qizi / 55
After some negotiation, the military still did not agree to Ying Feng’s request of directly reporting to the Gene Center. They had no choice but to drop Li Fei Sha off at the designated station halfway and then let the military aircraft take them to that destination under complete secrecy like last time.
This time Long Ying did not personally show up, and the person in charge of picking them up was quite similar to the military personnel they saw at the center last time. They were suspected of being a robot by Ling Xiao as their cold and detached expression simply did not look like it had any desire to associate with others.
On the opposite end, when Heng He saw them coming, he showed the same fiery welcome as usual. Ling Xiao thought he could understand how working together everyday with stagnant pools of water for colleagues must be extremely dry and dull—he’d be bored senseless.
“Relax,” Heng He motioned for Ling Xiao to lie down, “The amount of blood drawn today will be more than last time so if you feel unwell, let me know right away.” He buried the needle attached to flexible tubing into Ling Xiao’s blood vessel, and after several taps on the instrument, dark red blood flowed out from his body and through the tube.
To stare at his own blood being drained the whole time was too torturous, so to distract himself, Ling Xiao chatted with Heng He.
“Does the person next to me have a name?”
“According to historical records, he is called Yue Ying, a member of the ancient imperial family.”
“Imperial family? He’s a person from ancient times?”
“Yes.”
Ling Xiao was very surprised. He wanted to turn his head, but he couldn’t move at all. This person looked like he was practically alive, and it was impossible to tell he was a person from several thousands of years ago.
“It’s incredible, isn’t it? Tianxiu from ancient times was an exceptionally developed civilization, and some of its knowledge even surpasses modern times. Take this sort of cryonic technology for instance, even modern medicine can’t achieve this. Regrettably, when civilization develops to a certain point, it will self-destruct, and no one can tell why that is, except this is the truth. No matter which planet we’re on, it’s all the same.”
“No wonder you said you need to use him to access the kernel’s edit permissions, this is surely the privilege of the imperial family.”
Ling Xiao again thought, “So uh, can personal data be modified this way too?”
Heng He was puzzled, “What ‘personal data’?”
Seeing that Ying Feng was not around, Ling Xiao stealthily lowered his voice and said, “I think Ying Feng’s code has a BUG, can you help me tweak it a bit?”
“BUG?” This was indeed a grave matter, and even Heng He became serious, “What BUG?”
“It’s that if he can’t find me, he will lose his temper. It’s unreasonable.”
Heng He burst out laughing, “What you said doesn’t count as a BUG, it’s just a problem of individual character. You might have some misconceptions about how the whole system works too, we can only target the population as a whole to conduct upgrades and repairs. As for personal data, these areas we normally refer to as ability, character, or appearance are all randomly generated, and even the main processor does not have the authorization to modify them. If it’s really as you say, then for those who are weaker, we just need to manually tweak a few stats to make them stronger, but the fact is, how can it be that easy.”
“I see,” Ling Xiao was slightly disappointed.
“In the situation you described, from a positive standpoint, it can be explained as the desire to protect, and from the negative, the explanation is the desire to control, but no matter which one it is, this is a Qizhu’s special trait. Anyone who becomes a Qizhu will have it, it’s only to what degree that will differ.”
“If this is not a bug then is Guxing a BUG?”
“You even know about Guxing?” Heng He’s utmost favorite was having someone to discuss scientific issues with, “To describe, imagine this: if we are the upgraded version, then Guxing is the initial version that cropped up due to system error. The system has to do such an insane amount of calculations that it’s inevitable there will be errors every three to five hundred years, and as a result, Guxings are born. Guxings, compared to us, appear to have their emotional area formatted the same, and our predecessors also tried to repair this problem, but they ultimately realized it was unsolvable.”
“Reformat the emotional area? Why do I keep feeling like you are describing Ying Feng, are you sure he isn’t a Guxing that slipped through everyone’s notice?”
Heng He puffed with laughter, “He’s much more preferable than a Guxing right, at least, after your blood was drawn last time, I saw that he looked very displeased. Instead, if this were a Guxing, even if it’s a close partner, someone who he spent ten plus years with and got along day and night with, who died in front of him, his brows still wouldn’t crease at all.”
Ling Xiao’s voice was much weaker than before, “Really that heartless?”
After speaking for so long, he did not see any movement from Ling Xiao, and took a closer look. Due to excessive blood loss, Ling Xiao appeared to have entered a half-conscious state and the entire block of information just now probably didn’t reach his ears.
Heng He turned his head to glance at the amount of blood that had been drawn and sighed. According to military orders, the amount of blood drawn after a month must reach ⅔ before it was sufficient, and a Tianxiu person, after sustaining a blood loss of ¾, will be in critical condition, so these two fractions were already cutting it awfully close.
As soon as the volume of blood reached the set value, he promptly pulled out the needle. At this time, Ling Xiao’s face was already paper white, his breathing was faint, and his whole person looked like it was in terrible shape.
He was slightly nervous when he called Ying Feng to come in. As expected, the moment he stepped through the door, Ying Feng’s countenance was worse than last time, and he even shot a fierce glare at him. Despite taking on the brunt of his anger, Heng He’s heart still felt extremely guilty.
“I’ll submit a proposal to my superiors to reduce the amount of blood drawn, even if that means the progress will be slowed down. But please, you must let him recover on his own and must not use any medical means. So long as it’s medication, it’s possible that there will be residues left in his body, and even a tiny amount of toxin can instantly kill the test subject.”
On the bed, Ling Xiao let out a groan, barely opening his two eyes.
“Is it over?”
“Yes,” Heng He hastily walked over, “Rest here some more before you go.”
Ling Xiao feebly nodded his head. It didn’t matter which way he acted tough, he couldn’t get off the bed at the moment and didn’t want to fall to the ground head first by trying.
“By the way,” starting sluggishly, he finally found a bit of strength to speak, “We’ll be taking Yutian’s entrance exams in two weeks…”
“Yutian Military Academy?” Heng He was pleasantly surprised, “That’s awesome, go break a leg. You want me to stagger the time period right?”
Ling Xiao nodded his head again.
“No problem.” He downloaded Yutian’s academic calender from the internet, then “ah”ed out loud.
“What?” Ling Xiao struggled to raise his head.
“Today is Yutian’s Open House.”
Yutian Military Academy adopted a fully sealed off style of management. Every year, there were two Open Houses, both held on the day before the entrance exams just for attracting new students and creating better publicity around school culture.
“Ah,” Ling Xiao was very excited on hearing this, “I want to go…”
“You half-dead already, what do you mean you want to go. Behave and go back to rest.”
“Yeah,” advised Heng He, “You need to rest right now.”
“I’m feeling much better already, I’ll be fine once I lie down some more.” As it was such a rare opportunity, Ling Xiao really didn’t want to miss out.
“No.” Ying Feng’s stance was absolutely firm.
“I’m going!”
“I won’t allow it.”
Heng He watched as these two men started to confront each other and internally blamed himself for talking too much.
Ling Xiao, dispirited and resentful, thought about it again. Ying Feng always yielded to a gentle persuasion, not coercion. Although he initially butted heads with him, butting until heads were broken and blood was flowing, the one who suffered at the end was himself. Even a wild beast that has rammed against glass enough times realizes there’s a different path it could take, let alone a wise human.
Having thought of this, Ling Xiao pulled himself together and also softened his tone a little, “Please let me go.”
Thanks to the bestowment of his incomparably weak image at the moment, softening his tone a little meant it had a massive effect, having more use than a typical person’s coquetry. In Ying Feng’s eyes, it was like saying, “I have only one last dying wish, please let me have it.”
Sure enough, this time he knitted his brows and didn’t immediately object.
“I can let you borrow this, just bring it back next time.”
Ling Xiao’s heart bursted with joy while Ying Feng, with his only concern resolved, relaxed his stance.
“Two hours only.”
“Not a problem!” As long as he could go, even one hour was cool!
Ling Xiao experienced a brief moment of airsickness, then transferred to Li Fei Sha to travel by land to Yutian. The shock in reality was much stronger than on the internet, causing Ling Xiao to insist on marching through the gate on his own, but in not even two steps, he collapsed. Thankfully, Ying Feng pressed him into the chair in time.
Although it was merely a visit, his frame of mind was nevertheless as excited as if he’d gotten into the school. While sitting in the wheelchair, he looked east, he looked west, and if it weren’t for his body condition that didn’t allow for it, he’d even be in the mood to run a few laps around the school.
Ying Feng pushed him to the Joint Operation Department’s presentation area where their students had released quite a few simulations of S-level creatures and were now showing off their training to tourists. Unlike the battle androids that Ling Xiao and his classmates used, this advanced type of simulation emulated real-life beasts with high fidelity as its attack patterns were more diverse and also more difficult to deal with.
Because it was very interesting to see two people fighting side-by-side, there were a lot of people crowded around here. Students wearing uniforms of different elementary institutions were gathered around, and majority of them were like Ling Xiao and Ying Feng, already adults, but there were also some who were not fully developed half adults.
Ling Xiao was sure he was the one the fellow was pointing to, and was confused as he asked Ying Feng, “What’s a disabled person?”
This person stepped forward and Ling Xiao noticed that the two of them were both dressed in a silver white uniform with a school tag that read ‘Shiji Academy’.
“You don’t look too good,” he carefully examined Ling Xiao, “Are you injured?”
That person’s right hand squeezed gently, and at a standstill moment, Ying Feng noticed there was a crystal in his hand. After squeezing, the crystal disappeared and there was instead a white light that emanated from the palm of his hand.
As Ying Feng was secretly startled about how he’s already mastered an ability taught only at higher institutions, he saw the other person gently place his palm on Ling Xiao’s forehead, then frown in confusion soon after.
“He lost at least half of the blood in his body,” he straightened up as he asked Ying Feng, “How did it happen?”
By comparison, Ling Xiao was much more curious about this person. All he did was simply rest his right hand on his forehead for a second, then immediately determined that the cause was from losing too much blood, and could even precisely state how much blood was lost, so he asked, “How can you tell?”
“Isn’t my Qizhu incredible?” Hong Mao suddenly appeared out of nowhere again, “He’s the one and only student from elementary institutions who can power soul crystals!”
Ying Feng contained the surprise in heart and gave a lukewarm response, “There was a small mishap, it’s not a big issue.”
“Let me help you write down some medicine, it’ll help him recover faster,” offered the other person kindheartedly.
“His current physique can’t stand medicine,” he paused, then also added, “Thank you for your kind intentions.”
“Alright then,” this person saw that Ying Feng refused his help so he dropped the matter.
At this time, Hong Mao carelessly interjected, “Looking like this, I can tell you aren’t a candidate, you’re here purely to visit right? We’ll be applying to the Joint Combat Department here and will soon be students of Yutian!”
The corner of Ling Xiao’s mouth twitched. If he also gets in, then he’ll have to be classmates with this kind of bloke…how lousy would that be.
Luckily, his Qizhu stepped up in time to stop him, “Calm down and speak less.”
Hong Mao seemed to listen attentively to his Qizhu’s words, his face withering and falling silent on the spot. He then turned his head to apologize, “I’m sorry, I won’t disturb your visit anymore.”
Ying Feng nodded and watched as the two of them withdrew.
“He said soul crystal just now, right? What is that?” Ling Xiao didn’t want to be mocked for not knowing so he held in his questions until now.
“Should be referring to the crystal in his hand.”
“It’s the skill the instructor mentioned that’s activated with spiritual power?” Ling Xiao really didn’t expect there to be so many talented people outside Bikong, “I can only blow a paper ball around right now but he has already mastered a skill I haven’t heard of.”
Ying Feng wanted to tell him to not worry just then, but when he lowered his head to look at Ling Xiao’s pallid face, he saw that his eyes sparkled brightly on his expression as if he had not suffered a blow at all. It was clearly the excitement from meeting a new rival, and he suddenly felt that his fear of him feeling inferior was superfluous.
With a weak body but an eager spirit, Ling Xiao soon felt that his mouth was parched, and this was already the third time he’s licked his lips in the last minute. If this were an “attentive partner”, he would’ve taken the initiative to ask him if he wanted to drink water long ago, but evidently, this adjective, “attentive”, can’t be used to described Ying Feng. He was even more opposed to using the term, “partner”.
Ling Xiao couldn’t move by himself, so he had to resort to Ying Feng for help, “I’m thirsty.”
Ying Feng scanned the vicinity and spotted a vending machine in a corner. He wanted Ling Xiao to stay where he was so that there’d be no issues, so he went by himself to buy water.
Swiping his card, he had chosen on reflex the kind that he usually drinks, but suddenly remembered Yao Tai’s words, that people in poor health shouldn’t drink cold beverages.
So what on Tianxiu should he drink? This question stumped Ying Feng.
Just as he was in a pickle trying to decide which one, there was suddenly a loud shriek that broke out from behind him. As soon as he turned around, he saw a lifelike S-level creature face the incapacitated Ling Xiao and violently pounce over. The military academy students didn’t expect that this kind of thing would occur and by the time they turned around, wanting to save him, it was already too late, and they could only watch as Ling Xiao in the wheelchair was about to get slashed by its sharp claws.
Among those who were on the scene, the ones who reacted quickly enough already stepped forward to offer assistance, while others covered their mouths in shock. At this moment, a figure, who had neither dashed nor flew over, emerged vividly like a splash of color in front of Ling Xiao beneath the eyes of the numerous many. He positioned himself squarely before the S-level creature’s stomach and ruthlessly kicked at it twice. It flipped backwards in the air, landing with a thud.
The creature that was kicked out happened to fly towards the two female students on the other side. When they saw the beast coming at them, they didn’t panic nor rush, and shot out a nimble set of moves. The tragic small beast fell on the ground, motionless.
“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” the students of the Joint Combat Department ran over to apologize to Ling Xiao and co, “When this type of creature loses a certain amount of blood, it will choose the weakest target as a breakthrough point and dash to it to escape. It’s our fault for not stopping it in time.”
Ling Xiao, the weakest in the audience, “…”
“But how did you get here just now? I didn’t even see it,” Ling Xiao asked Ying Feng. From his point of view, it was as if he fell from the sky.
“It’s nothing,” Ying Feng casually downplayed the past events, skipping over them, “What do you want to drink?”
From not too far away, two instructors from the Joint Combat Department had been observing it all from start to finish, and after witnessing the performances of this set of students, their hearts were full of praises.
“That student from Shiji earlier can manipulate soul crystals already, it’s such a rare find among students of elementary institutions.”
“The two female students from Xiufang are also decent, their movements are very agile and not at all sloppy.”
“But the pair that left the deepest impression is still the one from Bikong. To be capable of teleporting to his Qizi’s side means that both the affections between the two and the Qizhu’s spiritual strength have reached the required levels. It’s hard to believe that at such a young age, he has already grasped such a difficult ability.”
“The candidates this year are very strong, their results will be much anticipicated.”
The two instructors nodded their heads at the same.
After a long while, one of them had an epiphany:
“But the Qizi in that Bikong pair had difficulty even standing. Shouldn’t it be impossible to apply to our department?”
The other wore a “you can say that again” face.
Thinking of the loss of such excellent talents, both instructors fell into a state of deep disappointment.
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