Chapter 37: Talent Awakening

The instant Wen Yuzhi noticed it, the shadow crouched behind the throne suddenly moved too.

It was a Padar person who had been lying in wait there—who knew how long.

And the way this one looked was clearly different from the other Padar people.

The eyes that should have been normal were now a strange, eerie crimson. Seeing Wen Yuzhi look over, the Padar person didn’t hide or dodge at all—instead, the Padar person suddenly split open into a grin.

That’s right—split open.

Because in the next moment, this Padar person’s mouth tore open on its own from the corners of the lips, turning into something like the mouthparts of certain insects, with ring after ring of sharp fangs growing inside.

“!!!”

Seeing that without warning made Wen Yuzhi’s heart jolt.

As if sensing the panic in the teenager’s eyes, the crimson eyeballs across from him slowly, little by little, filled with deep malice.

It was an extremely cold, sticky kind of gaze, like ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) in that person’s eyes, the fine-skinned, tender teenager in front of them had already been ripped into pieces.

And from the moment Wen Yuzhi noticed the shadow to the moment their gazes met, it had only been a short two seconds.

Wen Yuzhi had just been about to speak up and warn Mansendis, but before he could get the words out, several huge tongues—still writhing, covered in lumps of flesh—suddenly drilled out of the Padar person’s split mouth.

The moment those tongues extended, they shot straight toward Mansendis and Wen Yuzhi at terrifying speed.

The bone spines noticed those tongues, too.

Just as they tried to intercept, the tongues abruptly vanished.

And when they appeared again, they had already emerged behind Mansendis.

In that instant, the Padar people’s vicious intent was basically laid bare.

Those Padar people who had been trembling and never daring to lift their heads earlier weren’t actually afraid at all. Staying silent wasn’t fear—it was to cover up the abnormalities on their bodies.

And those so-called explosions and attacks were nothing more than bait to draw the Saint Clan’s attention, so no one would notice the Padar person hiding behind the throne.

Without anyone realizing it, the real killing move had been hidden in that one.

The thick blood mist triggered by the Padar people’s explosions still hadn’t dispersed. The entire council hall was shrouded in it, visibility extremely low all around.

That also provided excellent cover for this assassination attempt.

Most of Mansendis’s attention had been on the Padar people in front of him, and part of it still had to stay on guarding the cub in his arms.

He had noticed the movement behind him, too.

A blade-sharp chill flashed through the silver-haired sovereign’s eyes.

However, faster than Mansendis was Wen Yuzhi.

He saw the danger right up close, and he understood even more clearly who that danger was aimed at.

The instant the crisis crashed down, Wen Yuzhi didn’t have time to think. His mind went completely blank.

Only instinct remained—an unbelievably strong voice in his chest telling him, over and over:

He didn’t want to see Mansendis get hurt.

He didn’t want to face losing someone again.

“Little Master Wen, I’m very sorry. We’ve lost contact with the starship Mr. Wen and Madam Ji were on. The rescue team has already rushed over as quickly as possible.”

“Are you listening? We’re very sorry. We didn’t expect such a regrettable outcome either. The starship involved in the accident is severely damaged. Mr. Wen and Madam Ji are very likely... We apologize again to the bereaved family, and please, little master, accept our condolences.”

In his memory, it had been the most ordinary day.

Seven-year-old Wen Yuzhi had, one second earlier, been sitting nicely and finishing breakfast on his own. Wen Che and Madam Jilanya were coming back today—he’d been looking forward to what gifts his mom and dad would bring.

And then, in the next moment, he was taken by the Wen family to a strange place.

It was the accident emergency center.

Wen Yuzhi still didn’t know why the Wen family had brought him here.

Until he saw the staff there, and from their mouths, learned the news that something had happened to Wen Che and Madam Jilanya.

Wen Yuzhi didn’t listen to a single word the adults were saying.

He just kept replaying the heavy look on the staff member’s face, his head buzzing and foggy.

Wen Yuzhi refused to believe it.

He curled up, found a corner, and squatted down. He ignored all the looks around him—whether sympathetic or curious—and stayed there from sunrise to sunset.

During that time, not a single person from the Wen family came to comfort Wen Yuzhi.

They were all busy with inheritance matters. And with Wen Che dead, the position of Wen family head was now vacant—everyone was watching that seat like a tiger.

At a moment like that, who had the time to care about a child?

When Wen Yuzhi was finally found, he had already cried himself unconscious in that corner.

After he got out of the hospital, the only thing placed into his hands was a box containing pieces of starship wreckage.

Wen Che and Madam Jilanya’s—there wasn’t even a body left behind.

...the few chunks of wreckage the staff had recovered.

Looking at those few chunks of wreckage, Wen Yuzhi’s heart went instantly hollow.

At seven, how could he understand what death was? But standing at the funeral the Wen family held, Wen Yuzhi had already realized that his dad...

.

Right after that, not long later, Wen Yuzhi attended Old Master Wen’s funeral again.

And just like that, in less than a year, Wen Yuzhi lost everyone in his life who loved him—one after another.

“Your mom and dad are dead. Now Grandpa’s gone too. Little freak, I want to see who in the Wen family will protect you from now on!”

“So pitiful. I heard that kid’s mom and dad died really early...”

“Huh? Then doesn’t that mean...?”

In those shattered memory fragments were countless twisted faces and murmured whispers.

And in the end, all of it turned into a hollow darkness.

A little child was curled up, squatting in that darkness.

Wen Yuzhi walked forward slowly and asked, “Why are you here all alone?”

“My mom and dad disappeared.”

“Where did they go?”

“Th-those people said they’re not here anymore...”

As the child spoke, the child sniffled and raised the head.

It was a face Wen Yuzhi knew all too well.

They looked at each other, and it was like two different timelines had crossed in a bizarre way at that exact moment.

Wen Yuzhi stared dazedly at the tear-streaked face, as if he were seeing the countless nights he used to hide under the blanket and cry in secret.

That voice in his chest seemed to become even clearer.

—He wanted his mom and dad.

He had already lost them once. He didn’t want to lose them a second time.

Thinking that, the teenager lowered his eyes, and almost like a whisper, softly murmured:

“Dad.”

The voice was so light that Mansendis almost thought he’d heard wrong.

But very quickly, Mansendis noticed something off about the cub.

The cub’s temperature was shooting up, and the body was trembling nonstop.

Yet Wen Yuzhi seemed to feel none of it at all.

Right now, he was in an extremely subtle state. Everything around him, in his eyes, felt like it had been deliberately slowed down.

Those pale-gold eyes clearly reflected the tongues rushing in. In Wen Yuzhi’s mind, there was only one thought left.

He couldn’t let them hurt Mansendis.

He couldn’t...

—Absolutely could not hurt his dad!

“Kraack—!”

A crisp sound of something shattering rang out inside Wen Yuzhi’s heart.

He didn’t notice it at all.

The expression on the teenager’s face at that moment was obviously abnormally indifferent. If you looked closely, you’d find that Wen Yuzhi’s expression right now was almost exactly the same as the silver-haired sovereign’s.

He lifted a hand lightly, and with his fingertip, made an airy tap in midair.

A ripple like a water wave spread out.

Soft, bright luster trailed after it.

It was a radiance like stars and moon. It wasn’t dazzling, but it was like ten thousand fireflies gathering together, spreading wings and blocking in front of Wen Yuzhi and Mansendis.

What color is real moonlight?

When Wen Yuzhi was little, he went gemstone shopping with Madam Jilanya.

He said he wanted a stone that looked like the moon.

Madam Jilanya pointed to a gemstone nearby.

It wasn’t as eye-catching as the others, but it was quiet, soft, and on black velvet, it lay there silently, giving off a gentle glow.

Wen Yuzhi fell in love with it at first sight.

At the burial, he put that gemstone into Madam Jilanya’s grave. He hoped his mom could sleep forever, drifting in moonlight.

And the butterflies Wen Yuzhi formed with a single point of his finger also carried that hazy, moonlight-like sheen.

They fluttered as they flew toward that Padar person.

And then, the instant they made contact, they shattered.

The fractured crystals were like irregular pieces of gemstones. Before that Padar person could even react, they pierced straight through the throat.

The tongues were still stretched out.

Just a tiny bit more and they would have touched Mansendis and Wen Yuzhi.

Just that tiny distance...

That fierce unwillingness ultimately froze in the Padar person’s eyes. Even as the body fell, there was still shock—still disbelief at what had just happened.

The shattered gemstone butterflies were like an unbelievable sweet dream.

And that Padar person died inside the grandest dream Wen Yuzhi had woven specifically for them.

In a way that was gentle—and cruel.

Just then, dawn rose, and the blood mist gradually began to disperse.

Those few Padar people closest to the throne also saw the entire process of their companion’s death.

They couldn’t help feeling dazed.

No one had expected that the teenager Mansendis had been protecting at his side would suddenly erupt with such a strange power.

The talent ability of Saint Clan royal blood...

Almost as if by unspoken agreement, those words surfaced in these Padar people’s minds.

And that became their last thought before death.

The Saint Clan who arrived killed all the Padar people causing trouble without hesitation. Not a single one was left alive.

The moment they launched the attack, their deaths had already been decided.

Alvin and Selet made a round of checks.

After confirming these Padar people were all thoroughly dead, only then did everyone look in the direction of the silver-haired sovereign.

More precisely, their gazes all fell on Wen Yuzhi.

With the eyesight of the Saint Clan present, there was no way they couldn’t see the gemstone shards scattered all over the floor.

If even the Padar people could think of it, the Saint Clan naturally wouldn’t fail to notice.

...Had the little Highness awakened a talent?

Mansendis didn’t pay attention to the other Saint Clan’s looks. After a brief daze, he quickly noticed something wrong with the cub in his arms.

Wen Yuzhi’s temperature was still scorching.

That was clearly not normal.

Mansendis immediately turned his head. The teenager’s face was so pale it was almost transparent. Those pale-gold eyes were empty, the gaze falling into midair without any focus.

Like a doll that had lost its soul.

Mansendis seemed to think of something. He tentatively extended a wisp of mental energy, and carefully entered Wen Yuzhi’s mental sea.

Sure enough, the cub’s mental sea was in utter chaos. The mental energy that had surged up so suddenly was simply not something Wen Yuzhi could withstand all at once.

Wen Yuzhi had never received any training related to mental energy before.

Even his mental sea had only just appeared.

A newly born mental sea was extremely fragile and unstable—this was practically common knowledge throughout the galaxy.

And on top of that, the moment Wen Yuzhi awakened, he had drained all of his mental energy to block the Padar people’s attack.

The result was that his mental sea fell into complete disorder.

If anything went even slightly wrong, it could very well collapse.

Mansendis, the one who understood this best, grew grave—but even so, he didn’t dare act rashly.

And just as the silver-haired sovereign was starting to feel at a loss, Wen Yuzhi suddenly blinked.

The lashes lowered very, very slowly.

The instant his eyes closed, the teenager’s body tipped backward.

Mansendis was just about to reach out to catch him.

But in the next moment, it was like he saw something unbelievable. The golden vertical pupils violently contracted, shock flashing across his face.

Mond and the others—who had been watching this side—also froze.

Because the teenager who had been standing there perfectly fine a moment ago was gone, replaced by a pure white egg?

The silver-haired sovereign—rarely flustered—caught the falling egg in his palm, so it wouldn’t smash on the floor.

Mond and the others’ hearts went through a rollercoaster in that instant.

Seeing the egg caught steadily, their abruptly lifted hearts finally sank back down little by little.

Right after that, all those differently colored vertical pupils locked tightly onto the egg in Mansendis’s hand.

Mond was the first to recognize that this should be a “king’s cocoon.”

After royal blood is born, it will stay inside a king’s cocoon for a period of time. From the outside, these king’s cocoons look like eggs.

But in Mond’s impression, the outer appearance of eggs without exception almost always had thick, heavy scales covering them. At the very least, they shouldn’t look... um...

...that delicate.

Yes—delicate.

The egg lying quietly in Mansendis’s palm was white and lustrous. There were no rough, heavy scales—only golden patterns that proclaimed its royal-blood identity.

Whether it was Mond and the others imagining things or not, this egg even seemed to give off a pearl-like halo under the light.

All in all, the egg the little Highness had turned into was unexpectedly exquisite.

Cute to an unfair degree.

Mond gave a light cough.

That single sound also snapped Mansendis out of his shock.

He looked at the egg in his hand.

Many emotions seemed to churn and surge in his eyes, but in the end, Mansendis still carefully put the egg away.

“Leave what’s left here to you. I’m taking him back to the King’s Pool first.”

Only the King’s Pool had enough energy to provide for a royal-blood cub’s development.

Even though no one knew why Wen Yuzhi had suddenly reverted into an egg form, out of caution, Mansendis still decided to bring the cub back into the King’s Pool.

Disliking how slow a hovercar would be, the silver-haired sovereign didn’t even wait for Alvin to arrange anything. He directly returned to his original form.

The silver giant beast spread its wings and flew out of the royal palace, heading toward the far eastern edge of the floating city.

That was also the part of Dark Tower Star with the most vegetation cover—the sea of forests praised as Fertility Island.

The volcanic crater Wen Yuzhi had once seen in footage was located within this forest.

The silver giant beast flew without pausing for even a moment.

Deep underground, that towering stone platform was still there—but it was empty now.

The silver giant beast didn’t stop. Instead, he swept past the platform and found a familiar crack in the rock wall where black stone was exposed all around.

This was the nest he used to live in.

Before he could leave the juvenile stage, Mansendis had always stayed here.

He never expected that after so many years, he would return here again—bringing his child with him.