cut off all his escape routes and eliminate every possibility of counterattack.’

In just a few minutes, the cabin was piled high with corpses.

Chu Xuanzhou did not look back. He did not even spare the scene another glance. Carefully, he wiped the blood from his hands with a silk handkerchief and turned toward the exit.

The young man’s expression was indifferent, as if he had no idea what had just occurred here.

* * *

This giant starship was divided into three levels and could carry over a hundred people at once.

The small mecha bearing the poppy totem blasted through the starship’s entry port. Holding a quantum gun, Lu Yunwan stepped into the inner cabin.

The massive depletion of his mental power, combined with injuries that had never fully healed, had brought his body to the brink of collapse.

He was covered in blood. Even the hand gripping the quantum gun trembled uncontrollably. He was walking forward purely on willpower.

The moment he entered, he was surrounded.

Yet there was not the slightest trace of panic in him.

Across the interstellar realm, everyone knew that Lu Yunwan’s mental power was extraordinarily strong. He could shatter an opponent’s mind in an instant.

So, besides quantum guns, he also saw something familiar in their hands: mental power disruptors.

No… These were modified versions of it.

The Regent slowly smiled. As though he did not see them at all, he gently closed his eyes and leaned back against the starship’s cold wall.

* * *

When Chu Xuanzhou arrived at the entry port, this was the sight that greeted him.

The narrow corridor was stacked with corpses. There were no visible wounds on them. Clearly, they had died from the internal shattering of their mental cores.

Scattered near their hands were countless mental power disruptors.

His heart sank violently.

The moment he saw Lu Yunwan, Chu Xuanzhou finally realized, belatedly, that the Regent had saved him.

Chu Xuanzhou did not believe that Lu Yunwan, as the Regent, could have failed to realize that these people had come for him.

And yet he had pushed him into the escape pod without hesitation, then stood alone in front of the three mechas.

…Lu Yunwan had not needed to do that.

This feeling of being cherished was unfamiliar to Chu Xuanzhou. It filled him with unease and fear… He could not even imagine one day losing that gaze.

On the other side of the mound of bodies, Lu Yunwan pressed his right hand tightly against his chest. His entire body was covered in wounds. As though drained of all strength, he knelt on one knee in a pool of blood.

“Your Excellency…” Chu Xuanzhou murmured under his breath, striding quickly to his side.

“Your Highness… Cough, cough… Are you alright?” The moment Lu Yunwan spoke, blood spilled from between his lips. A faint redness tinged the corners of his eyes. He looked so fragile, as though he might shatter at any moment.

Chu Xuanzhou spoke the words he had already prepared. “I’m fine. They locked me inside the cabin. I used the weapons in the escape pod to destroy the hatch.”

The young man’s tone was utterly sincere.

“Mm…” Lu Yunwan closed his eyes weakly. Believing that Chu Xuanzhou had survived purely because of his protagonist’s halo, he did not realize that the youth had just lied to him.

Lu Yunwan struggled to breathe. After nearly half a minute, he finally, with immense difficulty, lifted his hand and placed it against Chu Xuanzhou’s cheek.

That simple motion nearly exhausted all his remaining strength.

He smiled faintly, gazing at Chu Xuanzhou with eyes full of attachment and reluctance.

Softly, Lu Yunwan said, “Your Highness, I am going to die.”

“From now on… Cough, cough… Your Highness, you are free.”

Chu Xuanzhou suddenly felt as though a massive rock had crashed down onto his chest, pressing so hard he could barely breathe.

He realized that he did not look forward to the “freedom” Lu Yunwan spoke of at all.

“You won’t,” he said at once, shaking his head as he pulled Lu Yunwan tightly into his arms.

Seeing this, Lu Yunwan smiled. A few seconds later, utterly exhausted, he closed his eyes.

Although Chu Xuanzhou said those words, his heart was gripped with tension. Weapons modified from mental power disruptors were devastating and had long since been banned across the interstellar realm.

Reason told him that even Lu Yunwan might not be able to withstand them.

“No, Your Highness…” Lu Yunwan slumped sideways into Chu Xuanzhou’s embrace and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear. “When a road reaches its end, the descent is inevitable. Like the distant stars, rising at one moment, only to fall the next… Cough, cough, cough.”

His brows drew tightly together in pain.

Blood surged out of Lu Yunwan with each racking cough as if he were burning through the last of his life.

Lu Yunwan reflexively raised a hand to cover his lips, but it did nothing to stop the flow.

Slowly lifting his eyes, he gave Chu Xuanzhou a faint smile. “Your Highness… You know how powerful mental power disruptors are, cough, cough… Leave me here. Find a way to escape…”

The Regent’s voice had grown hoarse to the extreme.

His already pale lips were now stained redder than poppies by blood.

Lu Yunwan saw a tear fall from the corner of Chu Xuanzhou’s eye, striking heavily against the back of his hand.

“No…” The youth shook his head. “I can’t abandon you.”

At that, Lu Yunwan smiled again. With a hand smeared in blood, he lightly patted Chu Xuanzhou’s cheek and deliberately lowered his voice.

“Your Highness, don’t flatter yourself. I know what you’re thinking… cough, cough. And you’re not wrong. To me, you’re nothing more than a diversion from a dull life…”

…The Regent was deliberately driving him away.

Chu Xuanzhou paused for a moment. Then, tightening his arms, he locked Lu Yunwan firmly in his embrace.

His body was trembling.

He felt as though he were about to lose something irretrievable, and the fear consumed him whole.

Plan accomplished!!!

Lu Yunwan quietly closed his eyes and, feeling immensely proud, gave himself a silent thumbs-up in his heart. 

Before him, no one had ever survived a weapon modified from a mental power disruptor.

But he was different.

Aside from mental attacks, Lu Yunwan also possessed a form of mental power healing that no one else in this world understood.

He might look weak, but in truth, his life was not in danger.

In front of Chu Xuanzhou, Lu Yunwan had staged the most thrilling performance of his life.

The Empire was still in chaos. Without absolute certainty, Lu Yunwan had no intention of immediately fleeing and relinquishing the Regent’s position, which was, for the time being, a safe identity.

He had saved Chu Xuanzhou and spoken those words on purpose, all to secure the youth’s complete trust.

Only then could he begin the next step of his plan.

Sure enough, Chu Xuanzhou’s muffled voice reached his ears.

“Your Excellency… Why are you so good to me?”

Lu Yunwan let out a timely sigh and delivered the line he had long prepared.

His cold fingertips slid gently across the youth’s tear-damp lashes as he said softly, “Your Highness, when I look at you, I see… the person I used to be.”