Males really couldn’t stand hearing the words “you can’t.”
Especially at a time like this.
Provoked by Yunyang, Pei Wenye threw away what little reason he had left. His earlier restraint vanished completely.
Yunyang begged for mercy several times, but the male in rut could no longer hear her.
It wasn’t just Yunyang who had gone nearly two months without intimacy—the nine beast husbands had as well.
Pei Wenye seemed determined to make up for everything they had missed during those two months, and he put all his effort into it.
Eventually, Yunyang cried herself to sleep.
She was thoroughly satisfied.
Looking at Yunyang as she slept, Pei Wenye’s features softened. He lowered his head and placed a gentle kiss between her brows.
When he raised his head again, something caught his peripheral vision: a length of vine tightly coiled around Yunyang’s wrist.
Although they had been gone for so many days and had even left the Federation’s star sector, the vine, nourished by supernatural power, was still bursting with life. There wasn’t the slightest sign of withering.
Pei Wenye thoughtfully pinched the vine and tentatively infused it with a little of his own power.
He possessed water-based abilities. Wood thrived on water, and the tip of the vine curled slightly, but apart from that, there was no other reaction.
They were still too far apart. If they were in the same star cluster, perhaps he could use this to contact Leonardo. What a pity…
Pei Wenye sighed silently, then carefully lifted Yunyang and carried her to the bathroom, where he ran some water and helped her clean up.
·
Yunyang slept until a little after five in the afternoon.
She had been busy with the war on the Insect Star, and after arriving on this abandoned planet, she had also struggled to adjust. It had been a long time since she had slept so deeply and for so long.
Now that she was well rested, she felt much more energetic—and ready to get back to work.
Yunyang washed up first. While eating, she once again sent a message to everyone on her contact list, as was her custom.
The message still failed to send, but she wasn’t discouraged. The supplies in her spatial storage ring were enough to feed two people for a year or two. She refused to believe she couldn’t get out of this wretched place within that time!
After the meal, Yunyang dragged Pei Wenye outside for a walk to aid digestion. Aside from when they had been on the Insect Star, she had always kept up this good habit.
The area around the living pod was as quiet as ever. The sound of their footsteps and breathing could be heard clearly.
Having stayed here for several days, Yunyang had more or less grown accustomed to the silence.
Pei Wenye walked beside her and tentatively pinched her fingertips. When she didn’t resist, he relaxed and laced his fingers through hers.
Neither of them dared to go too far. They simply wandered slowly around the living pod.
Just as they were about to return after their walk, Yunyang suddenly noticed black smoke rising in the distance.
She instinctively turned to look at Pei Wenye. His expression had also visibly grown serious.
Over the past few days, he and his Mistress had piloted their mecha and thoroughly explored the surrounding area, confirming that there were no other people or creatures on this abandoned planet.
But the black smoke clearly indicated that something was burning. The weather had been clear for days, so there was no possibility that lightning had caused it.
In other words, there should be someone over there.
Pei Wenye’s first instinct was to send Yunyang back to the living pod while he went to investigate.
But he quickly realized that the living pod was portable and hadn’t been equipped with much in the way of defensive systems. Its defensive capability was only about equal to that of an A-rank defense-type ability user.
He still needed to go with his Mistress.
Pei Wenye lowered his head and asked Yunyang for her opinion. “Mistress, shall we go take a look?”
“All right.”
Yunyang nodded, temporarily put away the foldable living pod, and boarded the combat mecha with Pei Wenye. They headed toward the place where the black smoke was rising.
Once the combat mecha switched into aircraft mode, it moved extremely quickly. Even so, it still took them more than half an hour to reach their destination.
At the mecha’s control console, Yunyang stared intently at the light screen before her.
On the suspended pale-blue display, the ground gradually changed from withered yellow to charred black. Thick black smoke reduced visibility to almost nothing.
Yunyang switched on the mecha’s lighting system. With the aid of the powerful lights, she saw what lay within the smoke—
A large spacecraft that had crash-landed.
Yunyang’s eyes widened, and she turned excitedly toward Pei Wenye. “A-Ye, it’s a large spacecraft!”
Since being sent to this abandoned planet, this was the first spacecraft she had seen.
A ship like this couldn’t have appeared here for no reason. It had probably collided with a piece of interstellar debris during a jump or while traveling through space, causing it to crash onto this planet.
That meant there had to be someone inside.
They still didn’t know whether the people aboard were alive or dead, but that didn’t stop Yunyang from feeling excited.
Pei Wenye knew why Yunyang was excited. He nodded cooperatively, then switched the aircraft back into mecha mode and set up a barrier of supernatural power outside.
“Mistress, wait here. I’ll go inspect it.”
“All right. Be careful.”
As she spoke, Yunyang handed him two special-effect healing injections.
Pei Wenye accepted them.
He soon left the mecha, put on a protective suit, and walked into the billowing black smoke.
The spacecraft had been badly damaged in the crash. One of its side wings was completely destroyed, and the black smoke was coming from the burning wreckage.
Pei Wenye frowned as he studied the wing.
Fortunately, it was only burning; there was no danger of an explosion.
His mind at ease, he continued forward and soon reached the spacecraft’s cockpit.
The hatch had been completely jammed. There was no way to pull it open by hand, so Pei Wenye took out a small energy cannon and blasted it apart.
The black hatch crashed to the ground, stirring up another cloud of smoke. Even with his protective suit on, Pei Wenye could barely keep his eyes open.
He simply condensed water with his ability and poured it over the surrounding area.
The smoke was suppressed somewhat. For easier movement, Pei Wenye directly transformed into his beast form, shrank down, and slipped into the cockpit.
There was indeed someone inside. The person’s entire body was charred black, clearly having suffered severe injuries when the spacecraft crashed.
Pei Wenye used his tail to probe the person and only began the rescue after confirming that they were still breathing.
He and his Mistress knew nothing about this abandoned planet. Although this person had crashed here by accident, they might know exactly where they were.
Even if they didn’t, Pei Wenye could check whether they were carrying any equipment capable of repairing the spacecraft.
All in all, it was a worthwhile gamble.
The cockpit had been completely crushed and twisted. It took Pei Wenye considerable effort to pull the person out.
The Black Flood Dragon wrapped his tail around the charred individual and swiftly returned to the combat mecha.
From inside, Yunyang couldn’t help feeling a moment of sympathy for the blackened figure.
Pei Wenye’s handling was simply too rough.
But her sympathy lasted only a second.
The next moment, Yunyang opened the hatch and looked at Pei Wenye, who had already returned to human form.
“A-Ye, are they still alive?”
Pei Wenye nodded. “They’re alive, but their condition isn’t good.”
With that, he took out one of the special-effect healing injections and searched the person’s body for a patch of skin that was still relatively intact.
He was just about to inject the medicine when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a particularly charred area of skin.
It didn’t look like skin at all. It looked more like… fur that had been burned to a crisp.
