cold.

Biting cold.

It wasn't the chill of a Gobi night, but a bone-deep chill, reeking of rust and blood. Xu Shuangyao huddled in the cold crevice of the metal ruins, her flimsy combat uniform offering no protection against the bone-deep chill. Every breath she took produced a puff of white mist, quickly swallowed by the deadly darkness.

A full twelve hours had passed since the horrific encounter in the depression. Above, the blood-red web of fungi covering the sky—the Sky System—still slowly wriggled and pulsed, like the abdominal cavity of a living being. Dark crimson light seeped down, painting the metal graveyard of giant server chassis and twisted rebar into an oppressive crimson maze. The air was thick with the stench of metal, ozone, and... the lingering smell of blood.

Pei Du leaned against a massive, tilted metal plate across from him, covered in condensation ducts. His head hung low, his damp black hair obscuring his forehead and the floating shadow of the crown of thorns. But Xu Shuangyao could clearly see the dark golden thorn patterns on his neck and arms, flickering like breathing, each flicker accompanied by an uncontrollable, spasmodic tremor. Sweat soaked his tattered combat uniform, clinging to his bulging muscles, outlining a powerful yet tortured figure. The knuckles of his fingers, gripping the long sword, were white from the strain, and between his fingers lingered the dark red stain of the eradicator's blood.

Silence. A suffocating silence hung between them, more biting than the Gobi Desert wind. The frozen, despairing faces of the survivors near the depression, instantly transformed into fungus sculptures by the crown's energy; the Eradicator's cold, ruthless electronic eyes; the burning RV; and Pei Du's frozen eyes, reflected in the blood-red fungus web between his brows, refusing any contact... everything weighed heavily on their hearts.

"Wound..." Xu Shuangyao's voice, dry as sandpaper, broke the dead silence. She pointed to the clotted blood on her forehead, left by the collision with the car wall. "It needs to be treated." She fumbled in her pocket and pulled out the remaining small roll of hemostatic bandage and half a tube of anti-inflammatory gel—a few medical supplies, more precious than gold in the wilderness these days.

Pei Du didn't react at all. It was as if her words were just a breeze blowing through the ruins.

Xu Shuangyao pursed her cracked lips, took a deep breath of the cold air that smelled of rusty metal, and carefully moved her numb body closer to him. Her fingertips touched the cold gel tube.

Just as her fingers were about to touch the gel and apply it to the wound on her forehead—

Buzz!

An invisible, violent energy field with a strong sense of repulsion suddenly exploded from Pei Du!

"Ugh!" Xu Shuangyao was caught off guard and groaned. It was as if she had been struck by an invisible hammer, slamming hard into the metal wreckage behind her! The cold metal sharp edges hurt her back, and stars flashed before her eyes. The gel tube in her hand flew out of her hand, landing on the dusty and condensed ground.

"Stay away from me..." Pei Du jerked his head up, his voice hoarse like a grinding wheel, each word like ice shards squeezed from between his teeth. Beneath his tousled black hair, his eyes no longer resembled a frozen wasteland, but instead burned with two clusters of dark, uncontrolled golden flames! The phantom of the crown of thorns between his brows flickered violently, its light flickering on and off, extremely unstable. The dark gold lines on his neck and arms were like red-hot irons, emitting an astonishing heat that even caused the cold metal plates around him to warp slightly, emitting a subtle sizzling sound.

An indescribable aura, brimming with a strong desire for destruction, spread out from him like an invisible wave! This wasn't a pheromone, at least not one from any Alpha Xu Shuangyao knew. It was more primitive, more violent, carrying a sharp, thorny sting and a cold, metallic odor! This aura brushed against Xu Shuangyao's skin, instantly causing tiny goosebumps. An instinctive, extreme danger alarm went off in her mind!

Xu Shuangyao leaned against the cold metal, panting heavily, her heart pounding like a drum. She stared in horror at the now-completely different Pei Du before her. It wasn't just his energy gone haywire… his Alpha pheromone… had completely mutated! It had become some kind of… deadly thorn toxin!

"Pei Du! Calm down! Control it!" Xu Shuangyao suppressed the surging blood and instinctive fear, her voice trembling without her even noticing.

"Control?" Pei Du let out a low, broken, self-deprecating laugh. He struggled to stand up, but his body convulsed again due to the violent energy conflict. He had to support the cold metal plate with one hand to barely stabilize himself. Sweat dripped down his angular jaw, leaving dark spots on the dusty ground. "How to control it? It's tearing me apart...devouring me..." He suddenly raised his hand covered with burning gold patterns, pointing to his violently heaving chest, his eyes wild and painful. "Every bone... every nerve... is screaming! It's longing... longing..."

His voice abruptly stopped, and his eyes, blazing with golden flames, fixed their gaze on Xu Shuangyao—more precisely, on the side of her neck, where, due to the collision and the emotional excitement, the collar of her combat uniform had been slightly opened, revealing a small patch of fair, delicate skin. That was where her glands were located.

A subtle yet remarkably clear omega pheromone, driven by Xu Shuangyao's own nervousness and the pressure of Pei Du's violent aura, escaped uncontrollably, like a disturbed orchid. It was cold, fragile, and carried a subtle hint of herbal fragrance. In this thorny field filled with the aura of destruction, it was as faint as a candle in the wind, yet as clear as a beacon in the darkness!

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