OVPBM 36 Part 1

Chapter 36 – Lu Yunwan Directly Exposed the Locator!

At the moment they fell, Chu Xuanzhou braced one arm beneath Lu Yunwan’s head and the other around his waist.

Yet the tremendous impact of the fall, along with the faint ache that followed, still left Lu Yunwan’s mind blank for a few seconds.

The corridor outside the study was pitch black on all sides. In his daze, Lu Yunwan felt as though he and Chu Xuanzhou had been sealed together inside a black stone coffin.

A chill crept in, and with it, a sense of suffocation.

By the time he regained awareness, the young man had already pressed a light kiss to his earlobe.

Lu Yunwan turned his head to avoid it, but because of that movement, the two words “Yunwan” became even clearer.

A tingling sensation spread from his earlobe through his entire body, and his heart skipped a beat.

Since transmigrating into the book, Lu Yunwan had grown used to everyone around him calling him “the Regent”.

That title was like a layer of disguise, concealing the real him.

Only now, in that momentary loss of control, did Chu Xuanzhou at last rip away the disguise and, for the first time, draw the real “Lu Yunwan” out from within the shell of the Regent.

Lu Yunwan felt warmth creep across his cheeks.

Yet even at a time like this, he did not forget that he absolutely must not ruin the Regent’s lifelong reputation.

Suppressing his instincts, Lu Yunwan not only refrained from pushing Chu Xuanzhou away, but he even raised his hand with difficulty and placed it against Chu Xuanzhou’s cheek, stroking him with tender affection.

The expression on Chu Xuanzhou’s face was a mix of fragility and agony. He gripped tightly at the hem of Lu Yunwan’s clothes.

The black walls reflected no light. Lu Yunwan could not see what he looked like at this moment.

But he could feel it clearly. Chu Xuanzhou had pinned him firmly in place, leaving him no room to escape.

The atmosphere between them was dangerous and ambiguous.

After a brief hesitation, Lu Yunwan steeled himself and continued to channel his mental power toward Chu Xuanzhou.

However, before he could relax, something completely beyond his expectations happened.

As Lu Yunwan’s mental power wound its way around Chu Xuanzhou, the young man unexpectedly followed his example. He released his own mental power and directed it straight toward Lu Yunwan’s mental core.

What the hell!

Lu Yunwan nearly screamed.

Unlike the gentle and steady mental power of humans, a merman’s mental power was filled with aggression and an overwhelming sense of presence.

It invaded him almost violently.

When Lu Yunwan had been ill in his previous life, he had not been unfamiliar with mental power intervention.

But he had never imagined that when the same thing was done by a merman, the sensation would be so completely different.

In just a few seconds, Lu Yunwan was entirely submerged in Chu Xuanzhou’s presence.

The unfamiliarity of it caught him off guard, and for a moment, he even lost control of his body.

The merman’s domineering mental power swiftly enveloped his mental core.

A strange illusion arose within Lu Yunwan, as though even his thoughts were being probed and controlled by Chu Xuanzhou.

Subconsciously, he mobilized his own mental power in an attempt to block out the sensation.

Two powerful forces, one belonging to a human and the other to a merman, collided. In that narrow sliver of time, Chu Xuanzhou clearly sensed Lu Yunwan’s existence through their mental power.

What had initially been an unconscious urge to reach for Lu Yunwan made him pause for several seconds. Then, unable to restrain himself, Chu Xuanzhou greedily tightened his mental power around him.

The loss of control he had been pretending at was gradually becoming real.

…Lu Yunwan felt as though he were about to collapse!

The sensation of being controlled by a merman made it nearly impossible for him to breathe.

He struggled to regain control of his body. He tried to push Chu Xuanzhou away, but the disparity in physical strength between human and merman was far too great.

“Your Highness…” Lu Yunwan adjusted his breathing while painstakingly forcing his voice back.

Even now, he did not forget his disguise.

A few strands of black hair clung to his cheeks, damp with sweat. His lips were an unnaturally vivid red.

His already sumptuous features now bloomed with a beauty like a flower on the verge of falling. 

Gritting his teeth, he forced a smile at Chu Xuanzhou. His voice was hoarse and threadlike, winding around them both.

“Your Highness, are you certain you want to do this here?” he deliberately murmured into Chu Xuanzhou’s ear, shedding all defenses at the same time.

The young man’s mental power faltered abruptly at his words.

At that very moment, Lu Yunwan, who had long been prepared, released his mental power once more and forcefully broke free from Chu Xuanzhou’s control.

Air rushed back into his lungs in great gulps.

His thoughts cleared for a fleeting instant as well.

All of it happened in the span of a heartbeat.

Before he could fully regain his senses, the massive depletion of mental power caused Lu Yunwan to lose consciousness the very next second, plunging into darkness.

Chu Xuanzhou saw that Lu Yunwan’s black clothing had become terribly disheveled because of him. One of his gloves had somehow slipped halfway off, exposing a stretch of pale skin.

Lu Yunwan looked unbelievably bedraggled.

…He was the one who had dragged him down from the altar.

Chu Xuanzhou’s breathing halted of its own accord at the sight before him. He drank in the scene with undisguised greed.

Yet in the very next heartbeat, reason called him back. Lu Yunwan did not like this version of him.

Lowering his gaze, the young man concealed the tangle of emotions in his eyes. Then he let his hand settle behind Lu Yunwan’s back.

In his haze, Lu Yunwan faintly heard Chu Xuanzhou murmur a soft “sorry” by his ear. The next moment, he was gently lifted into the young man’s arms and carried toward the other end of the corridor.

Lu Yunwan had long known that although Chu Xuanzhou, as a merman, possessed striking beauty, his race endowed him with a frame and height that far surpassed his own.

But only when he was lifted so effortlessly did Lu Yunwan truly grasp that Chu Xuanzhou was nothing like the fragile image he presented on the surface.

At the very instant his consciousness slipped away completely, Lu Yunwan dimly felt something cold and soft brush against his lower lip in a fleeting kiss.

* * *

The Regent’s body was covered in old wounds.

And not long ago, he had fallen unconscious for four days. He had yet to fully recover.

After Chu Xuanzhou carried Lu Yunwan back to the bedroom, he remained unconscious for a full twenty-four hours.

When he finally opened his eyes again, it was the following evening.

“Brother Yunwan? How are you feeling?” The moment Lu Yunwan woke, he saw Lu Sirong sitting at his bedside, staring at him anxiously.

After a brief pause, Lu Yunwan slowly shook his head at him. “I’m fine.” Only when he spoke did he realize just how hoarse his voice had become.

His gaze swept around the room before the question escaped his lips unbidden, “Where is His Highness?”

Lu Sirong clenched his teeth.

When he was little, Lu Yunwan had already entered the Imperial Military Academy and become a dazzling figure of renown.

Although Lu Sirong had also been born a human on a lower-class planet, he had rarely experienced grievance or resentment.

After being attacked by Chu Xuanzhou, he should have complained to his brother.

But when he thought about how Chu Xuanzhou’s mental power had awakened because of that attack, Lu Sirong felt a lingering fear and lost his confidence.

Gripping Lu Yunwan’s hand tightly, the youth pursed his lips and said, “That Chu Xuanzhou… he volunteered for a rotation duty to guard a frontier planet.”

“A frontier planet?”

Lu Yunwan understood at once. The protagonist must have cared too much about that accident and chosen to remove himself!

In 《 The Merfolk Empire 》, Chu Xuanzhou was calm and rational, standing above desire.

What he loathed most was losing control.

At a time like this, Lu Yunwan ought to take his feelings into account.

More importantly, according to the original host’s established persona, unless something major occurred, he would not leave Planet Cangrui before his body had fully recovered.

“All right. I understand.”

The severe depletion of mental power left Lu Yunwan utterly exhausted. He slowly closed his eyes.

Seeing this, Lu Sirong could not help asking, “Brother Yunwan, are you really going to continue the mental power experiments?”

Lu Yunwan nodded without even lifting his eyelids.

“But it brings you no benefit at all. And you might even offend Pei Zhaoan and the others.”

At those words, Lu Yunwan finally opened his eyes.

A wave of exhaustion, helplessness, and faint irritation rose from deep within him. It was likely an echo of the original host’s lingering emotions.

He often felt this way when facing Lu Sirong.

Lu Yunwan lifted his gaze with a faint, ambiguous smile and looked at his younger brother. “Sirong, are you thinking for my sake?”

His dark eyes revealed nothing of what he felt.

For a moment, even Lu Sirong could not tell whether he was joking or asking in earnest.

Under the overwhelming pressure of the Regent’s powerful presence, Lu Sirong stammered in his haste to explain, “I… I… of course I am.”

For some reason, the sight of Sirong so flustered sent that wave of exhaustion rolling through him again.  

Lu Yunwan’s eyes drifted closed, signaling the end of the conversation with Lu Sirong.

* * *

After Chu Xuanzhou left Planet Cangrui, Lu Yunwan could not help but breathe a little easier.

With far less OOC pressure weighing on him, he used this time to continue sorting through the belongings left behind by the original host.

Along with the stack of paper documents he had found last time, there was also an old piece of clothing.

When he unfolded it, Lu Yunwan discovered that a medal was still pinned to it.

He removed his gloves and gently brushed his fingers across the back of the medal. A faint unevenness met his fingertips.

The moment he turned the medal over, the words “Top Cadet of the Imperial Military Academy” came into view.

Compared with the countless medals possessed by the Regent, this one, symbolizing the highest honor a cadet could achieve, looked almost inconspicuous.

Yet from its smoothed edges, worn down by time, it was clear that the original host had cherished this medal deeply.

Lu Yunwan could not help but curl his fingers tightly around it.

At that very moment, an unfamiliar memory surfaced in his mind—

The original host, still a teenager, wore the sky-blue uniform of the Imperial Military Academy. He sat beside the viewport of a massive starship, surrounded by a crowd pressing in on all sides.

He frowned slightly, looking a little weary, yet even so, his bearing remained elegant and proud, strikingly out of place among those around him.

Unlike the Regent’s private starship, this vessel was crammed with passengers and moved at a sluggish pace.

Perhaps because the Imperial Military Academy uniform was so eye-catching, many passersby kept casting glances at him, making the original host feel especially uncomfortable.

After an unknown stretch of time, the starship finally reached its destination.

The moment he stepped out of the cabin, he saw a small aircraft waiting nearby. It looked somewhat worn around the edges.