Evolution - Chapter 121
Chapter 121
“Look, we’ve become an enemy attack,” Ji Changqing said lightly.
Jixin: “…”
If you’re going to put it that way, I really don’t know how to respond.
Meanwhile, Ji Changqing’s people had already charged heroically into the ruins.
Jixin, mentally exhausted, waved his hand, signaling his own people to follow.
Under normal circumstances, the outpost was manned by a team of eight, working in three rotating shifts.
The outpost being overturned meant that eight people had lost their ability to fight; if not dead, they were severely wounded.
The ones who charged in first killed on sight. When they saw the severely wounded, they didn’t hesitate to deliver a final blow, sending them to a swift end.
The remaining sixteen people naturally wouldn’t just surrender and wait to die, but the situation had reversed. The other side now had superior numbers and weapons of mass destruction.
The battle was over in a short while. The only survivor was the marked Omega, who was carried out by several Betas and sent back to the camp.
Ji Changqing even gave specific instructions: “When she wakes up, ask if she needs a forced cleansing. Hmm, tell her that everyone involved in this has been killed, and all their possessions will be given to her as compensation.”
There are two ways to deal with a marked Omega. One is a forced cleansing. The other is to kill the Alpha who marked her, after which his mark will gradually fade, though it takes a rather long time.
A forced cleansing has a significant and long-lasting impact on an Omega’s body. Choosing to have the other party killed takes longer, but for the Omega, this period of the mark fading also offers strong protection in another sense.
At least during the mark fading period, the Omega is completely immune to Alpha pheromones and cannot be marked again.
Ji Changqing just felt that the choice should respect the victim’s wishes.
After overturning the outpost and cleaning up the trash, it had to be rebuilt. And behind the rebuilding of the outpost, there would clearly be a shift in the right to speak.
Jixin, who had been standing to the side and letting his men follow along, quickly scanned the team cleaning up the scene. His gaze fell on the rolling, forested mountains behind them, where armed personnel could be faintly seen. “Since it was Ming Zixing’s men who did wrong, he has to give us an explanation. Should I go talk to him first?”
Ji Changqing raised an eyebrow and said noncommittally, “Sure.”
For the past three days, Ming Zixing had been staying in the forested mountains, where his troops trained. For the first two days, he was quite pleased, feeling the triumphant excitement of having caused trouble and waiting for it to be discovered.
The thought of the expressions on Ji Changqing and the others’ faces when they returned made him unable to resist smiling.
By the third day, this feeling had undergone a subtle change.
He was like a gambler waiting for the reveal, both expectant and terrified, with a hint of fear hidden within his recklessness.
To be honest, now that it came down to it, he was a little scared.
After all, he had provoked a psycho whose course of action was unpredictable.
Who knew how the other party would react?
After waking up that morning, he had been somewhat restless. He was distracted during morning drills. After dismissing the troops for their meal, he couldn’t sit still, so he ordered everyone to be on high alert and went to inspect several outposts that overlooked the camp.
Logically speaking, he hadn’t given a direct order. The only thing he could be faulted for was not being in the camp during his duty shift. At worst, he should only receive some punishment, which would be of little consequence to him.
Even though he had mentally prepared himself in various ways, his expression couldn’t help but turn ugly when he saw Ji Changqing and Jixin leading people toward the outpost.
He had always thought that even if Jixin didn’t support him, he wouldn’t side with Ji Changqing.
A shadow fell over his eyes as he watched Ji Changqing wave her hand and order the outpost to be shelled. With a “boom,” all his hopes of getting lucky were scattered to the winds along with the overturned outpost.
This was the worst possible outcome among all his predictions.
“She actually dares…”
Whether she dared or not, the outpost was overturned, and the people were killed.
Ming Zixing naturally wouldn’t just sit and wait for death; he had also made various contingency plans.
Unfortunately, the other two were no pushovers either.
When they had chosen the campsite, it was surrounded by forested mountains, with each of them taking a third. The mountains were undulating; they usually trained in the valleys and patrolled the outposts on the ridges. Now that a fight was brewing, they discovered it was a terrible setup. It was like an infinite W-shape, with everyone’s troops gathered on the high ridges.
No matter which party wanted to stir up trouble, as long as the other two joined forces, they would be completely suppressed.
Ming Zixing stared grimly at the troop movements on both sides, countless thoughts racing through his mind. If the two of them really decided to make a move, he wasn’t without a backup plan for a fight to the bitter end!
Just then, one of his subordinates ran over to say that Jixin had contacted him.
Ming Zixing’s heart relaxed. Their initiating contact meant they wanted to talk. And if they were willing to talk, it meant there was still room to de-escalate the situation.
Ji Changqing’s slick move of overturning the outpost without a word had truly scared him.
Ming Zixing answered the communication.
In the video, Jixin’s expression was neutral, revealing nothing. He got straight to the point: “Something happened in the camp. You’re the officer on duty. Come back and we’ll handle it according to the rules.”
Ming Zixing didn’t believe him at all. He naturally wouldn’t show any fear, saying as if nothing was wrong, “I’m training troops in the mountains. Why don’t you come over?”
Everyone knew what was going on, but they had to pretend they didn’t.
A hint of mockery appeared on Jixin’s face. “Come back to the camp to talk.”
“Are you kidding me?” Ming Zixing laughed loudly, panning the camera to the left and right. “With this formation of yours, I wouldn’t dare go back.”
“She has already shown enough sincerity.” Jixin felt that perhaps being idle for the past half-year had made his companion’s already-not-so-great brain even less functional. “Everyone was killed. No one is left to testify. Isn’t that enough sincerity?”
“You killed my men and call it sincerity?” Ming Zixing almost flew into a rage on the spot, pointing at himself in disbelief. “Do you think I’m an idiot?”
“No one is left to testify, what more do you want? Or do you think they could have withstood her interrogation?”
Ming Zixing’s expression twisted instantly. He wasn’t that confident.
After a long silence, he said grimly, “Who knows if you’re just trying to trick me?”
This meant he was willing to soften his stance.
“Your trump card wouldn’t be the Wendeli garrison, would it?” Jixin couldn’t be bothered to beat around the bush with trash talk anymore. “Do you trust them? Even if they were willing to help you, what would be the price? After a fight with us, would you even be able to leave Wendeli? And even if you could, what would you have left? With no men under your command, do you think General Klopp would let you off?”
Ming Zixing was the one responsible for dealing with the Wendeli garrison. He had a contact there, someone connected to an Imperial noble that Klopp had established ties with—a roundabout connection. Before Ji Changqing decisively overturned the outpost, he had thought there wouldn’t be any problem.
But after that, it was as if the water in his brain had been knocked out, and he suddenly became a little clearer-headed.
He suddenly became uncertain about things he had been sure of before.
Seeing his hesitant silence, Jixin suppressed his disdain. After all, he didn’t want a mutually destructive outcome, falling at the final hurdle. “The General trusts you the most. When we bring these ten thousand-plus people over, in the General’s eyes, the top merit must be yours.”
Ming Zixing sneered, “That’s not what you said before.”
Before, both he and Jixin had felt that Ji Changqing was acting too domineeringly, that everyone was basically being led around by the nose by her. That’s why they had privately schemed together on how to restrain her and seize back the initiative.
Jixin’s expression didn’t change as he admitted his mistake cleanly. “I was mistaken before. She has lived in the Empire. Regardless of how she was able to pass the identification to enter Wendeli, as long as her enemies aren’t all dead, the General can’t possibly let her openly compete for a future.”
He added suggestively, “You’re an Alpha. You already have a natural advantage in the Empire.”
Ming Zixing was quite tempted. That’s right, being put in charge of contacting the garrison showed that the General trusted him the most. He was an Alpha; in the Empire, he naturally had an advantage over a Beta like Jixin. The General would only value him more, not them.
As for Ji Changqing, whom he had always been dissatisfied with, she had made many enemies in the Empire before and was a former space pirate. The General would never dare to use her out in the open. As such, she was destined to remain hidden in the shadows, doing the dirty work that couldn’t see the light of day.
Obviously, if he successfully led these ten thousand-plus people away, most of the benefits would fall to him. If they really fought, even if the garrison intervened, his losses would be too great!
Despite these thoughts, he still retained a sliver of clarity, deeply afraid that the two were just luring him back to the camp to kill him. For the moment, he refused to yield.
The two went back and forth, haggling several times. Jixin maneuvered and argued until the next morning, but there was still no conclusion.
Jixin was actually suffering inwardly. If the two of them hadn’t been so tightly bound together in the early stages, he would have loved to untie himself and go solo. He could understand that people easily resort to extreme measures when under too much psychological pressure, but he never expected Ming Zixing to pull such a reckless and crooked move!
Ji Changqing acted as if none of this was happening and produced a penalty list. “Have someone go to Ming Zixing and collect the fine.”
Jixin looked bewildered. His gaze fell on the penalty list. Hmm, it seemed pretty normal. Dereliction of duty was one item, failure to manage subordinates was another… wait, why was there also passive resistance and non-cooperation with the investigation after the fact?!
Wake up! We’re in a standoff, and all you can think about is handing out punishments?
Reading his expression, Ji Changqing kindly explained, “He won’t dare to come back.” Suspicious by nature and with leverage held against him, no matter how bold Ming Zixing was, he wouldn’t dare return to the camp easily. He would just hole up in his team’s training base.
Only with over a thousand people guarding him would he feel even a tiny bit of security.
“Send someone to collect the items on that penalty list from him. Tell him that for future duty rosters, if he doesn’t return to camp, he’ll have to pay us three times the usual fee to cover his shift, and we’ll take turns covering for him.”
There’s a move like that?
But Jixin understood. This reverse maneuver was, in fact, a statement. The subtext was something like: Alright, we don’t plan to kill you, but you definitely don’t dare to come back. We won’t make things difficult for you. Just pay up, and you can hide however you want.
As for the effect? Well, it was probably equivalent to pointing at Ming Zixing’s nose and calling him a coward.
Wasn’t this punishment harsh? It was!
Wasn’t the fine a lot? It definitely was!
But Ming Zixing would probably curse them out while secretly rejoicing and forking over the money.
With the carrot of a bright future dangling before him, he might even breathe a huge sigh of relief. Once the money was paid, the matter would be closed. No matter how disgusted he felt inside, he would have to act out a happy and harmonious ending.
As a Beta from the Star Alliance, Jixin had a greater appreciation for Ji Changqing’s style of doing things.
His wariness and suspicion of Ji Changqing were also based on this.
To put it bluntly, he simply didn’t believe that someone from the Empire, who had successfully become a notorious space pirate, would possess the noble sentiment of treating people like human beings.
Ever since landing on Wendeli, everything Ji Changqing did, even if she had a different excuse each time, seemed to fit the disposition described in the rumors. But as time went on, the sense of incongruity grew stronger and stronger.
In the beginning, Ji Changqing had said that their current manpower was their greatest bargaining chip. They had to work together, and the more people they gathered, the heavier their chip would be.
The reasoning was very practical, and they were successfully convinced.
But the later developments became a bit hard to understand.
Of course, when Ji Changqing trained the people under her, she showed no mercy. She was as ruthless as an emotionless training and enforcement machine. Anyone who dared to violate the rules she set would be tortured to the point of wishing for death, all according to those rules.
But to those who followed the rules, she was genuinely good.
Strictly speaking, she didn’t do much more than they did. She just did everything by the book. Anyone who stepped out of line was cut down by her, which effectively guaranteed the personal safety of the old, weak, women, and children.
It wasn’t obvious in a day or two, but now that three months had passed, they could naturally see the change. The feeling was very subtle.
The people who belonged to her, whether they were the so-called soldiers officially training with the troops or the weaklings handling planting and logistics, gradually shed their timid and shrinking postures. Their eyes were no longer filled with disgust, fear, anxiety, and hatred. When they walked, their backs were straighter than those in the other two teams.
You’re a notorious space pirate, so why are you trying to steal the persona of an “enlightened ruler who loves their people like their own children”?!
If her clear system of rewards and punishments could be reluctantly accepted by telling himself it was forced by the situation, her views on gender were just too noble and righteous. Never mind not being like an Alpha from the Empire, she wasn’t even like an Alpha from the Star Alliance, okay?!
People like Ming Zixing, who believed one gender was superior to another, were standard in the Empire. In the Star Alliance, well, there weren’t many, but there weren’t few either.
The only difference was that in the Star Alliance, most people just complained a bit—it was mostly empty talk, and no one would indulge you. But in the Empire, it was a clearly drawn, insurmountable gender divide.
As expected, Ming Zixing grumbled and cursed as he handed over the money and goods according to the penalty list. He holed up in the training base and refused to come out, pinching his nose and tacitly accepting the stripping of his authority over the camp. At the same time, he also accepted that the people under his jurisdiction who remained in the camp would be divided up between Ji Changqing and Jixin.
When he had stirred up trouble, he felt everything was under control and never imagined he would actually be unable to return to the camp. Naturally, he hadn’t taken all his things with him.
Ji Changqing moved quickly. Seizing the opportunity, she had He Qingzhi and Saiweiyala use the investigation as a pretext to turn Ming Zixing’s place upside down.
They hadn’t held out much hope, but to their surprise, they found an unexpected treasure: a schedule reminder log that Ming Zixing’s deputy had made for him.
It was similar to an electronic work journal, with a built-in timed reminder function. The entries inside were written rather briefly. The most recent record was:
“Escort cargo ship, departing from Planet Liya on June 17. Ship maintenance and weapon replenishment must be completed by the 15th. Food reserves for two months.”
A small gadget like this could basically be used for a long time without needing frequent replacement. Saiweiyala managed to recover the cleared and deleted data and discovered that its usage history was several years longer than Ming Zixing’s current frigate. She excitedly brought it to Ji Changqing to claim credit.
So, when attending an auction, Ji Changqing went through the same process as last time and had Saiweiyala send out the intelligence. In addition to the information from the schedule reminder log, she included the fact that Klopp was in league with Duke Oro of the Empire.
After attending a few more auctions, Ji Changqing got a general idea of the situation on Wendeli.
The nature of this planet was actually similar to a concession. On the surface, it belonged to the Empire, but in reality, the Empire had no control over it at all.
The forces here were intertwined and the species varied, including beastmen, yao, sea-folk, mages, demonic cultivators, advanced androids, and so on.
They were all ruthless characters.
This was their turf, where they called the shots and could run as wild as they pleased.
It was only because these people needed to cultivate, advance, and exchange resources that it slowly developed into its current form as a den of opulence.
After they had been on Wendeli for over five months, on their last trip to an auction, someone in the casino they always frequented was giving a work report to their boss: “They’ll be able to leave Wendeli in eight days. A subordinate reported that she has used our facility to send four messages to the Star Alliance. Requesting instructions on whether to inform the Empire…”
The mage, dressed in black robes and engrossed in a newly acquired magic gemstone, didn’t even lift his head. He said nonchalantly, “So stupid. Deal with it.”
Why were there always people foolish enough to think that because they had sought refuge with the Empire, they should offer it their loyalty?
It was nothing more than a transaction.
They helped the Empire with a few harmless little favors, and the Empire ceded ownership and jurisdiction of this land.
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