ISMW Chapter 118

In the universe, single star systems are very rare. Most are binary star systems composed of two stars. Of these two stars, the brighter one is called the primary star, while the dimmer one is called the companion star, also known as the second star.

These two stars often orbit around each other, influenced by each other’s gravity. Even after the longest billions of years, they have almost no possibility of separation.

“I’m willing to be your second star.”

Yu Chen sat on the bed with Yun Xunlan, letting the young man lean against his chest, gently stroking his hair: “Even if all the stars in the universe go dark, I will continue burning for you, guiding you on our orbital path until the very last moment…”

Yun Xunlan pressed against his chest, listening to Yu Chen’s steady, strong heartbeat, feeling like he was gradually being swallowed by seawater.

So all the pain gradually disappeared.

Even if he was completely submerged by the seawater, all he felt was the safety that comes only from being completely wrapped and protected.

And he had felt this kind of safety many years ago.

“I think I’ll be very safe here even without doing tasks.” Yun Xunlan of that time said to the system. “What danger could there be here?”

“No danger?” The system thought Yun Xunlan was too optimistic and immediately informed him of the bad news. “Your good father wants to abort you.”

But Yun Xunlan remained optimistic: “My dad protects me. He can’t abort me.”

“But your good daddy is also going to die. Didn’t you hear what the doctors said?” The system spoke maliciously in Yun Xunlan’s head like a curse. “Your father has insect venom, and so do you. Soon you’ll both die together.”

“No.” Yun Xunlan denied. “He can still live for a long time.”

“—On the condition that you die.” The system helped him complete the sentence.

So Yun Xunlan fell silent.

After a long time, he finally said softly with a somewhat lonely and unwilling voice: “But I haven’t seen the world here yet…”

The system said: “You can see it if you do tasks.”

Yun Xunlan curled up his body: “I can’t do them.”

Just as the system had said before, his brain wasn’t even fully developed yet. He couldn’t move or speak. Besides waiting to passively complete tasks, what else could he do?

Wait for death?

Besides this path, he seemed to have no other choice.

Yun Xunlan accepted his fate.

Anyway, when he welcomed that thunderbolt striking down, he was thinking that even if the system couldn’t protect him anymore, he wouldn’t regret the choice he made.

He had lived longer than most people in this world, received countless praises from others, and even reached the perfect end of his cultivation path. His life should have no regrets.

“I heard the doctors mention yesterday that unless I can differentiate into an ‘alpha’… What is an ‘alpha’?” Yun Xunlan asked the system again. “Can you make me become an alpha?”

The system didn’t answer what an alpha was, only saying: “I only have the function of keeping you alive. And even if you differentiate into an alpha, if you can’t do tasks, you’ll still die.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Yun Xunlan said calmly. He actually wanted to smile, but his current face couldn’t make that expression. “Daddy can live.”

“I was born from heaven and earth, and after death I’ll return to heaven and earth, becoming wind, becoming mist.”

“Let me become an alpha. I want daddy to continue seeing the vast world outside.”

—Yun Xunlan made a wish to the system.

Even though at that time he had no idea what an alpha was, and had no idea how many years of pain and torment from insect venom he would have to endure after becoming an alpha.

He only thought: They need an alpha, so let me become an alpha.

If after death he would always stay in such lonely darkness, he was already used to it.

When he was in the Demon Refining Pot, he had prayed countless times to the gods for that demonic cultivator to open the pot’s mouth so he could glimpse the sky once. But later he thought that perhaps when the demonic cultivator opened the pot’s mouth, he would throw more equally innocent cultivators into the pot to torture them, so he began praying that the pot’s mouth would never be opened again.

Because it didn’t matter—he could endure such long, silent darkness.

In the end, that demonic cultivator indeed never opened the pot’s mouth again.

It was the system that guided him to crawl out of the Demon Refining Pot and glimpse the sky again.

And this time, the system also seemed to respond to his prayer, allowing him to differentiate into an alpha in the warmth and safety of the womb, enabling him to return to heaven and earth.

So many years later, in the scorching waves like an ocean, Yun Xunlan once again made a wish to the system: “Little Ju, let me become an omega. I want to be with my beloved little fish forever.”

“I’m tired of saying it…” The system responded to him. “I only have the function of keeping you alive…”

The system’s voice became increasingly blurred.

But the sound in his ears became increasingly clear—it was Yu Chen’s heartbeat.

It was accompanied by a moist, cold, salty pheromone that flowed into his body through the violence of canine teeth piercing the glands, following the blood vessels and veins like the huge but invisible gravitational force between stars, capturing him for life.

“The differentiation went so smoothly.”

Dr. Edmund looked through the data about Yun Xunlan’s body in the medical records and said to Yu Chen: “The Third Prince has a very high adaptation rate to your pheromones. We’ll observe for another 48 hours, and if there are no problems, he can be discharged.”

They had started at seven in the morning, and it was only nine o’clock now when Yun Xunlan’s secondary differentiation was complete. As Dr. Edmund said, it was incredibly smooth—Yun Xunlan’s glands hadn’t failed, they had simply transformed from alpha to omega.

From now on, he would no longer be able to use pheromones to create pressure and suppress other alphas, but his position at the very top of the omega hierarchy would allow him to have another kind of special “suppressive” effect on other alphas.

“But after I completed the temporary mark, he fainted… Is that also okay?”

Yu Chen licked his canine teeth, feeling that his tooth tips still retained his lover’s pheromone scent. The sensation of biting through the young man’s nape and releasing his own pheromones into that soft, slightly swollen gland still lingered. He was completely immersed in the excitement of marking his lover for the first time, as well as various complex emotions like an alpha’s protective instinct and possessiveness toward his own omega.

“This is a normal phenomenon. Differentiation naturally consumes a lot of physical strength. When the Third Prince has rested enough, he’ll naturally wake up.” Dr. Edmund had to comfort him. “Major Yu Chen, you should also get some sleep. After all, we extracted a large amount of pheromones from your body yesterday.”

However, Yu Chen couldn’t sleep. He had just woken up not long ago, so after returning to the ward, Yu Chen sat by the bed staring intently at the silver-haired young man on the bed.

After watching for a while, he couldn’t help but move closer, gently cupping Yun Xunlan’s face and kissing the young man.

He kept thinking: Is this what it feels like to be with an omega? Completely different from being with an alpha.

When Yun Xunlan was still an alpha, seeing Yun Xunlan made him want to “do” him—in every sense of the word.

Now when Yu Chen saw Yun Xunlan, he only felt that his lover was fragile and pitiful, needing his meticulous care and devoted “pampering”—also in every sense of the word.

But no matter what Yu Chen thought in his mind, his kisses only landed on Yun Xunlan’s cheeks and forehead.

When Yun Xunlan woke up, the sky had already become very dark.

He assessed his current physical condition and felt there was nowhere uncomfortable—except his cheeks hurt a bit, as if someone had sucked and bitten them hard.

But shouldn’t the place he was bitten be his nape?

Yun Xunlan propped himself up on the bed, raised his hand to touch his nape, while calling out: “…Baby?”

“I’m here.”

The ward lights weren’t on, so Yun Xunlan didn’t immediately notice Yu Chen sitting in the corner sofa until Yu Chen responded and walked toward him: “Does your nape hurt?”

Yu Chen had seen Yun Xunlan’s motion of touching his nape.

“No.” But the young man shook his head, moving his fingertips to his cheek and frowning slightly. “Why does my face hurt a bit?”

Yu Chen: “…”

His lover had indeed become fragile after becoming an omega—even being gently kissed twice on the face would hurt.

Yu Chen selectively forgot how much force he had used when kissing, so much so that the young man’s originally fair cheeks still bore several reddish shallow marks. He just helped Yun Xunlan touch his face too, then lied without changing expression: “Looks like you were bitten by mosquitoes. I’ll go find a doctor to get you some anti-swelling medicine.”

While saying this, he even stood up as if he really intended to leave the ward.

“Baby…”

But Yun Xunlan had only reached out his hand without even touching Yu Chen’s clothes when Yu Chen directly sat back on the bed, stuffed his palm into Yun Xunlan’s hand, and said to Yun Xunlan in that “I really can’t do anything about you” helpless tone: “Alright, I won’t go anywhere. I’ll stay here with you.”

Yun Xunlan looked up and met the man’s ice-blue pupils. Those eyes were full of his reflection, with focused gaze and concentrated sight, appearing very affectionate.

So Yun Xunlan hesitated for several seconds before slowly speaking: “…No, baby, I was going to say, when you go get the medicine, could you also bring the simulation battlefield access helmet?”

“…”

[A newly marked omega cannot leave their partner, and a qualified alpha must always stay by their marked partner’s side, providing sufficient pheromones and sense of security.]

This was the alpha-omega interaction guideline that Yu Chen had been cramming all day in the ward.

He was prepared to strictly follow this guideline in getting along with Yun Xunlan, absolutely not letting his newly differentiated omega lover feel any sadness or discomfort.

But he hadn’t expected that the first person to develop separation anxiety would be Yu Chen.

He was even more exaggerated than those omegas with separation anxiety described in textbooks. Just hearing Yun Xunlan say this made his heart go cold.

His tone when speaking was also very mournful: “The path to get medicine and the path to get the simulation battlefield access helmet aren’t the same route. If I go get them, I’ll have to be separated from you for a long time.”

At the end, he completely misinterpreted Yun Xunlan’s meaning, summarizing everything in one sentence: “…Do you want me to leave?”

Yun Xunlan: “…”

“No, I can’t bear for you to leave.” Yun Xunlan skillfully began coaxing him. “Let’s have Ni Chun deliver them to us.”

**

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