Chapter 301: 233, time waits for no one

“Can you tell me who your disciple is?” the old man asked while lying in the hospital bed.

Uncle Li Dong shook his head, “No, he already has his own path now, and he is doing quite well. There’s no need to expose him to the world so soon.”

“Look at me, I’m practically in the grave. As a son, can’t you fulfill even this small wish of your father?” the old man spoke softly, “The old man just wants to know what his little grandson is called and what he looks like. What harm could there be in that?”

“Don’t play that game,” Uncle Li Dong raised his eyebrows, “it’s pointless to do so in front of me.”

“He must be quite young, aren’t you afraid he might die prematurely?” the old man asked, “Nowadays, it’s not peaceful within the Federation, Deer Island and Jindai have already stationed troops in the north, and a civil war might break out at any moment. I know Knights tend to rely on themselves, but times are different. If no one protects him, he will truly die in these troubled times. Not just him, you might die too.”

Uncle Li Dong remained silent.

Many had said that even a Demigod was not invincible.

They spoke out of fear, but their words were indeed true.

For instance, eight years ago, if the Lee family hadn’t intervened, Scepter No. would likely have killed Uncle Li Dong under the onslaught of the main firepower electromagnetic cannon.

The pace of human technological advancement is so rapid that even Demigods need to avoid its cutting edge.

It wasn’t just Scepter No., in fact, every major corporation had its own trump cards, prepared for the assassination potential of a Demigod.

One could even say that the earlier part of the Federation’s arms race was based on Demigods as benchmarks.

The corporations either cultivated their own Demigods or researched weapons potent enough to kill one, without exception.

Just as after the advent of nuclear weapons in the Outer World, everyone researched how to blanket the Earth with nuclear bombs.

When something threatening your life appears, all you can think about is how to deal with it.

For example, the Aerial Fortress ‘Scepter No.’ was born out of this necessity, with its ability to strike with pinpoint accuracy from 180 kilometers away without the need for mid-course guidance.

Moreover, there are not just one thing in this world capable of killing a Demigod.

The era has truly changed; humanity has now obtained weapons capable of slaying gods.

Uncle Li Dong felt this profoundly.

The old man looked at Uncle Li Dong, “Will you take him with you to the north this time?”

“No,” Uncle Li Dong shook his head, “He’s growing faster than imagined and doesn’t need me to teach him deliberately anymore.”

“Since you won’t take him, then leave him to me,” the old man said with a smile, “Don’t worry, although he isn’t one of our Lee Family, I won’t treat him differently.”

“No,” Uncle Li Dong raised his eyebrows.

“Then leave a legacy for the Lee family before you go,” the old man was no longer willing to back down, “Either leave a bloodline or leave a legacy. Your master took you as an apprentice because he promised to take on a student from the Lee family. Otherwise, do you think it would have been your turn?”

Uncle Li Dong became angry, “My master took me as his disciple because he saw my effort, what does it have to do with you?!”

“I don’t care,” the old man shook his head.

Uncle Li Dong thought for a moment, “I promise you, some day when a new generation of leader among the Knights rises, he must also take a disciple from the Lee family, of course, there has to be someone from the Lee family who can meet the Knight’s standard of conscience.”

“Good, that’s settled then,” the old man, having achieved his goal, slowly closed his eyes, “I’m tired, you can go now.”

Uncle Li Dong was indifferent to the old man’s attitude, and he was somewhat puzzled, “You’re not stopping me from taking action? You should know, what I do is not beneficial to the corporations, and the Lee family is one of them.”

The old man spoke leisurely, “There’s no second youth in life, and there’s no rebloom for flowers. Do what you want to do before you grow old, otherwise the latter half of your life will be full of regrets and you’ll have trouble sleeping.”

“Well… it’s not that urgent,” said Uncle Li Dong after thinking it over, “After all, I age slowly.”

“Get out.”

…

…

Return countdown 110:00:00.

On the morning of the third day through, at 10 o’clock, Qing Chen was at home, re-securing bandages and splints around his chest and abdomen to avoid further injury to his two broken ribs.

As he moved, the pain from the broken ribs caused a fine layer of sweat to form on his forehead.

In the room, Yee thought for a moment and said, “You really don’t have to push yourself so hard, for a Liu Dezhu, venturing out so soon again, is it worth it? If you want any information, you can make a deal with me. Although I can’t help much, I can still offer a little bit of info, like when the various societies are going to move against the Heng Society.”

“I don’t want to make deals with you anymore, it never ends well,” Qing Chen responded emotionlessly, “And it’s not for Liu Dezhu, but for myself, and for that set of Genetic Potions. The remaining seven life-and-death challenges all require long periods of training before attempting, so before I can confidently make a breakthrough, I need to enhance my ability to handle crises.”

Ultimately, Qing Chen needed Liu Dezhu’s abilities both to protect him and to act as a bridge to the Outer World.

Yee thought for a moment and then said, “Then there’s no need to rush, resting for another two weeks is always possible.”

Qing Chen shook his head, “Time waits for no one.”

At that moment, a black hover car slowly stopped at the 67th floor of the Luo Shen Building, just as a light rail train passed through the building from the platform on the 66th floor below.

In the parking lot on the 67th floor, several people noticed the auspicious cloud emblem on the black hover car and immediately kept their distance.

Everyone knew it was a Li Family car.

A man got out of the car but did not leave; instead, he stood quietly beside the car, arms crossed in front of him in a waiting posture, his back straight.

His stance was as rigid as a javelin, clearly indicating his military elite background from the Federal Group.

There were many such individuals in various financial consortia. They had excelled in active Federal service, were afterward recruited by these consortia, and drew high salaries to enter various secretive security companies, serving the consortia under the guise of security personnel.

The Federal Charter did not permit consortia to have their own armies, but they could own security companies, which, upon receiving approved qualifications, were legally entitled to bear arms.

There was never a place without loopholes, and consortia were best at finding a drillable hole in the long levee, then watching the levee fail.

Two minutes later, a young man dressed in a white tracksuit emerged from the elevator and approached the hover car, “Have you been waiting long?”

“No, I just waited for two minutes, and it’s not even the time we agreed upon; you’ve come down early,” Li Changqing’s subordinate, in charge of picking up Qing Chen, said. He had been working in consortium security for over two years and it was the first time he encountered someone who arrived ahead of schedule.

After Qing Chen boarded the car, the security personnel spoke into his communicator, “I’ve picked up the person, now returning, please confirm the pass code for the halfway mountain manor.”

Inside the southwest pavilion of the halfway mountain manor, Lao Liu limped into the room and called to Li Changqing through the door, “Boss, the person has been picked up.”

Li Changqing thought for a moment then sent a message to the arsonist with a burning heart, “I thought you were seriously injured and would rest for a while; why did you come to be my bodyguard so soon? Do you miss me that much?”

The arsonist with a burning heart replied, “Time waits for no one.”

Yi pondered, she just replied using Qing Chen’s original words; that shouldn’t be considered causing any trouble, right?

Then, Li Changqing suddenly asked, “Becoming my bodyguard, what compensation do you expect?”

Yi silently calculated, then replied, “What do you think?”

Li Changqing responded, “As far as I know, you use the FDE Genetic Potion. Fortunately, I manage this sequence of the Li Family’s Genetic Potions. You should also be aware that FDE-003, 002, 001 can no longer be bought on the outside.”

Yi: “So?”

“In half a month, the laboratory will produce this year’s 12 sets of Genetic Potion quotas. I’ll reserve one set for you as compensation, how about that?” Li Changqing sent the message with a smile.

Yi: “Okay, but don’t shortchange the money.”

It’s not that Yi was overly greedy; she mainly worried that without money, Qing Chen, who was insistent on funding, wouldn’t cooperate with her in the act.

“Don’t worry, you won’t earn less than what you get from boxing matches,” Li Changqing said. “However, if I said, choose between me and the Genetic Potion, what would you choose?”

Yi answered seriously and sincerely, “I choose the Genetic Potion, thank you.”

Li Changqing felt conflicted as he wondered why the arsonist with a burning heart was not using any sweet-talk today? This was somewhat uncharacteristic…

But that wasn’t a big problem.

For Yi, fun was fun, trouble was trouble; serious matters were not a joke.

Although she was playful, she was clear that the Genetic Potion was urgently needed by Qing Chen. With it, even if Qing Chen abandoned Liu Dezhu, he could quickly cultivate a B-Class cadre around him.

Even though each injection of the Genetic Potion required an interval of one month, and the interval between administering 002 and then 001 was even longer.

Yet, this at least provided a very stable path for advancement. Regardless of whom Qing Chen gave the Genetic Potion, becoming a B-Class was just a matter of time.

No more than eight months.

In the Federation Army, one would at least need the rank of Colonel and secretly pledge loyalty to the consortium to possibly receive Genetic Potion numbers 001 and 002. Once obtaining the Genetic Potion, from then on, one’s life was indebted to the consortium.

It was only because Yi directly dealt with the person in charge of the Genetic Potion for Qing Chen, that the matter seemed especially straightforward.

The Knight’s challenge was perilously dangerous. If detected, interference could occur. Chen Jiazhang had suffered the absence of a Protector previously, being forced to his present plight at the sixth challenge.

Had there been a C-Class Liu Dezhu and another B-Class Expert as Protector, Qing Chen likely would not have followed the same troubled path as his master, Chen Jiazhang.

At that moment, Yi sent the conditions she had negotiated with Li Changqing to Qing Chen, so he was informed of the details.

Dozens of minutes later, the hover car slowly stopped outside the halfway mountain manor. Qing Chen underwent a thorough search before Lao Liu personally led him inside.

Limping ahead, Lao Liu instructed, “Remember, whenever you come here, weapons are not allowed. Moreover, we can only move around in the southwest pavilion; entering other areas unauthorised could most likely result in being chopped up and fed to dogs.”

…

There was a power outage at my home until now, which was really frustrating. Another update will follow later.

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