Chapter 7: Entering the Wormhole Alone to Resolve the Crisis - Xu Lingzhao resolves the wormhole crisis...

The next morning, Xu Lingzhao looked at the dawning sky. She picked up the sleeping person in her arms and placed them next to Huo Qi to avoid him feeling embarrassed when he woke up. She shook Lu Qianxue awake, gave her some instructions, and then took only a Tang sword and walked out of the cave towards the wormhole.

She guessed that what was inside the wormhole was the core of this strange place, and only by solving it could they have a chance to survive and fight to the death! Xu Lingzhao arrived at the entrance of the wormhole, which was even colder and damper than when she first came. She continued to walk forward along the route she had taken, and arrived at the place where they had initially evacuated.

Tentacles instantly stretched out from the passage. Xu Lingzhao gripped her Tang sword to parry, deftly dodging the attack. Golden light emanated from her eyes, and a golden barrier rose in front of her, simultaneously suppressing the tentacles' movements. She swiftly slashed off the tentacles, and sticky, disgusting black blood splattered onto the ground, sizzling as it burned.

The tentacle, realizing the difficulty, retreated quickly. Xu Lingzhao followed, running forward rapidly. Along the way, several B-level insectoids appeared, all of which were killed by Xu Lingzhao with a single blow. After running for an unknown amount of time, the tentacle shrank back into a dark pool. The black pool was unfathomably deep, and the calm surface was not disturbed by a single ripple. Xu Lingzhao stood by the dark pool with her eyes lowered. There were red bloodstains on the ground. She took out the two high-explosive nuclear bombs that Lu Qianxue had given her before she left. She said that she had secretly hidden them.

Countless waving tentacles suddenly emerged from the dark pool. Xu Lingzhao watched as the tentacles wrapped around her and pulled her into the pool. She didn't struggle but instead blocked her breathing. The tentacles moved rapidly, and the enormous resistance in the pool made her dizzy. She pretended to be unconscious until the tentacles stopped. When she opened her eyes, she found a pair of glowing green eyes staring at her from the dark bottom of the pool, just as the monster used its tentacles to send her into its gaping maw.

Xu Lingzhao quickly pulled the pins on two high-explosive nuclear bombs and threw them into its mouth. Almost instantly, she raised a golden barrier. A huge explosion rang out, and the powerful impact slammed Xu Lingzhao against the rock wall inside the barrier. This impact almost made Xu Lingzhao lose consciousness. The golden barrier was gradually weakening, but in a daze, Xu Lingzhao felt as if the outline of a woman appeared in front of her, radiating golden light.

At this point, Xu Lingzhao completely lost consciousness, the entire wormhole collapsed, and the forest revealed its original appearance. Lu Qianxue heard the huge explosion and stood up abruptly. She found that the dark aura in the forest had disappeared, and sunlight was shining through the leaves. Lu Qianxue led the others out with the map that Xu Lingzhao had drawn for her.

At the exit, they encountered a federal search and rescue team.

In a private room at the First Federal Hospital.

Xu Lingzhao lay on the bed with her eyes closed. Lu Qianxue and the other two sat around her, the atmosphere extremely heavy. Lu Qianxue recalled the terrible state of Xu Lingzhao when the search and rescue team found her. She was covered in blood and her original appearance was unrecognizable. Only her signature blonde hair could identify her.

The forest was sealed off by the military district for investigation. Preliminary findings suggest it was a Zerg weapon being researched by the rebels, and the women there were tricked into becoming food, as the weapon required people with high mental strength as sustenance.

But because of Xu Lingzhao, they were able to escape from that place. The Federation had been searching for them for half a month. Chu Jingze, the son of the Federation's Commander-in-Chief, had disappeared without a trace after entering the forest. But that forest was extremely strange, and the terrain was constantly changing.

“Zhao Zhao hasn’t woken up for more than ten days.” Pei Zhenwei looked at Xu Lingzhao with a downcast expression: “Ah! Xu Lingzhao, don’t die! As long as you wake up, I will never argue with you again.”

"Really?" Xu Lingzhao's voice rang out in the empty hospital room. Seeing the surprised looks on the three people in front of her, she smiled and said, "What's going on... this..." Before she could finish speaking, the three people pounced on her, wailing and howling.

"Waaaaah, you're finally awake! The doctor said you might be brain dead and never wake up again, waaaaah!"

"You're amazing! You survived being blown up like that! Waaaaah!"

Xu Lingzhao coughed twice: "Oh my god, get up... all of you, stop crying at the grave... you're all so heavy... you're crushing me." She struggled to push the three people's heads off her stomach. Just then, Ling Qianzhu walked in with food. Seeing that she was awake, the food fell to the ground. She ran over and howled, hugging her neck and burying her face in her chest: "Oh my god, sister, you're finally awake! I thought I'd never see you again."

Xu Lingzhao knew they were excited, but she was about to be crushed: these idiots, even if they weren't dead, they would have been driven to their deaths by their wailing at her grave. But... it felt really good to have someone care...

The doctor walked in and was startled by the scene. He quickly pulled them apart, saying, "The patient needs to rest now; it's not advisable to make noise." The four then released Xu Lingzhao. As the doctor sent them away, Pei Zhengwei clung to the doorframe before leaving, saying, "Little Zhaozhao, let's go eat hot pot when you're better~"

"Wow, you stole my lines." Ling Qianzhu pouted.

After the group left noisily, Xu Lingzhao lay on the hospital bed, recalling the dreams she had had these past few days. She only remembered that many things happened in the dreams, and they felt very real, but she couldn't remember anything else. This feeling was so painful; the more she tried to recall, the more blurred the memories became. Her thoughts drifted to the woman who appeared before her before she lost consciousness in the dark pool of the wormhole. Who was she? Why was she protecting her?

If it weren't for her, she might have been brain dead or blown to smithereens, just as Pei Zhenwei had said. She was lost in thought when there was a knock on the door. She looked up and saw that it was Huo Qi.

He maintained his cold expression as he walked to Xu Lingzhao's bedside and placed a basket of fresh fruit on the bedside table: "Thank you... for saving me..."

"It's alright, we're all classmates." Xu Lingzhao sat up and drank a glass of water from the bedside table in one gulp. Hearing her words, Huo Qi suddenly looked up, his tone tinged with disappointment: "Just classmates? You... saved me twice."

Upon hearing this, Xu Lingzhao sensed that Huo Qi was acting strangely, very strangely. This reminded her of the time in the cave when she accidentally released her pheromones. Could pheromones, like blood, contain allergenic substances? Wait a minute… does that mean Lu Qianxue and the others…?! No, maybe it only works on Omegas? Xu Lingzhao's mind raced. She swallowed hard. “Uh… friends?”

Hearing this, Huo Qi's expression softened. She handed her an invitation: "My father heard that you saved me and wants to meet you." Fearing that Xu Lingzhao would refuse, he handed the invitation to Xu Lingzhao and then quickly left the ward.

"Ah...you..." Xu Lingzhao accepted the invitation, opened it, and saw that it was signed by Huo Qingshan—Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern District of the Federation. Well, she would definitely be joining the military region after graduation, so she had no choice but to go. Before she could put the invitation down, Chu Jingze walked in. He looked at the invitation in Xu Lingzhao's hand and asked, "Hao Qigang was here?"

"Hmm." Xu Lingzhao closed the invitation and looked at Chu Jingze. He was wearing a black combat uniform today, which made his skin look even whiter. Chu Jingze blushed a little under Xu Lingzhao's gaze. Only then did Xu Lingzhao invite him to dinner and leave his sight. Beauty can be deceiving.

“I also came to give you an invitation. This is an event hosted by my father, Uncle Huo, but it's not convenient for him to show up... You have rendered meritorious service to the Federation this time, and according to the evaluation criteria, you should be awarded military merit.” Chu Jing sat down next to Xu Lingzhao and looked at her as she spoke.

"Ah... okay." Xu Lingzhao was a little surprised; it was an unexpected turn of events. She met Chu Jingze's gaze: Why were these two acting so strangely...?

"Thank you... for giving me suppressants in the cave and... for letting me hold you." Chu Jing stammered out these blunt words, which made Xu Lingzhao completely lose her composure. She calmly said, "I was afraid you were too cold. It's very uncomfortable if you don't take suppressants during the heat of passion. Your mental state is not good in that situation, and it's too dangerous."

"Hmm..." Chu Jing heard her calm tone, and the disappointment on his face was obvious. Xu Lingzhao pursed her lips, looked at him, and felt that he was like a little deer at this moment: "Has your mental infection been completely removed?"

"It's all better now. If it weren't for the mental barrier you created for me, my mental strength would probably have been damaged." Chu Jing looked up, a joyful expression on his face.

.........

On the day Xu Lingzhao was discharged from the hospital, Lu Qianxue and the others came to pick her up, as did Ling Qianzhu. They rode in a hovercar, making a lot of noise, back to Sandhurst. It wasn't until she arrived at her new dormitory and Ling Qianzhu came in that she realized something was wrong: "We changed dorms?" She looked at Ling Qianzhu: "You..."

"You didn't expect that, did you? I've differentiated into an Alpha too." Ling Qianzhu said proudly, "From now on you can see me every day, and you don't need to bother me with text messages anymore."

“We changed dorms because I applied to the school to participate in the league.” She crossed her index finger and thumb: “I even got a little bit of special treatment.”

"So that's how it is." Xu Lingzhao looked around with a smile in her eyes: it was a five-bedroom, two-living-room house, with each person having their own room. As Xu Lingzhao sat down to rest on the sofa, Pei Zhen smiled and held up a light screen in front of her, pointing to a post on the forum: 〖Help! Xu Lingzhao is so amazing, how should an Alpha get her attention?〗

He provoked her in the training room. (Popular comment)

"Hahahahahahahahaha." Pei Zhen smiled from ear to ear: "You have no idea how popular you are in Sandhurst, you've become number one on the dating list."

“Hmm… indeed, some people find it hard to resist my charm.” Xu Lingzhao leaned on Pei Zhenwei’s shoulder, feigning deep thought. “Then you…” Before he could finish speaking, Pei Zhenwei jumped up from the sofa: “Ahhh, what are you doing! I have an Omgea I like.”

Upon hearing this, the other four people exclaimed in unison, "Wow!"

"Who is it? Tell me."

"Get out of the way, I won't tell."

"She's even getting shy now, tsk tsk tsk."