I Am Extraordinary Alone
Chapter 402 - 400: Little Flame

Chapter 402: Chapter 400: Little Flame

Commander Lu took a sip of tea, his expression grave.

To the south...

To the southeast of Yin Country, there was a seaport, so it definitely wasn’t there that Venerable Xu was referring to.

And to the southwest... it bordered Chicken Snake Country!

Years before, the pro-Yin regime was overthrown by warlords. In 2106, a civil war had broken out.

Later, the rebel leader, Li Fei, fled and reassembled his forces. At that time, Yin Country also secretly supplied weapons...

The civil war in Chicken Snake Country lasted less than a year before it ended, and the newly established regime of Li Fei had died suddenly; however, Yin Country had already taken advantage of that time to find a new agent to replace Li Fei.

Yet, the political situation in Chicken Snake Country had never truly stabilized. Now, the three factions within their country were once again in dispute, causing the situation to become unstable again.

Whether Venerable Qin had a hand in the matter, there was no evidence yet, but Commander Lu already had a bad feeling.

"There are snakes in the woods, mice in the ditches—never-ending," Venerable Xu said.

"Is everything okay on the Emperor’s side?" Commander Lu asked.

"Sethiyan Federation is making use of the Astronaut Association as their pawn, demanding this amount from us," Venerable Xu gestured with an eight.

"Eight billion Langke?" Commander Lu asked.

"Eighty billion," Venerable Xu said.

"Humph..." Commander Lu laughed.

"They also want to take Zhao Ling to court! It’s been over a year of back and forth; the situation hasn’t been resolved, but it’s constantly brought up at the meetings, quite annoying," Venerable Xu said.

"Leave the rat-catching to me. I have people to handle it," Commander Lu said.

"A lot of the people from the Lingxian Sect on the ground, I suspect, have already joined Venerable Qin. Plus, the formula for the neutralizer has leaked. In many hotspot areas, it’s very likely we’ll encounter superpower users," Venerable Xu said.

After speaking, he looked out the window, his tone worried, "I’m now scared to use internal communications to talk to you; in the cabinet, everyone looks like a spy to me."

Commander Lu nodded and said, "Mr. Xu, rest assured, I, Lu someone, am absolutely loyal to you. I will prepare and later this year, in the southwest, put on a live-fire exercise and take the chance to pull out all their nails!"

"With your words, I feel a bit more at ease. By the way, brother, tonight I plan to find someone to take Elder Gu’s place. Come over to my house for a casual dinner and meet him," Venerable Xu said.

"Sure, no problem," Commander Lu said.

During their conversation, the door was pushed open, and a little girl wearing a peaked cap, camo pants, and a camo T-shirt, holding a broom, walked in.

Commander Lu and Venerable Xu were startled at first, but then Commander Lu burst out laughing.

"Who is this girl?" Venerable Xu asked.

He noticed the girl was only about 10 years old, at most 12, petite—barely 1.4 meters tall, her body covered with extensive burns, her arms full of wrinkled, raw flesh, her hair sparse, and besides wearing a peaked cap, she also wore a mask. Her right ear, burned by fire, had turned into a red lump.

The little girl walked straight in, heading toward the direction of the coffee table and began to sweep the floor as if she hadn’t seen the two people sitting in the room.

"Little Spark! Little Spark!" Commander Lu called out cheerfully.

Startled, the girl looked up toward the sofa, only then realizing there were people in the room.

She quickly bowed to Commander Lu and Venerable Xu, apologizing repeatedly.

"What happened to this girl? How did she get such severe burns?" Venerable Xu asked.

"She was brought back by our comrades from the Chicken Snake Country when she was only five or six years old. During the civil war, Tiantai Pharmaceutical was buying refugees as Medicine People over there. Later, fearing detection by war observers, they sent fighter planes to bomb the refugees at the trade location and kill them all."

"Her parents had died, but she was fortunate enough to be saved and discovered by our comrades when she was sent to the refugee camp. They brought her back."

After Commander Lu finished speaking, Venerable Xu couldn’t stay seated. He walked forward, bent down to inspect the scars on Xiaohuomiao’s face, and said, "Oh my... War, in the end, it’s always the common people who suffer. What was your name before?"

Xiaohuomiao didn’t make a sound, just gazed at Venerable Xu and blinked those gray eyes.

"Her hearing and vision were permanently damaged. She can’t hear what you’re saying," Commander Lu added, standing behind Venerable Xu.

"Oh... Xiaohuomiao! Do you remember who saved you?!" Venerable Xu shouted.

Xiaohuomiao seemed on the verge of speaking, but she shook her head as if she didn’t want to answer.

"It must have been the Superpower Special Department forces, right? Ordinary soldiers can’t manage a rescue from that kind of environment," Venerable Xu turned and looked at Commander Lu.

"We asked the army. Comrade Lin Yanqing brought her back, but she said the little girl was not rescued by herself; someone had brought her to the refugee camp," Commander Lu explained.

"Is that so. How are we arranging for her now?" Venerable Xu asked.

"When she was younger a few years ago, we let her stay in the courtyard, learning knowledge from several old professors. Now that she’s older, she said she wanted to join the army. I brought her here for some basic training. In her free time, she helps out in the kitchen crew. Don’t let her impaired eyes and ears fool you; she’s smart. When she turns 16, we’ll place her in the technical class to be a technical soldier," Commander Lu said with a smile.

"Very good," Venerable Xu nodded repeatedly.

"Xiaohuomiao! Go and read! No need to clean here anymore!" Commander Lu said.

Xiaohuomiao smiled, nodded, and then ran out the door.

Venerable Xu sighed as he watched her leave, without saying anything.

Commander Lu patted Venerable Xu’s shoulder, saying, "You’re thinking about your granddaughter, aren’t you?"

Venerable Xu gave a smile, then coughed twice, regaining his stern expression, and said, "We don’t discuss family matters in the military."

At 7:30 in the evening, Venerable Xu’s car left the military district and entered the outskirts of Fengrao City, accompanied by the Director of National Security on their way back to the city.

All was well on the road, but the gloomy weather was unsettling.

As the convoy approached the outskirts of the city, the military vehicle in front stopped, and several soldiers along with a member of the Superpower Special Department got off.

"What’s the matter?" Venerable Xu asked.

The Director of National Security opened the screen on the back of the front passenger seat and observed the surroundings through the armored vehicle’s external camera.

The radio transmitted the escort team’s message, "Mr. Xu, there’s a black car blocking the road ahead. Please stay inside while we let the Superpower Special Department check it out."

Venerable Xu looked at the Director of National Security, who pulled a handgun from his waist.

"Quickly survey the surroundings," Venerable Xu instructed.

On the screen, the Superpower Special Department was coordinating with several soldiers, preparing to move forward to inspect, while Venerable Xu’s vehicle was guarded by a dozen soldiers. Suddenly, an amber-colored opaque shield enveloped the entire vehicle and the soldiers, causing the screen’s image to cut off abruptly.

"Don’t panic, this is the ability of a Parallel Triangular Duo," Venerable Xu said.

"Bulletproof?" the Director of National Security asked.

Venerable Xu shook his head, "It’s isolation. We’ve essentially been transported into a different space. Unless the operating team member manually deactivates it or dies, this shield won’t disappear."

No sooner had he spoken than the shield vanished.

"It should be fine," Venerable Xu said.

As he spoke, the soldiers beside the car were severed at the waist, and a black corpse was thrown over, smashing into the windshield.