Watching the plane soar into the sky and pierce the clouds, the generals began to turn and leave one after another.
At that moment, a lieutenant general approached and asked Yang Guanglian, the senior general, with some confusion, “Minister, are you really going to make him the deputy director of the Third Bureau?”
“Heh… why not?” General Yang Guanglian said with a smile. “Old Wang, this kid is pretty good. Besides, he’s also the old chief’s god-grandson. Setting everything else aside, just his medical skills alone are enough to make my heart stir. And I’ve also heard that his combat abilities are extraordinary—even the people from Mount Wangwu have praised him highly. He’s definitely worth bringing into the General Staff Department…”
“But that deputy director position…” Although the lieutenant general felt the words made sense, he still had some reservations.
“As long as he’s willing to come in, what does deputy director matter? Let Zhang Shi guide him properly… In a year or two, he’ll be up to the task. The Chairman already has a good impression of him now and has praised our young talent in the General Staff Department. This is a talent that needs to be cultivated… I’ve heard that the National Security agency seems to be starting to have some ideas about him too…” General Yang Guanglian smiled faintly, then got into the car.
Lieutenant General Wang watched the minister’s car drive away, stood there in a brief daze, then snapped back to his senses and smiled as well, murmuring softly, “National Security? The minister really knows how to think things through… Of course, this young man needs to be cultivated… If someone else snatches him up, that would be a real loss!”
There weren’t many people on the private plane. Apart from the cabin crew and General Zuma and his entourage, there were only the Wolf Fang squad plus the three from the General Staff Department… so it was fairly quiet.
“Lieutenant Colonel, the forward cabin is General Zuma’s treatment bay, and the rear cabin is where Lieutenant Bai and the others are resting… you can rest in the middle cabin.” After hearing Hu Qiang’s introduction, Xu Ze nodded and walked into the forward cabin. Seeing Xu Ze enter, the general’s wife, who was accompanying him, and the four bodyguards all smiled and nodded at him.
In just a few days, all these Black people had come to understand that this young man from an ancient country had saved the general, so whenever they saw Xu Ze, everyone was very warm and enthusiastic.
And the only Black bodyguard who understood Chinese, Jida, stood up with a smile and, in his broken Mandarin, looked at Xu Ze and said, “Dr. Xu, we’ve really put you out, having you escort us all the way back!”
“Don’t mention it… The general is one of our best friends, so of course we need to escort him safely and healthily back to his country.” Xu Ze actually had a good impression of this straightforward Black man. After chatting with him for a couple of sentences, he stepped forward to check on General Zuma’s condition.
General Zuma had woken up, but he was still not entirely clear-headed and looked a bit like a senile old man. However, Xu Ze knew that this was due to the residual poison in his system. As long as he used his bioelectric energy a few more times, he could restore General Zuma to normal.
As for the other residual toxins in his body, they would require the medication to continue treatment for another three or four days to be completely cleared. Xu Ze didn’t have enough energy to clean all of that up himself.
“Lieutenant Colonel… General Zuma’s condition is currently stable. The next infusion is scheduled for four hours from now!” The medical officer, Zhao Jun, stood up and said respectfully to Xu Ze. Although Xu Ze was much younger than him, Zhao Jun held him in high regard. Anyone who could stump so many experts from the General Hospital deserved respect, regardless of their age, let alone the fact that Xu Ze outranked him by several levels.
“Mm… good work. Keep a close eye on him. I’ll come back in two hours to give the general another acupuncture session.”
After giving Zhao Jun his instructions, Xu Ze walked back to the middle cabin, settled into a comfortable leather seat, leaned back, and closed his eyes to rest.
But seizing this opportunity to rest, Xu Ze began to practice his energy circulation meditation again. He had never cultivated his energy circulation while airborne before, and he was curious to try it out.
To his surprise, he found that energy particles still existed at an altitude of several thousand meters—they weren’t as sparse as he had imagined. In fact, they were quite dense, not quite as rich as by North Lake, but still not bad.
However, when he tried to draw these energy particles into his body, he discovered that they contained much more concentrated energy—one particle up here held about as much energy as two particles down below.
The catch was that these energy particles were also much more turbulent than those below. Once drawn into his body, they rampaged through his Ren and Du meridians, refusing to easily integrate into the energy mass for his use.
Seeing this, Xu Ze was greatly alarmed. He quickly and carefully stopped absorbing external energy particles and poured all his mental focus into his Ren and Du meridians, doing his utmost to control those violent energy particles and merge them into the energy mass.
It took him a considerable amount of time to finally absorb all those particles in his meridians. After letting out a long sigh of relief, Xu Ze entered the virtual space with some lingering doubt to ask Xiao Dao what was going on.
“Energy particles do exist at high altitudes, but the energy they contain is more violent and harder to absorb. However, they also carry more energy, so they restore more power overall. For you right now, that’s actually suitable—you’ll get used to it over time.”
Xiao Dao chuckled and continued, “As for other planets, whether or not they harbor life, energy particles exist there too. Relatively speaking, they can be even more violent and contain far greater energy—it just depends on whether you can absorb them. Only combat medics at Level 4 or above have the ability to absorb such violent energy particles, which is why they’re capable of operating in outer space.”
Hearing Xiao Dao’s explanation, Xu Ze came to his senses and laughed. “So that’s how it is… then I really need to practice more.”
“Right… you’ll get used to it. Honestly, you’re doing pretty well. For a first exposure to such violent energy particles, it only took you a short while to adapt—that’s not bad. A lot of that credit goes to the breakthrough you made in your mental strength a few days ago when it was heavily overdrawn and depleted. It’s grown considerably, which made this a lot easier.” Xiao Dao said with a faint smile.
“My mental strength has improved?” Xu Ze was startled for a moment, then broke into a grin. “Good… with stronger mental energy, breaking through in the energy circulation will be easier too.”
“Alright… let’s leave it at that for now. My energy reserve isn’t high enough yet. I’ll keep cultivating a bit longer. Just make sure to wake me up when it’s time—I still need to go treat General Zuma.”
“Got it…” Xiao Dao replied softly.
After two hours of focused cultivation, Xiao Dao woke Xu Ze up. Checking his energy reserve, he saw that it had increased by nearly twenty percent over those two hours, bringing his total energy reserve up to eighty percent. Sure enough, energy absorption here was much faster than in other places.
He stood up and headed to the forward cabin again. From his Baihui acupoint, he expended over thirty percent of his energy to clear out more residual toxins for General Zuma. Estimating that there were still nearly twenty hours of flight time left, and that after three more treatments he could restore the general’s mental clarity, he felt reassured and returned to the middle cabin to continue his cultivation.
After quite some time, Xu Ze administered the final round of detoxification for General Zuma, and the general finally regained full consciousness—which sent a wave of excitement through everyone on the plane.
Just as the Black bodyguard Jida had said, General Zuma was very generous. Upon learning that Xu Ze had saved his life, he expressed his gratitude warmly and then generously offered Xu Ze a diamond mine as a gift.
“Xu… this mine isn’t particularly large, but it generates about three and a half to four million US dollars in annual revenue. If you don’t accept it, the general will be unhappy!” Seeing Xu Ze refuse, Jida quickly urged him from the side.
“Well…” Xu Ze hesitated for a moment, but when he saw that General Zuma’s face was already showing signs of displeasure, he quickly nodded and accepted. After all, who would turn down money?
For the better part of the past year, because Xu Ze was still in his internship, he basically hadn’t been able to draw a salary from the First Affiliated Hospital. Apart from a symbolic monthly special allowance of two thousand yuan from the Department of Internal Medicine, Xu Ze had no income at all. Even when patients occasionally came to him from back home, he simply told them to pay the consultation fee at the family clinic after they returned.
A few days earlier, he’d finally managed to fleece a big Hong Kong tycoon—but that wasn’t even for Xu Ze himself, so he didn’t get a single cent in consultation fees.
Going on like this, daily living expenses, car costs, and the monthly allowance he gave to Qing’er and Xiao Hao were all draining his funds. That sole million-yuan savings deposit had already taken quite a hit. Living off his reserves like this was truly frustrating.
Although graduation was only about a year away, that still didn’t make things any easier. And since foreign money was there for the taking, why not? Call it a consultation fee if you like—it’s just that the fee was a bit too generous… Xu Ze thought to himself with some embarrassment.
Major Hu Qiang and Captain Zhao Jun, who were standing nearby, exchanged glances when they heard Xu Ze accept such a lucrative gift but said nothing. After all, the foreigner had practically forced it on Xu Ze—refusing would have meant offending him. For the sake of international friendship, accepting it meant the higher-ups couldn’t really say much either.
Foreign money was free money, and as long as Lieutenant Colonel Xu dared to take it, they weren’t in a position to object. In the end, whether it went to the state or wherever… it was still a win-win.
General Zuma was now awake, and thanks to the medication, his body was beginning to move again, though he still lacked strength. Xu Ze estimated it would be a few more days before he fully recovered.
Upon hearing Xu Ze’s assessment, the international friends all celebrated joyfully. Once they returned to their country and stabilized the situation, everything would be fine.
At that moment, the pilot’s voice finally came through: “We have entered the airspace of the Congo and will be landing in about twenty minutes.”
No one came out to meet them in the Congo. The group of nineteen simply disembarked at the airport, boarded two transport helicopters, and headed straight for the Lima Kingdom…
Meanwhile, back in the General Staff Department’s Combat Operations Room in Yanjing, over a dozen senior officers had gathered. General Yang Guanglian stared at the map, his face dark with anger, and roared, “What the hell happened? The rebel army has seized the border region of Tamata, and we’re only finding out about it now… And General Zuma and his team have already entered Lima…”
