EDEH Chapter 131

“What the hell are you doing, Lieutenant Colonel Ling?!”

 

The old general hadn’t been this furious in a long time. He directly threw the teacup at hand, which hit Ling Gen’s body and crashed to the floor with a harsh shattering sound.

 

“Knock knock—” Outside the door, soldiers hearing the commotion quickly knocked: “Sir?”

 

“Get lost!!” the old general roared.

 

“Yes.”

 

Quiet returned outside as if no one was there. Ling Gen stood straight-backed, saying nothing.

 

“A man over forty still acting on impulse?!” The old general’s chest heaved violently: “If you’d grown even half a brain in all these years, you wouldn’t have done such a thing!!”

 

Ling Gen’s thick lips pressed into a straight line as he said calmly: “I know I’m guilty of heinous crimes. I can pay any price after this ends.”

 

“Ha!” The old general was exasperated, picking up a nearby chair to throw at Ling Gen again. His sturdy body didn’t budge, but the chair legs broke apart on impact.

 

“What price can you pay? Dismissal? Death as apology? Carrying the infamy of murdering a military general into eternity just when you should be retiring gloriously?”

 

Unexpectedly, Ling Gen only had two or three years left. In two or three years, he wouldn’t even face retirement but death.

 

Yet at the end, he would destroy over twenty years of military achievements and honor with this self-imposed crime.

 

Ling Gen responded with silence.

 

After venting his anger, the old general collapsed backward into the sofa, feeling more frustration than fury at failed expectations.

 

He lifted his eyelids, looking at Ling Gen wearily: “Ling Gen, do you think you’re especially great, especially lonely, that no one understands you and you’re fighting alone?”

 

“…No.”

 

“You do.” The old general’s voice suddenly rose: “If not, why would you do such a thing?! If not, why act without thinking, without considering consequences?!”

 

Ling Gen frowned: “It’s been over a month. With ordinary methods, we can’t possibly find Sang Jue. Once he’s far from safe zones, finding him becomes even more remote. I had to—”

 

“Had to what?” The old general angrily interrupted: “Can you confirm Sang Jue can end contamination? Even if we catch Sang Jue, can we definitely find that place? Could you guarantee General Huo wouldn’t suffer fatal injuries in the explosion—did you foresee his severe internal bleeding?!”

 

“…I confirmed he wore a b21 blast suit that day before beginning the operation.”

 

“Did he wear the blast suit on his head?” The old general looked at him coldly: “You simply assumed soldiers would risk their lives to protect him.”

 

Ling Gen remained silent, obviously conceding the point.

 

The old general’s lips trembled slightly as he took a deep breath: “The one who died in the passenger seat—seventeen years in the military. Too honest to know how to play politics, always slow to advance. Only recently transferred under Yanji and promoted to captain, completely loyal without ulterior motives—

 

“To protect his superior, he took the heaviest impact. Combined with the roof panel hitting his skull, he died instantly.”

 

Ling Gen lowered his eyes for the first time.

 

The old general continued: “The one in the driver’s seat is Yanji’s deputy of ten years—very capable. Though without outstanding battle records, he managed internal affairs perfectly… He’s now critically injured and unconscious in the emergency room.”

 

Ling Gen still said the same thing: “I’m willing to pay with my life.”

 

“Who wants your life?!” The old general was enraged again: “Have you thought about what Yanji will think when he wakes up? Have you considered that Sang Jue isn’t human—he could be completely enraged by your scheme and go on a killing rampage?”

 

Ling Gen said: “When Sang Jue was in District Seven, he was kidnapped by rebels. He should have no immunity to anesthetic substances. As long as he appears, our chances of catching him are high.”

 

“You seem to think you considered everything thoroughly?” The old general laughed bitterly: “Have you considered how much turmoil and panic a prominent general being attacked in the city would cause?”

 

Ling Gen had become somewhat obsessive, also raising his voice slightly: “We’ve reached this point. Even with Dr. Anya’s resources to sustain us temporarily, it’s far from matching contamination expansion speed. We simply have no time to develop—”

 

Under the old general’s gaze, he slowly spoke his true thoughts: “Don’t you understand? Only by ending contamination do we have hope.”

 

“Obstinate!” The old general said: “These past days, how many people hoping for Yanji’s death have caused trouble in the city? How many waves of hospital attackers have been stopped? If Yanji suffers any mishap, even if contamination can be ended, do you think anyone can control this situation?”

 

“For an uncertain possibility, disrupting the situation that was finally stabilized—” The old general gritted his teeth, the last two words almost squeezed from his throat: “I can only say you are truly foolish!”

 

But saying more now was meaningless—if only they had detected Ling Gen’s intentions earlier.

 

Ling Gen had been straightforward and careless for so many years, but he’d contributed his rare carefulness and acting skills all in the past month.

 

Until today, the old general had thought rebels appeared in the city, only feeling something was wrong when he noticed Ling Gen wasn’t rushing to find the culprit but was extremely nervous about hospital activity.

 

After just one probing question, Ling Gen didn’t hide anything and laid all cards on the table.

 

The old general took a deep breath, asking as calmly as possible: “If Sang Jue never appears, how long do you plan to wait before announcing General Huo didn’t die?”

 

“One…” Before “week” could be spoken, the communicator beeped. After Ling Gen answered briefly, his expression immediately became stern.

 

“What happened?”

 

“Sang Jue appeared!”

 

The old general took a deep breath, clenched his fists, but still got up and left with Ling Gen.

 

The first to notice something wrong was the soldier outside the hospital room. At shift change time, he called to the inside but heard no response. Opening the door, he saw his colleague unconscious on the floor while Huo Yanji had vanished from the bed. Just as he was about to call for help, he took a blow to the head from behind and passed out.

 

When colleagues woke him, Sang Jue had already taken Huo Yanji far away. While reporting the situation, they opened surveillance footage showing magical scenes—

 

Sang Jue had taken hostage the severely injured Huo Yanji. Just as soldiers were about to call out, thick vines directly knocked them flying. Front-facing soldiers dared not shoot, fearing hitting Huo Yanji. Only side positions fired several anesthetic shots, but strangely, the moment needles pierced clothing, they fell to the ground as if hitting hard objects.

 

Then Sang Jue, in full view of everyone, transformed into a dragon with Huo Yanji and flew away through a side window.

 

This footage shocked everyone who saw the surveillance video. Without video evidence, they could never believe a living person would become an evil dragon!!

 

If the earlier vines were his mutation characteristics, what about the dragon?

 

Didn’t they say research institutes hadn’t broken through human-plant contamination gene fusion technology? How did they get double fusion?

 

The hostage Huo Yanji seemed unsurprised by everything before him. His expression was unclear, showing neither joy nor anger, only glancing at surveillance before finally disappearing.

 

Most spine-chilling was that despite eight hundred soldiers’ strict guard, not one surveillance camera or person discovered how Sang Jue entered the hospital.

 

They had underestimated Sang Jue too much. Just hearing Huo Yanji say “can copy any biological genes” couldn’t maximize their wariness until witnessing it firsthand showed them true shock.

 

The arriving old general shouted sternly: “Keep your mouths shut! Today’s events must not spread!”

 

“Yes!” Despite shock and questions, soldiers instinctively obeyed orders without asking or investigating.

 

“How are casualties?”

 

The soldier captain shook his head: “No deaths, all superficial wounds.”

 

Ling Gen had already led people to pursue Sang Jue. Sang Jue didn’t fly away conspicuously, so few surveillance cameras captured the evil dragon. Some civilians looking up noticed a black shadow flash across the sky, disappearing rapidly between buildings.

 

Ling Gen quickly realized Sang Jue was heading to the manor.

 

Many people guarded the manor, including ambushes around Huo Yanji’s house and aircraft. However, when Ling Gen arrived, he only caught the evil dragon’s back as it entered the aircraft. His anesthetic shot had just fired when he watched the cabin door close.

 

Surrounding soldiers scattered like heavenly maidens as the evil dragon’s wings swept them into the lake.

 

“Sir!!”

 

“Fire!!”

 

Everyone immediately drew other guns, aiming at the spherical aircraft, but it charged straight at Ling Gen with the oppressive force of a behemoth.

 

Ling Gen instinctively rolled aside but slipped and fell into the lake. When he emerged halfway, he only saw the aircraft’s receding silhouette—dense bullets hadn’t left even a dent on its surface.

 

Ling Gen climbed out awkwardly, saying without looking back: “Save people!!”

 

Many soldiers swept into water by Sang Jue had already fainted from choking—without rescue, they’d truly drown.

 

Ling Gen didn’t stay, issuing pursuit orders to helicopters while notifying outpost alerts, but uselessly.

 

How could helicopters at this technology level match aircraft speed?

 

The aircraft soon shook off pursuing tails, brazenly passing over outposts just outside rifle range, leaving soldiers to watch helplessly.

 

…

 

At dawn, the aircraft slowly stopped in northern city ruins, hidden by half-collapsed buildings.

 

Inside, Huo Yanji was handcuffed to the hibernation pod with cuffs Sang Jue had taken from soldiers.

 

Sang Jue remained in evil dragon form, his round eyes having lost past liveliness for cold wildness.

 

As soon as Huo Yanji moved, he opened his mouth and growled lowly.

 

“…Treat the wounds.”

 

Sang Jue wasn’t unscathed.

 

Learning from previous experience, Sang Jue had guessed humans would use anesthetics against him, so even in human form, he’d densely covered himself with dragon scales for protection.

 

Some needles lodged in less dense scale areas, cutting flesh and leaving several bloody marks.

 

The little evil dragon, three or four meters ahead of Huo Yanji, lowered his head, licking slender wounds.

 

Originally wanting to leave without alerting anyone, he later found it unrealistic—the hospital was full of people inside and out, requiring action. He also needed to take some of Huo Yanji’s required medications. Though rescued, this didn’t mean no follow-up care was needed.

 

This was Huo Yanji’s first time experiencing being handcuffed in his life—he’d always been the one cuffing others. Even when framed by the Council before, soldiers had politely escorted him to the interrogation room.

 

Not far away, the little evil dragon focused on treating wounds. Having lived among humans for so many years, he wasn’t accustomed to beast-like wound treatment, licking clumsily. Some positions he couldn’t reach made him unhappily paw at them.

 

Huo Yanji’s fingertips moved as his Adam’s apple bobbed repeatedly.

 

After a long while, he suggested: “I have no strength now and can’t possibly escape. Uncuff me first to treat your wounds properly, then cuff me again—it’s not too late.”

 

The little evil dragon looked up, black eyes staring at him for a while before standing and walking away. Huo Yanji could only see the two pairs of wings folded behind the dragon’s back.

 

“Sang Jue—” A surge of blood made Huo Yanji cough twice uncontrollably.

 

This time Sang Jue returned quickly, but had transformed back to human form, wearing clothes Huo Yanji had prepared for him earlier, restoring his previous clean, beautiful appearance.

 

The hibernation pod had body diagnostic functions. Sang Jue didn’t know how to use it well, pursing his lips and fumbling for a while before activating it.

 

A faint virtual red line penetrated Huo Yanji’s body, scanning from top to bottom. In just five minutes, it provided detailed physical data.

 

Huo Yanji had few external injuries but internal bleeding. Normally wearing blast gear wouldn’t cause this, but what Ling Gen didn’t know was that Huo Yanji had suffered internal bleeding months ago when attacked on Rift No. 2’s highway.

 

Sang Jue reached out and touched Huo Yanji’s abdomen.

 

Without human warmth these days, Sang Jue’s palms had returned to coldness. He only touched carefully once before pulling back like receiving an electric shock, as if afraid of chilling Huo Yanji.

 

“They hurt you. Can’t I kill them either?”

 

“…” Huo Yanji exhaled, rarely at a loss for words.

 

With no seating beside the hibernation pod, Sang Jue sat sideways on the floor, leaning against Huo Yanji’s leg with his cheek against his knee—a thoroughly obedient dragon posture.

 

He grasped Huo Yanji’s restrained slender fingers and bit them.

 

“Humans hurt you, yet you still want them?”

 

Sang Jue wasn’t human. The little monster was destined never to understand someone who continued walking a lonely path despite being misunderstood and hurt.

 

He didn’t want Huo Yanji to be such a person.

 

He wanted Ji Ji to be completely his human, only his human.

 

—But he couldn’t think of any method besides eating Ji Ji.

 

After gazing down for a long time, Huo Yanji moved his bitten fingertip, gently caressing Sang Jue’s lips.

 

Like soothing, yet like refusing.

 

**

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