Chapter 91 Post-War Inventory: Can I touch this tail too?
The morning light had just pierced through the smoke, and the Third Fortress in the North finally welcomed a moment of tranquility.
Beside a makeshift stove in the corner of the plaza, Little Fatty Chen was carefully simmering a pot of millet porridge.
This was made from the last bit of clean water and old rice left in these ruins. For the soldiers who had been fighting in the cold wind all night, covered in pain and wounds, this was a life-saving elixir.
Jiang Chen was wrapped in a military coat, curled up in a worn-out rattan chair, holding that ball of snow-white fox tail, sleeping soundly.
Iliya was crouching nearby, and although her face was flushed with embarrassment, she dared not move, letting this "bully" use her tail as a body pillow.
However, this brief moment of warmth was ruthlessly shattered in the next second.
"Rumble—!!!"
The sky suddenly darkened.
A dozen giant warships, painted pitch-black and stamped with the golden "Federal Special" emblem, blocked the morning sun like a flock of greedy vultures, hovering over the fortress.
There was no warning, no communication.
"Descend!"
A cold, mechanical voice resounded through the sky.
Immediately after, the engines at the bottom of the warships blasted out scorching airwaves, pressing down towards the center of the plaza without any regard.
"Don't! Don't land here! Below is the wounded placement area!"
Lei Heng disregarded his own injuries, roaring at the sky, waving the command flag in his hand in an attempt to stop them.
But those high-and-mighty warships turned a blind eye. In the eyes of the pilots, the tents and the ant-like soldiers below were just a part of these ruins.
"Boom!"
The warship landed forcefully.
The violent airwaves instantly overturned a dozen makeshift tents, and the seriously wounded who hadn't been transferred in time were blown rolling across the ground like trash.
The warm porridge that had been cooked was overturned onto the ground, mixed with dirt and blood, emitting a desolate heat.
"Ah! My leg!"
"Help... don't step on me..."
Screams instantly replaced the tranquility.
The cabin doors opened, and two bright red carpets rolled out like tongues, extending all the way to the ground, covering the bloodstains on the floor.
Subsequently, a group of people in fancy clothes but wearing gas masks walked down.
Leading them was a middle-aged man in a white high-end suit with three purple-gold medals pinned to his chest.
He held a snow-white handkerchief in his hand, covering his nose and mouth with disgust, his brows furrowed, as if every breath of air here made him feel nauseated.
Li Gang, a special envoy from the Federal Ministry of Education, and also a core member of the Li family, a powerful clan in the Imperial Capital.
"Is this the Third Fortress?"
Li Gang's voice came through a loudspeaker, carrying a sense of lofty arrogance and disdain, "Why is it like a refugee camp? The air quality is so poor, and there isn't even a decent apron?"
Lei Heng pushed away the adjutant supporting him, staggered forward, his eyes bloodshot:
"Special Envoy! Do you know you just crushed our medical tent?! There were seriously wounded soldiers inside!"
"Wounded?"
Li Gang glanced at him, his eyes as cold as if looking at a barking stray dog, "How can there be no deaths in a war? Since they are wounded, they are useless burdens. For the sake of the Federation's official business, it is their honor to sacrifice a little."
"Bullshit!!"
Lei Heng was trembling with rage, his hand on the hilt of his sword, "They are heroes! They are the meritorious ministers who held the North!"
"Heroes?"
Li Gang sneered, took off his gloves, and threw them on the ground—right onto the face of a soldier with a broken leg.
"Lei Heng, know your place. You are just a guard dog watching the gate. And I, represent the Federation, the rules, and the one who pays your salaries."
He ignored Lei Heng and walked straight to the center of the plaza, his gaze greedily scanning the surroundings.
"Where is the corpse of the Demon Lord? Where are the Demonic Beast cores? And where is that Beast Clan Saintess?"
Li Gang waved his hand, and the black-clad guards behind him immediately scattered, roughly pushing the surrounding soldiers, and began to loot the spoils of war.
"Search it all for me! Even if you have to dig three feet into the ground, find the S-rank resources! These are what we are taking back to the Imperial Capital as tribute!"
An old veteran was desperately protecting a Demonic Beast crystal core in his arms; it was what he had risked half his life to exchange for his grandson's tuition.
"This is mine... I killed it..." the old veteran pleaded.
"Slap!"
A black-clad guard kicked the old veteran's wound directly and snatched the crystal core.
"Yours? The entire North belongs to the Federation! Every grain of sand here is the Federation's property! How dare you hide it?"
The old veteran curled up on the ground, groaning in pain, his eyes full of despair and confusion.
They were bleeding and fighting for their lives on the front line, while this group of people was living in luxury in the rear.
Now that the war was over, this group of people not only didn't save anyone, but instead came to rob them of the things they had exchanged their lives for?
What happened to this world...?
Li Gang watched this scene, not only did he not stop it, but he nodded with satisfaction.
"That's right. Inferior people should have the awareness of inferior people. Resources, things like this, can only exert their maximum value when in the hands of the elite. Give them to you? That would be a waste of heavenly treasures."
As he spoke, he walked towards the corner of the plaza.
There, Little Fatty Chen was protecting the last half-barrel of millet porridge that hadn't been overturned, shivering.
"This porridge... smells quite fragrant, doesn't it?"
Li Gang walked up to Little Fatty Chen and kicked the iron pot with his polished leather shoes.
"Off... Officer, this is for the wounded..." Little Fatty Chen stammered.
"What porridge do the wounded eat? A waste of food."
Li Gang sneered, raised his foot, and kicked it violently.
"Clang!"
The iron pot overturned, the hot porridge spilled all over the ground, and also splashed onto Little Fatty Chen's legs.
"Ah!" Little Fatty Chen cried out in pain and sat on the ground.
"Remember, in the Federation, people without strength don't even have the qualification to drink porridge."
Li Gang tidied his suit, and his gaze finally fell on the figure that had been motionless on the rattan chair.
To be precise, it fell on the beautiful silver-haired girl in Jiang Chen's arms.
"Is this that Saintess?"
A flash of amazement and lewdness crossed Li Gang's eyes, "She really is a top-quality piece. How can such a stunner be placed in such a dirty and messy place? It's simply casting pearls before swine."
He reached out, wanting to grab Iliya's chin.
"Come, take this woman away. She is an important witness, I want to take her back to my private airship... ahem, take her back to the Imperial Capital for separate interrogation."
Iliya was so scared that her whole body stiffened, clutching Jiang Chen's sleeve tightly.
But Jiang Chen was still closing his eyes, motionless, as if he had really slept to death.
"As for this piece of trash sleeping on the chair..."
Li Gang looked at Jiang Chen's spongebob pajamas with disgust, "Must be a deserter too? Young people nowadays don't have any backbone at all. Throw him into the septic tank to sober up, don't block my way."
Two black-clad guards walked up with grimaces, reaching out to grab Jiang Chen's collar.
Lei Heng wanted to rescue him, but was suppressed by the Grandmaster-level expert brought by Li Gang.
"It's over..."
All the soldiers felt cold in their hearts. Is this reality? Heroes bleed and cry, while villains thrive and run rampant?
Just at the moment when that dirty hand was about to touch the collar of Jiang Chen's pajamas.
"Snap."
A slight crisp sound.
The boy who had been sleeping suddenly raised his hand.
He didn't open his eyes, and his movements were very slow, just like shooing away an annoying fly.
But his fair and slender hand precisely grabbed the wrist of that black-clad guard.
"Crack!"
The sound of bones breaking was clearly audible.
"Ah!!!"
The black-clad guard let out a scream like a slaughtered pig, and his entire palm presented a weird ninety-degree bend.
"I said..."
Jiang Chen slowly sat up, and under that messy hair, a pair of bloodshot eyes slowly opened.
There was no sleepiness in those eyes, only a kind of extreme irritability that made people feel their bone marrow freeze just by looking at it.
He glanced at the overturned porridge on the ground, glanced at the injured and tearful old veteran, and finally looked at the high-and-mighty Li Gang.
"Do you know..."
Jiang Chen's voice was hoarse and low, like a demon from Hell grinding its teeth.
"This pot of porridge is the breakfast I waited all night for."
"And..."
He pointed to Iliya's tail that was puffed up in fear.
"You scared my body pillow, and it doesn't feel good anymore."
"Shouldn't we settle these two accounts?"
[Ding! Detected that the host's "Waking Up Anger" is seriously exceeding the limit.]
[Detected strong discomfort caused by "class oppression".]
[Judgment: Not just noise, it's trash.]
[Suggestion: Since it's trash, then... clean it up.]
Boom!
A purple-black spiritual storm, with Jiang Chen as the center, instantly swept across the entire scene.
The smile on Li Gang's face froze.
He felt that he was not facing a student, but a prehistoric beast that had just awakened.
"You... what do you want to do? I am a Federal Special Envoy! I have immunity!"
Li Gang retreated in horror, his voice shrill and out of tune.
"Immunity?"
Jiang Chen stood up and summoned with a wave.
That half-section of the Demonic Ape leg bone, which Little Fatty Chen had used as a fire poker and was still stained with charcoal ash, whistled and flew into his hand.
"In my territory, I am the law."
"This bone, I'll reward you with it."