20. "Flower Fruit Mountain"

“Move quickly! Go join Saijo and the others!” Mutsuki Hoshizora sprang to his feet as soon as he sensed trouble.

But when he glanced back, he found Qi Ming still reclining calmly in his chair, unmoved.

“What are you waiting for?” Mutsuki urged anxiously.

“I’m waiting for them to come find me,” Qi Ming replied deliberately.

“What?”

“Captain, do you know the story of Journey to the West?” Qi Ming asked.

Mutsuki was somewhat familiar with it but couldn’t understand why Qi Ming would bring up that classic tale at such a moment.

Qi Ming continued, “During the episode of the ‘Three Strikes on the White Bone Demon,’ Tang Sanzang was very dissatisfied with the disobedient Sun Wukong.”

“In his eyes, all three disciples were celestial beings descended to Earth; the monkey was capable of subduing demons, and Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing could do the same.”

“The latter two were obedient, so Tang Sanzang often troubled Sun Wukong and, using the White Bone Demon incident as an excuse, drove him away.”

“As a result, the next demon easily overpowered the pilgrimage team without Sun Wukong, captured Tang Sanzang, and subjected him to great suffering, forcing Zhu Bajie to seek help from the Flower Fruit Mountain.”

“From that point on, Tang Sanzang became much wiser and no longer dared to question Sun Wukong so easily; the efficiency of their journey improved significantly—Isn’t this the harmonious cooperation you, Captain, hope for between me and everyone else?”

Mutsuki’s eyes widened in shock. “You, you…”

Qi Ming spread his arms inside the cell. “Now, I am here in this ‘Flower Fruit Mountain,’ patiently awaiting the arrival of my ‘brothers.’”

…

Outside the machinery room, Saijo Nagi saw the smart lock cease functioning and decisively pulled out a Victory Hyper Gun to forcibly break it open.

Dr. Toujima, about to retreat, froze as he stared at the now-open door. He had hoped the system shutdown would prevent the door from opening, buying him enough time to escape.

Saijo Nagi pressed the gun’s barrel against the doctor, advancing relentlessly. “Dr. Toujima, this was your doing, wasn’t it? Why did you do this?”

Seeing the situation clearly, the doctor stopped panicking. “Qi Ming isn’t here. You few…”

“Be careful!” warned Staff Officer Kiriyama, a veteran of frontline combat, noticing the doctor’s reckless attitude.

“Yamanaka team members, don’t kill him. Just disable him,” Saijo Nagi ordered sternly.

“Understood.” The sharpshooters of Team Yamanaka raised their weapons and fired.

Suddenly, a woman dressed in black and wearing sunglasses appeared abruptly in front of Dr. Toujima, erecting a gray energy shield to block the shots.

These were the allies of the Bira aliens on Earth.

“And aliens too!” The group drew their guns, aiming at the two.

“Aliens? We are the true Earthlings,” the sunglasses-clad woman said in a low voice.

“What?” Kiriyama shuddered, instantly associating them with the Nomalt.

The woman let out a piercing screech. The terrifying sound waves forced everyone present to cover their ears, except Saijo Nagi, who gritted her teeth and fired back.

Though she didn’t hit her target, the woman was quite surprised.

“There’s no need to get entangled with them; there are more important matters,” Dr. Toujima said.

The woman nodded and escorted Toujima as they retreated.

“We can’t let them escape!” Kiriyama shouted.

He led a group in pursuit, but the woman’s intermittent shrieks disrupted them, gradually widening the distance until they nearly lost sight.

Then, disaster struck.

As Dr. Toujima and the woman approached a corridor corner, a flash of white blade appeared.

The woman’s right arm was severed; she screamed in agony, her sunglasses flying off in the throes of pain.

Under the dim emergency lighting, the pursuing group, led by Saijo Nagi, noticed something horrifying—the woman had no eyes.

The terrifying sight left everyone frozen.

“Degenerated eyes… Could she be one of the legendary subterranean people?” Captain Kiriyama speculated.

“That’s a Zuluk alien—it's here too!” Emi exclaimed, more concerned about the attacker hiding around the corner.

It was the same Zuluk alien who had escaped earlier.

This murderous extraterrestrial had infiltrated the offshore base during the shutdown, joining the chaotic fray.

After encountering the woman, it struck her with a blade, nearly knocking her unconscious.

However, the Zuluk alien did not follow up because it spotted Emi, who had shot and wounded it before, and wanted to exact revenge first.

“Coming right to us!” Yamanaka aimed his gun at it.

In his eyes, this alien was no threat; Qi Ming and Emi alone could drive it away.

But after firing two shots, the Zuluk alien swiftly swung twin blades, slicing through the bullets from the Victory Hyper Gun.

“What a joke!” Yamanaka muttered in disbelief.

In the next instant, the Zuluk alien lunged forward with such speed it left afterimages.

At such close range, Saijo Nagi could only grit her teeth and engage in hand-to-hand combat, narrowly avoiding being cleaved in two.

Seeing the iron door torn apart, Saijo Nagi immediately ordered, “Retreat! Find Qi Ming. Only he can handle this creature!”

Having been personally schooled, she now had a vivid understanding of Qi Ming’s power.

Kishida hesitated, “Is it really impossible without him?”

Though unwilling to admit it, he felt the wildness and oppressive presence from the relentless Zuluk alien and reluctantly withdrew.

Emi said, “Kishida, the doctor deliberately framed Qi Ming to exclude him. We can’t let the enemy succeed.”

Her words gave the others a way out. They provided covering fire while retreating toward the cell where Qi Ming was held.

Meanwhile, Dr. Toujima took advantage of the chaos to bring the severely injured sunglasses woman to the command room and manually activated the base’s self-destruct system.

“Self-destruct sequence initiated. Countdown: six hundred seconds,” the alert warned, making Qi Ming restless.

The offshore base was about to self-destruct?

“Qi Ming, you can’t wait any longer!” Mutsuki growled.

“I know. Before the train home departs, II'm sorry, but I cannot assist with that request.