Healing the Omega, I Became the Whole Clan's Darling

Stray beasts...

When Wen Yuzhi had first arrived in this world, he had already run into this kind of creature on Kanirila.

They were mutated beasts that wandered between planets. After being exposed to cosmic radiation, their bodies had changed, and their temperaments had become especially bloodthirsty and violent.

These stray beasts had only the most basic instinct to feed. The way they acted was entirely that of mindless wild animals, impossible to communicate with at all.

Across the major star sectors, these low-grade creatures that only knew how to destroy had always been viewed as unwelcome things.

It was just that the damage stray beasts could cause usually was not that great. No matter how strong their bodies were, they were no match for warships and mechs with hardened shells.

And the most important reason was that stray beasts did not belong to any fixed race or group.

They were usually scattered all across a planet. Before they could ever form a sizable pack, they would already have been wiped out by the native inhabitants there.

So to the major star sectors, stray beasts were like an irritating swarm of flies. Every so often they would come cause trouble, but aside from being disgusting, they were not especially capable. If someone wanted to deal with them, sending out a military unit at random would be enough to suppress them.

And yet these same stray beasts, which no one had ever taken seriously, were a threat that could kill at any moment on Blackrock Star, where the magnetic field cut things off and conditions were primitive and underdeveloped.

Because of the stray beast attack, the base reacted immediately as well.

The members of the hunting party were gathered together, and Uncle Chong stood at the front. He held a torch in his hand, his expression steady and calm, with not the slightest sign of panic over the base being attacked.

If one looked carefully, one would notice that most of the people inside the base were calm too. They seemed to be hurrying, but in truth, everything was orderly despite the chaos, with everyone’s responsibilities clearly divided.

A base this large had not descended into frantic confusion just because of one sudden attack.

For the people living on Blackrock Star, harassment from stray beasts at irregular intervals had long since become routine.

Almost every so often, this pack of stray beasts would attack the base.

No matter where they hid, the beasts would track them there.

Later, they simply stopped hiding and faced them head-on instead, using the only weapons they had to drive back this threat again and again.

Faced with everyone’s eyes on him, Uncle Chong did not make any stirring speech. He only said in an even voice, “May you all return safely.”

After saying that, he turned around, and his gaze happened to meet Wen Yuzhi’s on the corridor.

But the old man did not pause because of it.

He strode forward, the black cloak draped over his shoulders hanging down and swaying as he moved, revealing the crimson lining inside.

And that broad back of his was like a drawn sword, hard and straight.

Even though his hair was already completely white, the moment he took up his sword, he looked more like a battle-hardened warrior than anyone else present.

The hunting party followed behind Uncle Chong. Among the group, Chong Fengshuang also spotted Wen Yuzhi standing in the corner.

He frowned, said something to Chong Fengxue beside him, then broke away from the group and came over alone.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay in the room and not come out?”

Chong Fengshuang sounded a little anxious.

He had not expected Wen Yuzhi to run out.

If this frail little young master happened to run into a stray beast, he probably would not even be able to get away.

But Wen Yuzhi said, “Can I go with you? I promise I won’t hold you back.”

“No. It’s too dangerous outside right now. Stray beasts aren’t like the pets you’ve seen before. They eat people.”

Chong Fengshuang thought Wen Yuzhi simply did not understand how dangerous stray beasts were.

But what Wen Yuzhi was thinking was that he could help them with his mental power.

“I can heal injuries. If you take me with you, I can help treat the wounded.”

Chong Fengshuang still wanted to say something, but before he could, Chong Fengxue’s voice came from behind him.

“Let him come.”

Chong Fengxue walked over slowly, her eyes resting on Wen Yuzhi.

Wen Yuzhi did not avoid her gaze. He stood there and let her look, and those pale golden eyes held no fear at all.

On the contrary, Wen Yuzhi’s gaze was very calm.

He knew what he wanted to do, and he was very clear on the risks he would face after leaving the room.

A trace of approval flashed through Chong Fengxue’s eyes.

Chong Fengshuang, however, still did not understand.

To him, Wen Yuzhi would be safest staying inside the room.

Seeing how foolish her younger brother was being, Chong Fengxue rapped him on the head with a look of disappointed irritation.

“On Blackrock Star, even a three-year-old knows to hold a dagger. No matter what he used to be, right now he’s part of Blackrock Star too. He has to learn how to survive here. Besides...”

She did not finish the last words.

Instead, she pulled the gun from her waist.

It was a small handgun, and it was old.

“Do you know how to use it?”

Wen Yuzhi shook his head.

Chong Fengxue did not mind. She briefly explained the safety and how to aim and fire.

“Don’t be afraid. When a stray beast really appears in front of you, all you have to do is aim at it and pull the trigger.” Chong Fengxue raised her brows as she spoke.

“There are three bullets in it. That’s enough for self-defense.”

As for what would happen after those three bullets, if Wen Yuzhi still ran into stray beasts, that would mean their defensive line had already failed.

And by that point, the entire base would be in danger of being wiped out, so there would be no point talking about any one person’s safety.

After taking the gun, Wen Yuzhi followed the siblings up to the fortress above the base.

Since this might be Wen Yuzhi’s first time facing stray beasts, Chong Fengxue brought him to the rear of the wall.

It was still the middle of the night. There were no lights outside. At a glance, all one could see was a pitch-black world.

But the atmosphere on the wall was heavy.

The tremor just now had been caused by the stray beasts slamming into the main gate.

Now they lay hidden in the darkness, completely silent, clearly waiting for the hunting party to come out.

And the moment Uncle Chong and the others appeared atop the wall, beastlike growls erupted from every direction around the fortress.

In the silent, dark night, those sounds were especially chilling.

Judging from the way the cries rose and fell, there were quite a few stray beasts attacking the fortress tonight. Front, back, left, right—they were everywhere. The fortress they stood in now was like an isolated island, completely surrounded by the beasts.

“Light the fire!”

Uncle Chong planted the torch into the wall, and under the firelight, the stray beasts below were exposed to everyone’s sight.

One pair of scarlet eyes after another lit up in the darkness.

Wen Yuzhi looked down once, and he could not help feeling surprised.

There were... too many.

The stray beasts gathered around the fortress could already be called a beast tide, packed so densely they resembled an endless flood.

A stray beast pack on this scale was clearly not normal.

Stray beasts rarely gathered in groups. Most of the time, they roamed alone on different planets.

The one Wen Yuzhi had run into on Kanirila had also been alone, with no companions nearby.

But the stray beasts gathered around the fortress now were too many to count.

Compared to them, the number of people on this side was pitifully small.

And yet even so, not a single person shrank back.

Uncle Chong summoned a wolf pack.

The hunting party split into two groups. One group mounted wolves and went out with Uncle Chong to fight, while the other stayed atop the wall, using composite bows to fire flaming arrows downward.

Bright sparks fell like rain, covering the hunting party below as they charged out.

Under the blazing firelight, blades scraped past fangs, and the moment sharp weapons tore through flesh, warm blood sprayed out.

The white-haired old man held a massive heavy sword and charged through the beast tide alongside the white wolf beneath him.

Wherever he passed, any stray beast that dared stand in his way was smashed into bloody pulp beneath that sword.

Blood splattered over his cloak, darkening the crimson lining even further.

Behind Uncle Chong, Wen Yuzhi also saw Chong Fengxue.

This girl, only fifteen or sixteen, held a dagger in her hand. Her movements were nimble, weaving through the beast pack like a fish through water. Every time she swung her dagger, a stray beast died.

And beyond her, there were many other members of the hunting party.

Mounted on wolves, wielding all kinds of weapons, whether men or women, old or young, all of them charged fearlessly at the front line.

Relying on sheer manpower, they forced themselves to hold back the enormous beast tide outside the fortress.

This was different from the battles Wen Yuzhi had seen before.

There were no well-equipped armies on Blackrock Star, no powerful warships or mechs. They did not even have hot weapons like laser guns.

All they had were cold weapons that other people would probably consider hopelessly outdated, and what they relied on was the simplest and most dangerous thing of all—close-quarters combat.

Wen Yuzhi did not take part in this fierce battle.

He only stood at the rear of the wall and watched from afar, but that crushing, oppressive feeling still hit him head-on.

Wen Yuzhi had very few chances to see a scene like this—this kind of frenzied, bloody, brutal battle.

He took a deep breath and walked down from the wall.

Below the wall was noisy too. The wounded were constantly being brought back, and the heavy smell of blood was enough to make people sick.

Wen Yuzhi paid it no mind at all. He went straight to one of the injured.

Part of that person’s shoulder had been bitten away by a stray beast. Flesh and skin had been torn off together, and beneath the mangled wound, white bone showed starkly.

It looked painful just from one glance.

But the person gritted his teeth and endured the pain, curled up on the ground without making a sound.

When Wen Yuzhi came near, the man seemed to sense it and lifted his head.

The wary, guarded look in his eyes faltered for a second when he realized the one who had come was not a stray beast, but a delicate, beautiful young boy.

He relaxed slightly, but his tone was still urgent as he warned, “It’s dangerous here...”

He had barely spoken when he saw the boy kneel down in front of him.

Wen Yuzhi did not release butterflies this time. He simply spread his mental power over the man’s wound.

A soft sensation fell over his shoulder. A faint itch rose from the wound, and the torn flesh began to grow back at an astonishing speed before slowly knitting itself shut.

In almost an instant, what had just been a fatal wound was healed.

The man stared blankly at the sight. Before he could even react, Wen Yuzhi had already moved on to the next injured person.

And so, one after another, he kept healing the wounded members of the hunting party.

But there were still more and more injured people, and their wounds were growing more and more severe.

When Wen Yuzhi was treating one newly brought back casualty, he found that even after the wound had closed, the person still sat there motionless with his head lowered.

Maybe he had already been prepared for it. Or maybe somewhere deep down, he had sensed it coming. Wen Yuzhi reached out a trembling hand and touched the man’s neck.

—There was no pulse.

His eyes were closed, and there was still a faint smile on his face.

In the final moment of his life, what he had felt was not pain, but something warm and soft wrapping around him.

This was the first patient to die in front of Wen Yuzhi since he had awakened his mental power.

He had not been able to save him.

Before Wen Yuzhi had completely healed him, the man had already died.

Wen Yuzhi stared blankly at the corpse, feeling at a loss.

The night on Blackrock Star was very, very cold. Snow had even begun to drift down from the sky.

The flurries, soft as willow catkins, landed on Wen Yuzhi’s long lashes, and his eyelashes trembled lightly.

An emotion he could not describe lodged in his chest, heavy and suffocating, pressing on him so hard it felt difficult to breathe.

Just a minute ago, this person had smiled and thanked him.

And in the blink of an eye, that once-living face had gradually turned cold and stiff right before his eyes.

‘This isn’t some greenhouse.’

Chong Fengxue’s icy words surfaced in Wen Yuzhi’s mind once again.

And it was only at this moment that Wen Yuzhi truly, fully understood what it meant to survive on Blackrock Star.

And just how hard it was to keep surviving.

“...”

Wen Yuzhi pressed his lips together.

When he chose to come outside, he had already been mentally prepared for something like this. But the shock of seeing it with his own eyes still far exceeded what he had imagined.

Wen Yuzhi felt terrible, but he did not have much time to grieve.

There were still many living wounded waiting for treatment.

He could not keep wasting time here.

With that thought, Wen Yuzhi wiped the snowmelt from his cheek, found a cloth and covered the body with it, then rose to his feet, preparing to look for the next injured person.

But after taking only two steps, he suddenly felt an intense sensation of being watched from behind.

Wen Yuzhi turned his head and looked sharply toward the corner.

At some point, the torch stuck there had gone out. Without firelight, the dim corner looked even darker.

Wen Yuzhi did not dare lower his guard.

His instincts told him there was definitely something in that corner.

He cautiously began backing away.

His boots touched the ground one light step at a time, almost like a cat’s paws landing softly.

Although Wen Yuzhi’s movements were extremely slight, the shadows lying in wait in the corner noticed that their prey was preparing to escape. So they stopped waiting and suddenly lunged out of the darkness.

Wen Yuzhi’s pupils contracted slightly.

Stray beasts!

And five of them!

He had no idea how these stray beasts had slipped through the outermost line of defense and then gotten around the wall to hide in this corner.

The instant his eyes met those scarlet ones, a cold chill suddenly rose in Wen Yuzhi’s chest.

He did not know whether it was only his imagination.

But for one moment, Wen Yuzhi felt as though these stray beasts had intelligence.

The way they looked at him was different from the others, whose eyes held only greed for food. In the depths of these five beasts’ eyes, Wen Yuzhi also saw a vicious, cold gleam.

Five stray beasts had surrounded Wen Yuzhi in almost an instant.

There was no way out now.

Wen Yuzhi could ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) only pull out the handgun Chong Fengxue had given him. But there were only three bullets in it, and there were five stray beasts in front of him.

...What should he do?

Wen Yuzhi forced himself to stay calm as he stared at the beasts.

They did not seem in any hurry to kill him.

They circled him slowly, as if trying to provoke him this way, wanting to see fear appear on his face.

That was why Wen Yuzhi felt these stray beasts were intelligent.

Because they already seemed to understand how to toy with prey before killing it.

Ordinary stray beasts did not do things like that.

But because these stray beasts were not rushing to kill him, Wen Yuzhi had the chance to calm down and think.

He watched their movements.

As they slowly closed in around him, Wen Yuzhi was also looking for a way to break the deadlock.

Very soon, he noticed that not far away, near the wall, there was a row of metal racks with empty metal barrels set on them.

Without showing it, he lured the stray beasts toward the racks.

And during that process, the beasts’ patience gradually wore thin.

Low, impatient growls came from their throats.

Wen Yuzhi knew that was the sign they were about to attack.

Just before they pounced, he threw himself into a roll across the ground, barely avoiding the snap of their jaws.

These charging stray beasts did not hold back their force at all. Once Wen Yuzhi dodged aside, they slammed straight into the rack.

The rusted rack instantly started wobbling, and the metal barrels on it came crashing down.

Wen Yuzhi had already run clear a step ahead of time.

The falling barrels smashed directly onto the heads of those stray beasts.

Wen Yuzhi was glad that although these stray beasts had intelligence, they did not seem especially smart.

And while the beasts were momentarily staggered by the barrels, Wen Yuzhi raised the handgun, aimed quickly, and pulled the trigger.

Three shots in rapid succession, and all three hit.

In an instant, only two stray beasts remained.

Sensing their companions’ deaths, they lunged furiously at Wen Yuzhi, their blood-slick mouths gaping wide with fangs.

—Danger!

Every cell in Wen Yuzhi’s body was warning him to get away from the danger.

But Wen Yuzhi did not dodge.

He watched the stray beasts leaping toward him.

He knew that at a moment like this, he should have been tense.

But for some reason, Wen Yuzhi felt very calm.

He even found himself involuntarily thinking of the hunting party member who had just died, and of all the other wounded people he had treated.

All of them had been injured while fighting stray beasts.

And when faced with those tearing fangs, not one of them had retreated.

Wen Yuzhi did not retreat either.

But he was not just standing there stupidly waiting to die.

Instead, while the stray beasts’ attention was fixed on him, several light, dreamlike butterflies had already appeared soundlessly behind them.