Pei Wenye’s brows drew together slightly, but he continued injecting the treatment agent.
It would take some time for the treatment to take effect.
The area was filled with black smoke. Pei Wenye returned to the pilot’s seat, maneuvered the mecha to pick up the person on the ground, and moved him to an open space nearby.
When Nuo Xiao woke up, he found himself lying on the ground, bound hand and foot.
His brows furrowed, and his eyes were filled with ferocity.
A pair of wings, their tips marked with faint gray-black spots, suddenly spread open as he tried to break free of the restraints around him.
However, the restraint bands specially designed by the Federation to control male beastmen who had lost control were not so easy to break.
Despite using every ounce of strength and struggling for a long time, he still failed to free himself.
Nuo Xiao gritted his teeth viciously. He’d better not find out which damnable person had tied him up. Otherwise, he would tear that person to pieces!
Deflated, Nuo Xiao lay prone on the ground and surveyed his surroundings.
What kind of godforsaken place was this? There wasn’t even a blade of grass!
While Nuo Xiao examined the area, Yunyang and Pei Wenye were also studying him.
He was an avian beastman. Judging by the color of his wings, he might have been a pigeon or a swan.
But his eyes were unlike those of either of those common beastmen. The first thing Yunyang noticed was his bright golden irises, followed by the black pupils within them.
With such distinctive eyes, combined with the gray-black spots at the tips of his wings, Yunyang could already determine that he was a snowy owl beastman.
As if sensing the gaze fixed on him, Nuo Xiao abruptly turned his head and met Yunyang’s curious eyes.
A female?
There was actually a female here?!
The ferocity on Nuo Xiao’s face vanished in an instant. He struggled to sit up and blinked at Yunyang.
“Honorable female, were you the one who saved me?”
He remembered that before losing consciousness, all he had heard was the alarm blaring aboard the spacecraft.
The spacecraft had collided with a massive interstellar rock during a jump and must have crashed afterward.
Yet he had woken up without feeling any pain. It had to be this beautiful female who had saved him.
Nuo Xiao had never seen such a beautiful female before.
She was like the only bright moon in the night sky, effortlessly drawing everyone’s gaze toward her.
Nuo Xiao stared at her without realizing it, but his view was soon blocked by a tall figure.
Pei Wenye stepped in front of Yunyang protectively and looked at Nuo Xiao with undisguised displeasure. He reminded him coldly, “I’m the one who saved you.”
The way this man was looking at his Mistress was practically dripping with desire. His intentions were obvious.
Nuo Xiao froze.
Yunyang peeked out from behind Pei Wenye. “A-Ye was the one who saved you. If not for him, you’d still be inside that crashed spacecraft.”
She had only provided a specialized treatment agent. Pei Wenye was the one who had done the real work.
Nuo Xiao immediately wilted.
So it hadn’t been the beautiful female who saved him.
Still, Nuo Xiao was not the sort of beastman who failed to repay a debt of gratitude, so he quickly said, “Thank you. Once I return to my tribe, I’ll pay you for your help. You can ask for anything you want.”
Seeing the disappointment in his eyes, Pei Wenye was certain that if his Mistress had been the one to save this snowy owl, the man would have immediately offered to repay her with his own body.
He would never give him that opportunity!
“There’s no need for payment. My Mistress and I also crashed here by accident. If you really want to repay me, take us with you when you leave.”
Pei Wenye deliberately concealed the existence of the insectoids. He did not trust this snowy owl beastman.
Although beastmen in the Federation also had their own tribes and territories, they would never refer to their territory as a “tribe” in the old-fashioned sense. That term had long since fallen out of use.
More importantly, Mistress was the Federation’s only SS-rank female. Any beastman with a photobrain would know her. This snowy owl was therefore very likely not from the Federation.
Perhaps beyond the star systems the Federation had never managed to explore, there was another world inhabited by beastmen.
A beautiful female and her male spouse had crashed here?
Nuo Xiao’s spirits lifted again.
The beautiful female must be helpless. If he could escort her somewhere safe, perhaps he could win her favor and become one of her male spouses.
Since this man called A-Ye had arrived first, he was willing to take the position of the junior spouse—as long as he could remain by the beautiful female’s side.
Nuo Xiao readily agreed. “All right. Once I repair the spacecraft, I’ll take you back to my tribe.”
This snowy owl really could repair spacecraft!
Pei Wenye led Yunyang forward and used one hand to pull Nuo Xiao up from the ground.
“My name is Pei Wenye. My ability is water-based. Call me whenever you need anything.”
“My name is Nuo Xiao.” Nuo Xiao laboriously extended a hand. “Brother Wenye, do you know who tied these ropes around me?”
These ropes were absurdly sturdy. He had struggled for so long without managing to break free. They felt even tougher than the ropes used by the Saintess.
He absolutely had to find the person who had tied him up and drag him out!
Pei Wenye was silent for a moment. “Sorry. I thought you had lost control and transformed, so I tied you up to keep you from harming my Mistress.”
He had not missed the term Nuo Xiao used for the restraints.
There was no beastman in the Federation who did not know what restraint bands were, so his earlier guess had been completely correct.
Nuo Xiao pushed his desire to beat someone up out of his mind.
This man had saved his life. He couldn’t hit him.
Besides, if he had such a beautiful female as his Mistress, he would also worry about her safety and use every possible means to eliminate all potential dangers.
Thinking of this, Nuo Xiao even took the initiative to explain, “Before I left, the Saintess helped soothe my spirit. I won’t lose control.”
The Saintess?
That was yet another title that had never appeared in the Federation.
Yunyang and Pei Wenye exchanged a glance but did not ask any further questions.
Until they were certain of Nuo Xiao’s origins, it was best not to reveal that they were outsiders.
Although Nuo Xiao claimed he would not lose control, Yunyang still lightly hooked her finger against Pei Wenye’s palm and tilted her head up, silently asking him a question with her eyes.
Pei Wenye understood her immediately. He opened his spatial storage device and rummaged through it, eventually finding a pollution-level detector.
It seemed Qin Mo had gotten it from the military by less-than-official means.
Whatever. That wasn’t important.
Pei Wenye handed the detector to Nuo Xiao. “Sorry, but for my Mistress’s safety, I need to check your pollution level.”
“You have a pollution-level detector? Are you the old chief of the Black Flood Tribe?” Nuo Xiao asked, his eyes widening.
Pei Wenye was speechless.
What old chief? Did he look that old?
He did not bother explaining. He simply took Nuo Xiao’s hand and helped him conduct the test.
Half a minute later, the results appeared. Nuo Xiao’s pollution level was only eighty-three.
When a male beastman’s pollution level exceeded eighty and he failed to use suppressants, his body would undergo irreversible beastification. No wonder Nuo Xiao had singed feathers on his body.
With a pollution level like this, he truly was unlikely to lose control easily.
Only then did Pei Wenye relax and undo the restraint bands.
