Male Lead, Please Don’t Covet the Mob Character Cannon Fodder (Quick Transmigration) - Chapter 32

As night fell, Jia led Qingshi out of the small building. Their path toward the seaside was completely unobstructed, which only served to confirm Qingshi’s suspicions.

His gaze pierced through the heavy darkness behind Jia’s shoulder; he knew for certain that others were back there.

Upon reaching a deserted stretch of coastline, Qingshi was still wondering how Jia intended to take him across the vast ocean back to Antarctica when he heard Jia utter a phrase in a language he did not understand. Suddenly, a small black island surfaced on the water nearby. The island grew larger and larger.

It was not until two yellow vertical pupils, each nearly the size of a person, appeared like lanterns that Qingshi realized this was no island at all.

It was a gargantuan crocodile. Qingshi had only seen a creature of this scale once before—the moment the Hope Base was destroyed.

As expected, what he had seen back then was Jia!

The Hynos Merfolk could actually command giant crocodiles? Was it a master-servant relationship?

Qingshi’s bewildered gaze caught Jia’s attention. Jia shifted the man in his arms, hoisting him slightly higher. “In your tongue, its name is Du’er. It is a partner to the Hynos race, or perhaps you could call it a guardian.”

Qingshi nodded in understanding.

Jia stepped onto Du’er’s back as the creature extended its snout to the shore.

Once Jia was steady, Du’er twisted its body and turned to head out. Logically, given its size, it should have been cumbersome, but Du’er’s speed defied common sense; it was incredibly fast.

The Federation’s swiftest warship would take at least two hours to get from the Main City to Antarctica, yet Du’er made the trip in less than one.

Du’er did not approach the edge of the Antarctic continent. Instead, while still some distance from the glaciers, it dived deep into the ocean.

As he made contact with the freezing Antarctic waters again, Qingshi did not feel the bone-chilling cold he had experienced last time. He even discovered, to his surprise, that he could breathe underwater.

Qingshi reached out to touch his nose, which looked no different than before, and thought to himself: “It seems the Hynos genes in my body are nearly finished taking over.”

Ten thousand meters beneath the sea, there was an irregular opening in the ice layer. Even the massive Du’er seemed tiny as it crawled inside.

In the absolute darkness, the only sound for a time was the rhythmic paddling of Du’er’s limbs.

After an unknown amount of time, the seawater receded, and the surroundings finally brightened. It began with tiny specks of white light, followed by vast patches of multicolored glow.

A magnificent sub-glacial world unfolded before Qingshi’s eyes. Clusters of ice crystals in various colors were scattered everywhere, illuminating the entire space. Countless ice pillars connected the floor to the ceiling, some so large they would require several people to encircle them.

Inside almost every ice pillar was a Hynos with a human torso and a serpent tail; some solitary, some in pairs.

They were frozen in various lifelike poses: some attacking, some languid, some entwined in intimacy.

It was a vivid display of the Hynos Merfolk’s power and superiority.

Jia led Qingshi down from Du’er’s back. He stroked the creature’s snout and spoke a few words; Qingshi guessed it was a gesture of gratitude.

Du’er then turned and departed for parts unknown.

Jia led Qingshi into the forest of ice pillars. The further they went, the fewer the pillars became, though they grew significantly in size.

Finally, they reached the very front. The ground was covered in shattered ice, and above them, an ice pillar—wide enough to require ten men to span—lay snapped in the middle.

Once they climbed over the ice blocking their path, Qingshi saw a pool of liquid beneath the broken pillar, emitting a mysterious mist that could have been either steam or frost.

His heart gave a heavy thud. Qingshi looked down at the ground.

Sure enough, despite the thickness of the ice, he noticed a subtle ripple beneath his feet.

If his guess was correct, this entire space sat atop a pond, or perhaps a lake.

Could this be the “Dragon Transformation Pool,” the sacred ground Zhong Lin had mentioned?

“Are we going in?” Qingshi asked Jia.

“Yes.” Jia gently brushed the corner of his partner’s eye. “Don’t be afraid.”

“Hahaha! I finally found it! I finally found it!” An aged voice, raspy with excitement, rang out.

Jia turned toward the path they had come from. He had long since noticed the insects following them, but he had not cared.

Greedy men eventually reap what they sow.

Qingshi also saw the source of the voice. Unsurprisingly, it was Zhong Lin. Behind him was a group of black-clad guards—his private soldiers and confidants. Shu Yi was among them.

Zhong Lin ordered the guards to surround Jia and Qingshi. He looked at the cold-faced Qingshi and smiled. “As expected of my good son. Qingshi, you have done very well.”

Qingshi curled one side of his mouth into a mocking arc and turned his head away, unwilling to speak to him.

Zhong Lin, having achieved his heart’s desire, ignored the slight. Accompanied by Shu Yi, he bypassed them and approached the pool beneath the ice pillar.

Qingshi looked up; Jia’s expression betrayed nothing of his current mood.

With a soft sigh, Qingshi whispered, “I am sorry.”

Jia, who had been watching Zhong Lin and the others, looked down upon hearing the apology and kissed the corner of Qingshi’s eye. “Qing, you never need to apologize to me.”

Meeting Jia’s sincere eyes, Qingshi’s heart trembled violently, and his expression softened for a moment.

“Aaaaaah! Shu Yi, save me! Get me out of here!” Zhong Lin’s sudden, blood-curdling scream caught Qingshi’s attention. He looked toward the pool.

Zhong Lin, who had entered the water, was losing all his hair. Black, semi-circular scales were sprouting from the top of his head, already spreading toward his eyes.

He flailed his arms desperately, swimming toward the edge of the pool while shouting for Shu Yi, who stood on the bank.

But his most trusted subordinate, Shu Yi, simply stood there watching, making no move to save him. Panic surged within Zhong Lin. “Shu Yi! What are you doing?! Save me, now!”

He shouted to the others, “What are you all doing just standing there? Save me!”

Strangely, not a single person obeyed. All the black-clad guards watched him with expressionless faces.

Shu Yi looked down at the wretched Zhong Lin in the water and let out a scoff. “Zhong Lin, did you ever imagine you would see this day?”

Zhong Lin’s venomous gaze pierced Shu Yi. “Who are you? You are not Shu Yi?!”

“When you skinned me and pulled out my tendons all those years ago, did you think of today?”

“You are!” Zhong Lin seemed to recall something. “Are you that Hynos from thirty years ago?! How can you be Shu Yi?!”

Shu Yi’s face seemed split in two: one half sorrowful, the other triumphant.

“Chairman, the person you ordered to be hunted back then was me.”

The scales had already spread to the bridge of Zhong Lin’s nose. Those sapphire eyes, the same as Qingshi’s became two dark hollows. His voice grew muffled and weak. “So, you were the mate chosen by that Hynos!”

“You betrayed me.”

Shu Yi sank to one knee. A tear escaped his sorrowful right eye, yet his mouth uttered heart-wrenching words: “You deserve this! A hypocritical, unscrupulous, and selfish person like you does not deserve to live.”

Qingshi, watching from a distance, was stunned by this reversal. He turned to Jia and, seeing his lack of surprise, asked, “You knew all along?”

“Yes.”

Hearing the confirmation, Qingshi’s body went limp. He watched Zhong Lin gradually transform into a monster in the pool, not knowing whether to cry or laugh.

“Is this the result you spent your life calculating and plotting for, Father?”

“Heh… heh…” The scales began to spread faster. Zhong Lin could no longer speak, producing only meaningless gasps.

Before long, the Zhong Lin in the pool vanished. In his place appeared a creature resembling a cross between a snake and a lizard; the “Dread Dragon Lizard” that Qingshi knew all too well.

So, this was how Dread Dragon Lizards were born?

Creatures who coveted the Hynos Merfolk were transformed in the Dragon Transformation Pool, their lingering obsessions driving them to hunt Hynos for the rest of their lives.

The lizard that was once Zhong Lin crawled sluggishly onto the shore toward Shu Yi. It was met with a merciless gunshot to the head.

Two bangs echoed through the cavernous space, lingering for a long time.

Qingshi’s body jolted at the sound. He watched as Shu Yi slowly collapsed to the ground, revealing a fist-sized gunshot wound at his temple. Blood stained the ice beneath him.

As Shu Yi fell, the circle of guards surrounding Qingshi and Jia all rolled their eyes back and collapsed.

And so, in this sacred land, only Qingshi and Jia remained as living, breathing beings.

Like an absurd farce, it had come to a hasty conclusion.

Jia began to move, soon bringing Qingshi near the bodies of Shu Yi and the lizard that was Zhong Lin. Qingshi asked Jia to set him down.

He approached the bodies and slowly sank to his knees, touching his forehead to the ground.

One bow for the gift of life; a second for the upbringing.

After two bows, Qingshi stood up. He hated Zhong Lin, but he also admired him.

The Federation would likely fall into chaos after this.

Qingshi looked up, his gaze seemingly piercing through the ice and the ocean to the skyscraper-filled Main City.

“Qing, let us go.” Jia held his hand out to Qingshi.

Qingshi turned his gaze back to Jia and placed his hand in his.

Ultimately, Qingshi followed his predestined path.

His fate and Jia’s had been entwined since the moment they first met.

Plop.

In the silent world of ice, a new ice pillar appeared without a sound. It was as wide as ten men, containing a pair of devoted lovers.

The tall man held his slender partner firmly in his arms. They were frozen in the moment of a kiss.

Clatter. In the research lab where he had been immersed for nearly half a month, the test tube in Meng Xi’s hand suddenly hit the floor. He clutched his chest, feeling a series of sharp pains.

It felt as though something he did not know about had happened.

Before he could organize his thoughts, the lab’s intercom crackled to life: “Attention all researchers. At 04:35 on November 5, Star Calendar 4035, a super-strong cold current was detected sweeping in from Antarctica. It is expected to reach the Main City in one hour. Please prepare accordingly.”

“Jie jie, Meng Xi, the storm is coming. Are you ready to beg me?”

“Sigh.” This was the 108th sigh Qingshi had let out since returning to the System Space.

Looking at the big “0” next to his Reincarnation Points, he asked himself, “How did it come to this?”

“Eight-Eight, do you know what I did in the last mission?”

886, crouching nearby, had a flicker of guilt in his cat-like eyes. “Haha, they are frozen again. I do not know either!”

Qingshi looked at 886. The cat’s body went stiff, thinking he had been caught, but Qingshi merely reached out and patted his fluffy head.

“Forget it. I will not be working for free forever. Let us continue.”

A comfortable purr vibrated in 886’s throat. “Right, right! Qingshi, you are the best!”

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