Stars See Me [Interstellar] | Chapter 222 | Mending the Soul | Novela.app

A hand encased in a pitch-black glove and a slender, calloused hand were interlaced, fingers entwined. Evenhyller turned them over, examining the sight with great interest. "What is it?" Lei Ting asked. At this moment, he could not read any systematic thoughts from the other man’s mind. The scattered fragments of thought were fleeting; to seize them by force would inevitably damage the host. "Nothing," Evenhyller said. "I just feel as though your hands are very familiar. What exactly have you done to me with them?" "..." Lei Ting was momentarily stunned by the implication. He opened his mouth, for once at a loss for words. Seeing this, Evenhyller laughed. He seemed to take great pleasure in seeing Lei Ting rendered speechless. "It is only at times like this that you seem 'human,'" he said. "Will you really not tell me the story of our past? I am curious how you fell in love with me—and vice versa." Lei Ting’s sliver of mental energy processed this for a moment. In that instant, countless images surfaced in his mind, only to dissipate one by one. Finally, he withdrew his hand, his expression flat. "I forgot." ... Evenhyller’s lip twitched. A strange sensation—simultaneously familiar and foreign—rose within him, and his fist gradually tightened. But soon, he let out a helpless, soft laugh and sighed. "This won't do, Lei Ting. You know the problems are accumulating. Simple avoidance cannot solve everything." "But now is not the time to solve them," Lei Ting replied. He turned and walked toward the street corner, not sparing a glance for the darkness writhing in the shadows, nor appearing to care about the forest of silhouettes flickering within that dark monster. Evenhyller scanned the surroundings, his brow furrowing slightly. "Then when will it be time?" He quickened his pace to keep up with the tall figure, patting the other’s arm. "And... what is that about? Every time you come here, it takes the form of many different people..." *And you never destroy it when it looks like that,* Evenhyller thought. "It’s nothing," Lei Ting said. He seemed indifferent to the question, just as he seemed indifferent to those people—but was that even possible? "You have to face the problem, Lei Ting," Evenhyller said gravely. He tilted his head slightly, looking at the sharp jawline of the man beside him. "As the current Speaker of the Union, I think you know that blind avoidance only brings grief to those close to you and joy to your enemies!" Lei Ting raised an eyebrow, his heart unruffled. "Is that so? In that case, who are those 'close' to me?" *‘Grief to those close, joy to enemies’?* As long as he could drive everything toward the future he desired, no price was too great to accept. He only spoke this way now because his simulated sensibility suggested he should tease the man. "..." Evenhyller’s brow remained tightly knit. Over these years, he could clearly sense where the problems lay—both within the man himself and between the two of them. Having forgotten so much of his past, it was difficult for him to claim he could fully empathize or take it all to heart, but he would never turn a blind eye to it. "If this continues, do you know what you will lose?" Evenhyller asked solemnly. "I know," Lei Ting replied without looking back. "Tell me, then." "Everything," Lei Ting said. He stepped into a deserted café at the corner. Warm light fell upon him, illuminating his pitch-black hair streaked with silver, his high brow and bridge of his nose, and the pauldrons and insignia on his chest. "..." Evenhyller followed him inside and pulled out a chair opposite where Lei Ting had composedly sat down. "Then, what is it all for?" "..." Lei Ting did not answer. He simply gazed at the other man through his visor, staring into those cerulean eyes. For a moment, he seemed to see a sea beneath the sunlight. He always received such impressions from these eyes. "End this topic," he said, tapping the table. Two cups of coffee quietly manifested. "If this continues, I might actually get angry, Evan." Hearing that voice, which remained as still as an ancient well, Evenhyller made no effort to hide the spark of anger and sorrow rising in his heart. "It would be better if you actually *could* get angry," he sneered. Amidst the bitter aroma, he crossed his arms and leaned back, hooking one leg over the other as he asked the question he truly wanted to ask: "...Then, Lei Ting, why do I possess the characteristics of your power?" "..." Lei Ting, who had been staring at the surface of his coffee, looked up. "I know I can't stop a powerhouse like you from finding an excuse; you could weave a whole book of reasons in a millisecond." The blonde man stared into his visor. "But... Lei Ting, tell me. Why?" ...*‘Tell me,’ ‘Why.’* The person who used to say such things in his youth was now being questioned in the same way. "...Because your 'Spirit-thread' was incomplete," Lei Ting said. "I mended you." He turned his head, watching the pedestrians passing by on the street outside the café. They were of different races, genders, and ages, with different faces and lives... They also came from different habitable planets. Habitable planets that had already been destroyed by his hand. Those silhouettes moved back and forth, doing what they had done in life, saying what they had said in life. In this moment, vastly different cultures and lives seemed to merge into one here... Inside the café where only two people existed, Evenhyller did not look at this anomalous scene. He suddenly stood up, bracing his hands on the table, staring fixedly at Lei Ting. "Then," he asked hoarsely, "what was it that mended my 'Spirit-thread'?" Lei Ting could not help but sigh. In his current state, he truly did not understand why people always insisted on asking questions to which they already knew the answer. But even so, he answered. "—Me," he said. *** In the physical world, aboard the First Legion’s fleet. Lei Ting closed a high-security report on synthetic material carriers. He stared at it for a moment, then suddenly tossed it to Susanna beside him. "Destroy it." Susanna asked no questions. Before the report had even crossed half the distance between them, she raised her cybernetic arm. A blast of pale blue explosive flame erupted, easily incinerating it into nothingness. Simultaneously, Lei Ting briefly isolated a surge of power within his mental realm and calmly fell into thought. The report just now contained secret information from the Union’s Hyperspace Research Institute. Over the years, he had been closely monitoring the progress of hyperspace technology. After all, whether for the future of the Human Union or for the theoretically inevitable event of time travel, he had to be prepared. But this time, the report indicated they needed practical samples of space-folding technology—the more types and quantities, the better. The items requested in this application were impossible to collect within the Union... because "space-folding" technology was essentially an archaeological find. It originated from the Galactic Empire’s research into the Ringworld. Due to material performance limitations, it could only be applied to Stargates. Because Stargates were massive, they had a higher margin for error in all aspects and were better suited for stable self-checks. However, Stargate technology within the Human Union had seen almost no iteration for centuries. Even if someone did produce optimization techniques, they were difficult to implement. The construction cycle for a Stargate was too long and the cost too high. Of the hundred-plus Stargates currently in use across the Union, excluding the original "Chang'an" and "Rome," their basic planning dated back to the Union’s founding. Yet, by the time the Star Net ceased service, sixty percent of them were still not fully completed. After a moment’s thought, Lei Ting made a decision. "Su..." "Yes?" Susanna looked up. She heard nothing further, for Lei Ting suddenly straightened up in mid-air and turned to look at a nearby giant display screen. "Enemy attack. Prepare for battle," he said coldly. "High danger level. Main forces, retreat and protect the surrounding planets. Elite strike units, mobilize. Take a detour to..." He recited a relative coordinate. "...scout this location and check the number of the enemy's regular troops!" "Yes, sir!" The people around him, who had been immersed in their work, grew tense and responded loudly. Alarms began to blare throughout the fleet. Lei Ting rapidly sent dozens of commands to "Xihe" through his visor. At the main entrance, a flash of light appeared as Valianna rushed in, shouting, "What’s happening? Do you need my assistance in battle?" "..." Lei Ting paused for a moment. "No. You are responsible for leading the fleet in battle, Valianna..." He said solemnly, "Your soldiers are all here." After this cryptic sentence, he vanished into a golden light. Valianna stood dazed for a moment. Yes, she had wanted to step down for a long time. It wasn't just to make way for more capable young people, but also because... her protective instinct toward others, especially the young children around her, was so profound that it influenced her super-power inclination, making her suffer miserably in war. She was a protector skilled in counter-attacking, yet year after year, she repeated the cycle of "sortie, battle, withdrawal." Because compared to counter-attacking, in interstellar warfare, seizing the initiative was almost as important as early intelligence. In the early days of the first civil war, she had nearly caused the end of both her fleet and the mission planet. This was a heavy burden for her. And such burdens had been far too numerous throughout her century-long life. With a sigh, Valianna quickly adjusted her mindset. She reached into the void, summoning her massive war spear and planting it on the ground with a resounding metallic clang. "To your posts! Prepare for battle!" she barked, her eyes once again glowing with a fluorescent blue light. "A powerful enemy approaches. Let’s give them a lesson they won't forget!" In the distant void, Lei Ting manifested alone within the starless darkness of the "Bottom of the Spirit." Near the corresponding space in the physical world, a surging black-and-red battle line was sweeping in like a tide. To an observer in the rear, it would likely appear as a massive blue-shift phenomenon. At the end of the darkness, thirteen streaks of energy of varying colors flew toward him from afar at incredible speeds, soon reaching a level where their general forms were visible to the naked eye. A mass of flesh, a sword, a wisp of smoke long enough to span nearly half a conventional star system... Those were thirteen auras that had once held names within the galaxy, and thirteen Aberrants emitting S-class energy signatures. Moreover, their energy levels were still rising.