Li Xiao’s eyebrows were tightly knit. Cold sweat slid down his cheek to his jawline, and his wet eyelashes made his eyes appear all the more sharp and aggressive. It was as if he had finally stripped away his disguise, revealing his true nature as an Alpha.

Cold yet fanatical, restrained yet thrilling—the intense visual impact perfectly interpreted the pinnacle of violent aesthetics.

Song Jin almost lost himself in Li Xiao’s gaze. It took a long moment before he found his voice again: “What ‘past life’?”

Only then did Li Xiao realize he had let something slip.

In their past life, Shengya had been engulfed in a decade-long civil war. Song Jin’s parents had tragically passed away during that conflict, never having the chance to give birth to Song Jin in the first place.

“What ‘past life’? Explain it clearly.” Seeing Li Xiao avoiding the subject, Song Jin grabbed his chin, forcing him to meet his eyes.

Li Xiao obsessively pulled Song Jin’s hand over to sniff it, his face completely slumped: “It’s all Meng Fei’s scent.”

Song Jin: “I just beat up Meng Fei, so of course my hands got a bit of his scent on them.”

Li Xiao knit his brows: “I don’t want to hear his name from your mouth ever again!”

As he spoke, he genuinely grew angry.

Song Jin: “…”

You were the one who brought him up first.

Song Jin had experienced his own ruts before, so he knew just how mentally sensitive one could be during this time. Seeing Li Xiao wanting to cling to him while simultaneously growing restless and anxious over the scent of someone else on his body—his emotions laid bare and out of control—it was simply deadly cute.

This was the first time he had ever felt such a fierce sense of possessiveness from this kid.

Mutual repulsion between Alphas was a natural instinct; it wouldn’t change just because of love or hate.

To the current Li Xiao, he was an “enemy” invading his territory, a target that needed to be expelled.

The closer two Alphas were in capability, the stronger their mutual repulsion and hostility would be. Yet Li Xiao had defied his natural instincts to accept him.

Song Jin knew from personal experience just how difficult it was to achieve this during a rut.

Li Xiao didn’t constantly keep words like “like” or “love” on his lips, but he proved through actions that the affection he gave was by no means cheap.

Compared to this, what did that little bit of AO mutual attraction instinct count for?

The person he liked was a living, breathing Alpha, not a wooden block that had no reaction to anyone.

At that thought, Song Jin tilted his head slightly and leaned in for a kiss, his pleasing voice laced with amusement: “Then come and make sure I don’t have time to talk.”

The hands Li Xiao had on Song Jin’s shoulders tightened, and even his breathing rhythm shifted: “Don’t flirt with me.”

Hearing Li Xiao’s tone sound as though he was on the verge of losing control, Song Jin brazenly bit his lip and took a suck: “What happens if I do?”

The moment the words left his mouth, Song Jin was pinned tightly against the wall. What met him was Li Xiao’s passionate kiss, so intense it felt as though he wanted to swallow him whole.

This closet perv.

He really knew how to put on a front usually.

He clearly liked him to death.

Song Jin couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh, only to be given a punitive bite by Li Xiao in the next instant—as if warning him for getting distracted and not taking the kiss seriously.

Being so close, Li Xiao caught that messy scent once again. His face darkened, and taking Song Jin by the hand, he strode further inside.

Having been kissed so fiercely, Song Jin’s tongue throbbed with waves of pain as if it had licked a bed of nails. Seeing Li Xiao walking so fast, he asked in confusion, “Where are we going?”

Li Xiao didn’t turn his head: “To bathe.”

This wasn’t a resting room; the space inside after entering was enormous.

Unable to find a room, Li Xiao’s patience rapidly depleted. Catching sight of the swimming pool to his front right out of the corner of his eye, he shifted his footsteps and rushed straight over.

Noticing his intention, Song Jin tried to dissuade him: “Hey… hey! Old man, Li Xiao, Li Meiqiu? There’s a room right ahead!”

Li Xiao didn’t slow down, refusing with silence.

Song Jin: “…”

He’s not listening to a word I say.

Forget it, whoever is in their rut holds the ultimate authority.

Reaching the edge of the pool, seeing Li Xiao let go of his hand, Song Jin helplessly began unbuttoning his shirt: “Just wait here and hold my clothes, don’t get them wet—woah!”

SPLASH!

Song Jin was pushed straight into the pool.

Water submerged his head, and the entire world turned quiet. As ripples spread across the water’s surface, everything before his eyes became surreal.

Song Jin gritted his teeth.

Daring to push me down—he better brace himself.

Just as he was about to swim up, a dark shadow appeared on the water’s surface, and Li Xiao jumped in as well.

Caught off guard as he met Li Xiao’s eyes, Song Jin’s heart skipped a beat, so entranced by his beauty that he even forgot to lose his temper.

The two looked at each other through the water. In this moment, it felt as though the entire world contained only the two of them.

Watching Li Xiao gradually draw near, Song Jin reached out to embrace him and took the initiative to kiss him.

A moment later, the sound of splashing water echoed in the pool once more.

Song Jin was held as he emerged above the water, taking a deep breath of air before looking at Li Xiao right in front of him: “So you like playing like this. You usually hide it pretty deep, huh?”

Water droplets dripped down from Li Xiao’s eyelashes. His pitch-black eyes seemed veiled in a layer of water mist—at times sharp, at times hazy. This expression of struggling against reason mesmerized Song Jin so much that he couldn’t tear his eyes away.

This kid’s contrast during his rut compared to usual is way too huge!

Li Xiao leaned close to the crook of his neck to sniff, his voice extremely low: “You don’t like it?”

Song Jin’s grip on his clothes tightened.

No way, who could withstand this?

Feeling Li Xiao’s chaotic breathing rhythm, Song Jin touched his face: “Release your pheromones. They won’t hurt me.”

Li Xiao was already on the verge of holding back no longer. Hearing Song Jin say this right by his ear, his pheromones suddenly burst forth.

The spicy scent of liquor surged like a violent storm—scalding hot and wildly uninhibited. Song Jin felt as though he were enveloped in a raging fire, with sparks drifting down onto his skin, leaving behind indelible marks after the sting of pain.

The old man’s rut came hard this time.

With pheromones this fierce, even he was about to be knocked out.

Song Jin: “You should still hold back a bit.”

Li Xiao raised his hand to unbutton Song Jin’s coat, dropping a gentle kiss onto his neck: “You were the one who told me to let them out.”

Song Jin bargained: “…Reign it in by half.”

Li Xiao: “I refuse.”

No Alpha didn’t want to coat the person they liked in their own scent, and Li Xiao was naturally no exception.

As the Alphas’ pheromones collided, Song Jin’s desire for conquest was amplified infinitely. If this continued, even he would lose control.

He still needed to mark him to suppress Li Xiao’s restless pheromones.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, Song Jin felt Li Xiao pull open his collar, only then realizing his shirt had already been half-unbuttoned.

Li Xiao kissed his way down Song Jin’s neck toward his gland. Feeling the person in his arms trembling slightly, he whispered in a low voice: “Jin, I want to mark you.”

Song Jin’s tone was somewhat unsteady: “Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?”

His remaining reason had long since burned away. Li Xiao pressed his teeth against the gland, only one thought remaining in his eyes and heart—mark this person, make him his own.

“Hss—!”

A sharp pain shot from the side of his neck. Song Jin let out a muffled groan as the Alpha’s domineering pheromones coursed through him, treating his body like a battlefield, waging war and fighting everywhere.

Why is it different from last time?!

When he was in his rut, he was bitten; now that Li Xiao was in his rut, why was he STILL the one getting bitten?!

This brat!

In the rest room.

Meng Shan cowered on the floor by the door, pounding heavily on it without receiving any response. Watching Wei Feng draw closer step by step, his sanity and reason collapsed completely, and memories of the past surfaced bit by bit.

Many things he had thought were completely forgotten were now as vivid in this moment as if they had happened yesterday.

Terrified to the absolute extreme, Meng Shan suddenly felt fear no longer. He roared in rage at Wei Feng: “What right do you have to come pick me up?! You’re not worthy! You deserve to die just like Zhan Qiming!”

Wei Feng paused slightly, standing ten paces away as he looked down at him from above, the dim lighting illuminating only his silhouette.

“Now that’s where you’re wrong. He was our teacher, after all.”

“What teacher?! He’s not worthy!”

Meng Shan slammed his hand against the wall in agitation, veins bulging on his neck. “No matter how hard I worked, I could never gain his recognition! You were the only student in his eyes!”

Wei Feng exhaled a puff of white vapor, speaking in a matter-of-fact tone: “I was simply stronger than you to begin with.”

Provoked by his words, Meng Shan screamed hysterically: “You were nothing more than a commoner! Family background, resources—which part of you could compare to me?!”

Wei Feng sneered: “My strength was greater than yours.”

Meng Shan: “Wasn’t that just relying on your racial advantage?! Without the abilities of the Bique Clan, you’re nothing!”

With his back to the light, Wei Feng’s expression was hidden in the dark, making him look all the more like a Grim Reaper coming to claim a life.

The rage of being dominated by Wei Feng during his peak years surged back into his heart once more, causing Meng Shan to throw all reason completely to the wind.

Even though Wei Feng was dead, that humiliating era remained deeply carved into his time, repeatedly slicing at him as the years went by.

Meng Shan bellowed out the words he had held bottled in his chest for decades: “If you hadn’t treated me like that, you wouldn’t have died so hideously! It’s all your fault! You got what you deserved!”

Wei Feng probed along with his words: “Just because you were dissatisfied with Zhan Qiming’s attitude, you killed him?”

Meng Shan sneered coldly: “Who told him to be so arrogant?! The spot for Major General was originally mine! Yet he insisted on recommending you! I come from high nobility—what kind of trash are you to dare compete with me for the spot?! He didn’t know his own limitations either, thinking that being a corps commander gave him so much power. I could kill him with a flick of my finger!”

Wei Feng asked calmly and composedly: “What about the people of the Gaofeng Clan then? They had no grudge against you, did they? Why send fighter jets in the middle of the night to bomb their residential areas?”

“They were too much of an eyesore!”

Meng Shan let out a contemptuous laugh, his expression becoming increasingly resolute, all his previous panic and helplessness vanishing without a trace. “Wanting to stand above others just based on racial genes? Dream on! No one can challenge the position of the Meng family!”

Wei Feng: “Most people of the Gaofeng Clan possess agile reactions, strong physical fitness, and better recovery capabilities than ordinary people. In comparison, your Mengyue Clan is indeed far inferior. Were you afraid that the Gaofeng Clan would produce a few more generals that would threaten the Meng family’s dominant position, so you wiped out their entire species?”

“Is there a problem with that?!”

Meng Shan retorted as if it were the most natural thing in the world, “These are the rules of the game! Whoever is strong gets to control everything!”

Wei Feng chuckled eerily: “The Meng family wasn’t noble from the very beginning either, wasn’t it climbed up step by step? Once you made it to the top yourselves, you cut off the ladder for others to climb up. Isn’t that a bit too dishonerable?”

“Should I wait for them to climb up and push my Meng family down?!”

Meng Shan’s expression was abnormally icy. “They can only blame themselves. Wouldn’t it have been fine if they just stayed down there obediently?! They insisted on climbing up and fighting my Meng family—this is the outcome you get!”

Wei Feng: “So you slaughtered dozens of species? Even if they hadn’t actually threatened the Meng family yet, as long as you believed they posed a threat, you moved forward with genocide?”

Meng Shan smiled with great triumph.

“That’s right, evil species deserve to perish!”

Wei Feng: “What defines ‘evil’?”

“As long as a species’ genes are superior to the Mengyue Clan, there is no need for them to exist!”

Meng Shan glared fixedly at Wei Feng, “Especially you, Wei Feng! You stole all my thunder! You made me lose all face in our social circles! You made me unable to hold my head up in my family! To think the Bique Clan could see stealth fighter jets and hear ultrasonic sound waves—you guys are far too evil!”

Wei Feng’s grip tightened, the cigarette deforming between his fingers, yet his tone remained as casual as before.

“So you dealt me a fatal blow when I led troops to reinforce the Gaofeng Clan? Are you even human?”

“You got what you deserved! Why did you have to meddle in other people’s business?! If you hadn’t interfered, you wouldn’t have died!”

Meng Shan panted heavily in excitement, using the wall for support to scramble up from the floor. “If I hadn’t received the news in advance, I really would have fallen into your trap! Wanting to deal with the Meng family—you guys were still way too green!”

Wei Feng narrowed his eyes slightly.

Received the news in advance?

This wording implied that the Golden Sparrow’s operation back then was secret, but who leaked the intelligence to Meng Shan ahead of time?

Wei Feng continued to probe: “You clearly knew I would go, yet you still sent fighter jets to bomb the residential area? If I had reported the situation upward, your Meng family wouldn’t have needed to wait for others to deal with you—you would have played yourselves into ruin.”

Meng Shan burst out laughing, his face twisting grotesquely.

“It was precisely because I knew you would come that I sent troops to bomb them.”

Wei Feng’s eyes darkened: “To lure me over?”

“If I didn’t make a huge mess out of it, would you have brought the entire corps in?”

Meng Shan said triumphantly, “Originally, those people of the Gaofeng Clan were supposed to die from an infectious disease. But because of you, several million people were blown to smithereens. Wei Feng, everything was caused by you!”

“Li Ye was truly naive too, thinking that he could deal with the Meng family using just you, heh.”

Meng Shan babbled on to himself. As if suddenly remembering something, his expression turned sharp, and he bellowed in rage at Wei Feng, “You couldn’t even compare to a single toe of mine! Why did he trust you so much?!”

Recalling what he had said earlier about “falling into your trap,” Wei Feng offered a casual smile: “Getting this angry just proves you really couldn’t beat me, doesn’t it?”

Meng Shan gritted his back teeth, rage accumulating in the depths of his eyes.

Wei Feng continued: “If you hadn’t had a helper back then, the one blown to death would have been you, and your Meng family—would have long disappeared from history.”

“Shut up! Shut up! Shut UP!”

Meng Shan leaned against the wall, gasping heavily for breath. “What I hate most is this exact look on your face! Disappear from my sight immediately!”

Wei Feng stroked his chin, feeling somewhat puzzled: “I’m very curious—who had the ability to tip you off?”

When this topic was mentioned, Meng Shan began laughing again: “Wei Feng, oh Wei Feng. You were strong your entire life, yet you died for decades without even knowing how you died. You truly are a joke!”

Wei Feng smiled: “Yeah, so let me die with a clear mind, little Shan-shan?”

Meng Shan laughed out loud: “Why should I satisfy you?!”

Wei Feng: “Aren’t we partners?”

“There is only deadly hatred between you and me!”

Meng Shan’s face went cold: “I wish I could kill you a thousand, ten thousand times! You were considered smart back then, covering for those subordinates of yours and detonating the explosives to blow yourself to smithereens. Otherwise, if you had fallen into my hands, you would have been sliced into three thousand six hundred pieces, chopped into mincemeat, and thrown into a smelly ditch!”

Wei Feng’s face darkened completely. The cigarette was nearly burning down to his fingers, yet he remained unaware.

Under the effects of the narcotic, Meng Shan grew increasingly unhinged.

“Every single time it was covered up so well, no one could suspect us… stepping on those evil species one by one under our feet, watching those survivors barely cling to life, struggling only at the bottom—it felt so damn good! ONLY YOU—!”

Meng Shan roared in anger: “Only you dared to truly threaten the head of the Meng family! You shouldn’t have joined the military, you killed everyone in the Bique Clan!”

“The Bique Clan was indeed very strong, I admit that.”

Meng Shan nodded to himself, “That’s why it deserved to disappear even more. I will never allow such a species to reproduce on the land of Dansi!”

Wei Feng: “On one hand hating me for threatening the Meng family, while on the other hand wanting to obtain my abilities—you’re very jealous, aren’t you, Meng Shan? Driven insane by jealousy.”

“Who said I wanted your abilities?! I was just doing research!”

As if struck in a sore spot, Meng Shan roared hysterically, “I do not allow the Bique Clan to exist! Nor will I ever allow your bloodline to mix into the Mengyue Clan!”

Wei Feng sneered: “Hypocrite. I was already blown to pieces, yet you specifically picked up my flesh to take back for research—did you want it that badly?”

“Shut up! Shut up… cough, cough, cough, cough…“

Meng Shan coughed violently. His aging body couldn’t withstand his prolonged emotional outburst, leaving him kneeling on the floor from utter exhaustion.

Wei Feng: “Unable to even admit what you want—you truly are pathetic.”

Supporting himself on the floor with both hands, Meng Shan laughed loudly while coughing: “Pathetic? You definitely don’t know how miserably the Bique people lived after your death, do you?”

Murderous intent surged in the depths of Wei Feng’s eyes, the fingertips holding his cigarette trembling slightly.

With his head lowered, Meng Shan couldn’t see Wei Feng’s expression at all: “I could kill them however I wanted—slice them into pieces if I felt like it, chop them into sections if I wanted to… and then erase the Bique Clan bit by bit from society… it’s almost time, my plan is about to succeed…”

“Very soon, the Bique Clan will completely disappear under the crime of being rebels, while my Meng family will rule Dansi with an unprecedentedly grand image! Who are you calling pathetic?!”

Wei Feng threw the cigarette butt onto the ground and crushed it out. In a few strides, he went over, lifted Meng Shan up, and threw a punch straight at his face.

The movement was so drastic that the military coat draped over his shoulders slid off onto the floor.

“Ugh!”

Meng Shan’s face was knocked sideways, a front tooth popping out on the spot.

Wei Feng asked in a cold voice: “Who was the person who tipped you off back then?”

“Cough, cough, cough… BLEAGH!”

Meng Shan was beaten senseless. In his daze, he wondered: how could a ghost hit him? However, the narcotic caused his ability to judge reality to drop sharply. After failing to figure it out for a long time, he instead reacted very quickly to what Wei Feng said.

“You want to know?” Meng Shan smiled, “The more you want to know, the less I’ll tell you.”

Wei Feng: “You’d rather be beaten to death by me?”

Meng Shan: “You can’t beat me to death, you’re already dead!”

Wei Feng raised his hand and threw another punch, pulling the man over to knee him in the gut before flinging him out.

“Ah!”

Meng Shan slammed into the door and rolled down, clutching his broken leg as he shrieked in agony, “Someone come! Quick, someone come!”

Wei Feng walked over and stepped onto his arm: “Are you going to speak or not?”

Meng Shan merely shrieked in pain, having no intention of answering at all.

Wei Feng squatted down in front of him: “Let me guess—was it the Zheng family? …The Qi family? …The Yi family? …The Gao family?”

However, no matter how Wei Feng questioned him, there was no change on Meng Shan’s tightly wrinkled face. Muttering under his breath, his eyes began to lose focus, and before long, he passed out cold.

Wei Feng cursed softly under his breath.

“Ask the other side how to handle this.”

09: 【Unable to establish contact.】

Wei Feng: “…?”

Wei Feng: “What do you mean unable to establish contact?”

09: 【They are busy and don’t have time to bother with you.】

Wei Feng: “…”

It can even be played like this?

What happened to doing the mission together?

09: 【Two medical staff members look like they are about to come over to do rounds. Hurry up with your movements.】

Wei Feng looked down at Meng Shan, who resembled a pile of mud.

The target was already unconscious; continuing to stay here held no meaning whatsoever. It was better to retreat early and make further plans.

“Leaving just like this is way too easy on this old guy.”

Wei Feng stood up, picked up his military coat, lifted Meng Shan up with one hand, and asked 09, “Where are they located? Give me their coordinates.”

First floor pool.

Song Jin sat by the edge of the pool in disheveled clothing, a bloody bite mark visible on his exposed shoulder.

He brushed back his hair, took off his shoes to pour out the water, and let out a cold, displeased snort: “What ‘past life, this life’—one sweet line after another, making me take another bite for nothing.”

Li Xiao went over to wrap his arms around Song Jin, pulling him into his chest and licking the bite mark: “Does it hurt?”

Song Jin shuddered, somewhat uncomfortably dodging away, his voice sounding chilly: “What do you think?”

Li Xiao raised his head to kiss him: “You’ll get used to it after getting bitten a few more times.”

Song Jin: “…”

Song Jin: “Can’t it be ME marking YOU?”

Li Xiao: “You want to mark me?”

Song Jin looked at the handsome face before him: “We agreed last time that when your rut came, I’d be the one marking you.”

Li Xiao: “If you can beat me in a fight, I’ll let you mark me.”

Song Jin: “…”

Fuck.

This kid’s personality actually changed during his rut.

Just as Song Jin was contemplating the odds of winning a fight, Li Xiao suddenly leaned in again, kissing and nuzzling against his face, being clingy to an unbearable degree.

Song Jin pretended to be angry and pushed him away: “If you don’t let me mark you, I won’t let you kiss me.”

The moment he said it out loud, Song Jin felt like he had lost.

He actually had to rely on acting shamelessly just to get an opportunity to mark him.

Li Xiao thought about it seriously: “Fine.”

Not expecting him to actually agree, Song Jin was somewhat surprised: “Really?”

Li Xiao nodded: “After we get back.”

Song Jin: “Then it’s a deal. You can’t go back on your word this time.”

Li Xiao held him and kissed him: “Mm.”

So clingy.

Song Jin was in a good mood, letting him kiss as he pleased: “Regardless of what your Dansi laws dictate, I don’t permit you to marry a second spouse. Not even a single glance at anyone else.”

Li Xiao: “Then you aren’t permitted to speak to or meet with anyone. You can only stay before my eyes and go nowhere.”

Song Jin: “Are you even speaking human words?”

Li Xiao: “This is the kind of person I am. Is this your first day knowing me?”

Song Jin: “…”

Dammit, I love it so much.

Halfway through the kiss, Li Xiao suddenly sensed something. Shielding Song Jin in his arms, he looked warily toward a direction with a cold face.

In the next moment, Wei Feng appeared out of thin air by the edge of the pool, resting his chin on his hand as he sized them up.

“Why is it that every single time, I manage to catch you two enjoying yourselves?”

Song Jin: “…”

Li Xiao: “…”