Chapter 246
Chapter 246: The Little Brat’s Dad Plays It Straight and Says He’ll Pursue the Little Brat’s Mom
“Got it, Chief Executive Commander.”
Kong Que got himself ready even faster than Zhong Li He. After he finished dressing neatly, he even helped Zhong Li He by handing him pants to pull on, a coat to put on, and shoes to slip into.
Once Zhong Li He was ready, he roughly raked a hand through his hair, lifted his foot, and strode out. With his Speed-type Ability, he moved very fast, as if he was afraid that if he went late, he would miss seeing Chong Ming.
Kong Que quickly followed. Just as the two of them left the room, someone came to report that the flying device sent over by Commander in Chief Chong Ming had arrived.
Without staying even one second, Zhong Li He took Kong Que straight onto the flying device.
Inside the flying device, Kong Que carried out all of Zhong Li He’s orders. At the same time, he confirmed that both the Border Stars region of the Western Kingdom and the Border Stars region of Zhenlin the Empire were currently safe, with no attacks or invasions.
After Kong Que finished his report, Zhong Li He felt a little more at ease. He asked: “Kong Que, why do you think Chong Ming called me to his Imperial Military Headquarters so late at night? What do you think happened?”
Kong Que answered respectfully, trying to comfort him: “Reporting to you, Chief Executive Commander, I really can’t guess. Please don’t worry too much. It probably won’t be anything too serious.”
Zhong Li He disagreed: “If it wasn’t something serious, how could he possibly call me in the middle of the night?”
“It must be that something happened, and it’s something big. Maybe it’s an Insectoid Race invasion we don’t know about yet, or a large-scale infection of a super living dead zombie virus. He probably couldn’t make up his mind and called me to ask my opinion.”
Kong Que thought for a moment: “Maybe…”
“What maybe, it’s definitely that.” The more Zhong Li He thought about it, the more certain he felt. He knew Chong Ming too well. If it wasn’t a big deal, there was no way he would call someone at this hour.
If Chong Ming was looking for him a little after three in the morning, it was either a sky-shaking matter or something big enough to pierce the universe. Zhong Li He had to think about how to comfort him and how to help him.
The flying device flew at full speed and reached Zhenlin the Empire’s Imperial Military Headquarters in less than half an hour.
The people who came to receive Zhong Li He and Kong Que led them straight to the Imperial Military Headquarters training ground.
In the huge training ground, there was only one person: Chong Ming, bare-chested, wearing combat pants, with his golden hair tied up high.
When Zhong Li He saw how he looked right now, he froze for a second, then quickly ran over to him. His sapphire blue eyes were full of worry as he said: “Chong Ming, what’s wrong with you? What happened?”
Chong Ming’s face showed no expression. He spoke coldly: “Nothing happened. I was just sleeping, and halfway through, my partner ran off, so I couldn’t sleep. I called you over to spar, vent a bit, and pass some time.”
Zhong Li He jumped up, his voice turning sharp: “That Chong guy, are you sick in the head? Your partner ran away, what does that have to do with me? And you made me come over?”
“Damn it, I thought something had really happened to you. I was worried about you the whole way here and imagined eighty-eight different ways you might die!”
“And now you’re telling me you just couldn’t sleep and called me over to spar so you could vent? If you can’t sleep, do you think I can sleep?!”
Chong Ming almost got a face full of his spit, but luckily he dodged just in time. He lifted the arm with the light-brain wrist terminal, tapped it open, and glanced at it: “I sent you a message saying I couldn’t sleep and asked you to come keep me company and spar. What did you think it said?”
Zhong Li He snapped, annoyed: “That Chong guy, don’t try to twist words with me. Your message only said to come to your Imperial Military Headquarters because you had something to discuss. You didn’t say a word about sparring.”
Chong Ming’s golden eyes blinked: “Oh, I sent it to Lieutenant General Kong Que. Maybe Lieutenant General Kong Que had his light-brain wrist terminal on silent while he was keeping you company in bed.”
Zhong Li He did not believe him at all. He turned his head to look at Kong Que: “Did he send you a message? Check your light-brain wrist terminal.”
The moment Commander in Chief Chong Ming mentioned his name, Kong Que had already opened his light-brain wrist terminal. When he saw the message, he lifted his head, his gaze meeting Zhong Li He’s with apology: “Sorry, Chief Executive Commander. Commander in Chief Chong Ming really did send me a message. My light-brain wrist terminal was on silent, so I didn’t see it.”
As soon as Kong Que said that, it was like Zhong Li He’s blazing anger was poured into a river. It wouldn’t burn, and instead just left him feeling stifled.
He swallowed his anger and opened his mouth to comfort Kong Que: “It’s not your fault. He split one message into two parts. That’s on him.”
“You go change into combat gear. The two of us will spar with him together. Even if we can’t beat him to death, we have to at least injure him.”
Kong Que paused: “Chief Executive Commander, if you and Commander in Chief Chong Ming fight and he injures you, I can take you to the healing room.”
“But all the official work you need to handle is with me. If the two of us get injured at the same time, it’ll be easy to miss messages like we did just now and delay government affairs.”
Zhong Li He thought about it and realized that was true, so he didn’t let Kong Que join in. He changed into combat gear himself, stepped onto the training ground, drew on his Fire Element Ability and his other supernatural abilities, and charged at Chong Ming.
Jiang Tea Tea used her Shrinking Ground to Inches Technique. In one burst of strength, she crossed thousands of kilometers and arrived above the mountain estate she had bought. She landed on the soft layer of fallen leaves and still couldn’t figure out why Chong Ming would seduce her or try to hook her.
It wasn’t until the little ones in her belly moved that her hand pressed against her stomach and felt them tumbling inside. She suddenly realized something. She remembered that the golden Dragon Clan had difficulty reproducing. Dragons with a supernatural ability level as high as his were basically unable to successfully reproduce and have younglings.
So he was doing it for the younglings. He wanted younglings. He wanted her to have more younglings with him so he could grow and strengthen the golden Dragon Clan. That was why he seduced her, why he tried to hook her and tie her to him, so she would willingly have more dragons with him.
[Yeah, that must be it. This scheming dragon, this black-hearted dragon, this old mud eel who plans eight steps ahead with every move, is definitely up to no good. There is no way I can let him get what he wants.]
Once Jiang Tea Tea figured it out, she transformed into a big Tea Tree. She rooted herself into the ground and grew thick, tall, and strong, with lush branches and leaves.
She not only absorbed Mother Earth’s nutrients, but also the Spiritual Energy and essence that filled the air, everything that would help her grow more branches, grow her body, and support her cultivation.
From a little after three in the morning, Zhong Li He kept sparring and fighting with Chong Ming until five o’clock, when the people at the Imperial Military Headquarters had to start their training. Only then did their sparring end.
Zhong Li He had put all his strength into beating him. In the end, he used his beast form, and with his sharp phoenix claws, he finally scratched a bloody mark across Chong Ming’s cold, steady face.
Even though Zhong Li He himself ended up limping, with a bruised face and feathers falling everywhere, he was still proud, pleased, and happy, letting out loud phoenix cries.
Listening to his phoenix cries, Kong Que bent over in the big training ground and picked up the feathers he had shed, one, two, three, four, and then countless more.
Chong Ming and Zhong Li He, one dragon and one phoenix, lay together in healing pods. They still didn’t idle away. While lying in the pods, they finalized the details of their cooperation.
After they came out of the healing pods, they signed the cooperation agreement. Early in the morning, both sides posted celebratory articles about the agreement on their official websites.
Because it was so early, aside from a few reports from mainstream media, other media outlets and most Star-Net Friends did not know about it yet.
Of course, the high-level leaders of other nations in other star systems and on other planets got the news right away. As for those who disliked the Western Kingdom and Zhenlin the Empire, they wished they could rip the two of them to shreds over this cooperation.
The Insectoid Race’s great imperial prince Aceras wanted to take advantage of Zhenlin the Empire’s super virus incident to fish in troubled waters and strike at them, but his empress mother never gave her approval.
Some who had promised to help him only strolled around outside Zhenlin the Empire’s Border Stars region when nothing was happening. They didn’t even dare step into the Border Stars region, much less open fire.
Even Crown Princess Heir Asais told him to lie low for a while. She warned him that their empress mother was in a bad mood lately and told him not to run straight into the muzzle of her gun.
Aceras was furious. He sent countless messages to Atuya, saying that the other bugs were bullying him and begging her to help.
But every message he sent showed as read, then sank like a stone into the sea. Atuya would read his messages and then simply not reply, completely ignoring him.
Aceras smashed up his own house in rage. After he finished smashing everything, his whole bug body felt drained of strength. He collapsed onto the floor, screaming helplessly.
Jiang Tea Tea stayed in the mountains until noon before changing back into human form. She hadn’t even had time to stretch when message alerts from her light-brain wrist terminal poured in like they were free.
When she opened them, she saw that they were all messages and pictures sent by Sui Xuan Chu and the other seven people in their small group chat.
“Sister Tea, where are you? Hurry and look. The super virus infected living dead zombies are getting more and more serious. If we don’t give them raw meat to eat, they bite and eat each other.”
“Sister Tea, we found fifteen infected persons on the quarantine ship. It took less than five hours from when they got sick to when we noticed them.”
“In just those five hours, the condition of their skin completely changed. They don’t look like beastmen or like normal people at all.”
“It’s too scary. They keep changing back and forth between beastman form and beast form. Bullets don’t work on them. Even when their heads are exposed and their limbs are still sound, they can still climb and grab people.”
“We have already moved and are not on the original quarantine ship anymore. Everyone is having their blood drawn and tested in batches.”
“Sister Tea, sob sob sob sob, I’m so scared…”
Jiang Tea Tea used voice input to reply: “Cheng Lin Yue is right. Don’t scare yourselves. You haven’t been infected. After another twenty-four hours of isolation, the danger can be cleared.”
Sui Xuan Chu, Huang Da Zhuang, and the others trusted Jiang Tea Tea unconditionally. As soon as they heard that she wanted to research protective pills, they started typing furiously: “Sister Tea, if you’re going to research protective pills, tell me what you need. I’ll call my parents and have them send it over to you.”
“Yeah, yeah, Sister Tea, whatever you need, my family still has some money. We can support you financially.”
“Sister Tea, my eldest brother has done pretty well. He has a lot of connections. If you need any equipment, I can talk to people. I’m sure I can get it for you.”
“Sister Tea, our Zhang Yu family has been on land for many years, but if you need raw materials from the sea, I can still think of ways to get them.”
Jiang Tea Tea replied to them: “No matter how wide your connections are, can they be wider than Commander in Chief Chong Ming’s? No matter how capable you are at finding raw materials, can you find more than he can?”
Huang Da Zhuang and the others immediately wilted: “Right, when there’s a problem, we should go to the Commander in Chief, go to the heartthrob idol. He’s the best, the most awesome.”
“Sister Tea, we are your most loyal flunkies. We’ll wait for you to save our dog lives and calm our pounding hearts!”
“Sister Tea, love you, mwah mwah…”
Jiang Tea Tea did not “mwah mwah” them back at all. She sat down cross-legged on the ground and started thinking hard, thinking as hard as she could. She tried to remember what herbs the Demon Clan’s richest and most show-offy fallen immortal medicine cultivators used to pick to make protective, all-poison-detox medicines.
The more she thought about it, the less she could remember the herbs. Instead, she remembered those living dead zombies she had met in a small Secret Realm.
Those living dead zombies were even tougher than the ones here, even more disgusting, and they also had… crystals.
The crystals in the living dead zombies’ heads. Back when she entered the small Secret Realm to hunt living dead zombies, it was for those crystals in their heads, so she could trade them with that fallen immortal medicine cultivator for cultivation Great Tonic Pills…
But then she thought: that wasn’t right either. The living dead zombies had crystals in their heads. Once you took the crystals, they lost their attack ability and were basically done for. But that didn’t mean the crystals could be used for protection or to detox all poisons.
She kept thinking, kept thinking. Jiang Tea Tea dug through her memories, flipping through all the memories she had from thousands of years.
She thought from day into night, and from night until morning. Her memories from thousands of years flashed through her mind one by one…
What she didn’t expect was that thinking like this actually worked. She remembered that her lover, her maternal grandmother, who roamed freely through the three realms and lived an easy, carefree life, unwilling to become immortal or a god, had once cooked up a batch of Hundred-Poison Detox Medicine.
There were thirteen detoxification ingredients in total, all extremely poisonous things that restrained each other. Jiang Tea Tea opened her light-brain wrist terminal and began searching the entire Star Net. She was able to find information on all of them.
But… most of them were contraband items. Buying and selling them was a crime. Serious cases meant exile, lighter cases meant facing huge fines.
To avoid breaking the law and getting exiled, Jiang Tea Tea piloted a flying device straight to the Imperial Military Headquarters and went to Chong Ming’s office.
Chong Ming sat in his office chair. His gaze moved away from the light-brain wrist terminal and landed on Jiang Tea Tea: “You left at three in the morning the night before yesterday and only came back now. Aren’t you going to explain that?”
Jiang Tea Tea pointed at the sky: “Didn’t you put several satellites up there to watch me? If you want to know where I go, isn’t it easy for you to find out? Do I really need to explain?”
Chong Ming replied: “I promised you I wouldn’t casually pull up the satellite surveillance system every day and watch you whenever I felt like it. Did you forget?”
Jiang Tea Tea gave a perfunctory “oh,” then opened the holo projection screen on her light-brain wrist terminal and pushed it right in front of Chong Ming’s face: “Take a look. I want these thirteen poisons, ten portions of each.”
Chong Ming’s golden eyes swept over the list: “Of the thirteen things you want, nine are contraband items, two are rare protected plants, and two are species that Zhenlin the Empire does not have but the Western Kingdom does. Can you tell me what you want them for?”
Jiang Tea Tea grinned, showing her white teeth: “If I tell you I’m going to use them to make a potion for your dear nephew to drink, would you believe me?”
Chong Ming’s gaze darkened: “I believe you.”
Jiang Tea Tea’s expression tightened: “If you believe me, then hurry up and get them.”
Right in front of her, Chong Ming gave the orders: “To gather everything, I’ll need five hours.”
Jiang Tea Tea nodded: “Okay, got it. I’m going to find Sui Xuan Chu, Huang Da Zhuang, and the others. See you.”
When Chong Ming saw her turn to leave, he called out to stop her: “Wait.”
Jiang Tea Tea stopped. She was just about to turn back and ask what he wanted when she suddenly found Chong Ming standing behind her like a ghost.
When she turned around, she was face to face with him. It scared her so much that she hurriedly stepped back to put some distance between them.
But he reached out and grabbed her wrist, stopping her from backing away and putting distance between them: “What are you running for?”
With her wrist held, Jiang Tea Tea felt uncomfortable all over: “I’m not running. I finished talking about what I needed, and I didn’t want to delay you handling your endless work.”
Chong Ming let out a low laugh: “And I should thank you for being so considerate?”
Jiang Tea Tea answered with a dry little laugh: “No need. You can just let go.”
Instead of letting go, Chong Ming tightened his grip: “Schoolmate Jiang Tea Tea, I have something I want to discuss with you. After we talk, I’ll let go.”
Jiang Tea Tea couldn’t break free from his hand: “Even if you let go, you can still talk to me. There’s no need to hold on to me.”
Chong Ming spoke very directly: “I’m afraid you’ll run away.”
Jiang Tea Tea answered on reflex, blurting out: “Am I that kind of person?”
Chong Ming nodded with complete seriousness: “You are exactly that kind of person.”
Jiang Tea Tea forced down a breath: “Fine. What is it? Say it.”
Chong Ming’s voice dropped, low and hoarse. He didn’t drag things out or beat around the bush. He threw a straight ball: “At three in the morning the night before yesterday, you already knew I was seducing you.”
“You then avoided me for two days. During those two days, I didn’t look for you either, but you should know I’ve been thinking about you.”
“So I’m informing you that starting today, I am officially pursuing you, and I am pursuing you with marriage as my goal.”