Laughing Last

A few minutes later, Zhong Yun finally broke the suffocating tension, speaking in a low voice, "Except for you, everyone else may leave."

Hearing his words, a commotion broke out among the crowd. Then, all eyes turned to a man standing beside Wang Jingze. He was the second-in-command, the highest-ranking person left besides Wang Jingze, and now their true leader.

Yu Daoqing was startled, her expression turning slightly anxious as if she wanted to say something. But catching the flash of coldness in Zhong Yun's eyes, she swallowed her words back down.

Wang Jingze's face turned pale, and he said with a bitter smile, "I should have guessed. Since you are already on a killing spree in the main control room, you obviously don't need any pilots."

Zhong Yun remained silent. Even though in his eyes Wang Jingze was already a dead man, out of caution, he would not reveal all his cards.

"I have already activated all the escape pods. Return to wherever you came from," Zhong Yun issued the dismissal. "Also, pass along a message to your esteemed master for me: from now on, his people are not to appear before me again, and they are never to scheme against my woman. Otherwise..."

Zhong Yun spat out four words: "Bear the consequences yourselves."

The second-in-command cast a glance at Wang Jingze, then looked back at his own subordinates. Gritting his teeth, he finally made a decision. "Everyone, listen to my orders. Form groups of twenty and assemble at the escape pods."

"My apologies, Mr. Wang, but I must take responsibility for the lives of my men," the second-in-command bowed to Wang Jingze.

"If you go back like this, your master won't let you off either," Wang Jingze sneered.

"That is my concern. Mr. Wang should worry about himself," the second-in-command retorted. Leaving those words behind, he turned and left with his men. He had long been dissatisfied with Wang Jingze's disregard for the lives of his comrades. If not for his strict orders from above, he would have turned against him long ago. Now that evacuation was imminent, he no longer needed to pander to him.

Once they had walked far away, a mocking smile suddenly appeared at the corner of Wang Jingze's mouth. "They are truly naive, actually thinking you would let them leave alive."

Zhong Yun's expression did not change; his gaze simply shifted to the crew members swarming toward the escape pods. There were just over sixty of them left, boarding four escape pods that successfully launched and departed.

Looking back at the rapidly shrinking spaceship, everyone aboard the escape pods wore faces filled with grief. When they set out, they numbered three hundred in total. Now, four-fifths of their brothers had sacrificed their lives, leaving barely sixty survivors.

"We must have our revenge." This was the shared thought in everyone's hearts.

Although Zhong Yun had spared them and allowed them to leave in escape pods, they felt no gratitude. He had killed so many of their people, and this blood feud was irreconcilable.

"Zhong Yun..." Everyone etched this name deep into their minds. The pain he inflicted upon them today would one day be repaid tenfold, a hundredfold. This was their unanimous resolve.

"Just a minor Dhavo Republic, let's see how it manages to protect you," the second-in-command wore a cruel smile at the corner of his lips.

"I assume you aren't actually foolish enough to let them leave?" Seeing that Zhong Yun remained silent for a long time, Wang Jingze feigned surprise and asked.

"Would you be so kind-hearted as to think of my well-being? Killing them must mean I would face massive trouble," Zhong Yun replied.

"Hahaha..." Wang Jingze laughed so hard tears were almost falling. Knowing his end was near, he had completely let go. "You can't be that naive, can you? Do you really think that by letting them go, they will be grateful to you?"

Zhong Yun shook his head. "They were your comrades after all. How is it that instead of pleading for them, you are desperately egging me on to kill them?"

A manic look spread across Wang Jingze's face. "I know you won't let me live. Since I am going to die, why should they get to live?"

Zhong Yun fell silent. Just as he expected, this man was not only deeply calculating but possessed the venomous malice of a viper. He could understand resorting to any means to achieve one's desires, but he utterly despised Wang Jingze's spiteful behavior that harmed others without benefiting himself.

Wasp Bees Two and Three were already hovering outside the spaceship, and he had lost the patience to trade words with Wang Jingze. "You just stay right here..."

Suddenly, a sense of alarm gripped Zhong Yun's heart. Subconsciously, he jerked his body to the side, and a sharp pain flared in his forearm. A dart launcher was embedded in Zhong Yun's left forearm, and the liquid inside had already been injected into his body.

"Hahaha..." Wang Jingze burst into wild laughter. "Go ahead and enjoy the taste of a psychic power backlash."

Yu Daoqing reacted with extreme speed, pulling the dart launcher from Zhong Yun's forearm and tossing it away. Three red dots arranged in a triangle appeared on his skin, identical to the small wound on the team leader's forehead.

Zhong Yun made a decisive move, tightly gripping the joints of his left arm in an attempt to prevent the liquid from spreading. The area below his elbow felt as though boiling oil had been poured into his arm; the flesh and blood within seemed to burn, turning an abnormal, cooked-lobster red.

"Zhong Yun, are you alright?" Seeing his arm turn into such a terrifying state, Yu Daoqing's face paled with fright, a hint of crying in her voice.

"Wang Jingze, hand over the antidote!" She suddenly stood up, radiating an unprecedentedly intense killing intent. Her tone was as cold as a gale blowing across the polar wastes. "Otherwise, I will make you wish you were dead and unable to die!"

Wang Jingze's face twisted. "Does it hurt you to see this? Seeing him suffer so much, do you hurt just as much? Do you want to kill me right now?"

Yu Daoqing's chest heaved violently as she suppressed the surging urge to kill. "Give me the antidote, and I won't kill you."

"Tsk tsk tsk," Wang Jingze shook his head with a mocking expression. At this moment, he finally held the bargaining chip to turn the tables. "Young Miss is not showing much sincerity. Whose life is worth more, mine or his? Weigh it yourself."

"Also, let me remind you, your little lover doesn't have much time left."

A trace of panic flashed across Yu Daoqing's eyes. "Name your price. What do you want?"

"I want you," Wang Jingze said with a lewd expression and a flirtatious tone.

"In your dreams." Yu Daoqing's face turned ashen with rage, wishing she could tear the owner of that disgusting face to shreds.

Wang Jingze laughed heartily. "You just need to accompany me for a single night—sleep with me for one night, and I'll save your little lover. Think about it: letting me sleep with you once to save your little lover's life is a fantastic deal."

"Don't take too long to decide, oh. Zhong Yun can't hold on much longer." With that, another bout of wild laughter erupted.

Yu Daoqing looked down at Zhong Yun. He was half-lying on the ground, his face drained of all color from the pain, and the strange affliction on his arm had already spread to his shoulder.

"I..."

Seeing that this foolish woman was actually considering agreeing, fury flared in Zhong Yun's chest. Drawing on strength from unknown origins, he jerked himself upright, kicked the control console to shut down the surveillance feed, and turned to glare coldly at Yu Daoqing. His voice was distorted and strained as he rasped, "I... do not need you to sell... your own body to... save me."

Having spoken these words, Zhong Yun seemed to have exhausted every ounce of his strength. He leaned against the control console, panting heavily, his face as pale as paper.

Yu Daoqing felt as though a giant hammer had struck her heart, and her complexion turned as pale as Zhong Yun's.

In the main control room, only the sound of Zhong Yun's heavy panting remained. After a long moment, his weak voice finally broke the silence. "Help me... to the airlock."

Yu Daoqing wiped away tears she hadn't realized were falling, stepped forward, and hoisted him up. His tall, heavy frame pressed down upon her shoulder. Just half an hour ago, this body had been so strong and powerful, yet now he needed her support just to stand. The thought brought fresh tears to her eyes, which she had only just stopped.

Seeing that the surveillance feed had been cut off, Wang Jingze's face darkened, but a moment later, he chuckled again. "Zhong Yun, oh Zhong Yun, no matter how extraordinary your abilities, haven't you still fallen into my hands? The one who laughs last is still me. Haha..."

The madder he laughed, the more his voice echoed through the empty corridor, as if he were venting the repressed emotions of the past fifteen years completely.

Wang Jingze was a man of extreme forbearance, as proven by the fact that he could lurk beside Yu Daoqing for fifteen years without being exposed. Much like Zhong Yun, he had always kept his ultimate trump card hidden.

His psychic ability was telekinesis, which was common knowledge at the base. However, nobody knew that he was capable of long-range control over any location he was familiar with. Even across hundreds of meters, separated by physical barriers, he could manipulate an object within a range of one thousand meters, provided its volume was under half a cubic meter.

As it happened, his location was only eight hundred meters away from the control room, and the box containing the dart launcher capable of inducing a psychic backlash had been placed right behind the captain's chair.

He had been beating around the bush earlier precisely to distract Zhong Yun while secretly executing his long-range control to pop the case open and retrieve the dart launcher.

Through momentary carelessness, Zhong Yun and Yu Daoqing had been successfully ambushed by him, reversing the situation entirely in his favor.

The forbearance and cunning of this man were truly terrifying.

Wang Jingze's laughter gradually subsided as he regained his composure. He needed to evacuate the spaceship immediately while Yu Daoqing was still too preoccupied to deal with him. Otherwise, he stood no chance of winning against a furious, desperate tier-ten powerhouse.

Though the front corridor was sealed, as the captain, he naturally knew the password for the emergency back door. It took him a little time to unlock it, and he headed straight for the compartment adjacent to the control room. This was extremely risky; if Yu Daoqing were monitoring him, he would be walking right into the tiger's den.

Yet he had to take that risk because located here was an exclusive escape pod reserved for high-ranking personnel, far superior in grade to the standard models.

By the time Wang Jingze boarded the escape pod and launched, Yu Daoqing still hadn't appeared. It seemed that, just as he had predicted, she had no attention to spare for him right now. He smiled faintly and thought to himself, "Yu Daoqing, I will be back. You belong to me."

The escape pod slipped out of the spaceship and soared away into the boundless universe.