the truth
A group of soldiers surrounded Lu Tingxiao and expressed their opinions one after another, each of them talking happily, as if if they surrendered a second later, they would lose a precious opportunity.
Xiao Yang and Lin Chu in the corner heard every word of these people clearly.
Lin Chu said angrily: "General, look at him!"
Xiao Yang didn't say anything.
"Should we go out and stop him?" Lin Chu was filled with indignation: "He dared to do this in public and didn't even take you seriously."
"Wait." Xiao Yang was still calm.
Just when Lin Chu couldn't help but want to persuade Xiao Yang again, he heard Lu Tingxiao outside suddenly shouting: "Stop talking!"
Both of them were stunned and quietly stuck their heads out to check the situation.
Lu Tingxiao pointed at the tall and strong soldier with a serious expression and said, "How could you think that?"
The soldier was stunned: "Commander Lu...we just want to follow you..."
"You are all soldiers of the First Army, serving under General Xiao." Lu Tingxiao said sternly, "Although... General Xiao sometimes has a bad temper, he single-handedly established the security and order of the base. That's a fact. Without him, the base wouldn't be as peaceful as it is today."
"Besides, as a soldier, it is your duty to obey and respect your superiors. I hope you will not say such things again in the future."
The soldier said anxiously: "But, Commander Lu, you are more suitable..."
"Stop." Lu Tingxiao looked very unhappy. "I have absolutely no interest in managing the base. The rumors these past few days are just spread by those with ulterior motives."
"My most important responsibility is to help Dr. Ling collect the remaining bones of the dragon horn. This is the key to ending the apocalypse sooner."
The soldier scratched his head: "Is that so..."
"Yes." Lu Tingxiao's tone finally softened a bit, and he sighed, "It's a pity that we haven't yet deciphered the contents of the North African's phone. If we had more information, we should have set out on our journey to continue collecting the remaining dragon horn bones."
"Ah?" the soldier asked reluctantly, "Commander Lu is leaving again?"
Lu Tingxiao smiled and said, "Not so fast yet. I'll wait until I gather more information before setting off again. You should be able to see me again during this period."
"Okay." The soldier's spirits brightened again. "Then I'll go tell my comrades in the team. They've been clamoring for Commander Lu's guidance. I wonder if Commander Lu is available soon?"
"This is a small matter." Lu Tingxiao said, "I'll find some time to go to the training ground and give you some guidance."
The soldier saluted: "Thank you, Commander Lu."
After a few more words, the crowd reluctantly dispersed under Lu Tingxiao's repeated urging.
Xiao Yang watched the whole process and felt very uncomfortable.
On the one hand, since the apocalypse, he had toiled and sacrificed for the base, nearly facing mortal danger several times. Yet, the soldiers watching turned a blind eye… while Lu Tingxiao, on the other hand, saw it all and even spoke up for him in front of the soldiers… This made him feel truly powerless, as if any anger he had shouldn't be directed at Lu Tingxiao.
On the other hand, Lu Tingxiao hadn't made any contribution to the base's construction since returning, and he just went out to find a few pieces of dragon horn bones, yet he still earned the love of so many people...
The most important thing is that what those soldiers said was true.
Lu Tingxiao is indeed an outstanding general with top-notch military and mental abilities, and he is fully capable and qualified to lead the base.
No, we can't let him stay in the base and disrupt people's lives.
Since he likes to collect dragon horn bones outside, let him continue to carry out his mission outside.
*
Ling Shi clutched the top-secret information in his hand and looked at the smiling Lu Tingxiao across from him in disbelief: "This... you got it by tricking people?"
Lu Tingxiao wasn't ashamed of it, but rather proud of it, raising his chin with pride: "I showed him a little bit of my power, and he was so scared that he sent me the decryption data."
Ling Shi said unhappily, "I heard you were making such a big fuss in the army that rumors were spreading everywhere. Why bother? I'll go ask Uncle Yu for the information. He'll probably give it to me."
"Hmph." Lu Tingxiao snorted in dissatisfaction: "My wife has to take care of everything, what else do you need me to do?"
"What did you say?..." When Ling Shi heard this name, all the thorns on his body stood up. He gritted his teeth and said, "If there is water in your brain, I don't mind helping you control it." As he said that, he took two steps towards Lu Tingxiao.
Lu Tingxiao didn't dodge or avoid, but stepped forward and hugged Ling Shi: "Hey, why are you still anxious? Aren't you just..."
Ling Shi pinched the soft flesh on his waist.
"Hiss~ Please spare my life, sir." Lu Tingxiao immediately changed his tone: "It's not that I don't want you to find Prime Minister Yu, but I think the relationship between him and Xiao Yang is getting more and more tense. If you go to him, not only will it embarrass him, but it might even have the opposite effect."
Ling Shi frowned: "Is that so?"
"Yes," Lu Tingxiao explained, "Originally, deciphering documents should be the responsibility of the research institute or the Ministry of Science and Technology, and should be in the hands of the Prime Minister. However, as you know, the deciphered content ended up in Xiao Yang's hands."
"I haven't considered it from this perspective." Ling Shi still frowned: "Then Uncle Yu's current situation..."
"Don't worry." Lu Tingxiao said, "He also climbed to this position by stepping on millions of people. In terms of political means, he is stronger than Xiao Yang. It's just that in today's apocalypse, he lacks some armed forces. Even so, it's not that easy for Xiao Yang to kill him. Instead of worrying about him, you might as well worry about this decrypted data."
Speaking of this, Ling Shi suddenly felt that it made a lot of sense.
He opened the manila envelope in his hand and pulled out a few sheets of A4-sized printed paper. "Let's take a look together."
The paper was just a few thin pages, similar to what the Ohioans had left behind.
But this time, the information on the paper was huge, which made Ling Shi and Lu Tingxiao very shocked.
After reading it once, the two of them read it over and over again several times until they were sure they had fully understood all the contents, and then they put the material down.
Oh, it should be said that Ling Shi made sure that he understood the content.
Lu Tingxiao pointed at one spot and said, "It says here... there's something else in the dragon horn bones? What is it... those little black dots?"
"Hmm." Ling Shi nodded seriously. "Actually, I discovered these tiny black spots when I first studied the first piece of bone. There were three on Huaguo's left arm, each only the size of a grain of rice. I originally thought... they were just normal substances in the dragon's horn tissue, just like spots on human skin, affected by melanin. I didn't expect..."
"Alas," Ling Shi sighed, a rare occurrence. "My research on dragon horns is still far from complete."
"It's not your fault," Lu Tingxiao said. "If you had focused solely on being a researcher, you would have noticed the differences between these small black spots over such a long time. However, since joining the base, you've spent most of your time traveling around, searching for remains. The time you've actually had to spend on the dragon horn is truly too little."
"Didn't you let Su Liangzhe take full charge of the Dragon Horn research? He didn't notice it either?"
Ling Shi shook his head.
"Then he's the one who should be scolded," Lu Tingxiao said with finality. "He's been watching Long Ji all day and hasn't found any clues. We'll hold him accountable later."
"How can you be so hypocritical?" Ling Shi asked, "Isn't it a bit unreasonable to protect your shortcomings?"
Lu Tingxiao laughed and said, "Protecting one's own shortcomings is unreasonable."
Seeing that Ling Shi was in a better mood, he asked, "Is this little black dot really as powerful as the information says?"
"Hmm." Ling Shi's expression grew serious again. "North African researchers speculate that the dragon horn was originally an unremarkable species, with lower cell activity than humans. They somehow merged with these tiny black spots, gradually absorbing a large amount of their abilities, transforming into the species with super-active cells it currently possesses."
"In other words, the real source of human evolution is this little black dot."
Lu Tingxiao frowned, digesting what Ling Shi said.
"I have a hypothesis," Ling Shi continued, "the Nether cells in your body are not a variant of the Cryptoblasts. On the contrary, your Nether cells are authentic."
"You mean," Lu Tingxiao guessed, "the dark cells are the cells with the little black dots?"
"Yes." Ling Shi replied: "Hidden cells are the product of the degeneration of dark cells. Therefore, you will be one level higher than ordinary dragon warriors and can completely suppress the corrupted people."
Lu Tingxiao thought for a moment, then pointed to a section of the document and said, "It says here that the black spots can't directly affect the dragon horn's evolution, but rather work through an important medium. What does this mean?"
"Just like human limbs cannot produce blood to supply them," Ling Shi explained, "the whole body relies on the heart to pump blood."
"The 'medium' mentioned in the data has a similar function to the heart. It transforms the energy contained in the small black spots into something the dragon horn can absorb and transmits it throughout the dragon horn. Therefore, this data calls this 'medium'... a mother cell."
Lu Tingxiao pinched his chin, looking almost confused by all the confusing information, and muttered, "Mother cell..."
"Yes." Ling Shi continued, "What they got in North Africa was the left breast of the dragon horn. But they didn't find any mother cells in the left breast. So we speculate that the dragon horn is different from humans. The most important cells may be anywhere in the body."
"Where will it be?" Lu Tingxiao looked at Ling Shi.
Ling Shi looked at him and took a deep breath: "In the left arm."
"Ah?" Lu Tingxiao was surprised: "How did you know?"
Ling Shi placed his right hand on his chest: "Because, I extracted the mother cells, purified them successfully, and injected them into my chest."
As soon as these words came out, Lu Tingxiao was stunned.
He had long known that Ling Shi was different, but he had not expected that it was due to the injection of mother cells.
It sounds... really awesome.
"That's why," Ling Shi continued to explain, "I can help you synthesize Hades cells."
Therefore, when he looked at the remains of the dragon horn, he felt the calling feeling of a baby clinging to its mother.
It turned out that the most important part of the dragon horn was already inside his body.
"No wonder you can extract and release cells at will," Lu Tingxiao said with emotion. "It sounds like it really functions similarly to a human heart."
Ling Shi smiled and said, "Yes. My whole body is like a big heart. Veins on the left hand and arteries on the right hand."
Lu Tingxiao burst out laughing and waved his hands, saying, "No, no, the way you put it is so vivid, I can't kiss you anymore."
"Heh." Ling Shi smiled expressionlessly, "That's great."
Lu Tingxiao shut up obediently and forced a change of subject: "By the way, why did the North Africans bring their dragon horn to China?"
Speaking of this, Ling Shi sighed regretfully, "They have also discovered a way to end the apocalypse. They are going to gather all the remaining dragon horn bones and bury them."
"Unexpectedly, Country M approached them, offering to buy the bone fragment they had. After some investigation, they discovered that Country M had also discovered the secret of the small black spots, but had no intention of concealing them. Instead, they wanted to dig out the small black spots from each piece of bone separately and merge them together. This way, Country M would obtain a fist-sized piece of super-powerful energy with an activity ten thousand times greater than that of Dragon Horn tissue."
"Are they afraid that Country M will use that black fist to cause damage?" Lu Tingxiao asked.
"Yes." Ling Shi replied: "According to their calculations, the energy contained in the Black Fist, once the right method is found to detonate it, can easily destroy ten thousand planets with life like Earth. Such a thing... is too dangerous if it falls into the wrong hands. If it is not handled properly..."
"The Milky Way will be destroyed by them." Lu Tingxiao continued.
Ling Shi nodded. "Not only does North Africa have at least one scientific genius far superior to me, it also has a group of rulers with a clear conscience. Unfortunately, they just arrived in China..."
"Don't be sad," Lu Tingxiao consoled him. "After all these twists and turns, everything is now progressing in line with their wishes. If there really are ghosts left after their death, then they can finally rest in peace."
"Hmm." Ling Shi sighed. "The data also said that Country M took Long Jiao to North Africa. The apocalypse came suddenly, so it's very likely that he was stranded there."
"No wonder we found nothing in Country M." Lu Tingxiao said, "Looks like we can get ready to leave again."
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