Evolution - Chapter 132
Chapter 132
He Qingzhi, panting, leaned against the wall. His face was pale, and with a trembling hand, he took an emergency hemostatic injection from his spatial device and gave himself a shot.
He was wounded in the back; one shot had grazed his shoulder blade. Since it was an energy weapon, the high temperature had cauterized the flesh, so it hadn’t bled. But after a desperate flight, the wound had torn open and started to bleed.
Someone shuffled over to him. “Let me apply some medicine for you.”
“Thanks.” He Qingzhi handed over the medicine and turned to the side to make it easier. The person lit up their comm, and by its faint light, they treated his wound, applied the medicine, cut away his clothing, and wrapped it tightly with several layers of hemostatic bandages.
The stench in the sewer was suffocating. He Qingzhi’s right hand tightly gripped the gun he had just set beside him.
These men had been sent by Adonis to meet him. But three had died along the way, and four others had split off to draw away their pursuers, their fates unknown. Of those who had protected him and helped him shake off their pursuers in a desperate escape, only these three remained.
He trusted them, yet he didn’t dare to trust them completely. After all, several of their brothers had died. Who knew if one of them might decide it was his fault and, in a fit of rage, kill him to vent their anger?
“Done.” The man gently patted his uninjured shoulder and offered some comfort. “It’s just a minor wound. We used good medicine; it’ll heal in a few days.”
He Qingzhi grunted in acknowledgment. “Are you all okay?”
The man replied nonchalantly, “Just minor injuries.” They lived a life of danger, licking blood from the blade’s edge; who would fuss over such small wounds?
To be honest, He Qingzhi was the most seriously injured among them. But if he hadn’t pushed one of their brothers out of the way in time, another life would have been lost.
The man had clearly seen He Qingzhi’s earlier action and didn’t think anything of it. Maintaining constant vigilance greatly increased one’s chances of survival.
He looked at the others in the dim light, then turned his gaze to He Qingzhi. “They’ll probably dispatch troops to search and lock down the area soon. Our original plan might not work anymore. Do you have any other support on your end?”
They had been unexpectedly discovered after succeeding in their mission. Their pursuers were the nobles who governed this fief, so the military and police naturally followed their orders. The search would surely be strict in the territories controlled by both the Klopp and He families.
They needed to escape the jurisdiction of these two families as quickly as possible. The intensity of the pursuit would naturally lessen then.
Besides, regardless of how unpopular these two families were, once this incident came to light, the other nobles on Hading Planet would have to cooperate, at least on the surface. Inspections of departing starships would become much stricter.
He Qingzhi choked for a moment. He couldn’t just say he was fighting alone, with no backup plan or support. He had to make himself seem more valuable. He nodded grimly. “I’ll ask.”
They weren’t reckless enough to make a direct call for help in a place like this. With a tacit understanding, they turned slightly away from each other and sent out pre-arranged coded messages to their respective contacts.
After sending the messages and seeing that everyone had recovered a bit, the leader was the first to stand up. “Let’s go. This place probably won’t be safe for much longer.”
The other three, including He Qingzhi, silently got to their feet. The leader took the front, and He Qingzhi followed behind him, hunched over, stumbling forward.
He was now in a very precarious state, a feeling he knew all too well. It was the same seven or eight years ago, during the Fourth Military’s entrance exam, when he had fallen into the hands of an Imperial noble. The other Omega candidates captured with him had all been drugged. They had struggled to stay lucid and worked together to send him out—the one who seemed to be in the best condition—hoping he could bring back reinforcements to rescue them all.
He had stumbled along, filled with both rage and terror, hoping for salvation ahead while fearing that at any moment, his pursuers would catch up, kill him, or drag him back to hell.
Countless times, he felt he couldn’t go on. But the thought of those young candidates who had given him their only chance of survival—which was also their only chance to call for help—made him grit his teeth and force himself to keep running.
He didn’t know if his persistence would pay off, but he knew with certainty that if he didn’t push on, not only he, but also everyone hoping for his return, would truly be without hope.
That time, it was Ji Changqing and her team who had found him in time and saved him. It was because of their bold plan that they had managed to hold off the enemy until Major General Xie’er arrived and successfully rescued everyone.
He clutched the communicator he used to maintain secret contact with Ji Changqing and her team, and hope involuntarily bloomed in his heart.
Maybe she can do it?
He couldn’t help but give a bitter smile, feeling he was demanding far too much of her.
Then, he felt the communicator vibrate. He looked down at the message: “Get to Hading Planet’s Third Spaceport before 2 p.m.”
His heart gave a violent lurch, far more intense than the communicator’s vibration. He immediately tugged the man in front of him. “We’re going to Hading Planet’s Third Spaceport.”
The man reacted instantly. “From here, if we’re lucky, we can get there by hovercar in under five hours.” He glanced at the time. It was just after two in the morning; they should be able to make it. He quickened his pace. “Their first reaction will be to lock down the spaceports within their territory, and only then will they start checking and sealing the routes leading out of their jurisdiction.”
He was much more familiar with Hading Planet than He Qingzhi. His feet didn’t stop as his thoughts raced. “The Third Spaceport happens to be outside Earl Klopp’s fief.” To get to the Third Spaceport, they had to cross Earl Klopp’s territory. He figured the He family wouldn’t be able to mobilize the Earl’s people that quickly.
He Qingzhi pressed his lips together, his tense mind relaxing slightly.
Adonis’s strongholds here were all located in cities within Earl Klopp’s fief. Their previous plan had actually been to send him to another noble’s territory, smuggled like a piece of cargo. The underlings would make some arrangements, get him onto a ship, and he would just have to stay quiet, not show his face or move around, and then slip off the ship when they reached Wendeli.
Not many nobles did business on Wendeli, but many went there to spend lavishly. Although the nobles enfeoffed on Hading Planet were all from fallen houses, they couldn’t resist its proximity.
A fallen noble was still a noble. Many of them lacked powerful backing, but certain tough, less-than-legitimate factions under their command were willing to pay a toll to use the fallen nobles’ names, allowing them to take military starlanes and shorten their journeys.
And it was a perfect opportunity to rest and restock on fuel, food, and other supplies on Hading Planet.
As long as they didn’t get in the way of the major nobles, they could run their small routes, do a little business, and earn some pocket money without any trouble. After all, the big players looked down on such paltry profits. There was another motive, too: if they managed to build connections with a major noble family on Wendeli, that would be a different story entirely.
Thus, Adonis had leveraged a connection, paved the way with money, and added a bit of personal rapport to find a noble’s private ship—in reality, one borrowed by some shady factions under his control—that would be making a trip to Wendeli in the next two or three days.
Led by their leader, they traversed a section of the sewer and emerged in a dead-end alley. The surrounding area was an old residential district, and just a hundred or two hundred meters further was the bustling city center.
The four of them climbed out of the sewer, reeking. They used some water to hastily rinse their hair and changed into fresh clothes. Then, the others watched in amazement as He Qingzhi transformed before their very eyes, changing his face and adopting a new, matching identity.
The leader was worldly and wasn’t overly surprised. “Does the identity have an entry record for Hading Planet?”
“It does,” He Qingzhi said flatly, feeling a pang of sorrow. This was an identity Ji Changqing had procured for him from the black market: a male Beta who had died quietly on Hading Planet, after which his identity had been sold on the black market.
He had always been competitive, but now he had to admit the objective gap between himself and Ji Changqing. He used to think he was no worse than her, but whenever an emergency arose, he always had to rely on Ji Changqing’s prior arrangements and plans to get through. Although she was in charge of route planning, she considered every possibility. Whether it might be useful or not, she planned for it, preparing everything so thoroughly that there was no need for last-minute scrambling. That alone was impressive enough.
After all, not only was this everyone’s first time being human, it was also their first time being stuck in the Empire on a mission. Why was she so flawless while he ran into accidents?
In the end, it was just that some people were too exceptional. It wasn’t that his own abilities were lacking!
He Qingzhi was also an elite student from the prison’s one-on-one training program. He, too, had all sorts of strange medicines and black-tech gadgets from Saiweiyala.
Not only did he change his own face, but he also altered the faces of the other three and completely concealed their injuries. Before a tight lockdown could be established, the four of them, in a cargo hovercar, smoothly entered Earl Klopp’s fief.
By the time they entered the Earl’s fief and reached their stronghold, it was nearly eight o’clock, having taken more than double the usual time. They drove the car in, and someone naturally came over to unload the cargo.
The four went to rest first. A doctor came to treat their wounds. They were all external injuries; a short stay in a medical instrument, and they’d be good as new.
However, according to the information they had gathered, the situation was not optimistic.
Earl Klopp had actually responded quickly to the He family’s request. When entering the Earl’s fief from the He family’s side, a valid face and identity were enough to pass verification. But now, intelligence indicated that leaving required a genetic sequence verification.
Clearly, the enemy suspected their target was highly skilled in disguise.
And just then, the doctor, his face extremely grim, reported even worse news: He Qingzhi was going into heat.
Everyone’s face turned ashen.
Never mind that any Omega, without exception, would be unable to leave now. Just the fact that he was in heat—even with suppressants—meant that going out during this period within the Empire was obviously not a good idea.
Escorting an unremarkable Beta out safely was already difficult enough. Escorting an Omega in heat was like broadcasting “Come and get me! Come and get me! Come and get me!” all the way. It was practically impossible.
In the end, after his treatment was finished, the man in question didn’t even frown. He injected himself with the best suppressant they could provide and said with a pale face, “I have a way.”
He first contacted Ji Changqing with a coded message, explaining his predicament and his proposed solution, and asked if she had a way to receive him.
Ji Changqing, who was eating breakfast, opened the message. After a glance, she smiled benevolently and made a suggestion to Kui Ye. “Kui Ye, how about you let the four of them go down later to move something up? They can earn a little for their trip back.”
Not good at all. Kui Ye really wanted to give that tough reply.
But looking at this devil, he touched his own face, which was much smoother after a full night’s sleep, and remembered the real pain. Then he remembered his life was still in her hands. What else could he do but agree readily?
Just scraping the two o’clock deadline, Kui Ye used the script Ji Changqing had taught him to sweet-talk the captain. He claimed there was a new drug, a great tool for interrogation, and that someone had come to him wanting to sell the formula. They would be sending over a crate of necessary materials and asked for help transporting it to Wendeli. Once the crate was delivered, they would be given some samples to try.
And so, Ji Changqing, Nankong, and their team successfully rendezvoused with their final teammate. It was just that his arrival was not exactly graceful.
He was delivered lying inside a crate one meter high, one meter wide, and two meters long. When the crate was opened, it was indeed filled with various pharmaceutical materials. After clearing away the top layer, there was a sealed metal box. They opened the metal box, and He Qingzhi was revealed to everyone, looking like a sleeping beauty.
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