CHAPTER 714: DEAD ENDS

"Lost track? You guys didn’t find the injured mutant?"

Yezi curiously questioned as he looked genuinely surprised that something lived after tanking that big of a missile.

"We found it later by the time the sun was about to set. One of the drones was able to capture footage of its corpse."

As Major Lan took out a laptop from his backpack, they all looked a little intrigued by it, except Colonel Mingxu.

"Hurry and show it." Ningjing impatiently asked as her face looked excited to see what a giant mutant looked like.

After a few minutes of turning the laptop on, the video finally started playing. Major Lan quickly skipped forward a bit before stopping right near the end.

"That’s what the mutant looks like?"

Yezi looked a little shocked as it looked extremely similar to a human. The only difference was the lack of hair and certain organs missing between its legs.

"Are all those scratches the bullet wound?" Tai Pi questioned as he couldn’t believe how little damage was done to its body part.

"Yes. All of those dark marks are the area we hit... The wound that killed it is right on the back of its head."

As Major Lan paused the video, they could all see the missing part on the back of its head, almost as if someone had scalped it off.

"How did you guys even manage to land the missile on the back of its head? Did the mutant just stand in place?" Bai Bing curiously asked.

This time, there was no answer from Major Lan as he looked over to Mingxu, who cleared his throat before speaking up.

"We managed to position the missile truck on a nearby hill. The mutant saw a missile coming and tried to run away, which is why the back of its head was hit."

The answer quickly made all of them realize that the giant mutant wasn’t as fast as they might have imagined.

"Is the giant mutant fast?" Yezi asked, wanting to make sure.

Both Major Lan and Mingxu shook their head, allowing all of them to let out a small sigh of relief as it no longer seemed all that bad.

"It’s still faster than us on foot, though," Mingxu warned after noticing the optimism on their faces.

"That’s fine... Ahem, now we just have to wait until Xiaoyun gives us a response. You all can go back to your mission."

"Yes, sir!"

As all the Colonels headed out of the tent, Yezi signalled Major Lan to stay as he walked all the way to the tent entrance.

"Xianlin, I just want to say good job on killing the mutant... I hope you understand all these insults earlier were me setting an example for others."

"Commander, I know you didn’t mean it."

Major Lan paused for a second, then continued.

"And I don’t think I should get all the credits. Colonel Mingxu was the one who came with the missiles."

"No need to push your honors away. He’ll have his own reward... But I hope you don’t do this kind of stuff again, or at least tell us next time."

"Yes, sir!"

---

As Yezi’s men searched far and wide, he soon got a letter from Xiaoyun.

Inside the letter was an order that he already expected. He was to stay put until a ’solution’ could be found for the giant mutants.

He was also given some leeway to keep searching for the ’alleged’ giant mutants that are still out there.

When nighttime arrived, all of the drone footage that had been recording the woods and the city of Wuzhou was gathered into a special unit.

Their job was to review hours upon hours of footage. Unfortunately, none of them capture sightings of giant mutants despite extensive coverage.

All of those ’alleged’ giant mutants had just vanished, as the only trace that remained was the sheer damage the city faced.

The whole place looked reminiscent of a certain city being firebombed to the ground, as crumbled concrete and exposed rebar were everywhere.

With possible leads searched by Yezi’s army with over a hundred thousand people actively looking around Zhaoqing, nothing came up.

Days of searching and even sending infiltration teams past the destroyed city of Wuzhou led to the finding of footprints that led deeper into Guangxi province.

It became clear that the ’alleged’ group of giant mutants had fled.

They somehow knew one of their kind was killed, even though there was no evidence of other giant mutants nearby that could have seen the corpse.

With the weekend approaching, a person Yezi never expected came into his tent asking for a break.

---

"General Yezi, can you approve my off-duty break? I really need to go home to deal with something."

As Major Lan made his request in front of Yezi, there was no answer as he continued to write his letter in silence.

"General, I really mean it. This is an emergency for me. I need you to help me convince the logistics staff to approve it."

"Xianlin, you’re the only one with combat experience with the giant mutant. You’re not going anywhere until the situation is sorted."

Yezi’s answer didn’t discourage Xianlin at all, as he didn’t take his leave, remaining in the tent as he made another plea.

"General, we both know those giant mutants had fled into Guangxi. What’s the point of holding me here?"

"Nobody is leaving until the emergency is lifted, Major."

Hearing the growing impatience in his voice, Xianlin’s hope began to slip away until Yezi spoke up again.

"But there can be an exception. What’s the emergency you need to attend to? Did your wife or parent fall ill?"

"My parent told me I really need to get back and give them a grandkid, or else they are going to disown me."

Yezi finally dropped his pen as he turned his attention from the letter to Xianlin. He looked back at him right in the eyes as he remained silent for a short moment.

"Is that really the emergency you’re bugging me for?"

"I’m serious, Commander. My parent had already arranged a wedding with a girl this Sunday."

Seeing the straight face on Xianlin, the annoyed look on Yezi’s face disappeared as he resumed writing his letter.

"Tell your parent that if they really disowned you, they’re missing out on their son’s promotion ceremony."

Xianlin froze for a second before realizing Yezi had just revealed his promotion from being a Major to becoming a Lieutenant Colonel.

"Thank you so much, Commander!"

"You deserved it... The commander-in-chief found your action to be brave and your decision-making to be the best case scenario."

The hint of grumpiness in Yezi’s voice surprised Xianlin, as it appeared that he didn’t want him to promote for some reason.

"General... Is there something wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong. I just hope you don’t learn the wrong lesson from this promotion."

Yezi’s ambiguous answer confused Xianlin a little before his brain finally realized why he looked so disapproving of the promotion.

"Commander! I know what I did was way too adventurous. I won’t take the same risk again in the future."

"I hope so... Here, take this paper. You can take it to the staff, and they should let you leave."

As Yezi ripped out a small piece of paper with his signature on it, Xianlin quickly accepted it with both hands before bowing down in gratitude.

"Thank you, sir!"

"Mhm."

Seeing him not wanting to speak up any further and resuming his writing, Xianlin took this as a signal for him to leave.

"You can come out now."

"General, why did you approve Major Lan’s break?"

As Mingxu emerged right behind the hidden tent flap, his face was filled with questions as he walked back to the table.

"Why wouldn’t I approve his leave? He got a wedding to attend to... You wouldn’t reject your wedding if Ningjing proposed to you tomorrow, would you?"

"That’s... That’s different. Xianlin had been acting way too suspicious for him to leave." Mingxu argued.

"So do you have any proof other than your pure speculation and your ’male’ superstition?"

Yezi’s answer left Mingxu speechless. Still, Mingxu’s face remained concerned until he spoke up again.

"Mingxu, are you jealous that Xiaoyun gave the credit to Xianlin instead of you? Is that why you’re protesting his break?"

"What? No. I’m not jealous of him. I just feel like he has been acting differently... I never even heard of him mentioning having a wedding."

The last part made Yezi freeze for a second, but he soon resumed his writing as he signed his name at the bottom.

"It’s an arranged wedding. You have to understand that it’s not too crazy for someone’s parent wanting a grandkid when their only son is in the army." Yezi murmured.

"But he... Why wouldn’t he mention that a single time? And why now? Out of all the times he could have asked for a break."

"He’s getting a break. End of story. Go back to your post before I tell Ningjing to come over and kick you out of my tent."

As Mingxu stormed out of the room in split seconds, Yezi shook his head as he looked back down at the sandbox in the distance.

"What could Xianlin be up to?"