After Being Forcibly Marked By My Fiancé’S Best Friend Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Lian Xu quickly glanced at him, then turned his gaze to Fiya.

Her current appearance could only be described as neither human nor ghost; such a sweet little girl had been modified into this state.

Not everyone could recover their lost sanity, and the content of that forged diary wasn’t entirely accurate. But Lian Xu knew that once the human body underwent certain experiments, the original cells would be destroyed. It was completely impossible for the cells to undergo reverse growth.

The final result was becoming like those mindless, twisted walking corpses.

Fiya was likely the only semi-human capable of normal communication since their research began, and her fate was sealed from the start.

Lian Xu found the records of Fiya’s experiment in the machine’s interlayer. Starting at age three, she was treated as a culture medium.

Her growth stopped at age ten. Seven years of experimentation resulted in the Fiya of today.

“Fiya, do you remember your parents?” Lian Xu asked.

The experiment records mentioned that to make the test subjects resemble real humans, they continuously extracted human memories and infused them into the culture medium.

So, did Fiya have memories of her parents?

Fiya suddenly looked at Lian Xu, pouting with a hint of grievance.

“Brother, are you going to abandon me too?”

Lian Xu lowered his eyes. It seemed communication was impossible.

He Yu stood observing Fiya’s changes, watching as the flesh on her body slowly regenerated.

“What’s the point of talking to her?” He Yu said in a low voice.

There wasn’t much point. Lian Xu just wanted to see if he could get any useful information.

Apparently not.

Lian Xu pulled the gun from his waist, pulled the trigger, his movements clean and decisive.

He Yu stared intently at the all-too-familiar gun in the Omega’s hand, pursed his lips, and said, “It’s useless. You can’t kill her.”

“I know,” Lian Xu said. “Just buying some time.”

“Like this…” He Yu raised his hand and fired ten shots in quick succession, nearly turning the small body into a sieve. “There. She won’t recover for at least a dozen hours now.”

Looking at the holes in Fiya’s body, Lian Xu felt a pang of reluctance. She was still a child; there was no need to be so cruel.

With Fiya dealt with, there was no need to target the two replicated military legions fighting each other. They were merely artificially driven, mindless vessels; destroying the machine controlling them would end it.

When Lian Xu walked out of the laboratory, Fiya was still screaming in place, like a malfunctioning machine that was barely managing to operate.

He ultimately didn’t stop, leading He Yu and the two locals to the replication machine. He turned and said, “Please destroy the machine. The base cannot be left intact either.”

Lian Xu handed the found experiment logbook to He Yu. “This should be helpful.”

He Yu took it, and before Lian Xu could turn away, he grabbed his wrist. “Where are you going now?”

“There’s one more in the flying vehicle.”

He was referring to the man they had taken from the horde of corpses.

Lian Xu wasn’t sure if the man would die along with the base when it was destroyed, so he needed to use the time he had now to ask him what he wanted to know.

He Yu’s fingertip brushed against the gauze on Lian Xu’s wrist, and after a moment, he spoke, his tone lazy and slightly flippant. “Who knows if you’re going off to do something dangerous behind my back again? Give me a guarantee.”

“What guarantee?”

He Yu looked at Lian Xu without speaking. His palm covered the Omega’s scent gland on the back of his neck and rubbed it, the meaning clear.

He had forgotten that the Alpha was still in his rut.

So, in front of the two outsiders, Lian Xu slightly lowered his head.

“Good boy.”

He Yu didn’t hesitate and bit down.

After tasting the Omega’s pheromones, the Alpha came alive. As his canine teeth pierced the skin and injected the white camellia into the Omega’s private territory, the anxious fear gradually disappeared.

He Yu was insatiable. He pressed his tongue against the scent gland and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear: “Not enough. I want more.”

Lian Xu’s shoulder twitched, and he stepped back.

He couldn’t give him any more, he thought.

Otherwise, He Yu wouldn’t be the only one losing control.

He Yu’s eyes darkened, but he didn’t force him further. He simply said, “I’ll get out as quickly as possible. Don’t forget what you promised me.”

Lian Xu didn’t respond. He thought the Alpha had forgotten, especially since he hadn’t seemed entirely lucid at the time.

Driven by the need for a quick resolution, Lian Xu quickly left the experimental base. Without Fiya’s mental control, the soldiers on the ground, circling with their guns raised, looked increasingly like rigid machines, indistinguishable from one another.

He bypassed the crowd and boarded the flying vehicle from the back.

The man was already awake.

Time was short, so Lian Xu didn’t beat around the bush. He went straight to the point: “You are an Imperial citizen. Why are you here? Who was the corpse you were holding last night, and why do you still retain human consciousness?”

When the man heard the voice, he stared blankly at the group of people walking aimlessly outside, finding it pathetic.

“Lian Xu, don’t you remember me?”

Lian Xu turned abruptly. The man’s messy, matted hair covered most of his face, but his voice was deep and sounded more real than the hoarse rasp from last night.

Scruffy, covered in dirt, and stained with blood, he bore no resemblance to the spirited Alpha who had pulled him into the Star Tower for training years ago.

His voice trembling, Lian Xu tentatively asked, “Are you Xia Zhi?”

The man smiled. “I thought you wouldn’t remember at all.”

Three years ago, Xia Zhi, as a commander, led one hundred people to the Barren Star to observe the movements of the Barbarian Star and transmit intelligence. They were attacked almost immediately upon landing and were nearly wiped out.

All one hundred were captured and taken to a secret base—a place that could only be described as hell. Inside dense rows of transparent glass tubes were unrecognizable humans.

Xia Zhi was locked in a dark room. He only learned from the guards’ casual chatter that the base leader was conducting live experiments. Including him, nearly three hundred people were carriers prepared for the experiments.

Adrian was his lover, and they were forcibly separated. In the dark room, he couldn’t distinguish day from night, and Xia Zhi didn’t know how long he had been there. When he was finally brought out, he saw one of the glass tubes containing his Omega.

The air was filled with a strong scent of pheromones—Adrian’s clary sage.

Adrian was naked, submerged in a thick liquid, covered in dense knife cuts from the back of his neck to his ankles. A man in a white lab coat was wiping the perpetually blood-stained operating table with a cloth.

Xia Zhi inhaled the pheromones in the air. The clary sage he once loved most now wrapped tightly around his neck, suffocating him.

The inherent strength of Alphas significantly reduced the effectiveness of their mind control, especially since this group hadn’t considered the influence of pheromones.

Their cruel treatment of Adrian showed that no one had previously been controlled through pheromones.

The high-concentration pheromones extracted from Adrian’s body were diluted into hundreds of portions and mixed into the daily diet of the selected experimental carriers.

“They wanted to use a powerful Alpha to control the humans who had consumed Adrian’s pheromones. If the controlled person was also an Omega, it would be smoother. But Imperial soldiers are mostly Alphas, and Adrian was the only Omega involved in that operation.”

“How did you escape?” Lian Xu asked.

“Replicas,” Xia Zhi said. “They not only modified and controlled humans but also created a large number of replicas. They replicated powerful bodies to wage war.”

“Influenced by Adrian’s pheromones, my replica was 100% subservient to them, which allowed me to slip away.”

“The drug has had some effect on me. I often lose consciousness and wake up without knowing where I am.”

Lian Xu looked toward the ruins not far away. “When the base is destroyed, will you end up like them?”

Xia Zhi lowered his eyes, looking utterly weary of life. “Perhaps. I’ve lived long enough. Adrian must be missing me.”

He should have died the moment Adrian’s scent gland was cut open. The Alpha failed to protect his Omega, and the one who should have been strong instead used Adrian’s pheromones to cling to life until now.

“I’m sorry, last night I…”

He hadn’t expected Adrian to be among those walking corpses.

Lian Xu wasn’t particularly close to Adrian, but the Omega was gentle and warm-hearted toward everyone. Because of his relationship with Xia Zhi, he had helped Lian Xu quite a bit.

“It’s not your fault,” Xia Zhi said. “If you hadn’t suddenly appeared, I might not have been able to regain consciousness.”

The two old friends, who hadn’t seen each other in years, looked at each other, unable to speak at this moment.

A few minutes later, Lian Xu spoke.

“You called him ‘Babe.’ I remember Adrian wasn’t from the Empire. Is that how they address their lovers in his homeland?”

Given the language barrier, could Adrian understand what ‘Babe’ meant?

Xia Zhi suddenly smiled. “He understood.”

Lian Xu nodded.

Xia Zhi added, “He was influenced by you, which is why he insisted I call him ‘Babe.'”

“What?” Lian Xu never expected such a reason.

“Do you remember that video you treasured? You asked me to help you find someone. Adrian saw it and asked me what ‘Babe’ meant. I explained it to him, and he became obsessed, insisting I call him that.”

At that time, Xia Zhi hadn’t even confessed his feelings.

Xia Zhi never expressed his love until Adrian lost consciousness.

Lian Xu felt a little mortified. That video…

“Lian Xu, don’t live the rest of your life in regret.”

Boom—

With a loud explosion, the ruins were blown to smithereens, and a cloud of yellow dust obscured the view.

Lian Xu stared anxiously in the direction of the ruins. The base was destroyed, but there was still no sign of He Yu.

Had he been buried underneath?

“Is there any… escape route in the base?”

Lian Xu’s voice was as steady as ever, but Xia Zhi detected worry in it.

“Is that Alpha the person you’re looking for?”

Lian Xu didn’t dare say yes, nor did he dare say no.

Xia Zhi advised him, “Don’t let emotion cloud your judgment.”

“He doesn’t love me,” Lian Xu said. “The first time I saw him, I could tell. He has no love for me, only curiosity, the Alpha’s desire to conquer an Omega.”

“He didn’t even recognize me!”

Lian Xu’s emotions were running high. Just as he was speaking, the hatch of the flying vehicle was pulled open. “Who didn’t recognize you?”

Lian Xu turned to meet He Yu’s inquiring eyes. He stepped onto the floor panel and squeezed in, pressing close to Lian Xu.

“Wife, who did you say didn’t recognize you?”