Chapter 53
Chapter 53: Her Meat Is So Delicious—I’m Going to Eat Her
Jiang Tea Tea snapped her head up toward the sky.
Snow poured down in thick curtains. Fog and whiteout swallowed the world. There wasn’t a single ship in sight.
How was she supposed to notify that Big Loach?
Jiang Tea Tea had never believed in praying to others. She believed in herself.
She hated seawater—salty and bitter—but with her magic power, going down wasn’t a problem.
She looked at Zhang Ting Zhou sharply. “Find a way to notify an instructor team. Let them notify Chong Ming. I’m going down first.”
Huang Da Zhuang grabbed her arm in panic. “Sister Tea! You’re a pure human with no ability. The sea is deep and unpredictable. If you go down, you won’t be rescuing Sui Xuan Chu—you’ll be dying!”
Cheng Xiao Ting stepped in too, tense and fierce. “Exactly. If anyone goes down, it should be me. Why would you go down?”
“I’ll go with you,” Yan Yu said immediately. “Cheng Xiao Ting—”
“Enough.” Jiang Tea Tea cut him off, shoving Huang Da Zhuang’s hand away. “One of you is canine. One of you is feline. You’re born afraid of water. Even if beastfolk can overcome that, you still can’t breathe underwater for long.”
“Don’t waste time worrying about me. Go find an instructor team. Or stand here and shout Chong Ming, Commander-in-Chief, at the sky.”
Back in the Primeval Forest, when they hunted instructor teams, that Big Loach had watched them in real time. Now, when it mattered most, he was nowhere to be seen.
Unreliable.
“But Sister Tea, it’s really dangerous—” Huang Da Zhuang started again.
He didn’t get to finish.
Jiang Tea Tea jumped into the sea hole with a splash. Freezing seawater sprayed up and soaked them.
Cheng Xiao Ting and the others surged to the hole. The seawater churned—but Jiang Tea Tea was already gone.
Huang Da Zhuang wiped seawater off his face, straightened like his spine had turned to steel, and shouted at the snowy sky until his throat burned.
“Chong Ming, Commander-in-Chief! Something’s wrong! The insect clan is under the sea!”
“Commander-in-Chief—help! Help!”
Yan Yu and the others joined in, shouting until their voices rose and fell in frantic waves.
After Cheng Lin Yue finished stopping Zhang Ting Zhou’s bleeding, she joined them too.
Adjutant AI had just returned to the command room when the live feed caught their shouting. He turned on audio, listened, and his face tightened.
He opened a channel immediately. “Members of the Wipe Out the Other Twenty-Nine Military Academies Squad—confirm your report. If you lie, you will face military court.”
Huang Da Zhuang and the others hadn’t expected their yelling to actually reach the overall command ship. Their eyes turned to Zhang Ting Zhou.
Zhang Ting Zhou raised his bloody face, forcing the words out. “Confirmed. I’m octopus clan. An hour ago, I went down to catch seafood with my teammate, Sui Xuan Chu—a dragon clan male. In less than ten minutes, we ran into the insect clan.”
“They charged us the moment they saw us. There were too many. We fought for several minutes, but we couldn’t beat them.”
“My teammate protected me. He told me to leave and drew them away. They cut off my tentacles. I barely made it back up.”
“After I came up, my other teammate—Jiang Tea Tea, a pure human—went down to find him.”
“Commander-in-Chief needs to send people down now. If we’re late, they could die.”
Adjutant AI didn’t waste a second. “Understood. I will notify the Commander-in-Chief immediately.”
“Hurry!” Zhang Ting Zhou begged. “Hurry!”
Adjutant AI was already sprinting out of the command room.
On the training ground, Chong Ming was drilling the thirty Legion Commanders. None of them could match him. They were being beaten into swollen faces and bruised bodies.
Adjutant AI arrived and shouted, “Commander-in-Chief! Emergency! The insect clan is active in the far-north sea beneath the ice. They’re hunting Sui Xuan Chu—Classmate!”
Chong Ming kicked Ye Ying away mid-attack and appeared in front of Adjutant AI in an instant.
“When?”
Adjutant AI was panting. “One hour ago. Sui Xuan Chu and his squad member went down to catch seafood and encountered them.”
“Sui Xuan Chu drew the insect clan away to protect his teammate. Jiang Tea Tea went down to find him ten minutes ago!”
Chong Ming’s voice cut like steel. “Scan the sea beneath the far-north ice. Blast a hole through the ice every one hundred kilometers.”
“Deploy the Waterwave Battalion and the Northwind Battalion. Capture the insect clan alive. Ensure Sui Xuan Chu and Jiang Tea Tea remain safe.”
“Connect full-coverage scanning of everything beneath the ice. Inform Minister Cai: in five minutes, I want live footage of Sui Xuan Chu and Jiang Tea Tea on my screen.”
Adjutant AI snapped a salute. “Yes, Commander-in-Chief. Orders received. The Waterwave Battalion and the Northwind Battalion will move within one minute.”
On the command flagship, the order went out. Within a minute, 1,100 personnel deployed.
Thick ice cracked open under controlled bombardment, creating a massive breach. The battalions dropped straight through into the sea.
As Chong Ming turned to leave the training ground, voices rose behind him—thirty Legion Commanders calling out at once.
“Commander-in-Chief! Sui Xuan Chu and Jiang Tea Tea are students under First Legion’s training! First Legion requests permission to enter the sea and rescue them, and capture the insect clan alive!”
“Commander-in-Chief! As the leadership of the instructor teams, we have the duty to protect every student. Please grant permission for us to enter the sea and rescue them!”
“We will sign a military pledge. If we can’t destroy the insect clan, if we can’t capture them all, we will not return!”
Chong Ming turned back, gaze sharp enough to carve bone.
“Thirty Legion Commanders,” he said quietly, “twelve of you were taken out by first-year cadets in eleven days.”
He tilted his head, voice merciless. “Are you sure you’re going to rescue them… and not have them turn around and rescue you?”
The thirty Legion Commanders went dead silent.
Chong Ming’s golden eyes swept over them. “Jiang Tea Tea was right. If you’re bad, train more. Stop trying to hide behind excuses to cover up your incompetence.”
Regret hit them so hard their guts twisted. They wished they could rewind one minute and slap their own mouths shut.
As soon as Chong Ming disappeared from view, the Legion Commanders started snapping at each other like school chicks pecking for crumbs.
“Ye! What were you thinking, volunteering? You got all of us scolded!”
“You got scolded and I didn’t?” Ye Ying snapped. “Admit you’re bad. In Round Two and Round Three, we take down Jiang Tea Tea first. That girl is pure trickery.”
“That’s true,” another commander muttered grimly. “Jiang Tea Tea is their core. Their main fighter. Sui Xuan Chu and the rest are support.”
“In Round Two and Round Three, we kill the core first. Then the rest are just loose sand—easy to crush.”
A light cough cut through their plotting.
Adjutant AI stood there, expression flat.
Cold sweat broke across the Legion Commanders’ backs. Had he heard everything?
Adjutant AI didn’t react. He simply delivered the order. “Commander-in-Chief instructs you to return to your respective command ships. Check the students and instructor personnel under your charge.”
“Also perform internal sweeps in your assigned training zones. If insect clan presence is detected, clear it. If you can’t, you bear full responsibility.”
“Yes,” the Legion Commanders answered, all dignity long dead.
They stumbled away from the command flagship, faces swollen, bodies battered.
Chong Ming returned to the command room. The projection wall showed full-coverage footage of the far-north sea.
The Waterwave Battalion and Northwind Battalion were visible.
Jiang Tea Tea, Sui Xuan Chu, and the insect clan were not.
Chong Ming’s voice went colder. “Minister Cai. Still no location?”
Cai Xi Chao’s fingers blurred over a virtual keyboard. “Commander-in-Chief, the insect clan came prepared. Their signal jammer is… advanced. I can’t crack it yet, which means I can’t lock onto Jiang Tea Tea and Sui Xuan Chu’s locations.”
Chong Ming raised the lightbrain on his wrist and initiated a chip-signal search for Sui Xuan Chu.
Result: zero. No signal.
His brows tightened slightly. “Continue searching.”
He turned toward the exit. “I’m going down.”
Cai Xi Chao’s heart lurched. “Commander-in-Chief… you’re going down personally?”
“Yes,” Chong Ming said. “Before I return, have Security Minister Yan Lan Shen come to see me.”
“Yes, Commander-in-Chief.”
Chong Ming left the command room. The lower bay opened—and he plunged straight into the sea, shifting into a golden dragon as he fell.
Deep below the ice, Jiang Tea Tea cut through the water with a snarl of irritation.
She hated seawater. It was salty, bitter, soaking into her and corroding her, sharpening her temper. She held her breath as she sank.
Mutant gray sharks drifted past—each one the size of a hill.
Jiang Tea Tea’s hands shifted into whipping branches. With a sharp snap, the branches pierced the sharks like arrows.
In moments, the sharks became fertilizer, feeding her body. Her senses sharpened. Her magic power stretched outward—and finally, she caught Sui Xuan Chu’s presence.
Far.
Too far.
If she tried to swim there alone, she’d die on the way.
Jiang Tea Tea hunted down a mutant killer whale. She looped her tea branches around its dorsal fin and drove it like a mount, forcing it toward Sui Xuan Chu’s position.
Half an hour later, the killer whale carried her into the dark depths.
And there he was.
Dragon-form Sui Xuan Chu, blood everywhere, scales torn and scattered, thrashing in a massive net cast by the insect clan.
Jiang Tea Tea drove the killer whale forward—
Only for ten enormous sea spiders to burst from all directions and surround her.
A voice rang out, greedy and delighted. It came from a submersible hovering behind the net.
“Well, well. Came to catch a dragon, and I get a pure human little girl too.”
“I love pure human little girls. Tender meat. Fresh taste. Rich blood.” The voice grew hungrier. “Take her. Don’t break her skin. I want to eat her whole.”