The gunfire gradually faded into background noise. Shi Yuxing’s forehead beaded with fine sweat. He stared at the shallow pit that wouldn’t be fatal to jump into, his arm firmly grasped by An Bao.
“Are you insane? You have no idea what’s down there and you’re just going to jump in?” An Bao held Shi Yuxing’s slender wrist tightly. He didn’t want Shi Yuxing to throw his life away for nothing. The hole was pitch black—not even a flashlight—and running into even a medium-sized Zerg down there would be suicide. “Sister-in-law, calm down. If you go in, what about Gu Lingzhou?”
Shi Yuxing took a deep breath, his eyes reddening. “The one down there is also Gu Lingzhou!”
An Bao fell silent. That was true—down there was also Gu Lingzhou, also his comrade and brother. An Bao bit his pale lower lip, the taut string in his mind at a critical breaking point.
Smoke and dust scattered, carrying the lingering souls of the dead and the hope of the living. An Bao exhaled a breath of foul air and pulled Shi Yuxing behind him. “I’ll go down. You wait up here!” With that, he stepped forward and jumped.
Just then, the ground shook again for some reason. An Bao had just crouched down to explore the hole when the passage ahead collapsed. Shi Yuxing watched the sudden cave-in, the ground sinking into a long trench. Horror washed over him—terrifying thoughts surfaced. His chest expanded as he took a sharp breath. His body went instantly cold, every blood vessel seemingly about to freeze.
An Bao scrambled out of the pit, kicking off the soil as he emerged. He brushed the mud from his head and shoulders, his face grim, features almost twisted. He cursed: “Fuck!” Then he turned to Shi Yuxing. Shi Yuxing’s expression was no better—his cheeks also smudged with dirt, his eyes fixed on the collapsed spot, his lip line taut as a solemn stone statue.
After a moment, his hoarse voice cut through: “Only this part caved in. He’s not dead yet.” With that, Shi Yuxing turned and sprinted toward another Zerg hole.
The battle there had ended. A pile of black Zerg corpses lay on the ground. The mech had just severed the last wasp Zerg. Only the breathing of these warriors remained in the air.
“Is it over?” someone asked.
The soldier beside him heaved for breath and shook his head. “I don’t know. Where’s Captain An?” The moment he finished, the flashlight tucked into his belt was snatched away. A tall, slender figure blurred past, stirring up a gust of wind.
Shi Yuxing’s throat felt like it was being scraped by a rusty knife—large amounts of toxic gas had congested his windpipe. The ground beneath his feet was uneven, littered with Zerg corpses. He might have stepped on and burst a few, staining his pants with foul blood—but he didn’t stop.
In the distance, Gu Lingzhou inside the mech saw it all—Shi Yuxing running ahead, An Bao chasing behind. He watched the two of them, about to ask what was going on, when he saw his beautiful wife jump without hesitation into the hole where the Zerg were spawned.
Gu Lingzhou’s eyes flew wide open. The next second, An Bao jumped in after him.
At that moment, only one thought ran through the General’s mind—
My wife is gone!!!
Meanwhile, Shi Yuxing and An Bao entered the hole one after the other. The tunnel sloped at a thirty-degree angle. They practically slid in. Stepping onto solid ground, Shi Yuxing clicked on the flashlight, illuminating the dark underground cave.
The space was empty, but Shi Yuxing’s nose caught a faint, elusive scent of fir.
“You’re way too impulsive—jumping down like that,” An Bao said, a headache forming as he pressed his throbbing temple. The radio crackled with Gu Lingzhou’s voice: “An Bao, can you hear me?”
An Bao seemed to finally remember the communication device. He pulled it out quickly. “Hey—it’s connecting! So the Zerg were interfering with the magnetic field. Now that they’re dead, it’s working.”
“Is my wife with you?” Gu Lingzhou’s voice came through the radio. Shi Yuxing turned back. “Yes.”
Hearing Shi Yuxing’s voice, Gu Lingzhou’s tense nerves relaxed only slightly. His tone brooked no argument: “What are you doing down there? Get back up immediately—it’s dangerous down there.”
“Da Ling was buried in there.” Shi Yuxing had just reached a fork—unfortunately, one path was blocked by mud, leaving only the other. “This way.” He pointed the flashlight down the open path.
“That still doesn’t mean you should go down yourself.” Gu Lingzhou frowned. “An Bao, bring him up. The two of you alone won’t find him. I’ll send a team down to search. Now—both of you, get up here immediately.”
An Bao’s pace slowed, but Shi Yuxing moved faster. He reached another fork and sniffed at the three openings. An Bao thought he was trying to determine which direction had the strongest pheromone scent to locate that Gu Lingzhou.
But the next second—
“GU LINGZHOU!!! WHERE ARE YOU!!!”
An Bao: “…”
Gu Lingzhou on the other end: “…”
Simple and direct, An Bao thought. The radio spoke: “Your husband’s right here.”
“Not you—I’m calling Da Ling!” Shi Yuxing had no time for jokes. He was about to call out again when he heard a faint, almost imperceptible sound.
The alpha lay quietly in the dirt, buried up to his shoulders. His vision was completely blood-red. A bloodstained rock lay beside him. When the tunnel collapsed, he’d been trying to escape—but falling rocks had struck his head, and the partial cave-in had pinned him down, leaving him dizzy and powerless.
When he heard Shi Yuxing’s voice, he thought he was dying—that it was an auditory hallucination. But even if it was an illusion, he called out softly: “I’m here.”
After a long moment, the sound of footsteps crunching on gravel drew closer. The flashlight beam swept over him, and Gu Lingzhou’s optic nerves stung as if pierced by needles.
Shi Yuxing spotted him immediately and rushed over in three quick strides.
Gu Lingzhou couldn’t see his face clearly—blood had blurred his vision. Amid the thick scent of fir, his nose distinctly caught Shi Yuxing’s pheromones—a faint, fresh magnolia fragrance, pleasant and clean, mingling with the fir in the damp underground.
Shi Yuxing set down the flashlight and grabbed the only hand extending outward, trying to pull the alpha free. Some dirt fell away, but his strength wasn’t enough to drag him out.
His wrist was caught by a larger hand. An Bao exhaled: “Finally found you. Don’t worry, brother—I’ll get you out.” An Bao was much stronger than Shi Yuxing, and only slightly smaller than Gu Lingzhou. He dug the alpha out in no time.
The three knelt on the ground. The radio was still connected. An Bao said cheerfully: “Found him, got him out. We’re coming up now.”
The two of them, one tall and one shorter, supported the wounded man’s shoulders and retraced their steps.
Da Ling breathed heavily. The wound on his back hadn’t healed, and now with the head injury, it felt like countless wasps were flying around in his skull. But even so, he remembered what he needed to say: “There’s another Zerg Queen. The earthquake just now—that was them relocating.”
“What?” An Bao turned in disbelief.
Shi Yuxing frowned. “Another one? What do you mean? Where is it?”
Their voices carried through the radio to everyone outside. All of them drew in sharp breaths. Though they’d mentally prepared themselves that the war wouldn’t end so quickly, hearing that another Queen remained—everyone’s expression was unreadable.
“I don’t know,” Da Ling shook his head with effort. “Before the old Queen dies, she passes certain things to the new Queen—like crowning an heir. Normally, as long as you kill the old Queen before the new one is crowned, there’s no problem. But I miscalculated. This invading swarm never had just one Queen—this population always had dual Queens.” He laughed bitterly, his voice like a broken bellows. “So we were wrong all along. Hah… hahaha…”
Shi Yuxing didn’t understand why he’d suddenly started laughing maniacally and cut in stiffly: “So where is the other Queen?”
“Everywhere. It can send commands through special sonic waves to control Zerg over a wide range to launch attacks.”
Light from outside filtered in ahead—they were almost at the exit. Several people stood at the hole’s edge. Gu Lingzhou’s brows were furrowed as he peered inside, his expression relaxing only when his eyes met Shi Yuxing’s bright ones. He leaned down and reached out to Shi Yuxing in the dim light. In that moment, Shi Yuxing’s mind flashed to Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam.
All three were successfully pulled out. Shi Yuxing rubbed his neck, his gaze passing over the soldiers’ shoulders to the distant horizon—an eerie gradient blending orange and gray with the sky.
Shi Yuxing didn’t know if this was a good omen. He lowered his eyes to treat Da Ling’s head wound, Gu Lingzhou’s voice mixing with the radio calls in his ears. Looking at the face before him, he suddenly asked: “Do you know where Xiao Zhou went?”
Da Ling looked up, paused for two seconds, and realizing he couldn’t hide it, said gravely: “I don’t know. But he’s definitely not dead.” Shi Yuxing looked confused, and Da Ling continued: “His life is tied to ours. If the 18-year-old Gu Lingzhou disappears, we disappear too. For now, we can only confirm he’s still alive.”
It was something like a time paradox: if someone built a time machine and went back to kill their grandfather before their father was born, they would never succeed. In other words, as long as the present Gu Lingzhou was alive, the Gu Lingzhou from any point on the timeline before that—no matter what—could never die. Even if the present Gu Lingzhou tried to kill the past Gu Lingzhou, it would be impossible.
Da Ling curved his lips at him. “Look on the bright side—maybe he went back.”
Shi Yuxing nodded. “I hope so. After the war, I’ll ask Steward Sun what happened.” Hopefully he’d safely taken Xiao Zhou back. He unconsciously tied a butterfly knot in the bandage. Before he could smile, he heard a faint buzzing mingled with rustling leaves—but his hair wasn’t moving, and the air around them wasn’t flowing.
Several sharp-eyed alphas noticed it too. Their hands instinctively went to their waists. Seeing this, the others also reached for their guns. The wounded were gathered in the center; Shi Yuxing was squeezed in the middle. The armed soldiers cleverly formed a circle with their backs to him, creating a 360-degree seamless fortress.
Leaves rustled. Shi Yuxing stared intently at the untouched thicket. Then his pupils contracted to pinpoints.
A wasp Zerg leaped from the bushes—its stinger shot straight toward him!!!
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