Chapter 3: Ah, the Vulnerable Period

The moment the electric current buzzed and crackled, pain surged throughout his entire body, roaring to life!

Chu Shen could feel a suffocating sensation gripping his throat.

The Locking Ring hadn’t tightened further.

It was just that under the intense agony, even breathing had become a struggle.

Every inch of his flesh began to ache with a life-threatening intensity. Even the air touching his skin felt like sandpaper scraping off a layer, excruciatingly painful. The white light in the interrogation room was unbearably harsh, piercing his eyeballs like a solid object, sharp and painful.

Yet, this was only the beginning.

Chu Shen struggled so violently that wounds didn’t even have time to clot tore open even more horrifically.

The clattering of chains mixed with his choked sobs.

He desperately tried to clench his teeth, swallowing all sounds, but his body’s instinctive reactions were beyond control. Broken moans and suppressed whimpers escaped through the gaps in his teeth.

Qu Zhuzhu Qing stood a few steps away by the control panel, watching expressionlessly.

He crossed his arms, but his nails unconsciously dug deep into the flesh of his own arms.

He should hate him.

He despised all Altered equally.

But when he saw that face, his heart felt as if it were being brutally squeezed, bringing a sharp sense of suffocation.

He couldn’t bear to see that face contorted in such agony…

Chu Shen’s suffering was restrained, enduring, and silent.

A quarter of an hour wasn’t long, but it stretched interminably under the torment of pain.

After the initial violent struggles and spasms, Chu Shen’s movements strangely diminished in intensity far too soon.

It wasn’t that the pain had lessened he was desperately suppressing his futile struggles.

Chu Shen’s body still trembled violently under the stimulation of nerve-wracking pain, but his head tilted up slightly.

His utterly unfocused gaze, with great difficulty, stubbornly, and resolutely, fixed on the Coalition Badge reflecting a cold gleam on the white wall at the front of the interrogation room!

Chu Shen raised his head high.

The fragile curve of his neck trembled repeatedly.

Yet he refused to bow down again.

“Ugh” a complex sob laden with unidentifiable emotions escaped his lips, and he instantly bit down hard on his lower lip!

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, the metallic taste making him nauseous.

But his eyes remained fixed unwaveringly on that Coalition Badge.

As if that long-blurred faith was the only support that could help him endure the torture.

His resolute gaze only made Qu Zhuzhu Qing more agitated.

“Speak! Tell me, and I’ll give you release!” Qu Zhuzhu Qing’s voice carried a fierce edge.

A harshness utterly unfamiliar to Chu Shen.

He stepped in front of Chu Shen, blocking his unfocused view of the Coalition Badge.

Forced to look at Qu Zhuzhu Qing standing before him, Chu Shen saw the hatred filling his eyes.

A pain more unbearable than any punishment spread silently through his heart.

How he wished he could call out “Xiao Qu” like before, tell him, I’m your brother, I’ve returned, I won’t leave again…

But he couldn’t.

Chu Shen had been undercover for ten years, reaching his current position through the sacrifices of countless lives.

If his cover was blown, it would mean all those deaths were in vain!

It would mean all the efforts of the past decade had gone up in flames!

And he would drag Qu Zhuzhu Qing into this vortex as well.

The Polar Domain would never let go of a traitor like him, nor would they spare any potential informants he had contacted.

The burning sensation from the electric current around his neck mingled with the excruciating pain coursing through his body.

The most sensitive spot at the nape of his neck had long been stimulated to the point where even the slightest movement from breathing became unbearable.

An abnormal sensation spread through every inch of his flesh and blood, magnifying the vulnerability unique to an Altered during their Vulnerable Period to an extreme degree.

Qu Zhuzhu Qing disdained using pheromones to suppress the Altered, and at this moment, the interrogation room was almost devoid of his agarwood pheromone scent.

Yet, under intense stimulation, Chu Shen still faintly perceived the elusive fragrance of Kynam Agarwood.

The rich, mellow woody aroma blended with a soft sweetness, exceptionally clear and refreshing.

The innate dominance of an Alpha was suppressed by the chain reactions of the Vulnerable Period, giving rise to a base impulse a desire to be immersed in that agarwood scent.

However, it lasted only a moment.

In his dazed peripheral vision, Chu Shen caught sight of the silver pocket watch hanging from Qu Zhuzhu Qing’s wrist, and the illusory longing was instantly shattered by reality.

That was Qu Zhuzhu Qing…

The little Zhuzhu he had watched grow up, the one who used to follow him around, calling him “brother” repeatedly.

When Chu Shen first found Qu Zhuzhu Qing, the boy wasn’t even half his height.

Yet, he would still climb onto a stool to cook a bowl of noodles or warm a cup of milk for Chu Shen whenever he returned home exhausted after a mission.

Back then, holding little Zhuzhu in his arms was the only time Chu Shen truly felt the reality of protecting the countless lights of the city and found the strength to carry on.

A quarter of an hour had probably passed.

But Chu Shen said nothing, and Qu Zhuzhu Qing did not leave.

Chu Shen’s struggles and tremors had weakened almost nothing.

Excessive pain seemed to have drained the last of his strength; only intermittent, violent convulsions remained as proof of the ongoing torment he endured.

His eyes were half-closed, tiny teardrops clinging to his long eyelashes.

Liquid trickled down his cheeks with each shudder of his body, but he couldn’t even distinguish what was sweat, what was tears, and what was blood…

Qu Zhuzhu Qing had clearly lost all patience.

If it weren’t for the fact that the Polar Domain’s top assassin held such high clearance and possessed too much valuable intelligence, he might have already delivered the killing blow.

But now, Qu Zhuzhu Qing could only irritably rub the pocket watch in his palm repeatedly, his gaze fixed on Chu Shen, who had long been tortured beyond recognition.

Suddenly, he seemed to notice something.

Qu Zhuzhu Qing walked to Chu Shen’s side and abruptly pressed his hand against the spot on Chu Shen’s nape covered by the Locking Ring.

“Ugh!” An uncontrolled, dying struggle betrayed Chu Shen.

“Heh, the Vulnerable Period…” Qu Zhuzhu Qing chuckled disdainfully, as if he had stumbled upon something amusing.

The last shred of dignity within Chu Shen fueled his desperate attempt to maintain composure, unwilling to lose all decorum in front of Qu Zhuzhu Qing.

But the heightened sensitivity from the combination of the Vulnerable Period and the Locking Ring couldn’t withstand such contact.

Qu Zhuzhu Qing suddenly released his Kynam Agarwood pheromone!

The clear, woody fragrance permeated the entire interrogation room. Though not intentionally suppressive, under the stimulation of the Locking Ring, it became unbearably overwhelming for Chu Shen, pushing him to the brink of death.

Enigm pheromone.

Absolute suppression!

Even an Alpha not in their Vulnerable Period would be forced to submit under an Enigma’s pheromone.

And for Chu Shen at this moment, there was no possibility of resistance at all.
Chu Shen’s abruptly widened eyes were filled with agony, yet when they gazed at Qu Zhuzhu Qing, a subtle, complex emotion lay hidden within the pain.

His little Qu… was an Enigma…

How remarkable.

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