Soul Mark.
The blood-red world was in chaos. Only the blending of souls with loved ones could allow him to perceive the appearance of the human world again.
Zong Lin was stunned.
Shen Jie’s breath was gently blowing on his neck.
His lover was asking for his… mark.
Surrounded by shattered alien bodies, the air was thick with the smell of blood, like a purgatory on earth.
His lover was asking for his… mark.
His lover, who had just completed the slaughter, was at the center of the corpses, revealing his fair neck to him. Tiny scales snaked upward, shimmering phosphorescently. But the back of the neck, not covered by scales, remained soft and fragile.
As if it could break with a single twist.
This defenseless posture exuded unreserved trust.
Shen Jie hadn’t forgotten him.
This realization eased his infinitely tense nerves slightly from the moment Shen Jie had an incident. But then came deeper concerns.
What had the aliens done to his lover? Why did Shen Jie look so different now, so unsettled, even seeking his mark in such a manner?
His hesitation lasted only a moment before he felt a slight pain in his shoulder.
— Shen Jie had bitten him.
It was a bit too hard.
Although the body of an ability user was resilient and he wasn’t injured, he realized that Shen Jie was clearly urging him on.
Zong Lin pursed his lips and raised his hand to press his fingertips against the back of Shen Jie’s neck. The mark of the “Soul” ability was extremely dominant for ordinary people. Normally, no matter how much he wanted to claim Shen Jie as his own, even when his heart was shaken by the tolerance for the other, he restrained himself from using his abilities, embedding the other deeper into his soul.
Only twice before had this been done, both times guided by Shen Jie in a state of losing control, in order to soothe his infection level.
Now, it was time to mark Shen Jie in a conscious state.
This was his first time.
There was a strange scent emanating from Shen Jie at this moment, mingled with blood. Zong Lin lowered his head and bit down on the back of Shen Jie’s neck.
The powerful ability of Rank Two was slowly infused into Shen Jie’s soul through the act of possession.
“Ugh…”
Shen Jie’s hand grasped Zong Lin’s shoulder, his fingers tightening slightly.
Zong Lin’s movements were not as rough as the first two times. He bit into the soft flesh, nibbling delicately.
The sensation was hard to describe. A bone-chilling tremor and a sense of offense arose almost simultaneously.
“Xiao Jie… relax,” Zong Lin said.
Shen Jie’s purple eyes were constantly expanding and contracting, as if his heart was beating violently at that moment.
He was being held by someone like prey, his body still restless and agitated, wanting to tear something apart and destroy something.
Relax.
He told himself.
It’s Zong Lin.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Not anyone else.
Relax.
…Relax.
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Finally, the mark formed.
The soul connection was established.
Zong Lin’s consciousness was able to enter Shen Jie’s consciousness space.
—-
This was a blood-red world.
The sky was blood-red, as was the land. Red snow fell from the sky. The wind was strong, and the air was extremely cold.
Zong Lin walked in the deep red snow.
In the past, it was Shen Jie who entered his consciousness space to soothe him. This was the first time he had actively entered Shen Jie’s consciousness space.
He searched for traces of Shen Jie.
The red snow fell into his palm, melting into red blood.
The appearance of the consciousness space changed with one’s mental state.
In Zong Lin’s imagination, Shen Jie’s consciousness space would probably be a world filled with flowers, plants, and sunlight, warm and vibrant.
It shouldn’t look cold, desolate, and lifeless like it did now.
He remembered what Zhu Wu You said about what the aliens would do with “infection” and “brainwashing,” as well as Shen Jie’s recent inability to conceal his strangeness.
His pace quickened involuntarily.
After walking for a while, he saw a towering temple ahead.
The temple resembled the underground temple they had glimpsed earlier, but it was much more dilapidated.
Zong Lin walked towards the temple and noticed many skeletons lying in the snow along the way. Red flowers swayed atop the skeletons.
The flowers were translucent, as if made of crystal, yet their petals were soft and fluttered in the wind. Phosphorus powder scattered from the red crystal flowers, converging into a gleaming ribbon leading into the palace.
He had never seen these flowers before, yet they felt strangely familiar to him.
He followed the red ribbon of phosphorus powder inside. The interior of the temple was also in ruins, with blood-red vines entwined and growing amidst the crumbling walls.
He traversed winding corridors and numerous halls, eventually arriving at the very heart of the temple.
This was an extremely huge and towering hall. It was also the only intact place in the temple.
Time had left no trace on it. Hundreds of meters high huge windowsills, red fluorescent glass, intricate and exquisite mural walls and domes, constituted the interior of the temple.
Hundreds of steps extended upwards, also covered with armor and skeletons, and red crystal flowers bloomed .
And Shen Jie, at this moment, sat on the high-backed chair at the highest point, with his eyes lowered. His expression was strangely unfamiliar.
Not like a human.
More like a deity overlooking the world.
Zong Lin’s heart tightened, but he was not overwhelmed by his lover’s strange demeanor. He quickly walked up the stairs.
However, although it looked like only hundreds of steps, it felt endless to walk up in reality.
And Shen Jie sat at the top, coldly watching him.
He disregarded it and just walked up briskly.
The snow started falling again. Falling on his hair, on his shoulders.
Did it snow in the temple too?
The once lightly falling snow became as heavy as a thousand catties, quickly accumulating into a thick layer on the ground, making footsteps heavy and sluggish. But Zong Lin still didn’t stop.
After who knew how long, he finally reached Shen Jie.
“Xiao Jie,” he said.
Shen Jie looked at him and suddenly said, “It’s so cold here.”
Zong Lin stepped forward, without hesitation, opened his arms and hugged him.
The man’s warm body temperature flowed into Shen Jie’s cold shell. The intimacy brought by the Soul Mark allowed Shen Jie to faintly sense Zong Lin’s surging emotions, all the vivid aspects of being human.
He felt his body gradually warming up, gaining vitality and warmth.
After a long time.
Shen Jie said, “I want to go home.”
Zong Lin replied, “Okay.”
With his huge bone wings spread out, he carried Shen Jie and flew out of the palace, soaring into the sky.
Returning from the cold and desolate consciousness space to the real world.
—-
Real world. Underground temple.
A blood-red eyeball quietly hid in the shadows of the temple’s columns. At this moment, it cautiously peeked out to observe the situation outside.
When it saw Shen Jie being embraced and marked by the man holding the pale spear, the blood-red eye’s pupil shook, almost losing balance and falling.
Outer regions of the Dark Domain.
Hein: “Why did you suddenly stop? Didn’t you say you had calculated the traces of those humans to intercept them? Why haven’t we seen anyone yet?” He rubbed the knight’s long spear in his hand, looking very eager.
Wu Yan coughed twice and said, “Predictions may not always be entirely accurate. There are many caves here, let’s search a bit more.”
While lying, he thought to himself, seeing ghosts.
Who would have thought that while they were still gearing up for a fierce battle with the enemy, the “King” had already defected.
What qualities did Zong Lin possess to attract the attention of the “King”?
Wu Yan couldn’t think of any reason.
Nevertheless, without the King’s permission, he still had to cover up for the actions of these humans today and couldn’t expose any problems in front of the Eye of the Unborn.
Ah—this is infuriating!
—-
Shen Jie opened his eyes in Zong Lin’s arms.
The purple color in his eyes had calmed down a bit, and it was not very noticeable unless one looked closely.
Zong Lin called him softly, “Xiao Jie.”
“Hmm,” he responded.
Zong Lin continued, “Feeling better? Can you stand up?”
Shen Jie replied, “I can walk, but it will hurt.”
The reason he was still in the wheelchair was indeed because his legs were not very convenient.
Although his degree of transformation had not turned his legs into tails, this area was where the scales grew most severely due to the direction of transformation. Walking on the ground, being cut by the scales felt like stepping on steel knives.
Although he wasn’t afraid of pain, he didn’t have a masochistic tendency.
Zong Lin remained silent for a moment, “Let’s leave first and figure it out later.”
“Okay.”
The area around the temple was not calm. Unlike Zong Lin who could fly directly from above, when the rescue team broke in, they attracted the attention of the temple guards, who were fighting with them.
The temple guards were not aliens but part of the defense mechanism of the temple, and they were very powerful. Their bodies would quickly regenerate even after being shattered, making them very difficult opponents.
As Zong Lin pushed Shen Jie’s wheelchair closer and saw the scene in front of him, before the pale spear moved, he heard his lover’s indifferent voice.
“Step back.”
The people who were fighting only saw the movements of the temple guards freeze simultaneously, and then they knelt down towards Shen Jie’s position. After saluting, they quickly merged into the ground and disappeared.
Everyone stared at Shen Jie.
Shen Jie sat in the wheelchair, his expression unchanged.
Although somewhat reassured by Zong Lin, the danger still loomed over Shen Jie like a shadow.
“Sister-in-law is amazing!” Chen Jiahua was the first to break the tense atmosphere.
Chen Yi pushed his sunglasses up, looking curious as he asked, “How did you control those temple guards?”
Shen Jie glanced at him, pondering what excuse to give.
At that moment, Ning Ye turned around holding a pistol, aiming it at Shen Jie.
Zong Lin frowned and stepped forward to shield Shen Jie, “What do you intend to do?”
Ning Ye replied, “Captain Zong, based on his current signs of mutation, his infection level must be quite high, with the risk of transformation at any moment.”
“Moreover, you should know he is very dangerous.”
Before coming here, he was clearly informed that the target of this mission, although a regular person, was chosen as the vessel by the King of the aliens.
Once corrupted, the consequences were unimaginable.
Furthermore, being able to control the temple guards proved that he had definitely made some kind of agreement with these aliens, and he might even have acquired some of the powers belonging to the King of the aliens!
Zong Lin said, “He is my responsibility.”
He turned to the other few people and said, “Let’s leave this place first.”
The few quickly left the temple area. Yan Hua opened the door of space, and after a few shuttles, they arrived at the frontline base.
An aircraft was parked here.
When boarding the plane, Ning Ye stared at the person in the wheelchair as if facing a major enemy. Although the others did not speak, he was all on high alert.
Shen Jie didn’t look at them, he just reached out towards Zong Lin and softly said, “Hold me.”
Ning Ye being the only sane person (´･_･`)
Poor Ning Ye. 😂