Chapter 26: Relapse of the Disorder (Includes 1.2w Nutrient Solution Bonus)

Chapter 26: Relapse of Dysregulation Syndrome (Includes 12k Nutrient Solution Bonus)

Meanwhile, Yan Huishi angrily turned off the video call, then reopened the blurry, heavily corrupted footage, trying to find some useful evidence.

As far as he was concerned, Yan Wanqiu's death was already a done deal. The priority now was to come up with a plausible excuse for what he'd done.

The blurry footage didn't matter—even one white figure, and he could pin it on Yan Wanqiu.

Yan Huishi didn't just want to win—he wanted to win fair and square.

The audio track was a total loss. Yan Huishi slowed the footage to 1/20th speed and went through it frame by frame. After a few minutes of careful watching, he went quiet.

The video did show vague blobs of color, but since Blizzard City was blanketed in snow year-round, white hair blended right into the snow.

Forget Yan Wanqiu—he couldn't even make out Yan Baiyue. No matter how hard he looked, the only thing he could pick out was the black silhouette that was Xie Chi.

Yan Huishi: "..."

Yan Huishi clenched his fists, refusing to give up as he watched the video to the end. Once he confirmed there wasn't a single scrap of evidence against Yan Wanqiu, he ground his teeth in frustration.

Then another thought struck him.

Xie Chi had openly betrayed him—there was no way he'd let that slide. Judging from where the guy had been standing earlier, he'd clearly already become one of Yan Wanqiu's trusted men.

In that case...

Yan Huishi opened his smart device: "Spread the word—wanted across the entire domain. Xie Chi's crime: conspiring against a prince. Yan Wanqiu, as an accomplice sheltering a fugitive, is to be wanted as well."

He let out a cold chuckle.

After all, dead men can't talk. Whatever crimes he pinned on Yan Wanqiu, it'd be his word against a corpse.

Yan Huishi stared at the dense files on Yan Wanqiu displayed on his smart device, reading each word out loud, slow and deliberate: "Yan Wanqiu."

As the Grand Prince and heir to the throne, he knew plenty of inside secrets Yan Wanqiu had no clue about.

For instance, that his mother, sent over from Fusheng, hadn't died in childbirth—she'd been killed by Yan Huishi's own mother in the fight for the empress's seat.

Or that his father had quietly turned a blind eye to all of it. Back then, the young Sovereign only cared about what the families behind his consorts could bring him, and his mother's family had been the strongest of them all.

Yan Huishi knew all too well that every rung on the ladder was built on a mountain of corpses.

Before Yan Wanqiu's second differentiation, he could play the loving brother. But once Yan Wanqiu differentiated into an S-grade alpha and stepped into politics, becoming a real threat to his throne, Yan Huishi knew that between the two of them, only one was walking out alive.

He'd schemed endlessly, even cutting deals with alien races to trade for pheromone drugs and weapons, all to strip away Yan Wanqiu's glory.

He'd spent six whole years tearing Yan Wanqiu down. There was no way he'd let the guy get a fresh start in Blizzard City. So, to make absolutely sure, he'd not only brought along the few new electromagnetic cannons he had, but also had his soldiers hauling loads of pheromone toxin.

As long as Yan Wanqiu was on the battlefield, he'd breathe in the toxin and trigger a relapse of Pheromone Dysregulation Syndrome.

Wipe out Yan Wanqiu for good, then use the secret medicine from the Mechanical Civilization to boost his own rank to S—and he'd be the most legitimate Monarch of this era.

Yan Huishi murmured under his breath: "Dear little brother, go die."

He closed out every file on Yan Wanqiu on his screen.

If everything went according to plan, he'd never need those files again.

.

Blizzard No. 1 thermal ore field.

Xie Chi grabbed Yan Wanqiu's hand and sprinted through the mine.

"Woom—"

Another electromagnetic cannon blast slammed into the ground behind them. The mountain behind them crumbled, and the whole mine shook violently.

Xie Chi yanked Yan Wanqiu out of the way just in time, glancing worriedly at the man, who was frowning and rubbing his forehead again.

Yan Wanqiu's pheromones were completely out of control. At this point, Xie Chi could clearly smell the increasingly volatile pheromone aura rolling off him.

But maybe because the guy didn't mean him any harm this time, Xie Chi didn't feel the pheromone pressure, and his movements weren't restricted.

"Are you alright?" Xie Chi asked.

"No." Yan Wanqiu didn't hide his condition, speaking calmly, "I suspect they even smeared pheromone toxin on the electromagnetic cannon shells. I just checked my smart device—Nie Huaiyi and the others are about to break through. You've had my back for thirty minutes now, and I won't shortchange you after this is over. I suggest we split up right now, because I can't guarantee I won't hurt you soon."

In Yan Wanqiu's view, Xie Chi's reasons for everything were clear—he wanted to earn merits and money.

That was only natural. A subordinate pledges loyalty for fame and fortune, and he repays in kind. But at this moment, perhaps because the Pheromone Dysregulation Syndrome was gradually relapsing, Yan Wanqiu felt an inexplicable surge of restless irritation.

A question he had long forced himself to ignore uncontrollably surfaced, lingering in his mind.

Why did Xie Chi treat him so differently from Ji Chou? They were the same person.

Was his true nature really so repulsive to Xie Chi?

Suspicion and bitterness, intertwined with violent emotions, inappropriately entangled this young Tyrant. His head throbbed painfully, and before his eyes alternately flashed images of Xie Chi smiling with dimples and bright eyes at Ji Chou, and then Xie Chi's cold, furious gaze directed at him.

Yan Wanqiu's red eyes deepened.

Over the past few days, because they had added each other as contacts, he had grown too close to Xie Chi—so close that he had unconsciously fallen into this childish game of make-believe.

He shouldn't have hoped for any favoritism from anyone beyond self-interest.

He had already humiliated himself once on the capital planet.

He seemed destined to walk a solitary path—to become king alone or die alone, treading upon countless hatreds and bones with no way back.

The stabbing pain in his forehead grew more intense. Just as Yan Wanqiu was about to push Xie Chi away before he lost control, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his wrist.

Xie Chi yanked him, quickly rolling into a mine shaft, narrowly dodging another attack.

"No." Xie Chi gritted his teeth. "I'm the one who got you into this. I have to take responsibility."

According to the original course of history, Yan Wanqiu would never have suffered this calamity. It was because he had completely abandoned rational thinking, only wanting to exploit his advantage to squeeze as much money as possible from Yan Wanqiu, that he had caused such a grave mistake.

Xie Chi knew he wasn't a good subordinate, nor did he think Yan Wanqiu was a good boss, but he couldn't just stand by and watch Yan Wanqiu get killed because of his own blunder.

"Rest for a moment. This is a blind spot for the electromagnetic cannon. Try to suppress the dysregulation syndrome as much as you can. I'm looking for a chance to fight back—when the electromagnetic cannon is destroyed, it will explode, and the mine will definitely collapse. I need to find the right timing so we don't get buried in here."

The mine shaft was narrow, and Xie Chi was practically speaking right against Yan Wanqiu.

Yan Wanqiu caught the faintest trace of an orange scent—a fresh fragrance that instantly pulled him out of the vortex of violent emotions.

It was the pheromone in Xie Chi's blood and sweat.

"You..." Yan Wanqiu stared blankly at the dust-covered man.

Xie Chi casually wiped the frozen blood crystals from his forehead and said seriously, "And I have a way to save you. I didn't charge in here on blind impulse—I still need to get back alive. My wife is waiting for me."

Yan Wanqiu was speechless.

Yan Wanqiu suddenly felt at a loss for words and laughed out loud.

Xie Chi was baffled. "What are you laughing at?"

Yan Wanqiu shook his head. "Nothing. I was just thinking—it's bizarre that you'd fall head over heels for someone you've only met a handful of times. You don't even know exactly what he looks like or what his true nature is. Do you really think this is the kind of love you can build a marriage on?"

Xie Chi blinked. "So that kind of love can't get married?"

Yan Wanqiu: "Alright, then tell me—why do you have to marry Ji Chou?"

Xie Chi went quiet for a moment, thinking it over.

Outside the mine shaft, having temporarily lost track of Xie Chi and Yan Wanqiu, the soldiers split into two groups—one stayed behind to guard the electromagnetic cannon, while the other jogged toward where Xie Chi and Yan Wanqiu had disappeared.

Just as that small squad drew closer, Xie Chi spoke up, his ears turning red: "Because I have to take responsibility. I slept with him, so I've got to be responsible for him for the rest of his life."

Yan Wanqiu found this even funnier. Getting to his feet and drawing his gun to get ready for the enemy, he patted Xie Chi's head. "Kid, there's no rule in this world that says you have to take responsibility just because you hooked up. A one-night stand is the most normal thing in the world."

"That's not it at all," Xie Chi countered seriously. "I never intended it to be a one-night stand. That night, I thought about it really carefully. I like him, and I want to keep building something with him, so I went further. Otherwise, I would've just gotten rid of the drug with him, subdued him, and handed him back to you."

"What exactly did you think over—" Yan Wanqiu's words cut off abruptly.

He remembered. Xie Chi had indeed said, "I feel like I'm not really straight," followed by, "I'll take responsibility."

Yan Wanqiu naturally didn't buy that Xie Chi was gay—that kind of talk was probably just to keep him calm for the moment. But now, putting two and two together, Xie Chi's so-called "thinking" could only mean that one sentence.

...What kind of normal person thinks that way?!

In that brief moment of being caught off guard, Xie Chi had already stepped out of the mine shaft and pulled the trigger on the quantum gun in his hand.

The quantum beam fired silently, and several soldiers who'd come to check things out didn't even have time to scream before they were turned to ash in the incoming light.

Wearing modern protective gear against weapons from three thousand years in the future was like a caveman trying to catch a bullet with his bare hands.

The quantum gun blasted a deep crater into the ground, and the whole mine let out another strained groan.

Only then did Yan Wanqiu notice the strange gun in Xie Chi's hand, staring at him in shock.

Xie Chi, his expression unchanged, kept the gun trained on the electromagnetic cannon and said quietly, "Besides, my wife's good to me. Even though you forced him into this, he never once thought of harming me. Knowing you, you should've left no survivors—I originally planned to kill him and get out of there on the first night. But after that night that just happened, he didn't kill me. I figured the reason you wouldn't see me for the next few days was because he was buying me time. Otherwise, there'd be no reason for you to let me live."

"The first time I went on a mission, he probably stayed up all night to send me intel, but when we met, he never brought any of it up, and he never asked about the weird stuff about me. Even when I got him into trouble, he didn't get mad—he just stayed by my side like that. I'm not stupid; I can tell who's good to me and who's not. Ji Chou is the first person who's ever been that good to me. I love him."

Xie Chi pulled the trigger of the quantum gun, his gaze dropping as he murmured, "I'm just... a little too into him. So into him that I don't know what to do with myself."

In his short eighteen years of life, almost all his time had been spent with killing as his companion. Such a soft, tender feeling was appearing in Xie Chi's world for the first time.

Xie Chi didn't know how to be good to Ji Chou or how to show his feelings, so he could only stiffly follow the few things he'd heard secondhand, desperately trying to be a little better to Ji Chou, and better still.

Yan Wanqiu stood there, frozen.

"Boom—!"

The electromagnetic cannon was hit by the quantum beam and exploded on the spot, letting out a deafening roar that swallowed Yan Wanqiu's answer.

No matter how sharp Xie Chi's hearing was, he couldn't hear it over the thunderous noise.

But at that moment, he didn't have time to think about it.

The mine, already strained, finally collapsed completely after the explosion. Xie Chi turned and grabbed Yan Wanqiu, pulling him sideways along the slope to retreat.

The snow on the slope, mixed with ore and rock, came crashing down like an avalanche, and the muddy wave of debris instantly swallowed the ruins of the electromagnetic cannon below.

Xie Chi and Yan Wanqiu moved in silent understanding, racing toward the nearest bedrock.

Xie Chi had indeed been looking for an opening while dodging. The spot where the electromagnetic cannon had exploded was a good distance away, and not far behind their mine shaft was bedrock. Though the entire mine was collapsing behind them, the two managed to stay just ahead of the collapse, escaping by the skin of their teeth.

It was only because Xie Chi had the quantum gun that he could destroy two electromagnetic cannons from that distance without getting hurt.

That was also why Xie Chi had insisted on following Yan Wanqiu into the mine.

Yan Wanqiu's forces weren't that big right now, and if the quantum gun were revealed, it would only bring more trouble. To break this deadlock, only Xie Chi with the quantum gun could do it.

It started because of him, so it should end with him.

"What'd you just say?" Xie Chi still had the presence of mind to ask Yan Wanqiu while fleeing.

Yan Wanqiu's breathing was ragged, and a wild look had crept into his eyes, but he kept his voice as steady as he could: "I said, you should've said all that to Ji Chou a long time ago."

Xie Chi went "Ah?" and asked, confused, "Why?"

Yan Wanqiu: "...Do you date by just throwing money at someone without ever actually talking?"

Xie Chi had never told him any of this. Every rushed meeting with "Ji Chou" was spent desperately throwing money around, and the two times he'd gotten red-eyed had left Yan Wanqiu completely confused.

He wasn't a mind reader, and he didn't know Xie Chi's past. How could he possibly know what weird thoughts were running through that head?

Dating was, after all, a process of getting to know each other deeply—first the meeting of souls, then the touching of bodies.

He had never once understood Xie Chi's soul, just as Xie Chi had never known that under Ji Chou's mask was Yan Wanqiu.

Their shaky relationship had lasted this long purely on mutual benefit and that instinctive pull toward each other.

Even without understanding each other, they couldn't help but want to get closer.

Xie Chi was shocked by that. "Wait, that's not how it works? No one ever taught me how to date—and why hasn't my wife ever told me that?"

Yan Wanqiu: "…"

Just as Xie Chi's mind wandered in shock, a chunk of ice over two meters wide came crashing down from above.

"Watch out!"

Without a second thought, Yan Wanqiu rushed forward and wrapped his arms around Xie Chi, trying to shield him and pull him out of the way.

Xie Chi snapped back to his senses too. In a flash, with only the thought "Yan Wanqiu can't die" in his mind, he shoved Yan Wanqiu forward.

"Bang—!"

Yan Wanqiu was shoved out of the way and watched helplessly as the ice slammed into the spot where Xie Chi had just been standing, splattering him with broken shards and warm blood.

The overwhelming scent of orange pheromones filled the air, so thick it nearly crushed him.

"...Xie Chi?" Yan Wanqiu's voice shook.

The entire mine was still rumbling, but around him, everything was silent. The lively kid who'd been going on about his "wife" moments ago gave no response.

It seemed that, just as he was about to truly get to know Xie Chi all over again, he'd lost him completely.

Yan Wanqiu's head throbbed with pain, and he could no longer control the chaos of his pheromones. The raging scent of cedar flooded the air. Paying no mind to the violently shaking mine, he stumbled up onto the rubble and started clawing at the ice with his bare hands.

He had to find Xie Chi—alive or dead.

He couldn't let Xie Chi be buried in this mine. Even if it was just his corpse, he had to find him.

He had to get Xie Chi out of here.

"Crack—"

Just as Yan Wanqiu was about to break down, the ice he'd been clawing at shifted.

A battered, bloodied hand broke through.

Then came torn sleeves, a shoulder gushing blood, and the blood-streaked face of a black-haired young man.

Xie Chi fought to drag himself out of the snow pile, and as he looked up, he saw Yan Wanqiu frantically digging through the ice, looking dazed and desperate. He went still for a second.

Then, hesitantly, he said, "Uh... thanks for coming back for me, Your Highness?"

He'd figured Yan Wanqiu would just ditch him.

The murderous look in Yan Wanqiu's eyes faded, and he stared at Xie Chi as if trying to figure out if he was a man or a ghost. "How the hell are you still alive?"

Xie Chi bared his teeth in annoyance. "Don't say stuff like that. If I die, what's my wife gonna do?"

He was in his combat gear. After shoving Yan Wanqiu out of the way, he'd thrown his arms over his head and fired at the giant ice block at the last second. So now he was just dealing with a few fractures and blood loss.

Yan Wanqiu didn't have combat gear to cushion the blow, so it made sense for him to take the hit.

Xie Chi thought simply—he and Yan Wanqiu were in this together now, so minimizing damage was the best call.

Xie Chi tried to haul himself out of the ice pile, but when he realized both his arms were fractured, he had to awkwardly ask the stunned Yan Wanqiu for help.

"Hey, Your Highness, think you could pull me out first? My arms... uh... my whole upper body's pretty much busted."

Yan Wanqiu snapped out of it like he'd been shaken awake, murmured a low "mm" in response, and stepped forward to carefully brush the ice chunks off Xie Chi.

Xie Chi shot a glance at the mine caving in behind them and urged, "Just yank me out. The mine's about to cave in, and we're only a few hundred meters from the bedrock zone. No time to waste."

Yan Wanqiu looked at his blood-soaked body, gritted his teeth, and hauled Xie Chi out of the ice pile in his arms.

Once he'd pulled him out, Yan Wanqiu saw exactly what Xie Chi meant by "a little fractured."

Xie Chi's clothes were shredded by the jagged ice, and even his innermost combat suit hadn't made it out unscathed. Ice shards were embedded in the flesh of his shoulder blades, waist, and outer thighs, and at his shoulder, you could faintly see white bone.

Being yanked out like that tore open the wounds that had frozen over from the cold, and the air was heavy with the thick scent of oranges.

Xie Chi's face went even paler from all the blood loss.

At this point, he didn't give a damn if Yan Wanqiu noticed something was off. He mentally pulled a healing solution from his storage ring, clumsily bit the cap off with his teeth, and chugged it.

It couldn't heal the fractures, and the ice shards would need to be removed professionally before the solution could do its full job, but drinking it at least stopped the internal bleeding fast and kept him alive.

After about thirty seconds, Xie Chi dragged his useless arms and staggered to his feet. "Let's go."

Yan Wanqiu watched Xie Chi, who hadn't made a single sound of pain the whole time, and pressed his lips together. Then, out of nowhere, he stepped forward and crouched down in front of Xie Chi. "Hop on. I'll carry you."

Xie Chi was shocked.

Yan Wanqiu staying behind to look for him was already shocking enough, and now this hot-tempered young tyrant was actually lowering himself to carry him on his back.

Did he swallow the wrong pill?

Xie Chi thought that, but didn't hesitate, climbing onto Yan Wanqiu's back without a second thought. "Then I'll owe you one."

In his current state, he really couldn't move faster than Yan Wanqiu carrying him.

Yan Wanqiu lifted him up and, before the collapse could spread, carried Xie Chi forward step by step.

"Boom—"

As they reached the bedrock layer, the mine behind them completely collapsed, turning into ruins.

Xie Chi lay on Yan Wanqiu's back, gazing at the endless ruins and snowfield, and the distant flames of war. His eyelids grew heavy.

"Nie Huaiyi and the others have regrouped with the main force. It'll take some time to wipe out all the Main Star Army. I'll carry you to the aircraft first and take you back to camp."

Yan Wanqiu said.

Xie Chi could no longer think about why Yan Wanqiu was acting so strangely. With the blood loss, now that he was out of danger, he couldn't help but feel exhausted.

"Thanks," Xie Chi managed to say, trying to stay awake. "Yan Wanqiu, can we discuss something?"

Yan Wanqiu walked forward with him on his back, his breath forming white mist in the cold wind. "Go on."

Xie Chi said softly, "I did protect you this time, right? Yan Baiyue is dead too. Can we just call it even on the past? When we get back... can you stop making things difficult for Ji Chou? I really like him... If you keep this up, I'll really rebel."

"Be reasonable... Restricting us from meeting is one thing, but only giving us fifteen minutes each time—even if I want to talk to him about something, I don't have time..."

Xie Chi's voice grew softer as he spoke.

He was just too tired.

Feeling Xie Chi's body temperature dropping, Yan Wanqiu's heart trembled, and a throbbing pain began to pulse in his forehead again.

He said quietly, "Alright, just don't fall asleep."

Xie Chi smiled, dimples appearing on his cheeks. He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

"Xie Chi... Xie Chi?!"

In a daze, Xie Chi felt someone calling him over and over, and it seemed he was repeatedly held in someone's arms for warmth.

The person carried a faint, woody scent, had white hair, and a chest that was warm and broad.

This was...

Xie Chi mumbled drowsily, "Wife...?"

The figure paused, then said, "It's me."

So his wife had come to pick him up.

He knew it—his wife loved him too much to let him go on a mission without worry. She would definitely find a way to check on him.

Xie Chi nuzzled into his wife's embrace, hugged back, and whispered coquettishly, "Wife... I'm in so much pain."

On the aircraft, Yan Wanqiu's hands, which had been treating Xie Chi's wounds, froze. The murderous intent he had barely suppressed surged up again.

If he could, he'd rip Yan Huishi apart with his bare hands right now, even from all the way on the main star, to vent his rage.

"Xie Chi." Yan Wanqiu clenched his fists tightly, reining in the murderous impulse. He pushed his long hair back, baring his gland to Xie Chi's lips.

He gently cradled the back of the young man's head, murmuring softly, "Mark me first, okay? Don't let me go crazy right now."

He couldn't afford to snap.

He still had to save Xie Chi.