Chapter 294: Lu Xiao Gains a Foothold
The news that Zheng Yi’s team lost their powers hadn’t gotten out yet. If they couldn’t recover, it wouldn’t stay hidden for long.
Their subordinates wouldn’t cause problems in the short term, but chaos was just a matter of time.
Zheng Yi understood what was being implied. He took a deep breath, realizing he had been careless this time.
He looked to the side and instructed the doctor, “Figure out the cause as soon as possible.”
*
The appearance of mutated rats suddenly broke the tense atmosphere in the Capital Base.
All the squads became extremely cautious, secretly inspecting their warehouses. And sure enough, many discovered issues with mutated animals, causing a significant drop in factional conflicts.
Thanks to Lu Xiao stepping up on the first day, the name “Blazing Flame Squad” had quickly gained recognition. Even though the Zheng family later sent healing ability users to help, it didn’t do much to salvage their reputation.
Healing-type ability users could only absorb a limited number of crystal cores, so the number of people they could treat was also limited. It took them three full days to finish treating everyone.
Afterward, Lu Xiao listened as Cong Qing reported the resources they’d expended, clearly pained by the amount. Just then, Feiying brought in a young, pretty girl.
From a distance, Feiying called out, “Boss Xiao, Miss Luo is here to see you!”
Lu Xiao exchanged a glance with Cong Qing and turned with a welcoming smile. “Miss Luo.”
“Hello, Major General Lu,” Luo Feifei greeted. She was the daughter of Luo Qi and had once managed all the healing ability users in the Hunters’ Guild.
After Luo Qi fled, the healing ability users were invited away by various squads. Luo Feifei was briefly detained but wasn’t harshly treated because of her rare healing ability.
When Lu Xiao offered resources to request healers’ help, Luo Feifei had been tempted. Over the three days, she started to feel that compared to the scattered remains of the Hunters’ Guild, this might be a better place for her.
She sipped the warm water provided to her but said nothing for a while.
Lu Xiao had already considered her current situation and guessed her intention—but he wasn’t entirely sure. After all, there were better squads she could join.
Especially since she was Luo Qi’s daughter—if he hadn’t intervened, she would still be with her father, running the Hunters’ Guild.
After finishing the cup of water slowly, Luo Feifei looked up at Lu Xiao. “Major General Lu, is your squad in need of healing ability users?”
“Yes,” Lu Xiao answered without hesitation. Everyone in the base knew one of the reasons the Zhuang faction was weak was that they had no healers at all.
“What do you think of me? My power level is currently B, and I’m decent at healing.” She didn’t seem used to recommending herself, so her words weren’t very persuasive.
“Why choose me? Both the Zheng and Zhao families would treat you well,” Lu Xiao couldn’t help but question her motives.
“They already have their own healers. If I go there, I’ll definitely be ostracized.” Not just by the other healers, but by the regular team members as well.
When the Hunters’ Guild was established, Luo Qi had been a profit-driven man. Even on external missions, healers weren’t allowed to treat others on their own. Every treatment meant a portion of the reward went to the guild—and if someone didn’t pay, the healer had to cover the cost themselves.
That fee wasn’t cheap, which led to healers from the Hunters’ Guild rarely helping others, even in life-threatening situations.
After reflecting on the squads she’d seen die over the past year due to her refusal to help, Luo Feifei finally decided that the Zhuang faction had been impacted the least. And since Lu Xiao didn’t have healers under him, even if his people were dissatisfied, they wouldn’t make things too difficult for her.
Lu Xiao thought about her words and soon understood what she meant.
He nodded. “Alright.”
Luo Feifei clearly hadn’t expected it to go so smoothly. She looked up at him in surprise. After a moment, she lowered her gaze and whispered, “Thank you. But…”
“I want to live with you.”
Pffft— Lu Xiao choked on the water he had just sipped. The nearby soldiers, who were quietly paying attention, didn’t dare move due to discipline—but their eyes exchanged a thousand silent messages.
“I—I didn’t mean it like that!” Luo Feifei quickly realized how her words could be misunderstood and panicked. “I just… your squad is all men, and I’m scared…”
Lu Xiao coughed a couple times and then composed himself. “You don’t need to worry about that. My team consists of trained soldiers—nothing inappropriate will happen. Also, I stay with my team. It wouldn’t be convenient for you. You can stay with Squad Two. They’re female soldiers and live in the building next door. It’s close by, and if anything happens, help will come quickly.”
Luo Feifei seemed like she wanted to say more, but when she saw how serious Lu Xiao was, she swallowed her words.
“The Hunters’ Guild…”
“They’ve already distributed all the supplies. There’s no reason to hold you back. I’ll negotiate with them,” Lu Xiao said. Seeing that Luo Feifei had nothing more to say, he started laying out his own rules.
“Blazing Flame Squad is different from the Hunter Guild. We don’t have any healers here, so your responsibility will be heavy. You’ll be in charge of all the injured. Of course, don’t worry—I won’t drain the well to catch the fish. In special cases, there might be situations where you’ll need to overuse crystal nuclei, but only during life-and-death moments.” Lu Xiao was blunt. “I don’t want any disputes to happen at such critical times.”
“Also, I think you’re aware that the incident with the Hunter Guild happened because I exposed the Zhuang family. If…” Lu Xiao looked sharply at the person in front of him, “If I catch you doing anything suspicious, I won’t hold back just because you have an ability.”
Luo Feifei nodded without arguing. “Then what about me? How will my monthly supplies be calculated?”
The two discussed for a while and reached an agreement. Afterward, Lu Xiao told Cong Qing to have someone escort Luo Feifei back to the team.
Watching her leave, the stern look on Lu Xiao’s face finally broke into a smile.
“Boss Xiao, I heard this Luo girl from the Luo family is only nineteen. You… you know…” Feiying nudged and winked.
“I’m old enough to be her dad. Don’t talk nonsense.” Lu Xiao kicked at him, but Feiying dodged nimbly.
“Well then, the rest of the brothers might make a move. We don’t mind raising a daughter,” someone joked from outside the door.
“Do as you like. Go ahead and pursue her, but know your limits. We’ve still got a grudge with the Hunter Guild,” Lu Xiao reminded them.
“Yes, sir!”
The few men straightened up, saluted, and quickly dispersed.
Lu Xiao turned back to the resource consumption report from Cong Qing and immediately stopped feeling stingy. He thought for a moment and figured he could go cry poor to his nephew—maybe that stingy, miserly nephew would throw his dear uncle a few supplies.
*
The Zheng family had focused all their attention on Zheng Yi and the other ability users’ recovery, leaving them no time to deal with Lu Xiao.
While Zheng Yi and his team were searching for doctors to study their condition, Lu Xiao, with the silent support of the Zhao family, swiftly absorbed the Zhuang family’s remaining forces. Within a few days, the Blazing Flame Squad team secured a firm place among the major powers.
By the time the members of Only Team had mostly recovered, they realized that the tense atmosphere had quietly begun to ease.
Oddly enough, Lu Weiyi was still the same—frail and sickly.
When the first member of the team showed signs of ability recovery, the season’s first heavy rain arrived.
It poured down in sheets as if to flood the entire world.
The rain lasted all day, and the Capital base’s drainage system began to falter.
All major forces braved the rain to summon teams for a meeting, aiming to divide the responsibilities of maintaining the base post-storm.
Blazing Flame Squad successfully earned a recognized place among them. Though it meant hard work, it was still a good beginning.
After the meeting ended, Lu Xiao received an unexpected invitation.
“It’s from Zheng Yi.” Zhuang Mingxu held up a finely crafted card and said to Lu Xiao, who had just returned from the base meeting, “He must have realized something is off.”
“They all got bitten by rats. If he hasn’t figured it out by now, I’d start wondering how he even got that position,” Lu Xiao said. Not long after he returned, Commander Sun and Major Liu—who had remained neutral until now—came to him, handed over two-thirds of their supplies, and officially joined his camp.
This put him in a great mood. He tossed his dripping raincoat aside, slouched on the couch, crossed his legs, and lightly tapped the card against his knee. “Should we admit it?”
“Doesn’t make a difference,” Zhuang Mingxu replied. He was still wearing an apron—he had recently been promoted to the team’s cook, and his skills had been unanimously approved by everyone.
After being backstabbed by his own family, he felt somewhat guilty. But now that everyone was recovering, they were shamelessly placing food orders without hesitation.
Thinking about how they wanted barbecue in the rain, Zhuang Mingxu felt they needed a bit of discipline.
“They have no proof anyway,” Lu Xiao said, then turned to Zhuang Mingxu. “There won’t be any slip-ups with the Hunter Guild teams, right?”
“They weren’t given the same medicine as Zheng Yi’s group,” he replied. “They got what the Only team had.”
“Good. I’ve already negotiated terms with each team. When can we release them?” Lu Xiao asked.
“Anytime,” Zhuang Mingxu replied, a twitch at the corner of his mouth. There were quite a few people in the lab, and just feeding them daily was no small task. Some couldn’t even move, so a few medical staff had ended up working full-time as babysitters.
Zhuang Mingxu was more than ready for them all to leave immediately.
“Then I’ll take them soon,” Lu Xiao said without further inquiry. There was only one villa—he hadn’t even asked where the people were being held. “Zhuang Mobai’s medicine is pretty effective. If it goes into mass production, wouldn’t that make us invincible across the bases?”
“No,” Zhuang Mingxu shook his head. “On the way back to the Capital, we encountered the Anjiang base. They already have special injections designed to suppress abilities. They even gave us one. But since we were mostly dealing with zombies, we never got the chance to use it.”
