Like Lei Ting and every other student, Luo Xian was now a far cry from the person he had been at the start.
Practical experience, the weight of knowledge, and the sensation of holding power in one’s hands—all of these things could teach a person how wonderful it felt to be confident and to walk with one's head held high.
But for Luo Xian, there was one obstacle to all of this. A very significant one.
Taking responsibility.
Specifically, taking on responsibilities of a critical nature.
No one knew that what he envied most about Lei Ting was nothing else but that innate ability to remain calm at every crucial moment—that soul which never feared the burden of responsibility.
Luo Xian clasped his hands together anxiously. *It’s starting again,* he thought. It was happening again: that sudden, surging wave of anxiety that struck whenever he was about to face a serious event or a critical choice, accompanied by an unstoppable urge to flee...
But he couldn't. He couldn't run. He was a probationary officer of the Federation; he had to fight for the Federation and use its regulations to control himself, distancing himself from his cowardly past.
Luo Xian took a deep breath, looking up amidst the refreshing breeze provided by the air circulation system within the repulsion barrier.
Then, he froze.
He never expected that the man who was so steady and powerful he had become a psychological shadow for almost all his peers would be sitting diagonally across from him, watching him with a gaze of gentle concern.
...
Upon realizing Luo Xian had noticed him, Lei Ting nodded with a slight smile.
The youth, whom he hadn't seen for several days, jerked his gaze away as if struck by an electric shock, his body trembling slightly.
Lei Ting: "..."
...Was he really that terrifying?!
Somewhat helplessly, Lei Ting turned his gaze away as well. After scanning the other classmates who were also looking at him, he sadly discovered that their eyes flickered with apprehension for a moment too.
...Fine then.
He gave a friendly nod to everyone, then pulled down the provided eye mask and closed his eyes to rest.
External sounds were muffled by the barrier, leaving only the clear, built-in white noise for mental relaxation playing in his headphones. As Lei Ting listened, he was surprised to find that the recording seemed ancient: the sound of rain, the wind, the rustling of leaves—those were common enough. But surprisingly, he heard the sound of cars driving, the clinking of glasses, the flipping of paper books, and the rhythmic pedaling of a bicycle.
A bicycle... that was a term that now only existed in history books. Lei Ting knew this very well.
Consequently, in an instant, his ears were captured by that faint, gentle sound of tires rolling over wet sand in the rain.
As the audio played, he gradually sank into a subtle dream... When was that? Was it some evening? An evening in 2020, or perhaps 2016, where the sunset glow fell upon the plains from the edge of a drizzling sky, and everything between heaven and earth seemed melted by fire.
In a roadside café, someone set down a porcelain cup. The faint clink of bone china was crisp and pleasant; though it seemed a bit loud to Lei Ting, he listened with a sense of abstraction.
Rain struck the green belts and roadside trees, and the rustling sound was like the vibration of a window awning.
A breeze blew past. Someone on a bicycle hurried home through the rain. Inside the café, people bathed in warm light listened leisurely to lyrical music, watching that single figure ride through the darkness.
In the bicycle's front basket, there seemed to be something... what was it?
A bouquet of flowers.
Who were they for? He didn't know. He only knew that as they were washed by the rain, nourished by the rain, and had their petals beaten down by the rain, a nearly imperceptible fragrance was left behind in the downpour.
...
A moment later, Lei Ting suddenly opened his eyes.
A faint golden light flashed and vanished within his pupils. Having listened to the white noise for less than thirty seconds, he indifferently removed the headphones and placed them neatly back into their designated slot. Then, with hands clasped, he leaned back into the standard chair—which bound everyone with its safety restraints—and closed his eyes to rest.
On the other side of the ship, in an engineering control room, a girl’s figure staggered back, gasping for breath.
"'Heart-Voice'? What’s wrong?" The person beside her was startled and rushed to support her.
"I'm fine, Falin..." 'Heart-Voice' panted heavily, her forehead drenched in cold sweat. She pulled out a syringe and jammed it into her leg, murmuring as she endured the painful injection, "That was truly... a power as formidable as a star..."
"A star?" Falin, who had appeared on this ship for some unknown reason, was stunned. His expression grew increasingly grim. "Is he that strong...?"
"Perhaps more than that." 'Heart-Voice' recovered quickly. She said softly, "I used a 'star' as a metaphor because the most powerful energy collective I have ever seen is a star..."
Saying this, she shook her head. "We can report to Vice Speaker Angye now. I heard his 'heart-voice.' It was very... vintage. I can't describe it; it contained things that don't exist in my field of knowledge. But I can guarantee it was very quiet, very gentle... However, it was raining in his world. I don't know why. I can only go back, extract the data, and let the Parapsychology Team analyze it."
"Alright." Falin nodded without hesitation. He helped her sit to the side, then turned on a signal-jamming and cloaking device nearby. Bypassing the ship's AI detection, he began using his light-brain to transmit a message.
A short while later, he finished his report and shut down the light-brain. He then asked 'Heart-Voice', "How are you? Can you walk? ...Heart-Voice?" He called out, but received no response. His face suddenly tightened with tension. "Heart-Voice? Heart-Voice?!"
At some point, 'Heart-Voice' had lost consciousness. Her face was deathly pale, and crimson blood slowly leaked from her eyes, ears, and nostrils, dripping onto her long hair and Falin's clothes.
"Heart-Voice?!" Falin was struck with shock. He scooped her up and sprinted out of the control room.
Long after they had left, a technician who had fainted by the console in the control room slowly woke up. When he came to, he seemed to still be nodding his head to a beat.
"Ah..." He let out a yawn, muttering, "Uh...
"...Eh?! How did I fall asleep?!!"
...
Lei Ting floated amidst a sea of golden light.
Or rather, his spiritual form floated here.
This was his mental world; he knew that. How could a person not know when they had reached the depths of their own heart? Regardless of the reason he had come here...
The black-haired young man lowered his head and raised his hands to look at himself—well, he hadn't reverted to the ordinary clothes of his past life. He was still wearing the training uniform of a Psionic Mecha Pilot. That was the attire he should be wearing—daily uniforms or ceremonial dress were too much of a luxury for the place he was about to go.
Lei Ting blinked. He felt some discomfort in his eyes, but it wasn't entirely unexpected. Firstly, because the primary sign of the "Immovable" power activating was a golden glow in the eyes; and secondly...
Secondly, because he knew that everyone’s spiritual image would differ somewhat from their physical body.
Especially the head, and especially the eyes. They reflected a person's spiritual strength.
Lei Ting raised a hand to feel his head.
...He felt nothing.
He was somewhat surprised to find that his skull had undergone no mutation at all, at least in its outer contour. He almost thought the expected mutation had manifested elsewhere on his body, but after checking, there was still nothing.
Could his spiritual form be identical to his physical self?
That shouldn't be right... Never mind that he was currently a blend of two souls; even for other espers who could occasionally touch their own mental worlds, their spiritual forms would exhibit some degree of alienation.
Those alienated images were the manifestations of spiritual power "surpassing the ordinary," representing their inherent personality and power tendencies. They were significant and difficult to change.
Lei Ting, bewildered, felt himself up and down but failed to find any wings or a tail. This left him pondering with a head full of questions for a long time.
It wasn't until a while later, when he decided to stop wasting time on this issue, that he raised his arms to give his spiritual form a stretch. A foot above and behind his head, his hand brushed against something.
"..." Lei Ting froze.
*Prickly.* That was his first thought.
Next, he realized that the "Immovable" golden radiance was precisely what this object was emitting.
Lei Ting remained silent for a moment, then slowly reached out to feel the prickly thing.
Then, from behind his head, he pulled out a...
...Halo.
A golden halo, bristling with sharp spikes.
Lei Ting: "..."
Lei Ting: "?!"
With a jolt of shock that made his pupils dilate, Lei Ting sat bolt upright in his seat, which was glowing with the red light of the safety sensors.
The others in the inner cabin were resting with their eyes closed; a few had even fallen directly into sleep. The cabin door was locked, and a red holographic symbol—prohibiting opening during space flight—was projected over it, emitting a dangerous, subtle light.
Lei Ting understood the significance of those red warnings. After all, if someone were foolish enough to move around too much during deep-space navigation where a warp jump could occur at any moment, the scene would likely become very ugly.
Physically ugly.
He sighed silently and closed his eyes.
Well... he hadn't forgotten. Just now, a spiritual esper from some unknown source had tried to pluck at his heartstrings.
Then, that thing above his head had given the intruder a vicious blow. The radiance, like gold and sunlight, had emitted a power akin to nuclear fission, directly whipping the enemy who tried to eavesdrop on his mental world right out of it. And that sun-like halo—sharp, regular, full of design, resembling both a crown and an ornament, or perhaps some divine Buddhist symbol—remained as immovable as a mountain.
That was the form his power and his spiritual alienation tendency took upon his spiritual body.
Intense. Truly intense. This was far too intense.
He knew the other party was definitely nearby, and he had already memorized their spiritual signature. As long as he expanded his perception and they were within range, he would be able to recognize them.
For such a probe—one that was hard to view as anything but malicious—to appear on a ship bound for the First Legion, Lei Ting didn't think it was a coincidence.
Lei Ting didn't trigger the alarm. Instead, he put on the headphones to listen. As expected, what was playing uniformly inside was not white noise, but pure and soft lyrical music.
Presumably, someone had exploited the curiosity inherent in new recruits to gain a deeper understanding of his soul... Unfortunately, after he had contentedly finished listening to that wonderful white noise, the other party had unexpectedly suffered a spiritual nuclear explosion.
The last time someone dared to strike at his spirit, he had helped them "cheer up" in a way that left both sides wounded. This time, someone wanted to strike at his spirit, and he had conveniently helped them "crack their skull." Perhaps this spirit of mutual assistance was also a way of staying true to his original intentions.
It was just a pity that this time, there wouldn't be a "Starstream" to add a layer of spiritual protection for him...
Because it wasn't necessary.
Thinking of that azure sea under the sunlight, Lei Ting suddenly smiled.
Seen through the repulsion barrier, it looked as if he were having a pleasant dream.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 心音 | Heart-Voice | Codename for the psychic spy; literally "heart sound" or "soul sound." |
| 法林 | Falin | A character appearing to work for Vice Speaker Angye. |
| 昂耶 | Angye | A Vice Speaker of the Federation. |
| 超心理小组 | Parapsychology Team | A specialized group for analyzing psychic/mental data. |
| 不动 | Immovable | Lei Ting's core power/technique, likely referencing Acala (The Immovable One). |
| 星流 | Starstream | A character/entity mentioned as having provided mental protection in the past. |
