This was the starry sky he had seen in his childhood.
The Zerg warship soon reached the border military district headquarters, and the military females disembarked. Upon entering the main gate, Chris immediately sensed that something was wrong. There seemed to be many more figures in the military area than usual, causing him and Ylair to become alert.
The atmosphere was crowded with the presence of many insects. Since most of the soldiers had followed them to the front lines, they wondered why there was so much activity. They questioned if the Sky-Gar army had invaded in their absence as part of a diversionary tactic. Considering this possibility, the two officers silently assumed combat stances. Powerful energy surged through their insect patterns. Although the lower-ranking soldiers were not as sensitive to the military district’s aura as Chris and Ylair, they followed their superiors’ lead and prepared for battle.
Seeing this, Samuel raised an eyebrow. He did not sense any outsiders or murderous intent. He wondered what his officers were doing. Suddenly, a lively voice called out. “Colonel Chris! Colonel Ylair!” A blue-haired military female with a youthful face ran toward them. As he approached, he did not forget his manners and saluted Samuel and the others.
“Bane?” several voices cried out in unison. Some of the soldiers looked as if they had seen a ghost.
Bane was considered the youngest military female in the border district. Despite his age, he was an A-rank soldier known for his incredible speed during attacks, making him a headache for any enemy. However, five years ago, this famous young soldier had been declared beyond medical help due to a spiritual sea collapse and was left to wait for death. Seeing Bane jumping around and full of vitality was why the soldiers felt they were seeing a ghost.
Samuel narrowed his eyes, a flicker of surprise passing through them. He remembered this A-rank soldier from years ago; he had personally bestowed the rank of Major upon him. He also recalled that this soldier was Ylair’s cousin. As expected, Ylair’s voice cracked beside him. “Bane? How? You?” Ylair was incoherent, struggling for a long time without managing to form a complete sentence.
Samuel stepped in with a steady, questioning tone. “Bane? When did you wake up?”
Hearing the Marshal speak, Ylair closed his mouth, though his hands continued to tremble slightly and his eyes remained filled with disbelief as he suppressed his emotions.
“Oh, probably a day after you left,” Bane said, recalling the news of the expedition. “Your Excellency Winslow saved me!”
At the mention of Winslow, delight and affection flashed in the boy’s clear blue eyes, visible to everyone present. “After you left, His Excellency went to the prison for mental combing. In just five hours, he finished combing all the soldiers who had lost their sanity. I was the first to wake up because my recovery ability is strong. I woke up the day after the combing.”
Bane’s blue eyes sparkled with admiration. “He is amazing. I have been hearing about his deeds from others in the district. I heard he is our mental comber. He is the most powerful and beautiful male I have ever seen.” He then looked at Ylair with hope, his voice shy and excited. “Cousin, does His Excellency Winslow have a female monarch?”
The boy’s affectionate voice was undisguised, warm, and bright. Samuel even saw a blush on his face. He noted that another one had been captivated. Samuel lowered his eyes to hide a flash of murderous intent. He began to suspect that the male possessed mental control abilities; otherwise, it would be impossible for so many high-ranking soldiers to be so fascinated by him. If he truly had such a power, then regardless of his one hundred percent combing ability, he could not be allowed to live.
Unlike the shocked soldiers and the suspicious Marshal, Chris was filled with worry after hearing that Winslow had spent five hours combing the prisoners with the worst spiritual pollution. His brow remained furrowed. Finally, he interrupted Bane’s excited questioning and Samuel’s brewing thoughts. “Where is His Excellency Winslow now? Is he feeling unwell?”
Hearing Chris’s concerned voice, some of the soldiers realized that while Winslow’s daily schedule was two hours, a sudden five-hour session might have caused issues. They did not know that two hours was a limit set by Chris and not Winslow’s actual threshold. Two hours did not even make Winslow feel tired.
“Well,” Bane said, not knowing the details. Since he woke up to find that Winslow had combed almost everyone in the prison and the district, he believed Winslow was simply that powerful. He thought for a moment, trying to recall Winslow’s state over the past few days. “His Excellency’s mental state is very good. He did not look unwell. However, I have rarely seen him. I only saw him once, a day after the combing was finished.”
He had seen him once and fallen in love at first sight. Winslow had visited the prison a day after the combing to check for complications, which was when he encountered the newly recovered Bane. That was their first and only meeting so far.
At this time, Winslow was sleeping in his room. After finishing the combing for the entire prison, he had felt some fatigue. He had not fallen into a deep sleep initially but took a light nap. After checking the prison the next day and finding no issues, he returned to his room and fell into a deep slumber.
He had slept until now. Despite several days passing, the meal delivery robot had not triggered an alarm because the little white snake had been opening the door and eating all three meals every day. Chris rushed to Winslow’s room and knocked, but there was no response. Fearing that Winslow was still sleeping, he did not burst in. Instead, he found the delivery robot. Robots have cameras to record daily routines, though insects usually do not have the authority to view such private recordings.
However, Chris and Samuel possessed that authority. In the conference room, Chris played the recording while Samuel watched silently. No other insects were present to respect Winslow’s privacy. They watched as the robot delivered the food, the door opened, and then the food vanished into thin air. From the robot’s perspective, the food simply disappeared. Neither Chris nor Samuel saw the snow-white snake with red eyes spiraling away with the meals.
Winslow did not know that the disappearance of the food had left the Marshal and a Colonel confused. Even if he had known, he likely would not have cared or explained. His consciousness was currently in a strange place.
A few days ago, after confirming the prisoners were out of danger and waking up through self-repair, Winslow had returned to his room to relieve his fatigue through sleep. This session had been demanding due to the speed and volume, as well as the energy the snake had converted from the black mist. He needed to sleep to organize the energy surging through his spiritual realm.
His consciousness arrived in a place as thick as ink, yet he could see a deep blue sky. There was no land; he floated in an unknown deep space where converted energy ran wild. Just as he repaired the spiritual seas of the soldiers, Winslow began to organize and comb the energy in this strange place. Soon, the wild energy calmed down, and bright stars appeared in the thick, dark blue space.
Winslow observed the scene carefully. At first, he thought his mental power had wandered into a soldier’s spiritual sea while he slept, and he marveled at how vast it was. A female’s spiritual sea corresponds to her rank; an S-rank’s might be a city or a small planet, while the B-rank he combed previously had a large villa with a garden. The content of a spiritual sea reflects a person’s life experiences and what is most important to their heart. Some speculated that Marshal Samuel’s spiritual sea might be an entire universe, given his SSS-rank, but no one had ever confirmed it because no male could safely enter.
A Guide’s spiritual realm, like a female’s sea, reflects the most profound things in their life. Winslow realized this was not a soldier’s spiritual sea because there was no polluting black mist and the energy was clearly his to use. Furthermore, the starry sky that emerged after his organization looked very familiar.
This was the starry sky he had seen in his childhood when his parents were still alive. He had a good memory and quickly recalled it. His father’s spiritual manifestation was a giant black python, and his mother’s was a snow-white deer. A white deer was rare in the White Tower, and his mother possessed incredible healing abilities. Combined with his father’s immense attack power, they were the top-tier pair in the White Tower. They had abilities that everyone feared or coveted, yet they were gentle and polite. This couple had raised a child, the later Winslow. Although it was unknown why two such warm people produced a child with a congenital lack of emotion, his parents loved him deeply. They often took him to the courtyard to watch the stars, telling him that one day he would find a lover to spend his life with.