The cave was dark and damp. On the way to the entrance, they encountered several waves of running wolf kings.

The two hid in a concave stone crevice. Chi Yao noticed that one of the wolf kings was carrying a fox in its mouth, which looked like freshly caught prey.

After this wave ran into the depths of the cave, Chi Yao finally brought Jing Xi out.

“Are they bringing food to that thing?” Jing Xi asked.

Chi Yao’s expression turned slightly cold. “It seems so.”

Xiao Hong’s scans showed no signs of food storage in any of the areas, which meant this cave was not the wolf kings’ lair.

Wolf kings generally didn’t need to hunt for food themselves. The fact that they were rushing into the cave with food in their mouths most likely meant they were delivering it to that thing.

In other words, that thing’s status in the wolf pack was even higher than a wolf king’s.

This also confirmed their previous guess.

After walking for about half an hour, Chi Yao’s hand was suddenly pulled.

His thoughts were interrupted, and he turned his head to look at Jing Xi. “What?”

Jing Xi held his forehead and swayed, forcing down his discomfort. He lowered his voice and said, “That sonic wave is getting stronger.”

Chi Yao tried to listen carefully but still didn’t feel much.

“Let’s speed up.”

Jing Xi pulled him, sensing carefully. His eyes grew cold.

“It’s found us.”

Chi Yao frowned.

“You can feel it?”

Jing Xi: “It’s trying to drive us out.”

As soon as he finished speaking, wolf howls came from the depths of the cave.

The two exchanged a look and simultaneously quickened their pace, running upwards.

But the mountain path was slippery and difficult to walk on. They simply couldn’t outrun the wolf kings.

Chi Yao drew his gun and blew out the first wolf king’s eye with one shot.

The wolf kings’ hides were tough; ordinary bullets couldn’t penetrate them at all.

The two fought as they retreated. Even though every shot blew out a wolf king’s eye, it only enraged them further, leading to even more ferocious counterattacks.

Jing Xi let go of Chi Yao’s hand and, somewhat reluctantly, took off the ring on his middle finger and threw it to him.

“Lending it to you. Give it back to me later.”

Chi Yao raised his hand to catch it. “Who’s lending to whom? Have you no shame?”

Jing Xi: “No, I want the ring.”

Chi Yao: “…”

As they spoke, Jing Xi woke up Xiao Lan and activated its weapon mode. The special metal quickly expanded and transformed in his hand, soon becoming a long saber with a narrow blade, over a meter long.

It was the first time Chi Yao had seen the little robot in this mode, and he couldn’t help but find it novel.

Fortunately, Jing Xi was tall enough. An ordinary person holding such a long saber would have to drag it on the ground.

“Awoo—!”

A wolf king with a blood-covered face charged at them, its sharp claws capable of easily impaling a person.

Chi Yao quickly put on the ring and stood in front of Jing Xi.

“You, get back.”

The next moment, Jing Xi flashed in front of him, dodged the wolf king’s claws sideways, and the long saber in his hand precisely sliced open the wolf king’s carotid artery.

Wolf blood splattered onto the stone walls on both sides. As far as the eye could see, it was a field of crimson.

With a miserable cry, the wolf king fell heavily to the ground, twitching and struggling, before gradually falling silent.

Seeing this, the other wolf kings took half a step back, their bodies lowered, letting out terrifying low growls from their throats.

Chi Yao’s gaze shifted from the wolf king on the ground to Jing Xi.

In this narrow passage, in close-quarters combat, it was inevitable for him to be stained with wolf blood.

The scarlet blood and the cold eyes collided, creating an extremely cruel beauty that made Chi Yao unable to look away for a moment.

This kid could actually kill a level-five wolf king with one blow.

Too savage.

He pretended to casually raise his hand.

Photo taken successfully.

Jing Xi said in a cold voice, “That thing can control these wolf kings. We can’t fight for long.”

Chi Yao looked up at the cave entrance above.

Dragging it out for too long was indeed not an option. If for no other reason, it would be troublesome if they attracted the group at the entrance.

“Then let’s make it a quick battle.” Chi Yao clenched his fist. The ring made a soft clicking sound as the metal circle in the middle became sharp. “If you can’t hold on, say so early.”

Jing Xi rotated his wrist, flinging the wolf blood off the blade, and stared at the restless wolf kings. “I will.”

Hearing his obedient reply, Chi Yao was already prepared to run with a wounded man in a while.

But soon, he found that he was terribly wrong.

Jing Xi had completely entered a berserk mode, a complete opposite of the state where he had secretly hooked his little finger and acted spoiled!

Hearing a wolf howl, Chi Yao came back to his senses, stepped on the stone wall, and quickly flipped onto the wolf king’s back. The ring pressed against one side of its carotid artery, and the sharp spikes instantly pierced in.

“Awoo!”

The wolf king cried out miserably and struggled violently.

Chi Yao flipped over and landed on the ground. At the same time, Jing Xi happened to walk over.

“Let’s go,” Jing Xi said in a low voice.

Chi Yao glanced at the wolf king corpses all over the ground.

This wave was much easier to deal with than he had imagined.

“You’re not tired?” Chi Yao asked.

Jing Xi walked quickly upwards. “Not tired. I feel much more comfortable than before.”

Chi Yao: “…”

Jing Xi looked ahead and added with a blank expression, “It seems the doctor was right. The susceptibility period does need to be vented.”

Chi Yao: “…………”

The kind of venting the doctor was talking about and the venting you’re thinking of are definitely not the same thing.

Perhaps it was the smell of their own kind’s blood, or perhaps it was a message transmitted by the sonic waves. Not long after, wolf howls came from the depths of the cave again.

Chi Yao cursed under his breath, grabbed Jing Xi, and ran.

Just as the cave entrance was in sight, he suddenly heard a muffled groan.

Chi Yao’s hand felt heavy. He subconsciously supported Jing Xi and turned his head to see his pale face.

“We’re almost there, hold on—”

But halfway through, feeling the hand in his palm trembling, he swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue.

“Get on my back!”

Jing Xi shook his head. “I’m fine.”

Chi Yao’s face grew cold. “Hurry up!”

Jing Xi gritted his teeth.

Another wave of wolf kings was coming from behind, and there was a group squatting at the entrance.

In this situation, no matter how strong they were, a moment of carelessness could be fatal.

He, at least, couldn’t be a burden.

Just as he thought this, his waist was suddenly tightened, and the next moment, his body was lifted into the air.

Jing Xi was startled.

Meeting his astonished gaze, Chi Yao continued to run upwards while carrying him. “If you want a princess carry, don’t be shy.”

Jing Xi: “I’m not—”

Chi Yao: “It’s just that this princess is a bit heavy.”

Jing Xi: “…”

Since it had come to this, Jing Xi wrapped his arms around his shoulders and accepted it calmly.

He didn’t know if it was the stimulation of the sonic waves, but he felt the blood in his whole body boiling. Just controlling his pheromones from going wild was already taking all his strength.

He gave an order to Xiao Hong with his mind.

“Connect to Flying Dragon.”

Xiao Hong: “Connecting—Connected—”

As they approached the cave entrance, the wolf pack behind them also caught up.

Chi Yao stopped, observing the front and back. “Can the protective armor withstand a wolf king’s claws?”

Jing Xi: “Probably only one hit.”

The number of wolf kings in front and behind added up to no less than a hundred. The sonic waves could locate them, so the protective armor’s invisibility mode was completely useless.

If they wanted to break through, relying solely on the protective armor, they would probably be eaten until not even scraps were left.

Jing Xi: “I’ve already had the mecha fly over here. As long as we get outside the cave, we’ll have a way to get back.”

But the problem now was how to break through the group of wolf kings at the cave entrance.

“Let’s deal with the wave behind us first, then—”

Jing Xi patted Chi Yao, signaling him to put him down.

But Chi Yao looked down at him, showing no intention of letting go.

“Do you have another plan?” Jing Xi asked.

Chi Yao looked at the approaching wolf pack behind him and walked towards the cave entrance.

After just a couple of steps, the wolf pack from outside the cave also came in, baring their teeth at them.

Seeing Chi Yao’s expressionless face, Jing Xi’s heart suddenly panicked. “What are you trying to do?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw a golden light flowing in Chi Yao’s eyes.

In an instant, it was as if an invisible giant hand was pressing down from above.

Jing Xi’s breath caught, but he quickly recovered.

The air was filled with the clear fragrance of strong liquor.

It was as if they were in a bamboo forest, where a gentle breeze brought unseen sparks that burned everything, leaving behind a thick, lingering scent of embers.

Was this Chi Yao’s pheromone?

“Whimper—!”

A pained, suppressed low growl brought Jing Xi back to his senses.

His eyes swept across the front and back of the passage.

All the wolf kings were prostrated on the ground. Although their eyes were fierce, they showed no intention of attacking even as Chi Yao passed by.

Thinking of a certain possibility, Jing Xi was stunned.

Among all genders, an alpha’s pheromones were the most aggressive and invasive. There were high and low levels of alpha pheromones.

Generally, those of the same sex could use pheromones to suppress each other, which in the past was a means of competing for mates.

But Chi Yao’s pheromones were so strong that they could even suppress a level-five mutated beast!

Walking out of the cave, Flying Dragon’s huge mecha body flew over from above the tall trees.

Jing Xi had no time to think and had Flying Dragon land.

Watching the giant mecha land in front of him, Chi Yao walked over while carrying the person.

Before entering the hatch, he turned his head again to look at the cave entrance.

After releasing his pheromones, the sonic waves from that thing below seemed to have become clearer.

“Chi Yao?”

Hearing Jing Xi’s light cough, Chi Yao came back to his senses and carried the person into the mecha.

No matter what, he would have to come here again.

The hatch closed, and Chi Yao’s pheromones were sealed off.

The wolf pack instantly went into a frenzy, roaring as they charged towards the mecha.

Flying Dragon quickly started its engines and ascended.

Returning to the cockpit, Chi Yao put Jing Xi down.

Jing Xi almost lost his footing for a moment.

The mecha had a certain effect of blocking sonic waves. Now that they were far away, the feeling of discomfort had faded a little.

He turned his head to look at Chi Yao.

“Are you okay?”

Those golden eyes, he seemed to have seen them in that maze.

But at that time, the feeling Chi Yao gave him was very different from usual, as if he were a different person.

Before Chi Yao could speak, Jing Xi’s eyes fell on his hand.

“You, your hand—” Jing Xi grabbed his hand and held it up in front of him.

The originally slender and strong fingers had become even more slender, and the not-so-neatly trimmed nails had become sharp.

This was not a human hand, but a beast’s claw.

“How could this be?!”

Only after asking did Jing Xi realize his own voice was trembling.

Chi Yao glanced at it casually, not thinking much of it.

“It will recover in a while.”

But Jing Xi couldn’t be as calm as him.

“You can’t use your pheromones?”

Seeing him so nervous, Chi Yao laughed.

“I made a big sacrifice this time. Ten IOUs won’t be enough.”

After saying that and not hearing Jing Xi’s voice for a long time, Chi Yao was about to lift his chin when his hand suddenly felt warm.

Chi Yao was stunned.

He’s crying?

Soon, another tear fell onto his hand.

“I’m sorry.” Jing Xi held his hand tightly, his voice hoarse. “I’m sorry—”

Chi Yao hooked his chin and lifted it.

Seeing this face, he couldn’t control his heart from beating faster.

A beauty in tears was already exquisite.

A beauty crying for him, who could control themselves?

“I do like to see you cry.” Chi Yao’s thumb wiped the tear stains from his face, careful not to let his nails scratch him. “But, you don’t have to blame yourself so much for this. Just pay back your debts on time.”

But this sentence seemed to have no comforting effect at all.

Jing Xi’s eyes were red from crying, and the tip of his nose was also red.

His pitiful appearance was a world apart from his god-of-slaughter look just now.

Chi Yao felt he might be a lost cause.

He actually found both sides of Jing Xi to be incredibly cute.

“Jing Xi—” his voice was a little dry.

Jing Xi looked up, his eyelashes fluttering slightly, and a tear slid down from the corner of his eye.

Chi Yao’s Adam’s apple bobbed.

In an instant, all reason was burned away.

He held Jing Xi’s face and leaned in.

“Cough—cough cough cough—”

Just as their lips were about to touch, Jing Xi suddenly couldn’t suppress a fit of coughing.

Chi Yao paused, instantly regaining his senses.

“Are you in a lot of pain?”

Jing Xi clutched his heart, his breathing heavy.

“Can’t breathe—cough cough cough—”

Chi Yao frowned, letting him lean against him, his eyes scanning the cockpit.

“Is there any medical equipment here that can run a scan?”

Jing Xi leaned against his shoulder, dizzy and drowsy.

“Xiao Hei knows.”

He doesn’t even have the strength to talk?

Chi Yao woke up Xiao Hei and, under its guidance, carried Jing Xi to the sub-cabin behind the cockpit.

This place was like a lounge, but the furnishings were simple, with only a few military uniform shirts and jackets. On the small bed was a neatly folded, tofu-block-like quilt.

Chi Yao put him down and pulled the scanning device from the head of the bed, wrapping it around Jing Xi’s wrists and ankles.

“Master, scanning for you—”

Hearing the prompt, a magnified virtual screen appeared in front of Chi Yao, displaying a human body structure diagram.

In a moment, areas on the blue figure were marked red one by one.

In the end, a critical illness warning popped up on the screen.

Chi Yao’s face darkened bit by bit.

All of his internal organs had problems.

“Can it be treated?”

A virtual screen popped up above Xiao Hei’s head.

“Only the most basic emergency treatment can be performed. Activate?”

Chi Yao: “Do you even have to ask?!”

Why didn’t he come back immediately when he knew Jing Xi had a fever?

He knew this kid could endure, yet he still believed him when he said “I’m fine.”

The more Chi Yao thought about it, the more agitated he became.

“Yao Yao—”

Chi Yao looked at Jing Xi and comforted him in a low voice, “We’ll be back soon, don’t worry.”

Jing Xi looked at him, his vision blurry.

“Hand—”

Seeing him reaching out to grope, Chi Yao held his hand and gently wiped the corner of his eye.

“Don’t cry. I’m fine.”

Jing Xi stroked his sharp nails, his voice hoarse. “Why haven’t they recovered yet?”

“They’ll recover when the pheromone levels stabilize.”

Chi Yao glanced at his own nails, somewhat speechless.

Usually, as long as he retracted his pheromones, they would recover immediately. But this time, influenced by Jing Xi’s pheromones, his emotions couldn’t calm down, and the bestial parts couldn’t recover either.

If he couldn’t recover, Jing Xi couldn’t calm down either.

This seemed to be a dead-end loop?

Five minutes of emergency treatment had little effect.

The man was so feverish he was delirious, yet he still held onto his hand.

Chi Yao thought for a moment, lifted the quilt, lay down beside him, and pulled him over.

“I’m begging you to get some sleep, Major General brother.” Chi Yao gently patted Jing Xi’s back, very helplessly. “Don’t force me to sing you a lullaby.”

Jing Xi buried his face in his chest, faintly smelling the scent of strong liquor.

“You sing.”

Chi Yao: “…”

Seeing Jing Xi in so much pain, he tried his best to recall the lullabies he had heard in his more than twenty years of life and cleared his throat.

“Two tigers, two tigers, run so fast—”

Just as he sang one line, he heard a light laugh from the person in his arms.

Clear, cool, and hoarse, very pleasant to the ear.

“Do you have some misunderstanding about lullabies?” Jing Xi’s voice was very low, tinged with fatigue.

Chi Yao gently brushed the stray hair from his temple behind his ear. “You were the one who wanted to hear it.”

Jing Xi snuggled into his arms. “Mm, continue.”

This action reminded Chi Yao of Yao Yao at home.

Before the song was over, the person in his arms had fallen asleep.

Chi Yao looked at the virtual screen on the medical device. After his emotional fluctuations stabilized, the agitation of his pheromones also calmed down, and the repair speed of his various organs was clearly accelerating.

In just a few minutes, his fingers returned to normal.

About half an hour later, Flying Dragon landed on the tarmac of Garrison Base 333.

Jing Xi was still asleep. Chi Yao didn’t wake him up. He took the long, thick military coat from the hanger, draped it over him, and carried him.

Returning to the main ship, Yan Kai followed anxiously behind.

“Brother, what’s wrong with the boss?!”

Chi Yao signaled him to be quiet.

At this moment, most of the people in the legion were at the garrison base. He had contacted Yan Kai in advance, had the soldiers patrolling outside the main ship transferred away, and brought the person back to the lounge cabin where Jing Xi usually lived.

“He suffered some minor injuries. He’ll have to recuperate here for the next two days. Don’t spread it around.”

Chi Yao flicked out an authorization letter from his terminal—this was forged by Jing Xi himself before.

“Report the situation on the battlefield to me.”

Yan Kai looked at the authorization letter and, after confirming the boss’s signature was correct, his doubts were dispelled.

“Should I call the military doctor?”

Chi Yao looked at Jing Xi and hesitated, “Who usually treats him?”

Yan Kai: “Director Jiang, oh, that’s Jiang Ge’s older brother.”

“Jiang Feng?” Seeing the other person nod, Chi Yao waved his hand. “I’ll contact him if needed.”

Yan Kai wanted to know more about the boss’s situation, but he also knew that given his status, it was impossible to be told more. He could only leave, worried.

The lounge cabin had the necessary medical equipment. After he left, Chi Yao placed Jing Xi in the treatment pod and moved a chair to stand guard.

By midnight, the data for his various organs had stabilized and finally returned to the critical point of the normal range. But Jing Xi’s temperature, which had just gone down, rose again. In his sleep, he cried and murmured deliriously.

“Yao Yao—I’m sorry—I’m sorry—Yao Yao—”

Over and over, just two words.

When the last data point turned green, Chi Yao finally opened the protective cover.

Jing Xi’s bangs and temples were already soaked with sweat and tears. If you got close, you could still hear his extremely faint sobs.

“Just what kind of knot in your heart can’t you untie?”

Chi Yao leaned over and kissed the corner of his eye.

The moist, soft touch was addictive.

By the time he came to his senses, Chi Yao was almost at the corner of his mouth.

Looking at the thin lips right in front of him, he paused, but in the end, he didn’t kiss him. He got up, went to the bathroom, wrung out a wet towel, and wiped Jing Xi’s sweat.

After Jing Xi had fallen into a deep sleep, Chi Yao was completely unable to sleep.

He sat and thought for a long time, but still came to no conclusion. He swiped open his terminal and sent a message to Fang Liang.

Number 0520—

Fang Liang had just brought Chun Qin home from the lab when his terminal suddenly rang. He swiped it open casually.

Chi Yao: “At what stage do couples usually kiss?”

Fang Liang: “Fuck!”

Couples? Kissing?!

Chun Qin heard him suddenly swear and asked, puzzled, “What’s wrong?”

Fang Liang had an expression like he had seen a ghost. “Is, is the boss being held hostage?!”

Chun Qin looked at the message and pondered, holding her chin.

“To ask like this, he probably hasn’t gotten together with him yet.”

Fang Liang was so nervous he swallowed. “Sister Qin, what should we do? The boss seems to be serious this time.”

Chun Qin smiled faintly.

“Having this kind of trouble makes him seem like a normal person.”

Fang Liang: “…”

What did that mean?

Before he could understand, Chun Qin had already gone into the house.

Fang Liang was tearing his hair out, still unable to think of how to reply, when his terminal rang again.

“Forget it, what am I asking a single dog like you for.”

Fang Liang: “…………”

You’re not even off the market yourself?