Great Xia Fief, Advanced Research Institute.
The air was thick with the smell of disinfectant and high-energy ozone.
Lin Mo had just changed into a specially made white antistatic lab coat when the heavy alloy airtight doors slid apart with a hiss.
Two figures hurried briskly inside.
Academician Qian Zhenhua led the way, his hair as messy as a bird's nest and his gold-rimmed glasses sitting crookedly on his nose.
Biology Academician Liu Chengen followed behind him, both men striding as vigorously as if they had grown twenty years younger.
"Commander Lin!"
Qian Zhenhua stepped right up to Lin Mo and grabbed his shoulder.
"Quick, let me take a look!"
"Has anything changed now that you're at the seventh order?"
Liu Chengen came over too, circling Lin Mo twice before bringing his nose almost against Lin Mo's neck and taking a deep breath.
"I don't smell any energy radiation."
"Body temperature normal, pulse... wait, why is your pulse only thirty-five beats per minute?"
The stares of the two national treasure academicians made Lin Mo's back prickle. He instinctively leaned away and rubbed the tip of his nose.
"Gentlemen, easy, easy."
"I'm Great Xia's representative on Terra, after all. Could you not look at me like I'm an alien lab rat?"
Qian Zhenhua pushed up his glasses and gave a snort.
"A lab rat?"
"Can a lab rat make missiles single-handedly? Can a lab rat defy gravity and fly? Can a lab rat live a thousand years?"
"Commander Lin, right now, you're more precious to me and Old Liu than a hundred alien lab rats put together!"
"Those seventh-order charlatans on the Terra Continent talk about miracles all day, but ask them about the principles behind them and they close their eyes and chant scriptures. Trying to communicate with them is