Chapter 18 Encountering Ji Cunxi; Gaining Trust: Xu Lingzhao Protects Ji in the Desert...
Xu Lingzhao stood up, which attracted the attention of the dozen or so mercenaries. In particular, the mercenary who was about to pour gasoline withdrew his hand, his eyes turning sinister as he looked at Xu Lingzhao: "Wow, look, we have a savior, brothers." The other mercenaries rushed forward and surrounded Xu Lingzhao, while the people sitting next to her had already moved far away the moment she stood up, afraid of being caught in the crossfire.
Standing at 188cm, she was surrounded by mercenaries, yet her imposing presence was in no way diminished. The mercenary holding the gasoline walked up to her and said, "Then you'll take their place and be burned? I admire you as a warrior."
Just as the gasoline was about to spill, the starship shook violently as if it had been hit by something. Taking advantage of their momentary loss of balance, Xu Lingzhao threw the gasoline at the cargo, seized the nearest mercenary's pulse rifle, and opened fire on them. In no time, the mercenaries fell to the ground without even being able to retaliate. The crowd was terrified and shouted, "Murder! Murder!" Gunfire mingled with chaos. Xu Lingzhao even caught a glimpse of the mother and child she had rescued screaming desperately. She frowned, puzzled.
Sure enough, the next second, the canopy at the starship's connection point was opened, and a group of mercenaries walked in menacingly. Upon seeing this, the others reported to them as if to claim credit: "Sir, sir, it was all done by her alone, it has nothing to do with me, sir."
"Yes, sir, it has nothing to do with me."
"yes."
"......"
Pleading for mercy rose and fell, and Xu Lingzhao's long face darkened. At that moment, she realized that not everyone was worth saving. Her excellent hearing detected a faint, mocking laugh coming from a woman sitting on the ground. Just as the arriving mercenaries were about to attack Xu Lingzhao, the starship was violently struck. Xu Lingzhao quickly lay down and grabbed a handle. The starship tumbled and rolled, cargo and all. Xu Lingzhao quietly raised a simple mental barrier around herself.
Xu Lingzhao crawled out of the ruins. She pushed away the steel plate that was pressing on her. Dust choked her and she coughed a few times. She got up from the ground and saw an endless desert. Her temples throbbed. Why was it a desert again? The starship had crashed on a desert planet. The ground was littered with wreckage and the glow of burning starship parts. Xu Lingzhao glanced at the ground.
Several refugees were lying face down on the desert, including the mother and child. Xu Lingzhao turned and walked away with a cold expression. After walking a few more steps, he saw several mercenaries lying haphazardly on the ground. Xu Lingzhao picked up the daggers and pulse rifles from their waists. Seeing that they still had a few breaths left, he pointed the rifles at them and sent them on their final journey.
Xu Lingzhao searched their bodies and surrounding area with her gun, reaping a rich harvest. One backpack contained a set of clean clothes, several bottles of water, more than ten compressed biscuits, and a can of fruit. Just as she was about to leave, she heard a knocking sound coming from under a piece of starship wreckage at her feet.
"Savior, please save me, I'm not a villain."
...? A close-range ultimate attack? Xu Lingzhao was speechless, too lazy to pay her any attention. She just wanted to leave quickly, but the person panicked: "Hey, don't go! The desert is dangerous, have a companion! I know a lot! Please, savior!"
Xu Lingzhao clenched her fists, walked to the wreckage, and lifted a piece of debris with one hand, throwing it aside. The person inside quickly got up. Xu Lingzhao recognized her as the one who had laughed on the starship. Her tone was cold and hard: "Saved. Goodbye." The person clung to her like a leech: "Where are you going?"
"......."
“My name is Ji Cunxi, and I’m a female Alpha, just like you,” Ji Cunxi babbled on.
Hearing this, Xu Lingzhao paused slightly. She recognized the name Ji Cunxi; Huo Qi had told her she was the daughter of Ji Yao, the rebel leader. She continued walking calmly, ignoring her, her mind racing. How could it be such a coincidence... Had her plan been exposed? But seeing Ji Cunxi's expression, Xu Lingzhao decided to play it by ear and maintain her original stance.
Looking at her cold demeanor, Ji Cunxi spat out the hay she was chewing and followed closely beside Xu Lingzhao, humming a song as she said, "Savior, you are so kind." A smile appeared on her lips: "And a mental barrier, let me guess who you are. Hmm, but you don't look like her, although you are the same height."
Xu Lingzhao listened without changing his expression, controlling his breathing to avoid revealing any flaws. He remained unchanged in the face of any change. His mental barrier was transparent, visible only to those with double S-level mental strength. Ji Cunxi seemed to be far more complex than he appeared. Then, she changed the subject: "However, there seem to be a few unregistered 3S-level individuals, right? I've seen Xu Lingzhao; she's quite beautiful. You're definitely not one of them; you're pathetic."
Xu Lingzhao stopped, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, seemingly angry at her words: "Can you shut up? Am I that ugly?"
"Oh, finally you've spoken." Ji Cunxi laughed exaggeratedly, suddenly moved closer to Xu Lingzhao's face, examined it carefully, and gave a serious evaluation: "A bit ugly."
"Get out, go back to your ruins." Xu Lingzhao rolled her eyes at her and continued walking forward.
"Why are you making such a big deal out of this? I was just telling the truth, and you're telling me to get lost? How could a weak Alpha like me possibly survive in the desert?" Ji Cunxi started nagging at Xu Lingzhao again: "I was wrong, I apologize to you. I shouldn't have said you were ugly, but don't be ashamed. I am handsome and a beauty myself. Don't feel inferior just because you're standing next to me."
"...?" Xu Lingzhao's lips twitched. This was some kind of lucky fool. They walked for a long time, and as darkness fell, Xu Lingzhao found a small hillside with a withered tree and sat down. Seeing this, Ji Cunxi quickly sat down beside her. Xu Lingzhao licked her dry, cracked, and bleeding lips, took out a bottle of water from her bag, and drank half of it. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Ji Cunxi looking at her with a pitiful expression.
Xu Lingzhao felt like the person in front of her was an ancestor. She took out an unopened bottle of water and two compressed biscuits from her bag and handed them to her expressionlessly. Seeing that she hesitated to take them, Xu Lingzhao turned to look at her. Unexpectedly, her eyes were red and her voice was choked with sobs: "Why are you so good to me? Aren't you afraid that I'm a bad person?"
...? Here comes the drama queen, Xu Lingzhao responded to her ever-changing expressions with his own: "Because you have thick skin, because I am your savior."
Seeing that Xu Lingzhao was about to take the things back, Ji Cunxi quickly snatched the water and biscuits away, coughed, and said, "There's no reason to take back things that have been given away." She drank the water like a water buffalo and eagerly tore open a compressed biscuit and stuffed it into her mouth.
Witnessing all this, Xu Lingzhao thought: "Is this some kind of prank?" This Ji Cunxi is not what she imagined. The desert cools down exceptionally quickly at night. Xu Lingzhao took out the new coat from her bag and put it on. Actually, she wasn't cold, but she had to pretend. She didn't even look at Ji Cunxi. When she heard Ji Cunxi's teeth chattering from the cold, she threw the pants at her: "Here's your scarf."
“I’ve discovered you’re quite humorous.” Ji Cunxi pulled her trouser legs over her sleeves and exclaimed, “Much warmer.” She glanced at Xu Lingzhao and noticed she had her eyes closed. She immediately panicked, “Hey! The desert is dangerous at night, don’t sleep! Don’t leave me alone to keep watch, I’m scared.”
Xu Lingzhao glanced at her: "Don't bother me, I'm resting with my eyes closed." She released her mental energy to begin guarding the surroundings. She was thinking about her next move. Perhaps Ji Cunxi was a key breakthrough in her undercover career. She had to gain her trust. Her appearance was indeed a variable. She could sense that Ji Cunxi was observing her in the dark.
Observe the area behind her ears and on her neck for any signs of disguise.
She was clever but pretended to be crazy. Xu Lingzhao didn't understand her. Perhaps it was just because Ji Cunxi needed her protection at the moment. But an Alpha with double S mental strength was definitely not weak. Xu Lingzhao suddenly opened his eyes and pulled the drowsy Ji Cunxi up from the ground. He kept retreating. He saw two desert snakes crawling out of the ground, intertwined, flicking their tongues and staring at the two of them menacingly.
These two desert snakes had red eyes, their scales stood up, and a huge spike at the end of their tails, long enough to easily strangle them both. They were A-level insectoids.
Xu Lingzhao shielded Ji Cunxi behind him, picked up his pulse rifle and aimed it at the desert snakes, but they seemed to anticipate his movements and nimbly dodged. Xu Lingzhao stared into their eyes, using his mental power to suppress their movements, and then took out the dagger from his waist and cut off the desert snakes' extra-long forked tongues.
Dodging the bite of another, Xu Lingzhao kicked the head of a desert snake, sidestepped the attack of its tail spike, and when he saw the right moment, he inserted the pulse rifle into the mouth of the desert snake whose tongue had been cut off. With a "bang", it fell to the ground. Meanwhile, the other desert snake attacked Ji Cunxi. Just as it was about to pounce on Ji Cunxi...
Xu Lingzhao raised a mental barrier around Ji Cunxi, causing the desert snake to miss its target. Xu Lingzhao then picked up his rifle, aimed at its head, and killed it instantly. The desert snake fell to the ground. Ji Cunxi, who witnessed all of this, was still somewhat shaken. She stared at Xu Lingzhao in disbelief, her eyes blinking rapidly, her mouth agape: "You're so strong! You wouldn't be...!"
"You're a hidden master, aren't you! How much is your mental strength...? 3S?"
“Double S.” Xu Lingzhao said succinctly, “Less than 3S.” She dug out the crystal cores of the two desert snakes and put them in her backpack. If it weren’t for the exercise, Xu Lingzhao would have instantly killed the two snakes. Since she had the Origin, she could disguise herself very well. She spoke nonsense without changing her expression or skipping a beat.
"Why am I so weak even though I'm also a double S? I thought you were a 3S." Ji Cunxi pouted as she followed behind Xu Lingzhao. "Where are we going now?"
“We’re not going there. We’ll just sleep here. After killing these two desert serpents, the other insectoids won’t dare to come anymore.” Xu Lingzhao walked to the withered tree and sat down, continuing to close her eyes and rest. Ji Cunxi sat down next to her, her tone melancholy: “How much longer until we can get out of the desert planet?! ahhhhh!”
"Stop howling and go to sleep." Xu Lingzhao was too lazy to open her eyes. After a long while, she felt a head pressing on her shoulder, and heard steady breathing. Xu Lingzhao thought about how to get out of the desert star every day. She wondered how Chu Jingze was doing and if he missed her. Xu Lingzhao sighed silently. In order to infiltrate the rebel army, she couldn't even bring a pocket watch with Chu Jingze's picture on it. To be precise, she didn't have any communication tools.
The desert at night was terrifying, but Xu Lingzhao recalled the two times she had narrowly escaped death on the desert planet. Hmm... it was because of that crisis that she and Chu Jingze had the opportunity to be together. Thinking of this, a smile unconsciously appeared on her lips.
Xu Lingzhao noticed that there was only one person following them, or rather, following Ji Cunxi.
A note from the author:
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[Rainbow fart][Rainbow fart] Double update! [Rainbow fart]
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