Any Changes in Your Body?

The Svalbard archipelago lay within the Arctic Circle, its scattered islands arranged like splayed petals floating upon the Arctic Ocean. Among its permanent population of fewer than three thousand, the vast majority were miners or researchers—or at least appeared to be. Whether traveling legally or slipping in under the radar, coming and going from Svalbard was remarkably easy. As long as you had a way to reach it, the actual enforcement afterward was not strict in the slightest. A "Doomsday Seed Vault" was being planned here, built to standards capable of withstanding carpet nuclear strikes to preserve the embers of survival. If one day the world suffered a cataclysm, it would supply what was needed for humanity's revival. It was late August, and the midnight sun of Svalbard was drawing to an end. Starting in September, it would plunge into the long polar night—a season of dazzling auroral lights. Spitsbergen. Low, grayish-yellow hills sloped downward, meeting the waters of the Arctic Ocean and the glaciers floating upon them. A man in his thirties, wearing a grayish-yellow shirt and jeans, sat on a wooden stump by the shore. The fishing rod in his hands stretched quietly out toward the Arctic Ocean. His expression was rapt, his hair slightly wavy; it seemed to have been parted in the middle originally, but from neglect, it now looked somewhat untamed. Suddenly, a splash echoed. A polar bear swam ashore, shook off the water, and lumbered toward him from his left, one heavy step after another. The white bear walked unhurriedly, yet its gaze was persistent. Like a poacher caught red-handed, the man slumped in resignation. Looking down at the tin bucket beside him, he reached in and pulled out three herrings and a cod one after another, tossing them over. Then he held his hands out, empty, indicating he had surrendered everything. Unfortunately, the polar bear didn't buy it and continued staring at him. Helpless, the man turned the tin bucket upside down, shaking it up and down right in front of the beast to show him... all while secretly pinning his biggest catch of the day, a large cod, against the bottom with his fingertips. At last, the polar bear ambled off. The man grinned cheerfully, thoroughly pleased that his petty trick had succeeded. "Lucius says he won't come here to meet you, Ye." The voice came from thirty meters behind him and to the side, where two muscular men with Latino features had been standing for a while. "Why? Is he that afraid of me?" Ye Jian asked with a smile, his English far more fluent than theirs. Afraid? As Lucius's subordinates, that was something they could never admit. One of the Latino men stiffened his neck. "Lucius is of equal rank with you. He has no need to obey your orders." The Lucius he spoke of was the leader of Moss, a branch of Snow Lotus. In terms of rank, Lucius and Ye Jian were indeed equals. Except the branch Ye Jian led, Hidden Snow, was the foremost armed force in Snow Lotus. And on top of that, Ye Jian was Ye Jian. "What did you say?" Ye Jian turned his head and asked. "..." Meeting his eyes, the Latino man lost the courage to repeat himself. "Oh, equal rank, right," Ye Jian gave a faint smile. "Except when one person can hack the other to death within two strikes, that concept ceases to exist between them." The two Latino men glanced at each other, still not daring to make a sound. So Lucius was dead set on staying in hiding. Ye Jian pondered helplessly, muttering, "Whatever." Then he picked up a dossier by his feet and tossed it toward the two men. The document, consisting of just two sheets of paper, glided swiftly and steadily through the wind before landing squarely in the Latino man's hands. "Tell Lucius that Azure left behind a Great Spike mothership on Xilang Peak. The seizure plan commences... the sabotage plan on standby." "Yes." The Latino man hurriedly put away the document. Meanwhile, Ye Jian packed up his fishing rod—which hadn't caught another thing—and stood up. Lifting his tin bucket and his remaining cod, he said, "By the way, tell Lucius one more thing. Have him remember never to attack medical stations, wounded soldiers, or medical personnel again." In truth, Lucius had avoided meeting Ye Jian precisely because of this; he had been the mastermind behind the attack on Medical Station 101. "That was all for Snow Lotus, for the spacecraft technology... So watch your stance, Ye!" A woman in tight black leather clothes and pants, looking twenty-seven or twenty-eight, stepped out from behind a massive boulder in a sultry, curvaceous stride, speaking with a coquettish gaze. "Then go rob them directly. Go attack the Azure Council. Go face Azure's supers head-on." Ye Jian glanced back at the female super named Courtney, turned around, and continued forward, affecting composure. "We will. You won't be disappointed. But what about you? You don't look like you're preparing to join the assault on Xilang Peak," Courtney continued from behind. Ye Jian turned around again. "Do you want to switch?" Courtney looked puzzled. "Hmm?" "My job this time is to help pin down Chen Buer and that old monk for you... to openly provoke the entire Huaxia Front while Huaxia is holding its All-Army Conference. So, do you want to switch?" "..." Courtney fell silent. Directly provoking the entire Huaxia Front during its All-Army Conference? No, absolutely not. That was something only Ye Jian could do. Moreover, neither of the two men Ye Jian had just mentioned were people she could survive encountering. If either of them showed up at Xilang Peak, they would be an invincible force. "By the way, where are you staying tonight?" Having zoned out for a moment, Courtney snapped her head up to find Ye Jian's back already far in the distance, and she called out anxiously. "None of your fucking business!" Ye Jian seemed to sense something. Stopping in his tracks, he first muttered a curse in Chinese under his breath, and only then adopted an airy demeanor: "Sleeping together once was enough, Miss Courtney... That wasn't love." With that, he picked up his pace and made a flustered exit from the coast. "So you're scared, Ye?!" Courtney's voice drifted from afar, followed by a burst of smug, tantalizing laughter. "Damn psycho," Ye Jian muttered under his breath. During the only time they had hooked up, Courtney had suggested: *Since we're both supers, why don't we turn on our devices and give it a try?* Curious, Ye Jian had agreed. He couldn't walk the next day. …… "Uncle Tian hasn't really given up yet," Wen Jifei said, lowering his waving hand as the figures on the ground faded from view. Turning back, he said, "He pulled me aside earlier and asked if we could leave Brother Tian's gear with him. Said he wanted to give it a try." "...Yeah." The people on the helicopter lapsed into silence one by one. That request was something they could never agree to. While the leakage of Azure gear was difficult to prevent, actively leaving a set behind for a civilian was out of the question. Besides, if they didn't bring the gear back, it would be hard to clear Tian Jiao's name. During the two days they spent with the Tian family, Han Qingyu and the other three rarely saw Old Man Tian display much overt fatherly affection; even in his grief, he was quiet and restrained. Yet an elderly peasant who seemed calm throughout had secretly made up his mind long ago. It was a fight to the death—a desperate vengeance an old soldier and father intended to pursue. Amid the silence, the helicopter banked, flying off in a different direction. Their destination on this leg was the Fourth Army headquarters base, where they would transfer to a Fourth Army aircraft and, along with several others, travel to the Sole Witness Legion headquarters. "Rusty Sister... Rusty Sister? Shen Yixiu... Iron Chick, Bucket Girl?" Shen Yixiu, who had just cried her eyes out, was silently staring out the window. Perhaps due to the engine noise, she didn't hear Han Qingyu despite him calling out several times. Left with no choice, Han Qingyu reached out and rapped twice on Rusty Sister's chest. *Thump, thump.* "Huh? You..." Rusty Sister turned around, glanced down in a momentary daze, and then snapped her head up, barking furiously, "Han Qingyu!" It was laced with pure fury. Normally, when Rusty Sister didn't call him Qingzi and instead used Han Qingyu's full name, it meant she was truly angry. "What's wrong?" Han Qingyu looked baffled for a second, then had an epiphany. "Oh, so you heard me call you Bucket Girl earlier?! Ha, it's not like I called you that right off the bat. You were ignoring me on purpose..." "..." Rusty Sister glared at him, clenching her metal fists until they clicked and crunched. "You idiot! Think about where you just knocked on her!" Unable to watch any longer, Wen Jifei leaned in and whispered in Han Qingyu's ear. *Where did I knock?* Han Qingyu thought back and said casually, "Her chest, why? I kicked Rusty Sister before... and slapped her..." Memories flooded his mind of when they first met, when a kick to the crotch and a slap to the rear had triggered a berserk robot rampage... Han Qingyu instantly cowered. "My bad, Rusty Sister, I was really wrong... Wait, wait, wait, we're on a helicopter! If you start swinging, you might flip the whole thing over!" With great difficulty, Han Qingyu managed to coax the robot back from the brink of a berserk frenzy. Feeling guilty, he quickly steered the conversation away: "Actually, I wanted to ask—now that you're carrying that bone around, does it react under normal circumstances?" "...No," Rusty Sister replied, shaking her head and still seeming somewhat absentminded. "Is that so? If I'd known, I would've pried off that iron case and hauled it away too," Han Qingyu said regretfully. "How about we go back and steal it?" Shen Yixiu shook her head. "No, there's no need to steal it, and we don't need the iron case. I've thought about it, and the bone probably only works when I'm injured." The first time Rusty Sister came into contact with the jade bone was on the Great Spike mothership. At that time, the white light lasted for less than two minutes before stopping on its own. Later, Shen Yixiu recalled that the fresh injuries she had sustained during the mountain assault had healed just right then. Then the second time, the jade bone took effect after she and Wu Xu helped Han Qingyu intercept the swarm of blue-sheened Great Spikes. Once the fight ended, the jade bone spontaneously released energy from the source energy storage compartment inside her iron armor, once again mending her fresh wounds. She recounted the details of both incidents. After listening, Han Qingyu mulled it over and sighed in disappointment. "Then it's kind of useless... I mean, healing injuries is great and all, but why does it only heal fresh ones?" He shifted his gaze to Rusty Sister. He had thought this might be the breakthrough that would finally allow her to break free of her iron armor. Finding out its healing was limited to this left him inevitably disheartened. "What about your body itself? Do you feel any changes?" Unwilling to give up, Han Qingyu pressed on. If the jade bone could treat her old injuries while repairing fresh wounds—even just a tiny bit—it would be worth it. "..." Rusty Sister looked at him without speaking, seemingly hesitating or reflecting. "Are there?!" Han Qingyu urged, brimming with anticipation. "...No. Ugh, stop asking, you're annoying!" Rusty Sister turned her head away and resumed silently gazing out the window, ignoring him completely. In truth, there was a change. And Rusty Sister had only just realized it moments ago. In the past, when Han Qingyu kicked her in the crotch or slapped her rear, her furious reactions had stemmed entirely from psychological shame... Her body hadn't actually felt anything back then. Just now, however, when Han Qingyu knocked on her chest, his knuckles had struck a particular spot, and her body felt something... A sensation completely foreign, bizarre, and utterly baffling. That was why she had frozen in shock before flying into a rage. *But how could I ever say that out loud? I can't,* Rusty Sister thought to herself. "If only there were, even just a little, sigh," Han Qingyu muttered to himself nearby, sounding thoroughly regretful. "That way, I could beat you up every day for no good reason and injure you. Wouldn't that be great?"