Pei Wenye’s eyes flickered. “How do you know?”
“You don’t need to know that.” Nuo Xiao clearly had no intention of explaining. Instead, he suddenly spread his wings, plucked three feathers from them, and shoved them into Pei Wenye’s hands.
Pei Wenye fell silent for a moment.
Seeing the suspicion in his eyes, Nuo Xiao smacked him with one of his wings.
“Stop overthinking it. My feathers are my ability. If you run into danger in the Dragon Abyss that you can’t handle, just throw one out.”
“I’m only giving them to you because you saved me before. It doesn’t mean anything else.”
Nuo Xiao wasn’t the sort of person who failed to repay a debt of gratitude. Although he had always wanted to replace Pei Wenye and become Lady Yunyang’s beast husband, he was still willing to help at a time like this.
Pei Wenye didn’t know exactly what the feathers could do, but Nuo Xiao was an SSS-ranked ability user. The things he gave him might truly prove useful in a dangerous situation.
So he accepted them without hesitation, thanked Nuo Xiao, and walked around him to return to the living quarters.
As soon as Pei Wenye left, Nuo Xiao closed the cabin door. He took some food from his spatial button and casually stuffed himself until he was full, then transformed back into his beast form and curled up in the pilot’s seat.
Inside the living quarters, in Yunyang’s bedroom—
After soaking in the bath for nearly long enough, Yunyang stood up, rinsed the foam from her body, and picked up the bath towel Pei Wenye had hung nearby to wrap herself in.
She couldn’t be bothered to change clothes. After securing the towel tightly around herself, she walked out of the bathroom.
Pei Wenye returned to the room a second before she opened the bathroom door.
Hearing it open, he turned his head for a glance, then hurried over and picked Yunyang up, setting her down on the bed.
His movements were gentle, but when he let go, he accidentally brushed the towel loose.
The startling whiteness of her skin entered his vision. Pei Wenye’s breathing caught. A moment later, his breaths grew heavier, and an indescribable heat spread through his entire body.
They had already shared far more intimate contact than this, yet seeing Yunyang sitting there with the slightest hint of tension was enough to make Pei Wenye unable to look away.
“Female Master…”
His voice was slightly hoarse.
Yunyang knew all too well what this reaction from her beast husband meant. She casually pulled the blanket over herself, covering the springtime beauty of her body.
“Go take a shower first.”
“…All right.”
Pei Wenye drew a deep breath, suppressed the impulse surging through him, and strode toward the bathroom.
Perhaps because he was in too much of a hurry, he showered even faster than usual. He emerged in less than ten minutes.
Like Yunyang, Pei Wenye was wearing nothing but a bath towel, leaving his upper body completely exposed.
Yunyang had seen Pei Wenye’s abdominal muscles countless times, but that didn’t stop her from admiring them. She never grew tired of looking at him.
Sitting on the bed, she crooked a finger at the obviously eager Pei Wenye.
“A-Ye, come here.”
Pei Wenye immediately went to the bedside, bent down, and leaned toward Yunyang’s lips, giving her a light peck.
“Why was that so light?” Yunyang complained. She wrapped her arms around Pei Wenye’s neck and deepened the kiss.
The combined weight of their bodies pressed down on the bed. Pei Wenye kissed her passionately, yet he still remembered to protect the back of Yunyang’s head with one hand, preventing her from striking the headboard if their movements became too intense.
As for his other hand, it had already slipped beneath the blanket, setting fires wherever it went.
That night, Pei Wenye was unusually fervent. He not only wore Yunyang out in reality, but during a break, he also took the initiative to open his mental landscape and accept her mental power.
Yunyang indulged him, cooperating more fully than she ever had before.
They spent the entire night tangled together in unrestrained passion.
The next morning, Yunyang was too exhausted to open her eyes.
Pei Wenye had already changed and was standing beside the bed, his gaze repeatedly tracing the contours of her brows and eyes, until he could sketch Yunyang’s features from memory even with his eyes closed.
He lowered his head and placed the lightest of kisses against the center of her brow.
Downstairs in the living room, the other eight beast husbands were already awake.
When they saw Pei Wenye come down alone, they understood the madness of the previous night. Yet not one of them showed the slightest trace of envy or jealousy.
Fu Shiyi was the first to reach out and pat Pei Wenye on the shoulder.
“Stay safe.”
The other seven beast husbands followed, each patting Pei Wenye on the shoulder in turn.
They had prepared everything they could. There was no point in saying anything more.
Pei Wenye looked gratefully at his eight rivals. “Take good care of the female master. I’ll come back safely.”
In truth, he didn’t need to say it. He knew that his eight rivals would certainly protect the female master.
So after saying those words, he quickly walked out of the living quarters.
Outside the spacecraft, which was parked not far from the living quarters, Nuo Xiao was waiting. He looked toward Pei Wenye.
“Good luck.”
Pei Wenye smiled. “Don’t worry. I’ll definitely succeed in transforming into a dragon.”
·
Pei Wenye traveled alone to the Black Jiao Tribe.
The Black Jiao Tribe did not accept males from other tribes, and the eight beast husbands were not willing to let Yunyang go there alone. On top of that, there was no signal for their communicators, so no one knew how Pei Wenye was doing.
Yunyang hated waiting around doing nothing. While Pei Wenye was gone, she spent every day either eating and resting or absorbing insect cores.
The other beast husbands worked hard alongside her as well, especially Qin Mo, Xuan Yu, Rong Jin, and Leonardo. The four of them had nearly reached the point of forgetting to eat and sleep.
Their efforts were not without results.
Half a month later, Qin Mo and Xuan Yu excitedly took hold of Yunyang’s hands.
“Female Master, my ability has advanced to S-rank!”
“Female Master, mine has leveled up too!”
They had been the first two beast husbands to come to Yunyang’s side, but their abilities had never given them much of an advantage.
Fortunately, after working hard for so long, their abilities had finally advanced successfully.
Yunyang opened her eyes and looked at the two beast husbands sitting on either side of her. The corners of her eyes curved into a smile.
As if rewarding two beloved pets, she rubbed the heads of Tiger Cub and wolf cub in turn. “Well done, well done.”
The stronger her beast husbands became, the more impressive she looked as their female master.
Besides, Yunyang could sense that her own ability was close to advancing as well.
In a way, she had to thank the insect race. There was no communicator signal in the outer star system, and she didn’t need to go to the purification tower every day for purification, so she could focus on absorbing insect cores.
It had been nearly two months since she had been stranded in the outer star system. Her stockpile of level-five and level-six insect cores was almost depleted. If she still didn’t advance soon, it would be rather embarrassing.
Of course, Qin Mo and Xuan Yu were not satisfied with such a superficial reward as a pat on the head.
Tiger Cub lowered his head first and gently rubbed the tip of his nose against Yunyang’s.
“Female Master, may I apply for a reward?”
Their hard work did deserve praise, and Yunyang nodded readily. She leaned forward and kissed Qin Mo on the lips.
There were two beast husbands who had advanced, so in the spirit of fairness and impartiality, she kissed Xuan Yu on the lips as well.
Both beast husbands were satisfied.
Rong Jin and Leonardo were so envious that they could hardly stand it.
But one of them had awakened his ability only a little over a year ago, while the other had possessed his for less than half a year. No matter how hard they worked, they had no way of advancing to S-rank in such a short time. All they could do was lower their eyes in disappointment.
