Mo Heng Was About to Lose His Temper

As the fighting neared its end, the remaining medical personnel aboard the ships at the space station were sent down to the planet. The research base's protective shield was finally opened, too, so each aircraft was assigned several nurses to provide basic care for the wounded and sick.

A nurse on rounds opened the door to Xilin's ward, ready to record the patient's vital signs. The readings on the instruments were all normal, but when she touched Xilin's wrist, she found it ice-cold. She checked the temperature shown on the monitor, then felt Xilin's wrist and forehead again. Still icy cold, with barely a pulse!

How could this be?!

The young nurse panicked and hurriedly pressed the Emergency Alarm beside her.

The fighting on the battlefield was over. Huoding was directing the post-battle cleanup, organizing the wounded in the Rescue Cave and elsewhere in the base, and handling other tasks. They had also received word that the Waste Disposal Plant had been cleared. Huoding could finally relax a little—but only a little. He wouldn't be getting any free time. Once the mission was over, there would still be a string of matters to handle, including compensation for the fallen soldiers, mission reports, and post-battle analysis. He would have to take care of all of it himself.

Huoding took a deep breath. They had finally made it through this ordeal! At least those few little troublemakers were safe.

As it turned out, Huoding had relaxed too soon. The moment he finished exhaling, his communicator rang.

Knight was trudging back with a full bag of rat claws and teeth when he spotted Huoding in the distance, shouting into his communicator, "A bunch of useless fools! I'm coming right over!"

After ending the call, Huoding said something to a squad leader beside him and told him to have Gerard take charge of the remaining work. Then he took off running toward the aircraft.

"What happened?" Knight walked over and asked the squad leader.

The squad leader didn't think much of it. "Sounds like something happened to a patient aboard one of the aircraft."

A patient? There weren't many people who could make Huoding abandon his duties on the battlefield and rush over in such a panic. But Gerard and several squad leaders—comrades who were close to Huoding—were all still on the battlefield. As for the patients aboard the aircraft...

Knight set down the bag and pulled out his communicator. After only a few rings, Pride's nostrils appeared on the screen. He sounded half-asleep and extremely impatient. "What's with all the noise? I'm sleeping. The doctor told me to get plenty of rest. If you mess up my recovery, I'll—"

Before Pride could finish, Knight ended the call and dialed Xilin's number. But no one answered. Knight abandoned the bag of "spoils" and ran toward the aircraft. Their call had been fine earlier. What on earth had happened?

Hard was lying in the Serious Illness ICU, but his already-swollen face had gone down, and his eyes were bright. It was clear he was recovering well.

Hard was talking with Saqi, who was telling him what had happened since. As Saqi spoke, they heard a commotion outside. It sounded like people were heading toward the First Aid Room.

"I wonder who it is this time," Saqi sighed.

Before long, a nurse came in. She checked the Infusion Bag, took a sample from it, and tested it in the instrument in her hand.

Seeing the nurse visibly relax, Saqi grew curious. "What's wrong?"

The nurse gave him a reassuring smile. "Nothing."

"You know, I could just ask the attending physician directly."

"Sigh, nothing's wrong in your room. But something happened to a patient in the ward below, so we're checking the medication for every patient again."

"The ward below? Who?" Saqi asked casually.

"I think it was someone named Xilin..."

"Xilin?!"

When Huoding arrived outside the First Aid Room, Saqi was waiting there, pushing Hard in a wheelchair.

"Why did you come out? You're badly injured. What you need most right now is rest."

Hard couldn't salute Huoding the way Saqi could. He raised his hand to do so, but Huoding stopped him. "I couldn't rest easy lying in there."

A medical orderly ran up behind Huoding and reported what had happened.

The data in the ward's monitor had been erased, and the two monitors outside the room had been tampered with. Someone had also hacked the equipment inside and altered its programs, so it had failed to sound an alarm when the patient's condition became critical. Most importantly, they couldn't identify anyone suspicious... Huoding looked over the report recorded in the Electronic Notebook. His brows furrowed tighter and tighter. They had let their guard down.

A medical worker who had come from the Drug Testing Room said to Huoding, "The Infusion Bag contained a highly toxic substance. At that dosage, it would kill within half an hour. But the patient who was injected with it wouldn't feel any discomfort—only increasingly drowsy." Then they would fall asleep and never wake up. The medical worker didn't dare say the last part, but everyone knew what it meant...

Knight had rushed up after not finding Xilin in the ward below, and he had just heard those words. Furious, he pulled out his gun and pressed it to the man's forehead. "Are you all a bunch of idiots?! You can't tell which bags are poisoned and which aren't?! Didn't you test them?!"

For soldiers, dying on the battlefield was something they accepted without regret. But if they died for no reason and to no purpose, their souls would never rest in peace.

"Knight, calm down!" Huoding signaled for several medical orderlies to pull Knight away, but they couldn't take the gun from him.

Knight broke free, put his gun away, and took the Electronic Notebook Huoding handed him to read the report.

The monitors had been tampered with, so they hadn't captured anyone suspicious? The Infusion Bag...

Wait!

"I know who switched that Infusion Bag!" Knight opened his communicator and pulled up the call record. "It was this woman!"

A nurse?

Huoding opened his communicator, dialed a number, and sent the video over. "Find this woman!"

Not long after he ended the call, Huoding's communicator rang again.

He checked the number. It was a special communicator from the Seven Luminaries. Although the main mission was over, the follow-up work was still underway. Usually, the Seven Luminaries wouldn't contact them at a time like this, since it might involve military affairs. Thinking of someone, Huoding suddenly felt nervous. He gritted his teeth and answered.

The image flickered, revealing Mo Heng's unusually kind-looking smile.

"Little Ding."

As expected...

Cold sweat streamed down Huoding's back. Even when facing that many Mutated Black Rats, he had never been this nervous.

"M-Mo... Old Mo, sir!" Huoding stiffened and saluted.

Seeing Huoding's reaction, Mo Heng asked, "What's wrong? You're sweating buckets. Are you this nervous to see me? Am I scarier than those Mutated Black Rats?"

Mo Heng knew quite a bit about their mission.

Much scarier. Far, far, far scarier. Huoding thought, but he couldn't figure out what to say. Before he could speak, though, Mo Heng continued.

"Something happened to Xilin?" Seeing Huoding's reaction, how could Mo Heng not guess that something was wrong?

But as Mo Heng said those words, even Huoding, on the other end of the communicator, could feel the oppressive air around Old Master Mo.

Old Master Mo was about to lose his temper.