Lance himself did not know why he had stopped his plan.
Perhaps because this person had noticed his fear and, with unexpected sensitivity, refused to use his Alpha status to pressure him, changing a forced mark into the far easier-to-accept exchange of bodily fluids.
But Lance was not someone so easily moved, even knowing that stopping a mark midway was difficult for an Alpha too.
The most troublesome thing now was that this degree of bodily-fluid exchange supposedly only soothed pheromone disorder temporarily. Over the next few days, they might need to exchange fluids several more times.
No!
The most troublesome thing right now was that Zhan Pingchuan was trying to push his tongue past Lance’s teeth!
Lance’s entire body went on guard. His fingers clenched suddenly, frightening the morongweng in his palm into curling itself into a ball.
He could no longer think about poisoning anyone. Heat rose across his cheeks again, but this had nothing to do with the aftereffects of summoning an Outer God. This heat did not hurt. It only made his heart beat faster.
How could this happen?
Zhan Pingchuan quickly discovered that the person before him knew absolutely nothing about kissing. He probably had not even watched porn during puberty.
How could there be an Omega this adorable?
Zhan Pingchuan had no choice but to stroke Lance’s rigid back from top to bottom, suppressing his desire to mark him while patiently coaxing, “Open a little wider. This doesn’t count as an exchange yet.”
Lance opened his eyes and frowned.
Really?
So the bodily-fluid-exchange soothing method described in books required the tongue to go inside? Why hadn’t the text explained that in a proper note?
Popular science books these days were getting more formalistic by the year.
Suspiciously, he opened his teeth a little. Sure enough, the concentration of soothing pheromones became stronger.
Lance comfortably relaxed his brows. Without much concern for modesty, he gave Zhan Pingchuan more room and even took the initiative to touch Zhan Pingchuan’s tongue with his own.
Not sweet, not bitter, and very smooth. Not that difficult to accept.
He defined his initiative as an urgent desire to treat his aftereffects.
The soft, warm tongue touched the sensitive tip of his, and Zhan Pingchuan stopped moving.
He stayed completely still for a long time before forcing down the desire threatening to swallow his reason.
Lance grew impatient and asked around his tongue, speech indistinct, “What next?”
Zhan Pingchuan wanted to laugh bitterly.
As the eldest young master of Ghost Eye Guild, he had met countless people growing up. He had seen the shamelessly promiscuous and the innocent and pure, and neither had ever stirred him.
But someone doing shamelessly intimate things while remaining fundamentally innocent and pure was deadly.
“Next… close your eyes.”
“Mm.”
The thorough soothing lasted a very long time. For the first time after summoning an Outer God, Lance slept peacefully. There was no endlessly falling abyss in his dreams, no terrifying colossal creature that shook the soul—only the faint, bitter fragrance of gentian.
Zhan Pingchuan, on the other hand, suffered. He spent the entire night taking cold showers before finally suppressing his craving for star magnolia.
Too much had happened in one day. First, Ediv disappeared. Second, his new roommate had been bullied.
Who could have done it?
Even if Lance was F-rank, he was still an Awakener. Anyone capable of causing pheromone disorder this severe had to be at least A-rank. Moreover, the chaotic scratch marks on Lance’s neck suggested he had gone through a difficult struggle.
Strangely, though, Lance carried no scent from another Alpha.
No. More importantly, Ediv was missing.
Zhan Pingchuan’s thoughts wandered until dawn, when he finally drifted into a shallow sleep.
Early the next morning, a shrill bell rang on schedule across campus. The dorm manager went door to door, banging with her yellow eyes wide. “Director Ediv is teaching History of Human Awakening today! Nobody is allowed to be late!”
Normally, the manager was never so diligent. She slept later than the students. But Director Ediv also controlled staff bonus evaluations, so today she was extraordinarily attentive.
Every Xingzhou University employee knew that because of his achievements in the Capital City Pacification War, Ediv ranked below only the university president and the four college deans.
Who could have imagined that twenty years ago, when he first joined the university, he had been nothing but an assistant lecturer in the history department with no chance of promotion?
Most students were awakened by the manager’s racket even though there was still a full hour before first period.
Complaints filled the building, but everyone muttered them indistinctly and dared not speak openly. After yesterday’s display of authority, no one wanted to offend Director Ediv.
Lance opened his eyes as well. At least his face was no longer as pale as it had been on registration day, and the scratches on his neck had begun to scab.
Still, he wrapped the ribbon around his neck before changing into uniform.
Xingzhou University ordered standardized uniforms for all students: a white-and-gray striped short-sleeved shirt, black trousers, and a navy suit jacket.
The university had never asked for individual measurements and simply issued one-size-fits-all clothing. On Zhan Pingchuan the uniform looked a little short; on Lance, it was too large.
Lance did not care. He rolled up the cuffs, hid the morongweng inside one folded sleeve, then stood before the mirror and slowly put on a pair of round silver-framed glasses.
“Awake?” Zhan Pingchuan propped his forehead on one hand, his voice rough and exhausted.
A calculating gleam flashed through Lance’s eyes. By the time he turned around, he once again looked harmless enough to fool man and beast alike.
He adjusted the edge of his glasses and nodded lightly to Zhan Pingchuan. “Thank you for yesterday.”
“No need. It’s not like I—” Zhan Pingchuan stopped, apparently becoming more awake.
Lance tilted his head in confusion. “Hm?”
Zhan Pingchuan had wanted to say he was not willing to help just anyone, but when he looked up he froze. “Why are you wearing glasses?”
Without the baseball cap and with glasses on, Lance suddenly gained a scholarly air much more appropriate for the student who had ranked first in the year.
Lance casually invented an excuse. “I’m sensitive to strong light and wind.”
In truth, it was because he was a channel through which an Outer God descended into the human world. That thing occasionally peered into reality through his eyes, so Lance had deliberately ruined his vision just enough to become mildly nearsighted. With glasses, Lance could see clearly, while the thing became dizzy and nauseated by the blur.
To this day, the creature still did not know. It merely assumed the channel it had chosen had developed poorly and occasionally could not see where it was going.
Zhan Pingchuan nodded thoughtfully, but before he could properly admire Lance in neat school uniform, the steady, rigid voice in his earpiece pulled his attention away.
“Eldest Young Master is awake?”
Zhan Pingchuan jumped out of bed, grabbed his clothes, and said to Lance, “I’m going to the bathroom.”
With his long legs, he crossed the room in a few strides. He locked the bathroom door and confirmed Lance could not hear before answering, “Supervisor, are you rushing to hit your KPIs?”
“Have you found Ediv?”
“No.”
“Why did you shut off your earpiece last night?”
“My roommate came back.”
“Anything suspicious about your roommate?”
“No. Just a plain, kind, innocent, adorable little O.”
“I don’t need the adjectives.”
“Oh.”
“Wait a little longer. You showed off so outrageously, and you’re a heaven-blessed spatial S-rank. Ediv is bound to make another move.”
“…Yeah.”
Separated from him by one door, Lance heard the clown yawn theatrically through his own earpiece.
“Young Master, an entire night has passed. Have you poisoned him yet?”
“No.”
“What happened last night? Why did you suddenly go silent?”
“Unexpected situation. I can’t go back for now.”
“Is your new roommate powerful?”
“It’s that S-rank idiot who doesn’t know how to guard himself.”
“What a coincidence. Don’t tell me you went soft and couldn’t bring yourself to do it?”
“Ending the call.”
“Hey! Serious business. I burned Ediv’s corpse and sank it in a lake, but at the federal government’s speed they’ll probably find it soon. Be ready.”
“Mm.”
Their original plan had been to throw Ediv’s corpse onto campus while simultaneously updating the Black Lantern Society’s website, publicly claiming responsibility and warning every Awakener who believed themselves above everyone else.
But the appearance of the Death-Oath Curse forced them to change plans and delay the federal government’s access to evidence.
As long as the federal government could not trace the matter back to Lance, the crisis would pass smoothly.
As for the Black Lantern Society’s base, it could never be found—because it was located inside one of the seven top guild organizations operating under the federal government itself: High Tower Guild.
The bathroom door clicked. Lance immediately ended the call.
Zhan Pingchuan had changed into uniform. The refined navy jacket concealed some of his wildness. His long legs were wrapped in neatly pressed trousers whose hems, absurdly, only reached his ankles.
Lance’s gaze drifted upward and accidentally landed on the two turquoise pendants hanging from Zhan Pingchuan’s earlobe. For one instant, he remembered holding one of them between his lips the night before and breathing against it.
Without changing expression, Lance looked away and smiled innocently. “Shall we go together?”
“Of course,” Zhan Pingchuan replied as though it were obvious.
Otherwise some scheming little Alpha bitch might bully you with pheromones again.
The moment they opened the door, the corridor’s noise became clear. Students already filled the hall, yawning and chatting in uniforms belonging to different colleges.
Xingzhou University contained four colleges: Mechanical Armament and Auxiliary Combat; Biochemistry and Medicine; Attribute Research and History; and Dungeon Combat and Mining.
The Mechanical College wore blue uniforms, Biochemistry wore red, Attribute wore yellow, and Dungeon wore gray-white.
Zhan Pingchuan and Lance were both students of the Dungeon College. Zhan Pingchuan belonged to Combat, while Lance studied Mining.
“Hey, did any of you smell Omega pheromones last night?”
“You’ve gone insane thinking about Omegas.”
“No, I really smelled it.”
“Maybe some dorm couldn’t hold back, hahaha.”
“Seriously, History of Human Awakening is boring as hell. Do we really need to go?”
“Exactly. I bet he can’t even lecture for ten minutes. Didn’t they say all the historical records from that period were lost?”
“My great-grandfather lived through that era. He remembers the mass awakening had something to do with a scientist called Li Rong.”
“There’s no written record or footage. Who knows if your great-grandfather was telling the truth?”
“True or false, what does it matter? I’m in Mechanical Armament. I don’t care about history.”
“Heh. If it weren’t Director Ediv’s class, who would bother? Hurry, hurry. We need good seats.”
……
Attribute Research and History was the only college at Xingzhou University unable to generate direct value, making it the least popular with students year after year. Only freshmen with low scores and low ranks were usually reassigned there.
But since Ediv took power, the Attribute College’s status had risen dramatically. His History of Human Awakening became compulsory for every freshman. No matter how much criticism existed in private, no one dared resist.
Not only did they refuse to resist, there were plenty eager to flatter whichever way the wind blew. Those who wanted class-officer positions had left early to seize seats in the first three rows.
Lance was in no hurry to get a seat because he knew Ediv could not possibly appear.
So he and Zhan Pingchuan once again became the final two students to arrive, and few seats remained.
Lance maintained his habitual low profile in public and chose an empty seat in the middle. Zhan Pingchuan still needed to lure Ediv into attacking him, so he forced his way into the front row.
The moment he sat, he lazily collapsed over the desk, pillowed his head on one arm, and fell into a light doze.
Yesterday’s kiss kept circling in his mind, and he had barely slept. Now that there was some distance between him and Lance, his heartbeat finally settled.
“Holy shit, someone actually dares sleep in the first row!”
“Don’t you remember him? Zhan Pingchuan, the A-rank.”
“Oh, him… He’s way too arrogant. I don’t like him.”
“Ha, you haven’t heard? He’s almost every Omega’s crush already. Some of them are even getting jealous because he saved somebody.”
“Seriously? Omegas are that shallow?”
“Yesterday, when Director Ediv punished that Omega, Zhan Pingchuan was the only one who dared intervene.”
……
Lance casually opened a black leather notebook and wrote on the first page a sentence from the Black Lantern Society Manifesto— “Know this: what turns the mortal world into hell is precisely the longing for heaven.”
But he did not write it in the Federation’s current script. He used the ancient, mysterious language originating from the dungeons.
Because of his connection with the Outer God, Lance was one of the very few people capable of reading that script.
His pen moved across the paper, leaving long, flowing characters as neat as if they had been printed electronically.
A crush just because he recklessly showed off without protecting himself?
Ridiculous.
Lance tugged at one corner of his mouth, clearly in a good mood.
At that moment, the red-haired Omega beside Zhan Pingchuan finally gathered enough courage to use what he believed was a brilliant excuse to start a conversation.
“Classmate, you’re lying on my hair.”
Zhan Pingchuan did not even raise his head. He simply shifted his arm aside and continued sleeping.
Omega: “……” You really refuse to overthink anything, huh.
He had noticed earlier that no matter how deeply he inhaled, he could not smell Zhan Pingchuan’s pheromones. This meant Zhan Pingchuan had shielded his scent very well. Not only was he uninterested in attracting romance, he gave nobody an opening.
Still, the Omega wanted to try. Rumor said alcohol-scented pheromones were a fetish for many Alphas.
He gathered his courage again and leaned close to Zhan Pingchuan’s ear. “Want to get acquainted? I’m Tang Li. My pheromones smell like sweet pear wine. What do yours smell like?”
Zhan Pingchuan finally raised his head. His eyes were bloodshot and his expression listless.
For an Omega to directly ask an Alpha about his pheromone scent was an extremely suggestive and straightforward form of flirting. Even the slowest person would understand.
Lance tossed down his pen and narrowed his eyes dangerously at the front of the room.