As expected, Liu Xin withdrew from the conversation when Chang said that.

At the same time, the door of the room was opened and a muscular figure walked in - Liu.

"I am glad to see you're already awake, Chang." A set of toiletries lay in Liu's giant palm. "No one has used this set before, please make yourself comfortable. By the way, I also bring news.

"I sent a human to Qing Shui already, I hope he'll bring back good news this afternoon."

"Oh really?" Chang nodded. "I do hope it's going to be good news."

"Mr. Liu, it'll never be bad news. I won't hurt you no matter how Qing Shui responds. After all, I don't want to take the risk of bringing discord between me and him.　

"Since Qing Shui sent you to me for an honest negotiation, I can't turn down his favor." Liu stood at the center of the room, explaining his plan whose intention was yet to be seen. "Though, I consider this to be a friendly communication regardless how important you are to Qing Shui and whether he is willing to help me break through the reproduction problem."

"I hope that's really how it is." Chang looked away.

Sorrow hit him and he didn't even say bye when Liu left the room.

Chang curled up on the bed and didn't speak until afternoon.

3:20 P.M

A juvenile amphibia holding a man by his s.h.i.+rt's collar was running out from the jungle.

Liu and Chang awaited his arrival outside of the sand hole.

The amphibia didn't have a chance to speak for Liu instantly asked him in a strict tone, "You weren't followed, were you?"

"No, I was waiting at the edge of the jungle all time, when he returned from the inst.i.tute, I carried him back by his s.h.i.+rt, running back in full speed." Amphibias didn't sweat as they didn't have sweat glands distributed on their skin, instead, a special fluid secreted on their tongue, indicating that they were fatigued.

The little amphibia breathed heavily, then he spat a bit of dark green saliva to the ground, saying, "I don't think any human has a more sensitive nose than me, nor is my match speed wise. Hence, there shouldn't be anyone that could've followed me."

"Great." Liu heaved a sigh of relief, nodding. He then asked the human on the ground. "Did you deliver my message? What did Mr. Li say?"

"I recited everything you told me word for word." The human raised his head, proud. "There were three messages in total. 'I have Chang as my guest.', 'I need reproduction ability.''I have no intention of causing harm but seeking cooperation.' These are exactly what you told me last night."

"Great, I am glad to see that you didn't run away."

"I can't... my wife and kids are with you, I can't risk running away." The human almost choked. "Are they okay?"

"Of course they are okay, there is no point for me to do anything to them if you didn't run away." Liu stated, then asked again, "So how did Mr. Li respond to my suggestion?"

"He only said six words." The human felt pressured when Liu asked the question with his face approaching his, he swallowed to disguise his anxiety.

"Tell me, what did he say?" Suddenly, Liu had a bad feeling. He comforted the timid human. "Hey, don't be scared, I won't blame you for anything you say."

"He said..." The human swallowed again. "'Release him, or you'll die.'

"Trust me, please. He said nothing but this. He sent me away with his soldiers afterward," the human explained all in a fl.u.s.ter. "It wasn't because I didn't want to negotiate with him, either. Mr. Li didn't even spare time for me to negotiate with what you taught me to tell, he literally kicked me out from the inst.i.tute..."

"Hmmmm... Release him or I'll die?" The amphibia drew his attention to Chang, the color of his pupils changing. "It seems like you are quite important to him."

"I told you, we are friends." Chang shrugged. "If you really want anything from him, threatening him with me isn't a good way to go, he won't play your game."

"I knew it." Liu's eyes didn't leave Chang. "That's why I treated you as a friend since the very beginning. Mr. Liu, you are free to leave now."

"Leave? Are you sure?" Chang's eyes went wide; Liu's decision was out of his expectations.

Such decision shocked everyone present, including the little amphibias around Liu. The pupils of their eyes enlarged. "Why? Papa? Why would you do this? Wouldn't it be nice to just keep him since he is so important? We should always have a backup plan, even if we aren't using him for anything, what if he is actually a critical person to our future?"

The little amphibia who brought back the human shouted out, "Papa? Why are you afraid of Qing Shui Li anyways? We don't need to be scared of him at all! Please give me a gun, and I'll shoot him from afar if it's as dangerous around him as you said."

"But who will solve our problem if Qing Shui is dead?" Liu frowned. "Plus, it's impossible to kill Mr. Li even if I gave you a bag full of guns. Stop the nonsense, kids. Please send Chang back home."

Liu's frown deepened.

"I am not going! Why do we have to compromise with a human? Why don't we just steal all his stuff from the lab and figure something out? I don't see the point..." The little amphibia was interrupted as Liu grabbed him by the torso.

"Please, no more talking." Liu gazed at the little amphibia's pale face.

"..." The little amphibia held his temper back, though he still felt it was unfair.

Chang was picked up by Liu when he put down his kid. A sandy voice sneaked into Chang's right ear when he was laid down on Liu's shoulder. "Let's take you back home."

In a flash, Liu accelerated without running. Chang's opened mouth filled with a squall of wind, and under the inertia, the acceleration pressed Chang's body against Liu's shoulder. The very real fear of falling off forced Chang to hug Liu's neck in a tight hold.

It was hard to describe how fast Liu was. Even if Chang had turned his head backwards, he felt that the wind was trying to tear down his body, and opening his eyes widely was simply impossible.

The sensation was exactly the same as when you put your head out of the window of a car speeding over 120 km/h. The speed was startling and visually stunning.

"What speed this is!" Chang tried to speak, but since he turned his head to Liu's ear, the wind again flushed in his mouth, causing his sentence to be spoken intermittently.

"Thanks." Liu grinned, accelerating again. The distance between the sh.o.r.e of the Yellow River and the edge of the jungle seemed strangely short now.

"Thank you for releasing me." Chang was gently put down from Liu's shoulder; his eyes narrowed when he smiled to Liu. "I should get going if there is nothing more that I can help with."

"I hope you can talk to Qing Shui for me sometime in the future." Liu didn't leave immediately. "This is my way of showing sincerity, I hope he can give me a chance."

"We'll see how that goes." Chang strode away from Liu, immersing himself in the human world.

The giant figure gradually became smaller and smaller, until it became a tiny dot, and Chang found himself walking on a concrete pathway again.

Only one day had pa.s.sed, but the city was out of shape already.

Chaos!

The only word to describe what was happening on the street was chaos. Chang hadn't seen such crowd-filled streets since a long time ago. Civilians, who were robbing, and military, that was attempting to maintain order, flooded the streets. Dead bodies could be seen everywhere, as well as bloodstained, ripped s.h.i.+rts, torn walls and ground. Windows were shattered and walls turned into bee hives from numerous bullet holes.

"Go f*ck yourself, Qing Shui Li! You're starving me by prohibiting the cultivation of Crystal Pea!"

A procession flooded the street, and Chang was engulfed by the crowd.

These men and women, they yelled with signs in their hands. Their voices were exhausted from shouting, but they never stopped. They even brought up Zhuo, who had pa.s.sed away four years ago.

"F*ck you, Hang Xie and Qing Shui Li! You stopped giving out Crystal Peas, and instead gave something that can't even be harvested after a month! What do we do with that? Are you trying to starve half of us to death?" The leader shouted himself hoa.r.s.e. "Even though Zhuo was a b.a.s.t.a.r.d, at least he gave us the Crystal Pea!"

"What do we eat without the Crystal Pea?"

"What do we eat?" the protesters around Chang shouted out in unison.

"You want us to die, don't you? But we won't comply! If we die, you will die with us, too. It's unfair for you to live when we suffer!" someone in the crowd a.s.serted.

"Exactly, we should die together!"

The number of protesters was tremendous. Most of their voices were husky, and the effort put into this procession might have been the largest compared to any other protest they might have take a part in. After all, the civilians were protesting for their faith in the old days, and now, it was for survival.

Chang meant to squeeze out from the crowd, but he failed to. He soon let the procession bring him forward as they were heading to the inst.i.tute anyways.

He followed the flow of the procession and arrived at the outer ring of the research inst.i.tute.

Only when the crowd stopped did he realize that the inst.i.tute was beset.

The contingents of marchers and robbers gathered here, confronting the military, which was still guarding the inst.i.tute soundly.

"Why won't you let us cultivate the Crystal Pea?"

"We need a reason for why you starve us!" The outcries of the protesters were like waves, surging forth.

Chang squeezed to the front as soon as he got to the inst.i.tute. There, a platform was built for the spokesman, who was the person he'd seen when he came to the Inst.i.tute for the first time, Hang Xie. He was now the mayor of Zhengzhou, as well as Qing Shui's spokesman.

"Quiet, quiet!" Hang stood on the platform, shouting through a megaphone in a husky voice. "Everyone, can I have your attention? I will resolve any questions you have today!"

"Tell us! Why did you stop giving us seeds of the Crystal Pea!" a protester shouted out in a rage.

"About the Crystal Pea, I believe we have informed you in the official letter. It is because the Crystal Pea is the sole host of a horrible parasite called Evil Moss. It can cause the extinction of many species if we don't control it. Therefore..."