As the last mutated creature was cleaved apart, the scenery around them gradually blurred, finally returning to darkness.
Lian Qiguang exited the virtual training room, took off the sensory vest, and handed it to An Yi beside him.
“One hour and thirty-seven minutes. Excellent.” An Yi handed him a glass of water with a smile. “Putting Boss aside, you’ve already broken the base’s record.”
Lian Qiguang’s movement of drinking water paused slightly. Looking at An Yi’s smiling face, he drank the water in one gulp and tossed the cup over.
“Sister-in-law, Boss is in the combat meeting room. Don’t forget to change your clothes.” Looking at Lian Qiguang’s departing back, An Yi called out loudly.
Lian Qiguang returned to his room, washed away the sweat covering his body, changed into a clean black military academy uniform, and turned around to leave the room.
“Sister-in-law, Boss is inside. Do you need me to tell him?” A soldier who had brought him to the meeting room asked.
“I’ll wait for him.” Lian Qiguang answered and leaned against the wall beside the tightly closed meeting room door. With both hands in his pockets, he silently stared at the floor beneath his feet and began spacing out again.
Seeing this, the soldier scratched his head helplessly, gave a military salute, and turned to leave.
Lian Qiguang stood there for roughly two hours. The meeting room, which had remained tightly shut all this time, was finally opened. Several military officers dressed in uniforms came out in groups of two or three, quietly discussing the contents of the meeting just now.
“Ah.”
The leading officer came out of the meeting room and, when turning around, almost bumped into Lian Qiguang standing to the side, immediately giving him a huge fright. Just as he was about to curse, upon seeing who it was, the anger that had risen was forcibly swallowed back down.
“Greetings, Madam!”
The officer gave Lian Qiguang a perfectly straight military salute and shouted from deep within his abdomen. His voice echoed through the empty corridor, and the officers who had been talking immediately fell silent, abruptly raising their heads and staring straight at Lian Qiguang.
“What are you all crowding around here for? Get lost!”
A low voice came from behind, making the group of officers shudder involuntarily. They immediately scattered in all directions.
Xiahou Shaoxuan walked out of the meeting room. The chill covering his face instantly disappeared when he saw Lian Qiguang. He quickly stepped forward and pulled Lian Qiguang into the meeting room.
“Why are you here?” Xiahou Shaoxuan closed the door and pulled Lian Qiguang over to sit in a chair.
“Training ended. I had nothing to do, so I came to see you.”
“Don’t push yourself so hard.” Xiahou Shaoxuan placed his hand on Lian Qiguang’s soft hair and pressed him into his embrace.
“I’m leaving.” Lian Qiguang quietly nestled in Xiahou Shaoxuan’s arms and suddenly spoke.
“……” Xiahou Shaoxuan.
Lian Qiguang raised his head and looked at Xiahou Shaoxuan expressionlessly. “I just received a message from the academy. School is about to start.”
“So soon.” Xiahou Shaoxuan’s brows furrowed slightly, and he began considering whether he should find a time to report it and extend the students’ vacation period.
“I’ll still come see you.” Lian Qiguang said woodenly.
Looking at Lian Qiguang’s serious little face, Xiahou Shaoxuan remained silent for a long time. Suddenly, a light flashed in his eyes, as if he had thought of something.
“Wife, I’ll go see you.”
“？？？” Lian Qiguang.
“Don’t worry. We’ll see each other again very soon.” Although it was not within his area of management, occasionally making use of his special privileges was not impossible.
“There’s something I want to ask you.” Xiahou Shaoxuan deliberately concealed it, and Lian Qiguang did not want to press him, so he found another topic.
“What?”
“I heard that in the Darklight Museum in District One, there is……my corpse.” Lian Qiguang wrinkled his nose, obviously feeling somewhat uncomfortable saying the word “corpse.” Although what Feng Qingyang had said that day seemed to have been a joke, Lian Qiguang still needed to confirm it.
“Mm.” Xiahou Shaoxuan nodded. “According to the records, it seems that when humanity fled Ancient Earth a thousand years ago, they brought it back with them. Later, after examination, it was indeed determined to be a corpse from three thousand years ago. There was no forgery.”
“Impossible.” Lian Qiguang murmured in a low voice.
“What’s wrong?”
“That absolutely cannot be me.” Lian Qiguang raised his head, his dark eyes staring straight at Xiahou Shaoxuan. “Three thousand years ago, I died together with the Zombie King during the final battle. At that time, I detonated my own energy core. Forget about a corpse—even scraps of flesh would not have remained.”
“You mean that corpse is fake?” Xiahou Shaoxuan frowned.
“Since it was authenticated, that corpse should be from the apocalypse, but it absolutely cannot be me.” Lian Qiguang thought for a moment, then continued. “Shaoxuan, where is the corpse now?”
“It is kept in the most confidential area of the museum. Every day, a hundred combat robots carrying highly dangerous weapons guard it. Furthermore, countless shielding barriers have been set up around the corpse. Getting close to it is an impossible task.”
“I want to go take a look.”
“To get close to this corpse, you must have extremely high authority. We can ask Grandpa for help.” Xiahou Shaoxuan’s tone became somewhat hesitant as he said this.
“But you need to give Grandpa a reason—the reason for wanting to come into contact with this corpse.”
“Shaoxuan, I have a theory. I don’t know whether it can stand, but before that, I must go look at this corpse.”
“Even if it means exposing your identity in front of Grandpa.”
“If my theory is proven correct, I think the history of three thousand years ago will happen again, and the apocalypse will descend.” Lian Qiguang clenched both hands tightly, his voice somewhat suppressed.
Xiahou Shaoxuan’s eyes tightened, and the atmosphere throughout the entire meeting room immediately grew heavy.
“Okay.”
No one knew how much time passed before Xiahou Shaoxuan nodded slightly and silently pulled Lian Qiguang into his embrace. “As for Grandpa, I’ll contact him.”
“Shaoxuan, if everything really is as I think, this world won’t be able to maintain its peace for much longer.”
“Wife, no matter when it is or what happens, remember this: turn around and hide behind me. I’ll always be here.”
“……Mm.”
“Boss! Boss!!”
Xuan Lang’s anxious voice came through the communicator outside the door. Xiahou Shaoxuan’s brows furrowed, and his face darkened.
Xiahou Shaoxuan released Lian Qiguang, stood up, walked to the door, and opened it.
“What is it?”
His gloomy tone carried a hint of gritted teeth, freezing Xuan Lang until he shuddered. When he saw Lian Qiguang inside the meeting room, Xuan Lang immediately cursed inwardly.
So that was why, when they heard someone had to come call Boss, every single one of them had suddenly disappeared! Sister-in-law was here! Those bastards had all set him up!!
“Boss.” Xuan Lang braced himself against the storm and said stubbornly, “A message just came from the detention room saying that Li Yu is dead.”
“What?” Xiahou Shaoxuan’s face darkened, and the coldness around him became even more intense.
“Take me to see him.” Lian Qiguang walked over and spoke woodenly.
“Let’s go.” Xiahou Shaoxuan took Lian Qiguang’s hand and gestured for Xuan Lang to lead the way.
When the two arrived at the detention room, several people were already gathered outside, whispering among themselves.
“What are you all crowding around here for! Don’t you have training!!” Xuan Lang stepped forward and shouted at the top of his lungs. One by one, they dared to scheme against him!! He was going to torture the hell out of them!!
“Boss!”
“Boss!”
……
Seeing Xiahou Shaoxuan arrive, the group of people all retreated, making way for them.
Lian Qiguang followed Xiahou Shaoxuan into the detention room and immediately saw Li Yu’s hideous head lying crookedly on the empty metal floor, while his body was nowhere to be seen.
“Boss, today I was just preparing to interrogate Li Yu again. When I opened the door, I saw that only Li Yu’s head was left.” An Yi stepped forward and said.
Lian Qiguang released Xiahou Shaoxuan’s hand and walked over. He squatted beside Li Yu’s head and reached out with both hands to pick it up.
Its crocodile-like teeth were wide open, its eyes bulged out, and its face was filled with fear and despair. It was obvious that he must have suffered considerable torture while alive.
As if he had discovered something, Lian Qiguang’s brows furrowed slightly. The hands holding Li Yu’s head slowly tightened. With a horrifying “crack,” Li Yu’s head was crushed apart by Lian Qiguang, yet not a trace of blood or brain matter flowed out.
“He was corroded from the inside.”
Lian Qiguang released his hands and put Li Yu’s shattered head down. He dug through it with his hand and, sure enough, discovered that the inside of the head was already completely hollow, leaving behind only an outer shell.
The surrounding soldiers immediately sucked in a cold breath and could not help taking two steps backward.
“Exactly what kind of person is this? To be so cruel.” An Yi frowned.
“Was it him?” Xiahou Shaoxuan walked to Lian Qiguang’s side and crouched down, speaking in a low voice.
“Apart from him, no one would use such a method of torturing someone to death.”
Lian Qiguang stood up and expressionlessly turned to leave.
“Clean it up.” Xiahou Shaoxuan gestured toward An Yi and turned to follow Lian Qiguang.
“What are you thinking about?” Seeing that Lian Qiguang was distracted, Xiahou Shaoxuan placed a hand on his shoulder, silently giving him comfort.
“It was him.”
Lian Qiguang remained silent for a long time before raising his head to look at the setting sun. He narrowed his eyes.
“My former disciple, the Little Crown Prince, Wuma Yan.”
For the first time, Lian Qiguang truly spoke the name he had originally been prepared to forget.
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.” Lian Qiguang lowered his eyelids and spoke quietly. “Wuma Yan, the little grandson of the former person in power of Wolong Base, the Little Crown Prince who was second only to one person and above tens of thousands within the base. He later took over the base and became its new leader. He had two types of abilities. One was the invisibility ability, and the other was the corrosion ability.”
Lian Qiguang stopped walking and went to sit by the roadside, crossing his two legs and narrowing his eyes as he looked at the sky, seemingly recalling something.
“He originally only had the invisibility ability. The corrosion ability was something I gave him.”
“！！！” Xiahou Shaoxuan.
“During the apocalypse, apart from awakening an ability through oneself, there was another method—the crystal cores inside the brains of zombies. But the probability was too low. Not to mention that naturally awakening an ability was something that could only be encountered, not sought. The crystal cores in zombie brains already contained the virus, and the power within them was something ordinary people could not withstand. Of a thousand people who used them, nine out of ten became zombies.”
“Later, there was a person who, by a twist of fate, awakened a space ability because of an ancient sandalwood Buddha statue passed down through his family. There was then a rumor that some ancient objects could help awaken abilities. The Little Crown Prince was dissatisfied with his invisibility ability. After learning of this matter, he ordered me to search for these things for him. I brought four hundred people to an antique city. After half a year, only I returned, bringing him one thousand three hundred antique objects. I originally didn’t believe these rumors, but unexpectedly, he obtained the corrosion ability from a thousand-year-old stone-bone ink.”
“And precisely because he awakened the corrosion ability, his personality completely changed from then on. He became moody, sinister, and vicious. In a fit of anger, he could leave an entire city filled with dead bones.”
“Later, I read through many books and discovered that stone-bone ink was originally made from human skulls. If one wanted to make ink from it, human blood had to be used as the catalyst. Over several thousand years, I don’t know how many people had died because of this. How could the resentment within it possibly not be heavy?”
Lian Qiguang lowered his head and embraced Xiahou Shaoxuan beside him, seemingly trying to find a trace of dependable support that could make him feel at ease.
“The move used to kill Li Yu was something I once taught him.”
Xiahou Shaoxuan emerged from Lian Qiguang’s memories. Looking at Lian Qiguang in his arms, he helplessly sighed and carefully returned the embrace.
“Wife, let’s go home.”
………………