Asparagus.
No one knew what the mysterious dungeon lord said to the Emperor in his secret communication that night, or what kind of deal and agreement the two sides reached. In short, the final result of this incident was that the riot in the Shiwen District was quickly stopped, but the military takeover of the First Legion also ended.
His Majesty the Emperor even issued a special order to directly designate Tiandong Star as an autonomous region.
Thus, the control of Tiandong Star returned to Ye Shu.
Even though Zhou Jiuya was anxious to find Jiang Ci's whereabouts, he still completely disagreed with this result.
"—I need an explanation!"
During the communication, His Majesty the Emperor did not show his face, only a clear and pleasant voice came out from the communicator.
"The Forbidden Abyss is no longer on Tiandong Star. We have already taken all the other things we should take. It is unnecessary to spend a lot of military and financial resources to occupy and take over a planet."
Zhou Jiuya knew what he meant by "other things that should be taken". For more than two hundred years, Ye Shu had been guarding the Forbidden Abyss with the protective cover of the interstellar black market. It was also because of this that the interior of the Tiandong Star underground city was a breeding ground for darkness and evil.
Among them, a large number of imperial nobles have secret transactions with Tiandongxing that are not visible to the public, such as arms, drugs, human trafficking, etc., and what Pei Changyun wants to get is the evidence of these transaction flows.
His tone was indifferent, but it carried the indifference and murderous intent that only an emperor could have.
"The Empire has gradually entered a period of peace. It is time to cut off some of the branches and leaves that have been eaten away by termites."
Zhou Jiuya knew all of this, but this reason was not enough to convince him.
"What's going on with the hive on Tiandong Star?"
This question made His Majesty pause for a moment, and he chuckled with an ambiguous meaning.
"Who knows? You should ask Huo Chao about this question."
"They hid so many insect eggs in the wreckage of the Forbidden Abyss, and then had Ye Shu secretly take them to Tiandong Star to incubate them, and even kept it a secret from everyone for three hundred years..."
Three hundred years.
Everyone thought that Ye Shu, the stubborn kid, was simply trapped in the past and couldn't get out, so he was just guarding the Forbidden Abyss, but in fact, he was hiding in an insect nest.
—is a future Zerg army.
I don't know what he was thinking about, but Pei Changyun actually laughed.
"As expected of him, he even lied to me..."
At this point, His Majesty the Emperor repeated himself:
"You even lied to me..."
Zhou Jiuya was silent for a moment, and understood why Pei Changyun compromised.
—Because that was Huo Chao’s order.
For them, this one explanation was all that was needed.
"But the Zerg..."
It's the enemy.
It is an enemy that they can hardly defeat.
But Huo Chao would not do anything that would threaten all of humanity, so he must have left behind some way to perfectly avoid a second war with the Zerg.
Just as Zhou Jiuya was deep in thought, he suddenly heard Pei Changyun speak,
"—Remember the child on Earth who was suspected of being able to control the Zerg?"
The silver-haired alpha's pupils suddenly widened.
"You mean... ?"
"Yes, a new king insect has been born."
Pei Changyun tapped the table from time to time.
“—That’s the key Huo Chao left for us.”
In fact, Zhou Jiuya had this guess ever since the child was found on Earth, but he was not sure. What's more, he has been searching for almost two months and there is still no news.
"I'll find him as soon as possible."
The crisp knocking sound stopped abruptly, and Pei Changyun said coldly,
"What are you looking for? Haven't you found it already?"
"… "
Noticing Zhou Jiuya's momentary shock, His Majesty the Emperor sneered coldly.
"Do you think there is anyone else who can control the Forbidden Abyss with an A-level core? The Zerg have been hiding on Tiandong Star for three hundred years, how could they suddenly appear?"
However, Pei Changyun was most certain of the reason -
"Huo Xianfeng..."
His Majesty the Emperor chewed on the name.
"The three words 'Huo Xianfeng' are already... the most obvious indication."
Pei Changyun closed his eyes deeply, and the whole person seemed to be pulled back to the past long, long ago.
On top of the tall white tower, two young men once looked up at the end of the distant sky. It was still early morning, and the sky was dark with only a few sparse stars.
[Huo Chao, let's build a country we like together in the future.]
[Hmm... This sounds a bit troublesome, but it's okay.]
The young Pei Changyun was surprised by this answer. He turned around and asked,
[Too much trouble? Then why did you have to join the army, and why did you have to drag me along?]
[Because I am short of a consul.]
Huo Chao said lazily,
[After thinking about it, you are the most suitable candidate.]
The young Pei Changyun was slightly startled. He turned around and suddenly asked softly,
[Huo Chao, what is your dream?]
[Dream…]
The black-haired boy repeated it in a daze, as if he was thinking about something seriously. At this moment, he suddenly reached out and pushed Pei Changyun down.
Eh
He fell from a tower hundreds of meters high in an instant. A strong sense of weightlessness came over him, and Pei Changyun's eyes suddenly widened.
At that moment, a violent wind howled across the sky and earth, and the shadow of death crept up. He barely opened his eyes in the turbulent airflow, only to see Huo Chao also leaping down from the high tower.
[Do you feel the wind, Pei Changyun!]
The man's snow-white robe suddenly puffed up in the strong wind, like a snow kite whistling down!
Wow!
At that moment, the dawn breaks—
The golden sunlight fell on the boy's face. It was the first time Pei Changyun saw him smile so flamboyantly and brightly. It really was like his name.
—Like a warm and ardent morning sun.
At that moment, Huo Chao suddenly opened his arms, as if he was hugging the whole world, and as if he was hugging him.
[My dream is to become the wind.]
[Not controlled by anyone, free—]
Huo Chao didn't have time to finish the last word, because Pei Changyun couldn't stand it anymore -
[Stop talking nonsense, find a way to land quickly! ! ! ]
Otherwise, they might fall to death.
[Oh oh oh!]
So Huo Chao hurriedly summoned Jin Yuan, avoiding the news headlines of "Two teenagers jumped off the building together, suspected to be committed suicide for love" the next day.
After landing, Pei Changyun felt a little weak in the knees and a little angry, so he punched the other person to the ground.
[You are so stupid, Huo Chao!]
[—You are not yet!]
Huo Chao grabbed Pei Changyun's ankle and threw him down, then retorted,
[What kind of country are you building? Pei Changyun, why don’t you just become the emperor?]
The two rolled around on the grass, and when they were exhausted, they lay down together, lazily watching the sun rising slowly from the east.
"… "
No one spoke at that time. After a long silence, Pei Changyun suddenly heard Huo Chao whisper to him,
[Don't worry, our dreams will come true.]
At that moment, no one thought that these casual words would come true.
Fate played a huge joke on them.
Many, many years later, Pei Changyun made plans and maneuvered among various forces, and finally succeeded in overthrowing the alliance and sitting on the throne of emperor.
During that doomsday disaster, Huo Chao jumped down from the forbidden abyss, fell into a tsunami-like insect tide, and was engulfed by the devastating explosion.
—Burned in the long wind.
[after,]
[No one can... control our lives anymore.]
"… "
In fact, the time it took for this memory to flash back in the Emperor's mind was only a few seconds.
But he seemed to feel like he was falling into the deep sea and about to drown. Finally, he used up all his strength to break free and return to reality.
When Pei Changyun first saw the name "Huo Xianfeng" in Zhou Jiuya's report, he knew it.
—That young man is the secret left behind by Huo Chao.
But at this moment, Zhou Jiuya did not understand the so-called explicit meaning in the name. Even so, he had made similar guesses before, but there were still many doubts.
"Huo Xianfeng and the guy on Earth... their ages and body shapes don't match."
"Zhou Jiuya, remember this,"
Pei Changyun sneered.
"Never judge Zerg by human physiological standards, especially..."
"—The king of the Zerg."
·
rustle-
The wind blew across the wilderness, and the rose flowers all over the mountains swayed. The branches, leaves and flowers rubbed against each other, making a rustling sound. Thousands of beautiful petals were picked up by the wind and scattered into the distance.
On the high mountain cliff, Huo Xianfeng stretched out his hand and caught a piece. Jiang Ci immediately noticed that the color was wrong and frowned.
“So red.”
Or to be more precise,
—The color is scary red.
As if watered with blood, the edges of the petals are even so bright and colorful that they are almost black and purple.
Generally speaking, the color of the rose is between red and pink, sometimes even more pink and white. Their flowers look like roses, but they are larger, almost the size of a volleyball, with more petals, layered on top of each other, and gorgeous.
But compared to the flowers, their overall branches are also very large, just the right size for the Zerg. In the eyes of humans, they should be classified as big trees.
However, according to human standards for flower plants, the ornamental value of the rose is very good.
However, few people know that the fragrance of Zhimei flower is also very special, a bit like the combination of milk and rose.
But the Zhimei flowers here are not like this.
Although the flowers were blooming so magnificently and beautifully, they had an extremely obvious smell of decay. To Huo Xianfeng, this place felt like a huge cemetery of roses, making him feel indescribably nauseous.
Jiang Ci looked back at the sea of flowers below with a solemn expression.
"Someone is planting a lot of roses here."
After all, such neatly arranged branches are full of traces of artificiality.
But why do we need to plant Zhimei flowers in large quantities
This plant has only ornamental value for humans, and has no meaning other than attracting Zerg. Jiang Ci, who grew up in the Empire, couldn't understand why anyone would want to attract those terrible monsters
Jiang Ci said with some caution,
"There are so many roses here, maybe there are Zerg."
"… Um."
Huo Xianfeng dropped the petals in his hand and closed his eyes deeply.
—Yes, it does.
In the pitch darkness, he saw many dim spots of light.
In the Zerg's neural network, the brightness represents the Zerg's vitality, while the size of the halo represents the strength of its power.
On Earth, those were Zerg that survived the nuclear explosion. Most of their light was not very bright, just like the light bulbs in an old house, struggling to produce the last bit of light and heat.
The asparagus is different. The larvae are well protected. They are full of vitality, tender and simple, like the rising sun, warm and enthusiastic.
As for here…
Those spots of light were probably like candles in the wind, hovering on the brink of death, but they had already tried their best just to be discovered by Wang.
Huo Xianfeng suddenly put his arms around Jiang Ci's neck from behind, lowered his head and buried it in the omega's neck, taking a deep breath.
"you… !"
Jiang Ci froze immediately, but before she could struggle, she heard the hoarse voice of a young man.
"Don't move, let me hold you."
"… "
Jiang Ci was stunned. He turned his head slightly. Although he couldn't see the expression on Huo Xianfeng's face, he still noticed that the other party was in an abnormal mood.
"... Huo Xianfeng?"
The boy did not answer, but just lay quietly on the omega's soft and warm neck for a while, then stood up.
"Let's go."
He looked far away, his eyes fixed on a white house hidden in a sea of flowers.
"Since it was planted artificially, it must have been planted by someone."
Jiang Ci looked at Huo Xianfeng's profile. The boy's expression at this moment was different from his usual lazy expression. At this moment, he looked particularly cold.
He felt that there seemed to be an inextricable sadness in those dark pupils, but also as if there was nothing.
The silver-haired major general was stunned for a moment, and did not ask anything. He just lowered his eyes and replied,
"… good."
At this moment, Huo Xianfeng suddenly turned around, stretched out his hand to hook a strand of Jiang Ci's hair, and twisted it around his fingertips.
"Your hair color is too conspicuous. You need to change it."
This action was very intimate, but the boy did it too naturally, so that Jiang Ci was stunned for a moment and failed to resist immediately. But by the time he reacted, Huo Xianfeng had already let go.
"… Um."
But it is true that his hair color and eye color are too conspicuous. Without Huo Xianfeng's advice, Jiang Ci also needs to change, including the imperial military uniform he is wearing now. The reason why he didn't change it on Tiandong Star was because he needed to rely on his appearance to enter the auction.
"I just don't know what clothes the people here wear."
After all, it is church territory, and it is easy to make mistakes if the dress styles are too different.
Huo Xianfeng didn't think this was a problem. He glanced at Jiang Ci's thigh.
"You'll find out when you go and see."
Half an hour later—
They arrived at the white house hidden among the flowers.
From a distance, it looks like a white house, but when you walk in, you will find that it is a small white city. The decoration and construction style are very classical, and people dream back to the cold weapon era that was earlier than the Earth Alliance period.
There are also some scattered self-built houses outside the city, but they are all white. There are not many pedestrians on the road, but there are also quite a few.
There were not many people on the road, but not too few either. Their clothing style was very classical, a bit like the Western Middle Ages. There were guards at the city gates, and they were conducting security checks, but it didn't seem very strict. They just wanted to extort some money from passers-by.
Huo Xianfeng glanced around and finally fixed his eyes on a small house outside the city, which was slightly remote. He turned around, grabbed Jiang Ci's wrist, lowered his voice, and had a serious expression as if he was explaining some top-secret mission.
"Go, steal some clothes!"
Jiang Ci: “…”
Although he knew their general purpose and action plan, when these words came out of Huo Xianfeng's mouth, they suddenly became so difficult to describe.
This was the first time in the major general's life that he had done such a sneaky thing, but his movements were still very quick and agile, and he followed Huo Xianfeng and climbed over the wall in no time.
The latter took out a wire from somewhere, pried the door open with ease, and quickly found a piece of men's clothing that barely fit him in the closet.
Seeing Huo Xianfeng unbuckling his belt without any hesitation, Jiang Ci froze for a second and turned his head immediately.
"… You change first, I'll go out and keep watch."
"Oh that's okay, I don't mind."
Jiang Ci: "... I care."
"Hmm? Didn't you take the initiative to look at it last night?"
When he said this, Jiang Ci could clearly hear the rustling sound of changing clothes. He closed his eyes, trying to get rid of the strange images in his mind, gritted his teeth, and
“… Shut up and change it!”
"-I'm ready."
But in just two sentences, Huo Xianfeng had changed. The clothes of people here are relatively loose, so even if they don't fit your body shape, they won't look too tight. It's just that the pants are a little short, but fortunately it's not noticeable when tucked into the long boots.
Jiang Ci kicked the man out very coldly, and then changed quickly.
“… Tsk.”
A flash of regret passed through Huo Xianfeng's eyes. He originally wanted to see what Jiang Ci's shirt clip looked like.
The two men squatted at the city gate for an hour, and only walked out after confirming that the security check into the city was indeed just a simple entry fee.
boom!
"Ouch, sorry, sorry,"
Jiang Ci watched Huo Xianfeng "accidentally" bump into two people, then threw the wallet he stole to him.
"Here, this is the entrance fee."
Jiang Ci, who was forced to become an accomplice: "..."
I don't know where this guy learned all these sneaky tricks.
He looked down at the banknotes in his bag. They all looked new to him, but the patterns on them showed a white tower.
Jiang Ci had received full marks in all subjects during his time at the military academy, so he could easily recognize that it was a church building from the Earth Alliance period.
—The Holy White Tower.
He narrowed his eyes slightly.
It seems that this is indeed the church's territory.
However, even though the two were fully prepared, they were still stopped by the guards.
"A new face?"
There is nothing we can do about it.
Jiang Ci has dyed her hair and eye color into the most common brown, changed her skin color, and used beta pheromone masking agent. As for Huo Xianfeng, he also dyed his hair brown and put many spots on his face.
But even so, the two of them still looked outstanding compared to ordinary people, which made the guards take a closer look and ask,
"Stop, where are you from?"
They had just arrived on this planet and didn't even know where this place was. How could they possibly know the names of other places
But Huo Xianfeng was not at all flustered. He blocked Jiang Ci without leaving any trace, then stuffed a handful of banknotes into the guard's hand and complimented him,
"Where else could it be? Big Brother, you have such a keen eye, you must have seen it a long time ago."
"Humph, you are smart, kid."
The guard took the money, narrowed his eyes slightly, and showed a look of satisfaction on his face.
"You look so tall and strong, you are from the north, right? Mingcheng?"
Huo Xianfeng did not rashly agree with the other party, but just smiled.
"Look, big brother, we've been walking for a long time, so we just want to go into the city and rest."
"You came all the way from Mingcheng, are you also looking for Ling Tieshi?"
The guard snorted coldly.
"I advise you to give up that idea. The Lingtie Stone here has been hollowed out long ago."
Ling Tieshi
Jiang Ci immediately grasped the key words. It was an extremely rare ore, and the Lingtie smelted from it was the best for making mecha shells.
Most importantly, the outer shell of the Forbidden Abyss is made of this kind of Ling Iron.
It seems that the church has obtained the remains of the Forbidden Abyss and is preparing to repair it.
Jiang Ci held Huo Xianfeng's hand, and gently wrote words on the boy's palm with her fingertips.
[The Church, Lingtie, Forbidden Abyss wreckage, restoration.]
Jiang Ci's words were cryptic, but Huo Xianfeng immediately understood what he meant. However, the young man did not reveal any clues on the surface. He looked at the guard and responded openly.
"Brother, we still want to try our luck."
"Alright, alright, you're so stubborn."
The guard waved his hands impatiently.
"go in."
"Okay, okay."
Jiang Ci lowered her head and was led by Huo Xianfeng as they passed by the guards. At this moment, the guards suddenly called them.
"etc!"
At this moment, his eyes swept over Jiang Ci, as if he had discovered something, and he frowned suddenly, and strode closer to Jiang Ci.
"You beta...?"
Jiang Ci immediately became nervous, thinking that the beta pheromone masking agent had failed. After all, it had failed once before because Huo Xianfeng injected too much pheromone into his temporary mark.
Huo Xianfeng could not sense pheromones, so he had the same guess as Jiang Ci at the same time. Now he was isolated and helpless. Once Jiang Ci's omega identity was exposed, it would cause a lot of trouble.
He immediately stood in front of Jiang Ci and at that moment had the idea of silencing her.
But at this moment, the guard's gaze suddenly passed by Jiang Ci and fell on Huo Xianfeng.
At this moment, his eyes were very revealing, "—The alpha pheromone in your body is too strong, isn't it?"
Huo Xianfeng: “… ?”
Jiang Ci: “…!”
This sentence successfully made Huo Xianfeng's murderous intent disappear instantly.
But Jiang Ci understood what the other party meant. Beta cannot be marked by alpha. Even if they do the most intimate things, only some faint pheromones will be left behind.
There are only two situations in which a Beta will have strong alpha pheromones remaining on his body.
Either she is repeatedly marked by the alpha and has prolonged intercourse, or she becomes pregnant.
But now Jiang Ci no longer has any pheromones that indicate pregnancy, so the only option left is the former.
The guards tutted several times;
"Young man, you are married, but you don't know how to control yourself."
"… "
Jiang Ci turned her head away, her face had turned too dark to be looked at.
"Ahem..."
Huo Xianfeng coughed lightly.
"not yet."
The guard was surprised, and he didn't know what he was thinking of. He showed some understanding on his face.
"Elope? No wonder you came here from such a faraway Mingcheng."
"Yes, his family disagrees."
At this time, Huo Xianfeng nodded seriously and said sadly,
"Say I'm a wild man."
Jiang Ci: “…”
Huo Xianfeng, you can shut up now.
(End of this chapter)