Night's Nomenclature
Chapter 474: Neural Link

It was cold.

It had been a long time since Qing Chen became a Knight that he had felt this cold.

His wounds weren't healing easily, and now Qing Chen's combat ability was perhaps not even as good as an ordinary Gene Soldier.

On the road, even if Qing Chen wanted to struggle not to walk, facing an A-Class like Shendai Yunhe, any struggle was futile.

The other party could easily lift him up with one hand. If Qing Chen stopped, the other party would pull the hemp rope tied to Qing Chen's wrist lock, dragging Qing Chen on the ground to walk, effortlessly.

Shendai Yunhe didn't take the main road.

The path they took was as if someone had planned it in advance.

It precisely weaved through the mountains and fields, heading north.

Qing Chen saw small paths in the mountains, some of which were on cliffs, only allowing two or three people to pass.

The most crucial point was that these were paths that someone had walked before. Qing Chen could even see traces of plants being crushed and chopped on the road.

This was the path that lumberjacks often took.

Qing Chen knew that the Federation production base's salaries were meager. Many people couldn't make ends meet in the city and were sent here to do some large-scale mechanized agricultural planting, logging, picking, and animal husbandry.

But some people lived in the wilderness for generations, assimilated by the Federation into agricultural producers in the production base.

These people had their own ways of making money. They would go into the mountains to collect herbs and precious plants.

The two main trading partners of Wilderness Hunters were Wildlanders and agricultural producers.

In a way, more than half of the Wilderness Hunters were not actually good at hunting; they were more like middlemen.

The mountain path must have been made by these people.

It was very secretive.

"So, Shendai's spies have infiltrated every corner of the Federation's south. They disguised themselves as agricultural producers in the production base, looking for small paths to travel through the mountains, waiting to use them during the war," Qing Chen gasped.

His clothes were not warm, and the shoes on his feet did not fit. The cold wind was blowing inside, and the snow that fell in would melt into water, then become incredibly cold.

Shendai Yunhe calmly responded, holding the rope: "Speaking of the ability to plant spies, the Qing Family is the best among the five Federation Conglomerates. Your ancestors paid special attention to intelligence capabilities, so Shadow's power is so great. So, you, a person from the Qing Family, accusing the Shendai Consortium of painstakingly infiltrating the south, is that a little ridiculous... Oh, you're a Time Traveler, so you may not know much about the foundation of the Qing Family. Perhaps you won't have the chance to know in the future."

Shendai Yunhe continued, "Do you know why Qing Mu was arrested? He used the alias Chen Cang and infiltrated the Shendai Consortium for seven years, developing a huge intelligence network. The most admirable thing is that he even turned Shendai Yunhe's secretary against him. I was in charge of his interrogation for a year. He wasn't like this back then."

Qing Chen looked coldly at the other party, but he didn't expect that the person who arrested him had interrogated Qing Mu.

When Shendai Yunhe mentioned Qing Mu, there was admiration in his tone.

However, the more the other party did this, the more hypocritical Qing Chen felt this nation was.

Shendai Yunhe forcefully pulled the rope and walked on the mountain path. He said calmly, "You don't have to look at me like that. We are enemies. It is only natural for you to suffer anything when you fall into our hands."

At this moment, Shendai Yunhe took a step forward, more than ten meters. Qing Chen behind him was pulled by the rope and fell to the ground, dragged a long way.

His ill-fitting shoes were scattered on the ground.

Shendai Yunhe didn't give Qing Chen a chance to put on his shoes and continued to walk quickly forward. Qing Chen barely managed to struggle to his feet and followed behind barefoot.

The snow under his feet was like a knife, piercing his bones and skin.

Shendai Yunhe said, "Beg, and I'll let you put on your shoes."

Qing Chen calmly followed, stepping on the mountain path, one foot after another.

The other party wanted to break his will on this road, but Qing Chen felt that this was a kind of Cultivation.

Even when his feet were frozen purple, he didn't beg for mercy.

"I need to use the toilet," Qing Chen said.

Shendai Yunhe glanced at him but unexpectedly agreed humanely.

Qing Chen squatted down and relieved himself for a long time. After cleaning himself with rotten leaves in the snow, he immediately buried the excrement with snow.

Seeing this, Shendai Yunhe immediately walked over, used a branch to rake away the snow, and inspected the excrement for Forbidden Artifacts.

But he was disappointed; there was nothing inside.

Qing Chen laughed, although laughing would cause pain in his wounds, he was still laughing: "A great A-Class expert from the Shendai Consortium is looking for things in shit. If this gets out, it will be a laughingstock."

Shendai Yunhe looked at him coldly: "It seems that you hid the Forbidden Artifact in that snow forest. It doesn't matter. When the storm passes, I can naturally send someone to search carefully. The Forbidden Artifact has no legs or feet, it can't run away."

As he spoke, he flicked his wrist, and the rope between him and Qing Chen quickly whipped, like a whip, hitting Qing Chen's cheek, leaving a bloody mark.

But Shendai Yunhe was stunned, because when Qing Chen took the whip, he didn't even blink and continued to stare at him and smile.

"I advise you to hurry up," Qing Chen said with a smile, "If you don't leave the Central Plains, you'll be found."

Shendai Yunhe looked deeply at the young man, turned around, and dragged Qing Chen up the mountain path. He even deliberately quickened his pace, dragging Qing Chen for three kilometers before slowing down at a narrow cliff path.

Qing Chen said, "You're scared."

Shendai Yunhe sneered, "Threats from ants, do you think they will have any effect?"

Qing Chen calmly said, "You're scared."

...

...

They walked for a whole day, until dusk, when Qing Chen saw from afar, beyond the mountains, on the plains, boundless fields, neatly arranged on the earth.

This was a production base.

Shendai Yunhe pulled the rope, leading the staggering Qing Chen towards the production base, heading straight for the farmhouses at the end of the fields.

A middle-aged producer in a rubber raincoat came out, holding a firearm: "Who's there?"

Shendai Yunhe took out an ID from his pocket: "Federation PCA intelligence officer, responsible for pursuing fugitives in the wilderness. I need to stay overnight and use the diesel vehicles in your production base."

The producer was stunned: "Don't move, throw your ID over here!"

Shendai Yunhe lightly threw the ID, which landed precisely in the producer's hand. The producer looked at it and didn't find any problems, but still said, "Excuse me, please wait a moment; we need to verify your information with our superiors."

As he spoke, he shouted into the walkie-talkie, and more than ten producers rushed out of the farmhouse, each pointing their guns at Shendai Yunhe.

Above the farmhouse, people had set up two Metal Storms on the roof.

Now, news of Wildlanders robbing production bases was common. The producers were all skilled in using weapons. If they couldn't beat the Wildlanders, their fate would be terrible.

Shendai Yunhe saw this scene and merely raised his eyebrows, but ultimately didn't say anything.

The producer who went to verify the information returned: "We don't have a signal now, possibly because the heavy snow damaged a signal base station. I'll send someone to repair the signal base station. After confirming your identity, I can give you the vehicle."

Shendai Yunhe sneered, frowning: "A group of lowly people dare to point guns at PCA intelligence officers. I think you're tired of living."

"Sorry, officer, we are also following the production base security regulations. If we have offended you, please forgive us," the producer said sincerely.

Shendai Yunhe glanced at the Metal Storm on the roof. Even an A-Class wouldn't want to get entangled with heavy firepower at such a close distance. If the two Metal Storms fired in tandem, an A-Class's body would be injured even with a single hit.

He thought for a moment and said, "Then, it's okay for us to go inside and warm up, right? Look, we didn't even bring any weapons."

The producers looked at each other, and one of them said, "You can go inside, but don't make any rash moves in front of the guns. Raise your hands above your heads, where we can see them."

Shendai Yunhe cooperated and raised his hands. Once they were inside the house and no longer threatened by heavy firepower, no matter how many producers there were, they would all die.

He led Qing Chen towards the house.

More than ten producers split into two groups, flanking the two men slowly towards the house.

However, the moment Shendai Yunhe stepped into the house, the safety gate used to defend against Wildlanders suddenly closed, separating him from Qing Chen behind him.

This temporary fortress used by the producers to defend against Wildlanders suddenly became a cage to trap Shendai Yunhe.

Outside, several producers quickly escorted Qing Chen towards the outside of the farmhouse.

One of them whispered to Qing Chen, "Officer Qing Chen, we are Shadow Master's informants. We have received orders to help you escape."

Qing Chen was stunned. This rescue was faster than he expected.

At this moment, fierce gunfire came from the closed safety gate. Soon, the gunfire subsided, but a heavy banging sound came from the closed safety gate.

It seemed that Shendai Yunhe was using brute force to break the door, causing the entire three-story house to tremble, with soil and dust falling.

Outside, a group of people were running outward. Someone took off their boots for Qing Chen to change into, and someone else took off their thermal clothes and put them on Qing Chen.

A diesel Off-road Vehicle was not far from the farmhouse.

A producer whispered to Qing Chen, "Officer, they're taking you away. The rest of us will stay to delay Shendai Yunhe's pursuit. You go! 30 kilometers north, there will be someone to meet you again!"

Qing Chen seemed to be moved: "You…"

...

...

Inside the house, Shendai Yunhe hammered the safety gate with his arms like thunder, letting the dust from the ceiling fall.

Behind him were six armed producers, silently watching.

After five minutes, Shendai Yunhe thought for a moment and said, "It should be almost done, open the door."

The safety gate slowly opened, and everyone walked out of the house.

But the next moment, Shendai Yunhe and everyone else were stunned.

Of the seven producers outside, five were lying in the snow, each with a long gash on their neck, their blood flowing like rivers.

Shendai Yunhe suddenly looked up at Qing Chen. The young man's arms were shackled, but his weak and battered body burst with infinite power.

The young man forcefully grabbed the collar of a producer with his unshackled fingers and quickly approached the last producer.

In an instant, the moment they collided, Qing Chen dropped the already dead producer and, with his arms wrapped around him, fiercely hugged the last producer.

Struggling, Qing Chen and the producer fell to the ground together.

The producer wanted to break free from Qing Chen's restraint, but the young man, as if hugging the producer's neck, sat in the snow, smiling grimly at Shendai Yunhe: "Your acting... was too clumsy!"

As he spoke, he squeezed his arms, and the producer's neck made a click, and was brutally twisted.

The tragic sight of the severely injured young man killing the enemy in the snow was extremely cruel, yet his smile was exceptionally radiant.

This extremely contradictory and conflicting scene inexplicably shocked the remaining people.

That thin body, even tortured to this state, still possessed a firm will.

Qing Chen lay in the snow, breathing heavily, looking up at the sky: "If you want to keep me alive, you don't even dare to open the safety of the gun. You have to pay a price."

Shendai Yunhe's Face^[-] was livid: "How did you see the problem?"

"Do I need to see?" Qing Chen responded with a smile, "You carefully planned route, escaped here with great difficulty, but you were completely unprepared, and you were pointed at with a gun? Moreover, those people just said that they were Shadow's informants... I would believe that they were Kestrel's informants, but calling themselves Shadow's informants is an insult to Shadow."

"And you're an A-Class after all. With the speed of that safety gate closing, if I wasn't injured, I could have gotten out in time, but you were like a fool, standing there waiting for it to close," Qing Chen said with a smile.

Shendai Yunhe silently looked at the tragic young man. He had tormented him for so long, yet the other party could still maintain his composure.

A normal person would have grabbed that lifeline.

He sneered and said to the producers beside him, "Drag him into the house. Perform the Neural Link surgery now."

Qing Chen calmed down.

It turned out that the other party had tried so hard to destroy his will all the way, to perform a Neural Link surgery on him here, using someone else to substitute him.

Then, even if he was not taken north but rescued,

"Qing Chen" would no longer be Qing Chen.

"You really went to great lengths to bring the equipment to such a remote place," Qing Chen sneered.

He had access to the information about the Federation civil war, given to him by Qing Zhun, which even the Intelligence Bureau One archive didn't have.

The information showed that more than a month ago, during the Federation civil war, a group of elite Shendai troops infiltrated the south, and the Li Clan and Qing Family had not found these elite troops.

It seems that they had already planned to use the Neural Link method to replace some important figures.

...