Chapter 507: The Royal Flag

Chapter 507 Wang Qi

Based on his experiences over the past half-year, Wang Qi deduced that he might be a transmigrator.

However, something must have gone wrong during the process, leaving him not only blank about his past life but also wiped of all memories belonging to this current vessel.

The reason Wang Qi was so certain stemmed from a visit to a medical clinic, paid for with the hard-earned money he had scrimped and saved over the past six months.

Though that clinic was tucked away in a neglected, obscure corner, his foreman had sworn that the agricultural-sequence physician there possessed the most exquisite skills among all the underground clinics in Jinling City. The fees were steep, but it was absolute value for money.

"If they say you die at the third watch, King Yama himself will never keep you until the fifth."

The foreman's unwavering tone had put Wang Qi’s anxieties to rest, prompting him to gamble all his savings on a single shred of hope.

If he could truly recall his past—even if it wasn't his previous life but merely his current one—he might have a chance to escape his present predicament as an impoverished orphan, soaring to greatness from then on to begin his own spectacular life.

"Why? Was that woman's status too low to be useful?"

"Last night."

But the moment he saw the physician give a cold smile, his arm muscles suddenly bulging and expanding until they violently ripped his clothes to shreds bare-handed, Wang Qi completely abandoned the notion, meekly packed his things, and fled the clinic.

The moment he entered the station, a horrific stench capable of making a person faint on the spot assaulted Wang Qi’s nose.

One could even find temporary shelter here.

The physician told him that aside from a genome more mundane than an ordinary person's, nothing was wrong with his body.

He must possess some extraordinary trait; it was just that due to certain special reasons, he was currently a dragon stranded in the shallows.

"So last night, you..." Li Jun dragged out his words.

Buried ten chang beneath the ground of Jinling City, the Earth Dragon Station had always been a gathering place for all sorts of people from the lowest rungs of society.

After a brief yet violent shudder, the Earth Dragon began to move toward the next station.

Or to be precise, it felt like an inexplicable familiarity.

Li Jun wore a wicked grin, stoking a flash of irritation in Zou Sijiu's chest.

"In any case, when did you change your disguise?"

Having rolled and crawled through the absolute bottom of Jinling City for half a year, however, Wang Qi had long grown accustomed to this foul air, and he even harbored a peculiar fondness for the faint, metallic tang.

Qin Ge, or rather Zou Sijiu, frowned and said slowly, "The latter possibility is relatively low, though we cannot rule out those ironmongers being sinister and vicious enough to play by the rule of 'better to kill a thousand innocents than let one guilty go.'"

Yet, although this checkup shattered Wang Qi’s illusions of tracing his roots or seeking out relatives and friends, he still did not despair entirely.

As long as he found the way to activate the glowing orb, he would surely break free from his bonds like a hidden dragon leaping from the abyss, astonishing the world with a single roar!

That was exactly how things were set up in the Yellow Millet Dreams.

Whenever he grew tired of browsing the dream worlds and began to indulge in passions with various female characters, he would twitch in the exact same manner.

These people were merely roaming through the Yellow Millet Dreams.

The crowd on the platform resembled ants returning to their nest, squeezing entirely into this cramped anthill before long.

"Does he really have some extraordinary quality that I'm missing?" Li Jun raised an eyebrow at the words.

This was the sign that the Earth Dragon was about to pull into the station.

Based on the rich 'experience' he had accumulated over the past six months, this nameless glowing orb was clearly a golden finger frequently seen in the background settings of the Yellow Millet Dreams, and it served as his strongest proof of being a transmigrator.

Wang Qi had only heard this through hearsay, however, and could not tell whether it was true or false.

Quick-eyed and swift-footed, Wang Qi snatched a seat in a single stride.

Wang Qi took a deep breath, and while using both arms to shield the backpack in front of him, he flared his elbows out to both sides, firmly securing his current spot.

The small waiting platform resembled a boisterous market, with vulgar peddlers visible everywhere, stealthily approaching travelers with knowing winks and hushed whispers.

Zou Sijiu kept his face stiff, answering in a very brusque tone.

Sensing Wang Qi’s highly vigilant gaze, Li Jun offered him what he believed to be a very amiable smile.

At this thought, Wang Qi sighed, helplessly pushing aside the fantasy he had already developed up to the point of how he would govern the Great Ming Empire after ascending the throne.

"I don't know either."

The usual scents of sweat and body odor went without saying, but the smell of rusting metal and the rotting flesh produced by prosthetic limbs experiencing rejection reactions were the truly fatal elements mixed within.

Even though this glowing orb remained completely dormant, Wang Qi firmly believed that his current hardships were only temporary.

Professional matters had to be left to professionals.

Whether they were vulgar, refined, salty, or wet; whether they featured heroes of the martial world, nobility and ministers, carefree immortal cultivation, or hegemony in another world, Wang Qi had experienced them all, never being a picky eater.

Correspondingly, however, the threshold for hiring 'domestic workers' was higher than that for 'labor slaves', usually requiring applicants to possess a specialized skill.

Li Jun turned his head to look at the man sitting beside him, asking in a low voice.

A series of cold gusts suddenly swept across the front of the platform, blowing the greasy hair hanging before Wang Qi’s eyes.

This was Li Jun’s habitual way of doing things; since even Zou Sijiu could not fathom his thoughts for the time being, there was no need for him to waste mental energy on such matters.

Li Jun scanned Zou Sijiu from head to toe, teasing him with a question.

Such minor movements proved that barely a few drops of blood essence remained in their bodies, which were on the verge of being drained dry.

Withdrawing his scornful gaze, Wang Qi politely and cautiously declined another peddler who approached to hawk goods, shifting his steps to find a relatively less crowded spot to quietly await the Earth Dragon's arrival.

He was intimately familiar with this kind of twitching.

Although Wang Qi’s third leg could not currently be considered exceptionally long, he still chose to trust his inexplicable affinity for metal.

Yet, like a startled rabbit, the other party hastily averted his eyes and closed them, pretending to sleep.

Zou Sijiu shot him a sidelong glance and said coldly, "If I had really taken a bullet to the back, do you think the Mohist Institute of Universal Love would still be as peaceful as it is now?"

His destination this time was Shanhe Quarter. He heard that many Mohist-sequence workshops and studios there were hiring 'domestic workers', offering slightly better terms than the lowest-tier 'labor slaves'—not only providing decent wages but also including room and board.

In several corners piled high with garbage, numerous figures lay sprawled in disarray, with only occasional twitches proving they were not corpses.

Perhaps he was a once-in-a-ten-thousand-years genius in the manufacturing industry, a piece of uncut jade that could become a great asset with just a little polishing.

Zou Sijiu snorted and said irritably, "Don't even mention it. That woman's waistband is truly loose; I suspect she slept her way into the Mohist Institute of Universal Love. If I kept using her identity, Master Zou's chastity would be compromised sooner or later!"

The garrison guards responsible for the security of Jinling City would generally not enter this place unless some heinous criminals had slipped into this underworld. Even if they wished to conduct a search, they had to obtain the consent of the Earth Dragon's operators.

The goods revealed within their open garments were either blood-boiling or spine-chilling.

"There's nothing special about this guy either; he isn't even an initiate. Why is the Mohist Institute of Universal Love monitoring him?"

Furthermore, his frequency and amplitude were far stronger than those of these people.

Just as this 'pretentious' mental activity was in full swing, a powerful surge of hunger abruptly rushed into Wang Qi’s mind at an inopportune moment.

He still had to find a job to fill his stomach first; that was the urgent priority.

The Mohist corporation responsible for operations did not care whether you were a gangster, a fugitive, or a thief; as long as you could produce genuine banknotes to buy a ticket, you could travel here without hindrance.

With a bronze complexion, a short beard on his lip, and a composed demeanor, he was none other than Qin Ge, the chief of Major Cases Room Ten at the Mohist Institute of Universal Love in the Central Branch.

Regrettably, affairs of the world always ran contrary to one's wishes.

As a deep enthusiast of the Yellow Millet Dreams, Wang Qi’s greatest interest after knocking off work was visiting those cheap, illicit dream parlors to experience all kinds of bizarre and fantastical worlds.

Though the old saying goes, 'No matter how poor, one need only beg; as long as one does not die, one will eventually rise.' The premise was still having food to eat, and not starving to death.

As for why he lost his memory, he had no idea.

"Can we still talk? If not, get out of the car."

The reason was that he had always harbored a secret that could not be revealed: a fist-sized sphere of light existed within his body.

Qin Ge sighed, "Qin Ge's memory held little information about the other person. All he knew was that the surveillance mission came from his immediate superior, Rong Lu, the head of the Jian Ai Special Case Department."

Upon hearing this, Wang Qiang's first instinct was to demand the return of his medical fee.

"Based on my years of experience as a top-tier worker, Mr. Zou, I can say that in such a situation, either Qin Ge lacked the authority to know the secrets, or the person was not particularly special—only having contact with important figures, which is why Jian Ai targeted him."

After all, if he were truly just an ordinary person, unable to even become a follower, like the doctor who embezzled his savings, how could he possibly possess such a special ability that only a time traveler would have within his body?

It is said that this is a tacit agreement between the Confucian and Dark forces in Jinling City.

"That's right. Who is our Mr. Zou? Anyone who dares to shoot him will at least face the extermination of his entire family and a river of blood."

He always felt that the other person was also watching him.

Wang Qiang changed the direction of his backpack, which held his only remaining possessions, and hugged it tightly as he pushed through the crowded crowd into the underground passage leading to Datalong Station on Datong Street.

Seeing that Zou Si Jiu was on the verge of a breakdown, Li Jun stopped joking with him, sat up straight, and glanced at Wang Qiang across from him.

Unlike his usual habit of taking a nap during such moments, Wang Qiang instead peered through the gaps in the crowd in front of him and quietly observed the man sitting opposite.

As the steel train, resembling a giant dragon, slowly glided to a stop, the moment the door opened, Wang Qiang, who was at the front of the waiting crowd, only slightly relaxed his leg muscles and was immediately pushed into the carriage by the crowd behind him.

"Fine, fine, let's talk about business."

With his keen eyesight, he could naturally see that Wang Qiang, who appeared to be asleep, was actually tense all over, with one hand reaching into his backpack.

As soon as he sensed any abnormality, the other person would likely not hesitate to empty his magazine directly at him.