"Boss, did Qing Yan tell you anything?" Lu Guanyi quickly approached him after returning to Prison 18.
"Nope," Qing Chen said with a shake of his head, "just stick to the original plan."
At this point, being left behind by his so-called family for the Fight for the Shadow wasn’t significant enough to worry Qing Chen.
Qing Chen didn’t show a very firm attitude today because he felt it would be convincing when he actually became more powerful.
The surprise he got from the breathing technique was only just the beginning.
He was sure he couldn't walk properly the day before, but this morning, after a few hours of sleep, he felt even more nimble than before, with no sign of exhaustion.
This was a wonderful feeling, something unheard of in the Outer World.
Lu Guangyi asked quietly, "Are you truly involved with Li Shutong?"
Qing Chen glanced at him and said, "Yeah, but seeking outside help had never been a part of our plan, hasn't it?"
"Yeah," Lu Guangyi said, "Boss, you still got me here."
……
Night Time. Countdown 5:59:59.
City 18, District 7.
Jiang Xue was slowly walking in the brightly lit city. For a person that came from the Outer World, this type of setting was like a maze.
As she looked up at the sky, she didn’t see any smog, blue sky, nor clouds, but instead a network of metal products and neon lights.
A 3-D projected ad for a barbecue shop was spinning in mid-air. People could smell the freshly cooked synthetic meat and Chinese Kebab from the wide-open shop.
Suddenly, a robotic dolphin appeared out of nowhere and jumped up into the air, as if it just came out of the ocean.
As it "swam" across the office buildings, its tail slashed countless "water beads" everywhere.
As the wave of "water" fell, those who saw it for the first time might actually try to cover their heads with their hands.
But as the water came down for ten meters or so, it turned into a bright firework and faded away.
At this time, a line of words appeared in the sky: "Pomelo Mobile, offering the best holographic communication experience. "
There were countless bridges connecting the various buildings.
From the ground looking up, it seemed as if there was a steel chain that tied the buildings up into a package.
When Jiang Xue walked here, she came across many pedestrians of the Inner World, and as everyone saw the cloud-shaped badge on her chest, the people all kept a safe distance from her.
This was the Li Family's symbol.
She walked into a building's elevator and pressed button 32.
The glass elevator quickly ascended up the building. As she looked down outside, buildings one after another appeared and disappeared from her sight, and there sometimes was even a floating car that zoomed past the elevator.
The silver floating car was very aerodynamic. Four jet engines replaced where the tires should be, blasting out a blue flame.
Ding. She arrived on the 32nd floor. Walking out of the elevator, she walked across an open plaza toward the other side of the building, where her clinic was located.
But before she could get there, someone stopped her and said politely, "Hello, Mrs. Jiang Xue."
The person wore a clean suit, and on his tie was a delicate golden tie clip with a cloud symbol engraved on it.
Not only so, behind the person were two more people each holding two mysterious black suitcases.
Jiang Xue was a little surprised. This person was the Li Family Corporation representative that asked to invest in her company. His name was Zhang Tianzhen.
“Hi, how may I help you?" Jiang Xue asked softly.
"So," Zhang Tianzhen said very respectfully, "Our company is very interested in our partnership with you, and as a token of gratitude, here is the newest and most technologically advanced version of our Li Family Corporation's mechanical arm. Not only that, but we also arranged a mechanical limb installation professional, who will assist you in a special training program…"
Jiang Xue felt that this was getting more and more strange.
The time travelers from the Outer World had been all telling her how evil the corporations were, but now that she actually met them, how come she felt like they were very easy to work with, investing in her clinic, giving her the best mechanical limbs, and hiring professionals to train her, almost as if they knew that she wouldn't know how to install this limb.
She started to have some doubts.
Then, Zhang Tianzhen said suddenly, "I can tell that you are wondering why we are doing this for you, so please allow me to explain. Two years ago, you helped a middle-aged woman, who happened to be one of the core members of the Li Family Corporation. She has sought you for two years now and recently got the news that you work here. These are here to thank you for your help."
Not knowing what actually happened, Jiang Xue could only nod and said, "Oh, oh, I see…"
As for who the person she helped was, how in the world would she know?
With this, Li Tongyun perfectly took advantage of the common weakness of all new time travelers who would have no way of knowing their past in the Inner World.
Also, she guessed that her mom wouldn't dare to ask around too much, since asking too much would get her exposed.
At this point, Jiang Xue erased all her doubts and gladly accepted all the "gifts", "These two mechanical arms…"
Zhang Tianzhen started to explain in detail, "These are the most advanced in the market. Not only does it have high-powered hidden weapons, but it also has extensive battery-life and 97% nerve connection rate."
"Thank you, this is exactly what I needed!" Jiang Xue got even more excited.
……
Countdown 00:30:00.
Only half an hour left.
In the gym area, Ye Wan was doing curl-ups with Qing Chen as a part of a six-set training rotation to train his core muscles.
After the core training, they would continue with precise cardio exercises.
The night was long, and the training was rough.
According to the time that Ye Wan planned, in about half an hour more of training, Qing Chen would move on to the next section.
But the time for Qing Chen was split. One second he would be here training, and the next he would be back to the Outer World.
And after a certain number of days, he would be back here training again.
By now, Li Shutong had also appeared in the gym area. He looked at Qing Chen and asked, "You'll be returning to the Outer World soon, right?"
"Yeah," Qing Chen nodded, "Is there anything I need to do before then?"
Li Shutong said, "No, I just want to see with my own eyes how you transmigrate to another world. Perhaps, I might even find some secrets during this process."
"Alright." Qing Chen was soaked in sweat. The beef that Ye Wan gave him to replenish him before the training was a great help.
He had to admit that with the help from the breathing technique, he could recover a lot faster, but it was also hard on his energy.
After a while of not eating, Qing Chen already felt hungry.
Much like a Taotie1Chinese mythical monster with the body of a goat and the face of a human; known to be giant and evil, he ate like crazy and trained like crazy.
Qing Chen suddenly noticed a slight look of worry in Li Shutong's eyes.
He asked curiously, "What's wrong, teacher?"
"Hum… So," Li Shutong said, "Can you bring over some more chess endgame plays from there?"
Qing Chen stood there for two seconds and said with a smile, "Of course."
At this moment, he felt that Li Shutong's sense as a leader faded a little and seemed much like an ordinary person.
Under the looks of Ye Wan and Li Shutong, Qing Chen placed a flash drive in his mouth.
Then he suddenly remembered something and took out the ball of gold strips from his pocket.
Ye Wan said in awe, "I was wondering where the gold on Lu Guangyi's arm went."
Li Shutong, "…"
Instantly, the fire patterns on Qing Chen's face started to spread out along his cheeks. He used that stream of air that he felt earlier to wrap around the gold in his palm.
Li Shutong's face looked shocked upon seeing this.
Countdown
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
The world turned dark.
1Chinese mythical monster with the body of a goat and the face of a human; known to be giant and evil
