Mastermind

Inside the elevator shaft, Qing Chen carried Li Changqing on his back, while Li Changqing carried the sniper rifle for him.

"I'm really not a superhuman. I was just nervous, that's why I was holding on so tightly," Li Changqing said, leaning against Qing Chen's back. "If I made you unable to breathe, then I apologize, but I didn't mean to."

"You're really not a superhuman? Your arms are so strong, I can't even pry them open," Qing Chen said expressionlessly as he continued climbing upwards, the elevator stopping every floor.

He wanted Li Changqing to climb the ladder himself, but Li Changqing absolutely refused.

It wasn't until he reached the twelfth floor that he found a maintenance access point for the central air conditioning system. He said to Li Changqing, "Can you get off my back now? This maintenance access point for the central air conditioning system can't be passed by two people at the same time. I'll climb in front, and you follow behind."

"Fine," Li Changqing reluctantly let go.

The two of them finally breathed a sigh of relief when they were hiding inside the central air conditioning ducts.

Climbing up the elevator shaft is not a long-term solution, because someone will always come to check the elevator, and once someone discovers that the elevator ceiling has been broken open, they will definitely follow and crawl into the elevator shaft.

All the enemy needs to do is fire a burst of bullets overhead, and Qing Chen and Li Changqing will die here together.

Sure enough, not long after the two crawled inside, shouts came from the elevator shaft, "Someone has crawled into the elevator shaft from the ceiling!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than someone else, holding a high-powered cluster flashlight, shone it through the holes in the ceiling into the elevator shaft. However, the light swept across the shaft wall beside the two people and found nothing...

Li Changqing glanced at Qing Chen and thought to himself that it was fortunate they had crawled into the pipe beforehand.

Slowly, the elevator continued to ascend, passing gently through the elevator shaft beside the two people. The assassins got off the elevator when it stopped on the next floor, seemingly heading upstairs to search.

"Aren't you scared?" Li Changqing asked curiously.

"I'm afraid," Qing Chen said, "But fear won't help me right now, so I have to get rid of it."

Li Changqing looked surprised. Discard it? Is it something you can just discard as you please?

The central air conditioning ducts in this building are quite spacious, enough for two people to sit side by side.

The two of them sat in the dimly lit pipe, and somehow had the illusion of stealing half a day of leisure from their busy lives.

Qing Chen knew that it was the calming effect caused by the release of Endorphin after the tension subsided.

There was a lot of accumulated dust in the central air conditioning ducts, so much so that the woman was covered in dust when she climbed in, and her face was also covered in dust.

This was the first time the woman had ever hidden herself in such a place, and she felt a sense of novelty. In this enclosed environment, she could hear the boy's breathing and heartbeat beside her, and it seemed she could even feel his body temperature.

"I can feel your warmth," Li Changqing said softly.

Qing Chen calmly said, "It's December now. That's warm air from the central air conditioning system blowing throughout the building, not my body temperature..."

"Uh," Li Changqing said somewhat awkwardly, shoving the sniper rifle into Qing Chen's arms. "From now on, you don't need to look for Old Liu anymore if you want to go to the sniper range. I'll give you a card. Unless you want to go to Baopu Tower, you can go anywhere without any problems."

Qing Chen asked, "Don't change the subject. Are there any other people outside who know you're a superhuman? Do you need me to keep it a secret?"

Li Changqing thought for a moment and said, "Fine, I won't hide it from you. I am indeed a superhuman, but no one outside knows it yet."

"Even the Old Liu doesn't know?" Qing Chen asked.

He suddenly realized that it was no wonder Li Changqing dared to use himself as bait; it turned out that as an extraordinary being, he was fearless.

However, at this moment, Li Changqing explained, "Actually, I've only been a superhuman for a little over a month. Recently, there's been a lot of noise about Time Walker. The strategists in the consortium have suggested that if we change our genes, we shouldn't be able to be replaced by time travelers. Many people don't want to use this method because gene serums have side effects, but I'm not afraid of those. I injected myself with a gene serum. If you don't believe me, feel my waist. You might still be able to feel the needle mark now."

As he spoke, Li Changqing grabbed Qing Chen's hand in the darkness and tried to reach for his waist, Qing Chen quickly pulled his hand back.

"To be able to come up with such an excuse on the spot, you can be considered quick-witted," Qing Chen sighed. The other party was certain that he would not touch her, which is why they dared to make up such a lie.

Just based on that moment when the other person's body stiffened in the car, if Qing Chen really wanted to touch him, Li Changqing would probably have dodged instead.

Qing Chen asked, "After receiving the gene serum, will I really not be replaced by someone else?"

"You are a gene warrior, so you don't need to worry about such things," Li Changqing said. "The Li family has captured more than 300 Time Walker, including some extraordinary individuals, but not a single gene warrior."

This matches the information that Qing Chen and his group have.

Qing Chen asked, "Why are you capturing so many Time Walker?"

Li Changqing turned to look at him. "I'll let you know a little bit since you've protected me. We've already successfully replaced someone in the direct bloodline of a certain family in the north."

Qing Chen was greatly shocked. He did not expect that this method of reverse time travel was actually feasible, and that the Li family had already succeeded in one case!

While the Outer World was still basking in the joy of protecting household registration information, new progress had already been made here.

At this moment, Li Changqing suddenly said, "You probably haven't had a chance to learn about the Outer World, have you? After this incident is over, come to my room and I'll tell you all about it. The Outer World is quite interesting... And I didn't expect that the Kamishiro Family and the Kashima Family are not on the same land as the Federation in the Outer World, nor are they even in the same country."

Qing Chen asked curiously, "Will those Time Walker listen to you?"

Li Changqing said, "It's understandable that a small number of Time Walker voluntarily join the Li family, but most Time Walker are quite resistant. However, we've found that it's difficult to get them to carry out missions in their home countries in the Outer World, but Time Walker are exceptionally enthusiastic about sending them to the territories of the Kashima and Kashima Family. This seems to be related to the ethnic hatred in the Outer World; they are very willing to annoy the Kashima and Kamishiro Family, which aligns with the Li family's principles."

"Let's go," Qing Chen continued climbing along the central air conditioning ducts. "By now, the assassins in the building will have discovered that we climbed up through the elevator shaft. If they can't find us on any floor, their next step will be to check all the central air conditioning access panels."

"What do you plan to do now?" Li Changqing asked. "Go and kill those assassins?"

"Of course not," Qing Chen said. "Just find a place to wait for your reinforcements. Do you really have to go up there and risk your life yourself?"

Qing Chen wasn't stupid; he had already guessed that Li Changqing had set up an ambush nearby, and the assassins' demise was only a matter of time. He had no need to kill them himself.

The two climbed into a resident's bedroom through the central air conditioning vent. After confirming that no one was outside, Qing Chen carefully removed the iron grille of the central air conditioning unit and quietly jumped down.

Qing Chen pressed his ear against the door between the bedroom and the living room and listened for a while. After confirming that there was no noise outside, he gently turned the doorknob and went out.

In the living room, a middle-aged man wearing a headset was not even aware that someone was behind him.

He held up binoculars and looked downstairs, muttering something as if he were remotely controlling the entire situation.

The hand holding the binoculars was clearly a modified mechanical limb.

Qing Chen thought to himself, "Could it be such a coincidence? Did I really find the mastermind behind this by accident?"

What's strange is that if the other party is the mastermind, why doesn't he have anyone protecting him?

Qing Chen did not make any rash moves. Instead, while the other party's attention was still downstairs, he turned around and looked at Li Changqing. He found that the woman looked very nervous, as if she really was just an F-Class gene warrior.

You have to understand, this is a world with extraordinary beings. If you put them in the Outer World, you could even call them gods.

So in the Inner World, when you accidentally find a BoSS, don't just be happy, because the other person might even thank you for sending them a kill.

You have no idea what level the other party is!

However, Qing Chen knew there must be a reason why this middle-aged man wasn't accompanied by bodyguards...

Li Changqing, standing behind him, pointed to the sniper rifle in Qing Chen's hand and mouthed. "Shoot him!"

Just then, the middle-aged man finally realized something was wrong. He suddenly turned around and looked back, only to find that Li Changqing had already passed by Qing Chen and arrived in front of him like lightning, gracefully striking out with his palm.

Qing Chen suddenly realized that this middle-aged man must be a master, and Li Changqing also knew very well who the other party was.

She could joke around at other times, but in this critical moment, she couldn't hide it anymore.

The next second, Qing Chen looked at this 'just received a gene injection and is only at the F-Class' level, and placed a palm on the chest of the panicked middle-aged man.

With a loud bang, the middle-aged man was sent flying backward as if he had been hit in the chest by a 155mm cannon, his clothes shattered by the impact.

When the middle-aged man's back collided with the thick, multi-pane window glass, the entire window shattered!

He struggled to grab onto something to avoid falling from the twelfth floor, but there was nothing around him to hold onto.

A broken window, a middle-aged man suspended in mid-air, and a Valkyrie standing by the window, coldly striking out—all these elements combined to create an utterly absurd dramatic scene before Qing Chen.

It was full of tension.

This is F-Class?! It should be at least B-Class!

However, Li Changqing's first reaction wasn't to check on his opponent's death, but to turn back to Qing Chen and explain, "If I said I just awakened to this level, you definitely wouldn't believe me..."

The next second, Qing Chen roared, "Watch out!"

But then a black rope was seen flying out of the middle-aged man's mechanical arm and wrapped perfectly around Li Changqing's ankle. He used the force of his fall to pull Li Changqing out of the room and they both fell to the ground from the sky!

That middle-aged man survived such a heavy blow, yet he still wanted to drag Li Changqing down with him!

Qing Chen rushed to the window to try and grab the woman, but he was half a second too late.

He peeked out to check the situation and saw that Li Changqing's falling figure was surprisingly light. She flipped over and used her fingers to break the black rope binding her ankles, then floated down and landed steadily on the ground.

Qing Chen breathed a sigh of relief; he had seen that kind of light-as-a-feather technique in Li Shutong as well.

He had previously thought that it was an ability that knights would naturally acquire once they reached a certain level, but now it seems that this is probably a unique secret inheritance of the Li family.

But here's the problem: Li Changqing has left, so what should I do?

The commotion in this room was so great that all the assassins in the building are probably converging here right now!

Have some food, there'll be another chapter tonight.