Chapter 205: All Here [Part 2]
They chatted and laughed, occasionally revealing embarrassing details about each other. The atmosphere at least was pretty great. No one tried to bring up the complicated situations or the records that were best kept hidden on their own accord.
In reality, it wouldn’t take long before everyone here figured out everyone’s records after this gathering. With their level of abilities, they were at least capable of figuring out some rough rumors or news even if the detailed secrets were out of reach.
They were on the military’s domain, so they didn’t dare to go too overboard. They merely ate, drank, chatted and laughed in relaxation even as they felt at ease to have each other. After all, the current situation was rather chaotic, and it was all too easy for any lone forces to be turned into cannon fodders. No matter how high one managed to climb up a mountain, the risk of falling was always there, not to mention a fall in the current situation would be pretty much permanent.
Everyone stuffed themselves quite full this dinner, and the burdens in their heart were settled if just a little. They drank a little too much, so Lung sent someone to escort them back to their places. Pian Huo took on the guys on a drinking contest and defeated both of the two media giant young masters, and after that they started calling each other’s ‘bros’. Cillin had no idea if Peneus and Fen Yuzuo knew that Pian Huo was a woman who had disguised herself as a man, but the ‘bro’s came of their mouths smoothly regardless.
Pian Huo herself had drunk herself silly, and thankfully some of them knew that Pian Huo was in fact a woman at least. If her identity were to be exposed then things would turn out quite embarrassing. Qi Geyou could already imagine Fire Phoenix’s wrath in his head. He supposed he should just avoid Pian Huo for the next few days.
Yu Linglung sat on her wheelchair with a slightly lowered head. She didn’t summon anyone to aid her. Instead, she said to Cillin, “Send me back, will you?”
“Sure.”
Cillin himself wasn’t going to ask Lung for an escort to send him home, so he decided to send Yu Linglung on her way. He told Lung to send the gray cat back since that fellow was going to supervise the fish biscuit’s delivery anyway.
They hadn’t used a flying car. The area Yu Linglung was staying in wasn’t too far away, and she didn’t want to ride on a flying car. She asked Cillin to push her out for a walk.
By now, the night sky had already visited this area and brought its chill with it. The day and night difference of temperature was a little larger than the norm.
Unlike the terrain where the Hunter regiments were located, the natural sceneries here were a lot better. He hadn’t taken more than a few steps when they saw a brook. Cillin could sense the life swimming inside the brook beneath the rocky ground.
There was a classical stone bridge not far away from where they stood, but Yu Linglung suggested that they walk through the brook directly.
The brook wasn’t even knee deep, so drowning wasn’t a concern.
“Your legs are still in recovery. They can’t touch water.” Cillin said.
“It’s fine, the healing device on my legs are water proof.”
Yu Linglung stood up as she said this and pressed a button on her wheelchair. The wheelchair folded on its on and floated a meter away from Yu Linglung. Her legs were a little stiff after sitting for an extended period of time, so she held onto Cillin’s arm as she got up and walked forwards slowly.
As one might expect, a rich man’s place demanded many particulars. Although the place’s security system was well done, a lot of effort was put into maintaining its natural appearance. They could even hear some cries of insects.
Neither of them spoke a word. When they reached the edge of the water, Cillin paused his footsteps and slowly crouched downward. He rolled Yu Linglung’s almost ground level skirt up to her knees and tied a knot there. This way, the skirt wouldn’t be drenched by the water, and would serve to protect her knees as well. The night was a little cold, and the brook water was even colder. A recovering patient should take good care of their joints.
Yu Linglung could feel that her face was very warm. A thin blush had appeared on both her cheeks, although the night sky did very well to conceal it from view. Still, it was obvious how she was feeling from her bright, gently smiling eyes.
Yu Linglung bowed her head and watched as Cillin worked on her skirt. Due to her background, Yu Linglung had always looked down on others with terrific pressure and displayed the unique pride that only the little princess of the Yu Family possessed. But although the downward gaze she assumed now was of a similar angle, her feelings and expressions were completely different.
“Are you cold?” Cillin looked up and asked after he was done dying the knots around Yu Linglung’s long skirt.
Yu Linglung stared blankly at Cillin for a little while upon hearing his inquiry. She then shook her head softly and raised a small smile. She looked like she was still a young and inexperienced girl, and not the little princess Yu who drove Lung insane from time to time.
Cillin rolled up his own trousers and tossed his shoes to the other side of the brook. He slowly walked into the brook while holding Yu Linglung’s hand.
Cillin entered the brook first and walked around once before he supported Yu Linglung into the water.
The cold stream dissipated much of the alcohol driven heat. He could feel the fishes inside the brook pecking at his feet.
Still, the planet’s night was colder than he expected. Cillin tested the waters and found that it was only about 5 to 6 °C. Even if Yu Linglung’s healing device was waterproof, it was likely to be somewhat detrimental.
Cillin allowed Yu Linglung to hold onto him and walk about a meter’s distance in the brook. When they were almost 10 meters away from the opposite bank, he paused his footsteps once more.
Cillin crouched down and said, “Alright, you’ve had your novel experience. Come up, I’ll carry you over. The water’s cold, and it will be bad for your recovery if you catch a chill.”
“Okay.” Yu Linglung answered obediently.
If those who knew of Yu Linglung and her dominant attitude well were to see her right now, their eyeballs would be rolling all over the floor.
Yu Linglung sat her head on Cillin’s shoulders as she lay on Cillin’s back. For some reason, she felt at ease as she listened to their breathings and the insect cries around them.
Cillin carried Yu Linglung on his back and took step after step towards the opposite bank.
Yu Linglung touched the cord around Cillin’s neck once and asked, “What are you wearing?”
“A person.” Cillin answered.
Yu Linglung’s movements stopped, and she no longer pried into the matter.
Disputes are meaningless between those who are living, and those who are dead. Yu Linglung understood this, which was why she didn’t try to fight on this subject. However, she couldn’t help but hold Cillin’s neck a little tighter.
Ten meters of distance was crossed pretty quickly.
Alright, little princess. It’s time to come down.”
Yu Linglung curled her lips in disappointment and climbed down reluctantly. The folded wheelchair dropped back to the ground and unfolded back to normal.
Cillin helped her up the wheelchair and used his sleeves to wipe the water beads on her legs. He then untied the knots around her knees so that the skirt would cover her legs. Lastly, he adjusted the temperature maintenance device on the wheelchair.
Cillin pushed the wheelchair to where Yu Linglung had told him to go. There was a team waiting for her already when they approached that area. None of them walked up to her, however. They obviously knew her temperament very well.
Cillin pushed the wheelchair all the way to the other side and passed the wheelchair to the person who would take over his role. However, Yu Linglung turned her wheelchair around and stared quietly at Cillin instead. Although she said nothing, her eyes were obvious expecting something.
Cillin sighed, “Give me your hand.”
Yu Linglung’s eyes turned into crescents, and she swiftly extended her hand.
Cillin put a large, green pearl into Yu Linglung’s hand. It emanated a gentle, green light beneath the twilight that made everyone feel full of vitality.
Yu Linglung could feel the warmth and the life force from this green pearl seeping into her palm. Her breathing had become a lot smoother than it was before. Naturally, she knew that this pearl was extremely precious. At the very least, even she, the little princess Yu hadn’t seen such a special pearl until today.
“This is my gift to you. It is beneficial for your health and recovery.”
“Thank you!” Yu Linglung held the green pearl in her hands and exclaimed happily.
“I’m the one who should be thanking you.”
To this day Cillin didn’t understand exactly what Yu Linglung had seen in him, but he did know that Yu Linglung had helped him both overtly and covertly many times while he was working in the Sixth B Squadron. In fact, some of the aid she gave him was unknown to him even now.
When he saw Yu Linglung’s childlike expression, Cillin extended a hand and rubbed Yu Linglung’s head like how he rubbed Tang Qiuqiu’s.
The jaws of the team behind Yu Linglung dropped. They couldn’t believe their eyes!
H-h-h-h-h-h-h-he’s rubbing little princess Yu’s head! And the most unbelievable part is that little princess Yu is actually looking shy!
“Rest early when you head back.”
“Mm.”
Cillin turned back and walked away once he bid Yu Linglung goodbye, but he hadn’t extended his hoverboard and flown away immediately. Outsiders were currently forbidden from flight in this area, and he would be shot like a dog by the hiding bodyguards and robots if he tried.
Cillin walked until he could no longer see the Yu Family’s people any longer before looking up to the sky. Then, he pointed a middle finger.
At a certain spot high up in the sky, there was a little round ball floating and capturing everything that was going on there. The little round ball was linked to one of the rooms of Lung’s leisure center, and Lung, Knight and Ci Jincheng were currently hugging the monitor and staring at it.
When they saw the big middle finger on the screen, all three of Cillin’s colleagues swore unanimously, “F*CK!”
“How did he find out?” Lung was puzzled.
“His senses are crazy!” Knight said.
Ci Jincheng didn’t say anything. He was pondering what went wrong with the supposedly covert peep attempt. This camera was hovering at an altitude that could hardly be seen with the naked eye, not to mention that it was nighttime already. So how exactly did Cillin manage to find it out?
Cillin had no idea how puzzled the trio were, but he knew that they wouldn’t stay quiet from the moment he pushed Yu Linglung out of the door.
Lung and friends weren’t the only party who was monitoring them, but those people’s attempts hadn’t gone nearly as smoothly as theirs. They were often disrupted by an unknown signal courtesy of Czedow.
Cillin arrived at a border of several neighboring forces. This was a neutral territory where many people were flying across. Even if it was very late now, there were still plenty of hoverboards and flying cars flying about.
Cillin cast a glance at the brook where he had carried Yu Linglung across just now before extending his hoverboard, jumping on it and flying towards the Vanguard’s territory.
A while after Cillin had left, the amount of people in this neutral territory gradually decreased. It took at least ten minutes or so before a flyer flew by.
After a flying car had zoomed past the area, everything fell quiet once more. The cries of insects were the only sounds that could be heard.
A figure slowly rose from the water surface where Cillin and Yu Linglung had walked across just now. Their face was unclear, and they looked like they were made entirely out of water. They hadn’t risen further up from the water after revealing their torso.
This water human stared at the neutral territory and asked, “Did that little guy notice me just now?”
“I think he did.”
A voice answered the water human’s question from the trees not far away from them. However, there wasn’t the trace of anyone to be seen.
The wind blew, and a tree leaf fluttered towards the ground. However, it was blocked by something invisible while it was falling and turned to another side.
“Never mind. Who cares? There’s no way he’s our target anyway.” The water human said.
“Why not? Don’t you underestimate this kid. On the contrary, that thing might very well be on his possession!”
“Really?! But.. he doesn’t feel all that strong.”
“He is a little lacking in strength, but the fact that he could sense your presence means that he is quite the sleeper. We’ll not approach him for now. Let’s observe the situation and decide later.”
“Okay.”
The water human dove back into the water, and everything returned to peace and silence once more. The flying cars that occasionally flew across the neutral territory would never know of their presences.
It was quite late when Cillin finally returned to Vanguard’s territory. Most of its members had gone back to rest except for those who were on shift. Without alarming anyone within the vicinity, Cillin returned to his own room.
A fishy smell entered his nostrils the second he entered the room.
There was a large box inside the room that was completely filled with fish biscuits. From the looks of it, the gray cat had left it here because they couldn’t all be stuffed into its cabinet. A little ear was peeking from the pile of fish biscuits, and it twitched once when Cillin had entered the room. Then, it stayed immobile.
Cillin shook his head. The cat could go free, for now.
Czedow opened his eyes from the corner of the room. Seeing that Cillin wasn’t going to talk to him, he closed his eyes once more.
Cillin lay on the bed after he washed his face and brushed his teeth. He pondered about what happened today.
Lung’s gathering was but a trivial matter. The first thing that puzzled him was Yu Linglung’s injuries.
When he was carrying Yu Linglung, he could clear sense that her respiratory system was faulty and her heartbeat was irregular. Although her emotions were part of the reason, the bigger factor was still the severe injuries her internal organs once suffered.
Although her breathing looked normal on the surface, Yu Linglung had suffered some serious injuries to her internal organs some time ago. Just who was it that managed to hurt Yu Linglung this badly while she was under such heavy protection?
Severe internal injuries and two mutiliated legs. He could imagine just how close Yu Linglung had come close to death.
Although he could treat Yu Linglung’s injuries as part of the Yu Family’s affairs, the second thing that puzzled him was not so simple.
Cillin had noticed something abnormal inside the water when he had put both feet into the brook. However, he hadn’t sensed any danger and there were plenty of Yu family bodyguards hiding around the area. They would have made a swift appearance had anything unusual were to happen. That was why Cillin had pretended that he didn’t notice anything and carried Yu Linglung across the water.
But when he came back, he had walked across the stone bridge and noticed another unusual presence among the trees. That person had hidden himself so well that Cillin wouldn’t have noticed him had he not seen him before.
It was one of the ‘Grim Reaper’, the guy who had once appeared in the prison back then. No one knew that they were already here. He wondered what their objective was this time. At the very least, he hadn’t noticed anything amiss in a broad scale.
Did the military know about ‘Grim Reaper’s’ arrival, he wondered?
Regardless, Cillin himself was going to be high alert. Those who came from ‘Grim Reaper’ were all crazy in some some ways, and no one knew what they were thinking.
To visit Cillin’s room, one must first go through a large hall at the center of the floor. But the second Cary arrived at the hall he immediately swallowed his loud talking back down his throat.
“Se… Senior Nata…”
Nata was sitting on the great hall’s sofa and reading a paperback. There was also a box next to him. He simply smiled at the noises Cary and his group were making and said, “You guys look spirited.”
Cary, Xiao Shang and a few other people smiled awkwardly and scratched their heads. They weren’t sure how to respond to him.
They were certain that Nata was here to look for Cillin, so they left after standing around awkwardly for a short while. They couldn’t help but be anxious when facing a senior like Nata. After all, not everyone could keep a straight face like Cillin.
When Cillin finally got up, Nata had already flipped through a dozen or so pages.
“Sorry for sleeping until now, senior Nata. Why haven’t you told them to wake me?”
“It’s fine. You were tired.”
Cillin walked over and took out a water bottle and some jerkies from the storage cabinet at the side. When he passed some of them to Nata, the man waved his hands and turned him down.
“Just enjoy your meal. I’ve already eaten.”
Cillin didn’t hold himself back and began eating right in front of Nata.
“Did you want something from me?” Cilin asked while chewing his jerky.
The rule to eat and sleep in silence was inconvenient for Hunters. They had no time to obey such time wasting etiquettes.
Nata closed up his book and pushed the box next to him before Cillin.
“This is some of the parasite samples my friends had collected over the years. You can take a look at them if you’re interested.”
Cillin clapped his hands and wiped his fingers clean. Then, he opened the box carefully.
All the samples inside the box were sealed up. The big-sized parasites only had full body images and samples that consisted of a certain part of their bodies. The small-sized parasites had full body samples half-body samples. Their shapes varied greatly, with some looking sinister and some looking very average.
“The video records inside contain some relevant records on these parasites. Of course, they are just rough records that aren’t as well written as a professionally written record. You’ll have to put up with it.”
Cillin closed the box and smiled, “This is enough. These samples are very precious.”
Nata nodded, “There are some parasites that are incredibly special, and there are some that only had images and no samples. I’ve taken a look and discovered that some of them are pretty hard to find. Maybe you can try and capture them if you happen to encounter similar parasites in the future.”
Cillin didn’t watch the videos right away. He carried the box into his room and put it away properly after breakfast.
“Did you have any plans for the morning? If not then please walk with this old man for a little.” Nata said.
“I have no plans. Please wait for a moment.”
Cillin changed his clothes and brought some necessities with him. Then, he went out with Nata.
“I heard that you went to meet with that Andrea Family kid, and there was someone from Blue Butterfly too?”
Cillin didn’t deny this. It was something plenty of people knew about.
“That’s good news. Be it the Andrea Family, the Blue Butterfly or those people from Sector S, getting to know them is always a good thing. I know that you have a wide social network, and these are all good things that will be beneficial for your future development. While they might not necessarily be beneficial if you are to measure them by the old standards, I believe you can analyse the pros and cons on your own even without much information. The situation now is no longer as stable as it was before.”
Although Cillin didn’t agree with some of Nata’s views, Nata was giving him some serious guidances. Cillin simply listened to him seriously.
Nata continued to speak, “We old fellows at the A Squad had a small meeting yesterday. Although the bosses’ meeting hadn’t started yet, we’ve analysed something according to the intel we’ve gotten. The territories will be divided up except those places the military has absolute control over. The military isn’t that big that they could take over such a large Sector on their own, after all. Forces like Hunter regiments would be able to enjoy at least ten years of occupation rights, and whether or not we would be able to develop, gather resources and control the territory we were given is up to ourselves.”
“Will the competition be fierce?” Cillin asked.
“There will definitely be competition. I’m guessing that the division of territories would be decided by drawing lots. Naturally, whoever gets the resourceful territory would face fierce competition, and vice versa. Therefore, the B Squadrons’ free missions are now cancelled. We will be staying behind for a longer period of time to protect the territories we were given, and we will have to watch out for hidden traps too. Preparations must be made for all these.”
“Mm, I know.”
This was why being a big force was good. The pies would be completely divided among the big forces of GAL, while the small forces couldn’t even get the crumbs.
Nata talked about the things that should be taken note of, wanting Cillin to be mentally prepared before he faced those challenges. From the fact that he advised Cillin and not Shawton showed just how much he valued Cillin. In Nata’s eyes, Cillin was far more important than Shawton. Both his strength and his network were much to Nata’s satisfaction.
The duo gradually approached the neutral territory as they walked. A flying car was waiting for Nata over there.
“Alright, let’s stop here for the day. I have a few more things to do, so go busy yourself with your work.”
Cillin turned around and got ready to return after he watched Nata entering the flying car and departing.
It was at this moment he heard a loud laughter coming from a few people flying towards his direction on a hoverboard.
Cillin abruptly turned around and looked when he heard the laughter.
By the time he looked at them, he could only see their backs. They looked very average just like the youngsters he saw when he came over to this territory. He only heard the guy’s chatter and laughter on the hoverboard for a brief moment, but it awakened a memory buried deep inside Cillin’s head.
It was one of the two voices that had been troubling him as of late!
Was it ‘Mist’, or was it ‘Merciless’?