Pei Ji

Biodata

Feature	Value
Name	Pei Ji (裴忌)
Alias(es)	Empire’s Demon King; Battlefield Demon; Zerg Bane 11 12
Gender	Male; Alpha 3 19
Affiliation	Icarus Empire; Fourth Fleet; Pei family of White Sand Star 3 12 19
Occupation/Role	First-Class General of the Fourth Fleet; frontline combat soldier 3 12 30
Family	Only son of Pei Li and Ai Fan 13 28
Spouse	Shen Que; their AI-matched marriage was ordered by Empress Carolina 6 17
Homeworld	White Sand Star 5
Residence	Fallen Star Palace, at the edge of White Sand Star’s Third Oasis 15
Status	Alive and on active military service in the latest supplied chapter 50
First Appearance	1

Background / History

Pei Ji grew up amid the Pei family’s immense wealth on White Sand Star. His father, Pei Li, controlled almost a third of the Icarus Galaxy’s wealth, while the family’s estates displayed expensive plants imported from other planets. Ai Fan initially intended to raise Pei Ji as a politically accomplished lord: she hired tutors when he was two and brought him to important occasions from age three. At seven, she abandoned that approach and sent him to the Military Academy 5 21.

His resistance to formal education extended beyond politics. He drove away eight etiquette tutors and, in one childhood incident, was punished for beating up his piano teacher. During that punishment, Ai Fan explained that wisteria had become valuable because she loved it—not because it was expensive—and taught him its associations with “obsessive love” and “steadfast waiting” 14 30.

At the Royal Military Academy, Pei Ji became notorious for raiding an insectoid nest alone during his graduation examination after a bet with his classmate Austin. He exploited the examination’s surveillance system to leave the designated route without losing points, then returned with insectoid heads strung on a rope. At graduation, he publicly insulted Austin with a little-finger gesture meaning “trash” in White Sand Star’s local dialect 5 14.

Pei Ji later joined the Fourth Fleet. According to Safiya, he also grew up among the Desert Folk and, shortly after becoming a general, destroyed more than a hundred worm burrows. This enabled the community to abandon its nomadic existence and establish permanent homes, earning him lasting affection among the locals 24 33.

Appearance

• Build: Tall, lean, and strong, with well-defined muscles and muscular forearms 3 19 30.
• Face: Sharp, handsome features; closely resembles his father 12 19 20.
• Expression: Frequently wears an upward-curving, confident smile, contributing to his wild, untamable appearance 12.
• Hands: Thick calluses on his fingertips and a deep scar extending across almost his entire right palm 15.
• Clothing: Appears in a black military uniform early in the story 3.

Personality

Pei Ji is arrogant, competitive, and openly defiant of authority. He takes particular offense at commanders who remain behind the front line while soldiers suffer the consequences of their decisions. An argument with Shen Que brings back a memory of blood, corpses, and pain in his scarred palm; his anger is therefore tied to more than wounded pride 7.

His confidence often becomes romantic wishful thinking. He interprets Shen Que waiting for breakfast as proof of affection and stages an extravagant mech display expecting praise, only to receive a technical critique. He is equally capable of overlooking an obvious romantic opportunity: when Safiya suggests stargazing, he objects that Shen Que might catch cold and that soldiers have already seen plenty of stars 6 9.

Toward Shen Que, Pei Ji combines possessiveness, teasing, and practical care. His jealousy can be intrusive—most spectacularly when he crashes through a bedroom window in his mech to interrupt a supposedly suspicious call. Nevertheless, he learns to control his pheromones, protects Shen Que’s medical privacy, and refrains from repeating a painful marking attempt 3 4 11 29.

His social manner varies sharply by setting. He dislikes noble gatherings but is relaxed among the Desert Folk, who address him by name rather than rank. Their teasing and familiarity contrast with his intimidating public reputation 16 19 32.

Abilities & Skills

Mech Combat

Pei Ji is an accomplished combat pilot with exceptional perception, reactions, and battlefield instinct. He specializes in desert terrain and becomes more motivated when a training scenario grows difficult 6 34.

• Completed a solo insectoid-nest raid during his graduation examination 5.
• Reacted to Shen Que’s ambush by catching a light blade with his mech’s hand and throwing the opposing machine 7.
• Piloted Devour Heaven through a punishing, dynamically altered simulation designed by Shen Que 34.
• Led a squad that destroyed a B-class Zerg nest containing 1,238 creatures, including a queen 50.
• Limitations: Shen Que identifies wasteful ammunition use, poor aim, and a predictable wing-adjustment delay. Their first three-minute match ends in Shen Que’s victory despite Pei Ji’s forceful counterattack 6 8.

Pheromone Control

Pei Ji’s pheromones carry a dry scent of dust and sand, described at full intensity as a sandstorm. Their compatibility with Shen Que’s pheromones exceeds ninety percent, but Shen Que’s injuries make uncontrolled exposure especially dangerous 2 4 12 20.

Development	Chapter	Application
Uses a suppressant before approaching Shen Que	1	Reduces his own heat response while searching for his distressed spouse.
Learns to sustain a soothing concentration	4	After a night of experimentation, maintains pheromones gently enough for Shen Que to sleep peacefully.
Demonstrates precise 20% release	35	Surprises Charles Lee with the degree of control acquired from a preschool physiology guide.

• Can follow Shen Que’s pheromone trail through Fallen Star Palace, where the Beta household staff cannot smell it 1.
• Uses suppressant spray in public to limit exposure 21.
• Soothes Shen Que’s pain-associated onset episodes without marking him 4 14 29.
• Donates three large tubes of pheromone fluid directly from his scent gland for a personalized soothing agent, enduring the painful extraction without complaint 35.
• Limitation: A temporary mark causes Shen Que pain rather than ordinary relief; strong pheromones alone cannot resolve his abnormal heat cycle 3 29.

Military Judgment

• Reports a Zerg nest near White Sand Star rather than risk appearing to conceal enemy activity from the Empress 19.
• Orders Luo Yuan to patrol the surrounding area after the discovery 19.
• Recognizes that several later nests appear positioned to avoid the Seven Fleets’ patrol routes and suspects a leak of military information 50.

Noncombat Limitations

• Business management: Lost forty million in one month while temporarily managing the family’s mineral business; Ai Fan subsequently assigned it to Shen Que 18.
• Formal dancing: Initially cannot dance and requires intensive lessons. He later practices alone to make the opening dance easier for Shen Que 14.
• Courtship: Frequently mistakes his own assumptions for Shen Que’s wishes, a failing he begins to acknowledge after Ai Fan confronts him 29.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Devour Heaven: A black-and-gold-winged, high-attack 3S-class mech, one of only seven 3S machines in the Icarus Galaxy. Its body uses high-precision sand gold, with crystalline sand gold in the joints. Twelve 3S engineers hand-crafted and adjusted its neural synapses from material harvested from the Sea of Life 5 6.
  • Uses missiles, light projectiles, homing weapons, and a light blade 6 50.
  • Stored in a round pendant using space-folding technology 7.
• Symbiotic Stone: A shimmering pink-and-blue crystal combining crystallized placer gold and aquamarine, acquired near White Sand Star as a wedding gift for Shen Que. Even low-quality specimens are worth more than ten thousand Starcoins per gram. The Trade Department later confiscates it from Dion’s workshop as allegedly smuggled ore 1 46.
• Pheromone Memory Stone: A cloudy white stone bought from a smuggler on an unnamed planet’s Black Market. Pei Ji suspects it is a living specimen from the Sea of Life and sends it to Shen Que as a potential source of his scent during their separation 38.
• Recorder: Sent with the memory stone to allow Shen Que to contact him at fixed coordinates 38.
• Suppressants: Uses injections or spray to restrain his pheromonal reactions around Shen Que and in public 1 15 21.
• Preschool ABO physiology guide: Charles Lee’s instructional book, which becomes the basis for his advanced pheromone control 3 4 35.

Relationships

• Shen Que — Husband. Their early marriage is strained by the missed wedding, medical misunderstandings, and uncertainty over marking. Pei Ji increasingly demonstrates affection through care, reassurance, and thoughtful gifts, while Shen Que gradually accepts and reciprocates his attention 1 22 30 33 38.
• Pei Li — Father and lord of White Sand Star. Their similar temperaments and equally dominant pheromones make them prone to confrontation. Pei Ji firmly rejects his father’s insults and political suspicions about Shen Que 19 20 28.
• Ai Fan — Mother and a decisive family authority. She abandoned plans to train him as a political heir, later corrected his treatment of Shen Que, and arranged the banquet as compensation for the failed wedding 21 28 29.
• Charles Lee / Dr. Li — Family physician who has watched him grow up. Teaches him how to soothe Shen Que safely and develops the personalized agent from his donated pheromones 2 3 35.
• Demi — Trusted aide and household organizer. Handles gifts, care instructions, payments, and the aftermath of his embarrassing drunken messages 1 9 18.
• Luo Yuan — Adjutant and Fourth Fleet comrade. Conducts patrols, joins the soldiers’ teasing, and accepts a secret assignment from Pei Ji before the banquet 19 21 50.
• Safiya — Friend, mercenary, and Desert Tavern owner. Teases his lack of romantic instinct and investigates Shen Que’s defeat at his request 9 20 33.
• Austin — Former classmate and romantic rival whose provocation led to the graduation nest raid. Their hostility continues at the banquet; Austin secretly arranges damaging coverage of the marriage 14 24 25.
• Empress Carolina — Imperial sovereign and sponsor of the marriage. Pei Ji fears her authority but still challenges her when he believes Shen Que’s comfort is at stake 11 12.
• Desert Folk — Community among whom he grew up. Their affection rests on his role in clearing worm burrows and securing permanent homes, rather than his noble title 32 33.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Wedding Absence and Early Care

• Leaves during the wedding to retrieve a Symbiotic Stone intended as a surprise, inadvertently exposing Shen Que to public humiliation and accusations of marital mistreatment 11 46.
• Returns from the mission and finds Shen Que distressed in a storeroom. His initial assumptions about heat and marking prove medically inappropriate 1 3.
• Studies pheromone control overnight, successfully soothing Shen Que but leaving himself exhausted 4.
• Clashes with Shen Que over battlefield tactics, loses their training match, and rushes to care for him after the impact triggers another onset episode 6 7 8.

Banquet and Family Conflict

• Chooses food, supervises medicine, and tries to remove online speculation about Shen Que’s health and fertility. The publicity effort costs over 7.2 million Starcoins 9 13 14.
• Arranges medical review after realizing that Shen Que’s refusal to pilot Devour Heaven reflects damaged mental power rather than contempt. Reassures him that disability will not make him abandon the marriage 22.
• Supports Shen Que through their opening dance, helping improve public opinion of the couple 23.
• Leaves abruptly after the ore-business announcement. Shen Que assumes resentment, but Pei Ji is confronting his parents over what he believes is a test of his spouse 25 28.
• Accepts Ai Fan’s explanation and asks Shen Que to help preserve the family’s ore trade, resolving the immediate misunderstanding 30.

Apology and Separation

• Recognizes that good intentions alone do not tell him what Shen Que needs 29.
• Takes Shen Que to the Desert Tavern, then presents a star-filled night sky as an apology for leaving him alone at their wedding 32 33.
• Before returning to the fleet, agrees to another training match and provides pheromones for a soothing agent that can support Shen Que in his absence 34 35.
• Maintains contact through calls and sends the recorder and Pheromone Memory Stone 38.
• The confiscated wedding stone becomes the subject of Shen Que’s investigation and criminal charges against Minister Lucas for misappropriating Pei Ji’s property 46 49.

Zerg Investigation

• After destroying another nest near White Sand Star, suspects that someone is leaking patrol information 50.
• Heads toward White Sand Star instead of returning to his ship. Shortly after confidently declaring Shen Que “perfectly well-behaved,” learns that his husband is at the underground Golden Casino 50.

Notable Quotes

“I can smell him.” 1

“No. … I’m worried about him.”
— Explaining why he wants Safiya to investigate Shen Que’s defeat. 20

“Shen Que is my Omega. There’s no difference whether you give it to him or me.” 28

“This is my apology to you.”
— Presenting the starry sky to Shen Que. 33