Rewards

The next day, a military aircraft quietly touched down at the barracks outside Silver City. Yu Xian and Zhang Shou received a message from Jin Sheng right after school. Driving through two security checkpoints, they made their way smoothly into the military base. "Captain!" Yu Xian and Zhang Shou called out in unison the moment they stepped into a building on the base and saw Jin Sheng. Jin Sheng was alone in the room. He looked the same as ever, projecting the aura of standing directly before the blazing sun—fiery, imposing, a lion among men. He looked at the two of them and smiled. "I thought I'd be stuck in Yanjing for half a year, but you two went and performed another major service. Still, with such a mixed crowd of witnesses this time, headquarters quickly sent me back to look out for you." "Look out for us?" Yu Xian looked intrigued. Jin Sheng nodded. Wiping away his smile, he looked at Yu Xian with a grave expression. "The international struggle in the realm of the Transcendent has never stopped. You made quite a splash the day before yesterday. Don't think that just because you wore armor, nobody will figure out who you are. Hostile foreign powers may already view you as a massive future threat and want nothing more than to eliminate you as quickly as possible." The simplest method for foreign factions to infiltrate the country was to bestow Transcendent powers upon certain ordinary people, using various contracts and death curses to keep them firmly under control. Many spies had actually fallen into the trap out of sheer greed, eventually being forced to risk their lives in service to their handlers. Aside from gathering intelligence, such spies were usually tasked with strangling budding geniuses before they could rise. Yu Xian's battle with Zhou Tai had been so intense; even though Yu Xian had spent the entire fight running and dodging, the fact that he had survived at all was already remarkable. That was more than enough to draw the attention of foreign adversaries. "Holy crap, doesn't that mean Salty Fish is in huge danger?" Zhang Shou said worriedly after listening to Jin Sheng. Jin Sheng replied calmly, "That's why I came back early, isn't it? Right, as for what you two wanted... Now, attention!" The two snapped to attention at once, chests puffed out and heads held high as they looked at Jin Sheng. With a solemn look, Jin Sheng took out a box, withdrew the medal inside, and looked earnestly at Yu Xian. "Following review and appraisal by Qilin headquarters, Comrade Yu Xian played a crucial role in the Silver City incident, successfully sabotaging the aberrant worms' infiltration scheme, and contributed significantly during the aberrant worm riot. Hereby, on behalf of Qilin headquarters, I award you the First-Class Merit Medal in recognition of your outstanding contributions and remarkable achievements!" In that moment, Yu Xian's eyes grew slightly moist. As Jin Sheng pinned the medal to his chest, he gave a crisp, forceful salute, and Jin Sheng immediately returned it. Next, Zhang Shou also received a Second-Class Merit Medal. After conferring the medals, Jin Sheng handed each of them a storage ring. Yu Xian also found that his ring contained one hundred jin of silver. "Originally, the commendation ceremony was supposed to wait until the two of you went to headquarters," Jin Sheng told them. "But given the current situation, as you know, the research department has confirmed that Zhou Tai has acquired the ability to awaken the bloodlines of Transcendent creatures. We absolutely cannot give him any more time, so moving forward, our schedule will be extremely tight." Zhang Shou's eyes widened. "Don't tell me you're in charge of eliminating Zhou Tai, Captain?" "No. This operation will be directed on-site by General Zhao Yi from headquarters. Every military base across Silver City, Rongcheng, Xiangcheng, Jiangcheng, and Huacheng will seal off an area of thirteen thousand eight hundred li centered on Doghead Gold Mountain. Then, all members of our Evil-Slaying Squad, along with the Wickedness-Cleaving Squad, Crime-Purging Squad, and Monster-Slaying Squad, will assemble and enter the containment zone from different directions to exterminate all aberrant worms and suspicious creatures," Jin Sheng answered. Yu Xian and Zhang Shou were both taken aback upon hearing this. This was definitely a massive operation. "All right, Dead Doctor, step outside for a bit. I have a few words for Salty Fish," Jin Sheng added, glancing at Zhang Shou. Zhang Shou was startled for a second, then nodded and left. "Captain, what is it that Old Zhang can't hear?" Yu Xian asked curiously as he watched the door close behind Zhang Shou. An envious expression crossed Jin Sheng's face. "I don't know what kind of dumb luck you have, but headquarters actually agreed to your request." With that, he walked over to the desk and picked up an alloy briefcase resting on it. After entering a series of passcodes and verifying his identity, the briefcase slowly clicked open, causing the temperature throughout the entire room to drop in an instant. Yu Xian looked inside the briefcase to find a pen-style injector. "This is the Pangu's Blood you requested. After thorough consideration, Qilin headquarters decided to approve your application. You are to inject it right now, right in front of me. This is a top-tier treasure that even the Progenitor of the Blood Clan couldn't get his hands on," Jin Sheng introduced. He was genuinely envious. To obtain a single drop of Pangu's Blood, he had not only drained his life savings but had also taken on a staggering mountain of debt. Yet Yu Xian had obtained it outright without having to owe a single cent. "Um... Captain, can't I just suck it out with my fangs?" Yu Xian asked somewhat sheepishly, looking at the Pangu's Blood inside the pen injector. He was really just purely curious about what Pangu's Blood tasted like; he had no intention of injecting it at all. Seeing Yu Xian's drooling, gluttonous look, Jin Sheng felt his temples throb. He pinched the bridge of his nose and snapped exasperatedly, "Do you have any idea that injecting Pangu's Blood will most likely strengthen your bloodline abilities and even eliminate some of your weaknesses?" If Yu Xian injected Pangu's Blood into his body, he would likely transform from an ordinary vampire into a super vampire, gaining many abilities vampires didn't possess. Moreover, Yu Xian was currently still weak to garlic, crucifixes, and holy-attribute energy. After injecting Pangu's Blood, he stood a very good chance of reducing one or two of those weaknesses. By that point, short of relying on overwhelming force to crush him with absolute violence, it would be extremely difficult to harm him through tricky exploits. "But I still want to taste what it's like. After all, I am a vampire," Yu Xian replied, not changing his mind in the slightest after hearing Jin Sheng out. His talents had been awakening so rapidly that there was no telling when he might awaken bizarre talents like 'Garlic Blood,' 'Crucifix Eater,' or 'Holy Energy Absorber.' Thus, he didn't care about these mere few weaknesses at all. Furthermore, he knew very well that after succeeding with this application, it would be extraordinarily difficult to apply for it again in the future. As Jin Sheng's current situation demonstrated, securing it through merit was overwhelmingly difficult. Opportunity knocked but once. He had to taste it and find out what made Pangu's Blood different from ordinary blood. Seeing how unyielding Yu Xian was, Jin Sheng squeezed his eyes shut with a headache. Only after quite a while did he sigh and say, "Fine. Pangu's Blood was rewarded to you by headquarters anyway, so how you use it is your own business. As long as you don't leave this room, do whatever you like with it." "Thank you, Captain!" Yu Xian said eagerly at once. Watching Yu Xian pick up the pen injector, Jin Sheng hesitated a moment before saying, "Since you've made up your mind, make sure you don't regret it." "Yeah, no regrets whatsoever!" Yu Xian nodded. Then, pressing the pen injector against his fangs, he pushed down slightly. As the blood welled out, he instinctively drew the surging fluid into his mouth. Once the Pangu's Blood was absorbed into his body, he began to grow drunk on blood, while his heart—which had long since ceased beating—began to pound furiously.