FT DR Chapter 72: Lifetime Mark

Chapter 72: Lifetime Mark

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

In the Gabriel Outer Ring Military Zone, the Commander-in-Chief’s elite legion was stationed within a “回” shaped military outpost, fully monitored by intelligent AI with no blind spots, supplemented by round-the-clock human rotation, layered defenses, impenetrable.

A single-person airship swiftly flew over the air-floated track at the center of the “回” shape, hovering down when passing through the first checkpoint. The port window lowered, a young military officer extended his right hand, projecting a special pass with his personal terminal.

As the sentry verified the pass, he glanced at the officer’s face, which was shaded by the brim of his military cap, making it unclear, only the angular chin was visible, with a few scattered stubbles.

With a “beep” from the system, it showed that the person was a Lieutenant Commander of the Mulan Fleet, carrying out special orders under the command of Fleet Captain Lilith.

“Hello, Lieutenant Commander!” The sentry, a sergeant, saluted the young officer inside the airship and gestured for his companion to open the gate for passage.

The Lieutenant Commander nodded slightly, raised the port window, piloted the airship away swiftly, leaving behind a smooth illusion on the air-floated track.

“Wasn’t that too fast?” the gate-opening companion frowned, “He seems in a hurry. The Commander-in-Chief just issued an order, any irregularities must be intercepted.”

“He’s from the Mulan Fleet,” the sergeant said, “holding a pass from the First Army. The Commander-in-Chief’s orders only apply to other legions and NTU. Isn’t it already midnight in the Inner Ring? Nightlife has just begun; who wants to stay in the Outer Ring.”

The companion was slightly skeptical, connecting to the communication of the mid-level sentry, “Attention, a Mulan Fleet airship just departed, suspected irregularities, please inspect.”

“Received.”

The airship’s speed was extremely fast. Just as the conversation on both sides ended, it had already hovered before the mid-level sentry, and two guards approached simultaneously, “Please, show your pass.”

The Lieutenant Commander inside the airship looked very grim. He showed the Mulan Fleet pass to them. His sharp gaze swept across their faces and coldly said, “Drinking alcohol is not allowed on duty, Sergeant. Wasn’t it told to you? This is the most basic military discipline.”

The two guards were startled, looked at each other, one of them explained, “That was eight hours ago, probably drank too much, it hasn’t completely worn off yet. Sorry, Lieutenant Commander, for the inconvenience.” After carefully inspecting the pass and finding nothing suspicious, they respectfully saluted and opened the gate for passage.

“Is he a sentinel?” one guard said as they watched the airship speed away, “Lilith’s people. I haven’t heard of any lion sentinels.” 

Barbary lion sentinels were quite rare.

“The Mulan Fleet has thousands of people. Have you met them all?” his companion said, “The pass is fine. Don’t bother too much. The inner guards always like to make trouble for us.”

The guard shrugged, about to return to his post, when his left hand suddenly shook. Opening the military order system, he turned pale, “The latest directive from the Commander-in-Chief, a Mulan Fleet airship has been hijacked by hackers. That was a terrorist!”

“Quick, pursue!” The two glanced at each other, swiftly jumped onto the patrol airship, activated the alarm, and chased along the air-floated track.

“Damn, we’ve been discovered, just a little bit more.” Inside the Mulan Fleet airship, the Lieutenant Colonel took off his military cap and threw it onto the console. He activated manual control, and a highly complex holographic control system emerged from the console. He connected his personal terminal with his right hand, plunging both hands into it, swiftly making gestures. Under his control, the airship, which had already reached the speed threshold, suddenly accelerated again, surpassing its rated power and rushing towards the outer guard post.

Meanwhile, a hacker system on his left side was swiftly running, a gentle female voice rapidly relaying all the communications within the elite legion, indicating that their systems were being monitored in real-time.

“Jin Xuan?” in the narrow luggage compartment at the back, Wu Chenghe weakly spoke, “Is that you?” 

Just a few minutes ago, he was in his bedroom in the detention room. Lilith had called Hannibal away, and he had intended to manipulate Lilith by overusing his consciousness, causing them to turn against each other. However, before he could attempt it, someone barged in and carried him out to safety. Due to the interference of high-frequency sound waves, his consciousness was fragmented, his vision and hearing severely impaired, and amidst the chaos, he couldn’t figure out who it was.

“Shh, don’t speak, rest, leave the rest to me.” Jin Xuan’s eyes flashed with a hint of pain, but he quickly regained his composure. He manipulated the airship to skim past a line of guards intercepting them head-on, drawing a gentle arc in mid-air, trying not to jostle the people in the rear cabin too much.

Wu Chenghe was gasping for breath, his senses dulled, his eyes seeing nothing, his hearing extremely blurry, only his sense of smell remained keen, catching the faint scent unique to Jin Xuan.

Remembering that they had been playing crossword puzzles together on their dorm room desks just ten days ago, that peaceful warmth seemed like it belonged to another world. Wu Chenghe vaguely heard his familiar voice, feeling both joyful and grateful, with a hint of resentment—You jerk, couldn’t you have come a bit later? Another moment and I would have dragged Hannibal with me to hell!

Unknowingly, he had developed a strong sense of reliance on Jin Xuan, seeing him as his protector.

With a loud “boom,” the airship suddenly trembled violently, evidently under attack from the approaching elite legion. Jin Xuan steadied the control system with one hand, swiftly unlocking the restricted weapon systems through hacker means, aiming a wild barrage at those attacking them, creating a dazzling spark in the distance.

“Warning, warning, your airship has been locked by proton cannons, please hover immediately and undergo inspection!” The airship communication system was forcefully intercepted by the elite legion, emitting mechanical warning sounds. Jin Xuan paid no attention, maximizing the airship’s force field protection, accelerating again. The airship almost broke the sound barrier, emitting a buzzing vibration as it hurtled towards the outer guard post that was now within reach.

A bright light flashed, and even though Wu Chenghe’s vision was impaired, he still felt the piercing glare. Immediately after, the starship shook violently, plummeting rapidly, crashing out of the air-floated track and onto the ground, leaving a nearly half-meter-deep dent on the smooth metal surface.

Because the airship had internal stabilizing devices, Wu Chenghe barely felt any major jolts besides the initial impact of landing. He struggled to get up, but suddenly felt light, as Jin Xuan had already scooped him up horizontally.

“It’s going to explode, let’s go!” Without waiting for the airship to come to a complete stop, Jin Xuan pocketed his personal terminal, kicked open the hatch, and jumped out with Wu Chenghe in his arms.

The outer ring military zone was directly connected to space, with only a thin layer of atmosphere covering the surface. There were no large-scale lighting systems like those in the inner ring energy center, so visibility was low in some areas, giving an overall impression of darkness. Wu Chenghe was securely held in Jin Xuan’s arms, subconsciously hooking his neck and asking, “Where… where are we?”

“Fifteen meters from the outer guard post of the elite legion,” Jin Xuan whispered, “We’re out.”

A powerful engine roar came from behind, as a ship hovered about a dozen meters above them, shining a beam of light, firmly locking onto them. Wu Chenghe smelled the faint sweat on Jin Xuan’s chest, knowing he was also nervous. He didn’t speak, just hugged Jin Xuan tighter.

“Don’t be afraid,” Jin Xuan whispered, hugging him tightly. Suddenly, he bent forward, a seemingly inconspicuous backpack on his back made a slight click sound, unfolding a pair of black wings on both sides!

Jin Xuan suddenly accelerated, sprinting several meters on the ground, then with a push of his legs, he leaped into the air, propelled by the airflow beneath the giant wings. He turned his left hand to cradle Wu Chenghe in his arms, freeing his left hand to project a holographic system, controlling the wings on his back to perform a graceful sharp turn in the air. They flew past the pursuing airship, sending a red-flashing electric thunderbolt towards it.

The electric thunderbolt stuck to the exterior of the airship, instantly activating and cutting off the airship’s power system. The airship lost power, gliding freely and eventually crashing to the ground. Jin Xuan repeated this process, hurling dozens of electric thunderbolts at the pursuing airships. Once they all landed and lost their combat capability, he manipulated the wings to skim the outer guard line of the elite legion, drawing a graceful arc and flying away swiftly.

The giant black wings shuttled through the densely packed buildings like lightning. Jin Xuan quickly shook off the pursuers and opened the monitoring system again. The internal communication of the guards showed that they had closed the ‘space-time gate’ of the outer and inner rings alike, prohibiting anyone from entering the inner ring. They also raised the military defense of the outer ring to level one, preparing various regions to hunt down the ‘terrorists who kidnapped the commander’s son’.

“We can’t enter the Inner Ring.” The resilience of the adult Icarus butterfly guide was astonishing. In just a short while, Wu Chenghe’s vision and hearing had already recovered significantly, and he also heard the monitoring. He spoke weakly, “We… we need to find a safe place, to… to hide.”

“You need a doctor.” Jin Xuan held him, feeling the heat radiating from his body, probably exceeding thirty-nine degrees, very concerned. “Mu is at the terminal in the port. I have to take you to see him.”

“No, no need.” Wu Chenghe leaned against him, his body trembling slightly, and whispered, “It’s… it’s an adult reaction, Jin Xuan, we can’t hold on much longer… Our compatibility is too high, I’m in estrus.”

Jin Xuan’s breath caught in his throat. He had been under intense tension all day, and hadn’t noticed Wu Chenghe’s condition until now. He was suddenly reminded and caught a whiff of the intoxicating scent emanating from Wu Chenghe—his pheromones!

“I… I took the inhibitor, but I can’t resist you.” Wu Chenghe’s voice trembled a bit, due to his voice changing, sounding very hoarse and weak. “We are one hundred percent compatible, you’re already responding to me. I can smell your scent, so sweet… Jin Xuan, bonding heat is coming. We… we can’t make it to the terminal. They’re still pursuing us. We need to find a way to hide in an enclosed environment.”

Wu Chenghe’s words were like a spell, instantly shattering all of Jin Xuan’s willpower. He smelled Wu Chenghe’s intoxicating pheromones, so sweet, so beautiful, that scent dissolved all his rationality, to the point where he could hardly control even the flight wing system on his body.

The monitoring software flickered for a moment, then went out on its own. Jin Xuan felt like every pore of his body was bursting open, releasing the sentinel’s unique pheromones for the person in his arms, like a primitive male animal trying to encircle its desired mate with its scent, like a peacock spreading its tail to attract the opposite sex, unstoppable. The flight wings on his back also became somewhat uncontrollable, frictioning against the air, emitting a slight buzzing sound.

Their compatibility was too high. Bonding heat would be triggered within a few minutes. By then, not only would he be unable to control the flight wings, but he would probably also find it difficult to maintain normal communication.

They needed to find a place first to address their physiological needs.

“Three o’clock direction, seventeen kilometers.” Wu Chenghe’s vision had slightly recovered. Overlooking the ground, he gradually figured out their position and suddenly remembered something. “The new recruits training camp. I visited it when I was in primary school. It’s the off-season now. Normally at this time, the new recruits would be out for training, with only a few people left behind.”

Jin Xuan’s eyes lit up. He was very familiar with the outer ring military zone before he came. He quickly understood where Wu Chenghe was referring to and immediately raised his altitude a bit. Taking advantage of the shelter of the buildings’ shadows, he quickly flew towards the new recruits’ training camp.

Seventeen kilometers was only a matter of minutes for the flight wings, but even so, Jin Xuan was sweating profusely—he and Wu Chenghe were too close, chest to chest, pheromones pouring out of each other’s pores as if they were dispensing them freely! Luckily, he had brought some scent-masking reagents before he left. He sprayed them along the way. The atmosphere in the outer ring was thin and circulated quickly, so they should be filtered out soon.

Before long, they entered the airspace above the new recruits training camp. Jin Xuan spiraled in the air and locked onto a massive honeycomb-shaped structure, flying towards it.

This was the “Gravity Adjustment Combat Classroom,” which was shaped like a honeycomb with giant “bubbles” stacked together in a certain sequence. Each “bubble” was an independent training chamber, ranging from a diameter of four hundred meters to thirty meters. Inside, the direction and acceleration of gravity could be adjusted, and various obstacles and apparatus were designed for soldiers to train in combat skills under different gravitational environments—the Voyager Army’s mission was interstellar expedition, and soldiers needed to adapt to combat in various gravitational environments.

Jin Xuan manipulated the flight wings to land on top of the “Gravity Adjustment Combat Classroom” and used his personal terminal to connect to the classroom’s access control system, opening the entrance to the topmost “bubble.”

This was the “Gravity Adjustment Combat Classroom” with a default gravity of zero. As soon as Jin Xuan opened the door, he threw Wu Chenghe inside. Wu Chenghe clumsily rolled around inside, bumping into a square obstacle suspended in the middle and stopping. Jin Xuan followed suit, leaping in, closing the entrance, and sealing off the entire classroom through his personal terminal, erasing all traces of intrusion from the system.

This classroom had excellent sealing and shielding capabilities, so no one would discover them inside.

The bubble-shaped classroom was made of a material that was translucent on one side. They floated inside, able to see the deep universe and twinkling stars through the spherical outer wall, but people outside couldn’t see them at all.

Jin Xuan was very familiar with this type of training room. He found two pairs of magnetic bracelets behind the door, which had magnetic emission systems at both ends of the classroom. Wearing these bracelets could help rookies adapt to the weightless state by utilizing weak magnetic forces.

The classroom was pitch black, with only faint starlight penetrating through the outer wall. Jin Xuan approached Wu Chenghe with the bracelets, fastening them around his wrists and ankles, then reached out to touch his forehead. “How are you feeling? Are you burning up?”

“Mm.” Wu Chenghe’s voice was nasally, as if suppressing something. After a pause, he said, “My eyes hurt, my ears too… My consciousness is chaotic, and my skin hurts, every inch of it.”

Those were the symptoms of sensory disorder during metamorphosis. Jin Xuan hesitated for a moment, then took hold of his hand and guided him into his embrace, unbuttoning his shirt. “Take off your clothes. Fabric rubbing against your body will cause pain.”

Wu Chenghe recoiled instinctively at the touch of his fingers, still traumatized by Hannibal’s stimulation. He now felt nervous whenever someone touched him.

“Shh, don’t be afraid. I’ll control myself and won’t hurt you… I brought a lot of stabilizers.” Jin Xuan’s voice trembled slightly as the bonding heat intensified. He didn’t know how long he could hold out, but deep down, he hoped that he wouldn’t need to inject any stabilizers today.

Wu Chenghe silently shook his head, indicating that it wasn’t necessary. He tried to remind himself that this was Jin Xuan, his boyfriend, a sentinel who was willing to keep taking stabilizers for him, who was willing to risk his life to save him from the Vanguard Legion, the man who flew with him in the sky.

This person was not Hannibal.

He was the best mate worth cherishing with his life, the one he wanted to spend his life understanding and caring for.

From the moment they met until today, they had unknowingly spent over a year together. Reflecting on this past year, countless heartwarming moments flashed back in Wu Chenghe’s mind. He silently reminisced, gradually letting go of the shadow that Hannibal had cast upon him, and completely immersing himself in the safety and contentment that Jin Xuan brought to him.

With a sense of relief filling his heart, Wu Chenghe began to relax slowly. Awkwardly, he floated forward a bit, surrendering himself to Jin Xuan, allowing him to undo his buttons, remove his shirt, and then his undershirt.

His bare skin exposed to the slightly cool air, though the gentle breeze still provided a considerable thrill, it was much milder compared to the direct friction of fabric. Wu Chenghe let out a gentle sigh, unbuckled his belt intending to remove his pants, but as he bent over, he ended up tumbling head over heels — the weightless environment was too unfamiliar, making it difficult to control his balance.

In this position, he found himself upside down, limbs flailing for a moment, but unable to right himself. Jin Xuan couldn’t help but smirk, effortlessly swinging his leg to turn himself upside down as well, aligning himself with Wu Chenghe, using his personal terminal to connect a magnetic bracelet to adjust his body balance. Then, he delicately helped him remove his pants, afraid of hurting his sensitive skin. “Feeling better?” he asked.

“Mmm,” with only his underwear left, Wu Chenghe felt a bit embarrassed, but the mixed pheromones swirling around them and the bonding heat they generated made him feel warm and dizzy. Faced with Jin Xuan, with whom he felt completely compatible, he couldn’t help but want to lean closer, allowing him to touch and kiss him.

Suppressing his inner turmoil, he hesitated for a moment before hoarsely saying, “Continue.”

Jin Xuan’s mouth went dry as he grasped the edge of Wu Chenghe’s underwear, his fingertips brushing against his hot and smooth skin. Even his scalp began to tingle, unable to contain himself, he pulled Wu Chenghe into his arms, finding his lips and kissing him passionately.

Wu Chenghe’s bare skin rubbed against Jin Xuan’s stiff military uniform, causing a sharp pain. He let out a low, hoarse cry in his throat, but instead of pulling away, he pressed closer, wrapping his slender arms around Jin Xuan’s back, his hot lips and tongue responding eagerly to his advances.

“Mmm…” Jin Xuan let out a breathless sigh of surrender, greedily sucking in the sweet breath escaping from Wu Chenghe’s mouth, sweeping over his teeth, licking his palate, entwining their tongues, refusing to relent, as if he wanted to devour him whole.

When Jin Xuan tried to pull back, Wu Chenghe immediately bit down on his tongue, not allowing him to leave.

The two floated in the gravity-adjusted classroom, kissing passionately as if it were the most important and intoxicating thing in the world. With every slight movement, their bodies slowly spun in mid-air like two tiny specks of dust in the universe, colliding after millennia and immediately refusing to part, not even for a second.

After a long while, they parted, Wu Chenghe panting heavily, his lips rosy, his cheeks flushed, even his slender neck and fair chest adorned with a blush of passion. His underwear had been removed by Jin Xuan at some point, leaving him completely naked in the transparent sphere, his lithe body shining with a soft glow under the starry sky. After the rapid changes of adolescence, his frame had become more defined, his legs long and slender, his waist flat, his chest showing a hint of muscle, his shoulders straight, his collarbones slightly protruding, and his deltoids slightly more developed, giving him a youthful and slightly awkward beauty.

With a flushed face, he looked at Jin Xuan, his lips trembling several times before mustering the courage to hoarsely say, “What are you waiting for?”

Jin Xuan felt dizzy, almost unable to bear looking directly at his unbelievably beautiful body, he stood petrified for half a minute before realizing — Wu Chenghe was hinting that they could “go with the flow” now.

A surge of incredulous joy washed over him. Jin Xuan gracefully spun in place, and by the time his body turned around, his military jacket had already been removed. He quickly discarded the rest of his clothes, leaving them aside, and soon floated naked in front of Wu Chenghe.

His physique was near perfection — broad shoulders, narrow hips, muscular but not overly exaggerated chest, a smooth waistline, well-defined eight-pack abs, followed by sturdy thighs and slender calves. His wheat-colored skin glowed with health like satin. Large black thorned rose tattoos adorned his upper left body, with knotted branches, vibrant flowers, rugged yet seductive.

The scattered clothes floated around them like withered flowers. They faced each other, naked, gazing into each other’s eyes, surrounded by the blossoming bonding heat, their gaze extremely pure and clear, devoid of wild desire, only tender affection.

“Let’s be together, Jin Xuan,” Wu Chenghe’s voice was slightly hoarse but firm, “I will comfort you, protect you, and try to be a good mate.”

For some reason, Jin Xuan’s eyes felt a bit sore as he gazed at Wu Chenghe’s blushing face, filled with shyness. After a long while, he said, “I will love you with my life, accompany you until the day of death.”

Without any further words, they looked at each other, slowly drew closer, and naturally embraced each other, finding the most secure refuge in each other.

 

 

 

 

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