Hui Tian Ch61

Chapter 61

Antonio: The cp I knocked on is real.jpg

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Half an hour earlier, Heisenberg International Prison.

Dark clouds hung low over the high walls and electric fences. Dozens of black armored vehicles surrounded the prison bunker, while over a hundred armed personnel stood at the ready. Not far away, an AH-64E attack helicopter sat poised for takeoff.

Cameron sat inside a bulletproof Mercedes, his pupils like damp green moss on an overcast day, gazing heavily at Nielsen’s stretcher being carried out of the prison bunker.

Early that morning, Nielsen’s previously stable condition had suddenly worsened, to the point of being critically near death. The incident came without warning. The ever-shrewd and cautious Cameron, fearing a trap, had strongly advocated keeping Nielsen in the heavily guarded prison. But the Security Council was under immense pressure from Evolutionists worldwide and had no choice but to agree to transfer him to a specialized hospital for emergency treatment.

Forced by the Security Council’s decision, Cameron could only arrive personally to oversee the transfer. He watched as Nielsen on the stretcher was loaded onto the helicopter. An armed officer gave a hand signal indicating clear.

The rotors began to turn slowly.

At that exact moment, Cameron’s eyelid twitched without warning.

A spine-chilling unease shot straight to his heart. Before he could react, the entire open ground, along with dozens of armored vehicles, shook violently!

“What is it?” “Halt!”

Over a dozen Evolutionist figures appeared above the prison. Cameron looked up, and the figure of the young man in all-black clothes at the forefront was reflected in his pupils. In an instant, he realized who had come.

That legendary Rong Qi!

Cameron blurted out: “Move the target back to the bunker!! Go go go—”

His reaction was lightning-fast, but in the blink of an eye, it was already too late. The Evolutionists launched their Special Abilities from midair toward the ground. The armed personnel returned fire in haste. Over a hundred submachine guns opened fire simultaneously. The bullets seemed to be drawn by an invisible force, all of them sinking into Rong Qi’s body. Immediately after, a damage reflection ability activated, and everyone on the ground was exploded into bloody flowers by the bullets!

Alarms shot into the clouds. Gunsmoke filled the open ground. In an instant, the dead and dying lay everywhere.

Looking out over the field of screams and groans, Rong Qi seemed entirely accustomed to such horrific scenes. He reached out, clenched his five fingers in the air, and several armored vehicles were simultaneously twisted into steel pretzels by tremendous force.

Explosions instantly swept across the scene, the flames illuminating even half the sky.

Amid the raging fire on the ground, Rong Qi walked toward the burning armed helicopter and looked down at Nielsen on the stretcher. He pressed two fingers together to slice open his palm, then let several drops of blood shimmering with the ghostly light of meteorites fall onto Nielsen’s forehead.

A power sufficient to bring the dead back to life blossomed forth. Mere seconds later, Nielsen finally opened his bloodshot eyes. His unfocused gaze fell upon the mountain of corpses and sea of blood on the ground, and upon that young demon in black.

“I suppose you’ve made your decision, correct, Director-General?”

“…”

Nielsen stared at him straight on and barely managed to speak in a hoarse voice:

“What exactly… do you want… from me?”

Rong Qi answered gently: “In truth, you have known the answer for a very long time.”

He raised his eyes to the distant horizon, his gaze seeming to pierce through the void toward the seven billion living beings on this Earth.

“As many of our kind as possible. As much power as possible. Evolutionary sources spread as widely as possible…” He narrowed his eyes and enunciated each word: “All the meteorites in the hands of the International Supervision General Administration.”

Not far behind him, inside an armored vehicle crushed into a metal pancake, Cameron looked past his already-dead bodyguard and the shattered window. With one hand pressed tightly against the wound in his abdomen and the other gripping a gun, he tried to aim at Nielsen.

But he no longer had the strength to pull the trigger.

Hot blood gushed from his abdomen, pierced by shrapnel, rapidly draining the last of his body heat. Cameron closed his eyes and lost consciousness in the overwhelming darkness.

·

Two hours later, a local hospital.

“The casualties at the scene are catastrophic. We are doing our utmost to suppress the media coverage.” The hospital corridor was chaotic and noisy, filled with shouts and cries. A Supervisor trotted after Shen Zhuo, urgently reporting the situation: “The invaders would have had difficulty entering the bunker to abduct the target, so they chose to strike during the transfer. By the time we arrived, Director-General Nielsen was already missing…”

Shen Zhuo’s face was like still water. Lean and swift, he led his people through the chaotic hospital corridor.

Not far from the ICU doorway, Antonio was standing before a silver-haired old lady in a neat, peach-colored floral dress. Judging by his expression, he had probably already mentally collapsed: “No matter how much money it takes, please use your Foresight to help me see—when exactly will this wave of bad luck end? If this keeps up, I’ll resign and be done with it. My salary is nothing and my blood pressure is one-eighty. To top it off, my younger brother lost a leg. Did I owe Nielsen five million in a past life, or did I kill his whole family?…”

Mrs. Halpa studied Antonio thoughtfully for a moment, then reached out to pat his shoulder and said kindly: “Child, you are merely a stand-in. Don’t be so obsessed. That mistress of yours—her true love is actually still your father. Let her go.”

Antonio’s whole person cracked: “Huh?!”

Shen Zhuo abruptly stopped in his tracks. Without sparing Antonio a glance, he asked sharply: “Where is Nielsen right now?”

Mrs. Halpa looked at Shen Zhuo from behind her small round glasses for a few seconds, leaned on her cane in thought, and said slowly: “Child, as long as you silently recite his name in your heart, no matter how inconceivable the circumstances, he will definitely appear before you—that person is the destined partner of your life.”

“…”

Amid the utterly bizarre gazes of the surrounding Supervisors, Shen Zhuo stared levelly at Mrs. Halpa, his cold, stern tone not wavering in the slightest:

“What I asked was, where is Nielsen right now? Can you see his movements using Foresight?”

“Oh, I cannot.” Mrs. Halpa said regretfully. “Foresight has a cooldown interval. The last time I used it to help them look at the yacht where you were being held hostage, I won’t be able to trigger it again until next month. But I can help you calculate which day would be auspicious for a wedding.”

Shen Zhuo replied politely: “Thank you, but no need.” Then he pushed open the door and entered the ICU without looking back.

On the bloodstained emergency bed, Cameron lay with his eyes closed, an oxygen mask over his face. Every curve on the monitors was critical, his vital signs having nearly dropped to their lowest point.

“We have done everything we can. All his abdominal organs have suffered varying degrees of damage. Fortunately, what hit him was shrapnel and not a bullet. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have survived until resuscitation could even begin…”

A local Supervisor was stammeringly translating the emergency doctor’s words, but was immediately cut off by Shen Zhuo’s raised hand.

“Everyone out.” he said in a low voice.

The Supervisor couldn’t help but panic: “Chief Supervisor Shen, this man is Elton Cameron, an important figure of the Security Council. He absolutely cannot have an accident here. The aftermath would be unmanageable. We must rescue him at all costs…”

“I know.” Shen Zhuo said coldly. “I know better than you who he is.”

The Supervisor was at a loss and could only nod, signaling the emergency medical staff to withdraw from the ICU with him.

In the white room, only Shen Zhuo, several of his trusted subordinates, and Cameron—hovering between life and death, unconscious on the sickbed—remained.

“…What are you trying to do? You’re not thinking of having me save him, are you?” The Witch of Itardo was somewhat wary, crossing her arms as she looked at Shen Zhuo. “My healing ability isn’t enough to bring back the dead. At most, I can make him die looking a bit better. Are you trying to make his corpse look more presentable?”

Shen Zhuo didn’t answer. He stared quietly at that pale-as-paper face.

Truthfully, Cameron looked younger than his actual age. Perhaps because he usually only had two expressions—unfathomably profound and sarcastically smiling—he didn’t have many wrinkles except at the corners of his eyes. Just as his political enemies described him, he was like a sarcastic, yin-yang boiled egg that made you want to punch it.

In the blink of an eye, twenty-three years had passed.

Perhaps because they had grown distant for too long, no matter how hard he tried to think, he could not retrieve the blurred afterimages from the depths of his memory.

“Chief Supervisor Shen,” Director Gao couldn’t help but cautiously remind him.

Shen Zhuo stood there quietly, no trace of joy or anger visible on his face. After a long while, he suddenly said softly: “…What kind of person would abandon their own six-year-old brother in a hospital?”

Several of his trusted subordinates were stunned, completely unable to understand what he meant.

Shen Zhuo drew a breath and said no more. He opened his palm and ordered in a low voice: “Bring Rong Qi’s serum.”

Director Gao was startled and immediately exclaimed: “But we only have that one last dose left!”

Shen Zhuo’s palm didn’t move a fraction. He only closed his eyes lightly.

Director Gao wanted to speak but stopped, yet had no other choice. He could only lift the metal cryogenic case he carried with him. When opened, a chill wafted out. On the rack were fixed six gene interferons in a row: one X, one S, and two each of A-Class and B-Class.

When Shen Zhuo left Shenhai, he had only brought three evolution pharmaceuticals, and they had already been used up in the battle with Nielsen. This case was something Director Gao had specially brought along to guard against unforeseen circumstances. Among them, this X evolution drug cultivated from Rong Qi’s serum was the very last one in the entire HRG laboratory. Its preciousness was beyond imagination.

Director Gao took out the syringe and handed it to Shen Zhuo. After thinking about it, he still couldn’t hold back and cautiously reminded him in a lowered voice:

“But… it’s only a 1-in-79 average chance…”

Outside the ICU door, in the clamorous corridor, Bai Sheng’s footsteps paused.

“Is it worth the gamble?” Director Gao’s uneasy voice came through the door crack, so quiet it was nearly a whisper. “What if he isn’t?”

He isn’t what?

What does a 1-in-79 average chance mean?

Bai Sheng’s motion to push the door stopped in midair. He narrowed his eyes imperceptibly.

“…The odds for this person are very high.” After a moment, Shen Zhuo’s flat answer came from inside.

He didn’t explain why he could be certain that Cameron’s odds were very high. After a pause in his voice, he said coldly again: “In any case, he’s going to die.”

Inside the ward, Shen Zhuo pulled off the metal cap. The special syringe automatically ejected a needle glinting with cold light, which he cleanly and decisively plunged into Cameron’s upper arm vein. 1ml of interferon was injected instantly.

Almost in the blink of an eye, even an ordinary human could sense a strange power sinking into Cameron’s entire body along with the pharmaceutical.

Immediately after, under the nervous gazes of several researchers, a blood-red X truly surfaced on the back of Cameron’s left hand!

Director Gao instantly relaxed in relief, and right before his eyes, a magical transformation occurred.

His internal organs regenerated on their own. Blood vessels repaired themselves. The horrifically gaping wound in his abdomen healed and vanished without a trace in the blink of an eye. At the same time the 10-second drug effect ended, Cameron’s eyes suddenly snapped open, and he sat straight up from the sickbed!

“Hah… hah…” He couldn’t stop gasping roughly. He looked at the few people before the sickbed, his gaze landing on Shen Zhuo’s expressionless face, then turned to himself in shock.

There was no trace of injury on his abdomen. Even the skin had completely grown back.

The X mark slowly faded from the back of his left hand. The brief evolution had come to an end.

“…What was that?” Cameron’s face was full of disbelief. Even such a scheming politician couldn’t help but reveal an expression of extreme shock: “Did I just evolve?!”

No one around him answered. Shen Zhuo stood with lowered eyes, his black leather-gloved hands folded coldly before him.

“That was the power of the HRG gene interferon?! The human ability-promoting pharmaceutical that the Security Council has made no progress on for so many years?!”

“…”

Cameron fell back heavily against the head of the bed, covering his eyes in exhaustion. After panting for a moment, those gray-green eyes of his looked at Shen Zhuo, as if having made some kind of resolution. He said hoarsely: “Listen to me. You must hand this genetic nuclear weapon over to the Security Council. With it, we can immediately create an invincible human army and thoroughly…”

Shen Zhuo’s face was like ice. He swung out a fist without mercy—

Boom!

The sickbed let out a loud crash. Cameron nearly flew off the bed, tumbling to the floor beneath it with a clatter. Four clear finger marks appeared on his left cheek. Before he could even start cursing, he had fainted.

Dead silence enveloped the entire room. All his subordinates were dumbstruck.

At that moment, the ICU door swung open with a whoosh. Antonio pushed his way in, looking like he was about to have a heart attack at any moment: “I have some very bad news to tell you…”

Then his gaze landed on Cameron’s unconscious face with blood streaming from his nose, and he instantly went silent, his mouth hanging open as he froze in place.

Shen Zhuo flexed his wrist and said calmly: “Nielsen is still alive?”

Antonio staggered forward, his knees going weak as he squatted down. He reached out with a trembling hand to check Cameron’s breathing.

Then he let out a massive sigh of relief and nearly collapsed onto the floor.

“…” The pitiful Antonio leaned against the wall, barely managing to stand up, and hoisted the unconscious Cameron back onto the sickbed. Although he very much wanted to, this was not the time to question Chief Supervisor Shen on why he had violently assaulted a high-ranking human official inside a hospital ward. After taking a deep breath, he twisted his expression and looked at Shen Zhuo:

“Some people look dead, but fortunately they are still alive. Some people are still alive, but I would rather they were dead.”

Everyone present: “?”

Antonio handed over his phone, indicating for Shen Zhuo to look for himself: “The surveillance footage just sent back from Fort St. Carter.”

That meteorite storage base at Fort St. Carter was the International Supervision General Administration’s’ newest high-firepower fortress. Several days ago, Shen Zhuo had gone to personally inspect it on Nielsen’s orders—though halfway through the inspection, Nielsen had tricked him onto the yacht Fenrir. Immediately after, Nielsen was arrested, the Round Table Bishop died, and the situation spiraled completely out of control up to the present.

The one thing worth being grateful for was that amid this chaos, at least the batch of meteorites escorted by the International General Administration had been successfully delivered to the base, smoothly sealed in high-pressure lead canisters a hundred meters underground. The entire base was protected by layers of firepower. In theory, not even a fly could get in.

—In theory.

Shen Zhuo took the phone. On the screen was a scene from the base’s control room:

Explosive black smoke filled the corridor. The bodies of two staff members lay on the ground, separated from their heads, a horrible sight to behold.

Several high-level Evolutionists were stepping over the corpses. The one at the forefront was dressed in black, his face pale, using an ID card taken from a staff member to swipe open the tungsten-alloy door weighing half a ton.

It was Rong Qi.

“He’s going for the evolutionary sources,” Antonio squeezed out with difficulty. “Nielsen has the design blueprints for the Fort St. Carter base, including all guard forces and secret passages.”

Shen Zhuo set down the phone and closed his eyes. Though not a trace showed on the surface, his jaw was clenched tight.

A moment later, he opened his eyes, his voice hoarse yet calm: “Something’s wrong.”

Antonio now had a strong stress response to any words like wrong, bad, or ominous: “What?”

“What Rong Qi fears most is a frontal encounter with Causality, so he has been doing his utmost to conceal his movements and doesn’t dare show his face in broad daylight. Fort St. Carter has anti-spatial-ability devices. Spatial tunnels can’t be used. If he wants to rob the evolutionary sources, he would have to force his way through level by level. How would he dare to waste so much time storming it like this?”

“Ah, well…” A local Supervisor timidly raised his hand, feeling particularly pressured to speak before all the Chief Supervisors: “Mr. Bai notified our Supervision Office last night… His flight was at eight this morning. He’s already in the air…”

The surrounding air grew so heavy it nearly solidified.

“Chief Supervisor Shen.” Antonio pressed one hand tightly against his chest to prevent himself from having a heart attack and passing out at any moment: “I know you feel sorry for your boyfriend, but if the evolutionary sources fall into Rong Qi’s hands, you know what will happen. How about this? I’ll pay for the charter flight. Let’s call the airline right now and have the plane turn around…”

Shen Zhuo glanced at him, his gaze cold and piercing.

“Staring at me won’t help, really.” Antonio felt deeply wronged and wished he could dig out his heart to show him: “Even Nielsen wasn’t a match for that Rong Qi. Me going there would be even more useless. At most, I could delay things for a few hours, and I can’t even guarantee my corpse would look presentable. Why must you force me to my death after three years of colleaguehood? You yourself know that what Rong Qi fears most in this world is Causality!”

The Supervisors didn’t dare make a sound. All eyes were on Shen Zhuo. Only after a long while did they hear him say coldly:

“Mr. Bai is not a registered member of the Shenhai City Supervision Office. I have no authority to order him to do anything. You call the airline yourselves.”

“?” Antonio was simply in awe that Shen Zhuo still had the mind to joke at a time like this: “Registered? Is that some kind of kink between you two?”

Shen Zhuo stared at him and enunciated each word: “Mr. Bai and I are not in that kind of…”

Knock knock knock.

“Hello, everyone. Were you talking about me?”

Everyone turned to look simultaneously.

At the doorway of the ICU, Bai Sheng smiled, leaning one elbow against the doorframe and the other hand in his pocket. His tall, lean frame plus that tuft of sticking-up white hair nearly brushed the top of the doorframe. Behind him was Chu Yan in a sky-blue dress, fair and quiet, and Yang Xiaodao loaded down with bags and dragging three suitcases.

Everyone: “………………”

“The flight was delayed. I heard the broadcast at the airport about the international prison being attacked, so I came back to check.” Bai Sheng paused, looked at Shen Zhuo, and suddenly broke into a brilliantly handsome smile:

“My dear Chief Supervisor Shen, is there anything you need my help with? Anything at all.”

The entire room fell into dead silence.

It was as if Mrs. Halpa’s earnest voice once again rang out in midair:

“—As long as you silently recite his name in your heart, no matter how inconceivable the circumstances, he will definitely appear before you. This person is the destined partner of your life!”

“…” Antonio turned to look at Shen Zhuo, his face a picture of speechless shock. He said slowly: “The two of you must live happily ever after for a hundred years. If it’s even one day less, I will never believe in true love in this world again. Is that understood?”

Shen Zhuo said softly: “Shut up, stand-in.”

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