What?! I Became the Zombie Beauty in the Villain’s Arms – CH235-237

Chapter 235| Chapter 236| Chapter 237

Chapter 235: I Miss You

It was the first time Pei Xiqing had seen such a profound look on his face. She could truly feel that he had grown up immensely compared to the boy he used to be.

Before she could dwell on it, a towering figure clad in a black bathrobe materialized behind her.

Ling Lang straightened up instantly. “Brother.”

Duan Xiaolin gave a terse nod. “You’re here.”

“Yeah,” Ling Lang scratch his head, the fierce Major General suddenly looking like an awkward kid again. “I’ve been buried in deployments these past few days and haven’t had a single spare moment to come see you guys.”

“Come in and eat,” Duan Xiaolin said smoothly.

“Alright.”

The moment Ling Lang stepped past the threshold, Duan Xiaolin lowered his gaze, his dark green eyes fixing onto her. “Why are you just standing out here?”

Pei Xiqing immediately slid over and looped her arms around his. “Brother Duan.”

Duan Xiaolin patted her hand before turning back to his brother. “When is your division scheduled to deploy?”

“Oh, I completely forgot to mention it a few days ago,” Ling Lang replied, walking inside. The custom military uniforms had already been distributed to the vanguard, but he still hadn’t found the right window to hand the custom dagger over to Long Yan.

Duan Xiaolin reached out and pinched Pei Xiqing’s cheek, his tone completely unreadable, making it impossible to tell whether he was amused or irritated. “Remember to keep me updated next time.”

“Okay.”

Once dinner concluded, Ling Lang received an urgent notification from the high command. He had to clear the residence in a frantic hurry, without even having enough time to swallow a sip of water.

Yet, halfway down the paved walkway, he suddenly pivoted and marched back into the foyer. “This is for you, Brother.”

Pei Xiqing was currently sitting cross-legged on the plush carpet, lazily combing through Xiaobai’s thick white fur. Hearing his voice, she glanced up, her eyes widening as she spotted two pristine, glowing crystal cores resting in his palms.

Ling Lang looked at his brother. “I honestly harbor zero metrics regarding what you intend to use these for, but this is the entire extent of my private cache. If my scouts unearth more during the next deployment, I’ll ensure they’re sent straight to your office.”

Duan Xiaolin stared at the twin artifacts, his expression flat. “What exactly did Qiu Chao disclose to you?”

Ling Lang shrugged, trying to play it cool. “What could he possibly tell me?”

The Chief Judge lowered his eyes, his true emotions buried so deep they were entirely impossible to fathom. “It is infinitely better for your peace of mind if you remain oblivious.”

Ling Lang’s brow furrowed in frustration. “Brother, what raw variables are you systematically hiding from me?”

“Your intent is more than enough,” Duan Xiaolin murmured, his voice softening a fraction. “Thank you.”

“Why are you suddenly thanking me? If your division runs into a deficit, just dictate the orders and I’ll clear it.” Ling Lang lounged against the doorframe, suddenly reluctant to leave. “By the way, did anything notable manifest during your time out in the badlands? Is agriculture actually engaging? I’ve been tempted to try my hand at it.”

Duan Xiaolin cast a dry look at him. “Compared to the grueling training drills I put you through in your youth, I’ve found managing a field to be significantly more complex.”

“What?” Ling Lang scoffed, his unruly pride flaring. “I don’t believe a word of it.”

“The exact second the borders stabilize, I will explicitly assign you a plot so you can evaluate the metrics yourself.”

“It’s a deal, then!” Ling Lang’s eyes ignited with excitement. “When the time comes, you have to personally teach me how to till the bedrock and distribute the fertilizer. I want to see exactly what kind of structural difficulties a patch of dirt can harbor. There is no physical way it eclipses our garrison drills.”

Pei Xiqing pressed her lips together to stifle a sudden laugh. These two brothers truly hadn’t changed a single bit.

Ling Lang lingered for a few more minutes until his comms unit buzzed relentlessly, forcing him to finally sprint down the path.

The exact second the heavy front door clicked shut, the residence dissolved right back into an absolute, heavy silence. Pei Xiqing turned her head, her wide eyes eagerly tracking Duan Xiaolin’s silhouette.

Watching him methodically clear the dining table and stride into the kitchen to prepare a fresh batch of minced meat soup for their massive pup, she playfully nudged the dog’s head. “Go on, Xiaobai. Go check out what kind of premium culinary masterpiece your dad is engineering for you.”

Xiaobai eagerly bolted into the kitchen, only to be callously driven right back out by a sharp command a few seconds later.

Before she could even shift her position, Duan Xiaolin emerged from the kitchen holding the steaming bowl, the massive dog tracking his heels like an oversized shadow. The exact second the bowl touched the floorboards, before Pei Xiqing could even utter a word, the man lunged forward, effortlessly scooping her up from the carpet into his arms.

Pei Xiqing instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck. “What’s wrong?”

Without a word, he carried her straight into the bedroom, pressing her frame flush against the massive wardrobe flanking the entrance. The sliding doors were already parted, and the sheer force of his movement nearly trapped her within the dense racks of clothing. The heavy fabric pressing against her waist consisted entirely of her tactical suits and his tailored coats.

Ordinarily, their wardrobes were segregated into immaculate, separate grids. But under the sudden chaos of his embrace, their garments became completely, inextricably tangled together.

The order of the room was shattered, and her breathing instantly mirrored the disruption.

Perched on the edge of the shelf, Pei Xiqing stared down at the man looming impossibly close to her face. She took a ragged, shallow breath, whispering through the dark, “Are you… still harboring anger toward me?”

Duan Xiaolin didn’t offer a verbal response. Instead, his large hand clamped firmly around the back of her neck, tilting her face up to capture her lips in a bruising, consuming kiss.

Pei Xiqing felt a violent wave of heat radiate straight from his skin. His body temperature felt infinitely more scalding than the marine hot spring they had soaked in, sending a fierce, uncontrollable tremor through her entire system.

He kissed her with a ruthless intensity until her mind spun into a complete daze, stripping away her capacity to resist until she was reduced to breathlessly begging for air against his mouth. He had deliberately dismantled her composure, leaving her clothes disheveled, a few long strands of her hair hooking damply against the corner of her lips.

The sheer, solid mass of the man’s body pressed flush against her, stealing the oxygen from her lungs. She bit her lip, enduring the fierce, burning friction trailing down her neck as he marked her skin with his teeth.

Tilting her head slightly, her eyes collided with their reflection in the sweeping mirror across the room. She watched herself being thoroughly pinned down by the powerful, unyielding shadow of the man, leaving her with zero avenues of retreat. Even her fingers were entirely out of her control, locked tight within his grip. A sudden, intense flush of desire and vulnerability painted her cheeks crimson, and she tightly closed her eyes, entirely unable to bear the raw visual of her own undoing.

Beneath Duan Xiaolin’s polished, indifferent facade lay not only a lifetime of dark suppression and cold-blooded cruelty, but a flawless sense of rationality and self-control that had long since been entirely overwhelmed by absolute desire.

Pei Xiqing’s eyelashes fluttered frantically, yet the exact second she parted her lids, she accidentally plunged right back into the bottomless, possessive depths of his dark green eyes. Her heart hammered violently against her ribs, her thoughts scattering into a chaotic haze.

Her fingertips trembled against his broad shoulders, and her voice dropped into a soft, breathless whimper. “Brother Duan… I miss you so much.”

Duan Xiaolin tilted his head, his lips grazing her jawline as his voice dropped into a dark, rough drawl. “Is it a simple longing, or a consuming one?”

Pei Xiqing bit the tip of her tongue, desperately trying to anchor a shred of consciousness against the tide. “Simple… but also infinitely complex.”

The man finally relented, a low, growling chuckle vibrating against her chest as he shifted his weight, pulling her even deeper into his embrace. “Then let me evaluate the metrics myself. Let me see exactly how much you miss me.”

Early the following morning, the primary high-command conference hall was already packed to maximum density with military dignitaries. Virtually every commander’s face was painted a sickly, pale gray with anxiety, the room dissolving into a hostile, shouting match.

“Our operational timeline is collapsing! We are entirely out of administrative time!”

“Is the Chief Judge truly enforcing these extractions for the structural survival of the alliance? I suspect he is operating out of pure, unadulterated selfishness! He is simply lining his own pockets! He is—”

“Hold your tongue! Are you genuinely trying to get yourself liquidated by his enforcers? Did you not absorb a severe enough lesson during the previous tribunal?”

“The Commander-in-Chief anchors this room! Do you honestly believe Duan Xiaolin would dare execute an officer right in front of the throne?”

“Would he dare? Do not tell me you truly harbor the delusion that the Presiding Judge issues lethal ultimatums as a mere bluff?”

Fu Yan sat at the head of the mahogany table, utterly drained by the endless, frantic buzzing of his council. Finally losing his patience, he slammed his pen down, looking at them with unvarnished irritation. “Enough. You keep screaming and fracturing this room, but aren’t you simply putting on a theatrical display to force my office to deploy its enforcers against him? Xiaolin’s recent political maneuvering has admittedly been aggressive, always extracting more leverage than his office requires. Humph. If his terms truly offend your divisions so deeply, why don’t you deploy your own units to strip the cores back? There is zero utility in staging this pathetic tantrum to manipulate my hand.”

“Marshal! We are standing on the precipice of a total structural collapse!” a frontline general pressed frantically, leaning halfway across the table. “This parasitic strain is multiplying at an anomalous trajectory. Within a single quarter-cycle, several peripheral installations have suffered catastrophic breaches and detonated distress frequencies to our sector! If our primary garrison maintains this passivity, our own walls will be the next to fail!”

“Furthermore…” another commander added, his voice shaking. “Our naval patrols just audited the immediate maritime boundaries of this island. It has been less than two weeks, and our trawlers have already dragged multiple bloated parasite corpses out of the open ocean!”

“Marshal, this provides empirical data that the aquatic water ghouls have initiated a mass migration toward our coordinates. There is no baseline metric to predict when they will breach the shoreline, and once the perimeter is compromised, our defensive survival will be critically endangered…”

“My office is fully aware of the biological metrics,” Fu Yan interrupted, leaning back into his high back chair with a cold, detached expression.

The commanders exchanged frantic glances. “Then what exactly is the Commander-in-Chief’s strategic counter-measure?”

“I will personally initiate a secondary audience with the Chief Judge,” Fu Yan stated, his voice flat. “And his enforcers will execute the frontline containment.”

“And what about the distribution of the high-tier crystal cores…?”

Fu Yan’s sharp eyes locked onto the complaining official, his voice dropping into a razor-thin, dangerous sneer. “Do you desire to secure those crystal cores, or do you desire to keep your life?”

That single, chilling alternative instantly slammed the room shut. Every mouth clamped tight, a suffocating silence gripping the hall.

The moment the dignitaries filed out of the room, the doors clicking shut, the political mask entirely shattered from Fu Yan’s features. Left alone in the massive chamber, his expression twisted into a mask of pure, venomous rage as he stared down at the glowing blue crystal core resting on the polished mahogany wood.

With a violent snarl, he hoisted the heavy porcelain teacup from his desk and smashed it brutally against the concrete floor, the shards detonating into a thousand pieces as the dark liquid pooled across the room.

Chapter 236: Don’t Worry About Me Anymore

The floating capital appeared perfectly safe and serene on the surface, but the underlying metrics told a far more chilling story: a bloated parasite corpse had just been dragged from the surf for the eighth time since their arrival.

The moment one of those aquatic horrors was dredged onto the concrete, the containment protocol was unforgiving. It had to be immediately sealed inside a high-voltage cage, summarily executed, and carted straight to the central incinerator. The enforcers burned the remains down to absolute ash, scattering the microscopic debris to ensure total elimination. If a single logistics team grew negligent, the latent virus within the tissue would initialize a secondary mutation, reproducing wildly across the sector.

Pei Xiqing happened to be observing the latest recovery operation from a nearby teahouse, having finally accepted a formal invitation to share a table.

The gathering had been orchestrated by the wives of several high-ranking military officials. Ever since she had breached the perimeter of headquarters, these elite women had bombarded her residence with daily invitations. Initially, she had lacked the mental energy to navigate the capital’s high society, grounding herself indoors. It was only over the past two days that she had felt resilient enough to explore the outer tracks.

Unfortunately, the ladies’ scouts had spotted her relaxing along the coastal promenade a few days prior, catching her red-handed. Finding it socially impossible to decline their persistence a second time, she had reluctantly authorized a formal luncheon at the teahouse for the following afternoon.

She sat politely among the officials’ wives for an hour. From their vantage point inside the building’s elevated terrace, she could peer out across the dark surf. A cluster of tactical aircraft had established a tight perimeter along the reinforced shoreline, flanked by a division of heavily armed ability users overseeing a deep-sea salvage matrix.

“Goodness, what exactly are they dredging up down there?” one of the women murmured, fanning herself as she peered through the glass. “Look at the sheer density of the vanguard. They’ve completely locked down the coordinate; they aren’t permitting a single civilian vehicle to approach the barrier.”

“Indeed, my curiosity is thoroughly piqued as well!” another chimed in.

The eldest wife leaned in, her voice dropping into a dramatic whisper. “My husband explicitly briefed his department last night—aquatic water ghouls have breached the deep trenches surrounding the island. The units are dragging up gargantuan parasites, and the biological details are utterly nightmarish! They are entirely encrusted with weeping boils and malignant tumors. The medical staff warns that if a baseline human drifts within their proximity, the airborne spores can trigger an immediate infection! Ladies, we must maintain a strict distance. If any of our households become entangled with those wretched anomalies, the administrative fallout will be severe.”

“How utterly horrific,” a younger woman gasped, her eyes darting toward Pei Xiqing. “Mrs. Duan, you must exercise extreme caution as well.”

The senior wife offered a nod of agreement. “Isolate yourself from the coastal sectors entirely, Mrs. Duan.”

“Thank you for the counsel, ladies. I will ensure my movements remain within the secure tracks,” Pei Xiqing replied, her tone perfectly polite and diplomatic.

“But surely Mrs. Duan’s husband possesses the absolute blueprint of the crisis,” one of the women probed subtly, her eyes scanning Pei Xiqing’s face for a slip. “The Presiding Judge commands the entirety of Franlun’s intelligence web. Has he disclosed any recent metrics that have been withheld from our husbands’ departments?”

Pei Xiqing offered a faint, unreadable smile, taking a measured sip of her tea. “When we are behind closed doors, he and I rarely audit military logistics.”

“The rumors across the upper sectors claim the Chief Judge treats his wife with absolute, consuming devotion, and it appears the logs don’t lie,” the woman sighed, a mix of envy and admiration coloring her tone. “He refuses to let a single shred of the base’s misery infringe upon your peace of mind.”

Pei Xiqing simply maintained her quiet smile, offering no further data as she turned her gaze back out toward the dark water.

A familiar, imposing figure suddenly vaulted down from the lead command craft. Analyzing his sharp movements and broad silhouette, she immediately identified Major General Ling Lang. He moved through the crowded perimeter with an effortless authority, his tall frame instantly standing out from the baseline infantry. After advancing a few paces, he halted directly before the primary hydraulic winch.

A few minutes later, the massive salvage crane groaned under a sudden weight, slowly reeling in its heavy wire mesh. Multiple reinforced mechanical arms heaved an immense, dripping mass out of the black surf.

The entity trapped within the netting was a massive, shifting silhouette—resembling a drowned water ghoul hopelessly entangled in deep-sea foliage. But as the crane swung the payload closer, the optical reality became transparent: it was a colossal parasite variant wrapped in layers of rotted kelp.

Instantly, a foul, overpowering stench of biological decay bypassed the teahouse filters, drifting onto the balcony. The ladies immediately slammed their silk handkerchiefs over their faces, expressions of profound disgust twisting their features.

“Oh, heavens! How can a biological entity emit an odor that rancid?”

“We must evacuate this terrace immediately! Even with the elevation of this building, the sea breeze is funneling those toxic fumes straight into our space. What if the airborne vapor carries a secondary strain of the virus?”

“Yes, yes! Let’s clear the sector now…”

The senior wife turned back, gathering her coat. “Mrs. Duan, do you desire to join our convoy? Our transport can easily escort you back to the old district.”

Pei Xiqing rose from her chair, offering a graceful bow. “There is no need to disrupt your route, ladies. Please proceed ahead without me. Do not waste your administrative focus worrying about my transit.”

The officials’ wives filed down the staircase in a frantic hurry. Pei Xiqing tracked their exit at a leisurely pace, stepping out onto the lower promenade.

A dark, masked figure smoothly materialized from the shadow of the structural pillars. “Madam,” Shadow murmured, his hand resting instinctively near his sidearm. “Tactical data suggests it is highly unadvisable for you to approach the recovery zone.”

“I intend to maintain a safe perimeter, Shadow,” Pei Xiqing countered softly. “I merely wish to evaluate the biological progression from a distance.”

Descending to the street track, she selected a coordinate that was neither too close nor too distant from the action, leaning her weight against the reinforced metal guardrails to observe.

Ling Lang and his core enforcers had already equipped high-filtration hazard masks, methodically securing the parasite’s bloated carcass. The metallic, retch-inducing stench of the creature was exponentially more potent down here, but her senses had already been thoroughly conditioned to tolerate the frequency during her time navigating the black market waystation.

Once the body was successfully locked within the containment vault, Ling Lang yanked off his hazard mask. Sweeping his eyes over the perimeter, his gaze instantly locked onto her position. He hesitated for a brief second, then peeled off his stained field coat, stepped into an automated decontamination mist, and strode across the asphalt toward her.

“What are you doing down here?” he asked, his brow furrowed with protective irritation. “This sector is currently rated as a high-hazard zone.”

Pei Xiqing looked up into his sharp features. “It was a mere coincidence; I was attending a luncheon nearby. Still, it appears this type of salvage operation has become the daily baseline for the garrison.”

“Pretty much,” Ling Lang muttered, leaning his broad back against the guardrail beside her.

The island’s volatile biosphere rarely offered clear skies; the atmosphere was consistently choked by torrential downpours or violent, howling gales that could easily blind an unequipped scout. The wind caught his short white hair, sending the strands whipping across his eyes.

“The exact second a parasite variant interfaces with open seawater, its biological lifespan is sharply curtailed,” he noted, his voice flat. “But our laboratory teams are tracking an anomalous rate of genetic mutation. They are evolving at an exponential curve. It is mathematically inevitable that they will eventually adapt to survive within the open ocean, allowing them to launch a direct amphibious assault against our shores.”

Pei Xiqing let out a soft, heavy sigh, her eyes fixed on the black horizon.

“It’s an exceptional rarity to witness you looking dispirited,” Ling Lang murmured. He tilted his head, a faint, unruly smirk playing at the corners of his lips as he studied her face. “Don’t lose your composure over it. Even if the sky completely collapses over this capital, our divisions will hold the weight. If the parasite strain breaches the grid and initiates a mass infection… my unit will be the first to burn on the frontline. The virus will never be permitted to reach your perimeter.”

Pei Xiqing turned her head, her gaze dead serious. “You must ensure you don’t allow yourself to be infected, Ling Lang.”

“Don’t waste your energy worrying about my metrics anymore,” he muttered beneath his breath.

The statement was so quiet, so thoroughly drained of his usual bravado, that it was nearly entirely swallowed by the roaring sea breeze. Ling Lang sharply turned away, facing the crashing waves, but his leather-gloved hand subconsciously tightened into an iron grip around the custom military saber resting at his waist.

Before Pei Xiqing could process his words, a piercing, blood-curdling shriek violently tore through the commercial avenue behind them.

Ling Lang’s battlefield instincts triggered instantly; he spun on his heel, his hand drawing his blade halfway from its sheath. Pei Xiqing pivoted alongside him, her eyes locking onto the source of the chaos.

Further down the street, the luxury transport carrying the officials’ wives had ground to a sudden halt. Inside the armored cabin, the elite women were slamming their palms against the reinforced glass, screaming in a state of absolute, wild panic.

The catalyst for their terror was erupting from the iron storm-drainage grates lining both sides of the street. Those massive subterranean channels cut straight through the island’s foundation, linking the sewers directly to the open ocean underneath—and multiple unknown biological entities were currently crawling out of the dark slots.

“Clear the tracks! Evacuate the sector!” Ling Lang roared.

Aside from the frantic wives trapped in the vehicle, the regular civilian workers walking the pavement moved with a sickening, mechanical slow motion, staring blankly at the emerging horrors with entirely vacant expressions. It was only when Ling Lang’s booming voice reverberated through the corridor that their pre-coded conditioning seemed to register the immediate trauma. Like an automated neural network awakening to a system error, the crowds suddenly fractured, fleeing in chaotic directions.

Ling Lang surged down the asphalt like a thunderbolt, his custom saber flashing from its scabbard in a flawless silver arc. With a single, explosive strike, he completely cleaved through the first wave of creatures spilling onto the concrete.

A few mutated stragglers managed to bypass his immediate line, their greasy limbs scrambling toward a fleeing administrative clerk. Ling Lang didn’t break stride; he simply extended his left hand, his dual genetic ability violently grasping the air to freeze the creature’s trajectory mid-stride.

His brow furrowed into a deep, disgusted knot as he dragged the entity closer.

The biological architecture of the specimen was horrifying. It possessed the approximate mass of a swaddled infant, but its entire skin matrix was a pitch-black, rancid hue. Its facial features were twisted into an exceptionally grotesque cluster, and its flesh felt slick, greasy, and unnaturally smooth—indistinguishable from the toxic skin of a toad.

He granted the specimen a single, clinical look before callously hurling it into a reinforced containment cage. “Liquidate every single anomaly currently tracking through these streets!” he commanded the arriving enforcers.

The exact millisecond the breach materialized, Shadow had already moved, systematically executing a rogue variant that had drifted within arm’s reach of Pei Xiqing.

Pei Xiqing stepped forward, her eyes scanning the twitching black remains sizzling on the concrete. “Is this… a parasite’s reproductive hatchling?”

Ling Lang wiped the dark fluid from his blade, stepping back to her side. “The structural morphology aligns with that assessment, but it requires an immediate laboratory audit from the research division.”

The exact second the words left his lips, the screech of tires echoed down the avenue as Qiu Chao’s field vehicle slammed to a halt. Long Yan vaulted from the passenger side a heartbeat later.

Both division heads were fully equipped in high-threat combat gear. They immediately dropped into a squat, methodically examining the dead specimen on the asphalt before using automated prods to secure the live variant Ling Lang had caged.

Qiu Chao’s brow remained locked in a tight, grim line. “Seal the perimeter and transfer the live sample to Sublevel Four immediately,” he directed the cleanup crew.

He ripped off his contaminated field gloves, hurling them into a hazard bin before deploying a brief flare of his genetic ability to incinerate the residual film on his skin. He and Long Yan then marched directly toward Ling Lang’s position.

Qiu Chao spat aggressively onto the concrete, his expression twisting in absolute revulsion. “What a thoroughly vile species.”

Ling Lang met his gaze. “What are the laboratory metrics on the strain?”

“The progenitor variants are deliberately utilizing the deep-sea thermal vents as a global breeding nursery,” Qiu Chao explained, his voice tight with dark fury. “Now that their numbers have reached a critical mass, they are migrating up our drainage networks to breach the interior. Next time, they won’t bother crawling out of the plumbing—they’ll launch a direct amphibious blockade to choke out our shores. These beasts are an absolute plague, mass-producing eggs across every nautical mile of the ocean. Within a single cycle, there won’t be a drop of clean water left surrounding this capital; the entire ocean will be converted into a stagnant river of green, parasitic slime.”

He suddenly snapped his fingers, a twisted, feverish glint of dark excitement dancing behind his visor. “Though, watching the final structural failure of this island should yield a spectacular visual. If a soldier accidentally slips off the retaining wall into the surf next month, he’ll be completely dragged under and drowned by a swarm of those deformed, toad-skinned dolls within a matter of minutes.”

The raw, descriptive horror of his words hit Pei Xiqing’s chest like a physical blow.

A violent wave of intense nausea surged up her throat. Unable to suppress the visceral reaction any longer, she clamped her hand over her mouth, turning to lean heavily against the iron guardrails as she began to retch uncontrollably.

Chapter 237: I Really Get Angry

Long Yan supported her, steadying her frame. “Xiqing, what’s wrong? Are you alright?”

Qiu Chao rubbed the back of his neck, looking slightly apologetic. “I’m afraid she was nauseated by my vivid description, wasn’t she?”

“Don’t take it to heart, Miss Pei,” he added quickly, trying to soften the blow. “I was merely speaking casually, and the imagery was admittedly a bit exaggerated. As long as our containment teams execute the cleanup protocols in time, the situation won’t reach that level of depravity.”

Pei Xiqing waved her hands frantically, taking deep, measured breaths. “I was genuinely sickened by the visual, but I’ll be fine once I re-anchor my senses.” She leaned against the railing for a few more moments until the suffocating wave of nausea finally began to dissipate.

Long Yan shot a glare at the researcher. “He is always like this—harboring exceptionally twisted tastes, obsessively buried in these grotesque, perverted anomalies.”

“I was simply a bit shocked when the reality materialized, but it’s truly a passing issue now. Please don’t disrupt your focus on my account,” Pei Xiqing murmured smoothly.

Yet, if one meticulously audited the entities currently spilling from the iron grates, their structural outlines did bear a sickening resemblance to human infants. Staring at the writhing mass for too long was an absolute assault on the senses. The mere realization that these grotesque creatures were unhatched vectors excreted by the parasite—and that a future walk along the shoreline might result in scooping up a handful of slime packed with those deformed faces—made the nerves in her brain twitch violently.

How could a creation this profoundly repulsive even exist in the biosphere?

Qiu Chao offered a dry smile. “I didn’t intend to distress you. Personally, I find them entirely vile as well, but compared to the advanced undead variants I dissect daily, these hatchlings are practically a baseline variable.”

“You would serve the alliance infinitely better by keeping your mouth shut,” Long Yan warned, delivering a sharp kick to his shin. “If you continue to intentionally disgust her, Brother Duan will dismantle your laboratory block the second he catches wind of it.”

Qiu Chao raised his hands in immediate surrender. “My mistake, my mistake.”

Pei Xiqing subconsciously scratched at her forearm through her sleeve, trying to shake the lingering phantom itch of the encounter.

“It’s perfectly fine,” she reassured them. “It was a visceral physical reaction to the sight, nothing more.”

However, Qiu Chao’s sharp, clinical eyes caught the subtle movement. His gaze locked onto the precise area where she had adjusted her tactical sleeve, analyzing the viral spots on her skin, which had grown noticeably lighter over the past few quarter-cycles. The playful smirk returned to his face, his tone glib. “Miss Pei, considering you’ve been sharing a quarters with Brother Duan for an extended timeline… could it be that your system is harboring some unannounced news?”

Before she could process the implication, his fingers smoothly closed around her wrist, checking her pulse. After a few seconds of intense, quiet evaluation, he released his grip.

Long Yan blinked, her protective instincts flaring. “Well? What’s the metric, Qiu Chao? What exactly did her pulse register? Don’t play the quack doctor with us out here—how dare you flaunt your fancy medical diagnostic routines in a hazard zone?”

Qiu Chao let out a slow sigh, his expression turning thoughtful. “What an absolute pity. It appears my hypothesis missed the mark.”

Pei Xiqing’s cheeks flushed with an awkward warmth, and she quickly pulled her sleeve back down to secure her wrist. “It shouldn’t be progressing at that speed. I possess the exact metrics of my own biology.”

“My apologies for the speculation,” Qiu Chao noted, his tone turning surprisingly serious and professional. “But a clinical word of advice, Miss Pei: you must systematically prioritize your rest cycle. Your core vitality has been registering a distinct pattern of depletion recently.”

“Understood.”

Long Yan stepped between them, taking Pei Xiqing’s arm. “In that case, I am escorting her back to the residential block immediately. You boys ensure this entire corridor is thoroughly sanitized. Leave absolutely zero trace of the biological breach.”

Ling Lang offered a crisp, serious nod. “Leave the deployment to me.”

The exact millisecond Long Yan and Pei Xiqing cleared the perimeter, the casual air vanished from Qiu Chao’s features. Turning toward Ling Lang with a dark, solemn face, he demanded, “Where exactly is Brother Duan hiding?”

Ling Lang was already barked out directives, systematically organizing his enforcers to clear the black carcasses from the concrete. Hearing the prompt, he paused. “He is still hunting down the remaining crystal cores.”

Qiu Chao let out a ragged, heavy breath. “Our administrative timeline is completely running out.”

“Are you referencing the parasite’s monthly reproduction deadline?” Ling Lang asked, his eyes drifting out toward the stormy, volatile ocean. His knuckles turned white as his grip tightened around his saber hilt. “I will never permit a catastrophic breach to manifest on my watch again.”

Qiu Chao merely shook his head, his voice a haunting murmur. “There is zero time left.”

Ling Lang turned back to press for specific parameters, but the researcher had already vanished into the shifting shadows of the corridor.

Over the past week, his brother had departed the residential block the exact second his administrative duties cleared, desperately hunting for high-tier crystal cores across the sectors. And tracing back the explosive politics of the last tribunal… something was profoundly wrong with the strategic matrix.

Yet, Ling Lang refused to stumble into reckless speculation. He would simply hold the line until his brother returned to the quarters, and demand the precise metrics face-to-face.

The moment Pei Xiqing crossed her threshold, Xiaobai bounded into the foyer, greeting her with an explosion of tail-wags. She affectionately patted the giant pup’s head, guiding him deeper into the warm living room.

Ordinarily, she would have brushed off the fatigue, but the unsettling gravity of Qiu Chao’s final look lingered heavily in her thoughts.

Pei Xiqing unbuttoned her tactical cuff, slowly peeling back her sleeve to expose her forearm. She stared down at the fading viral markings running along her skin, falling into a prolonged, heavy silence.

She remained frozen at her desk until the sharp sound of the front lock clicking threw her back into reality. Heavy, urgent boots strode across the floorboards, and the man materialized in her doorway. “Did the breach frighten you?”

Pei Xiqing rose from her chair, her expression instantly smoothing into a calm smile. “I’m entirely unaffected, Brother Duan.”

Duan Xiaolin captured her hand, his eyes tracking down to her exposed forearm. He unrolled her tactical sleeve with meticulous care, buttoning the cuff securely before pulling her frame flush against his chest.

Pei Xiqing laughed softly, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck. “What is this sudden gravity for? I am truly safe within this perimeter. But look at you—the logistics teams claim your schedule has been completely merciless over the past few days. You are the one expending the maximum effort out there.” She pressed her face into the crook of his shoulder, holding him with an intense fervor. She couldn’t help but whisper, “This is the first time I have ever witnessed you acting with this level of desperation.”

“The deficit was entirely engineered by my own negligence,” he murmured against her hair.

“No, I am genuinely fine.”

The man pulled back slightly, his leather-gloved fingers gently cupping her jawline. His dark green gaze drilled into hers with a profound, consuming intensity. “From this hour onward, it is infinitely better if I suspend all external deployments.”

Pei Xiqing studied his face. “Are you halting your extractions?”

“Mhm.”

“Is the deployment directly tied to the crystal cores?”

He fell into a disciplined silence, refusing to tip his hand.

“Is it?” she pressed relentlessly.

“Yes,” Duan Xiaolin conceded, dropping his tactical shield. “The logs don’t lie.”

Pei Xiqing gently pushed against his chest, creating a fraction of distance between them. “Regarding those crystal cores… I will never challenge your metrics, no matter how many you choose to strip from the high command. They are exceptional variables, and I firmly believe monopolizing them is a valid strategy. But I briefed you on the core rule out in the badlands: the more priceless and rare an artifact is, the more lethal the blowback becomes.”

She looked straight into his eyes, her voice tight with unvarnished sincerity. “You must either integrate those crystal cores permanently or systematically destroy the remaining cache. Hoarding an unrefined global supply within your immediate perimeter will inevitably convert you into the ultimate target for every corrupt faction in this alliance, triggering unnecessary trauma. Furthermore… I cannot bear the psychological cost of watching you gamble your survival against those odds.”

Duan Xiaolin tightened his arm around her waist, anchoring her close. “Harvesting a few rogue artifacts carries a negligible tactical risk. My primary objective out in the sectors was simply auditing the parasite’s biological weaknesses.”

Pei Xiqing playfully punched his chest. “You had better not fabricate metrics to appease me. What specific intelligence did your scouts actually unearth?”

“A variable… regarding the structural vulnerability of the parasite’s reproductive matrix,” the man murmured, a faint, wicked smirk returning to his lips.

“Those marine hatchlings are thoroughly revolting,” she shuddered, remembering the sight.

“The reproductive methodology of that species has always been uniquely depraved.”

“Then why aren’t you delivering the laboratory samples straight to Qiu Chao’s department?”

“I am departing for the research block immediately.”

Seeing him prepare to turn back toward the threshold, Pei Xiqing’s fingers instinctively locked around his sleeve, halting his progress. “Brother Duan.”

“Hmm?”

“Regarding the extraction of the crystal cores… you…” Her voice dropped into a low, slightly unstable register.

“I have zero intention of placing my survival in jeopardy,” he reassured her, his tone absolute. “Unearthing a hidden core relies entirely on the alignment of historical data, and securing it is a simple function of my raw leverage.”

She took a sharp, stabilizing breath, her eyes dead serious. “Do not lie to me. If your office fabricates data to handle my anxiety, I will be genuinely angry.”

In her initial survival strategies, those legendary crystal cores were the ultimate variables she had desperately pursued to secure her baseline. But Duan Xiaolin wasn’t reacting like the novel’s original protagonist, Xiao Yue—he wasn’t frantically embedding the artifacts into his own biology to supercharge his genetic output. He was hoarding them to execute an entirely separate, hidden blueprint. She harbored no fear regarding external factions, but she was deeply terrified that the fundamental source code of this world would one day detonate a catastrophic penalty against his life for disrupting the plot.

If that was the risk, it would be infinitely better to have him systematically harvest every single core, forcibly overwriting the world’s parameters to establish himself as the new, absolute protagonist of the system.

She tightened her grip on his suit coat. “The crystal cores—you must claim them all.”

“Otherwise, I cannot comfortably trust your safety to the background metrics of this world.” She looked up at him, her fingers aggressively tugging at his silver-rimmed glasses to force his complete focus. “Right now. Execute the extraction.”

She had no clear data to map whatever secret blueprint he was operating under, but allowing those loose crystal cores to remain scattered in the hands of the military factions was unacceptable. She had to ensure Duan Xiaolin usurped the status of the absolute protagonist before the next major plot node hit the capital.

The man stood towering and broad before her, his elegant features perfectly calm as the lenses of his glasses caught the stark light of the room. Pei Xiqing looked remarkably delicate and small in his shadow, her protective anger carrying zero physical threat—yet the sheer weight of her demand caused him to freeze, remaining entirely immovable for a long, drawn-out silence.

Seeing him trapped in a daze, she pressed urgently, “Brother Duan?”

Duan Xiaolin’s lips slowly curved into a slight, breathtaking silhouette. He reached out, his large palm securely enveloping her hand. “The ultimate utility of the crystal cores can only ever be designated for you.”

Pei Xiqing frowned, refusing to validate his deflection. “Why on earth would you say that? That defies baseline biological logic.”

She was entirely devoid of an active genetic trait; forcing those variables onto her system wouldn’t alter her metrics in the slightest—it would be a catastrophic waste of unrefined power. The crystal cores possessed zero utility for a civilian body. They caused no structural progression.

The exact millisecond Duan Xiaolin had delivered the initial core he had ripped from Liu Dongshu’s corpse back at the badlands waystation, her perception trait had analyzed the artifact. To her biology, a legendary crystal core carried less functional value than a piece of scrap metal. Yet, that exact same artifact had granted Liu Dongshu an exponential leap in genetic ability before his termination.

Strength in this world was a pre-coded lottery; specific individuals could harvest the plot armor, while others were systematically excluded. She had long since accepted that her presence was permanently barred from capitalizing on the protagonist’s milestones.

Duan Xiaolin’s gaze dropped, his dark green eyes locking onto her face with an unyielding, protective gravity. “Given the current structural decline of your physical baseline… a total monopoly of the crystal cores is the solitary variable capable of stabilizing your biology.”

Pei Xiqing went completely rigid, her heart skipping a violent beat. “You… you finally chose to disclose the metric. I genuinely assumed you intended to keep me blind to the fallout forever.”

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