DLWAV CH161

Four days later, Ao Ruize successfully refined a batch of the antidote for the Heart of Claire.

Seeing the laboratory door open, Gao Zong, who had been waiting outside for ages, rushed straight in.

The moment his eyes fell on the barrel of green liquid on the lab bench, his breathing quickened considerably.

Yet before he could walk over, an arm suddenly swung out sideways, blocking his path.

Gao Zong instinctively turned his head to look.

And there was Ao Ruize standing right behind the door.

Most importantly, in the very next second, Ao Ruize raised his hand and shut the laboratory door.

Gao Zong: “…”

Gao Zong instinctively took a step back.

Sure enough, at almost the exact same moment, Ao Ruize’s voice rang out: “Director Gao, I have already formulated the antidote.”

He held up four fingers and wiggled them: “It took me four whole days, you know.”

Then his gaze fell directly onto Gao Zong’s lips: “So shouldn’t Director Gao also grant me a little reward?”

If anyone asked, it was simply that he couldn’t hold back anymore.

After all, with his wife strolling back and forth right under his nose every single day, who could possibly resist?

The composure on Gao Zong’s face instantly crumbled once more.

Naturally, he had no desire to pay Ao Ruize any mind.

However, he worried even more that if he didn’t satisfy Ao Ruize, Ao Ruize would pull some other dirty trick.

At this thought, he glanced at the antidote on the lab bench not far away, gritted his teeth, stepped forward directly, grabbed Ao Ruize’s collar, pulled his head down, and tilted his chin up to kiss him.

The instant his lips brushed against the corner of Ao Ruize’s mouth, Gao Zong’s hand couldn’t help tightening its grip.

Then he froze.

Of course he wanted to let go of Ao Ruize right away, yet he felt that Ao Ruize surely wanted more than just this, just like that night.

With this in mind, he held his breath once again, parted his lips, and clumsily slipped his tongue into Ao Ruize’s mouth.

Ao Ruize, who—despite struggling to hold himself back—had genuinely only been trying to beg for a simple kiss: “…”

None of that mattered anymore, though; what mattered was that when a free bargain delivered itself right to your door, there was no reason not to take full advantage of it.

Ao Ruize immediately pinned the man against the adjacent wall, capturing the offered sweetness and plundering it thoroughly…

Yet Gao Zong’s body grew increasingly scorching hot, so later on, Ao Ruize couldn’t help picking Gao Zong up, setting him down on the lab bench nearby, and tearing open his collar to help him cool off.

Perhaps overwhelmed by shame and indignation, or perhaps mindful that Zhao Mingyu and the others were still standing right outside, Gao Zong was exceptionally bashful today, both stoic and acutely sensitive.

Just like the faucet on the lab bench—after Ao Ruize let him go and went to wash his hands properly, he had barely turned the tap a few times when water burst out, splashing all over him.

Fortunately, Gao Zong’s trousers were wet too, so Ao Ruize casually pulled them off, wiped his hands dry with them, and stuffed them straight into his own pocket.

“I’ll return them to you once they’re washed clean.”

Gao Zong: “…”

Gao Zong: “…………”

Gao Zong: “………………”

Gao Zong truly felt the urge to murder Ao Ruize, his face flushed so red it looked ready to drip blood: “Get lost!”

Naturally, Ao Ruize did not obey his command, since he still had to oversee the detoxification of Perfected Master Che Yang.

Fortunately, the detoxification process unfolded much as he had anticipated. The moment the antidote was infused into Perfected Master Che Yang’s body, his frame—previously stiff as a log with breathing nearly imperceptible—began to convulse violently.

Seeing this, the two elderly professors beside the bed rushed forward, expending practically every ounce of strength they had just to hold him down.

Thankfully, within a short while, his body gradually returned to calm.

Most importantly—

“The Master’s carotid pulse has returned!”

“Visible rise and fall of the chest can be seen, and airflow is passing through the nasal cavity!”

“Blood pressure has risen to 69 mmHg!”

…

As the attending nurses announced one joyful update after another, the eyes of the two elderly professors grew brighter by the second. Knowing it was still too early to celebrate, however, they immediately grabbed over a dozen syringes, drew blood samples from various parts of Perfected Master Che Yang’s body, and rushed them to the lab.

Ten minutes later, they burst straight back into the hospital ward.

“The toxins inside Perfected Master Che Yang’s body really have been completely eradicated!”

“Wonderful!”

Everyone present couldn’t help erupting into excitement.

“Student Zhang… no, you are about to graduate, so we should address you as Mr. Zhang now. Mr. Zhang truly lives up to being a national treasure, resolving in less than a week a crisis that tens of thousands of scientists across Great Yang’s entire biochemistry sector failed to solve over several years!”

Hearing this, Gao Zong couldn’t resist casting an extra glance at Ao Ruize.

Although this guy was undeniably a scoundrel, it was equally undeniable that his capabilities were a hundred times more extraordinary than Gao Zong had imagined.

At almost the exact same time, after waving farewell to a jubilant Shen Weijie and Kong Li, Shen Xinghui resolutely shouldered his luggage and boarded the flight to Country W.

Just yesterday, Xue Jiazhi had been sentenced to ten years in prison.

Because he was still infatuated with Shen Xinghui—coupled with Shen Xinghui’s promise that once he completed his studies abroad and returned, he would find a way to secure a sentence reduction for him, and that if Xue Jiazhi were to pass away prematurely, he would take care of his parents in his stead—Xue Jiazhi never suspected Shen Xinghui in the end, and consequently never gave him up.

A day later, the plane touched down smoothly in City K of Country W.

Armed with memories from his previous life, Shen Xinghui breezed through registration, tuition payment, and housing arrangements without a single hitch.

Just as in his past life, his wealthy second-generation classmate, Strong Charles, took an interest in him at first sight.

In this lifetime, however, Shen Xinghui didn’t wait for Strong to coerce or bribe him; instead, he took the initiative, staging a minor fender-bender when Strong’s car drove past to strike up an acquaintance.

He then casually dropped several insider tips regarding the financial markets to Strong. Just as he had anticipated, the reason the Charles family remained an evergreen powerhouse in Country W’s high society was their strict standards and elite education for their heirs. Upon recognizing Shen Xinghui’s value, Strong decisively abandoned his plans to tame him and befriended him instead.

Relying on Strong’s connections, Shen Xinghui quickly changed his citizenship—because in Country W, non-citizens were subjected to a staggering forty percent personal income tax on every single cent earned.

Though he had wished to retain his original nationality, to amass greater wealth, he felt forced to naturalize as a citizen of Country W.

No matter; even after becoming a citizen of Country W, the blood flowing through his veins remained that of a son of Great Yang.

At worst, he would simply donate a bit more money back to Great Yang later on.

He subsequently “invented” a novel water heater, pocketing fifty thousand W-dollars in patent royalties, and then multiplied that sum tenfold in the stock market.

Yet that wasn’t even the highlight. Most crucially, two days later, Strong sent word that he planned to introduce him to several friends—including Zhao Xian of the Nanyang Zhao family, who had just arrived in Country W to negotiate a rubber deal with the Charles clan.

Shen Xinghui was ecstatic; he had never dreamed he would meet Zhao Xian so soon.

Still, his current net worth was far too low; he had a long way to go before he could stand on equal footing with Zhao Xian.

No problem, though. He recalled that right around these few days, Country W’s military would publicly unveil their newly developed, state-of-the-art compact solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, the “X-1″—a strategic deterrent weapon that had taken Country W ten years to develop. Once announced, the stocks of Country W’s defense contractors were guaranteed to skyrocket.

Without a second thought, Shen Xinghui poured every single penny in his possession into the stocks of the three major defense corporations involved in developing the “X-1.”

What he never anticipated, however, was what was unfolding on the other side of the globe—

The Great Yang government had learned on August 6th that the meteorites which fell from the sky over twenty years ago could be used to manufacture awakening potions capable of letting ordinary humans awaken ancient divine beast bloodlines.

First thing on the morning of August 7th, the government had eagerly launched a nationwide procurement campaign for meteorites.

By September, the state had successfully collected ninety percent of all meteorites across the country.

On that very day, the awakening potion production lines built by thousands of experts and tens of thousands of workers mobilized by the government were finally completed.

At the end of September, the first batch of one hundred thousand vials of awakening potion was officially delivered to the military.

Only then did developed foreign powers and hostile neighboring nations finally realize that something was off with Great Yang lately.

—Initially, when they heard that the Great Yang government—which struggled to pay off even ten million in foreign debt over several years—had suddenly shelled out twenty million in one breath to buy up meteorites, they had mocked Great Yang relentlessly.

After all, back then, scientists from virtually every country, including top researchers from developed nations, had concluded those meteorites possessed zero practical value.

Yet Great Yang’s scientists, over twenty years later, claimed those meteorites could be used to make chemical fertilizer.

What else could this mean except that the Great Yang government had been duped by their own incompetent scientists yet again?

Just last year, Great Yang had been fooled by those exact same charlatan scientists claiming they had discovered a method to turn water into gasoline; the government had actually believed it and convened a grand press conference…

Most absurdly, Great Yang—once a global superpower—was mobilizing the entire nation just to produce a bag of fertilizer at a time when farmers in developed countries were already operating automated harvesters and seeders—

How could they not find it laughable?

Later, they heard Great Yang had mortgaged the development rights to its largest domestic oil field to borrow thirty million from Country Q, subsequently importing several second-hand pharmaceutical production lines from Country D.

Even then, they paid it no mind, simply assuming Great Yang had pivoted its strategy to trade natural resources for economic development.

Soon after, however, spies planted within Great Yang reported that the fertilizer plants weren’t manufacturing fertilizer out of those meteorites at all; within a mere three days, all collected meteorites had been transported straight to Great Yang’s capital city.

To accomplish this, Great Yang had requisitioned practically every train and truck in the country.

Before foreign powers could dispatch additional spies to investigate, Great Yang’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs abruptly convened a massive press conference.

Inviting ambassadors from every nation holding diplomatic relations with Great Yang, alongside foreign television correspondents stationed in the country, the ministry solemnly announced three demands at the press conference:

“First, Country Y, Country X, Country F, and six other nations are hereby demanded to return all occupied islands and territorial waters belonging to Great Yang within one day. Otherwise, Great Yang will arrest all citizens of these nine nations found on said islands and within said waters on charges of illegal entry.”

“Second, LQ was formerly Great Yang’s most loyal tributary state. At the request of the King of LQ, currently living in exile in Great Yang, Country R is hereby given half a month to withdraw all forces from LQ and restore its sovereignty.”

“Third, fifty years ago, Country J and four allied nations launched a shameless war of aggression against Great Yang. In that war, Great Yang sacrificed nearly a million soldiers, while hundreds of millions of civilians suffered brutal slaughter amidst the flames of war. Although Great Yang ultimately won that war, considering the seemingly sincere repentance of Country J and its four allies at the time—and the fact that their civilians were also victims of war—Great Yang waived war reparations.”

“Yet after the war, Country J and those four nations brazenly enshrined those war criminals as national heroes, and years later openly denied on social media that they ever invaded our country. If this can be tolerated, what cannot?”

The spokesperson’s voice rang out with resonant force: “Therefore, today, Great Yang formally demands twenty billion yuan in war reparations from Country J and those four nations…”

When the news hit the international stage, the entire world erupted in an uproar.

“What nonsense about ‘considering the sincere repentance of Country J and its four allies, Great Yang waived war reparations’? Why not just admit that back then, though Country J and its four allies lost, they still had strength left, and Great Yang feared they’d refuse to surrender and keep fighting, forcing Great Yang to waive reparations?”

“Is that the main point right now?!”

“Has Great Yang lost its mind?!”

“How dare they offend over a dozen countries in a single breath, half of them developed powers?!”

“Where on earth did they get such audacity?!”

“Breaking news: Great Yang’s entire navy has genuinely deployed! Judging by their heading, they really are making straight for the WN Peninsula!”

“What’s going on? Isn’t our country a fraternal ally of Great Yang? Why didn’t Great Yang give us any advance notice before kicking up such a massive storm?”

“What should we do?”

“Wait and see for now.”

“Great Yang has completely lost its mind.”

“Then it’s high time we helped wake them up—”

Inside the conference room of Country W’s Presidential Palace, before dozens of senators, the elderly President made no effort to hide the mockery in his eyes:

“Patch me through to General Smith of the Indian Ocean Fleet.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“General Smith, I order your fleet to proceed immediately to the WN Peninsula to assist Country Y, Country X, Country F, and the other six nations in safeguarding their territories and citizens.”

“Understood.”

Out upon the vast ocean, aboard the flagship of a fleet boasting an aircraft carrier, thirty-five cruisers, destroyers, and frigates, over a hundred aircraft, and fifty-three submarine units, General Smith hung up the phone and issued his order without hesitation: “Change course. Destination: WN Peninsula.”

Yet his adjutant did not relay the command immediately.

General Smith turned to look at his adjutant at once.

The adjutant couldn’t help tightly gripping a ring hanging around his neck—a keepsake from his late mother that had blessed him and pulled him out of peril several times before.

He said, “General, for some reason, I have a terrible premonition.”

“Think about it: the people of Great Yang have always adhered to prudence as their guiding principle. Without absolute certainty, how could they possibly take such radical action?”

General Smith burst into hearty laughter immediately: “What, is that mysterious sixth sense of yours giving you warnings again?”

“Unless their Jade Emperor, King Yanluo, Nüwa, or Guanyin descends from the heavens, they have zero chance of changing their current ignorant, backward state.”

“And gods don’t even exist in this world, do they?”

“So right now, I trust only in science—and science tells me that today’s Great Yang couldn’t possibly be our match.”

“Yes, Sir.”

The adjutant drew a deep breath. He had to admit that General Smith’s reasoning made perfect sense.

Most importantly, Country W had already made its decision; no matter how much more he said, it wouldn’t change a thing.

At this thought, he turned around and passed down General Smith’s orders.