The squads split up after locating the enemy and began to close in on all sides.
Ye Muo was on his stomach in the grass, waiting with his teammates for Ye Yun to meet up with them. It was already too late by the time he noticed movement nearby.
[We seem to be surrounded. There’s definitely someone on the right in front of me. Don’t come over with the others, Ye Yun. Make sure to circle around.]
[Roger that.]
Ye Muo’s team began discussing this after Ye Yun’s response.
[There are people behind me too. Is it too late to turn and go back?]
[…Maybe we can just stay put and wait to be taken out?]
That was what Ye Muo was thinking. It would be better to be disqualified while the other side still had bullets left. Better than a beating, at least.
The entire team thought that made sense, so they stayed still and waited a while.
[Why haven’t they moved yet? This encirclement is small enough, right? Maybe we should shoot first?]
This message was just sent out in the squad channel when the other side finally made their move.
Smoke bombs laced with psychic power stimulant were thrown over. One rolled to a stop right next to Ye Muo.
Ye Muo whirled around before quickly covering his airways and rolling away. He knew from class that smoke bombs generally contained tear gas as well.
However, the smoke flooding out caused them no discomfort. There was even a fresh scent in the air. Ye Muo let go of the lower half of his face in bewilderment.
What was this? Toxic agents were not allowed during battlefield simulations.
Ye Muo thought as he crept forward and to the side. He suddenly stopped as a shudder ran through his body. He couldn’t help but grunt and curl up.
All the blood in his body seemed to turn into lava. Actually, just like a fragile ceramic doll that had fallen off a shelf, wounds similar in appearance to cracks began appearing all over his body. Fresh blood soaked his black combat uniform.
But the pain in his head was so intense that he couldn’t pay them any mind.
His vast psychic power also became restless. Rearing to go, they kept extracting energy from their owner’s body with no regard to whether he could withstand it or not.
When it reached a tipping point, the intense pain vanished as his vast psychic power finally broke free. They were more violent than even due to how long they had been suppressed by various drugs and quickly swept across the entire battlefield with Ye Muo at the epicentre.
Ye Mo slowly let go of his head, his boyd also gradually relaxing. Rather than the pain vanishing, it was his consciousness that had been diluted infinitely by his vast psychic power. His senses and emotions were dulled to an equivalent degree.
In an instant, both bases were paralyzed. The AIs ceased function as operations in the command centres grinded to a halt.
The boy with glasses looked up in surprise. “What happened?”
Ye He’s psychic power was forcibly driven out. He fell onto the command console, breathing heavily. Sweat dripped down his chin as he endured the pain.
“Someone forced me out.”
What happened? Did an enemy outside attack? No, that couldn’t be. His Majesty was present today. Who could even come close to the Grantz in terms of psychic power?
Ye Muo’s psychic power continued to rampage across the battlefield.
The command tower was the only place unaffected.
All the surveillance equipment was still online as well.
For Norton Grantz’s psychic power was protecting the area.
The entire command tower was filled with excited whispers.
“This is clearly a Level S, no doubt about it. And quite an aggressive one at that. Quite suitable for infiltrating past enemy lines and wrecking havoc. With further training, they’ll be a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.”
“A very powerful Level S psychic, but unfortunately still unstable due to being in their development period. Otherwise the First Military Academy would win hands down this time.”
“Both bases have been paralyzed, no? A psychic this aggressive already should surpass April once their development period is over.”
There were differences in power between Level S psychics as well. Currently, the one standing at the apex was Norton Grantz.
On the screen, blood was already seeping from the corners of Ye Muo’s mouth, a sign that his body was reaching its limits due to his overwhelming psychic power.
Secretary-General Lin was already contacting the Grantz’s medical team to come over on standby.
Norton Grantz could sense Ye Muo’s psychic power tentatively trying to invade the command tower. Like a small, barely weaned kitten baring its teeth whose bark was worse than its bite.
So aggressive in contrast to their owner’s gentle nature.
Unlike the instinctive plea for help last time in the face of certain death, where he only needed to stop the outward diffusion of Ye Muo’s psychic power and guide it back, Ye Muo’s psychic power was completely out of control now.
Rather than violently crushing it back, Norton Grantz patiently enveloped Ye Muo’s berserk psychic power with his own. It was like Ye Muo’s psychic power was swimming in an endless sea by the control tower. It became a struggle to get anywhere, and any violent movements would cause a measured wave to crash over them in response.
Norton Grantz’s psychic power continued to expand. He intended to envelop all of Ye Muo’s psychic power.
This was all he could really accomplish. Aside from brute force, he couldn’t enter the other party’s psychic domain and soothe him. Only the soothing agent or his parents’ psychic power could completely pacify a psychic meltdown.
Norton Grantz’s eyes suddenly snapped open. He straightened with an ice cold look in his eyes.
The whispers coming from within the command tower also came to a sudden halt. The entire room went terribly quiet.
Ye Muo’s psychic power had covered the entire battlefield at one point. Everyone with that radius sensed his psychic power suddenly ceased its senseless destruction all of a sudden.
What shocked them even more was His Majesty’s psychic power entering into a state of resonance with that child’s. In this state, parent and child could both open up their psychic domains to each other to facilitate psychic soothing.
Of course they knew what was going on. Almost everyone here either soothed their own children during their development period or received soothing from their parents during that time.
Everyone understood what this implied. That child was a Grantz.
Ye Muo’s psychic power gradually calmed down. The pain decreased almost instantly to a bearable level, and the wounds on his body stopped widening. As his psychic power slowly returned to his psychic domain, Ye Muo was finally freed from that state of being fully conscious but unable to control himself. His headache also went away. Still, front time to time the memory of that pain made him shiver.
The psychic soothing was still ongoing. Once started, it must be completed.
Ye Muo lay on the grass, panting softly. Fragmented memories appeared uncontrollably before his eyes.
Sometimes there was a palace. The dimness suggested it was evening. Norton Grantz stood before the throne, sword in hand. He stabbed it into the body of the man sitting on the throne.
Ye Muo seemed to be quite close. He could tell that the person on the throne also had black hair and eyes. The man’s features and clothes were similar to His Majesty, but he seemed older than him.
The older man’s lips opened and closed as if he was saying something. All Ye Muo picked up on was the blood that gushed out as he spoke.
Ye Muo clearly heard His Majesty’s response.
“Don’t worry, Father. I will bring an end to the Grantz bloodline. I will kill them with my own hands.”
Ye Muo happened to meet His Majesty’s gaze when he spoke that last sentence. He subconsciously took a step back. For a moment, it felt like he had been stabbed through the chest as well. It hurt.
“I’m going to die.” He suddenly thought.
Due to the psychic domain’s close relation to the cerebral domain, during psychic soothing, fragments of memories from both sides would be exchanged whether they liked it or not.
This was one of the reasons why the soothing agent became so popular. Not only due to convenience’s sake. After a few sessions of psychic soothing, almost all families would choose to start using soothing agent. Neither the parents nor their maturing children wanted their secrets laid bare.
……
After Ye Muo’s psychic power withdrew from the bases.
The screens in both bases suddenly lit up with the Grantz insignia once more before everything came back online.
Ye He reclined back in his seat that served as a terminal once more. His psychic power quickly resumed access.
Fortunately, Ye Muo was still wearing his helmet. Ye He was able to directly trace its coordinates to track him down.
Ye He was able to connect the dots almost as soon as he confirmed the other party’s identity.
A Grantz. An actual Grantz. They actually dare to…
Norton Grantz’s youngest brother was lucky enough to escape the initial massacre. He stayed on the run for several months before being captured in a remote galaxy. All the families who aided in his escape or harboured him, hundreds of people in total, were executed.
It was not hard to imagine what would happen this time, especially since a direct blood relative of His Majesty was involved.
Ye He uncharacteristically clicked his tongue in annoyance. He usually would not show even a hint of emotion.
But he couldn’t help but be chagrined this time. This matter was becoming tricky to deal with. He should’ve looked into the truth sooner. Sure enough, the only one you could trust in the end was yourself. If it were him, he would have never allowed such a mistake.
But soon he banished these useless feelings and began to quickly think of potential solutions.
No matter what the truth of the matter was or who was responsible, the Ye family had already been implicated. If things were allowed to progress as-is, there would be big trouble.
Ye Muo would likely be killed as well. After all, His Majesty swore that he would end the Grantz bloodline and made good on his word.
Ye He cycled rapidly through what he knew of the current situation.
He let out a deep sigh, his eyes regained their determination.
At the very least, he should try to create an opportunity for Ye Yun and Meo to escape the vast psychic power of His Majesty.
He would take up command one last time, with victory being their successful escape.
Ye He began to issue a rapid series of orders to the base that was once again under his control, recalling all the deployed troops.
The command centre of the Second Military Academy was also operational once more.
Everyone there had already lost it, talking about this unknown Grantz.
“What’s going on here? Are we about to get a little prince or princess?”
“The resonance range is so vast it’s almost unbelievable.”
Another person had a complicated look on their face, obviously thinking about His Majesty’s past deeds.
“Maybe it won’t be like that…”
His Majesty was indeed the best among even the Grantz. All his subjects willingly submitted to his rule. But him slaughtering his entire family that year raised quite a controversy at home. Even other countries were embroiled in passionate debates for a long time.
The glasses boy stared at the information constantly being updated onscreen. It wasn’t until many of Ye He’s troops began to retreat and exposed themeselves of their own initiative that he realized soldiers had been lying in wait at those locations. Why were they there to begin with? When did they even get there? How unbelievable.
In the face of so many troops abandoning their ambush points to retreat at all costs, the moment they exposed themselves of their own volition, all he could feel was terror.
The boy with the glasses suddenly sighed deeply and relaxed all of a sudden. As expected of Ye He. Even though he only had Level A psychic power, he did not lose out in the slightest to them, who had a Level S on their side.
……
On the other side, Ye He quickly contacted Ye Yun.
Ye Yun was leaning against a dirt slope, watching the resonance take place above the battlefield with everyone else. He was even shooting the breeze with the only other surviving member of his team when he suddenly received a call from Ye He.
“Bro, do you know who His Majesty is resonating with–” this range is insane.
Ye He interrupted him and issued a series of orders.
[Go find Ye Muo immediately and retreat across the river to the west. I’ll have a warship there waiting for you. If you managed to arrive successfully, remember to destroy its psychic power access terminal before piloting manually.]
This would prevent His Majesty directly taking over with his psychic power and stopping the warship from leaving. But even if they successfully got into the air, Grantz legions were stationed on this planet and there were ports outside. This location was too close to the imperial capital for escape outside its borders to be likely, but only death awaited them if they didn’t try.
Ye Yun was still a little confused about what was going on. He asked somewhat dumbfoundedly.
“What?”
[Still don’t understand? Ye Muo is the one resonating with His Majesty above the battlefield. There’s no time for idle chit chat. I’m not certain of the details either, but this is the Grantz we’re talking about. If you don’t flee, the entire Ye family will fall.]
Panic consumed Ye Yun for a moment. He opened his mouth to ask what would happen to Lady Ye, but he bit his lip and swallowed the words back. In truth, both he and Ye He already knew the answer deep down.
Ye He then sent a set of coordinates to Ye Yun.
Ye Yun was already up and rushing over to Ye Muo.
[If we fail.]
Ye He sighed softly. They both knew their chances were slim.
[Then let’s go together.]
