OVPBM 34 Part 1

Chapter 34 – Chu Xuanzhou Came to Understand the Allure of Power

At that moment, Chu Xuanzhou’s heart was filled to the brim with fear.

He saw the frenzied patient slam straight into Lu Yunwan. The human, who had no way to dodge in time, was sent crashing heavily against the silver-white wall of the medical center.

Like a withered leaf in late autumn, fragile to the extreme.

“Cough, cough, cough…” Lu Yunwan bent over, coughing violently. His already pale lips were once again stained crimson.

The black poppy cane slipped from his grasp and fell to the floor. His right arm hung limply at his side, clearly badly injured.

And yet, even in such a state, there was not the slightest hint of dishevelment about him.

This time, Chu Xuanzhou had absolutely no mind to admire his beauty.

A fear of losing something wrapped tightly around him.

“Your Excellency!” Chu Xuanzhou immediately rushed forward, intending to help Lu Yunwan up.

But the Lu Yunwan collapsed by the wall only took a few seconds to steady himself before lifting his head again. He even looked toward Chu Xuanzhou and smiled. “Your Highness, don’t worry.” His voice was hoarse to the extreme, yet it carried unquestionable authority.

Chu Xuanzhou froze for a moment, then stopped where he was because of those words.

The young man realized that the Regent did not need anyone to support him.

At the same time, the guards surrounded the frenzied patient. Just as they were about to restrain him, they discovered that the man who had been out of control only a second ago was now standing completely still.

“Don’t worry.” Supporting himself with his cane in his left hand, Lu Yunwan slowly straightened up with some difficulty.

The moment his words fell, several meters away, the patient dropped to the ground with a thud. The bloodshot, wide-open eyes gradually closed.

All of it happened within a matter of seconds.

No one in the medical center spoke.

Doctors and researchers hurried in, but they had never seen anything like this before. They could only stand there, trying to steady their breathing while staring nervously at Lu Yunwan.

Under countless gazes, Lu Yunwan slowly crouched down on the silver metal floor. He raised his left arm and pressed his slender fingers against the patient’s forehead.

That was where the mental core was located.

Everyone thought that Lu Yunwan intended to directly crush the patient’s mental core.

“Your Excellency the Regent…” The doctor in a white mid-length skirt remained silent for a long time before finally gathering her courage and speaking through clenched teeth. “Before he was injured, he was also a soldier of the Yanwei Legion. You… Please…”

Please do not kill him.

Perhaps the Regent’s vicious reputation for bloodthirstiness was too deeply rooted. The more she spoke, the softer her voice became, until she completely lost her confidence and stood there trembling.

Lu Yunwan gave a soft laugh but said nothing.

The doctor squeezed her eyes shut. She curled her fingers tight in her palm, not daring to look at what would happen next.

One second.

Two seconds…

Time slipped by slowly, yet the agonized screams and howls everyone had anticipated did not come.

On the contrary, the expression of the patient lying on the ground gradually relaxed.

Although his eyes remained tightly closed, his demeanor was entirely different from before.

It was as if he had been soothed.

What in the world happened?!

“Alright.”

Lu Yunwan’s voice broke the suffocating silence.

He slowly stood up and took two steps back.

Seeing this, the guards at the Regent’s side hesitated before surrounding him once again.

“Don’t move him,” Lu Yunwan said. “Wait a few hours and see whether he regains consciousness.”

His face was extremely pale. Chu Xuanzhou realized that this was not merely the result of the collision just now.

“Regains consciousness?” This time, the one who could not suppress his shock was Fang Yixue.

An unbelievable conjecture gradually took shape in the depths of his mind. Could it be that Lu Yunwan had a way to save him?

But how is that possible?!

They could not help staring at Lu Yunwan as if they had seen a ghost.

There was no shortage of experts in related fields present in the medical center. In their understanding, Level 2 mental power damage was completely irreversible.

Everything about this felt absurd to them.

Yet when they thought again of the person who had done it, Lu Yunwan… Perhaps it was not entirely without hope.

Under the formidable halo of the “Regent,” he was moreover the only human in this world whose mental power was at full capacity.

For a human to have come this far was already nothing short of miraculous.

After Lu Yunwan finished speaking, the doctors and researchers exchanged glances before immediately lifting the patient from the ground.

A blue light screen swept across his body. In the projection, the lines symbolizing mental power gradually stabilized.

Everything told them that he was slowly regaining his sanity!

How in the world had Lu Yunwan done this?

Of course, the Regent knew what they were thinking. He said nothing, merely lowering his gaze indifferently onto the patient.

Lu Yunwan looked perfectly calm.

But in reality, Lu Yunwan was screaming inwardly. Ahhh! Thank goodness that didn’t backfire!!!

People in this world with Level 2 mental core damage really were just as he had guessed, much like the ability users who had been attacked by zombies in his previous life.

And this kind of mental power backlash injury was even easier to deal with than the zombie virus.

Unlike the mental power in the world of 《 The Merfolk Empire 》, which could only be used for attack, in the apocalypse where Lu Yunwan had originally lived, mental power healing was also a basic skill every psychic ability user had to master.

Everything just now had been a gamble made on pure instinct.

Only now did the delayed fear set in. Fortunately, he had not ruined it.

“Your Excellency… Just now, did you use external force to help him adjust his mental core?” Seeing that everyone was holding their breath, afraid to disturb Lu Yunwan, Fang Yixue, the principal of the Imperial Military Academy, finally could not help but cautiously ask the question on everyone’s behalf.

He was terrified of missing this opportunity.

“Mm.” Lu Yunwan lightly brushed the dust off his cane with his gloved hand, looking as though what he had just done was nothing worth making a fuss about. “I guided his mental power back into a stable state.”

Fang Yixue subconsciously sucked in a breath.

He knew, and Lu Yunwan knew even more clearly, that once something which had previously existed only in theory spread, it would inevitably cause a massive storm across the interstellar realm.

Since Lu Yunwan dared to do this, he must already have made preparations.

At that moment, the silver white hatch opened. The Regent left the medical center, abandoning a roomful of people who had yet to recover from their shock.

Chu Xuanzhou paused briefly before following after him. As he looked at Lu Yunwan’s back, a fragment of memory, blurred and nearly forgotten, became clear once more.

—Not long ago, at the Emperor’s birthday banquet, when his mental core was in pain under the influence of Miliuya, it had seemed that a strange force had eased the pain.

…Could that person have been Lu Yunwan?

Lu Yunwan appeared very calm, but the collision just now, along with the subsequent guidance of mental power, had drained a great deal of his strength.

The moment he boarded the starship, he could not help frowning tightly and leaning against the cabin wall as he began coughing.

Chu Xuanzhou hurried forward to steady him. “Your Excellency, how are you feeling? Do you need to go to the medical pod?”

“I’m fine.” Lu Yunwan tilted his head slightly upward, adjusting his breathing with some difficulty.

Chu Xuanzhou said nothing. He simply stood quietly at Lu Yunwan’s side.

With each soft cough, a faint red tinted the corners of Lu Yunwan’s eyes. A tiny droplet of moisture clung to his raven feather like lashes.

Only at moments like this could Chu Xuanzhou clearly sense the fragility of human beings belonging to Lu Yunwan…

This was a sight in the entire interstellar realm that only he could witness.

When he realized this, a secret pleasure arose in Chu Xuanzhou’s heart.

After a few more seconds, Lu Yunwan finally calmed down and reopened his eyes. Their gazes met.

“Your Highness, what is it?”

“Why did you stand in front of me?” Clearly, you are the fragile human.

Lu Yunwan tossed his cane aside. He straightened and, through the fabric of Chu Xuanzhou’s clothing, pressed his hand against the young man’s chest.

In that instant, the young man’s heartbeat quickened.

Lu Yunwan leaned in with quiet deliberation and whispered beside Chu Xuanzhou’s ear, “Because I love Your Highness.”

After coughing earlier, a thin layer of mist still lingered in Lu Yunwan’s eyes, making his gaze appear even gentler.

His tone was airily soft and buoyant, like a feather casually settling upon the surface of water.

Yet without intending to, it stirred up a raging storm in Chu Xuanzhou’s heart.

* * *

Before Lu Yunwan left Planet Chenmu, Fang Yixue and Lu Yunwan’s former teacher, Yin Manxin, boarded his starship together.

What Lu Yunwan had done earlier gave them a measure of reassurance.

Fang Yixue and Yin Manxin did not beat around the bush. They directly expressed their desire to cooperate with Lu Yunwan in conducting experiments related to mental power guidance.

Lu Yunwan sat on the sofa, listening to Fang Yixue as his gaze drifted toward the porthole.

By coincidence, the starship happened to be orbiting a human star system.

A massive metal sphere tightly enveloped the star within, leaving not even the slightest ray of light to escape.

Only after Fang Yixue finished speaking and a long pause followed did Lu Yunwan withdraw his gaze. “Cooperation is not a problem. However, I have an additional condition.”

The two exchanged a glance, their hearts tightening with tension.

“What additional condition?” Yin Manxin asked.

She was somewhat worried that Lu Yunwan might make an exorbitant demand.

Lu Yunwan slowly lifted his coffee cup. After casually stirring it twice, he said, “This experiment will primarily be conducted among humans.”

“Humans?”

“Yes, humans.” The Regent smiled and nodded.

Unlike Fang Yixue, whose face was filled with confusion, Yin Manxin paused for a moment before her eyes suddenly widened.

As Lu Yunwan’s former teacher, she seemed to understand what the Regent intended to do.

—The mental core structures of merfolk and humans were different. Compared to merfolk, whose mental power was excessively active, humans tended toward stability.

That might also mean they were more suitable for mental power healing experiments.

If the experiment succeeded, the marginalized status of humans would also change.

…Was this perhaps Lu Yunwan’s true objective?

Yin Manxin could not help looking at Lu Yunwan with a trace of excitement.

She had guessed correctly.