In the past, the little child’s treatments always went smoothly. As long as his little sprout reached out, no matter how turbulent the spiritual energy was, it would be calmed down by the little sprout. His little sprout was very popular.
However, Uncle didn’t seem to welcome his little sprout. Uncle’s spiritual domain actively rejected it.
The little sprout, feeling rejected, curled its leaves a bit dejectedly.
The little child didn’t give up and continued trying to comfort Uncle with his sprout.
It was unclear how long he persisted, but finally, the little sprout found a weak point in the vast spiritual domain.
The little sprout happily squeezed its way in.
The man’s spiritual domain was immense, no less powerful than that of the current Emperor of the Empire. With such a strong force, the young sprout certainly couldn’t fully soothe it.
The last time someone as powerful as Ludwig experienced a spiritual breakdown, the little sprout did its best to help, but that could only be described as a valiant effort.
This time, during the treatment, the little child himself almost lost control for the first time.
His spiritual energy was of the healing type. Normally, the gentle nature of healing energy meant it would never go out of control.
But this time, the little sprout seemed overly excited. Especially after entering the man’s spiritual domain, it acted like it had absorbed some kind of fertilizer in its excitement.
The little child’s face turned pale.
The overexcited little sprout seemed to forget to monitor its owner’s condition. It kept eagerly trying to calm the man’s spiritual energy. This enthusiasm and energy left even the little child unsure of the reason.
It was unclear how much time passed.
The little child’s pale face turned even whiter as he murmured weakly, “Ning, Ningning’s head hurts.”
His head hurt terribly, but he still pressed his forehead against the man’s, refusing to let go.
It wasn’t that the little sprout had lost control. The little sprout was his mental power, and ultimately, it was he who commanded it. Once he entered the man’s mental power field, his instincts simply wouldn’t allow him to leave.
Within the man’s mental power field, there lingered a faint trace of another’s mental power.
The little sprout sensed that sliver of mental power.
The little sprout continued its work, and the little child clenched his chubby fists, unwilling to lift his forehead.
He wanted to stay a little longer. His little sprout also wanted to stay close…
Time ticked by, second by second.
In the mountains, the tiger that had just been chasing the little child to the point of tears now felt a significantly weaker fluctuation of mental power. He glanced at the giant python in suspicion and asked, “Has the mental power… weakened?”
“It has weakened,” the python replied, lifting his head to look ahead. “It only started to weaken after Ningning went over there.”
The tiger froze, a shocking possibility crossing his mind. His eyes widened as he said, “Wasn’t it said that An Nuo of the Sixth Planet is the only one who…”
“Savi said Ningning’s uncle is An Nuo.”
“Ningning has a whole bunch of uncles and godfathers. Even Ludwig is his uncle. Could this uncle actually be a real blood relative?”
The adults around Ningning were all powerful, and the little child had a sweet tongue, always calling others affectionately. Because of this, the tiger had never seriously considered that this “uncle” might actually be a biological one.
“Keep everything about Ningning going over there confidential,” the python ordered. “List all the beasts who saw Ningning just now and report them to me.”
“Understood.”
After responding, the tiger glanced ahead, then back at the python. “What should we do now?”
“Don’t go any further. Let’s head back.”
The python began to lead the tiger away, but before leaving, the tiger took one last deep look at what lay ahead.
Inside the cave.
The little child’s face was as pale as a sheet of paper, his head hurting even more than when his dad had taken him to get a shot in his bottom.
He couldn’t bear to pull away, but his little sprout had overexerted itself and was now on the verge of collapse.
After holding on for another minute, the little child suddenly flopped backward. The moment he fell, his eyes closed, and his breathing steadied.
He didn’t pause for even a moment—he fell asleep from sheer exhaustion.
Such a state of complete fatigue had only happened once before.
That time was when he was still very young, unable to walk and only able to crawl. It was his first time using his healing ability. Due to inexperience and overexertion, he managed to heal his father and uncles, but he was completely drained afterward.
This time, it was even more exhausting than before.
The little child, collapsed from exhaustion, didn’t even snore. His small face, pale as a sheet, was peacefully asleep. Next to him, the man he had been healing still had his eyes closed, but the rampant mental energy that had spiraled out of control was now slowly returning and calming down.
The two of them—one big, one small—slept soundly, with no telling when they might wake up.
Meanwhile, the tiger who had descended the mountain was still worried. Although he didn’t know much about the benefactor’s past, he did have some knowledge of the royal healing lineage. After all, there was a time when they were distantly related to the royal family.
The tiger walked slowly, mumbling to himself, “I never imagined that Ningning could be a descendant of the royal family.”
He knew what royal children were supposed to look like, and it was precisely because of that knowledge that he found it hard to believe.
“Ningning shouldn’t be part of the old royal family. He and An Nuo must have acknowledged some sort of familial bond instead.”
After all, not a single royal child from An Nuo’s generation, no matter how far back one searched, had ever been as plump as this one.
“Shouldn’t we go back to check on Ningning? What if he’s done healing? We could bring him down the mountain right away.”
“And how exactly can you determine that Ningning has finished healing?”
The python’s single sentence immediately shut the tiger down. “The mental energy waves still haven’t fully receded. We’ll wait. If we disturb Ningning during the healing process, none of us can predict the consequences.”
The python made a valid point, and the tiger had no argument.
Together, they continued down the mountain, where plenty of matters awaited their attention.
At the foot of the mountain, the beastman tribe busied themselves with their work. Meanwhile, up in the mountain, the little child remained lying on the ground, not even covered with a blanket.
He lay there until deep into the night, his complexion growing worse.
Thankfully, the man whose forehead had been in contact with the little child’s for so long finally woke up.
The man opened his eyes, his thoughts still muddled. His mental energy had been temporarily suppressed. Before he could fully process what had happened, the sight of the little child lying before him entered his view.
At this moment, the little child looked utterly miserable.
On the way up the mountain, the little child had taken a tumble, leaving his face and body dirty and grimy. After reaching the mountain, he had crawled into a cave, only to get stuck inside. In the process, his belly was scratched and the skin broken.
This dirty and pitiful sight fell into the man's gaze, stirring an unusual emotion in his typically cold and indifferent eyes.
He picked up the little child and carried him to the bed.
The man had severe mysophobia. The first time the little child had slept on his bed, he had replaced all the sheets and blankets afterward. Later, before letting the little child onto the bed again, he would make sure the child had soaked in the hot springs first, leaving him clean and soft before allowing him to climb into bed.
Now, however, the little child hadn’t soaked in the hot springs and was far from clean and soft, yet the man still placed him on the bed and carefully tucked him in with a blanket.
After covering him, the man sat by the bedside, lowering his gaze to observe the little child's pale and delicate face while sifting through his memories.
When mental power spirals out of control, memories often become chaotic. Some people even forget what they did or what happened during such episodes.
The man, however, could still recall, though it required effort and time.
In this small, quiet space, gazing at the little child’s face, the man finally pieced the memory together.
The little child had run over, gotten stuck in the cave, and he had rescued the child before collapsing into unconsciousness. During that time, the little child had pressed his warm forehead against his own. After that, he had slowly regained consciousness, his mental power calming down.
As the man processed all this, the usually impenetrable calm on his face finally cracked.
He stared blankly at the dirty little child on the bed. Though asleep, the child was clearly not sleeping well.
The man knew that when the child slept soundly, he would hum softly, like a little piglet making incomprehensible noises. He would also sprawl out his small body, much like a kitten exposing its belly.
In short, he wouldn’t be in this state.
The man’s hand trembled as he slowly reached out, touching the little child's forehead. As soon as he made contact, tears welled up at the corners of the child’s eyes, and his eyelids immediately flushed red.
It was clear the little child’s head still hurt—so much so that even in his unconscious state, he couldn’t help but shed tears.
