Evolution - Chapter 138
Chapter 138
Damn it, he wanted to flush them out to catch them, but not like this!
They were gone! How the hell was he supposed to catch them now?
He had the technicians pull up the surveillance footage, only to discover that the two had casually strolled out just as his team was arriving in the vicinity, before they had even begun to set up their perimeter.
Xiu Jiacheng was extremely frustrated. He ordered the technicians to track them through the surveillance network and simultaneously alerted all units to be on the lookout, telling them to report the pair’s location immediately. He claimed the two were extremely dangerous and that no one should act rashly.
Around ten o’clock, they finally locked onto Ji Changqing and He Qingzhi’s latest position. The two seemed to be wandering aimlessly, sometimes taking public hovercrafts, sometimes hailing cabs, and other times using personal hoverboards.
This created significant obstacles for the technicians trying to track them.
Every time they disappeared from one camera’s view, every branching path in the surrounding area had to be checked one by one.
As a result, it took a full two hours before they were finally reacquired.
As Xiu Jiacheng rushed over with his men, he quietly sent a message.
Ji Changqing and He Qingzhi appeared to be wandering aimlessly, turning left and right, weaving through the crowds, but in reality, they were observing everything around them. Suddenly, she gave He Qingzhi a hand signal.
He Qingzhi understood immediately. They were being tailed. Although he didn’t know how Ji Changqing had noticed, he secretly raised his guard and avoided crowded areas.
To avoid harming bystanders.
Suddenly, someone lunged at them from behind. In the corner of his eye, He Qingzhi saw the flash of a blade. Ji Changqing sidestepped to avoid it, retreating a few steps. As the attacker turned to stab again, she casually swung the shaft of her spear at him.
He Qingzhi was also engaged with an attacker.
Bystanders screamed and scattered, ducking into nearby buildings for cover.
Some were on their communicators, likely calling for help or the police.
Ji Changqing swept her gaze around. People were jogging toward them from both the front and back. Someone even pulled out an energy gun and was taking aim.
This group was made up of true desperados.
With a flick of her long spear, she sent the knife she had just knocked to the ground flying. She gave it a powerful swing, and the cold, glinting tip of the blade shot straight toward the person aiming the gun. As he dodged, she slid an energy gun into her hand and fired without hesitation.
The gunman cried out in pain, his energy gun clattering to the ground as he clutched his hand and writhed in agony.
Ji Changqing wielded her spear like the wind, her marksmanship divine. She dropped the attackers who were rushing toward her one by one, shooting through the limbs of those who ran too fast.
Those further back who hadn't yet shown themselves quietly retreated.
Someone cursed under their breath in frustration, “Which idiot fired a gun first?”
Without guns, it would have just been a brawl with weapons. Once guns were involved, everything changed.
Worse, their opponent’s marksmanship was even better than her fighting skills.
This was a damn mess!
But they had come this far; they had to grit their teeth and fight it out!
Ji Changqing kept her gun loosely aimed in the direction her opponents had retreated, slowly backing away. As she moved, she said to He Qingzhi, “Let’s call the police for help, too.”
Her voice was filled with eager anticipation.
Fine, fine, why not? In any case, their goal was to attract as much attention as possible and stall for time.
With a numb expression, He Qingzhi dialed the universal emergency number, reporting that they were being attacked by armed assailants and were currently fleeing for their lives. He told them they were heading toward the City Guard Command Center and requested assistance.
By the time Xiu Jiacheng and his men finally arrived to join the commotion, they could only watch as Ji Changqing and He Qingzhi led their pursuers straight into the dragnet that had been swiftly set up in response to their call for help.
The difference was, Ji Changqing and He Qingzhi, with their slick moves, left everyone in the dust. Because they had been the ones to call the police, they were seen as the victims being pursued, so the military police let them pass.
They weren’t so courteous to the thugs behind them.
Seething with rage, Xiu Jiacheng stared at the retreating figures of Ji Changqing and He Qingzhi and angrily questioned the on-site commander, “Why didn’t you stop those two? They’re Imperial agents who infiltrated Yan You Planet.”
Just then, the officer manning the checkpoint further ahead called the on-site commander. “The two victims requested to go to the command center to give a statement, so I arranged for someone to escort them. Get the ones you caught alive over here as soon as you can.”
The on-site commander replied with a smile, “Sir, those two have already been sent to the command center.”
A terrible premonition crept into Xiu Jiacheng’s heart. He couldn’t help but curl his fingers, struggling to compose his expression. “Then I’ll leave this to you. We’re heading back to the command center.”
As soon as the vehicle started moving, he discreetly took a few deep breaths to calm himself and contacted Jiang Hua, his face a mask of indifference. “Lieutenant Colonel Jiang, I’m on my way to the command center. Those two are extremely dangerous. Please be prepared.”
There was a long silence on Jiang Hua’s end. “Major Xiu, we ran an identity verification before escorting them. These two are Alliance citizens. I’d like to know, we’re supposed to be screening for people who have illegally entered the Alliance from the Empire, so why have you been so suspicious of them?”
“Their identities are forged.”
Jiang Hua took a deep breath. “Major Xiu, I have a question. Why are you so certain their identities are forged? We’ve already verified them at least twice. And, allow me to remind you, they were just attacked by thugs and actively sought our help.”
His implication was clear: these two had consistently acted like normal citizens, so why had he been so convinced from the start that they weren’t?
If they really were Imperial spies who had infiltrated the Alliance, this was one hell of a bizarre move—serving themselves up on a silver platter.
Xiu Jiacheng’s mind raced, cycling through numerous explanations. In the end, he lowered his voice and said, “Lieutenant Colonel Jiang, this involves classified information. I am merely following orders.”
Jiang Hua was silent for a long time before responding in a low voice, “Alright, understood.”
After ending the call, he couldn’t suppress his growing suspicion.
The on-site commander had been reporting to him throughout the situation. The two had left the hotel openly and made no effort to conceal themselves, wandering around like ordinary tourists.
Moreover, they had been perfectly calm until less than half an hour after their position was locked, at which point they were relentlessly pursued by thugs. During the chase, they had taken care to protect civilians, avoiding crowded areas, and had followed instructions to head toward the command center.
Of course, there were suspicious elements—their skills were too good. Their combat abilities, their marksmanship, their effortless evasive maneuvers, their expert kiting techniques…
However, when he saw the way Ji Changqing used her spear during the attack, even if it was just for two brief moves, it was all too familiar.
The military academy league five years ago. The favorite to win the championship. He had repeatedly watched every one of her matches, even studying her techniques frame by frame.
Later, Ji Changqing’s bright future was ruined when she killed someone by mistake, a fact that countless people secretly lamented. Then there was that high-profile lawsuit two years ago, where the prisoner went missing but the prison reported her as dead, hinting at so much more happening behind the scenes.
People like him, with average talent and ordinary backgrounds, had speculated countless times that her brilliance had so thoroughly outshone the other prodigies in that year’s league that she had been met with one accident after another.
For someone who had been missing for two years to suddenly appear on Yan You Planet was certainly grounds for suspicion.
But by comparison, Xiu Jiacheng was actually more suspicious.
He had been far too eager. Quite a few people had arrived in Tiansha City on the same day, yet he had locked onto that area so quickly. Without a word to anyone, he had his men swiftly set up a perimeter inside and outside the hotel. Only after coming up empty-handed did he issue a direct order for a city-wide alert on the two.
At the scene where the thugs were being rounded up, he had ignored everything else, focusing solely on those two individuals.
A reasonable guess would be that they possessed something he desperately wanted, or perhaps he simply wanted to arrange another “accident” for Ji Changqing.
The more Jiang Hua thought about it, the more agitated he became, his thoughts spiraling further, from Ji Changqing to Major General Xie'er. He was two years senior to Xie'er and they had attended different academies, but in the last military academy league he participated in, he had both teamed up with and fought against Xie'er. She was another person who could make her competitors feel inadequate.
Hadn’t there always been rumors that Xie'er greatly admired Ji Changqing? Surely she wouldn’t have misjudged her?
He quickly calculated his options. If he secretly helped Ji Changqing, could he earn merit and advance his career? At the very least, he could earn some goodwill from someone like Xie'er, whose future was incredibly bright.
And he wouldn’t even have to do much—just keep her and Xiu Jiacheng separated, refuse to let him take her away, or delay for a few days. If Ji Changqing truly had something important, someone would surely come for her soon.
The worst-case scenario was that Ji Changqing was indeed an Imperial spy, just as Xiu Jiacheng claimed. But what had he really done? He hadn’t released her or helped her escape. At most, he would just displease Xiu Jiacheng.
But so what? Whether Xiu Jiacheng was pleased or not had little effect on him. Hadn’t Xiu Jiacheng impatiently pushed him aside from the very beginning, eager to claim all the glory for himself?
He’d be happy to throw a wrench in that guy’s plans!
As Jiang Hua’s mind was racing, another emergency report came in. He answered, and the person on the other end was panting heavily, shouting at the top of their lungs, “Requesting backup! Requesting backup! We were attacked on the way back to the command center! They’re using auto-tracking rocket launchers!”
Jiang Hua’s face paled. “Where are you now? What’s the situation? Any casualties?”
“We’re fine, but the female Alpha we were escorting is seriously injured.” He coughed as he spoke. “She was hurt protecting us.”
Not far from him, He Qingzhi’s face was ashen. He scrambled to Ji Changqing’s side, returning fire while yelling at her, “How are you? Are you okay? Can you hold on?”
Ji Changqing was cursing up a storm in her head.
She couldn’t believe it. After surviving ninety-nine trials, she’d met with disaster on the very last step.
She’d been hammered, well and truly. Literally hammered.
A large piece of shrapnel from the exploding hovercraft had slammed into her waist. The irregular edges of the fragment dug into her back, and she felt like her spine might have snapped.
If she hadn’t blocked it slightly with her spear held across her back while kicking away that less-skilled attacker, she might have been cut in two!
She held her breath, gently spitting out the blood in her mouth. “Get this thing off me,” she said, her voice faint.
If this thing, weighing dozens of pounds, kept pressing down on her, she might not be dead now, but she would be soon enough.
Fortunately, both Ji Changqing and He Qingzhi were carrying plenty of heavy-duty weapons, and they weren’t far from the command center, so reinforcements arrived quickly.
As for whether they managed to take down the group audacious enough to use high-powered weapons like auto-tracking rocket launchers in the city, they were in no condition to care.
Ji Changqing was rushed to the military hospital for emergency treatment.
Faced with such a frenzied pursuit, coupled with Xiu Jiacheng’s eagerness and the fact that Ji Changqing had nearly traded her life to save his men, Jiang Hua decided to make a big gamble. He mobilized all the best soldiers from his trusted subordinates and surrounded the military hospital, locking it down tight.
Xiu Jiacheng was barred from entering, and the updates he received were all the same:
That afternoon: The two suspects are in critical condition and undergoing surgery.
That evening: The two suspects are still in surgery.
The next morning: The surgery is over, but they have not yet been cleared of life-threatening danger.
The next morning: Same as above.
The next afternoon: Same as above.
The next evening: Vital signs are stable, but they have not yet regained consciousness.
The following night: Same as above.
It wasn’t until the early morning of the third day, the fourth day since Xiu Jiacheng’s arrival, that the command center received a new batch of visitors.
After presenting their credentials, the newcomers were granted a direct meeting with an exhausted-looking Jiang Hua.
Then, at Jiang Hua’s insistence, only a maximum of three members from this special forces squad were allowed to enter the floor of the military hospital where Ji Changqing and the others were staying.
The other twenty-plus members had to remain outside.
The squad leader readily accepted.
Downstairs from Ji Changqing’s room in the hospital, they ran into Xiu Jiacheng, who had been trying relentlessly to get in.
After learning the whole story of how Xiu Jiacheng believed Ji Changqing and her companion were Imperial spies and insisted on taking them away, the squad leader looked him over with interest and said, not quite seriously, “These two are ours now. You’re out of luck. Please leave.”
The twenty-plus special forces soldiers surged forward, physically squeezing Xiu Jiacheng out of the way.
When the squad leader entered with his second-in-command and sniper, Ji Changqing and He Qingzhi were lying listlessly on their hospital beds. Ji Changqing’s external and internal injuries weren’t a major issue here, but the heavy blow had damaged her spine, which could be a minor problem or a major one—in any case, this military hospital couldn’t fully treat it.
He Qingzhi himself had only sustained minor injuries, but neither of them dared to trust anyone completely, so he had stood guard over Ji Changqing for days. As a result, his complexion was now just as poor as hers.
When the special forces squad entered, they both looked up.
The valiant and formidable squad leader stood between the two beds, smiled slightly, and made a welcoming, open-armed gesture. “Welcome back, our heroes!”
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