Chapter 110: What is Heritage
November 30, Saturday.
In the capital, Xifeng Forest Park, a certain secret military base.
The first snow of the year in the capital is slowly caressing the earth, layer by layer, from light to heavy, eventually giving the entire land a new look.
The vast white in this sky and earth is cold, solemn, and heavy, yet represents the fiery hope of the coming year.
After Meng Huai was able to move around, he was transferred from the rehabilitation hospital to this place. Although his activity range is still limited to the interior of the base, he discovered that his freedom of movement is much greater than he had imagined. Standing by the snow-covered playground of the base, the swirling snowflakes piled up on the overhead rain shelter, occasionally drifting in a few flakes that fell on Meng Huai’s face and body, feeling cool and refreshing. He still wears the neat military uniform, but after more than half a month, Meng Huai’s figure has visibly slimmed down. Or rather, the adjective “strong” no longer belongs to Meng Huai; instead, he appears more coordinated and proportionate.
He took out two photos from his pocket, one taken half a month ago and the other yesterday. Both photos are half-body portraits of Meng Huai, but upon careful examination, the two photos have subtle differences.
The previous Meng Huai, referred to as handsome, was marked by a strong and sharp determination. Now, however, Meng Huai’s forehead, cheekbones, brow ridge, chin, and nose tip have all undergone subtle changes, with a touch of femininity.
In the depths of his eyes, there seems to be a slight change, becoming more profound, like an abyss.
According to Han Jie Li, the current facial and pupil recognition technology has rendered Meng Huai almost unrecognizable. As he continued to look, another slim figure gradually emerged in the blank space of the photo.
It was a beautiful woman, closely positioned behind the tall and handsome young officer, her hands gently resting on his shoulders, looking at the camera with a dignified and gentle smile that was as radiant as a flower, with a softness that reminded one of flowing water.
Mom, Meng Xiang, or Fujihara Yaka, probably never imagined that the son she desperately protected would one day meander back on the original path… Meng Huai closed his eyes, seemingly avoiding the image of his mother and that unforgettable warm smile.
Only a drop of hot tear, challenging the chill, appeared at the corner of his eye.
“Meng Ge, you are probably the only one who has completed the first phase of the technical blood invasion within three weeks since the establishment of the special confidentiality action team. The blood invasion index has reached the standard and is quite stable; we’re just waiting for the final step… The foundation left by Aunt Meng Xiang is indeed extraordinary!”
Han Jie Li walked over from the side, carrying a briefcase, with a few snowflakes clinging to his shoulder. When the sunlight fell on the photo in Meng Huai’s hand, Han Jie Li couldn’t help but smile.
“They are the members of the Blood Dragon Squad?”
A few seconds later, Meng Huai reopened his eyes, put away the photos, and turned his head towards a distant corner of the playground with a serious expression.
Amidst the swirling wind and snow, several fully armed individuals were persisting in high-intensity outdoor training, all dressed in dark arrow combat gear, bursting with vitality.
After just a few glances, Meng Huai noticed that the physical capabilities and explosive power of those dark arrow members were distinctly different from ordinary people, giving an absurd feeling of disbelief.
“Most of them are attendants or knights. It is said that the highest-ranking individual in the Blood Dragon Squad is a baron from the upper echelons of Alatai. This is truly the hidden ace of the dark arrow; it hasn’t been easy to build up this base over the past forty years.”
Han Jie Li nodded gently in response to Meng Huai’s indication: “It is said that several major countries had them during World War II. In this regard, we are a bit late in the dark arrow; we can only invest heavily, having taken many detours along the way… In the end, the expenses on each Blood Dragon Squad member could have cultivated dozens of pilots.”
“Only forty years? How many people are there now?” Meng Huai said, pulling back his gaze, increasingly curious.
“Confidential. Or rather, my level is far from sufficient, and I don’t have the qualifications to know the composition of the Blood Dragon Squad…”
Han Jie Li shook his head, answering straightforwardly.
They are probably what the instructors referred to as the nation’s foundation.
Now I understand why, except for the Central Supervision Area, the highest task level in other supervision areas only reaches Level B… If I’m not mistaken, the Blood Dragon Squad should be a secret unit specifically dealing with Level A and above tasks.
Meng Huai tried to move his wrist and arms, feeling surprisingly light, but lacking a bit of stability, as if the density of his entire body had somehow decreased.
“Hey, still confidential.”
Han Jie Li laughed, shrugged, and continued shaking his head.
“Alright… Do they all have perfect scores on the psychological tests, like me? How do you ensure that the results are 100% reliable?”
Meng Huai sat down on a bench under the sunshade, gazing into the wind and snow in the playground, his expression somewhat unnatural.
“Compared to you, they are a bit lower; I can only say they approximate passing with near-perfect scores on key items… However, even with perfect scores, over the years, I’ve found there is still a 5% margin of error.”
“Psychological issues are too profound… For instance, I scored inexplicably well.”
Han Jie Li joked self-deprecatingly, then sat down next to Meng Huai and opened the briefcase, pulling out a document.
“Meng Ge, next month, the special confidentiality action team will arrange for you to return to the Xuanzhong Squad, reintegrating you into frontline positions. Since the mole has not yet been found, for safety reasons, the special confidentiality action team will cut ties with you.”
“The complete blood invasion operation in the final step needs to be completed during a certain battle, thereby formally separating from the dark arrow and entering a state of confidentiality action.”
Han Jie Li spoke very delicately, but Meng Huai knew that he was still different from the members of the Blood Dragon Squad. The latter remains within the dark arrow; although highly confidential, they are still considered one of their own from the perspective of other dark arrow members.
However, he is different; he will be in no way different from anyone who has escaped after a blood invasion. Aside from the yet-to-be-announced confidentiality action task, he will become a veritable enemy of humanity.
This is what a series of bloody questions foreshadowed about his future identity and life. At that time, his true identity will only be known to Han Guowei and Han Jieli.
This is the document for the transfer of command of the Xuanzhong Squad; it requires your signature, after which you will take it back to hand over.
Han Jie Li extended the document towards Meng Huai, but after more than ten seconds, besides his intense gaze on the document, Meng Huai’s hand remained unmoving.
“You haven’t answered the previous question; what does a 5% margin of error represent?”
Meng Huai shifted his gaze to Han Jie Li’s face, his expression very serious.
“It represents some psychological and physical changes that cause one to leave the Blood Dragon Squad.”
Han Jie Li sighed with a bitter smile as he took the document back, taking a long time to find a subtle way to express it.
“Defection?”
Meng Huai’s expression grew increasingly severe.
“Yes, becoming a Black Blood Clan, which is nearly the same as defection… The psychological testing items of the dark arrow troops have been continually refined over forty years.”
Han Jie Li lowered his head, removing his military cap, absently playing with it.
“Why? Will the war against the Blood Clan change these people’s thoughts?”
Meng Huai frowned, somewhat puzzled.
“Meng Ge, do you know how the Black Blood Clan came into being? Do you know the fundamental point that makes it difficult for normal humans and the Blood Clan to coexist?”
Han Jie Li suddenly raised his head, his tone stern and his expression cold.
“In the world of normal humans, regardless of the system, the basic ethics are fundamentally the same: life is equal. Aging, illness, and death come with limited lifespans, and for the vast majority of people, the older they get, the fewer resources and opportunities they receive, increasingly marginalized. Those who hold the power of social resource distribution largely depend on intelligence, not on longevity.”
“The Blood Clan world is completely different. From blood subordinates to dukes, their realms and the upper limits of their lives form the basis of the power pyramid. The longer the lifespan, the greater the strength, the more resources and opportunities one gets.
Why would a knight who can live for two hundred years bow down to a blood servant who can only live for decades?
Perhaps only blood clans of marquis rank or above may have experienced a sense of life saturation that leads them to become indifferent… For those below the rank of baron, they are mere ants. This is the greatest truth of the Blood Clan world. Every blood clan member strives to climb higher; it is a curse from the genetic level that leads most blood clans down the path of the Black Blood Clan.
Even a illiterate or a lunatic, as long as the qualifications are right, can become a blood clan baron and thus gain the power to set rules… Innate qualifications and later realms hold the true discourse power in the Blood Clan world. Morality, knowledge, and intellect don’t count.
Do you know that over twenty years ago, there was a wealthy man in Europe with a fortune of dozens of billions, over fifty years old, who was extremely fortunate not to die from the immune crash that occurred in the early stages of blood invasion?
That person had an IQ test of over 150. Meng Ge, can you guess what happened? … Unfortunately, with poor qualifications, he could only grovel and spend all his money trying to climb upwards. In the end, what happened? He couldn’t even manage to become a mid-tier blood servant; within a few years, he died from blood boiling out of control, and his corpse was sold.
He could have wielded considerable influence in the normal human world for at least two or three decades, yet he naively believed that he could rely on his wealth and intellect to become a member of the Blood Clan, thus escaping from the mundane… In the world of the Blood Clan, surviving as one would in the normal human world is impossible; it’s too extravagant and naive.
After finishing, Han Jie Li stood up and patted his backside as he walked away.
So you were probing me with our previous conversation about coexistence between normal humans and the Blood Clan?
Meng Huai frowned and murmured softly.
Heh, everyone deserves the right to dream foolishly, right?
Han Jie Li paused, turned slightly, and smiled faintly but noncommittally as he continued to walk away.
It’s uncertain how long it was before Meng Huai softly murmured to himself:
Normal humans and the Blood Clan, in fact, do not have the ethics of coexistence; that is the meaning…
In the snow-filled playground, the figures of the Blood Dragon Squad members were no longer visible, yet it seemed that from another angle of his field of vision, another person appeared amidst the storm, leisurely walking toward him.
It was that familiar girl, slender and graceful, cold and dignified, surrounded by swirling snowflakes but never touched by them.
Why are you here… Don’t you know I’ve become a vampire… Aren’t you afraid?
Muttering his confused thoughts, Meng Huai’s vision began to blur.
The other party drew closer, and Meng Huai grew increasingly tense, involuntarily turning his head to avoid her gaze, even feeling an urge to flee immediately.
“Meng Huai, you shouldn’t stay outdoors for too long in this weather; it’s time for your stabilizer injection.”
The voice sounded somewhat familiar, gentle and soft. She was very beautiful and kind, brushing the snowflakes off her shoulders, smiling at him. She was not Jiang Yan but another young nurse assigned to take care of him.
“Oh, well… it’s a hassle.”
Taking a deep breath, Meng Huai stood up and turned toward the dormitory direction of the base.
Looking around again, the wind and snow continued as before, and the figure of the girl he had imagined was nowhere to be seen; the world before him was still reality.
Disappointment and relief appeared in his heart simultaneously, cold and indifferent, at odds with one another.
…
In Longquan Mountain, City C, Province S.
The winter days at Longquan Mountain are still keeping a considerable amount of green at the foot of the mountain, splashed with mottled reds and yellows, creating a beautiful disarray.
It was now nearing dusk, and amidst the dense forest, around ten shadowy figures were darting about. Each person was clad in black tactical clothing, some with jackets, each armed with an MP5SD silenced submachine gun and the necessary ballistic armor and tactical equipment, reaching combat standards.
Today marked the first day of the training plan for the Hyacinth Group that Jiang Yan and Wan Yue had agreed upon. Although Jiang Yan felt somewhat unwell, she persisted in outdoor training with Zhao Peng and others.
The last time she took part in such training was over nine months ago with the Xuanjia Squad. Many sensations that had developed over the past few months had subtly changed, and Jiang Yan felt somewhat out of practice.
Standing on a nearby high ground away from the training area, she watched the Hyacinth knights and attendants dispersing in threes and twos, Jiang Yan suddenly had a peculiar thought.
If Meng Huai were infected with blood, would he wait passively for his fate, or would he escape like herself and Xiao Yao? Would he still consider her a despicable monster then?
Might it come to a day when Meng Huai, as a member of the Blood Clan, appears in the Hyacinth to create a Blood Clan force comparable to the dark arrow for Sister Wan? Would I return to being his deputy, just like in the Xuanjia Squad?
This fleeting thought felt so absurd, embarrassing, and even a bit horrifying. Jiang Yan could feel her temples pounding, a slight pain, as if her head were a pressure cooker about to burst, causing discomfort.
“Lost in thought again? How’s your health? I can sense some turbulence in your aura. I remember your period is around the middle of the month.”
Another drill simulating a stealth ambush had just concluded when Wan Yue emerged from the adjacent woods, surveying Jiang Yan from head to toe.
“I don’t know; I just feel a sort of blockage, but I can’t see the end… I remember there was a time when Xiao Yao felt the same, and she wouldn’t dare touch the smaller elixirs anymore.”
Jiang Yan blushed, dispelling some of her absurd thoughts, sitting down helplessly on a piece of dead wood while rubbing her temples, her expression somewhat grim.
You two are like living statistics. The comparison made by Xiao Ling and Zhou Ping is quite apt. Though both of you appear as upper-tier knights, your explosive limits haven’t been those of knights for a long time; you can’t even fit into the half-barons, like being missing a corner of a baron.
If this continues, you might not need to be upgraded to dormancy; you may end up becoming barons who can’t use blood explosion at all.
Wan Yue smiled as she lit a cigarette, sitting on the same side as Jiang Yan, a hint of self-mockery flickering in her eyes: “You and Xiao Yao have made me dependent… Before, only others relied on me, now I find it a bit uncomfortable.”
“To ease the pressure on the Wang family, the Hyacinth group has suffered significant losses; there are only eight knights in total, and now two are bedridden. Yet, I don’t feel worried about this at all… Jiang Yan, don’t you think the Hyacinth can’t hold you anymore?”
With the cigarette in her hand, a rare melancholy appeared on Wan Yue’s face.
At the end of the day, Sister Wan is still a woman… Last week, she had me undergo intensive training in a private villa at Longquan Mountain, which was actually to avoid Brother Zheng’s injuries.
At that time, she probably held little hope; she just didn’t want to stay in the hospital, watching Brother Zheng die before her eyes.
Looking at Wan Yue’s profile, Jiang Yan found herself at a loss for words. Suddenly, she could understand some of Wan Yue’s behaviors; that seemingly aloof pride was not just to provide reassurance to others but also a disguise for her own vulnerabilities.
Zheng Shaolin has, although rescued from danger, sustained serious injuries that would require at least two months of recovery time if he doesn’t have better treatment methods.
Zhou Ping’s injuries are somewhat lighter; she might return to duty in about a month. Xiao Dong’s injury is the mildest, and she will be discharged a few days later after some rest.
So, right now, the Hyacinth is probably at its weakest point, as Wan Yue has described.
In her mind, a peculiar idea that Jiang Yao had proposed surfaced again, causing her heart to pound.
Setting aside everyone’s tactical prowess, the fundamentals of the Blood Clan’s survival actually lie in their qualifications and strength. Based on the current foundation of the Hyacinth, without the arrival of myself and Xiao Yao, or the discovery of truly potential individuals, it would likely see little change even twenty years down the line.
Moreover, no one can guarantee that in the next ten to twenty years, some members of the Hyacinth won’t fall due to mental barriers during their growth.
The loneliness Wan Yue feels and the helplessness displayed by Zhao Peng must come from this.
“Sister Wan, I have an idea… Xiao Yao and I are unique; we should be able to help Zhao Peng and Xiao Ai.”
After another internal struggle, Jiang Yan lowered her voice and clearly articulated the plan she had kept hidden in her heart, which was also her sudden inspiration.
Wan Yue was momentarily taken aback, then suddenly turned her head around, looking at Jiang Yan’s profile with a mysterious and enigmatic smile.
After several seconds, Wan Yue directly shook her head: “Jiang Yan, I’m very glad that you are willing to stand with me and everyone. In fact, I have thought about certain possibilities for a long time… But do you so firmly believe in the Hyacinth and the nature of everyone here?”
“Sister Wan, I don’t understand the grand principles, and my knowledge of the Blood Clan world is shallow. But I know that as long as there is visible hope, human hearts won’t fall; despair makes them unpredictable…”
Jiang Yan raised her head, revealing a relieved smile: “Zhao Peng has always told me that you lead the Hyacinth with a firm belief and hope, bringing it to where it is today. There’s little I can do to help… If it weren’t for you taking in me and Xiao Yao back then, perhaps…”
“Silly girl, if you can reach this point, I’m very satisfied…”
Wan Yue leaned in closer, hugging Jiang Yan lightly, gently patting her back, her voice softening significantly: “No rush; let me think it over carefully for another couple of days. Your idea may mean walking on a tightrope between heaven and hell for the entire Hyacinth.”
“Do you know? Sometimes, offering people new hope may not necessarily lead to good outcomes… In fact, they are quite satisfied with their current lives; new hope brings new variables, and they may not be prepared for it.”
“Do you think someone like Zhou Ping is ready to face knights or even barons in battle one day? She’s not you; all she needs is to live an orderly life, marry, and have children to stay away from genetic curses and numerous risks. The Hyacinth is merely their family, not the destiny of their lives.”
“Jiang Yan, one day you will understand that the Hyacinth has never been a place where everyone is qualified to go all out; I never expected this point! Its existence and its ideals can’t accommodate many people.”
After speaking, Wan Yue stepped away from Jiang Yan. The sudden separation made Jiang Yan feel somewhat reluctant.
In Wan Yue’s words, she sensed a tenderness of genuine kindness amidst the surge of passion and a sense of resolute yet helpless bravery.
“Sister Wan, my idea is actually wrong, isn’t it? Because I want to become someone like you…”
Jiang Yan shook her head, somewhat embarrassed and confused.
“Still want to learn from me? Tsk tsk, you still lack some femininity… This is the second time you’ve said you want to become me; do you find me perfect and attractive? But you can’t become me; probably, you have a misconception about perfection.”
Wan Yue took a few slow steps back, suddenly turning around, her sensual body, charming smile, and the graceful demeanor of a battlefield queen with her weapon assembled perfectly once more at that instant.
“Jiang Yan, you possess a maturity and rationality that most women lack. Even if you don’t make any changes and don’t need to imitate anyone, one day, you will become a very powerful woman. But to become a perfect woman, you still lack one thing.”
Jiang Yan was momentarily shocked, her face revealing deep confusion.
Emotionality, from the heart, is the ultimate charm of a woman, not to compensate for rationality. In this regard, I too am not perfect… As a woman, from loving someone, to loving what you can obtain, to loving what you cannot obtain; have you experienced it?
An indescribable emotion surged through Jiang Yan instantly, from her head to her body. She became frozen, as if all the vocabulary in her mind couldn’t assemble a single sentence at this moment.
