Chapter 58

"You're starting your preparations already?"

Cynthia was stunned at first, then immediately tried to coax her: "It's way too early for that, you don't need to specifically prepare. With your skills, it'll be a piece of cake, right? And we can book the super deluxe package—you can still review, and I'll be right there with you."

"Come on, come on~"

By the end, Cynthia was already acting cute and pestering.

Wu Ying hadn't wanted to go, but Cynthia's persuasion made her hesitate.

Someone else was more hard-hearted: "If you're so bored, come find me. The lab's got plenty of stuff."

Su Yi's message came out of nowhere, and in the background, it sounded like there were people talking. She was indeed swamped.

"I'm not coming, I want to play! Wu Ying—are you really not even a little tempted?"

Then came a bunch of photos, and Su Yi's avatar quickly got bumped up. Wu Ying pinched a petal, her brow furrowing into a knot.

"Do you think Wu Ying is like you? She has a husband."

Huo Lin's indifferent voice sounded again, and the group chat fell silent for a moment. Cynthia silently replied with a smiling and bowing emoji.

Wu Ying paused too. Husband. Oh, now that it was mentioned, she suddenly felt that maybe she could go. Yesterday she bit him to finally end that meaningless standoff, and this morning, Asher had been following her around until just a moment ago, when Wu Ying couldn't stand it anymore and shooed him away.

He was also a master at keeping silent, as if he naively thought that by saying nothing, everything would go his way.

He followed her quietly, refusing to speak until she said something; he looked at her quietly, as if he would obey whatever Wu Ying did or said.

Wu Ying said in the chat, "What does it have to do with him?" Cynthia immediately replied, "Exactly, exactly." She didn't send a voice message, just those four words popping up in a bubble.

"So, are you going?"

Huo Lin asked calmly, and somehow it felt like an interrogation. Wu Ying rubbed her forehead: "I still need to think about it some more, but it's definitely not because of him!"

In the end, it had to be settled with "we'll see," eliciting a chorus of sighs from Cynthia.

Wu Ying put down her Light Brain and gently stroked the petals of the newly cultivated balsam flower. It was originally called Red Butterfly Herb, a low-danger plant that lived in radiation zones.

"Low danger" mainly meant its aggressiveness wasn't proactive; its sap and seeds carried a special toxicity, with symptoms very similar to balsam, but with an extra strong hallucinogenic effect. Luo Meng had brought her this one through layers of approvals. After the last experiment, it had survived sturdily, and now it had evolved to the third generation.

Under Wu Ying's mental power nurturing, the radiation value carried by the Red Butterfly Herb had completely cleared. Its thick petals became soft, and in the peaceful, comfortable environment, its flowering period gradually extended. Wu Ying conducted experiments through both cuttings and seeds, and now she officially named it "balsam."

Borrowing from others, it could be considered a revival of its former glory.

Perhaps due to its hunting nature, the balsam's petals showed a bright red, extremely eye-catching and beautiful. Wu Ying still remembered that crushing its petals into juice could also dye fingernails.

Wu Ying habitually opened her Light Brain to record: natural pigments, toxicity tests, dyes...

She lowered her head, lips moving slightly, her slender brows furrowed, her porcelain-like cheeks, her amber-brown hair shining in the sunlight. Asher pushed open the door and saw Wu Ying standing among the flowers, her head bowed in thought, surrounded by blossoms in full bloom, wearing a white dress, graceful and poised, as if she were a floral goddess descended among the gorgeous bouquets.

Asher rubbed his fingers together and strode forward. His footsteps startled Wu Ying, and she looked up. Asher clearly saw her apricot eyes widen slightly, a flicker of confusion crossing her face, then settling back into calm.

"I have to go now." Asher said quickly, his eyes fixed on Wu Ying, a hint of urgency appearing in his deep gaze.

Wu Ying was a bit stunned, but it was also expected. Asher wore a stiff shirt, dark black military trousers, and heavy combat boots. Wu Ying could imagine his coat and cap already waiting at the door.

She nodded casually, not looking at him again, as if the plants before her deserved more attention.

Asher left, and the greenhouse seemed even quieter, so quiet that she could only hear her own slightly quickened breathing.

Out of the corner of her eye, the long black shadow quietly left, leaving only her uncollected thoughts swaying in the wind, along with a pent-up, undigested restlessness.

So what now?

Wu Ying thought she couldn't just be angry alone, and Asher wasn't even home.

Snapping back to reality, Wu Ying took a close-up photo of the balsam and continued recording. In Wu Ying's greenhouse, every flower had its own file, but the balsam was special—it had its own growth record.

Hmm, she had a lot of things to do. She had left the greenhouse care to Jiujiu for a long time, so she needed to do a personal walkthrough. She'd probably be busy until dark. Wu Ying opened the greenhouse's smart brain, and Jiujiu followed behind her for real-time checks.

...

It was the same familiar scene, the same familiar people. Meng Ke received Asher, and the group hurriedly headed to the port without pause.

The adjutants lined up to welcome him, but Asher quickly passed by, and the team behind him followed and closed in like sunflowers chasing the light.

"How is the local Guard Army reacting?"

The adjutant followed closely, reporting the latest information they had. Last night, a wormhole suddenly appeared in the Fengyun Star System, and an insect race suddenly descended on Yun 3 Star, almost near the galaxy's core. The Fourth Army within the Guard Army received the news and wanted to go first, but was intercepted. Now the local guards were attempting to control the situation, but the battle wasn't going well.

Speaking of this, Adjutant Da Li's eyes were almost mocking. Those guards sheltered behind, fragile things, actually thinking they could compare to the Fourth Army.

Da Li added: "Our army has submitted an entry application to the Fengyun Star System, but it hasn't been approved."

"Go in directly."

Asher made the decision. The battleship emblazoned with the Fourth Army's insignia immediately tore open a jump point, and the huge shadow disappeared from above the port, in a flash arriving light-years away.

At the entrance of the Fengyun Star System, the Fourth Army went in as if no one was there. Finally, the adjutant deliberately sent a message to the gatekeeper to remind him to approve the request.

"Sir, are we just letting them in like this?" A secretary beside him asked with a trembling voice, his eyes helpless. The galaxy's executive auditor turned his face away, "What else? Do you want to go reason with them?"

With that, the two huddled by the monitor, watching a colossal vessel running rampant in the Fengyun Star System.

Of course, he knew the ship's destination. The executive officer thought, anyway, he had already reported what needed to be reported, and there was nothing else he could do.

He murmured, "The commander should be going to rescue people."

On the Fourth Army's starship, Da Li and Meng Ke stood side by side behind Asher. They had arrived near the wormhole.

In the dark starry sky, a single malodorous collapse was especially conspicuous. Through the detector, tentacles extended from the edge of the wormhole.

The Guard Army's defense line was in a mess. The mechas standing on the line were scattered by the insect race, now wildly firing their guns. The longer a place was peaceful, the more laziness bred. "These guards act like they haven't seen the insect race in eight hundred years."

A major general under Asher raised an eyebrow in jest, but Asher turned back with a cold, stern look, and the man instantly froze. The commander was in a bad mood today.

"Is the situation very complicated?" He could only hope the adjutant knew something. Da Li shook his head, not saying a word. The major general frowned, wondering whether that meant complicated or not.

"What's wrong?"

The whispering behind him was truly irritating. Asher pinched the bridge of his nose and coldly scolded, "Shut up."

The situation was clear: the commander was in a foul mood. Da Li and Meng Ke had only vaguely sensed something was off earlier; in the past, the two would chat a bit, but today, besides reporting official matters, they didn't even dare breathe heavily.

Until Major General Ya Lei appeared. This mission was under his lead, and they were almost at the destination, but the commander hadn't sent him a message. He had come himself.

The scolded Major General Ya Lei didn't dare speak, silently aligning himself with Da Li.

The soldiers in charge of data analysis and piloting at the front had already adapted, working calmly under Asher's pressure: "Report, Commander, the docking point is in place, and the terminal is connecting with the Guard Army fleet."

A flash on the smart data board, the communication channel was established. Taking over the communication task, Asher took out his mecha space button.

"Commander, are you going up personally?"

Major General Ya Lei asked in a low voice. Seeing the commander nod, he felt a chill in his heart. Such a scene warranted his personal involvement. Ya Lei craned his neck to look at the battle situation near the wormhole—just average.

Thinking this, Ya Lei's neck retracted immediately. It wasn't that the battle was tough; it was that someone was in a bad mood and needed to blow off steam.

The deck opened, and Asher was the first to jump out in his mecha, with Meng Ke and Ya Lei following closely. As soon as the Fourth Army entered, the battlefield situation changed instantly.

Asher charged ahead without even drawing a weapon, tearing the insect race apart with his bare hands. Meng Ke guarded beside him, and from time to time, he saw some unsightly dismembered limbs flying by.

Once, after barely dodging, the front of Meng Ke's mecha splattered with a large smear of blood, mixed with flesh and dismembered bodies. For a few moments, he seemed to hear the sound of bone fragments hitting his mecha. The insect race's chirping sound waves stretched, seemingly in wails.

Inside his mecha, Asher's eyes narrowed slightly, a murderous aura swirling at the corners. He struck harder and harder, his form flickering, and where he disappeared, clumps of twisted remains floated.

Following behind to clean up, Ya Lei's mouth twitched repeatedly. An outsider would think this was some battlefield on the border line.

The Guard Army retreated to clear the battlefield. The captain stepped forward to watch the Fourth Army enter. Although her expression was unpleasant, she breathed a sigh of relief inside. If they hadn't come, she might have ended up here.

The higher-ups said reinforcements would arrive soon, but they didn't expect the Fourth Army to arrive first.

"Thanks to the Fourth Army brothers," the captain's pleasantries paused. She saw a mecha emerging from the pile—it was Commander Asher.

Indeed, seeing her idol, she felt a joy in her heart, but reason told her the situation was bad. The higher-ups had said to keep the situation under control at all costs, not to draw attention, especially referring to the Fourth Army, and especially to be wary of Asher. Last time, the commander went and stirred up the army headquarters, tearing open a hole in the Guard Army.

And now?

This hole probably couldn't be covered up. The more the captain thought, the colder she felt, and this hole was in her hands. Her vision darkened, and her mecha almost fell from the air.

Meng Ke stepped forward to steady her. After she stood firm, Asher gave orders, and the fleet integrated and entered Yun 3 Star.

The Guard Army captain said in a daze: "Right, Yun 3 Star has residents. I'm afraid the guards can't hold on."

Asher glanced at her and said nothing, because the Fourth Army soldiers who had already infiltrated the Guard Army had gone ahead.