Chapter 46: Leaving the Door Open
Before Jin Chi’an could say what he wanted to say, Lin Chuan hung up the call and went to the aircraft recovery level to receive an arriving aircraft.
“Long time no see, Mr. Lin Chuan.”
A man wearing a worn-out butler’s uniform walked out of the aircraft under the guidance of a beastman.
“Long time no see, Mr. Puslin.”
Lin Chuan reached out to Puslin, the royal butler who had stepped down from the aircraft.
A moment later, the other man shook his hand and got straight to the point. “I heard that Mr. Talier’s research instrument is currently stored on Iskan’s starship?”
“That is correct. With permission from Iskan’s higher-ups, this instrument is now under my supervision.”
“That’s wonderful.”
Puslin excitedly gripped Lin Chuan’s hand with both hands and pleaded, “Mr. Lin Chuan, I hope you can treat this child’s illness.”
After saying this, Puslin turned to look behind him.
A boy exuding a noble air was currently clutching a beastman soldier’s collar in pain, allowing the other party to carry him down from the aircraft.
“What is this?” Lin Chuan asked Puslin in confusion.
“This is the Fourteenth Prince.”
Puslin released Lin Chuan’s hand and carefully took the Fourteenth Prince from the beastman soldier.
“After the banquet ended, the District One nobles occupied the palace. I happened to find the Fourteenth Prince barely breathing among the corpses on the battlefield, so I brought him out of the palace.”
Puslin held the boy in his arms with distress, moved closer to Lin Chuan, and said, “Please take a look at him.”
Lin Chuan reached out and touched the boy’s feverish forehead. Then he extended a mental tendril and entered the boy’s consciousness cloud.
The moment he entered, the devastation perceived by his mental tendril was exactly as he had imagined. The royal family’s mental illness was now completely displayed inside the boy’s consciousness cloud.
However, unlike previous generations of royals, the boy’s onset had occurred much earlier than he had expected.
Just as difficulty appeared on his face, Jin Chi’an’s call came in again. Lin Chuan answered the optical-brain connection with an impatient expression.
“Jin Chi’an, stop bothering me whenever you have nothing better to do. I’ve just taken on a troublesome patient.”
“Lin Chuan, prepare that medical instrument of yours. I’m on my way back now.”
“Aren’t you commanding the battle with that marshal? Why are you suddenly coming back?”
“The Empire won’t let us interfere with District One’s matters. All that’s left is throwing a few shells around. There’s no need for command.”
As soon as Jin Chi’an finished speaking, a familiar aircraft entered the starship’s recovery level.
Jin Chi’an opened the hatch, jumped down from the aircraft, and walked straight toward Lin Chuan’s position.
When he passed by Puslin, Jin Chi’an paused for a moment and looked at the boy in his arms.
“Butler Puslin? This is… the Fourteenth Prince.”
“Mr. Jin Chi’an, it is wonderful that you are unharmed.” Puslin forced a smile at him. “I brought the Fourteenth Prince here to seek treatment.”
Jin Chi’an looked suspiciously at the boy in his arms. He had only just released a guiding tendril into the other party’s consciousness cloud to examine it when an overwhelming wave of dizziness rushed into his mind.
Feeling his stomach churn, Jin Chi’an suppressed the urge to vomit and quickly withdrew his mental tendril from the boy’s consciousness cloud.
With Lin Chuan flusteredly supporting him, Jin Chi’an instinctively reached toward the mental brand at his lower back and felt the position of the totem faintly heating up.
“You… Why are the side effects of your bonding syndrome getting worse and worse?”
“Maybe it’s because my consciousness cloud has only just recovered.”
Jin Chi’an slowly straightened and connected his shared senses with Puff, who was far away in the District One command center.
The Maine Coon, who had previously been full of life, was now lying weakly in Felix’s arms, suddenly unable to muster any energy.
“Bring him to the laboratory first.”
Jin Chi’an irritably sorted through his own consciousness cloud, completely unable to find the source of this abnormal nausea.
Only when the group entered the medical-level laboratory did the discomfort in his body ease slightly.
“This kid’s mental illness is different from the hereditary royal illness we’ve seen before. The connection between his consciousness cloud and mental sea is gradually being severed,” Lin Chuan said to Jin Chi’an while arranging the instrument’s auxiliary equipment.
“That’s exactly what I wanted to tell you.”
Jin Chi’an sat on the swivel chair beside the instrument.
“After the parasitic aliens are stripped away from the invaded Imperial guides and sentinels, most of them show the same condition as him.”
Jin Chi’an sensed the mental power belonging to Felix inside his consciousness cloud and placed his mental tendril lightly on the instrument’s control panel.
“The main reason the aliens can repair the royal family’s mental illness is that they can establish mental co-connection with their host bodies, thereby forming equivalence between the main body’s condition and the host body.”
The instrument’s operating functions were transmitted into Jin Chi’an’s consciousness cloud through his mental tendril.
Within the instrument, the intersecting structures of two consciousness clouds achieved compatibility through connection, ultimately forming a supply system through co-connection. In this way, one party’s mental power could be transmitted into the other party’s consciousness cloud.
And this also explained why, after he and Felix had established co-connection through the instrument, the damage to his consciousness cloud had been completely healed, and why he could communicate with Felix through his mental body.
Lin Chuan fiddled with the mental-power agents on the experiment table, his gaze glancing toward Jin Chi’an. “So what you’re saying is, as long as we find a healthy consciousness cloud, we can rebuild the consciousness clouds of the Imperial royal family members through mental co-connection.”
“Of course it isn’t only that.”
Before Jin Chi’an could reply, a woman’s voice from the doorway interrupted their conversation.
Ameili, leaning on a cane, moved toward the two of them.
“Because the Imperial royal family has beastman blood mixed in, the mental power they require is twice that of ordinary humans. That was also the reason Talier’s experiment was discontinued.”
Ameili stretched out a mental tendril and entered the boy’s consciousness cloud.
His fragmented mental pathways instantly appeared before her. Immediately after, a force began rejecting her intrusion, until the mental power inside the boy’s consciousness cloud could no longer resist Ameili’s mental tendril.
“His consciousness cloud was invaded by a zerg. The mental barrier that should have existed has collapsed because of the alien’s forced entry.”
As Ameili spoke, she sealed off the connection between the boy’s already declining consciousness cloud and his body.
Before long, the pain on the boy’s face gradually calmed, and he sank into deep sleep.
“What are you doing?”
Lin Chuan watched Ameili’s movements vigilantly and was about to release a mental tendril into the boy’s consciousness cloud.
But Ameili’s mental power blocked him outside.
Ameili explained, “I sealed the connection between his consciousness cloud and body to reduce the damage to his body.”
“Consciousness-cloud sealing?”
Jin Chi’an’s eyes changed slightly. He then pressed her, “You participated in Talier’s experiment?”
As soon as he said this, an unusual expression appeared on Ameili’s previously calm face. Then she sighed.
“No. However, we did communicate for a period of time.”
“Talier was introduced into the Imperial royal family by me,” Ameili continued. “As a medical guide, his abilities were outstanding. However, his experiment was inextricably linked to the aliens.”
“You mean this instrument.”
Jin Chi’an hesitated for a moment, then finally voiced the question in his heart.
“There is second-stage Zerg mental power left on this instrument, and its structure is no different from the ability of second-stage aliens.”
“Just as you said, the final result of this instrument came from the participation of the Kashmire race,” Puslin, standing beside them, answered first. “Before the aliens invaded the royal family, Mr. Talier had once struck a deal with the aliens.”
“And the emperor?” Jin Chi’an had roughly guessed the sequence of events.
It was nothing more than a mad scientist making a deal with the aliens for the sake of his experimental results, all to complete the research of his life.
But compared to Talier’s collusion with the aliens, he was even more curious how the royal family, who placed purity above everything else, had allowed zerg involvement.
“Both the royal family and Mr. Talier believed that allowing the aliens to intervene in the Imperial royal family was the best choice for the royal family.”
Jin Chi’an frowned slightly, doubting the truth of that sentence in his heart.
A moment later, a sound from outside the laboratory interrupted his thoughts.
As soon as Lin Chuan opened the laboratory door, he saw a neatly equipped medical army about to head toward the departure level.
“Where are you going?” Lin Chuan asked the nearest beastman doctor.
“Report, Imperial District One has suffered a serious invasion. A few minutes ago, they requested the intervention of the beastman army. We are preparing to head to the disaster area.”
Hearing the answer, Jin Chi’an connected to his mental body again.
In an instant, Felix’s voice sounded in his ears.
In the images received by his mental body, Felix had taken off his tightly buttoned marshal’s uniform jacket and was speaking with the Imperial higher-ups before him.
“Allowing Iskan’s full intervention? Is the Empire truly willing to part with its precious high-class bloodlines? Beastmen’s fangs do not show mercy.”
The man standing before Felix instantly darkened his expression, unwilling to accept this painful reality.
“Yes. After a unanimous decision by the Imperial higher-ups, we ask Iskan’s reinforcements to fully intervene and clear the aliens in District One.”
“Since the Empire has already made its decision, deploy the troops.”
Felix laughed softly, lifted a hand to scratch the Maine Coon on his shoulder, and then ordered the soldier beside him, “Notify the District One reinforcement troops to prepare for combat. Inject the mental-barrier enhancer in advance.”
After giving the order, Felix gathered Puff from his shoulder into his arms and affectionately rubbed its nose with his hand.
“I’ll be back a little late tonight. No need to leave the door open for me.”
