Free Web NovelOn the second day, Wen Yuzhi woke from sleep.
He first rubbed his eyes with his little paws, then let out a yawn before noticing the coat underneath him.
The originally neat coat had already been slept into a wrinkled mess, and there were even a few fluffy white hairs stuck to it.
At a glance, it was obvious which bad baby had shed them.
Just then, a communication alert sounded from the light-brain.
Wen Yuzhi glanced at the note on it. It was a video call from Dad...
The cub immediately felt a little guilty. He hurriedly scrunched up the coat and stuffed it into the blanket, trying to cover up the “crime” he had committed.
Only after doing all that did he answer the call as if nothing had happened. freewebnσvel.cøm
Mansendis had been waiting for the right time all along. He had guessed that the cub would probably be awake around now, which was why he called.
“Dad...!”
The moment the call connected, before he could even clearly see the cub’s figure, Mansendis first heard that soft, fluffy little voice.
Then a fluffy snowball appeared in front of him.
It was Wen Yuzhi in beast form.
He was still on the bed, and his snowy, fluffy fur was still a little messy from just waking up, but those pale golden eyes were bright beyond compare.
The instant he saw Mansendis, the emotion in Wen Yuzhi’s eyes visibly grew excited.
“Has Zhizhi been eating properly at home?”
“I have.” The cub nodded, and those soft little beast ears bobbed along with the movement.
Wen Yuzhi carefully told Mansendis everything he had eaten yesterday, what kinds of food there had been, all of it in full detail.
“And yesterday, I only ate one little cake.”
When the cub said this, his face was deliberately composed, but those little eyes kept darting toward Mansendis.
He looked as if he were waiting for Dad to praise him.
After all, he had strictly followed the agreement with Dad and had not eaten too many sweet things.
He had been very good.
Today’s Zhizhi was a good baby.
Mansendis had already noticed the cub’s little gestures long ago. A trace of amusement surfaced in his eyes, and he did not hold back his praise in the slightest.
“Zhizhi is the best good baby.”
Even though he had heard this kind of praise countless times already, every single time he heard Dad praise him so earnestly, Wen Yuzhi still could not help feeling a little shy.
He raised a little wing to hide himself, only quietly poking his head back out after the heat on his face had faded a little.
“Dad...”
“Dad’s here.”
The video call had not ended. Mansendis waited patiently for the cub to slowly crawl back out of his shy shell.
Wen Yuzhi then asked, “Has Dad been eating properly on the warship?”
“Yes.”
“Have you been resting properly?”
“Dad just took a nap.”
Mansendis said it like that.
“Then... did Dad dream about anything...?”
Wen Yuzhi spoke in a small voice, blinking as his tone carried a bit of hesitation.
Mansendis immediately guessed what the cub was trying to ask.
But instead, he put on a thoughtful look and said, “Dad dreamed about a little white cub with very soft fur. But after waking up, Dad couldn’t remember very clearly anymore. Maybe it was somebody else’s cub...”
“Dad dreamed about Zhizhi!”
The moment he heard Mansendis say that, Wen Yuzhi got so anxious that he blurted out his own name on the spot.
Only then did Mansendis pretend to look mildly surprised. “Really? So the one Dad dreamed about was Zhizhi. No wonder that little cub was so adorable.”
The second Wen Yuzhi heard the word adorable, he started nodding over and over.
That was right. It had been Zhizhi.
Zhizhi was the cutest cub in Dad’s heart.
The father and son talked like that for a while.
After the video call ended, Wen Yuzhi’s mood had clearly become much brighter.
Even after arriving at the dining room, the cub’s good mood still had not faded. Anyone could tell how happy His Highness the little prince was right now.
Mond laid out breakfast one item at a time, then asked Wen Yuzhi whether he minded if they turned on the cameras later.
This was something they had already discussed yesterday.
Mond and the others were going to use a kind of robot shaped like a little bee to follow Wen Yuzhi around.
This kind of robot had a dedicated recording mode. It could follow the cub’s daily movements all day long, recording those everyday moments, and then those clips would be edited and reviewed before being posted on StarNet.
Mond had even set permissions for Wen Yuzhi. Whenever the cub came across a moment he did not want recorded, he could turn the camera off at any time.
Wen Yuzhi had no objections.
In fact, he had already seen the little robots. They really did look just like little bees. They only followed from a distance, and if you did not look carefully, you would not even notice them.
At first, Wen Yuzhi found them a little novel, but after a while he gradually got used to them.
After finishing breakfast, he followed Mu Luo as usual to continue learning.
Mu Luo’s teaching method was very practical.
While explaining the knowledge points Wen Yuzhi needed to learn, Mu Luo would also take him to the supervision center and personally teach the cub how to better use mental energy during the process of combing through those Saint Clan members’ mental seas.
Wen Yuzhi was clearly a natural student.
He absorbed knowledge very quickly. Every time Mu Luo finished teaching something, the cub could almost immediately grasp the key points. And Wen Yuzhi was also exactly the kind of student a teacher would find most reassuring.
He never complained about hardship or tiredness. In daily life he was a cub who liked to act spoiled in people’s arms, but when it came to learning, there was not a trace of pampered softness in him. He was even more hardworking than any student Mu Luo had ever taught.
Under that level of effort, the cub’s growth rate reached a truly astonishing level. His mental energy kept increasing, and Wen Yuzhi could create more and more butterflies.
Those beautiful, seemingly fragile butterflies contained the power to soothe Saint Clan members who were on the verge of losing control.
Every time Mu Luo saw Wen Yuzhi successfully pull a Saint Clan member back from the brink of losing control, Mu Luo could not help sighing that this innate ability of the Saint Clan really was like a miracle.
And this kind of miracle was unique across the entire interstellar world.
For who knew how many times, Mu Luo let out another sigh.
Watching Wen Yuzhi sit obediently in front of him listening carefully to his explanations, Mu Luo found himself thinking how wonderful it would have been if the cub had belonged to the Hill Clan.
But on second thought, Mu Luo also understood very clearly that if Wen Yuzhi had really been born into the Hill Clan, they would never have been able to protect the cub.
The only cub in the entire interstellar world with healing ability.
If Wen Yuzhi had not been Saint Clan, and if the cub had not also been Mansendis’s child, then with the ability he possessed now, who knew how much covetous attention he would attract once placed outside?
After all...
Mu Luo’s eyes darkened slightly.
Before coming to work for the Saint Clan, Mu Luo had heard some rumors, though there was no knowing how many of them were true.
There were researchers who put profit above all else, people who would stop at nothing to get the results they wanted.
And there were also certain powerful figures who possessed staggering wealth and supreme power, yet whose physical illness and various defects could not be changed by money or authority.
If people like that were to learn about the cub’s special nature, they would certainly do everything in their power to seize him.
And because of that, Mu Luo could understand Mansendis’s caution.
The Saint Clan was powerful, yes, but when a treasure became precious enough that everyone wanted it, then even knowing it meant death, there would still be many people willing to take the risk.
The Hill Clan had no power to protect him.
In the entire interstellar world, only the Saint Clan could protect Wen Yuzhi.
Wen Yuzhi knew nothing of Mu Luo’s worries. He still went to the supervision center and combed through the mental seas of the two Saint Clan members in the worst condition.
By the time he came out, it was already evening.
After dinner, Wen Yuzhi did not go to rest right away.
He opened his light-brain and found Xi Heyan.
[Good evening.]
The other side seemed to have already been waiting. Almost the instant Wen Yuzhi sent the message, Xi Heyan replied with a good evening as well.
Over this period of time, Wen Yuzhi had basically been in contact with this good friend every day.
After asking Xi Heyan once about mental energy, Wen Yuzhi had started frequently going to him for answers whenever he ran into something he did not understand.
On the surface, he only had Mu Luo as a teacher, but behind the scenes, every night after returning to his room, Wen Yuzhi would still go to this other “teacher” for lessons.
So when Xi Heyan told Zhuo Haoyu he was tutoring someone, he had not been brushing him off.
He really was tutoring Wen Yuzhi.
Whenever Wen Yuzhi encountered something in the materials that he did not quite understand, he would note it down and wait until evening to ask Xi Heyan.
At first, it had only been things related to mental energy. But now, whenever Wen Yuzhi had anything he did not understand, he would come ask.
Because he had realized that this good friend of his seemed to know an awful lot.
Every question he asked, Xi Heyan could answer.
Wen Yuzhi had even curiously asked Xi Heyan why he knew so many things.
Xi Heyan’s answer had been:
[Maybe because I read a lot.]
When he was younger, he had been mischievous and had never been willing to study seriously. But later, after changes took place in his family, Xi Heyan had forced himself to study desperately.
Reading could calm him down. Every time he could not stop himself from wanting to go find that man and take revenge, Xi Heyan would choose to read instead.
And in books, he really had learned a great deal of useful knowledge.
For example, certain hidden, subtle ways of destroying a mental sea.
That was precisely how His Majesty Bernard had done it.
Using the serum Kegso had given him, His Majesty Bernard had quietly poisoned the ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) closest partner and the most trusted general.
And now, Xi Heyan had used that same serum on His Majesty Bernard.
His Majesty Bernard was now living a life worse than death.
His Majesty Bernard was still alive, but could only lie weakly in bed every day, relying on all kinds of machines to stay alive.
His Majesty Bernard could no longer sit on the throne in high spirits, and could not even draw his own sword anymore.
The aging lion king had ultimately been defeated by illness. He had become a ruined person with no dignity left at all.
Lying in bed, perhaps sensing that life was gradually slipping away, His Majesty Bernard suddenly began thinking about the past.
In earlier years, His Majesty Bernard had only been an unfavored second prince. There had been an older brother above and a younger brother below. The father favored the eldest son, the mother doted on the youngest, and caught in the middle, His Majesty Bernard had been a transparent existence whom no one paid attention to.
The throne had been little more than an unreachable dream.
When had that dream begun turning into reality?
A cool, beautiful face appeared in His Majesty Bernard’s mind.
It was Xi Yuelin in her youth.
His Majesty Bernard remembered now. Everything had started only after meeting Xi Yuelin.
At a banquet, he had happened to see Xi Yuelin.
This young woman, who had just come to the imperial capital from a remote planet, had no illustrious family background. She could not even really be counted as nobility. She was only a commoner who had luckily crossed class lines by relying on the military merit of her older brother.
Everyone at the banquet looked down on her.
But Xi Yuelin paid none of them any attention. She was immersed in her own world, and there was a quality about her, something that had always made her feel completely out of place with everyone else there.
And it was precisely that quality that attracted His Majesty Bernard.
When he learned that Xi Yuelin’s older brother was Xi Shixiao, the man who had formed the Blackstone Legion, His Majesty Bernard’s thoughts immediately began to stir.
A notion that had once long been buried deep in his heart surfaced at that moment.
And from that day on, His Majesty Bernard began pursuing Xi Yuelin frantically.
Xi Yuelin had been just like a goddess of fortune to him. After meeting Xi Yuelin, everything in his life suddenly began going smoothly.
Through Xi Yuelin, His Majesty Bernard obtained Xi Shixiao’s support, and even turned the Blackstone Legion into a force to help contend for the throne.
In less than three years, he had eliminated his eldest brother and that younger brother who had always fought him for affection.
Surrounded by the love and support of the people, His Majesty Bernard became crown prince, and after that ascended the throne.
And all of it had been brought by Xi Yuelin and Xi Shixiao.
With Xi Shixiao and the Blackstone Legion behind him, His Majesty Bernard’s power had become exceptionally stable. He could do whatever he wanted, and the nobles below hardly dared harbor any thoughts of rebellion.
Under his rule, the empire gradually grew strong. The people worshiped him like a god. That period had truly been the most glorious time of His Majesty Bernard’s life.
Xi Yuelin... it was all Xi Yuelin...
His Majesty Bernard kept muttering that name, growing more and more agitated, his expression twisting more and more hideously.
One of the attendants noticed something was wrong and hurried forward.
They heard the withered, aged emperor shrieking hysterically from the bed, “Contact those people! Tell them... I know Xi Yuelin’s secret!”
The attendant hurriedly withdrew.
But on the way out, the attendant nearly collided head-on with a physician.
The physician cast a calm glance at the attendant.
The attendant quickly apologized, then hurried off in a rush, while the physician entered His Majesty Bernard’s bedchamber.
He injected a serum into His Majesty Bernard, asked about today’s condition, and then left.
Everything was exactly the same as the usual routine.
Only when submitting the vial at the door, the physician quietly swapped the vial meant to be turned in with the one hidden in his pocket.
The physician took away the vial that had been used to inject His Majesty Bernard, leaving behind an empty vial that met regulations.
The palace steward noticed nothing unusual. Not even His Majesty Bernard noticed.
Feeling the mental sea slowly calming down, His Majesty Bernard assumed that the sedative that had just been injected was taking effect.
.......
While His Majesty Bernard was struggling in misery, Xi Heyan had temporarily cast that person aside and focused on answering Wen Yuzhi’s questions.
And after the tutoring session ended, Wen Yuzhi did not close the chat window.
Instead, he continued chatting with Xi Heyan about other things.
[That tree has grown a lot taller already. I go look at it every day.]
The little saplings from before had already grown much taller and sturdier. Wen Yuzhi watered them every day, and he had watched those little saplings change with his own eyes.
After the little saplings grew taller and became little trees, the first person Wen Yuzhi shared that with was Mansendis, and the second was Xi Heyan.
Among those little trees, there was also one that belonged to Xi Heyan.
And because of that, Xi Heyan was happy to hear that the little tree had grown again.
But Xi Heyan also sharply noticed that Wen Yuzhi’s mood did not seem as light as usual. Instead, it seemed a little downcast.
After hesitating for a moment, Xi Heyan still chose to ask:
[Has something happened lately?]
The words You seem like you’re not in a very good mood had not even been sent yet when Wen Yuzhi had already replied:
[My dad went away recently. I miss him a lot.]
Ever since Wen Yuzhi returned to that “new home,” the word Xi Heyan heard most often from him was Dad.
That biological father of his.
A man who seemed to be the head of the household.
Xi Heyan was usually rarely interested in other people’s affairs, but toward this “Dad” Wen Yuzhi spoke about so often, Xi Heyan unexpectedly wanted to know more.
[Can you tell me about your dad?]
