Chapter 135

Xia You relayed his recent memories to Lu Yinghuai. Before he could finish, Lu Yinghuai, uncharacteristically agitated, rushed forward, pulling Xia You from the pit and holding him close.

Lu Yinghuai cradled Xia You until he sensed his psychic energy becoming unstable. Only then did Xia You gesture for him to set him down, taking Lu Yinghuai's hand, gently soothing him.

By the time Xia You finished speaking, they sat shoulder to shoulder beside the moderately-sized ice hole, their fingers intertwined.

In the distance, the snow stretched endlessly, with the sky so low it seemed to be pressing down. The once bustling robots had retreated to a far distance, a tiny red light flickering in standby.

Using her hand to gesture vaguely about her height, Xia You tilted her head towards Lu Yinghuai, saying, "After becoming a zombie, I never grew taller. I remained short till the end, even a fox standing upright could compare in height with me."

He then retrieved a blue energy stone, which he had taken many photos of before, saying, "The moment I saw it, I loved it. I originally thought it was because I cherished it as a gift from the Prince."

However, at that time, Xia You hadn’t developed certain feelings.

Lu Yinghuai stared at the luminescent blue gem, murmuring, "After my sister fell into her deep slumber, it always stayed by my side."

Xia You displayed a saved image from the ceremony where Lu Yinghuai was honored. She looked at the blue gem embedded in the scepter in Lu Yinghuai’s hand and smiled, her eyes narrowing with joy.

"But, I was... dead, wasn't I?" Xia You asked uncertainly, "Yet, somehow, when I regained consciousness, I was in the Marshal's banquet hall."

She had entirely forgotten her memories as a zombie and thought of herself as a well-behaved young nobleman, but her experiences in the apocalypse had made her much more adaptable to circumstances.

Hearing Xia You's account, Lu Yinghuai gripped her hand tightly, his fingers weaving through hers, taking deep breaths to calm his intense emotions, his gaze deep.

He recalled checking Xia You’s records, frowning, "When our relationship just started, the Emperor and I searched for your information with the highest authority."

Xia You replied, "I know, didn't His Highness say there was nothing unusual?"

Lu Yinghuai opened a holographic document, a timeline with certain dates highlighted in red.

"At the time of your mother’s marriage to the Duke, her mental state was stable. It was only after your birth that rumors emerged of her emotional breakdown and unstable psychic powers."

"Most of the healers who retired from the legion suffer from this condition. Initially, neither the Emperor nor I paid it much attention, but later I noticed some discrepancies in the timeline."

Lu Yinghuai flipped through the data and pointed to a date, "By this time, your mother should have already..."

Xia You’s lips quivered.

Her mother, Ning Zhuiyue, had already had her funeral by this time. So why were healers who once treated Ning Zhuiyue still visiting the Duke’s mansion?

Lu Yinghuai brought up an image of the healer responsible for treating Ning Zhuiyue, revealing a face that instantly radiated warmth.

Lu Yinghuai said, "She's the most approachable healer from the Healing Center, once served with the Fifth Legion for a long time, and only took up her post at the Healing Center after her retirement."

After Ning Zhuiyue’s death, she still maintained her habit of visiting the Duke’s mansion every six months.

Summer Yuzu whispered, "I recognize her."

"She was… my mother's teacher."

When Ning Zhuiyue passed away, Summer Yuzu was still young. Apart from a few recorded images, there aren't many memories of his mother in his mind.

Yet this elderly lady with snowy hair and a pearl rose hairpin always pinned by her temples is all too familiar to him.

"She would visit me at the same time every year. We'd sit in my mother's rose garden all afternoon, drink tea, watch videos, or listen to her stories..."

Summer Yuzu's throat bobbed slightly.

"But she never told me her name, asking me simply to call her 'Grandma'."

Now a healer himself, Summer Yuzu has informally studied the mind-soothing and hypnotic techniques of trained healers.

Looking back, when he was held by the kind and gentle "Grandma" and she'd stroke his hair, he'd always feel a warm coziness, often drifting off to sleep. When he'd wake up, he'd be back in his room.

Summer Yuzu noted the date of the healer's death.

It was precisely at the beginning of the year when the marshal held the matching banquet.

Clasping Lu Yinghuai's hand tightly, he murmured, "Your Highness, I want to return to the Imperial Star."

Lu Yinghuai responded, "Alright, I'll accompany you."

"Of course you're accompanying me." Summer Yuzu said with a teasing smile, drawing his hand away from Lu Yinghuai's fingers and placing it on Lu Yinghuai's cheek. "Your Highness, we're alone here. Let me extract the Zerg Queen's spiritual crystal from your mind, shall I?"

While the exact relationship between the Zerg and the energy stone veins remains unclear, this energy stone vein is distinct from others.

The animals that once coexisted with Summer Yuzu here were sustained by his psychic energy. Although they too were infected by the zombie virus, they were not violent or frenzied but demonstrated controlled rationality.

Their crystallized cores, after death, all contain psychic energy originating from Summer Yuzu. To others, this place might just be a smaller energy stone vein, but for Summer Yuzu, it's the place he once called home.

Here, his psychic strength is amplified at its most potent.

Lu Yinghuai had no reasons to decline. On the contrary, he hoped that Summer Yuzu could divert his attention from past memories.

Summer Yuzu's psychic tendrils expertly ventured into the core of Lu Yinghuai's mind, tapping lightly on the ruby-red psychic crystal of the Zerg Queen.

Somehow, after regaining his memory, Summer Yuzu found himself growing increasingly averse to the sight of the psychic crystal.

It felt as though it had wronged him.

But he had always slept peacefully and later lived as a young master on the Imperial Star. How could he possibly have any encounters with the roaming Zerg Queen in the universe?

His little tentacle made a thoughtful gesture.

Just then, Summer Yuzu's light-computer vibrated, interrupting his action.

Lu Yinghuai also activated his light-computer, viewing a message sent by Meng Wenxuan.

[Marshal, the analysis of the psychic sample obtained from the Federation has been completed.]

[With the live psychic sample of the Zerg Queen, we've detected Zerg psychic contamination in the energy stones mined from Blue Star.]

[Yet, strangely, this Zerg psychic contamination isn't consistent. It doesn't seem deliberate but rather…]

Meng Wenxuan's message paused for a significant duration before sending his hypothesis.

[It's as if countless Zerg once perished on Blue Star, their blood seeping into the land, contaminating the energy stones buried beneath. This contamination seems to have been caused through flesh and genetics.]

Meng Wenxuan casually changed the title in the same message and forwarded it to Summer Yuzu.

After reading it, Summer Yuzu pondered for a moment and inquired: [Have both the zombie virus and Zerg psychic contamination been tested simultaneously?]

Meng Wenxuan quickly sent a question mark in reply.

Of course, Summer Yuzu didn't have the depth of knowledge about the Zerg as Meng Wenxuan; his research was amateur at best.

But being a zombie himself, his perception of the Zerg Queen's psychic crystal largely mirrors the zombie virus's instinctual response to the Zerg.

[The zombie virus originates from Blue Star, while the Zerg are extraterrestrial, both evolving by consumption. It's doubtful they can form a stable symbiotic relationship.]

[Is it possible that the contamination of the energy stones is due to the unresolved conflict between the zombie virus and the remnants of Zerg psychic energy? Once mined and absorbed, these forces simply find a new host and continue their mutual consumption?]

In other words... after absorbing the energy stones, the battleground between the zombie virus and the Zerg psychic energy shifted from the stones to the psychic sea. This might cause varying degrees of psychic disturbances in those who've absorbed the energy stones.

The higher one's psychic level, the more energy stones they'd have consumed. This, in turn, provides more power for the zombie virus and Zerg psychic energy to absorb, magnifying the pain.

Lu Yinghuai said solemnly, "The nurturing chambers at the Cultivation Center use energy stones as their power source."

Lu Yinghuai's psychic power was exceedingly high, too overwhelming for his mother to bear. So, from an early age, he was placed within a cultivation chamber where he absorbed the energy from the energy stones for years on end.

This is why, right from birth, he suffered from psychic disturbances many times more severe than others.

Summer Yuzu pondered, “I wonder how many the Zerg Queen actually birthed on Blue Star…”

Lu Yinghuai explained, “The Zerg Queen, also known as the Matriarch, breeds formidable Zerg to plunder energy to sustain her.”

“The Empire did manage to injure her once. During that period, the birth rate of the Zerg increased significantly, though their aggressiveness and armor strength seemed lesser than before.”

Summer Yuzu mused, “Hmm, another possibility might be her desperate attempts to expel the zombie virus from her body by producing more Zerg.”

After all, the Zerg's rejection response is quite intense. The Zerg Queen wouldn't want to explode uncontrollably.

Uncle Zhou mentioned earlier that the Zerg produced by the Zerg Queen on Blue Star would suddenly die after a short time. It might be because she's trying to cut out and expel the zombie virus from within her.

Summer Yuzu exhaled deeply, “Now that we've identified the cause, with the psychic crystal of the Zerg Queen in your psychic sea and me being a living zombie, finding a method to purify the energy stones shouldn't be too difficult.”

Much of research is not about solving the problem but identifying its root cause.

However…

Summer Yuzu's psychic tentacle delved once more into the core of Lu Yinghuai's psychic sea, the tip of the tentacle hesitatingly caressing the crimson crystal.

If they decided to use it for research, it meant he couldn't consume it…

His chubby little tentacle nibbled on the crystal bit by bit, looking pitifully sad.

Originally, this entire piece was meant for him!

Just as the two were leaning on each other, with the tentacle trying hard to pull out the psychic crystal of the Zerg Queen, a loud boom erupted from outside the mines.

Both of them blinked in unison.

However, Summer Yuzu was already halfway through detaching the crystal and couldn't possibly halt the process.

Twenty minutes later, a silver-haired curly-haired youth carrying a large tiger with orange and black stripes agilely hopped across the roof, landing right in front of them.

"Hey, are you two having a romantic moment?" The curly-haired youth said with a playful grin as he set down the massive tiger he'd been carrying on his shoulder. He casually tossed it into an icy pit next to him, ignoring the obvious size discrepancy between the tiger and the pit. Lifting his chin, he announced, "Boss, I'm here to complete the mission."

The black panther roared in fury and charged, raising its claw to strike at the youth with silver curls.

The youth dodged with agile movement, holding up the tiger to block the ferocious panther, and exclaimed, "How can this couple be so disrespectful to their elders!"

"Always fighting upon meeting."

Xiayou was at a crucial moment in treatment, entrusting everything outside to Lu Yinghuai.

Lu Yinghuai hesitated for a moment; even though the youth before him, from his hair color to his uncanny strength, bore no resemblance to Hamster D, he recognized something familiar.

Both seemed innocently deceptive on the surface.

"Mr. D?"

Yuanyuan refrained from attacking, instead stretching out its paw to retrieve the spicy stick.

The silver-curled youth snorted, "Want your nephew back? I remember how this little rascal tricked me before. What do you say?"

Even though the spicy stick is a tiger, it had always been raised like a frail crown prince of the empire. Despite its size difference, it was no match for a mercenary who had faced countless life-or-death situations.

After Lu Yinghuai acknowledged his identity, he seemed to relax. Gently squeezing Xiayou's hand to assure him, he courteously offered, "We can offer more, whatever Mr. D demands."

The youth didn't seem to want to make things difficult, but remembering his companion beast being punished by holding grapes until its paw shook and then having to feed an eagle with those grapes, he let out a cold huff.

"Talking about money ruins the mood, come—"

The youth raised an eyebrow, calmly stating.

"Call me Uncle D."

He had never been addressed as an imperial marshal before!

Thrilling!

Lu Yinghuai stared at the young man, who appeared to be about the same age as Xiayou, opened his mouth but couldn't utter a word.

The youth with silver curls said leisurely, "I'm professional when it comes to fulfilling contracts. Lately, I've found several unhatched yet viable insect eggs in the underground layers of Blue Star. As for the location..."

"Uncle D," Lu Yinghuai spoke decisively, without any hint of discomfort or hesitation, "Thank you for your help."

The curly-haired youth choked back, then murmured resentfully, "The two of you are truly a match..."

They both are quite adaptable indeed.

Lu Yinghuai smiled.

"Yes, a perfect match with a compatibility rate of 100%."

Perhaps because they were predestined soulmates, they found each other across countless moments and intersecting spaces, drawn by the allure of their souls after an initial missed encounter.

Entwined for the remainder of their lives, fitting together flawlessly.

Splashed with public displays of affection, the youth was speechless, and began to pull up a holographic interface to transmit the map's coordinates.