Chapter 277 - 269: Treasure and the Reason

Jianghai Defense Command.

In a secret passage beneath the Commander's Mansion, Luo Chengying, like a giant, tightly wrapped cocoon, was carried by two people. They slowly walked through a heavy iron door and into an underground laboratory.

This was a subterranean space with a domed ceiling, nearly half the size of a soccer field.

The dome was densely covered with copper pipes. The thickest were as wide as buckets, while the thinnest were still the width of an arm. They crisscrossed overhead like countless giant pythons coiled together.

White steam periodically hissed from the pipe joints, forming a thick layer of mist at the top of the dome. Under the dim yellow light, it took on a sickly, yellow-green hue, like clumps of rotting pus ready to drip down at any moment.

In the center of the laboratory stood three enormous furnaces.

Each one was two stories high, forged from cast iron, and covered in rivets and rust. A massive pressure gauge was embedded in the middle of each furnace body, its needle twitching frantically in the red zone. Seven or eight pipes extended from the top of each furnace, connecting to the network on the ceiling. At the bottom was a small door, from which a dark red glow seeped. Occasionally, a spark would fly out, land on the floor, and extinguish with a hiss...

Luo Chengying was placed on the open ground in front of the furnaces. In just two days, he looked like a completely different person.

His eye sockets were sunken, his cheekbones jutted out, and large patches of bluish-black veins were visible beneath his skin... He had no limbs, just a torso and a head. He was painfully thin, like a living, desiccated corpse.

The agony of the Five Poisonous Creatures invading his body was a fate worse than death. The poisons burrowed through him, gnawing at his organs, chewing on his bones, and trying to crawl out through his eyes and ears.

He was still alive, but his mind was on the verge of collapse.

Luo Chengying lay on the laboratory's cold floor. Listening to the strange sound coming from the furnace beside him—something between grinding metal and a beast's low roar—he unconsciously began to pant heavily as well.

Suddenly, with a great HISS— an enormous amount of white steam vented out. The largest of the three furnaces, the one in the very center of the hall, began to open slowly, and an invisible heat wave rolled out from within.

Luo Chengying was engulfed by the white steam, but his body arched upward violently. His eyes were fixed on the furnace opening, as if searching for something.

Finally, a massive shadow, a full five meters tall, slowly emerged from the dense white steam.

A pair of dark red eyes lit up in the steam and gently fell upon Luo Chengying.

Someone called out in a low, hoarse voice, "Chengying..."

Hearing this voice, Luo Chengying's entire body began to struggle and convulse even more violently.

He arched his body, writhing desperately like a stomped-on worm.

A whimpering sound came from his throat, like a cry and a scream at once... Finally, with immense difficulty, he forced a single word from deep in his throat: "Dad—!"

A monstrous, gnarled great toe covered in green scales emerged from the white steam. In the dim yellow gaslight, it looked like the claw of some ancient beast.

It landed gently on Luo Chengying's body, stroking him slowly, again and again.

"Dad knows..."

The voice from within the steam was hoarse and low, as if coming from deep, deep underground.

"Dad understands everything..."

"You've suffered while Dad has been away..."

Lying on the ground, tears instantly streamed from Luo Chengying's eyes.

The tears slid from the corners of his eyes, flowed into his ears, and mixed with the dust on the ground.

His lips trembled violently. He wanted to say something, but no words would come out.

"Don't worry. Dad won't let you die."

The voice in the steam carried a strange heat, as if making a promise, or perhaps an announcement.

"Dad's True Dragon Transformation is finally complete."

"What flows in Dad's veins now is real True Dragon Blood..."

The voice paused.

"And now, Dad is going to transform you into a True Dragon Body, just like him..."

As it spoke, the caressing great toe pulled back.

From within the steam, a large drop of liquid suddenly fell.

The liquid was as viscous as glue, dark purple with a strange fluorescence. It looked like blood, but not quite.

"TSSSS—"

White smoke rose.

The dark purple liquid landed on Luo Chengying's skin, immediately corroding it and leaving a small, charred black mark with a piercing sound... Luo Chengying's eyes flew open, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks as his expression twisted in an instant.

But before he could react—

More of the dark purple blood began to fall, drop by drop.

It was like a viscous rain.

In the blink of an eye, it had completely covered him...

Submerged in the viscous slurry, Luo Chengying writhed madly. His bones creaked and cracked, as if something was continuously burrowing into his flesh.

Just as the dark purple ichor was about to completely submerge his face, Luo Chengying suddenly threw his head back, opened his mouth, and spat out a name, syllable by syllable:

"Fu—! Ling—! Jun—!"

Within the roiling white steam, two massive, membranous wings suddenly unfurled from behind the colossal shadow. A terrifying aura swept through the entire underground laboratory like a hurricane!

The hoarse voice answered him.

"Dad... heard you."

...

Zhabei City Fortress.

A secluded little courtyard.

Inside a humble farmhouse, a simple memorial hall had been set up.

A square table, a memorial tablet, a few plates of fruit offerings... The tablet read: "The Spirit Tablet of the Late Mrs. Ding, Xiangjun." The characters had just been written; the ink was not yet dry.

Fu Juemin, dressed in a pure black suit with a white flower pinned to his left breast, stood silently before a portrait of the late Madam Ding.

Big Cat, also dressed in black with a white flower, walked up silently, leaned close to his ear, and whispered a few words.

Fu Juemin's expression shifted slightly. After a moment of silence, he said faintly, "It's impressive he found this place... Let him in."

Big Cat nodded and withdrew.

A short while later, two figures walked in.

Fu Juemin turned and saw Wen Zhiqiu, who was dressed in a dark traditional long gown.

"Don't stay too long."

He stated this flatly, then turned and walked out of the memorial hall.

As he passed Wen Zhiqiu, someone whispered, "Thank you."

Fu Juemin didn't respond. He walked straight out of the memorial hall and stood under the farmhouse eaves, calmly looking out at the courtyard before him.

After the Awakening of Insects, there had been two rainfalls, and the weather had finally begun to warm.

In the courtyard were two vegetable patches where green shoots were sprouting and flowers were breaking through the soil, creating a scene brimming with vitality.

Compared to the scent of incense in the memorial hall and the bloody storm raging outside, the small courtyard felt like another world...

He didn't know how long he'd waited before footsteps sounded behind him.

Wen Zhiqiu had exited the memorial hall. He came to a stop beside Fu Juemin and, after a moment's hesitation, held out a long, narrow wooden box that was over a foot in length.

The box was made of fine Zitan wood, its surface carved with intricate cloud patterns and its corners reinforced with copper. It clearly had some age to it.

"This is the treasure map that was sent back from overseas on the White Dragon, along with that shipment of gold.

It's said to hold the secret to Emperor Qianming's longevity..."

Wen Zhiqiu's voice was low. "You helped protect Huaisuang and the gold. Before Mingyi left Shenghai, he specifically instructed me to give this map to you.

I was originally going to have Moshan give it to you, but now..."

He didn't finish his sentence.

"Big Cat."

Fu Juemin called out, and Big Cat stepped forward to take the box from Wen Zhiqiu's hands.

"My thanks to Mayor Wen."

Fu Juemin said faintly, his gaze shifting from the box back to the courtyard. "Please see Mayor Wen out."

"Yes, sir."

Big Cat nodded and, with a blank expression, made a gesture for Wen Zhiqiu to proceed.

Wen Zhiqiu stood there, a flicker in his eyes, as if he had more to say to Fu Juemin. In the end, however, he simply gave a slight nod and walked toward the courtyard exit.

However, the man who had come with him and been standing behind him the whole time suddenly stopped in front of Fu Juemin.

"We spoke on the phone a long time ago. I don't know if you remember."

The man was thin, with a lean, ascetic face.

He pushed up the glasses on his nose, looked at Fu Juemin, and said seriously, "My surname is Liang."

The last time, at the Wen Mansion—this was the man who had rushed out to block Fu Juemin, shielding Wen Zhiqiu with his own body.

Fu Juemin turned his head, looking the man up and down.

"I remember now..."

A corner of Fu Juemin's mouth twitched. "So it's Secretary Liang."

Back then, when Zhao Tianpeng conspired with Madam Ding's adopted son, Ding Zhao'an, to move against him, he had intended to strike back. Madam Ding had given him the phone number for the Mayor's Secretariat.

When Fu Juemin had called, this was the man who answered.

"You can call me Liang Dong."

The man paused before speaking. "There are some things Mr. Wen is unwilling to say, but Moshan was also a good friend of mine for many years, so I feel I must speak.

Did you know...

Moshan was born with a heart defect, and she suffered some injuries in her early years running with the gangs... so her health has always been very poor."

"Mr. Wen found many doctors for her, both domestic and Western doctors from overseas...

All the doctors said she wouldn't live past forty."

Fu Juemin gave a silent smile.

"You think I'm lying to you?"

The man looked straight into Fu Juemin's eyes, his expression earnest. "I don't know if you're aware—before you came to Shenghai, the Shanghai Qinglian Gang only had a Mr. Ding.

It's only in the last two years that she gradually resumed her female identity—not because she wanted to, but because she needed light makeup to conceal the symptoms of her illness!

You lived with Moshan for half a year; you should have noticed some things—her complexion was never good, and she always wore red lipstick and nail polish..."

The smile on Fu Juemin's face gradually faded.

He paused, then turned his face away. "Aunt Ding... seemed to be over forty."

"That's because Mr. Wen eventually found Master Huai Kong, who managed to extend her life! But it couldn't be extended for long..."

The man shook his head, his voice softening. "You're a smart man. There are some things you should have been able to sense, even if I didn't say them.

As soon as your father, Fu Guosheng, arrived in Shenghai, Moshan gave him the shops on half of Southern Country Street, which were later transferred to you. You're not her biological son, yet she treated you better than one!

Even if she and your mother were close friends for many years, did you never find it strange that she treated you this way?"

After saying his piece, the man stared intently at Fu Juemin's profile, seemingly waiting for a response.

But Fu Juemin just kept his gaze fixed on the vegetable patch in the distance. After a long while, he finally spoke in a flat tone, "Are you finished?"

...