Waiting

"What am I afraid of? At most, I'll just get a tumor!"

"Zuo Quan had a tumor but he's still alive and well!"

"Pei Jing only rebelled against the Alliance States!"

"Zuo Quan and Zuo Luo are currently in a weakened position; they wouldn't use a sick person like me to plot a rebellion, and I'm incapable of doing so!"

"Besides, this body Non-Self; who knows who might be unlucky enough to end up in it!"

The closer it got to the time of the world's transition, the more easily his mind became unsettled.

When Zhang Xuezhou is lucid, he is not afraid of being harmed; what he fears is being taken over and causing trouble when he is unconscious.

This was something Zhang Xuezhou had been trying to prevent for years, but no matter how low he tried to keep a low profile, Zhang Xuezhou couldn't stop it from happening.

No one can climb the ladder of success without offending anyone, and everyone will inevitably face conflicts of interest, making it difficult to remain unscathed.

"Hey, Committee Member Zuo, yes, yes, yes..."

When Zuo Quan called, Zhang Xuezhou calmed down instead.

He responded with remarkable composure, rattling off a string of words.

Among the many preparations Zhang Xuezhou had made, the worst scenario was that his situation was discovered, and then Zuo Quan and others came to the Dongshan Imperial Mausoleum Management Office to investigate him. In that case, he would inevitably have to prove his innocence and put on an act on the spot, and Zuo Quan would most likely investigate the Luo Yan Imperial Mausoleum, and even use some means to conduct a strong investigation against him.

Secondly, Zuo Quan and others were secretly monitoring and investigating, while Zhang Xuezhou was cautiously on guard. The two sides went back and forth, with both sides attacking and defending. It was good if they didn't find out, but if they did, they would inevitably confront each other, which was also filled with psychological anxiety.

At the very least, given the current situation, Zuo Quan's reaction was too slow; he didn't even notice something amiss until Zhang Xuezhou returned to North Rehe.

Listening to Zuo Quan's questions over the communication, Zhang Xuezhou was quite certain that Zuo Quan had not noticed that he had been drawing on the fortune of Emperor Luo Yan's tomb these past two days, and had not even noticed that the original luster of the lucky gold necklace had dimmed and disappeared once.

"They should be coming to North Rehe next!"

Zhang Xuezhou picked up the gold necklace from his pocket.

The purple light of the lucky gold necklace he had explored during his exploration of the Luo Yan Emperor's tomb had been almost completely worn away, but it was partially replenished by the Tongtian Jade Ruler, so it still looked somewhat radiant with purple.

"To be able to get close to Pei Jing without being noticed, even Pei Jing's son Pei Ying, must be incredibly capable. An Ran An Ran not be able to detect him, but only Professor Ren could possibly find out. I'm definitely going to suffer this time!"

Zhang Xuezhou doesn't need to be on guard once.

This time he hired someone to guard against Zuo Luo, but he can't keep guarding against him forever.

Eliminating Zuo Luo and others might alleviate the problem temporarily, but if he fails to capture Huang Daoxian and exposes himself, he will undoubtedly be the loser in this situation.

Zhang Xuezhou was somewhat prepared, knowing that Zuo Luo and the others didn't intend to kill him, but rather to use him, so his mood wasn't too bad.

"I've met all their demands, so why do they insist on controlling me?"

Zhang Xuezhou also had some questions he couldn't understand, but he didn't dwell on them too much. After all, once he regained his senses, he would likely understand Zuo Quan and the others' intentions.

Driving his car, Zhang Xuezhou returned to North Rehe from Dongshan.

The several-hour drive meant he arrived back at the research institute late.

The research institute had lights and traces of celebratory fireworks, but Zhang Xuezhou, the recipient of congratulations, was conspicuously absent.

He stayed at the Dongshan Imperial Mausoleum for two days. Apart from Zhang Manqian, Ren Anran, and a few others, it was quite difficult for others to get any information.

Zhang Xuezhou currently has too many contacts, and each one is very active. If each of the nearly 500 people sends a message, he has to click 500 times. Apart from replying to the friends who are highlighted, Zhang Xuezhou is not actively replying to other people's messages at the moment, but has only set up an automatic reply.

When Zhang Xuezhou returned to the research institute two days later, only Zuo Denggao remained, sitting idly in the living room.

"Brother Zhang, ha, Brother Zhang!"

Upon seeing Zhang Xuezhou push open the door and enter, Zuo Denggao quickly stood up.

Zuo Denggao smiled, but his heart was aching terribly.

He never imagined that even living so close by, seeing Zhang Xuezhou would still be so difficult.

Zhang Xuezhou was either not at the research institute or he stayed in the research room all day without going out, so Zuo Denggao never saw Zhang Xuezhou when he was idle.

In this situation, his desire to chat, eat, joke around to enhance friendship, or discuss topics related to catalysts became a luxury.

However, Zuo Denggao couldn't do without Zhang Xuezhou's help.

"Zhou Yueyan gave me some R32 catalyst. I still have a few samples left, which you can use as a reference. She shared her lab's data with me, so you can copy it and see what needs to be corrected in your own lab, and whether it's possible to do better. We need to trade our R33 catalyst with someone. The traded item is still under development and production. We'll share the results with you once it's successful!"

Zuo Denggao was a key figure in Zhang Xuezhou's logistical support; the other party took nearly a quarter of the Zuo Household's wealth and left.

This enormous sum of money and assets is enough to support their catalytic research project. The only condition is that Zhang Xuezhou and his team need to take Zuo Denggao with them when they climb up the ladder, so that the other party doesn't only need low-level catalytic materials.

Zhang Xuezhou was well aware of Zuo Denggao's purpose; the other party probably had a high defect rate during the research, making it difficult to stabilize the research project.

"Here, this thing has a bit of a lucky charm effect. Wear it around your neck, and maybe your research institute will have a higher success rate!"

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Xuezhou decided that the gold necklace, which was no longer of any use to him after guiding the flow of fortune, would instead be put on Zuo Denggao's neck.

"Brother Zhang, have you always been this generous?"

Thirty seconds after Zuo Denggao saw Zhang Xuezhou, a gold necklace was already around his neck.

A minute later, he had two qualified R32 catalyst samples in his hands, along with relevant experimental data and text.

Before he could even be polite, Zuo Denggao had already gotten everything he needed, and even had a lucky necklace around his neck.

Zuo Denggao reached out and squeezed it, only to find that the pure gold chain had been slightly flattened by his own hand. This made him quickly pull his hand back to verify the authenticity of the item.

"Don't worry, we'll achieve a win-win situation through cooperation," Zhang Xuezhou patted Zuo Denggao on the shoulder and said, "With our current level, there's no need to hold back. Let's all strive to reach the Sixth Sequence before worrying about anything else!"

"If that's how you put it, then I'll join you in a big fight!"

Zhang Xuezhou had no past personal grudges in mind; he spoke frankly and directly, and stated his minimum goal.

Zuo Denggao considered his own thoughts, and then thought about the R33, R34 and other series of catalysts that were originally going to be discussed. He quickly felt relieved.

"We only need to replicate other people's research results; the research itself is secondary. You should let the researchers handle these tasks and focus your attention on the sequence, so you don't fall behind us later," Zhang Xuezhou nodded and said, "Zuo Teng and I will either die, or our upward momentum will be too fast. You must keep up!"

"Well!"

Upon hearing Zhang Xuezhou mention the "either die or charge" scenario, Zuo Denggao felt a chill run down his spine, realizing that both Zhang Xuezhou and Zuo Teng were madmen obsessed with the battle for supremacy.

As a partner in a team with weak genes, Zuo Denggao felt things would be really difficult if he performed too poorly.

I will definitely strive to improve myself!

Zuo Denggao made a solemn promise.

It goes without saying that Zuo Denggao, as a scion of a wealthy and powerful family, has hardly ever had the mentality of Struggle in the past twenty years. He only showed some ruthlessness when his father, Zuo Jin, was beaten by Zuo Teng.

Urged on by Zhang Xuezhou, Zuo Denggao felt ashamed and had no choice but to run as fast as he could to keep up with Zhang Xuezhou and the others.

Zuo Denggao idly waited for two days to kill time, but after seeing Zhang Xuezhou, he returned to his research institute very quickly.

"Only you can handle this shameless scoundrel!"

After Zuo Denggao left the research institute, Zhang Manqian Zuo Denggao about him before leaving the study and locking the institute's door behind her.

Is there something going on in Dongshan?

Ren Anran, on the other hand, was concerned about the situation in Dongshan where Zhang Xuezhou was. Zhang Xuezhou obviously wouldn't stay in Dongshan for two days unless there was a very real need for it.

"It's nothing serious, nothing to worry about," Zhang Xuezhou said. "If you can stay lucid, then help me see what's going on!"

Zhang Xuezhou touched the mark implanted in his body.

In his perception, Zuo Quan had left Western Capital City and was heading towards North Rehe.