Chapter 101
Chapter 101: You Want To Dissect Jiang Tea Tea? Fine, Go Tie Her Up
Chong Ming folded Xia Wei Yi’s examination report and held it in his hand. A flash of gold crossed his eyes as he said in a low, serious voice: “Minister Lu, put away your happiness.”
Minister Lu’s body stiffened. The joy on his face vanished at once. He took a step back and stood there with deep respect: “Yes, Commander in Chief.”
Chong Ming’s gaze fell on him: “Minister Lu, from the way you were just overjoyed and excited, how exactly were you planning for me to treat schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea?”
Under Chong Ming’s stare, Minister Lu could not lift his head. His words stuck in his throat: “Commander in Chief, I did not…”
Chong Ming’s voice sank as he cut him off: “Minister Lu, I do not like roundabout lies.”
Minister Lu’s scalp tingled. He steeled himself and answered: “Reporting to the Commander in Chief, schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea has awakened a plant-type spiritual power variant strain. Her supernatural ability level is no less than 5S, and may even reach 10S.”
“Someone like her does not exist in Zhenlin, the Empire. Even if we look across all of interstellar space, she would still be unique. I was thinking we could work with the director of the Supernatural Abilities Institute to carry out a planned study on her.”
“Her variant supernatural abilities are too special. If we can find the rules behind this variant from her and artificially cultivate this kind of variant strain, then we could benefit all supernatural ability users in the Empire.”
“Every year, every day, every moment, the Empire’s supernatural ability users suffer from the pain of ability riots and spiritual power collapse. If we could solve that, it would be very good.”
Chong Ming’s voice dropped even lower: “So in your opinion, we should not let her get off this warship at all. We should send her straight to the Supernatural Abilities Research Institute and onto a dissection table?”
Minister Lu did not dare lift his head: “Commander in Chief, the Empire has a population of hundreds of billions. High-level plant-type healers are far, far, far too few.”
“If we sacrifice her alone to benefit the hundreds of billions of beastmen in the Empire, her name would go down in history, and you would also be praised by all.”
A sharp light flashed through Chong Ming’s golden eyes, cold as ice smashing into Minister Lu: “What a fine ‘sacrifice one person.’ I did not know that my most trusted subordinates, in order for me to be praised by the world, could decide someone’s life and death so easily. You would ignore her will and send her to a dissection table.”
“Minister Lu, you have really disappointed me.”
Minister Lu’s whole body tightened. A chill rushed up from the soles of his feet: “Commander in Chief, I…”
Chong Ming stepped toward him. The powerful pressure forced Minister Lu to retreat, trembling: “Minister Lu, schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea did not just awaken plant-type supernatural abilities. She also awakened teleportation abilities and high-speed abilities. She does not even need equipment to breathe freely underwater.”
“She is the candidate I have chosen and value most to become the Commander in Chief of the Three Armies. And you are telling me you want to drag her into the Supernatural Abilities Institute, put her on a dissection table, and crack the code of her variant abilities to help others?”
“How about this instead: I will lie down and let you study me. You can try to figure out why I have four types of supernatural abilities. Once you fully understand me, you can artificially interfere and train others so that they, too, can awaken four types of abilities. How about that?”
Minister Lu wished he could lower his head all the way to the floor: “I am sorry, Commander in Chief. It is my fault. I have never seen anyone like her before. I got so excited that I turned stupid.”
Ever since the director of the Supernatural Abilities Institute, Li Ao, had been summoned away by the Commander in Chief, he had been sending messages every day, asking about Jiang Tea Tea.
Under his influence, after examining Deputy General Xia’s body, Minister Lu had a sudden brain cramp and felt that Li Ao’s words made sense. Someone like Jiang Tea Tea, who had such rare variant abilities, should be properly studied so that more people could be like her and benefit more people.
Everything for the nation. Everything for the Commander in Chief. Everything for the people. Sacrificing one person was nothing.
It was as if Chong Ming had seen right through him: “Minister Lu, you fought your way through thousands of troops to become the head of the Healing Department on my warship.”
“I always thought you were someone with a firm will who kept his original intentions. That is also how you always behaved, as someone with a firm will.”
“But now, you seem to have been bewitched. When you see a treasure, instead of wanting that treasure to shine in the place where it belongs, you put up the banner of ‘for her own good, for the nation’s good, for my good’ and think about taking her for yourselves, cutting her open to see what she is made of, then looking for a substitute.”
“Minister Lu, go back to the Healing Department and hand over your duties. Once the warship arrives at the Capital Planet, you will go to Posei Star in the Tenth Star System. Think carefully about where you lost your healer’s original intention.”
Minister Lu trembled and his voice shook: “Yes, Commander in Chief.”
Anyone who could stay at the Commander in Chief’s side had fought their way through many battles, passed countless tests, and had their family history checked back five generations. They could not have any stains on their record.
Out of countless people, he was one of the few chosen. He earned the Commander in Chief’s deep trust and became his most capable Healing Department minister.
What he had said, done, and thought today was not what a qualified healer should say, do, or think.
He had been bewitched by Li Ao and had forgotten his first intention. Instead of firmly being a proper healer, he had started thinking about dragging someone with multi-type supernatural abilities into the Supernatural Abilities Institute to dissect and study.
Variant supernatural abilities were rare. People with multiple ability types were rare too. If the Supernatural Abilities Research Institute could really study something out of them, graft something, or artificially interfere with something, then Li Ao would not have come to the Commander in Chief pushing the idea of sending Jiang Tea Tea to the dissection table.
Chong Ming was halfway to the school cafeteria when he stopped and called out: “Deputy Officer Ai.”
Deputy Officer Ai took two quick steps to come up behind him: “I am here, Commander in Chief.”
Chong Ming looked at him and said: “Cut off all funding and project support for the Supernatural Abilities Research Institute. Tell Director Li to take a vacation. Also tell him that Minister Lu has already been transferred off my flagship, and he should behave himself.”
Deputy Officer Ai answered at once: “Yes, Commander in Chief.”
Chong Ming paused for a moment: “Notify the chief engineer in charge of mecha armor repairs on this ship to prepare all kinds of equipment for measuring body data. Have him come to the school cafeteria in half an hour.”
Deputy Officer Ai replied: “Yes, Commander in Chief.”
In the largest school cafeteria on the warship, several tables had been pushed together. Around thirty people sat in two rows, and various dishes were brought out one after another.
Jiang Tea Tea and Sui Xuan Chu, one who came often and one who had been here a couple of times, did not feel like the food on the table looked better or tasted better than what they had at the academy or in restaurants. But to everyone else, it was far more delicious.
Especially Huang Da Zhuang, this little dog beastman, who felt like he had stepped in a pile of dog-shit luck. He was so lucky to be able to eat with his idol, his heartthrob idol.
Huang Da Zhuang leaned sideways, eyes shining as he stared at Jiang Tea Tea, showing the full nature of a big yellow dog: “Sister Tea, Sister Tea, thank you for letting me get so close to my idol, my heartthrob idol, not just once but many times.”
Jiang Tea Tea slanted her eyes at him and teased: “Did you not say you did not stan him anymore, only me?”
“Ah,” Huang Da Zhuang let out a sound and scratched the back of his head with a silly grin. “I will keep stanning him for one more day. After we finish this meal, I will stop stanning him.”
Cheng Xiao Ting and Orange Sparrow, along with a few others, nodded in agreement: “Yes, yes, Sister Tea, we will stan him for one more day. After today, we will not stan him anymore.”
“We have to give the host some face when we are on someone else’s turf, or how will we survive in the army corps in the future?”
“That is right, that is right. We still have to do some surface work. But you are the one we love the most, Sister Tea. Heart-sign for you.”
“Yes, yes, yes. You are our god in our hearts. We love you the most, admire you the most, and like you the most. Mwah.”
“Hmph!” At the table, the only 4S-level white dragon beastman male sitting across from them gave a cold snort.
Cheng Xiao Ting and the others stopped talking at once and turned to look at him. Their tone grew mock-polite: “Senior, did you cough? Is your throat uncomfortable? Hurry and drink some water to moisten it. If that does not help, you should quickly go to the Healing Department for healing. Do not delay.”
“Yes, Senior,” another added. “On Commander in Chief Chong Ming’s warship, the Healing Department’s equipment and healers are the top-tier in the entire Empire. If you are not feeling well, you can go check after we finish eating and get a bit of healing.”
“We are all common citizens of the Empire and military academy students. You are second place. We are first place. Under the Commander in Chief’s supernatural abilities, spiritual power, and oppressive aura, it is normal if you feel unwell. Do not leave an illness untreated. Do not let it drag into something serious.”
Jiang Tea Tea looked at Cheng Lin Yue sitting on her other side and quietly asked: “What is going on? Why are you all talking with such a weird tone?”
Cheng Lin Yue leaned closer and explained: “The one with the sore throat is Bai Mu Yuan, a 4S-level white dragon beastman male from the imperial academies. He is in the combat department, fourth year. In either the second round or the first round, we killed a dragon from Squad 15. That dragon was from their Bai dragon clan.”
“Earlier, we were crushed by Commander in Chief Chong Ming’s supernatural abilities, spiritual power, and oppressive aura. We were suffocating and bleeding from our seven orifices. After the Healing Department took us away and treated us, they started to dislike us in all kinds of ways and kept throwing shade at us.”
“Especially Bai Mu Yuan. He said we were sinister and crafty liars who tricked others into slitting their own throats, so they could not get points and were eliminated.”
“Oh,” Jiang Tea Tea said, suddenly understanding. “So his clan members and schoolmates could not take losing, went to complain to him, and now he is here to stand up for them and avenge them.”
Bai Mu Yuan’s eyes were the same white color as his beast form. His gaze landed on Jiang Tea Tea. She was not afraid of Commander in Chief Chong Ming’s supernatural abilities, spiritual power, and oppressive aura, and she had awakened 3S-level plant-type supernatural abilities.
She was also the one who was first in personal points by a huge margin among the thirty military academies in the Supremacy Tournament. Such an outstanding female was worth him lowering himself to speak gently and kindly.
“Schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea,” Bai Mu Yuan said, “your teammates misunderstood me. My clan members and schoolmates are not sore losers. They just feel their deaths were unfair.”
“I am not here to cause trouble for you or your teammates. I only wanted to add them as contacts, so we could spar with each other in the future when we have time.”
“Your teammates misunderstood and thought I disliked them and wanted to cause trouble. Of course, the main thing is that I want to be friends with you. I want to add your contact.”
He stood up, tapped open his light-brain wrist terminal, and waited with full confidence for her to scan it and add him as a friend.
Jiang Tea Tea stayed seated and said: “Sorry, my light-brain wrist terminal is broken. I cannot add contacts.”
“Your light-brain wrist terminal is broken? What bad timing.” Bai Mu Yuan’s voice tightened, then he changed the subject: “Right, schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea, you awakened 3S-level plant-type spiritual power.”
“I am 4S-level. My other teammates are all 2S or 3S. Some of us have single-attribute supernatural abilities, some have dual abilities. All of us have ability riots and blocked Spiritual Seas. We never found a good healer to smooth them out for us.”
“You have 3S-level plant-type spiritual power. After we finish eating, we still have some time. Name your price. As long as you can calm our ability riots and smooth our Spiritual Seas, we will pay whatever you ask.”
Cheng Xiao Ting, Huang Da Zhuang and the others had already been unhappy with his attitude. Now, hearing him push his luck and try to use money to buy her, they were ready to fight back at once.
Jiang Tea Tea swept her gaze over them, stopping them, then smiled at Bai Mu Yuan: “You are asking me to heal you all. You will pay me whatever I ask?”
The Bai dragon clan was a big clan involved in many industries. Bai Mu Yuan was the most outstanding male beastman of the Bai dragon clan, and all the clan’s resources were focused on him.
When Jiang Tea Tea asked how much, he lifted his chin in confidence: “Yes. Whatever you ask, we will pay, as long as you can calm our ability riots and smooth our Spiritual Seas.”
Jiang Tea Tea gave him a sweet, tea-scented smile: “All right. You have thirteen people. Ten billion star credits per person, for a total of one hundred and thirty billion star credits. I will calm your ability riots and smooth your Spiritual Seas, and I guarantee each of your ability levels will go up by one.”
“You can figure out how you want to pay me. Oh, and you pay your own taxes. I only accept full cash up front. I do not take collateral, and I do not accept payment in installments.”