This time, the procedure took three whole days and nights.
Unlike Chu Tian, who had accidentally leveled up himself without even realizing it, Chu Tian was extremely cautious about the dosage and method of administration when it came to the children.
This wasn’t an experiment. It was a genuine transformation that needed to take place. He didn’t dare give all the children the “concentrated solution” at once. Instead, he had to work through them one by one, adjusting the dosage according to each child’s individual reactions.
Throughout those three days, Chu Tian, Quan Xiaoyu, and Dawn Base’s two healers, who were standing by to provide support, remained in a state of extreme tension. Everyone was on high alert. No one dared to relax, and no one could afford to miss even the slightest detail.
So, when the last child’s mutated features finally disappeared after three days, and Chu Tian guided the child through making the mutations reappear and then conceal themselves again, the procedure was finally a complete success!
Amid the children’s cheers, Li Nan fell asleep right in Quan Xiaoyu’s arms.
The intense tension and prolonged concentration had left everyone exhausted. The only ones who didn’t feel tired were the children, who were far too excited.
Li Nan could fall asleep in Quan Xiaoyu’s arms, but Lu Zhongxia couldn’t do the same. In the end, he didn’t even bother going home. He simply found a corner of the training ground, lay down, and promptly fell asleep.
To be honest, if Quan Xiaoyu hadn’t still been holding Li Nan, he could have collapsed against Chu Tian and fallen asleep himself.
However, Chu Tian now looked even more exhausted than the rest of them. The faint smile tugging at the corners of his mouth had become so stiff that it could hardly be called a smile anymore.
Even Lian Bingbing couldn’t bear to see him like this. With a conflicted expression, she said to Chu Tian, “We’re all right now. You should go back and get some rest. He…” She pointed toward Lu Zhongxia, who was sleeping soundly in the corner. “We’ll take care of him.”
Chu Tian nodded. He no longer had the energy to say anything else. Straightening his somewhat stiff back, he glanced at Quan Xiaoyu and then led the way out.
When the training room door opened, Xiao Ziran was waiting outside.
He had taken this matter extremely seriously and had secretly stationed a substantial force around the place to guard it.
He himself had also dropped by from time to time to check on things. Ouyang Jing had been assigned to deal with Wei Li and the others. Someone among the higher-ups had to show their face, after all. Otherwise, Ouyang Jing would probably have been waiting here too.
The moment Chu Tian appeared in the doorway, Xiao Ziran stepped forward. He was just about to ask a few questions when Chu Tian, seemingly oblivious to his existence, stared straight ahead and drifted right past him.
Xiao Ziran was still standing there in a daze when Quan Xiaoyu came out. Without saying a word, he solemnly handed the sleeping Li Nan over to Xiao Ziran, then hurried after Chu Tian.
“Damn! You’re making it look like you’re entrusting your orphan to me!” Xiao Ziran finally muttered with a bitter laugh.
“They’re probably just exhausted,” Zuo Li explained. He had been taking turns with the others guarding the place over the past three days, and aside from necessary breaks, he had barely left.
Through the open door of the specially designed training room, both Zuo Li and Xiao Ziran could see Lu Zhongxia sleeping on the floor. The children had taken their own pillows and blankets over, trying to make him more comfortable.
Xiao Ziran fell silent. He had once been a doctor himself, so he understood all too well the physical and mental exhaustion that followed a series of consecutive operations.
“Let me take him home,” Zuo Li said, looking at Lu Zhongxia with concern.
Xiao Ziran shook his head. “Don’t disturb him. The children will take care of him.”
With that, he carried Li Nan away quietly.
Chu Tian and Quan Xiaoyu managed to walk all the way back to their own quarters. The moment they arrived, they collapsed into bed and fell asleep.
And they slept for another three days.
The only reason they woke up was that Xiao Ziran, afraid they might sleep themselves into oblivion, had forcibly dragged them out of bed.
Even then, he couldn’t resist making fun of them. “If you want to sleep, fine, sleep all you like. But do you really have to hold hands while you’re at it? It’s enough to make a person cringe!”
Li Nan and Lu Zhongxia had woken up after sleeping for just a day and a night. Neither of them could sleep anywhere near as long as those two!
Once they were awake, the first thing they did was soothe their ravenous stomachs. Chu Tian barely managed to fill his stomach, however, before he could properly savor the joy of eating again, Xiao Ziran dragged him away once more.
Watching Chu Tian being hauled off against his will, Quan Xiaoyu could only give him a sympathetic smile. He also needed to comfort Xie Mingxuan, who had been neglected for six days and probably felt as though the whole world had abandoned him. He planned to visit the recovered children along the way, too.
As soon as the door to Xiao Ziran’s office slammed shut, two documents were pushed across the desk toward Chu Tian.
Ouyang Jing was already inside, waiting for the two of them with a cheerful smile.
“Hey! What’s wrong with you people? I’m not some mule you own! Why do you start ordering me around the moment I get back? You won’t even let me sleep or eat!” Chu Tian snapped at Xiao Ziran without even looking at the documents on the desk.
The most important reason for his anger was that, damn it, he hadn’t even gotten to sleep with his wife!
How infuriating!
“You slept for three days, ate three plates of steak, and polished off two bottles of milk tea, even though we barely had any left,” Xiao Ziran said coldly, ticking off the facts one by one.
Chu Tian huffed angrily, longing for those days when he and Quan Xiaoyu had been curled up together in the space. Now that had been the good life!
Ouyang Jing cleared his throat. “Ahem. Stop messing around. You’re not children anymore.”
Those two could sometimes be as childish as little kids. As the “big brother” among them, he had no choice but to step in.
“We have two intelligence reports here. One comes from Tianze Base, and the other concerns the surrounding areas.” Ouyang Jing took the lead and got down to business.
“The report from Tianze Base clearly shows that they’ve been conducting experiments involving crystal cores over the past month. Their methods aren’t particularly sophisticated. On the surface, they’re offering generous compensation to recruit volunteers and testing crystal cores in various ways. What they’re doing behind closed doors, we have no way of knowing.”
“However, we’ve already discussed that aspect before, so it’s not important. What’s important is that five days ago, which was one day after Wei Li and his group visited Dawn Base, a team from Tianze quietly left the city and headed north. They were well prepared, as if they were embarking on a long journey, but their destination is unknown. The person leading them was Jialun Xu—the man whose arm Young Master Yu once cut off.”
When he delivered that last sentence, Ouyang Jing deliberately glanced at Chu Tian’s expression.
Chu Tian remained expressionless. He grabbed the intelligence report and began flipping through it, his thoughts impossible to read.
Ouyang Jing had no choice but to continue.
“The other report comes from small bases and settlements in the surrounding areas. It’s about people going missing. Starting roughly a month ago, people began disappearing mysteriously from various places nearby. In the apocalypse, losing one or two people didn’t initially attract much attention. But as time went on, more and more people went missing. Eventually, the minor leaders of several bases got together and discovered that this wasn’t happening only in their own territories.”
“Since nothing similar has happened at our base, the news only reached us today. The leaders of several bases are hoping we’ll help them.”
“I discussed this with Ouyang, and we agreed that we have to get involved,” Xiao Ziran added. “When one side suffers, the other is in danger too.”
“We dragged you here today because we need to discuss how to handle these two matters,” Ouyang Jing said.
“As for Tianze, they’ve already left, and our reach doesn’t extend that far. There’s no need to send anyone after them. We’ll try investigating through Miss An instead, although I suspect she knows far less than Wei Li does,” Chu Tian said.
Xiao Ziran nodded. “That was my thinking, too. But dealing with Wei Li will have to be left to you. Ever since he met you, that slippery bastard has become even harder to deal with. He acts as though he’ll only talk to you and refuses to leave no matter how many times we’ve tried to drive him away behind the scenes. He’s shamelessly dug in his heels. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had to drag you here.”
Chu Tian nodded and rubbed the space between his eyebrows. “I’ll go deal with them.”
At that moment, Ouyang Jing pushed another sheet of paper toward him.
“While you were sleeping these past few days, we had Young Master Bai draw up a weapons list. Take a look and see if anything needs to be changed.”
Chu Tian nodded and accepted it, but instead of looking at it immediately, he put it away and brought up another matter.
“Have Zuo Li investigate the missing people. That way, we won’t make too big a show of it, but we’ll still be sending someone with enough authority to get the job done.”
Neither Xiao Ziran nor Ouyang Jing objected, and the arrangements were more or less settled.
Actually, if he had a choice, Chu Tian would have preferred to take Quan Xiaoyu and go investigate the matter himself. That way, he could ditch all the unwanted company, hide away in the space, and enjoy a few carefree days together.
Unfortunately, Wei Li was someone he couldn’t afford to ignore. Even more concerning was the fact that Wei Li also had a mental-type ability. They still had no idea which branch of the mental-type abilities he belonged to.
The three of them discussed a few more details, going over all the big and small matters one by one. Only then did Xiao Ziran finally agree to let Chu Tian leave.
When the door opened, they unexpectedly found Pei Qianxing standing outside, looking as though he had been waiting for quite some time.
Pei Qianxing nodded in greeting when he saw Chu Tian and Ouyang Jing. After that, his eyes immediately fixed on Xiao Ziran.
Xiao Ziran remained expressionless when he saw him, but he still let Pei Qianxing into his office. Using some business they needed to discuss as an excuse, he shut the door on Chu Tian and Ouyang Jing.
Ouyang Jing chuckled and said nothing. He simply went on his way.
Chu Tian, however, sensed that something was off. When the doctor shut himself away to discuss business with someone, he had never worn that kind of expression or given off that sort of atmosphere before!
Chu Tian stroked his chin thoughtfully.
Actually, finding out what had happened would have been easy enough for him. But out of respect for his friend and a sense of propriety, he could only leave while speculating wildly.
Should I ask Xiao Bai? he wondered.