Chapter 60

Chapter 60

If there was one male among all the insect race who knew the most about Yor's native world culture, it had to be Zane.

To get closer to the Queen, he had scoured through materials on Blue Star humans—from dietary preferences to holiday customs, from literary works to mythological tales—all in hopes of better understanding the Queen's way of thinking.

And in the education the Queen had received since childhood, a father and son sharing a mate... was absolutely beyond anything he could accept.

Scenting the Queen saturated with Lucian Zan Endymion's pheromones, Zane's heart, which had been restless since receiving the message, finally sank like a lead weight in his chest, gradually turning cold, then flooding with despair.

He stood at the cabin door, staring at the silhouette wrapped in blankets, his fingertips slowly curling at his sides.

Lucian Zan Endymion, under the unblinking stare of the young male who had barged in, simply wrapped the Queen securely, then rose to his feet, looking down at the young insect. "I've already given you a body that's more than good enough."

If he couldn't win the Queen's favor, who was there to blame?

Zane looked down at his own hands. Yes—purely in terms of appearance, compared to lords of other clans, the Purification Clan had an advantage by a whole tier.

But everything he'd done before... now he was weak, mutilated, his pheromones barely detectable, and he needed the Queen's permission and blessing just to regrow his body.

He was already a total reject. If the guard clan were still around, he'd have been cast out of the nest long ago and become their food.

But... he wouldn't accept it. He still had his most important asset—his mind.

Lifting his gaze to the male who seemed as unconquerable as the ocean, Zane refused to back down. "If I'm not mistaken, you came to help the Queen resist mental pollution. After all this time, have you succeeded?"

Lucian Zan Endymion fell silent.

The previous generation of lord insects, still busy suppressing the guard clan, had pushed him to come, but his mission had truly gotten nowhere. Even worse... looking at the Queen, whose mental sea had been tainted with a trace of pollution from their bonding...

The Queen was still young. It was his fault—he hadn't controlled himself, utterly defeated by the Queen's allure...

In the blankets nearby, Yor turned his head away, closing his eyes in embarrassment...

Zane had somehow made his way to the bedside without anyone noticing. He crouched down and murmured, "Sorry I'm so late."

After all these days with the domain clan, thanks to the guard clan members Taste had brought, his research had actually made some progress.

"Resisting mental force has never been done before. Having you directly face contaminated mental power is too much to ask," he paused, "perhaps you'd be willing to try my method."

He scooped up the Queen from the bed, blankets and all. Unlike Lucian Zan Endymion, who had forcibly shoved the contaminated mental power over, Zane instead teased out a strand of his own mental force, easing into Yor's mental sea, guiding him. "Let's try using your mental power to form a sturdy shield."

He guided Yor's mental power, shaping it into triangles, linked together like chainmail into a dense shield surface. "See, triangles are the most stable shape—just stack them like this..."

The use of mental power was inherently abstract and elusive, but Zane's explanation was easy to follow. Yor was completely absorbed, concentrating on following along, his body, which had been curled up from guilt, gradually relaxing as he leaned into Zane's embrace.

This was an idea born from Zane's extensive reading of Blue Star human ideology. The Queen's mental power should naturally be capable of resisting pollution—it was just that Yor, being from a foreign race, had difficulty even adapting to his identity as the Queen, let alone wielding mental power.

Making a race that had always been materialist suddenly use such spiritual energy required assistance.

What he needed to do was help the Queen build confidence using methods Blue Star humans could more easily understand and put into practice.

As long as he believed he could, believed he had succeeded, then it would really succeed!

Yor had combed through so many insects' mental seas that he was actually quite skilled at using mental power. Now with a practical "how-to guide," a faint golden light soon shimmered before him—the rough shape of a shield.

Zane guided softly within the mental sea, "Yes, deepen the outline a bit more there..."

A shield with increasingly clear form gradually took shape before the two of them.

Watching the Queen and Zane bathed in golden light, Lucian Zan Endymion looked utterly confused. What was this... Neither his inherited knowledge nor his own understanding could explain it.

Zane opened his eyes, fixed his gaze on Lucian Zan Endymion, and slowly curved his lips.

"Useless old man," he mouthed.

Lucian Zan Endymion looked down at himself. Indeed... he was old now...

He didn't respond to the young insect's provocation, nor did he bother Yor. He was about to leave when he heard Yor's excited voice: "Let's give it a try."

Looking up, the Queen was reaching out his arms, signaling for a hug.

Lucian Zan Endymion stopped in his tracks, turned to look at the expectant Queen, and flashed a breathtaking smile. "Alright."

Gathering the Queen into his arms, Lucian Zan Endymion looked down at the Queen, who was concentrating on maintaining the "shield," and said, "Ready?"

Yor had already tilted his face up out of habit, waiting for Lucian Zan Endymion's kiss. This was how it had been these past few days—along with the mental invasion came the flooding of pheromones, since with true guard clan members, the two always came hand in hand.

He closed his eyes, waiting for the male's pheromones to invade.

His arms were suddenly empty.

Zane looked down at his empty arms. The Yor who had just been bundled in blankets was now leaning back in another male's arms, face tilted up, waiting for his kiss.

The young male nearly ground his teeth to dust, yet he had no grounds to stop it.

All he could do was watch helplessly as that face so similar to his own pressed lips to the beloved Queen's...

The male's pheromones invaded with overwhelming force. Yor struggled to keep his wits about him amidst the interwoven scents, and when the dark, heavy mental pressure came crashing down, he desperately raised his shield to meet it head-on.

It blocked it!

Though it trembled, its edges shaking violently, it blocked it!

The pollution seemed to have a mind of its own, desperately trying to squeeze through the cracks in the shield. This contact was more complex and harder to endure than he had imagined, but it wasn't unstoppable!

In his excitement, Yor lost his grip on it, and the "shield" fell apart in large part. The contaminated mental power came crashing down, knocking a pained groan out of him.

Zane immediately jumped up. "Are you okay?"

Lucian Zan Endymion also looked over worriedly.

Yor clutched his head, taking a moment to steady himself. He thought for a moment, then tried picturing in his mind... the wings of many war bugs, using Leonius's wings as the template, resonating at a steady frequency—"swish," "swish, swish"...

Wisp by wisp, black mist slowly peeled away from his mental sea. After just a few pulses, the invading black mist in his mental sea dissipated completely.

Yor stared in awe at his own hands. The use of mental power... once he opened his mind, was his mental power really this useful?

He abruptly looked up at Lucian Zan Endymion. "I'll help you dispel the mental contamination."

For a moment, Lucian Zan Endymion's heart leaped. If it were dispelled, would he be able to have much more time by the Queen's side...?

But it was only for a moment. He lowered his head, pressing his forehead against the Queen's. "Don't waste your energy. I still have to go back and keep suppressing the guard clan."

Yor said hastily, "I'll learn fast. Once I can resist those guard clan members, you'll all be free."

Lucian Zan Endymion looked at Yor, his eyes full of sorrow. The Queen spoke so lightly—he didn't know how truly aggressive the real guard clan could be, nor how terrifying those few lords were to other bugs...

He didn't say much, just lowered his head and coaxed, "Then I'll be putting you through a lot of hard work."

Zane, who had been holding his tongue for a while, suddenly stood up. "Besides the 'Shield Formation,' I've got another idea."

That immediately caught Yor's attention. Zane raised his hand, showing Yor the patterns on his palm. "You know, my whole body is mechanical, and the weapons built into me are all powered by mental energy."

As Zane channeled his mental energy, the intricate pattern on his palm began to shift. A moment later, the dark cannon muzzle started glowing red as it charged.

Yor flinched and yanked her hand back, but Zane grabbed it firmly. "Feel how the mental energy flows, Mother. I can use mental energy to activate weapons. You can also weave your shield ahead of time and hide it in your palm."

That sounds... doable?

Yor snapped out of it and pressed her hand back against Zane's palm, feeling the subtle fluctuations of his mental energy. Guided by instinct, she slowly channeled the shield she'd crafted into her palm until it grew warm.

She opened her eyes to find the pattern of a golden shield in her palm.

Zane took her hand and gently guided it forward. The golden shield pushed out of her palm, forming a massive, translucent barrier in front of her.

"Wow!" This... this... Yor instinctively pulled the shield back, staring at the radiant golden pattern in her palm. It was incredible.

Zane, who'd watched countless Blue Star shows, let a faint smile slip. He held Yor's other hand. "Mother, besides defense, you should also know how to protect yourself."

Yor obediently raised her hand and followed Zane's lead, tracing patterns in her mental sea. A moment later, a slender golden light sword floated within it—no physical blade, more like a beam of light with a faint silver glow at the edges.

This time, without Zane's guidance, Yor naturally imprinted the sword into her other palm.

Seeing the impressive light sword in the Broodmother's palm, Zane took Yor's hand and suddenly aimed it at Lucian Zan Endymion. "Give it a shot?"

Yor started to pull back, but Lucian Zan Endymion had already pulled out his cane, smiling as he encouraged his Little Broodmother. "Go on—if you can cut through my polluted mental energy, even better."

The Pure Insect Lords around them all gave her encouraging looks. Yor steeled herself and shoved the "sword" forward with everything she had.

The instant the light sword left her hand, it shot out like a loosed arrow, carving a thin golden arc along the path Yor had pictured, slashing straight ahead.

Lucian Zan Endymion held his cane horizontally before him, a faint barrier of mental energy rising over the silver-white shaft. But the instant the blade hit the barrier, that layer of light ripped apart like paper.

The cane snapped in two, the top half spinning off and slamming into the cabin wall with a dull clang.

The sword kept going. It grazed the edge of Lucian Zan Endymion's mental sea, slicing off a huge chunk of mental energy that had been corrupted by pollution for years. That severed piece, like a wisp of gray-black mist, hung in the air for a moment, then slowly dissolved into the void, showing no sign of reforming.

Lucian Zan Endymion gripped the remaining half of his cane, then burst out laughing. "Excellent!"

Yor looked down at her palm—the sword was gone, leaving only a faint golden line still warm in her hand.

As for the male insect across from her... no visible injury, but the fluctuations in his mental energy showed he was in tremendous pain. Alarmed, Yor rushed over. "Are you okay? Let me help ease it..."

"I have to go now, Little Broodmother." Lucian Zan Endymion gently pushed Yor away, his expression full of relief. "Having these days with you has been enough."

Go?

Right—he had only come out temporarily to teach her how to resist mental pollution. Now he had to return to suppress the guard clan.

But...

Yor bit her lip. "Hold on. I'll do my best to become stronger."

Lucian Zan Endymion let out a soft chuckle. "Your existence is the beacon of our race. No matter what happens, as long as you protect yourself, the insect race will never perish."

"You have your generation." Finally, he lowered his head to kiss the Broodmother's forehead, then returned her to Zane's arms. "Live well."

Lucian Zan Endymion's figure gradually disappeared into the connecting corridor between the two ships. The hatch slowly sealed shut, as if once again separating the brief contact between two generations.

Yor stood there, dazed.

"Mother, don't be sad." Zane walked up to Yor instead. He knelt slowly, kissing the back of her hand. "One day, I will grow into his likeness—more beautiful than him, stronger than him..."

"And able to stay by your side longer than he ever could."

==========Author's Note:==========

I'm guilty—over the weekend I just lay there and didn't want to get up at all.

I even went back to read that Taoist priest novel I wrote two years ago. There's nothing like savoring your own writing—two years ago, I was really good at it, hahahahaha.

Oh, I shouldn't be so flippant. I'll behave these next two days and write properly.

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