Audrose paused for a moment before asking, "So you brought me here today because you've found a solution?"

"Yes." Only then did Avid bring up the main topic. He raised his hand to open the freezer beside them, took out a row of reagents held by mini freezing devices, and handed them over. "After multiple analyses, we have developed a drug that can repair brother's condition on the genetic level. It has passed the stability test of the Empire's Genetic Experiment Research General Hospital, and safety has been confirmed to be no issue."

Audrose stared at that row of pale blue reagents for several seconds before reaching out to take them, carefully examining them.

"But it has an undeniable side effect," Avid continued. "After using it, it may lead to the complete fusion of the spiritual body and the original body, which means the spiritual body will disappear... Although my brother is now stronger than before even without a spiritual body, the final decision is still in your own hands. There are three doses of medicine here, take them all back with you. You can send them for testing and slowly consider it."

Audrose lowered his eyes, a hint of gloom flashing in them, as if sighing about something, yet his face remained expressionless.

After his brother left, Avid, who had been very composed, suddenly let out a long sigh and sprawled on the lab bench.

His dragon had appeared at some point and was curled up at his feet, looking up at him with emerald eyes.

He kicked his dragon and asked, "If it just disappears like this... You will miss it a lot, right?"

The dragon nuzzled his leg.

......

Three days later, Audrose submitted an application for a one-year leave to the military department.

— He then very calmly abused his authority and approved it himself.

The border situation was stable and no longer required his presence, so he decided to travel.

He had once made a promise with someone that when the war ended, he would take that person to travel on a planet.

Even though the person he made the promise with was no longer by his side, and the flowering season on that planet had just begun, different from the time they had agreed upon, he still decided to go alone and fulfill that promise.

Reunion, a planet symbolizing reunion, could only meet its traveling companion once every thirty years.

Audrose used to think it was a bit unlucky, but now he envied it a little.

Even if one had to wait thirty years to meet, there was always hope, better than never being able to meet again.

So while all the citizens of the empire were waiting to enthusiastically praise their marshal who had just returned from the border, the marshal himself had already boarded a starship for a long voyage and left the interstellar port of the capital planet alone.

Turning on the autopilot mode and gazing at the dark universe outside the observation window, Audrose took out a small black box from his spatial ring and slowly caressed the rough box wall with his fingertips, a nostalgic look in his eyes.

If Su Duan were here, he would definitely recognize at a glance that this box was the one Audrose's spiritual body had taken him to dig up in the garden.

The night before departure, the dragon once again dug out this box from the garden, only this time, it gifted it to Audrose.

After staring at the black box in his hand for a while, Audrose turned his gaze back to the dark universe outside the window, a hint of inexplicable confusion appearing in his eyes.

In fact, the safety tests of the medicine Avid gave him had all passed, but he still hadn't chosen to take it.

It wasn't that he didn't want to cure the illness, but he discovered that before he drank that dose of medicine, those forgotten memories had already started to return.

He remembered that rainy night Avid mentioned, the black box filled with gifts hidden in the garden, and the big and small details he had forgotten over the past ten years... Those dust-covered times all lined up one by one and returned to his memory puzzle.

...Including those nights when his spiritual body went to the little slave's room and teased him until he couldn't stop washing his underwear.

At that time, he himself was too dull to realize his own feelings, but his frank spiritual body had already impatiently made a move, and the thought of it also made one feel subtle.

Thinking of the cute appearance of the little slave being teased every night and having to pretend nothing happened during the day, Audrose couldn't help but curve his brows and eyes, but after a few seconds, the hint of a smile in his eyes extinguished and returned to deadness.

This was because he quickly remembered that the little slave was gone, and all he could grasp were objects that still carried a bit of the little slave's scent, like the box in his hand.

The starship continued to advance steadily. On the third day, Audrose picked up all his lost memories; on the fourth day, he drank the medicine Avid prepared for him.

The spiritual body seemed to sense something and suddenly appeared in the starship, lowering its head at him and letting out a low cry.

Audrose looked up at its icy blue eyes, identical to his own, and saw in them a near-relieved sorrow.

Audrose looked up at its icy blue eyes, identical to his own, and saw in them a near-relieved sorrow, just like in his own eyes.

— He now understood the emperor's feelings. When a companion departed, living alone became a torturous thing.

In front of a starship that could now reach speeds of several light-years, space travel was no longer lengthy.

And the side effects of the drug quickly began to show.

When a third of the journey had passed, his dragon had already lost the ability to materialize.

When half of the journey was completed, that huge body began to turn transparent.

When only a quarter remained, the spiritual body had become as thin as a transparent creature, almost imperceptible to the naked eye without careful observation.

Finally, when the starship landed on the soil of Reunion and the ship doors opened to both sides, revealing a small piece of gentle scenery, Audrose felt an emptiness in his heart, yet inexplicably full. His spiritual body completely merged with him, its form dissipating from the world.

And in that instant, his pupils also stood up, taking on the form of a fierce beast.

Stepping out of the starship onto the soft, petal-covered soil, the sight before him was a beautiful scene of flourishing flowers and entwined flowering trees as if separated by clouds, but Audrose was indifferent to it, coldly lowering his brows and eyes.

What moved him was never the stunning scenery, but the person in anticipation who could view the scenery together.

Now that the person was gone, the scenery had no meaning.

He opened the map navigation on his personal terminal, preparing to find a place with fewer flowers to rest temporarily.

Since he had made an agreement with the little slave to stay here for a while, he had to fulfill it properly.

However, just as he lowered his head, a somewhat intense wind suddenly blew, carrying a rich floral fragrance past his nose.

Audrose's movement paused for a moment.

After the evolution of his spiritual power, his five senses had also evolved. So amidst these sweet floral scents, he keenly smelled a strange bittersweet aroma.

It wasn't the smell of flowers.

The next second, Audrose was dazed for a moment, and his originally vertical pupils suddenly returned to those of a normal human. Meanwhile, his spirit beast, which should have already dissipated, also appeared.

However, after appearing, the spirit beast didn't even spare him a glance. It raised its head, sniffing the air in all directions, then suddenly flapped its wings and dashed off frantically towards a particular direction.

Watching the retreating figure of his spirit beast, Audrose: "..."