Chapter 59 : Chapter 59
Chapter 59
Ji Qing calmly gazed at the towering tsunami in the distance.
Because he already knew the decision of the sovereign of the deep sea, Ji Qing did not feel the same urgency as everyone else. Song Xiaoran’s earlier actions had given him quite a bit of inspiration. Ji Qing planned to use gravity to hold the tsunami back from eroding the island’s support points.
But before carrying that out, he politely asked Shao Huayu what he intended to do.
Both of them knew that the sea was the humpback whale’s home ground.
The humpback whale was enormous, yet astonishingly nimble in the water. If they tried to confront it head-on on the surface of the sea, the result would be a completely unsurprising defeat.
The only fortunate thing was that they did not need to oppose it directly.
This action was not meant to exterminate the marine Aberrants. It was only meant to buy time for their classmates to retreat and protect the remaining main body of the island.
So after thinking for a moment, Shao Huayu said frankly, “Your ability is more useful than mine, so you should protect the island. I’ll deal with the Aberrants coming in with the tsunami.”
Ji Qing let out a light laugh after hearing that. “That was exactly what I had in mind.”
Their responsibilities were divided cleanly and efficiently.
Shao Huayu quickly ran down the hillside, while Ji Qing once more fixed his eyes on the onrushing tsunami.
His gaze landed on the humpback whale, appearing and disappearing amid the stormy sea, and a trace of regret surfaced in his heart. Ji Qing thought: The red fish must have already warned it not to get too close to the island.
From the moment it appeared until now, the humpback whale had been circling in the nearshore waters.
All the other marine Aberrants had boarded the island, but the humpback whale had stubbornly refused to approach it. As long as it maintained the proper distance, it could leave at any moment.
That behavior fit the cunning of an “intelligent Aberrant” perfectly.
Ji Qing shook his head inwardly in helplessness.
If he had not been the one who proposed the plan in the first place, he might have been infuriated to death on the spot.
Though his thoughts were in turmoil, Ji Qing outwardly continued carrying out the island protection plan step by step. He quickly scanned the surrounding area, identified the island’s support points, and used gravity to hold the seawater back.
That kind of action could protect the island itself, but not the vegetation.
The trees were still snapped by the tsunami, and the wild grass was still swept away by the seawater. The tsunami rolled over the hill and poured toward the other side, while Ji Qing paid it no mind.
His duty was to protect the island, not to protect his classmates.
Even so, irritation still rose in Ji Qing’s heart. All he could see within his field of vision was the shifting sea, the collapsing, eroding rock and soil, and the marine Aberrants rushing toward them.
Wave after wave of tsunami surged in, and the spray dampened the tips of his hair.
Ji Qing frowned without showing it.
But he did not choose to use his ability to block out the spray. Instead, he continued focusing on those support points. His spiritual energy was draining away rapidly, and he had to conserve it.
This really is exhausting, Ji Qing thought.
Once again, Ji Qing’s gaze returned to the humpback whale in the waters not far away. Perhaps knowing that its objective had already been accomplished, the whale’s attack was no longer as fierce as before.
Just as Ji Qing thought it was about to leave, it suddenly turned and swam toward the other side of the island.
“This is bad.” Ji Qing’s expression changed sharply.
Under those circumstances, who would believe the humpback whale was not trying to kill everyone? Ji Qing himself knew the decision made by the sovereign of the deep sea, but no one else did.
Ji Qing hurriedly released his ability and rose into the air toward the humpback whale.
He had to stop it!
But halfway there, the humpback whale suddenly stopped advancing. At that moment, it had already reached a point where it could see the ship at the other end of the island, and the students aboard the ship could also clearly spot it.
The setting sun poured over the sea, and the shadows of the whale and the ship fell along the same line.
“What is that? The Lord?”
“No, hurry and run!”
“I don’t want to die here! Why hasn’t the ship started moving yet?!”
The survivors on the ship instantly fell into chaos, but Ji Qing’s heart suddenly became calm.
Standing in the island’s shadow, he quietly watched the unfamiliar humpback whale.
“You completed the task brilliantly,” Ji Qing said softly.
Even better than he had expected.
Now every student had seen the humpback whale with their own eyes. Their testimony would completely overturn You Xingluo’s deduction, and the entire incident would be officially defined as a provocation from a deep-sea Lord against the land.
The humpback whale said nothing in response.
It had no ability to speak, nor could it understand human language. Once it finished what it had come to do, it rolled once across the surface and quickly dived into the sea.
Ji Qing watched the ripples spread across the water, and for some reason, a trace of envy rose in his heart.
He wanted subordinates that obedient too.
How enviable, Ji Qing thought wildly to himself. If he had followers like that, he would not have to put in so much effort himself. If things went smoothly enough, he could even just sit back and reap the rewards.
Although in reality, he was currently holding three jobs at once...
“Ji Qing—”
Shao Huayu’s voice suddenly rang out from behind him.
Ji Qing turned and saw Shao Huayu hurrying over, worn down by dust and battle. His usually elegant, well-kept clothes were stained and torn in many places, and even the long hair he always maintained with such care had become disheveled.
Shao Huayu’s eyes moved past Ji Qing and landed on the distant rippling sea with a complicated look.
“Has it gone?” Shao Huayu asked.
“It has,” Ji Qing replied.
Shao Huayu asked again, “Did you do something?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
Ji Qing calmly shook his head, but when his gaze flicked toward the students on the ship, he suddenly said, “I think... it may simply have wanted to give us a warning...”
Thinking of the red fish’s decision, Ji Qing softened the statement a little more. “Maybe the Aberrants are a lot more complicated internally than we thought.”
“...”
After hearing that, the light in Shao Huayu’s eyes shifted uncertainly.
He did not really want to believe those words, but there was no better explanation before him. After thinking it over several times, Shao Huayu let out a long sigh. “Remember not to say that in front of the investigator sent from Central City.”
“Hm?” Ji Qing looked at him in surprise.
“A reminder from the young master of the Shao family,” Shao Huayu said in a complicated tone. “I still don’t want you disappearing from my life.”
“...All right.” Ji Qing lifted both hands with an exaggerated look of regret.
But almost at once, Ji Qing seemed to realize something, and a flamboyant smile curved across his lips. Teasingly, he said, “So I count as one of your people now?”
Shao Huayu: “...Heh.”
In a chilly voice, he replied, “You’re really asking a question you already know the answer to.”
Ji Qing gave a theatrical sigh. “But I really have no idea what you’re talking about... How troubling...”
Shao Huayu fell speechless. “...”
There it was again—another friend who liked repeatedly dancing all over his bottom line.
Shao Huayu raised an eyebrow at that and turned away.
He still had to meet up with Ling You’er. The battle just now had drained Ling You’er’s spiritual energy completely. If he had not been worried about Ji Qing, why would he have come running over on purpose?
He really was just asking for trouble, Shao Huayu thought.
***
That night, the teachers and students of Third Ability Academy stayed temporarily in Xicheng.
The Team Competition had been forced to stop because of the appearance of the humpback whale. Since the events on the island had far-reaching consequences, all the teachers and students involved were also forced to remain in Xicheng and wait for the investigation from Central City.
Ji Qing and Shao Huayu were assigned to the same room.
After checking the condition of the two of them, the doctors picked up their medicine cases and left briskly. There were still many students waiting to be examined. They had no time to linger here.
Looking at the doctors’ hurried figures, Ji Qing felt as though a lifetime had passed.
They had only spent three or four days on the island, yet now he actually found himself somewhat unaccustomed to the sights within the city again. Ji Qing scratched his head helplessly.
Maybe the things he had witnessed on the island had affected him too deeply, Ji Qing thought.
The third alter ego, the sovereign of the deep sea, species evolution, the conflict on land...
As Ji Qing reviewed everything that had happened along the way, he leaned back against the pillow.
After a long while, he looked at the old ceiling fan above him and let out a sigh.
He really did know how to make trouble for himself. Helplessly, Ji Qing thought: Why had he deliberately made himself lose his memory in the first place? If he had not left himself a backup before entering the cave, he never would have gotten any information about the third alter ego...
It was simply too devious.
Compared with the information on the Dawn Society, which he could obtain directly from the terminal, the information on “Qing” was far more concealed and unknown. Ji Qing softly repeated that name to himself. Based on what he knew so far, it was not hard for him to guess—
This alter ego was deeply tied to the identity of the valedictorian.
So it looked as though he had intended from the very beginning to discard the valedictorian identity. Ji Qing lowered his eyes and let his thoughts wander. Had it been because he never planned to stay at school for long, so he had simply chosen an identity at random and disguised himself with it?
It felt a little strange, Ji Qing thought.
But when Ji Qing recalled the situation with the red fish, a vague guess suddenly formed in his mind.
Perhaps... “Qing” was the real body.
Ji Qing thought: The sovereign of the deep sea could appear before others through the red fish’s avatar. If he really was an Aberrant, then presumably he too could appear before others through some other avatar.
That would explain why he could become the leader of an Infected organization despite seeming to be “not Infected.”
Ji Qing’s brows were immediately knitted together.
Because that meant one thing: the body he was using now might not be his real body. And when he had awakened on the train, he had already noticed that the appearance of this identity did not match his true appearance...
“Fuck...” Ji Qing cursed under his breath.
If this was true, then it would completely overturn Ji Qing’s understanding of himself. But... why had he even made the body he used after losing his memory look different from his original appearance?
There was absolutely something suspicious about that.
Just as Ji Qing’s thoughts were churning, Shao Huayu suddenly asked, “Ji Qing, did you hold something back during the mental test?”
Ji Qing froze when he heard that.
Shao Huayu’s question unavoidably dragged his thoughts back to reality.
At this moment, his identity ought to be the valedictorian.
Although he really had held something back, why bring that up now of all times? Ji Qing turned his head and put on a puzzled expression. “What did I do that gave you that impression?”
The look in Shao Huayu’s eyes immediately grew complicated.
He set down the newspaper in his hand and said calmly, “When you were leaving the island, you never showed any signs of exhaustion.”
“...I’m impressed you still had enough energy to observe me,” Ji Qing said with a laugh.
On the way back, he truly had not felt any exhaustion at all. It was almost as if spiritual energy was merely a convenient excuse to him. But when Ji Qing seriously considered the meaning behind those words, he immediately tasted something different in them.
Could Shao Huayu be suspecting his loyalties? Ji Qing became inwardly alert.
The way he had behaved on the way back, as well as the things he had said at the end, all pointed toward the conclusion that “he was close to the Aberrants.” For someone like Shao Huayu, who had grown up in Central City, was that not another kind of cult?
So Ji Qing smiled and said, “Relax. I’ll always stand on humanity’s side.”
As long as this identity still remained.
Ji Qing silently added that last line in his heart.
Although he was feeling somewhat lost right now, there was no way he could reveal these worries to anyone else. When he returned to the Pure White Space, he would talk things through with the system.
He wondered how the system was doing now...