EDEH Chapter 93.1

The soldier was an ordinary person, blood still seeping from his heart—clearly killed not long ago.

There were no traces of contaminants around. The wound was flat with neat edges on the torn fabric—obviously killed by a long dagger or similar blade.

Sang Jue’s nose twitched: “Monsters are approaching.”

Huo Yanji was examining the corpse, his brow furrowed.

The man was already dead, so there was nothing to question. The backpack beside him contained some supplies and a set of clean spare clothes.

These soldiers were clearly part of a long-term search and rescue team, but they should have been in the fire zone, yet were brought by Evelyn to Wolf Peak dozens of kilometers away.

What did Evelyn want to do? Was the soldier’s death related to her?

Huo Yanji took out pants and a jacket from the backpack, used his dagger to cut off two pant cuffs, and threw them to Sang Jue: “Put these on.”

Sang Jue stepped into them, holding the waistband, and looked up for help: “Too big.”

Huo Yanji cut the excess pant legs into two long strips, tied them together, walked over to Sang Jue, wrapped his slender waist, and made a simple belt with the fabric strips.

The shoes were quite large for Sang Jue, but there was no choice—he had to make do.

“What about him?”

“Burn him.” Huo Yanji indicated for Sang Jue to take off his shirt and change into the clean jacket from the soldier’s backpack, but was refused.

Sang Jue wouldn’t take it off: “I want to wear your clothes.”

“…Don’t tempt me in the wilderness, Sang Jue.” Huo Yanji warned darkly, but still indulged the little evil dragon, tucking in his shirt properly.

Sang Jue continued the previous topic: “But the person who killed him hasn’t been found.”

Huo Yanji said: “If we don’t burn him now, he’ll become a meal for monsters later.”

The corpse wouldn’t wait for the killer to be found.

The loose military boots were inconvenient for walking. Huo Yanji put on the slightly smaller jacket, threw fire without looking back, and carried Sang Jue westward.

Sang Jue hugged Huo Yanji’s neck, the blazing flames reflected in his eyes.

Since arriving on this planet, what he experienced most was the death of others, starting with Si Fu at their first meeting.

Huo Yanji’s eyes were dark: “Sang Jue, help me with something.”

The favor was simple—just look around nearby, find traces of other humans, and determine whether only this soldier was killed or if others had met the same fate.

The two wandered around the surrounding forest, found no living person, but with Sang Jue’s superior sense of smell, they successively discovered two more soldiers’ corpses.

The smell of blood would attract monsters, so the bodies had to be burned on the spot.

Though for those already dead, the final destination of their bodies was meaningless—only the living cared.

Most of the day passed.

“Roar!”

A terrifying wolf let out a hoarse howl, its eyes a murky green, its sharp wolf face hairless with extremely rough skin, as hard as toad hide.

A cold light flashed in the air. A sharp dagger shot straight into its vulnerable neck before it could pounce on the youth in front.

“Roar—”

The wolf let out a pained howl, blood spurting. Huo Yanji strode forward, kicked away the dying wolf, pulled out the long dagger from its neck and delivered another blow.

Around Huo Yanji were scattered monster corpses, mostly wolves with occasional other creatures.

There were even more corpses around Sang Jue. Unlike Huo Yanji who was sweating with bulging veins, he remained peaceful and pure. After killing the last monster, he obediently walked to Huo Yanji and extended his hand.

Huo Yanji calmly used waste fabric picked up along the way to wipe the blood from his hands.

The ground was almost dyed red with blood, the air thick with the stench. The two stood among the corpses like two unyielding gods of death.

Huo Yanji said: “Next time, you should tell me about this kind of thing in advance.”

Sang Jue pursed his lips: “I’m sorry.”

Sang Jue hadn’t mentioned his fatal attraction to other monsters, and Huo Yanji had to discover it himself.

Wherever they passed, the contaminants were always agitated. Getting slightly closer, some monsters with weaker contamination desire would suddenly awaken and attack them.

With rich wilderness combat experience, Huo Yanji quickly noticed this was unusual.

“We’re in the wilderness. If I don’t know the situation, I’ll respond based on past experience like before, which could easily put us in danger.” Huo Yanji had no intention of blame, his tone flat, more like teaching.

“So why didn’t you tell me?”

Having confessed even about being from an alien planet, it was strange that Sang Jue, who was always direct, hadn’t mentioned this.

Sang Jue twisted his fingers, secretly glanced at Huo Yanji, and deflected: “The antlion swarm in the main city wasn’t attracted by me.”

“…”

Huo Yanji froze, complex emotions surging like dark waves in his eyes.

Sang Jue had once been a carefree evil dragon, unrestrained and willful. Now he had learned ‘worry’ and ‘unease’ because of a human, afraid of being misunderstood and rejected.

Humans were inherently selfish, using personal desire in their limited lives to seduce a little monster who might have infinite lifespan.

Sang Jue pursed his lips, looking at Huo Yanji with those calm, beautiful eyes: “Don’t you believe me?”

“I believe you.” Huo Yanji stepped forward, removed the cloth wrapping his hands, and rubbed Sang Jue’s nape with his bloodless palm. “I never thought you attracted the antlions, Sang Jue.”

The last two words of address were heavy, carrying a tenderness unique to Huo Yanji. Like winter wind warmed by a campfire, or gentle rain after a thunderstorm.

Sang Jue rubbed his itchy ears: “I’m sorry, I should have said it earlier, but I don’t like being doubted by you.”

Huo Yanji had always preemptively eliminated safety hazards before. The little evil dragon had indeed thought for a moment that when Huo Yanji discovered he easily attracted monsters, he might drive him away from the main city for the sake of the people behind him.

The little evil dragon also wanted to eliminate the hazard of separation, so he didn’t say anything.

Sang Jue sniffed the bloody smell on Huo Yanji: “Don’t fight anymore. If you get injured, you could die.”

Unlike his usual field missions, Huo Yanji wasn’t wearing flexible gloves, had no gun, and was only wearing a thin jacket on his upper body with no protective function.

This was too dangerous for a human.

“Alright.” Huo Yanji curved his lips: “It’s proper for a little slave to protect their master.”

Sang Jue frowned unhappily: “I’m not your little slave anymore, I’m your mate.”

Huo Yanji said: “In the human world, you’re only mates after getting a marriage certificate.”

Sang Jue asked puzzledly: “Then what are we without a certificate?”

Huo Yanji said flatly: “Playing hooky.”

“…You’re the hooligan.” Sang Jue huffed quietly: “In the animal world, agreeing to courtship behavior makes you mates.”

Humans were too absurd.

Almost eating the evil dragon, yet still treating the dragon as a slave.

Stepping through the surrounding monster corpses, the two headed toward the solar base station. Sang Jue’s trait of attracting monsters would bring certain dangers. The soldier’s death had to be set aside for now—they’d continue investigating after reaching safety.

The wolf corpses had many necessary resources, including the previous spider queen cave where the giant spider web above the pool was also a treasure.

But they had no vehicle and couldn’t carry so many resources, only cutting off a wolf hind leg for dinner.

…

The post-war main city was in chaos.

With the supervisors dissolved and Huo Yanji not in the city, the “post-disaster corpse cleanup and decontamination operation” couldn’t proceed orderly like before. In just two days, hundreds of residents died from post-war contamination.

For example, contamination genes accidentally brought into safe city areas, or deviants who participated in battle but were accidentally infected concealed their condition and eventually lost control, killing over ten people.

There was also a street water station that hadn’t undergone sufficient decontamination, causing the water source to be contaminated. This wasn’t discovered until over seventy residents came to get water, ultimately causing a series of infection casualties.

Huo Yanji’s name was once again on everyone’s lips, with undiminished popularity. Residents finally realized how safe their former “lack of freedom” had been.

But in this situation, Huo Yanji had yet to appear, causing high public concern.

Everyone was asking why, two or three days after the battle ended, Huo Yanji still hadn’t appeared to maintain order, nor had his voice been heard.

Some thought Huo Yanji had been deeply hurt by past rumors and would now only serve as a human general, no longer managing city order. Others made outrageous guesses, believing Huo Yanji had been infected to death by his deviant partner Sang Jue, which was why he hadn’t appeared.

For a time, people were in panic.

Many were already questioning whether dissolving the supervisor organization was the right decision. Without monthly contamination index testing, they couldn’t trust anyone around them, including the deviants themselves.

Originally, the higher-ups concealed Huo Yanji’s accident to stabilize public sentiment, planning to announce the news once the situation was confirmed. Seeing public opinion getting more heated, they had no choice but to announce Huo Yanji’s disappearance.

But in fact, many higher-ups believed Huo Yanji had already been killed.

Such a large mountain fire, air filled with thick smoke, agitated monsters running rampant—no matter how strong Huo Yanji was, he was ultimately just an ordinary person, flesh and blood, not an immortal deity.

In the conference room, everyone looked grave.

“Lieutenant Colonel Saiya who accompanied him has been confirmed safe, but there’s still no news of General Huo. We must prepare for the worst.”

“Really not giving people a way to live…” The old general closed his eyes, looking exhausted: “Originally announcing the manor situation could have stabilized the deviants’ emotions. Most people would trust General Huo after this period, and public sentiment could at least rally around him…”

For current survivors, what they feared most was lack of unity.

But Huo Yanji’s sudden accident shattered their imagined good situation.

Huo Jiangmian on the opposite side suddenly said: “Huo Feng has been dead for so many years, didn’t public sentiment still rally before the Dawn Plan was announced?”