Chapter 68: Don’t worry about hurting me
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
Lin Xu also wondered why the Empire had the confidence and guts to let the expedition go straight back to Earth. With the Imperial’s extremely cautious dealings with the Alliance, and with certain powerful groups even trying to assassinate some ancient Earth scholars, how could they not be worried about the possibility that there were human beings left on Earth who had recorded the past?
Or was the Empire very sure that after the Ark fleet left, the human race would never be found on Earth again. What had happened to the human base after he left?
Lin Xu thought along the way, still holding one of the connecting rods of Heinrich’s exoskeleton in his hand, and under the clear light of the moon, the two of them re-entered the forest where they had fought with the mutant vines before, and the scorching smell after baking filled the mountains and forests.
Lin Xu took a few steps forward, picked up a branch and pulled away the ashes left by the vine’s body, leaving only some fibrous tissue that could barely make out the shape.
Mutant plants, animals and zombies do not have the ability to reproduce, if all humans disappear from Earth, they will soon run out of food sources and will have to devour each other, a certain range of food is only enough to feed a very small number of mutant plants and animals, only the strong and high level predators can survive to the end.
Soon after, Lin Xu found the crystal core of this A-Class mutant vine from the ashes. Heinrich had been standing behind Lin Xu, silently watching Lin Xu’s bizarre behavior, until the inorganic body, which did not look like a plant, appeared, and he asked, “What is this?”
“The crystal core of a mutant.” Lin Xu turned his head, “The energy contained inside is similar to that of a dragon crystal.”
The dirt-covered crystal core was dirty and unpalatable, but it was far less hard than a dragon crystal and could be crushed and absorbed directly, a method that human shifters relied on to avoid contact with the source of infection during apocalypse.
Lin Xu took one of Heinrich’s hands and placed the crystal in his palm. Heinrich obediently allowed Lin Xu to play with his fingers, and with his five fingers together in his palm, Lin Xu pressed down on Heinrich’s knuckles.
Click…
Heinrich heard a soft sound, and the warmth of the energy flowed directly through the isolation glove into the flesh and blood meridians, as if a warm, moist stream had merged into the blood vessels, and was quickly transported by the blood to all the limbs and bones.
The strange feeling made Heinrich tremble, something was gradually awakening under the urging of energy, foolishly moving, making Heinrich lose control over it. Lin Xu’s hand was suddenly flung away by Heinrich.
“What’s wrong?” He asked in surprise. Lin Xu remembered that when he fed Heinrich the crystal energy, Heinrich did not show such a strong reaction. Heinrich even pursed his lips and took a step back. He retreated from the silver-white moonlight into the shadows cast by the wide leaves, the dim light obscuring Heinrich’s eyes as he lowered his eyebrows, his expression suppressed and sharp.
“… It’s okay.” The sound of anger leaked out between Heinrich’s words, and the hands hanging on the side of his legs clenched into fists. Lin Xu’s gaze was clearly the same as usual, but the quiet change in the darkness made Heinrich feel the urge to run away from him.
Lin Xu looked at him for a few seconds, did not say anything about Heinrich’s answer, did not know if he believed it or not, and continued to keep his head down and go about his business.
The mutant vine was economical and did not swallow the nuclei at the first opportunity to kill other mutants, but stored them for slow enjoyment, a strategy that even killed many higher-ranking mutants, adding a few S-Class nuclei to its reserves. Unfortunately, now they all belonged to Lin Xu.
Heinrich gazed at Lin Xu as he busied himself with turning over the soil in search of mutant vine’s stash, the braid of hair he had tied for Lin Xu in the morning swaying behind his back as he did so. Lin Xu didn’t like to take care of his hair, much less wear it in any kind of way, but now it was as if Heinrich had left a mark on him, signaling alpha ownership. Stop. Heinrich once again admonished himself to stop thinking about such things.
The abundance of energy in the core broke the barrier and made him lose control of his body, and another object covered with dragon scales emerged quietly.
Fortunately, the isolation suit was designed to be loose for easy movement, and the power exoskeleton had a wide silhouette that obscured the curves of the wearer’s body, so Lin Xu could at most see the slightest change in expression on Heinrich’s face, but not much more.
But Heinrich felt that if he didn’t empty his mind, the dragon scales would be opened and closed, puffing up a circle and being revealed in profile. Lin Xu was so observant, he would surely find out… Heinrich always knew about the existence of this thing.
True dragons had scales on both sides, and usually when flying and fighting for protection and safety, they would not be placed outside, but tucked into a place under the tail scales that covered them. But Heinrich was not a full dragon, he did not have a dragon form, just this extra thing …
The one Lin Xu had seen was the normal human alpha form, while the one covered by scales was also normally tucked away and would only manifest itself uncontrollably when Heinrich was extremely aroused physically and psychologically.
There were times during Lin Xu’s pregnancy when he sat on the sidelines and helped Lin Xu fiddle with the fish tail. But while Heinrich was meticulously buttoning his uniform without giving away a single thing, Lin Xu let himself drift away in a blur of consciousness and desire, not noticing.
Afterwards, when he was fully exposed to Lin Xu, Heinrich had nowhere to hide his abnormality, but to restrain his emotions as much as possible and not let it rush out of his body.
So, his movements always seemed slow and gentle, Lin Xu grabbed his shoulders with a firm grip, his gray eyes red with tears and told him to hurry up, but he still kept his sanity and controlled his movements. Now the sudden crystal core energy almost made him break.
When being fed by Lin Xu and swallowing the crystals, there was also some energy surging around, but none of it was as majestic as this one, sweeping through all of Heinrich’s self-control with an irresistible force. He clenched his fists, his nails almost penetrating the isolation suit.
Lin Xu collected a dozen crystal nuclei around the mutant vines, and after confirming that he hadn’t missed any, he got up and prepared to call Heinrich for the return trip. The overall temperature of Earth was rising, and the birds were singing noisily in the bright moonlit spring night.
He turned his head to see Heinrich standing like a statue under the shadow of a tree, the night shadow smeared his face into gray-blue, the shadows cast by his features were sharp and deep black, his golden eyes were staring at Lin Xu, and he felt like a beast staring at its prey in a trance.
Lin Xu put the crystal core into his backpack and walked up to Heinrich, not paying attention, he was surrounded by the rich vetiver aura. He fixed his mind, “Let’s go back.”
“Hmm…” Heinrich’s voice was low and husky. Lin Xu didn’t ask anything more, which made Heinrich’s tense nerves relax a few points. The light from the moon’s ring became even whiter and brighter, and in the valley, the howls of wild animals echoed, but they were still far from Lin Xu and Heinrich’s position.
The howls of the beasts were incessant, and when they were listened to carefully, several different sounds could be distinguished, but the peculiar thing was that the calls were not violent and horrific, but long with some husky and mournful tones.
When Lin Xu noticed that Heinrich’s gaze was directed in the direction of the sound, he explained, “It’s spring.”
“What does that mean?”
In response to Heinrich’s question, Lin Xu remembered that the Abyss Fleet sailed through the cosmos without any difference between heat and cold, much less the animals that live by seasonal instincts.
“Imperial alphas and omegas can enter the estrus period several times in a year according to a certain time interval, but on Earth, only spring is the season when most animals mate, and the current call should come from some big feline, which sounds difficult because of the arrival of the estrus period. “
The estrus period… The word stirred up another surge in Heinrich’s mind, and he took a deep breath and took another step away from Lin Xu. After the explanation, Lin Xu lowered his eyelashes and said nothing more. Heinrich thought Lin Xu hadn’t noticed his movements.
The two moved quickly, but by the time they returned to the lander, it was late at night. Cassandra was on night watch in the cockpit tonight, while Arnold and Ryan each went to their rooms to rest.
Heinrich and Lin Xu parted ways for the time being to deal with the messages sent back from the expedition. Zhou Pingbo wrote back that the expedition’s field investigators had also run into several attacks by mutant plants and animals, with injuries, and had asked the Abyss Fleet and the Elam Fleet to step up their security efforts.
Also, in addition to the samples Heinrich sent him, the field investigators also brought back some samples, he had a new discovery in the genetics of mutant plants and animals, and would like to take the time to talk to Heinrich tomorrow in between work.
The excavation of the lake’s depths would take some time, and Lin Xu had not yet made plans for tomorrow, so Heinrich wrote back to Zhou Pingbo to set up a time to talk.
After finishing some other work, Heinrich went to his room to wash up. Everything was calm and normal, the uninteresting and tedious fleet paperwork made Heinrich feel that something was under control and would not come back.
But as soon as he stepped out of the bathroom, the dark bedroom lit up with a soft night light. There was a man lying on his bed, wearing only a bathrobe, his long wet hair on his shoulders, still dripping, and he looked back at him when he heard Heinrich’s movement.
The gaze from the gray eyes was cold like a mist, yet like a woolen brush, its touch clearly brushing Heinrich’s features and muscle lines, bringing up tingling itchiness.
The dragon scales were poking at Heinrich’s skin again, swollen and painful, even throbbing. But he had to try harder to restrain it. Heinrich only had a towel around his waist at the moment.
Blackie and Snowy, two rabbit-cats, were ordered by Zhou Pingbo to stay on the Victoria for the reason of preventing alien species from invading Earth’s ecology, and were absolutely not allowed to set foot on Earth. There would not be two more pairs of eyes watching them both by the bed.
In the valley, the big cats were still howling when Lin Xu turned over and looked at Heinrich. Just now in the woods, he did not know why Heinrich was suddenly in rut. With the beasts of spring activities of a test, Lin Xu found that Heinrich was really aroused. But for no reason, he had to control himself.
The forest was deserted, even if Heinrich kissed him directly, pressed him down, and the two of them were directly on the ground. But Heinrich didn’t overstep the mark, and even went to work after returning to the lander. Lin Xu did not understand.
Was Heinrich intimidated by the last bloodstain? Or, did Heinrich just prefer a softer blend and Lin Xu should curb his voice?
As he thought, he stepped on the other man’s knee as Heinrich walked to the bed, his voice like a layer of moist, warm fluff covering it, “Heinrich, you can do everything without worrying about hurting me.”
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