“Qiaoqiao.”
It was still that dark space, but this time he wasn’t standing on the ground. Instead, he was wrapped in a green light strip, and he could still hear his father’s blurry gentle voice.
“Dad…”
He replied softly, his consciousness somewhat heavy. He instinctively frowned and said, “I feel hot… Dad, the blanket is too thick…”
“Qiaoqiao, where are you?”
Where was he?
He fluttered his eyelashes, slowly closing his half-opened eyes, and murmured hazily, “Next to Chu Rong… Dad, I miss you… I…” His consciousness dissipated, and he fell into darkness completely.
The light strip disappeared.
In the forest of giant trees, Qiao Yi slowly opened his eyes, looking at the vine pattern on his wrist, his eyes glinting coldly.
“Qiao Yi?”
Mi Lai approached him worriedly, wanting to ask but hesitating, afraid of hearing disappointing news again.
“We’ve made contact, but Qiaoqiao’s power is very unstable, and there’s some confusion, unable to communicate clearly.” Qiao Yi raised his hand to touch her face, gently brushing aside the strands of hair on her cheek. He looked up at the azure sky and said softly, “I got a name… Mi Lai, it’s time to break through the barrier.”
At his words, Mi Lai’s eyes lit up. She tilted her head and rubbed his palm against hers, then with a clang, pulled out a huge hammer.
His body swayed slowly, and Qiao Zhiya could smell a familiar scent. He blinked his eyelashes and slowly opened his eyes.
“Awake?”
Chu Rong stopped, gesturing for Fan Xiangnan and others to enter the central laboratory first. Then he found a nearby laboratory, pulled out a chair to sit down, and placed Qiao Zhiya on his lap. He fed him a dose of medicine, then touched his face, asking, “Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere? Hang in there, they’re digging a passage from above, and we’ll be back on the flagship soon.”
With the medicine down his throat, the last bit of discomfort from the magic pool disappeared. Qiao Zhiya was fully awake. He glanced around, recalling what happened before he fell asleep. Surprised, he sat up suddenly, asking, “How is everyone? I’m sorry, I don’t know how I fell asleep. And you…”
“Everyone is fine.”
Chu Rong comforted him, holding him close and kissing his forehead. Seeing that he was alright, he stood up again with him in his arms, saying as they walked out, “This is Area A. You didn’t sleep for long, and everyone has already evacuated.”
Qiao Zhiya breathed a sigh of relief, unable to help but wrap his arms around Chu Rong’s neck, rubbing his shoulder against Chu Rong’s neck.
“Are you hungry?” Chu Rong asked softly.
Qiao Zhiya shook his head, hanging on him foolishly for a while before suddenly remembering something. He struggled to get down from Chu Rong’s arms and asked anxiously, “What about Ning Tianxing? Did he run away during the chaos or do something else…?”
“No.” Chu Rong held his hand, and suddenly, the mental power on his body fluctuated unstably for a moment, then quickly became calm again. He affirmed, “He can’t escape anymore.”
Ten minutes later, Qiao Zhiya finally understood why Chu Rong was so sure that Ning Tianxing couldn’t escape anymore.
In the central laboratory of Area A, the soldiers guarded the unconscious Ning Tianxing in the middle. He was pale, bare-chested, with a hastily bandaged wound on his chest, and there was a bloody teleportation device next to him.
“We only found and dug out this one.”
Fan Xiangnan saw Chu Rong coming in and hurriedly reported, holding a complete map of the experimental building. He said, “This was found in Ning Tianxing’s spatial button. Dozens of experimental data and more than a dozen experimental subject pods were found together. Opening the pods requires authorization, which I haven’t done yet. They’ve all been collected.”
Chu Rong nodded in understanding and then looked at the young man who was unconscious beside Ning Tianxing, asking, “How is he?”
At this point, Fan Xiangnan hesitated for a moment and didn’t speak. Instead, he went forward and removed the headgear from the young man, suppressing the discomfort of seeing that face, and said, “This person is still unconscious. Also, I found out that he is also an experimental subject.” However, he had clear consciousness.
Chu Rong and Qiao Zhiya looked over together, and then Chu Rong immediately covered Qiao Zhiya’s eyes with his hand.
Under the headgear, a face covered with serpent-like scales appeared. The person had a strange protruding forehead, bald head covered with scales, no nose bridge – only two nostrils, a mouth without lips, and sharp, pointed teeth… Apart from those humanoid eyes, there was no trace of anything human on this face.
Fan Xiangnan put the headgear back on him and asked, “Should we put him in the experimental subject pod as well?” There were many similar devices in this laboratory, enough for this young man.
Chu Rong frowned, stretched out his arm to embrace the seemingly frightened Qiao Zhiya, and said with a frown, “He has clear consciousness, can speak human language, and doesn’t need to be put in the pod. Put him under temporary supervision with a containment cover. He might just be another victim.”
Fan Xiangnan nodded, turned around, took out a containment cover, and put the young man in it, ordering soldiers to guard him.
Qiao Zhiya stiffened in Chu Rong’s arms, flashing through his mind repeatedly the strange scales on the young man’s face. He reached up to touch his throat, his eyes involuntarily widened, feeling a bit nauseous — yes, those scales on the young man’s face were exactly the same as those shown to him by the Imperial High Advisor before.
He probably knew a little about the Imperial High Advisor’s background from Chu Rong before. He knew that the Imperial High Advisor had also been a victim of human experimentation. The Imperial High Advisor had been searching for the person who experimented on him and the mastermind who killed his father. Now it seemed that Ning Tianxing, who caught the Imperial High Advisor for experimentation, and the mysterious person behind him, were the culprits.
Were the scales on the Imperial High Advisor’s arm the result of the experiment or did the Imperial High Advisor originally have them?
‘If he originally had them, then what the Imperial High Advisor said about his kind’s child…’
Qiao Zhiya was shocked. He raised his hand to touch his forehead, where the horns seemed to have grown a bit larger again, and his heartbeat suddenly started racing.
He was quite certain that the power on the Imperial High Advisor was not magic, and he had never sensed any scent of his kind from the Imperial High Advisor. He had always been wary of the Imperial High Advisor and hadn’t thought much about his words. But if everything the Imperial High Advisor said was true, then could the Imperial High Advisor be a descendant of some kind of magical creature from the Magic Continent? When the Imperial High Advisor said he was a cub of his kind, was it because he discovered some part of the hidden atavistic bloodline within him?
The Magic Continent was home to magical beasts that, after reaching high levels of cultivation, can transform into human forms. The power system of magical beasts was vast and complex, and occasionally there may be differences between individuals of the same species. Therefore, it’s very likely that the Imperial High Advisor came from the same homeland as him.
A huge sense of joy surged from the bottom of his heart. He quickly broke free from Chu Rong’s embrace, took out the communicator, and dialed the Imperial High Advisor’s communication. The Imperial High Advisor answered quickly, and he immediately spoke in Elvish, saying, “May the gods bless you.”
“Qiao?” came the puzzled voice of the Imperial High Advisor.
Chu Rong frowned, looking down at Qiao Zhiya and the communicator in his hand.
It was obvious that the Imperial High Advisor didn’t understand Elvish. Feeling at a loss, Qiao Zhiya switched to Dwarvish and called out, “May the gods bless you.”
“What’s wrong with you, Qiao?” The Imperial High Advisor’s voice sounded even more puzzled, then suddenly tensed up and said, “Are you in danger? And where’s Chu Rong?”
The joy in Qiao Zhiya’s eyes disappeared, his shoulders slumped as he looked at the communicator. He replied in the common language of the Federation, “No, Chu Rong is right beside me… May the gods bless you.” Still not content, he clumsily mixed the languages of the human and beast tribes in an attempt to call out.
But the Imperial High Advisor still didn’t understand. His tone relaxed, and he said, “As long as there’s no danger… Is the investigation on the Federation’s side going smoothly? Do you need any help?”
He guessed wrong. It wasn’t what he expected.
Qiao Zhiya felt completely deflated, and Chu Rong frowned, reaching up to rub his drooping ears, taking the communicator from his hand and exchanging a few words with the Imperial High Advisor before hanging up. He asked, “What’s wrong?”
Qiao Zhiya opened his mouth to answer but found that he couldn’t explain everything in a few words. Moreover, it wasn’t suitable to talk about these things in the current situation. So he shook his head and just reminded, “It’s best to collect the patterns on the ground on the 8th floor of Area D. Perhaps we can deduce the locations of Ning Tianxing’s other experimental bases or even the location of the mysterious person.”
Chu Rong knew he wasn’t telling the truth, but seeing his listless appearance, he softened and gently touched his forehead.
