Chapter 44
Chapter 44: The Cub’s Dad Can’t Catch the Cub’s Mom, So He’s Furious and Won’t Let Anyone Sleep
“0011,” Chong Ming ordered, “seal all command room doors.”
He didn’t hesitate for even a heartbeat. “Activate shipwide automatic search for abnormal energy fluctuations.”
Four heavy doors slammed shut almost at once, the sound dense and final.
Across the ship, every energy detector, thermal sensor, and ability recognition system activated, sweeping through the corridors in a relentless net.
Already outside the command room, Jiang Tea Tea heard the booming slam of doors. She paused and glanced back at the sealed entrance, then clicked her tongue.
If she had more than twenty percent of her magic power left, she wouldn’t be this weak. She could flip the whole ship and send everyone aboard—including that glittering golden loach—plummeting out of the sky to eat dirt.
But she didn’t. So she needed to get off the ship first, reach the Primeval Forest, and recover by absorbing earth fertilizer.
Under invisibility, Jiang Tea Tea drifted like a headless fly, listening. Wherever there were more voices, she followed.
Within minutes, the command room power returned. Projection screens flickered back to life and refreshed rapidly.
Cai Xi Chao paced around Chong Ming with her lightbrain display hovering beside her, eyes locked on the data.
“Commander-in-Chief,” she said, “that unknown energy—matching what appeared around Jiang Tea Tea during the python slaughter—fluctuates strongest near you.”
Chong Ming’s expression tightened. “You mean it’s within arm’s reach?”
Cai Xi Chao nodded, then shook her head. “Just now, yes. Now it’s weaker. Please look.”
The curve on her display had dropped from one hundred to fifty percent—and kept falling.
That meant whoever used the unknown energy had been close to him, using it to trigger blackouts in the Medical Department and the command room. Now that it had been detected, it was pulling the energy back, the curve steadily sinking.
It could manipulate energy. It could turn invisible. The system couldn’t see it. Human eyes couldn’t see it. Only the fluctuations gave it away.
Chong Ming said, “Minister Cai. Connect Jiang Tea Tea’s latest feed and project it.”
“Yes, Commander-in-Chief!”
Cai Xi Chao pulled up another screen and typed rapidly.
Chong Ming’s gaze swept the command room.
Nearly two hundred staff. All at their stations. No one looked unusual.
The only thing in the room that didn’t belong to work was the bucket on the table beside him—containing a palm-sized “sapling.”
“Commander-in-Chief,” Cai Xi Chao said, “Jiang Tea Tea is sleeping.”
The satellite feed zoomed in. Transparency tech peeled away tent fabric and shadow, and Jiang Tea Tea appeared on the massive screen: slumped near the tent entrance, covered with Cheng Lin Yue’s jacket, arms crossed, snake blood dried on her face, eyes shut—sleeping deeply.
Cai Xi Chao added, “I checked the satellite replay. After the squad set up camp, Jiang Tea Tea lay down and hasn’t moved.”
“She’s been asleep for two hours and ten minutes. Given her activity level, even eight hours might not be enough to recover.”
Chong Ming’s voice stayed calm. “The command room energy curve has dropped to ten percent.”
“That implies the user has left.”
Cai Xi Chao hesitated. “It may be here or not. It can control the energy freely. Wait—”
She dragged her energy detection screen closer to the bucket.
The curve jumped.
Cai Xi Chao stared, stunned, and looked up at Chong Ming. “Commander-in-Chief…”
Chong Ming had already moved. A fireball formed and expanded, enclosing the entire bucket in a glowing barrier.
“Adjutant Ai,” he snapped, “scissors.”
Adjutant Ai pulled a pair of scissors from his storage button and handed them over without hesitation.
Chong Ming clipped the top of the “sapling” inside the fire barrier.
In an instant, the “tree” became a worm—its head severed, black viscous fluid oozing as the body writhed.
Cai Xi Chao and Adjutant Ai had fought the insect clan and other species. They’d seen blood and corpses more times than they could count—
—but neither had ever seen a sapling turn into a living worm.
Adjutant Ai blurted, “Commander-in-Chief… what kind of high-tech is this? Turning a tree into a worm?”
Chong Ming prodded the dying worm with the scissors, a flicker of shock passing through his eyes. “This might not be high-tech. It might be beyond our understanding…”
Beep-beep-beep.
The 0011 AI system cut in with a sharp alarm: “Commander-in-Chief Chong Ming. Unknown energy fluctuations detected in the ship’s left wing, Power Maintenance Department. Please proceed immediately.”
Chong Ming rose in one swift motion and tossed the scissors onto the table.
“0011,” he said, “connect audio directly to me. Don’t alert it.”
“Seal all hatches in the maintenance department. Continue observing.”
“Yes, Commander-in-Chief.”
Chong Ming strode out. “Adjutant Ai—notify all personnel in Power Maintenance. Combat readiness.”
“Minister Cai, with me. We’re capturing it.”
“Yes, Commander-in-Chief,” Cai Xi Chao and Adjutant Ai answered together.
—
Jiang Tea Tea listened a moment longer, then realized the wall beside her was actually a window. Outside: stars, moon, black sky.
Break the window.
Drop into the Primeval Forest.
Eat until full.
She clenched her fist, coated it in magic power, and punched the glass.
Crack.
A thin fracture appeared.
The maintenance staff froze, staring at the window. Super warship glass—glass that artillery couldn’t shatter—was cracking right in front of them.
Then the maintenance department doors slammed shut.
The staff stared at the sealed doors, then back at the window, minds slow to catch up—until their invisibility earpieces barked Adjutant Ai’s order for combat readiness.
They grabbed weapons.
The fracture spread into a spiderweb.
Then, with a booming crash, the window shattered. Glass sprayed outward as night wind roared into the ship. Alarms screamed. The engineering repair team received an emergency patch command from 0011.
By the time Chong Ming arrived, Cai Xi Chao’s energy curve had already flattened into a calm, silent line.
“It’s gone,” Cai Xi Chao said. “Commander-in-Chief—whatever it was, it smashed the glass and escaped!”
Chong Ming stepped to the ruined window. Engineers had already deployed an emergency panel, blocking the opening and cutting off the wind.
His eyes lifted to the surveillance equipment, cold and sharp.
That unknown-energy creature had provoked him—right under his nose.
“0011,” he ordered, “notify all department heads. Full self-inspection.”
“Yes, Commander-in-Chief. Self-inspection requests have been sent.”
Chong Ming pressed a hand to his earpiece. “Adjutant Ai—notify the Director of the Ability Institute, Li Ao. Have him come from Capital Planet at top speed.”
“Yes, Commander-in-Chief!”
—
Jiang Tea Tea relaxed and let herself fall from over two thousand meters.
Stars glittered above. Moonlight was clean and bright. Trace elements in the air streamed into her body, nourishing her.
She deliberately drifted for about ten minutes before dropping into the primeval jungle.
She landed as a tree, released invisibility, stretched her trunk, and grew into a lush tea tree, roots drinking greedily from the rich earth.
—
Back in the command room, the worm in the bucket was dead. Its fluid had drained, leaving a deflated, foul-smelling corpse in damp soil.
Adjutant Ai and the others stood in rigid silence, barely breathing.
Chong Ming sat down in the command chair. Screens filled his vision.
His voice carried to the thirty Legion Commanders.
“Legion Commanders. Field training is survival training. It doesn’t end at night. You train cadets so they learn what a body’s limit looks like.”
“In a primeval tropical jungle, there are mutated snakes, insects, and aberrant beasts—and there is also your instructor group chasing them.”
“Especially Legion Commander Ye. Out of seventy thousand cadets, only one outstanding squad of eight appeared. How could you bear to let them sleep? Chase them. See where their limits are.”