“What?”
After listening to Zuo Wei’s explanation, Wen Zhao still couldn’t figure out whether he was joking or not: “What do you mean the fog took Lu Heguang away?”
Kas was pacing anxiously nearby and, upon hearing this, began gesturing animatedly to demonstrate: “Just like this Captain was standing right here, then a fog drifted over, and poof! He disappeared.”
“You think this is a magic trick?” Wen Zhao snapped irritably, pushing him aside. “Where exactly did you separate from the captain?”
“By the river, about two kilometers from Qiao An’s original campsite,” Allen explained. “Should we go check that campsite?”
Wen Zhao frowned and sat down on a rock. Ezeal volunteered, “I’ll go.”
“No, you won’t,” Wen Zhao shook his head. “We only have seven people who can move right now. We can’t afford to lose anyone, especially with…” He glanced toward the tent as he spoke, and everyone understood his meaning. Salorian’s condition was no small matter; if they neglected him while searching for Lu Heguang, his pheromones could attract unnecessary trouble.
But they couldn’t just abandon Lu Heguang either. He wasn’t just their captain but also their companion. After persevering together for so many days, they couldn’t simply give up on him.
“Wen Zhao,” Salorian suddenly emerged from the tent, lifting the flap. The others quickly stepped back, and Kas covered his eyes, exclaiming, “Senior, don’t move! Your pheromones are a bit terrifying right now!”
Salorian: “…”
“Senior, you shouldn’t have come out,” Wen Zhao said, surprised. He had assumed Salorian would stay inside until they left the rainforest tomorrow. “Your pheromones…”
“I’ll act as a decoy to buy you some time,” Salorian replied, heading back into the tent to retrieve and put on his training jacket. “My pheromones can lure away most Alphas and wild animals. If that’s not enough, my wounds haven’t healed yet, so the effect will be doubled. Use this opportunity to find Lu Heguang.”
“No,” Wen Zhao immediately objected. “If the captain finds out we didn’t protect you properly, he…”
“You can’t just let him get eliminated for no reason, can you?” Salorian said gravely. “Or are you not planning to look for him at all?”
“Reverse psychology won’t work either!” Zuo Wei exclaimed after a moment’s hesitation. “Senior, please go back inside.”
Kas whispered to Allen, “Was that reverse psychology?” He almost fell for it!
Allen also felt a lingering fear: “Me too…”
Seeing that he couldn’t persuade them, Salorian ignored their protests. Without another word, he picked up his backpack, dumped out some medical supplies, and began sorting them while explaining, “These are for mosquito bites, this is for acclimatization issues, and this one is for…” He listed off a series of items, packed them into the now-empty backpack, and tossed it to Wen Zhao from a distance. Standing up, he dusted off his hands with a casual air. “Alright, I’m off. Goodbye.”
“Senior, you can’t just leave like this!” Wen Zhao tried to chase after him, but at that moment, Kas shouted, “The fog is back!”
“Hold hands, don’t get separated!” Zuo Wei, having learned from experience, quickly grabbed Wen Zhao and Ezeal, who was closest to him, and called out to the front, “Wen Zhao, hold onto Senior!”
Wen Zhao reached out toward Salorian. Before the mist enveloped them, he saw Salorian looking at him as he retreated backward into the fog. Wen Zhao even tried to memorize the scent of Salorian’s pheromones to use in finding him later, but when the mist dispersed a few minutes later, he couldn’t smell anything at all.
This meant Salorian had been “transported” to a faraway place. Wen Zhao was so furious he nearly jumped up. He grabbed his backpack, stuffed some remaining food inside, and said to Aizel and the others, “Get ready to find the captain. Don’t split up!”
Salorian opened his eyes. The first thing that came into view was an enormous spider. Its legs were fuzzy and appeared non-venomous, but it was currently enjoying its lunch on the web a sizable toad.
Half of the toad had already been eaten by the spider, revealing pale muscle tissue. However, the weather was so hot that it had attracted many small flying insects.
Salorian pressed his lips tightly together, swallowed, and remained completely still, using only his eyes to observe his surroundings. He had arrived in an incredibly dense forest, with deep red soil beneath his feet clearly not a safe place.
To the right was still an endless expanse of forest. He couldn’t go that way; even if there were no ambushes, he would likely get lost. Just then, he caught a whiff of gunpowder smoke coming from the left.
“They should have left by now, right?” The smell of gunpowder could linger for a long time. Had there been a conflict over there not long ago? Salorian decided to take a gamble. He found a small pond nearby, stirred the water with his hands, and smeared the muddy, earthy-smelling mixture over his face. He also tried to spread it evenly over his clothes, finally managing to mask some of his pheromone scent.
He checked his body for any spots he might have missed, then tightened his collar to cover the back of his neck and cautiously headed toward the left.
The further he went in that direction, the more vegetation surrounded him. Small shrubs were no longer visible; all he could see were various lush ferns. Salorian avoided the spore powder beneath the leaves, bent down, and walked under the fern fronds, letting the surrounding large leaves conceal his figure.
As he approached, the smell of gunpowder didn’t fade but grew stronger instead. Salorian grew suspicious and slowed his pace he could hear sounds beyond the chirping of insects and rustling leaves.
“Where did he run off to!” Not far away, Parker had a fresh knife wound on his face. The blood had dried in the scorching afternoon heat, and the emblem on his shoulder was nearly completely destroyed. Salorian remembered that on the first day they arrived in the rainforest, he had taken out a member of Parker’s team. That person had been separated from Parker and, in a moment of panic, had his emblem destroyed by Salorian. After that, Salorian had encountered Lu Heguang and the others.
Logically, Parker’s team should have had seven to ten people. Even if a few had been eliminated, it shouldn’t have been reduced to just him alone.
As he pondered this, two more people stumbled out of the nearby woods. “Parker, I didn’t see him, and also ”
Before he could finish his sentence, a sudden alarm startled everyone. The other person tore off the small remaining piece of his shoulder emblem and threw it on the ground, angrily declaring, “Fail or not, I’m done with this exam!”
“What’s going on?” Parker struggled to calm himself, but the thought that a kid in heat had single-handedly taken down four or five of their men made it impossible to stay composed. “Isn’t he in his sensitive period? Have your noses all gone bad?”
“He’s injured and won’t get far.” Salorian recognized the one speaking now Durant, the Alpha who had been with Parker the longest. He was the most ruthless yet also the most cowardly of the bunch. Surprisingly, he had been eliminated on the fourth day. “I gave him a stab.”
“Well done. Too bad you won’t get to see me teach him a lesson. Now go find a spot and wait for evacuation.” Hearing his response, Parker laughed, as if he had finally found a chance for revenge. No matter how furious Durant was, once eliminated, he could no longer interfere. Reluctantly, he followed Parker’s orders and headed back the way they came to find the staff for extraction from the rainforest.
With Durant gone, only Parker and one other person remained. Parker gestured, signaling they should split up to search for the one who had taken out so many of their men there was no need to guess who it was.
Who else could infuriate Parker this much besides Lu Heguang?
Though worried about Lu Heguang, Salorian couldn’t help but feel a surge of satisfaction from deep within that kid Lu Heguang was truly impressive!
However, judging from Durant’s words, Lu Heguang was injured. Logically, a young man like him, once injured, should have his Alpha pheromones flooding the area. Even Parker’s low-quality pheromones made Salorian feel uncomfortable, so why hadn’t he sensed Lu Heguang’s pheromones yet?
Salorian subtly sniffed the air, only to nearly choke on the smell of gunpowder. Covering his mouth, he tried hard not to cough, but suddenly a possibility dawned on him. His pupils contracted, and he turned to look in the direction where the gunpowder scent was strongest.
Hidden beneath large leaves, he could just make out the opposite clearing through the gaps in the foliage. A faint blue reflection from the dew that hadn’t dried since last night blended subtly with the black background in the forest.
Lu Heguang had actually smeared black mud on himself too!
But the color of his hair was too conspicuous any movement would give him away.
Gritting his teeth, Salorian lowered his head and burrowed deeper into the thicket of leaves.
Lu Heguang’s eyes were fixed intently on Parker and the others not far away. The wound on his waist throbbed with pain, but it was still bearable. He had followed Salorian’s method to bandage himself up roughly, though this wasn’t a sustainable solution. He needed to find a chance to leave this place and return to camp.
This assumption was made under the condition that the fog didn’t appear a second time. If the fog returned, he couldn’t be sure whether his companions would still be in the same spot.
Going solo really wasn’t the way to go. Holding his breath, Lu Heguang glanced down at his waist, where blood had already begun to seep through. He thought bitterly to himself that when he got home, his father would surely be heartbroken.
He could already imagine what Lu Ze would say he had worked so hard to raise Lu Heguang to this age, pampering him since childhood so he never suffered even a scratch, only for him to get seriously injured now.
“Search over there!” Parker walked past him. Lu Heguang’s gaze followed the emblem on Parker’s shoulder if only, if only he could destroy that thing, Parker wouldn’t be able to do anything to him…
At that moment, a faint rustling sound suddenly came from behind him, like a squirrel or perhaps a snake. Lu Heguang glanced out of the corner of his eye and caught sight of a large, dark figure moving toward him.
An ordinary person would have jumped in fright, but as the figure drew closer, Lu Heguang caught a faint, elusive scent of grilled steak.
Was it Wen Zhao? Or Aizel?
It could also be Cass, who hadn’t returned yet, or perhaps…
“Shh.” Salorian covered Lu Heguang’s mouth and gently pressed him down. The kid had smeared something on his head that felt prickly to the touch. “Stay down.”
Lu Heguang never expected it to be Salorian. For a good ten seconds, he remained in a daze, unable to snap out of it until Parker passed by in front of him again. Blinking his eyes, Lu Heguang tentatively whispered, “Senior?”
Salorian hummed in response, his eyes fixed on the bushes outside where Parker, still searching fruitlessly for Lu Heguang, led the others southward. Only then did he relax and ask Lu Heguang, “Where are you hurt?”
No sooner had he spoken than Lu Heguang took a large step back, putting three paces between them. If not for the fear of making noise and drawing Parker back, Salorian would have smacked him on the head!
“What are you hiding from?” Salorian reached out and pulled him back, only to hear Lu Heguang gasp softly in pain. The Omega immediately deduced the injury was around his waist. “A knife wound? How deep?”
“Senior, you shouldn’t have come,” Lu Heguang muttered sullenly. “Didn’t Wen Zhao and the others try to stop you?”
“They did, and they tried hard. You can’t blame them. The mist brought me here.” Salorian wiped his face, grabbed a leaf to clean his hands, and then leaned down to lift Lu Heguang’s shirt and examine the wound. To his surprise, Lu Heguang repeated his earlier move, dodging his hand again.
Salorian: “Hey, cooperate a little.”
“No,” Lu Heguang pulled up his collar, covering half his face. His eyes gleamed in the darkness. “Senior, are you really clueless?”
“Should I know something?” Salorian looked utterly confused. “How can I know if you don’t tell me?”
Lu Heguang held back the words “I like you,” unable to voice them. Keeping them bottled up felt suffocating, but saying them aloud risked scaring Salorian away after all, his hatred for Alphas ran bone-deep.
“I can smell your pheromones,” Salorian suddenly said. Lu Heguang froze, listening as he continued, “It’s not exactly fragrant, but it’s quite domineering the scent of gunpowder. I’ve never encountered a gunpowder-scented pheromone before.”
“Is it cool?”
“Very,” Salorian gave him a thumbs-up. “So come here and let me take a look.”
Lu Heguang shook his head. “No.”
“Why?” Salorian couldn’t hold back any longer and moved closer again. Just then, Parker sensed the Omega pheromones and circled back.
“Parker, is that Salorian’s scent?”
“Definitely,” Parker gritted his teeth. “I knew that bastard wouldn’t show up without Salorian around. Neither of them is any good!”
Salorian: “…”
Lu Heguang: “…”
Are they talking about us? Really?
“Hey, Alpha, go take them out.” Salorian poked Lu Heguang, mouthing the words, “Didn’t you say I couldn’t look at the wound? Charge.”
Lu Heguang’s pupils trembled, as if wrestling with a difficult decision. After more than ten seconds, he whispered, “Senior.”
“Hmm?”
“Let me bite you.” Lu Heguang blurted out as if throwing caution to the wind. “I’m in my sensitive period, my waist is injured, and my combat power is halved. You’re in your heat cycle, so the chance of drawing aggro is too high. One bite solves two problems. How about it?”
As soon as he finished speaking, he wished he could bite off his own tongue. Why did those words sound like something a scumbag would say?!
Salorian was stunned by his statement. For some reason, he suddenly felt as if Lu Heguang was radiating a holy light. “Damn, why didn’t I think of this method before?”
Lu Heguang: “Huh?”
The Omega lifted the back of his shirt, revealing the unblemished, slightly swollen, tender nape of his neck. “Bite me, quick, quick.”
Lu Heguang stared at that tender flesh, his Adam’s apple bobbing a few times. “Senior, you know that once I bite you, our relationship won’t be the same as before, right?”
“Obviously, we can talk about that later.” Salorian grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him closer. “Bite.”
Lu Heguang slightly parted his lips, revealing his small canine teeth. Finally, he lowered his head. His lips first touched the Omega’s neck, then he forcefully bit through the gland that emitted a rich floral fragrance. At the same moment, Parker began walking toward them.