Mansendis hadn’t fallen asleep.
Sleep wasn’t a necessity for the Saint Clan. They didn’t need long periods of rest—going days and nights without sleep had no real effect on bodies as powerful as theirs.
Normally, at this hour, he would be handling state affairs.
But today, at Thorn Castle, he had promised Wen Yuzhi they would sleep together tonight.
After a bout of flustered chaos, once he had coaxed the cub to sleep, he turned off the lights, took off his outer coat, and lay down on the bed as well.
The cub, exhausted from a full day, had long since sunk into deep sleep.
Mansendis, however, hadn’t truly gone to sleep.
He only kept his eyes closed in a light doze, staying beside the cub—like a dragon guarding its most precious treasure.
Every so often, he would open his eyes and check whether the sleeping cub had kicked the blanket loose.
Of course, that almost never happened.
In the Saint Clan’s eyes, Wen Yuzhi was a little angel most of the ti. Even sleeping, he was obedient to an extre.
Lying on one side, body slightly curled, one hand clenched into a fist on the pillow beside his head—quiet and steady, sleeping all the way until morning.
So there wasn’t much for Mansendis to worry about.
But there were always exceptions.
He sensed sothing wrong all at once.
He opened his eyes in that light doze—and saw that the cub who had been asleep was suddenly struggling. At first it was small, then the movent grew larger and larger.
Wen Yuzhi’s eyes were still tightly shut. His face had flushed red, brows drawn hard together, and he seed to be murmuring in terror, “Don’t co over...”
He looked like soone trapped in a nightmare.
And the ntal energy that usually surrounded him—soft and gentle—seed to be violently stimulated in that instant, turning chaotic and unstable.
This kind of situation...
Mansendis wasn’t unfamiliar with it.
Because it was the warning sign of Saint Clan ntal-energy turmoil.
And recently, Wen Yuzhi’s ntal energy had been calm. Steady—almost too steady.
Mu Luo had examined him in detail and found that his ntal sea wasn’t quite the sa as other Saint Clan.
The Saint Clan’s power often ca with a cost: their ntal seas were dozens—hundreds—of tis more chaotic and violent than ordinary people’s.
From the mont they were born, the symptoms of ntal-energy disorder already existed.
Even newborn Saint Clan could show extre aggression. And because they were young and couldn’t control themselves well, while also being in the period where ntal energy was at its most active developnt, their aggressiveness could be even stronger than an adult Saint Clan’s.
But when Mu Luo examined Wen Yuzhi, the doctor hadn’t found that problem.
His ntal energy was soft—like a ball of harmless cotton.
No chaos, no violent outbursts, no constant urge to provoke fights.
When the doctor said that back then, Mansendis and Mond and the others had even thought Wen Yuzhi might never experience a ntal-energy eruption.
At least, not for now.
But now—
Mansendis was sensing the signs of ntal-energy disorder on him.
His expression sank instantly.
He had just reached out to move closer to the cub, when the next mont, countless butterflies appeared out of nowhere and blocked him.
They ford a dense, airtight net, wrapping Wen Yuzhi inside, faintly carrying emotions of rejection and fear.
He could feel their hostility toward him.
They weren’t trying to attack.
They were only guarding the cub with wary vigilance.
The mont he showed even the slightest intent to approach, they would tense to an extre. The ntal energy that was already unstable sharpened to a hair-trigger edge.
As if anything and anyone trying to get near Wen Yuzhi would be judged dangerous—sothing that might hurt him.
So they refused to allow anything to approach him.
Including Mansendis, the father in his bloodline. They still kept him at a guarded distance.
Mansendis knew what this was.
In a state where Wen Yuzhi wasn’t fully conscious, fear made him instinctively resist everything in the outside world that tried to get close.
A defensive self-protection chanism.
But normally, this only appeared in cubs who had suffered a major shock.
And ever since arriving at Dark Tower Star, Wen Yuzhi had been under Mansendis’s watch. Not only was he paying close attention, the Saint Clan in the palace were also watching the little Highness’s every move.
Even before sleep tonight, Wen Yuzhi had been perfectly fine.
So how had he suddenly been shocked?
Mansendis knitted his brows, but there was no ti to think it through.
Wen Yuzhi’s condition was clearly dangerous.
The butterflies were restless.
Even while wrapping him, they were still panicking—as if the next second they would carry him sowhere—
Mansendis didn’t dare to do anything reckless.
In truth, if he wanted to, he could use sheer ntal energy to force the butterflies back and take Wen Yuzhi away by brute strength.
But these butterflies were ford from Wen Yuzhi’s ntal energy. To a certain degree, they represented his emotions right now.
—Fear. Panic.
Mansendis didn’t know what he had dread that terrified him so badly, but he did know that a cub in a loss-of-control state needed comfort most.
He didn’t act rashly. Instead, he carefully reined in the cold, killing pressure around him, making it as gentle and calm as possible while trying to make contact with the butterflies.
The bone spines weren’t allowed to move forward.
They were Mansendis’s companions, and the Saint Clan’s strongest known talent ability.
If they got close, the butterflies—already in a hypersensitive state—would only beco more frightened.
So they could only lie low on the floor, aggrieved and anxious, waiting for the result of his contact with the cub’s ntal energy.
The first attempt failed—without any suspense.
The butterflies looked fragile and beautiful, but they were responsible.
Even facing the silver-haired sovereign, who was countless tis stronger than them, they still refused to retreat.
They were determined to stand in front of the cub.
Just as the situation was about to turn into a deadlock, Mond and the others arrived.
They had noticed the sudden abnormality in ntal energy here as well.
They had assud it was Mansendis losing control—only to find that the one truly out of control was Wen Yuzhi.
At once, every Saint Clan present looked ugly.
Mu Luo didn’t dare waste even a breath. After pushing past the Saint Clan standing in front, the doctor saw the butterflies over the bed—and just like what Mansendis had guessed earlier, the doctor imdiately realized it was the cub’s stress-triggered self-protection.
This situation was very tricky.
First, they had to figure out what kind of shock Wen Yuzhi had suffered. Only then could they soothe it properly.
The doctor looked toward the silver-haired sovereign.
Anyone could tell his mood was terrible right now.
He lowered his eyes, suppressing the agitation in his chest, and said in a low voice, “While he was asleep, he suddenly started struggling. I suspect he had a nightmare. He kept saying ‘don’t co over’...”
As he said that, he couldn’t help recalling how the cub had looked just now—eyes closed, crying.
Wen Yuzhi rarely cried. He had only seen him cry in front of him three tis.
The first ti was on Kanirila, when he had a fever.
The second ti was in the cave—just after he had hatched, when he still had no sense of safety in the world, and couldn’t speak, so he had grown anxious and upset.
And the third ti...
Was right now.
He was so frightened in his sleep that he cried.
Watching his tears spill endlessly, Mansendis had been helpless for a mont—then the next thing that followed was a pain in the chest he couldn’t suppress.
Even the first two tis, he hadn’t lost control like this.
That terrified, frightened tone was especially harsh to his ears.
“His ntal energy has been in a taut state the whole ti. I didn’t dare get close. I tried to soothe him just now, but it failed.”
His voice was low.
And after hearing it, the doctor’s expression grew heavier as well.
At the sa ti, the doctor was also wondering—what kind of nightmare could scare the cub into this?
Alvin’s face looked even worse.
The adjutant had gone out, then hurried back—and brought bad news.
“The soldiers outside are stirring up trouble.”
The little Highness’s loss of control was even more serious than they’d imagined.
Wen Yuzhi’s ntal energy had been highly active, and because he was unconscious, he couldn’t control it. That surge of panic and fear had spread in an instant to every Saint Clan on the warship.
In a species that existed as a collective, this was common: the core leader could transmit commands and will through a ntal link to the group below.
For the Saint Clan, the one who carried that role was naturally the Salilaino royal blood.
Soone like Mansendis could command every Saint Clan under him to obey.
And with Wen Yuzhi’s ntal-energy talent, he would be able to do the sa in the future.
But no one had expected the cub, in a state of extre terror, to erupt with unprecedented potential—manifesting a ntal link without learning anything, causing every Saint Clan on the warship to feel his fear and panic.
The Saint Clan soldiers who received that emotion imdiately exploded.
Heimo could still keep so asure of calm, but the lower-tier Ge De and Tas were like they’d gone mad.
Their eyes turned crimson in an instant.
Fierce rage flooded their minds.
It made them want to go imdiately and tear the culprit who had made the little Highness suffer so much into pieces.
One enraged Saint Clan was already terrifying.
Now it was thousands upon thousands of Saint Clan across the entire warship, feeling anger at the sa ti.
Even the adjutant found this headache-inducing.
Because if things went wrong, it could escalate and lead to a level of chaos not much different from a camp-wide riot.
Heimo and Salilaino were higher-tier. They could command and restrain those soldiers.
But the other way around—once the lower-tier soldiers fell into madness and chose to defy their instinct to obey, even Salilaino could be overturned.
Back when Tasiya ruled, she had nearly driven the Saint Clan beneath her to a dead end.
At that ti, their emotions had already reached the verge of collapse. If Mansendis hadn’t taken the throne later, the Saint Clan would likely have fractured and fallen apart then.
And now, the soldiers feeling the little Highness’s fear were also one by one in an abnormally agitated state.
The adjutant had no choice but to ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) rush over and report to Mansendis first.
“Your Majesty, you have to go see the soldiers outside. Only you can calm them down!”
But Mansendis didn’t move.
In fact, having personally witnessed what the Saint Clan were like when taking the throne, he understood better than anyone that the right move was to stabilize the soldiers’ emotions.
But going out to control the situation ant leaving here first—leaving Wen Yuzhi’s side.
And with Wen Yuzhi like this, how could he feel at ease leaving?
So even after the report, he still didn’t move.
He was waiting.
Waiting for the mont the cub woke up.
The adjutant knew he wanted to wait for the little Highness to wake, but the situation outside was sothing only he could suppress.
A huge number of Saint Clan soldiers had gathered nearby, and they all had only one goal.
Just like those butterflies—they wanted to protect the little Highness.
At a mont like this, anyone who tried to stop them could beco their enemy.
Alvin and Selet might be responsible for managing these soldiers, but in the end, they were carrying out Mansendis’s orders in his place. The real authority still lay in his hands.
Thinking that, the adjutant wanted to persuade him again.
But the sound of their voices reached Wen Yuzhi’s ears.
In a hazy daze, hearing those familiar voices, his lashes trembled, and he struggled to open his eyes.
Seeing the butterflies in front of him, his mind was still sunk in the dream. He hadn’t reacted yet—he even thought he was still dreaming.
He imdiately cried out Mansendis’s na and Mond and the others’, mixed in with a few sobbing “Dad.”
That was when Mansendis truly couldn’t wait any longer.
He walked straight forward.
Thankfully, at that mont, the butterflies sensed Wen Yuzhi’s emotions and scattered, barely making a path.
Wen Yuzhi—still sitting on the soft blanket—felt that familiar presence approach and didn’t think at all.
He stumbled toward where Mansendis was.
The first step, he fell.
Luckily, it was onto the blanket.
He shook his little wings, trying to climb up, but Mansendis was faster—scooping him up into his hands.
Carefully.
As if holding his most beloved treasure.
And the cub in front of him really was that.
His one and only treasure.
Standing in the silver-haired sovereign’s palm, Wen Yuzhi lifted his head.
The mont he saw Mansendis, he froze—like he was confirming whether this was real, or whether he was still dreaming.
But when Mansendis saw the cub who had been crying and calling for Dad now only staring blankly—silent and unmoving—his heart sank.
He lowered his voice, and spoke softly. “Zhizhi, Dad’s here.”
Hearing that familiar voice right by his ear, Wen Yuzhi finally reacted.
He flapped his wings and threw himself into Mansendis’s arms.
Mansendis froze, then in the next mont felt a faint dampness soak into his chest.
And the cub’s small, broken sobbing ca in uneven bursts.
—He was crying.
Wen Yuzhi cried so hard, like he wanted to pour out every ounce of tight, stretched emotion all at once.
The little wings behind him trembled with his body. The tips drooped weakly, and even the feathers’ shine dimd.
But he didn’t care about any of that.
Trapped in that dark place with no escape, cold and hungry, then assaulted by that piercing, ear-splitting sonic wave—
His mind had already been on the verge of breaking. And when he heard those people say they were going to destroy him, the last string inside snapped. The fear in his heart swelled without limit.
Even now, that terror still clung to him.
He could only burrow into Mansendis’s arms.
Like a frightened fledgling, seeking the familiar shelter that made him feel safe.
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