Landing face-to-face with a rift serpent about to swallow him whole was not what Wenzhi had expected when he teleported out of the jet.

The beast was enormous, its terrifying maw stretched so wide Wenzhi could vividly see the wet muscle of its tongue and rows of translucent teeth bursting up from the desert sand.

In the exact second before the jaws clamped shut, a massive tentacle of solid dark mist whipped through the air. It wrapped brutally around Wenzhi’s waist and yanked him backward out of the impact zone, tossing him deep into the mouth of a nearby cavern.

Instead of dropping him, the shadow tendrils pinned him, suspending him hard against the stone wall. Wenzhi gasped for air as a crushing gravity wave slammed into his chest.

Outside the cave entrance, Xinyuan moved. A massive scythe crafted from dense dark mist materialized in his hands as he launched himself into the sky.

With a single slash, he sliced clean through the serpent’s armored hide, hacking the monster into a dozen bleeding sections. The creature let out a wet, deafening screech that echoed off the canyon walls before its remnants dropped lifelessly into the dust.

Inside the cavern, Wenzhi twisted against the shadows constricting his torso, trying to break free. "Get off me," he rasped, but the grip only grew tighter, pressing the air out of his lungs.

Xinyuan walked into the cave, his boots scraping heavily against the stone. He stopped, looking up at Wenzhi, who was still pinned to the wall. The scythe dissolved from his palms, bleeding back into his skin, and Wenzhi couldn’t deny that the Esper looked completely horrific.

He looked as terrible as the landscape outside, where physics had died and chunks of bedrock drifted aimlessly through a howling, dark sky.

Xinyuan was absolutely covered in blood with both his own and the rift monsters. It smeared his visible skin and matted his dark hair against his forehead. The glowing red chain markings had completely consumed his face, pulsing beneath his skin, and both of his eyes were wide, burning pools of raw crimson.

Wenzhi could feel the agonizing strain Xinyuan was under. He was hanging onto his sanity by a single, thin thread.

Wenzhi let out a heavy, forced breath. "We don’t see each other for four days, and the first thing you do is restrain me?"

"How are you here?" Xinyuan’s voice was strained.

Wenzhi narrowed his grey eyes. "Were you expecting me to just leave you out here to rot?"

"It’s dangerous," Xinyuan rasped, taking a slow step forward, the dark mist coiling around his body. "The entire Red Zone is—"

"I know, I know. Chenxi has been singing that exact same song in my ears for hours," Wenzhi cut him off, wincing as he tried to shift his shoulders. "Just accept the fact that I’m here. You’ve clearly been waiting for me, considering you haven’t blown up the entire planet yet."

Wenzhi expected the shadows to recede, but instead, the solid mist around his ribs tightened. He hissed in pain, glaring down at the Esper.

Xinyuan just stared back, his expression completely unreadable, but the bond exposed the terrifying urge to grab the Guide and completely devour him.

Xinyuan parted his blood-stained lips. "Are you okay?"

Wenzhi gave him a flat, thoroughly unimpressed look. "Let me down, Xinyuan."

"I have consumed too much corruption, Wenzhi," Xinyuan muttered, his pupils contracting frantically. "I don’t think..."

"Shut it and just let me go!" Wenzhi snapped, his frustration finally boiling over.

Instead of releasing him, the shadow tentacles reacted instantly, slamming Wenzhi forward off the stone wall. Before his boots could even touch the ground, another dense, slithering mist whipped out from Xinyuan’s chest and wrapped directly around Wenzhi’s neck.

Xinyuan closed the distance, his glowing red eyes fixing onto Wenzhi’s face with a manic, obsessive intensity.

"I’ve missed you, baby," he whispered, a wild, unhinged smile slowly stretched across his bloody features.

Wenzhi’s jaw clenched, a quiet groan catching in his throat. The raw, manic shift in Xinyuan’s tone signaled that the Esper was slipping into the possessive state he always got when he was starved for guidance.

Wenzhi’s arms were pinned flush against his sides by the shadow bindings, and the slithering mist around his neck was tightening by the second.

Forced to throw his head back against the pressure, he gritted his teeth. "Xinyuan...!"

Xinyuan stared at him with pure fascination. "I can’t touch you. Not with these bloodied hands,"

He dissolved the tentacles from around Wenzhi’s neck. But instead of dropping him to the cold stone floor, the shadows suddenly hoisted Wenzhi higher into the air just a second before Wenzhi’s boot could connect with Xinyuan’s jaw.

Xinyuan barely dodged the kick, cocking his head to the side with a faint, dangerous chuckle. "That was close."

He stared down at his dark, blood-stained palms. "I want to touch you so bad..." He clamped his fingers into tight, white-knuckled fists, his gaze snapping back up to Wenzhi.

Wenzhi hung there, giving him a completely flat, unimpressed look.

Was this some kind of twisted kink for him now? Wenzhi didn’t give a single shit about the blood, and Xinyuan knew that. Yet, the bastard was perfectly content to get off on dangling Wenzhi in mid-air like a sweet dumpling he’d been starving for after four days in hell.

"Wenzhi..." Xinyuan breathed, those manic crimson eyes wide and pleading.

Wenzhi frowned. "I do not mind the blood, you idiot."

Xinyuan’s lips curled into a sharp, beautiful dimpled smile. Slowly, the shadow tentacles lowered Wenzhi until his boots firmly met the cavern floor. The moment Wenzhi stood solid, he let out a heavy breath, stabilizing his stance.

Xinyuan didn’t rush him. He just drank him in, scanning him from head to toe, taking in the ruffled dark hair, the dust-smudged freckles, and those dull grey eyes.

But as Xinyuan looked closer, he noticed a faint tinge of crimson reflecting in Wenzhi’s irises. It was a perfect, pleasant mirror of his own.

Cocked his head in raw curiosity, Xinyuan closed the remaining distance. The quiet hum of their wavelengths began to mix beautifully, neutralizing the edges of the corruption dripping from him.

He leaned in close, softly brushing his nose against Wenzhi’s. Both of them instinctively closed their eyes, a collective shudder running through them.

The dark mist around Wenzhi’s torso began dissolving into quiet, lazy wisps that hovered around Xinyuan’s shoulders.

Sensing the opening, Wenzhi slowly raised his hand, but Xinyuan’s hand snapped out. His fingers clamped firmly around Wenzhi’s wrist, stopping him dead in his tracks.

Their eyes snapped open, locking onto one another.

"I told you," Wenzhi said, his tone dripping with frustration, "I do not care about the goddamn blood."

"I know," Xinyuan crashed his lips against Wenzhi’s with great desperation.

The grip on Wenzhi’s wrist loosened, and the moment his hand was free, Wenzhi didn’t pull away. Instead, he went straight for Xinyuan’s neck, his fingers locking tight around the Esper’s nape, aggressively deepening the kiss. He squeezed with enough force to cut off Xinyuan’s airflow, a petty payback for the shadow tentacles from earlier.

Xinyuan didn’t even try to pull back. He leaned into the suffocating pressure, a breathy, rumbling laugh escaping his chest against Wenzhi’s lips.

Wenzhi immediately released his grip on Xinyuan’s neck, breaking the kiss with a sharp, heavy breath. "On your knees, right now,"