Chapter Seventeen: Infighting and... Live Pigs

“What?” Li Qinghai was about to ask for clarification, perplexed, when suddenly the cell door swung open and three men strode in, moving with a commanding presence. They were none other than Guo Yixian and his companions, the so-called inspection team in name only.

Their searching gazes swept past the idling prisoners and settled directly on Yuan Liming and Li Qinghai, who were themselves a little unsure of the situation.

Stopping at the threshold, Guo Yixian spoke. “Yuan Liming?”

Yuan Liming frowned. “You don’t look like locals… what do you want with me?”

Guo Yixian replied, “I’m with a central government inspection team… but let’s skip the formalities. All you need to know is that our mission is to apprehend the ogre and that group of terrorists.”

Yuan Liming sprang to his feet. “There’s an organization like that under the central government? Wait—if you can just waltz in here, are you with the central government, or the military?”

The civil service clique ruled the provinces almost like their own fiefdoms; the central government’s voice rarely reached this far. Still, if the central authorities dispatched envoys, they could not be ignored.

The National Army of Tianjing, owing to certain historical factors, had always stood apart from political influence—a state-level force, aloof and unyielding, never seeking alliances, nor allowing itself to be courted. It remained quietly entrenched in its bases, like a pride of sleeping lions and tigers.

Li Zhicheng let out a soft laugh. “To be precise, the military answers to us.”

Li Qinghai quietly stepped aside, well aware that this conversation was now beyond him.

Yuan Liming raised his voice. “That’s quite a claim. You outrank the military? If you’re so powerful, let me out and prove it.”

Li Zhicheng walked up to Yuan Liming, meeting his gaze through the iron bars.

Yuan Liming pressed on, taunting, “What, can’t do it? Then why are you here wasting my time?”

Li Zhicheng gripped the bars with both hands. “What’s so difficult about that?”

As soon as he finished speaking, he gave a slight twist. The steel bars screeched in protest as they bent, four centimeters thick and forged from solid steel, now forced open by nothing but the strength of his hands, leaving a gap wide enough for a person to pass through.

Yuan Liming and Li Qinghai stared, dumbfounded. “Holy—!”

Though these small prison cells didn’t abide by strict quality standards, the bars were solid steel—yet here they were, twisted apart by bare hands. If that kind of strength were unleashed elsewhere, it would be truly terrifying.

Yuan Liming wiped the corner of his mouth, then squeezed through the gap between the twisted bars. He glanced back at the clear palm prints left in the warped steel, lost for words. “What… is this? Magic? Superpowers? Sorcery? Are you the Terminator or Optimus Prime?”

Li Zhicheng replied with pride, “We are Pulse Adepts—seekers of the Heavenly Way, and the eternal guardians of Tianjing.”

Yuan Liming’s mouth twitched; he was skeptical, but he knew there was no point in arguing now.

Guo Yixian’s tone grew serious. “Yuan Liming, you’re a talent who can help us, which is why we’ve told you all this. Now make your choice: will you rot quietly in this cell, or come with us and fight, risking your life for something greater?”

He drew a deep breath. “Fine. That night was the greatest stain on my life. If you dare give me the authority, I’ll do everything I can to catch those people for you.”

Guo Yixian smiled, seeing the stubbornness and fury in the man before him—excellent fuel for what lay ahead.

“No problem. In this place, no one outranks us. We want no part of political struggles, but you’re useful to us now. From this moment, you are the chief of public security here, with the highest authority.”

Che Juchen, who had been silent all this time, narrowed his eyes, a blade-like glint flashing within. “First, let’s deal with those rats who dared fire guns in Tianjing.”

Li Zhicheng laughed heartily. “The bioengineered soldiers from the Amest Federation—I’ve been wanting to meet them for a long time.”

Guo Yixian hesitated. “Since the World War fifty years ago, we and Amest have kept to our own affairs. For them to show up here now, it must mean the situation is dire, or they’ve found a way to deal with Pulse Adepts.”

Pulse Adepts were Tianjing’s most secret and powerful force, their strategic deterrence exceeding even that of a modern army. It was thanks to them that, after the civil war thirty years prior, Tianjing could confidently maintain its status as a major power.

It might seem like a minor skirmish, but the implications were grave.

A storm was brewing.

A storm was brewing, and dark currents surged beneath the surface. Even Adonsa, that stubborn stone at the bottom of the sea, could not remain unmoved.

At every moment, it raced with relentless efficiency along the path of evolution.

Adonsa’s offshoots were multiplying at a rapid pace, but its most valuable proxy remained the mysterious figure who had seized an opportunity to infiltrate Jin City’s Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Group.

Macro-spectrum analyzers, PCR gene amplification machines, vacuum centrifugal concentrators, flow cytometers, autoclaves…

The laboratory at Jin City Pharmaceutical was outfitted with internationally certified, top-tier equipment, second only to the Central University’s biological research institute. Losses from equipment and reagents alone exceeded ten thousand yuan a day.

If the lab were rented, a daily price of a hundred thousand yuan would not be an exaggeration, and that was just for wear and tear—not counting the cost of various raw materials.

Those rare extracts and target elements fetched astronomical prices on the international market.

After Adonsa demonstrated its value, Bai Jincheng chose to trust rather than doubt, bestowing the highest rank and forcibly reallocating the most advanced laboratory for Adonsa’s use, even assigning a team of top graduates to assist. People began to suspect that Adonsa was Bai Jincheng’s long-lost son.

But Bai Jincheng was no fool to be manipulated by anyone holding leverage over him. Everything he had given Adonsa could be revoked in an instant, and every experiment was carefully recorded—no chance of the “hen laying eggs and taking them away herself.”

If Adonsa insisted on excessive secrecy, it would cross Bai Jincheng’s bottom line—a bad outcome for both sides.

To tolerate such a lone wolf roaming the most confidential of laboratories, Bai Jincheng was indeed a bold capitalist.

But for Adonsa, this was enough.

Before Adonsa could begin its formal research project, it needed to catch up systematically with the human technology tree.

It had once devoured a senior researcher from Jin City Group, gleaning not only Bai Jincheng’s weaknesses but also fragments of biological knowledge—enough to form a basic foundation, but not nearly sufficient.