Su An'an opened the electronic door and asked doubtfully, "Hasn't Lan Cangming's heat wave already been dealt with? Why has it flared up again?"
"The doctor said he was probably agitated at the Judgement Court. His fiancée has to help him resolve it, or his Genetic Level will drop below 3S."
The Octopus Officer, Lei Ya, was so anxious his forehead broke out in a sweat, his eight tentacles twisting into a knot.
Upgrading a Beastman's Genetic Level is an uphill battle. Once it drops, it just keeps getting worse.
'It must be that madman Night Abyss. He must have done something. He's just waiting for something to happen to Lan Cangming so he can keep attacking me!'
Su An'an panicked and immediately headed for the Mermaid Palace. "How is he now?"
Lei Ya's face scrunched up, and his eight tentacles fretfully scratched at his scalp.
"Not good at all. His temperature is over forty degrees Celsius, he's extremely irritable, and he won't let any other beastmen near him. He also forbade me from coming to you for help."
Su An'an stopped and looked at him in surprise. "I thought he was the one who sent you."
Lei Ya scratched his head awkwardly. "The Marshal said he'd rather his Level drop than get close to you again."
'What in the world did that damn Night Abyss do to make Lan Cangming hate me again?'
Su An'an pushed open the ornate iron doors of the Mermaid Palace and was immediately hit by a strong medicinal smell that made her choke and cough.
Lan Cangming was lying prone in a healing solution. His long, ice-blue hair stuck to his handsome, refined face. The corners of his eyes were red, his ear fins were slightly flared, and his toned abs rose and fell violently with his ragged breaths.
Seeing Su An'an, his pupils contracted. "Who let you in?" he roared, his voice hoarse.
"Lan Cangming, please calm down. I just want to help you."
Su An'an bit her red lips with her pearly-white teeth, her small, fair hands clutching her dress as she put on a pitiful and helpless act.
"You hypocrite! Isn't it your fault I'm like this? Night Abyss was right. You damned female are just pretending to be innocent. You never planned on letting any of us go! Now my Level is about to drop. Are you satisfied?"
Lan Cangming's mermaid tail thrashed irritably against the side of the pool, shattering the crystal lamps nearby with a series of loud CRASHES.
'So it really is that madman Night Abyss causing trouble!'
Su An'an gritted her teeth inwardly, but she maintained her pitiful facade and said:
"It was because my spiritual power was too low before. I couldn't control my temper, and that's why I treated you all that way."
"But now my spiritual power has had a breakthrough, and I know I was wrong. Please, just give me one chance to make it up to you, okay?"
"And how do you plan to 'make it up to me'?" Lan Cangming's thin lips curled into a sarcastic smile. "Sleep with me?"
"If that's what you want... I... even if it kills me, I'll help you."
Su An'an tugged at the hem of her clothes, tears glistening on her eyelashes like shattered pearls. She looked both pitiful and adorable.
Lei Ya thought his Marshal was going too far. How could he treat the beautiful and delicate Princess like this?
He shuffled forward, braving the flying shards of glass. "Marshal, your temperature is rising again! The doctor said only the Princess can help you. She's even willing to sacrifice herself, so you..."
"I don't need it!" Lan Cangming grabbed a pearl ornament and hurled it at them, his eight-pack abs, faintly visible through the steam, tensed tight. "Take her and get out!"
Lei Ya quickly dodged as the pearl ornament shattered against the wall.
He gave Su An'an a troubled look. "Your Highness, the Marshal is so against this... maybe he really doesn't want your help."
"No, I'm not leaving." Su An'an lifted her small, stubborn face.
'If Lan Cangming's Genetic Level drops, that's exactly what Night Abyss wants.'
"I'll never trust you again! Get out!" With a flick of his large, silver-blue mermaid tail, Lan Cangming splattered her with icy water.
She wiped the medicated water from her face, then suddenly crouched by the pool and tilted her head. "Are you sure you don't want my help?"
As she spoke, she deliberately dipped her slender, pale ankle into the pool, watching as his pupils instantly contracted into vertical slits.
"Are you trying to die?" The mermaid grabbed her ankle with lightning speed, his scorching palm searing her skin.
Su An'an used the momentum to lean forward, her dress strap slipping to reveal one of her pale shoulders. "Lei Ya said... that we have to be close like this to lower your temperature..."
"I—I didn't say that!" Lei Ya was so scared he became incoherent, slamming the door with a BANG as he fled.
Lan Cangming suddenly lunged, pinning Su An'an against the edge of the pool. His mermaid fangs grazed her wildly throbbing carotid artery.
"Such a clumsy seduction attempt... it's rather unbecoming of a Princess, isn't it?"
With that, his scorching lips came crashing down.
She turned her head to avoid him, so the mermaid's fangs caught her earlobe, nipping it gently. "Why pretend to be so pure?"
Her soaked purple lace dress floated on the water's surface like a blooming iris.
Lan Cangming suddenly froze. The young woman's knee was pressed against the softest, most vulnerable scales of his tail fin, while her fingertips pinched and tugged at the tuft of fluorescent blue scales at the tip of his ear fin.
"Move another inch,"
she whispered, her breath warm against the throbbing pulse in his neck, "and a picture of you like this will be the top headline on the Star Network."
Lan Cangming's thrashing tail fin wrapped around her legs, its scales scraping backward against her skin and drawing fine beads of blood. "You're courting death..."
The moment he bit the nape of her neck, Su An'an's hair floated up as if stirred by a wind. Spiritual Power Tentacles, glowing with a dim red light, shot straight toward the Beast Core in his sea of consciousness.
The pale blue Beast Core was boiling violently, looking as if it might erupt like a volcano at any second.
"Argh... Su An'an!"
Lan Cangming let out a muffled groan, the scales on his tail fin bristling as they scraped against her thighs.
The mermaid's calloused hand slid down her spine, his fingers digging into the small of her back and leaving behind purple bruises.
"You little F Level teacup, what are you trying to prove?"
"Be a little fucking gentler!"
Su An'an winced in pain, grabbing his ear fin and giving it a vicious tug. Her Spiritual Power Tentacles flared with red light. "More than enough to deal with you."
Countless "+10" notifications floated up in her sea of consciousness. Her Spiritual Power Tentacles were instantly maxed out, their color shifting from pale red to a shimmering green.
'No wonder getting intimate with a Beast Husband in his heat wave is the fastest way to recharge,' she thought. 'The Energy from Lan Cangming's Beast Core is on par with a power plant!'
But before Su An'an could celebrate for even two seconds, the boiling Energy from his Beast Core suddenly surged into her like a mad tide.
[+100,000]
[+9999]
[WARNING! OVERLOAD WARNING!]
A white light exploded in Su An'an's vision. Her abdomen felt like it was about to burst, and her entire body trembled.
Lan Cangming's ragged breaths, smelling of sea salt, washed over her. "Why are you trembling? Weren't you going to compensate me?"
"I'm going to explode! I'm really going to explode!" She could feel every blood vessel in her body throbbing violently.
'This isn't recharging! This is pouring molten lava into a plastic water bottle!'
Lan Cangming suddenly grabbed her by the waist and pressed her against the edge of the pool, his ice-blue hair falling around them like a curtain.
Su An'an realized with a start that his blue-green pupils had narrowed into bestial slits. From the gaps between the scales on his waist, beads of scorching-hot blue blood began to seep out—a sign his Beast Core was overloading.
'I have to calm him down!'
Su An'an brandished her Spiritual Power Tentacles, condensing the overloaded Energy into a pale green liquid and channeling it back into his Beast Core.
The mermaid's savage biting stopped just above her collarbone. His Beast Core, which had been on the verge of exploding, instantly calmed.
As Lan Cangming let out a muffled groan and collapsed into the medicated pool, Su An'an stumbled back, knocking over a crystal stand.
She stared at her own tentacles, now so translucent they looked ready to burst, and staggered toward the dispensary.
'If I can't release all this Energy before I explode, it's all over.'