The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Chang Sheng's actions truly surprised Yu Qing—he actually hung a huge portrait of Yu Qing above the main entrance of the Shengtian Group headquarters building, and posted an extremely sycophantic slogan at the entrance: "Under the wise leadership of Chairman Yu Qing, let's create a new era of glory for Shengtian!"

Chang Sheng's father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all used similar methods to gain the trust of rulers throughout history. Family records show that his ancestor, who lived hundreds of years ago, even imitated King Goujian of Yue by personally tasting the excrement of his ailing patriarch. It seems that certain methods of gaining trust remain effective even across millennia.

In that case, what is there to hesitate about?

Now is the perfect time to enter Shengtian. Yu Qing's mind is made up: first, stabilize Shengtian and obtain a stable and considerable dividend every year; then, with Wengshan as the central hub, create a city cluster belonging to the original ecological humans—the goal is clear and unwavering.

He walked confidently onto the streets of Yadu, seemingly strolling around but actually cautiously circling several times. Only after confirming that no one was following him did he enter a star-rated hotel to check in. He didn't choose Yu Wa's villa precisely to guard against someone using her as leverage in the future.

Necessary equipment had to be acquired. Yu Qing ordered five armored vehicles with different functions and equipped them with thirty humanoid bodyguards—a team that would neither appear shabby nor too ostentatious.

The departure date is set for three days from now. His legal team won't arrive in Changjin until tomorrow at the latest. Procedural matters must also be handled meticulously. Although the West is now a self-governing city-state, it still outwardly adheres to the laws of the Earth Alliance. Yu Qing arriving a day later than the lawyers is both polite and leaves room for maneuver.

Even more unexpectedly, Chang Sheng dispatched a welcoming party of a thousand people to wait outside Yadu City. This man was indeed a genius at playing politics—this was not only a gesture of goodwill towards Yu Qing personally, but also a meticulously planned public relations drama, an excellent opportunity to enhance Sheng Tian's influence.

The team was impressive, consisting of 988 beautiful, humanoid women with precise movements, and only 12 real humans—six men and six women, all young employees urgently transferred by Chang Sheng from various branches, who were known as "die-hard fans of Yuqing".

On the day of departure, in recognition of the influence of Shengtian Group, the Yadu authorities held a grand farewell ceremony, escorting Yu Qing all the way to the outskirts of the city, and only officially returning after successfully meeting up with Chang Sheng's welcoming team.

Upon seeing Yu Qing appear, the twelve "fans" immediately rushed forward and surrounded him, forming a human wall. One of them, a winged girl named Ella, even lost control of her emotions, suddenly lunging forward and passionately kissing him—

The entire audience was momentarily stunned. Yu Qing raised his hand to signal everyone not to stop her, and only when he was almost out of breath did he gently push her away and smile, "You Winged People are indeed as passionate as fire."

For a moment, he even drifted off into thought, which reminded him of the tenderness of another winged girl. But he quickly regained his composure and returned to reality.

Then, the twelve men escorted him to a specially made luxury vehicle. The entire convoy, centered around him, began its winding journey along the highway. Choosing the land route was both Chang Sheng's pre-planned route and Yu Qing's original intention—it was safer and better showcased Sheng Tian's strength.

Their mobile fleet is itself a giant, mobile advertisement.

About half an hour later, the convoy entered the winding mountain road outside the city. On one side were steep cliffs with lush greenery, and on the other side was a wide, open river valley, with sunlight and clouds reflecting in the water, creating a picturesque scene.

Yu Qing leaned back in the carriage, his mind a jumble of emotions. Yesterday he was like a stray dog, hiding everywhere, but today he was a king surrounded by thousands—such was the unpredictability of life. It wasn't that he had suddenly become powerful; it was simply that his role had changed in the blink of an eye.

He sipped his tea in the car, pondering his speech for the Shengtian headquarters. This speech needed to be passionate and inspiring, but the several drafts Donghao had prepared for him all lacked any real enthusiasm…

He turned his gaze to the window. The convoy was now navigating two sharp bends, and the view suddenly opened up. Soon they would be descending into the plains.

He mentally calculated how much earlier he could arrive at the current speed...

Just then, several screams suddenly came from ahead!

"What happened?" Yu Qing's heart tightened.

The car braked suddenly, and due to inertia, his head slammed backward. Fortunately, Ella reacted quickly and caught it with her arm.

Looking up, the rock wall that had seemed rough and solid suddenly rippled like water ruffled by the wind. An unprecedented high-intensity optical camouflage poured down like a waterfall, instantly engulfing everything in front of it!
The piercing alarm blared throughout the valley.

The next instant, intense, rain-like pulsed energy beams silently shot in from both sides—they weren't sweeping, but precisely locked on, the first wave accurately hitting the first and last vehicles in the convoy.

The energy shields flickered violently and quickly overloaded and shut down, while the thick alloy bodies of the two vehicles in front melted out terrifying holes like hot wax.

"Attention! Highest defensive stance!" Yu Qing's humanoid bodyguard captain blew out a strange sound, issuing the defensive deployment order.

Five functional vehicles simultaneously deployed their transforming structures, with composite defense plates popping out layer by layer. The energy shields between the vehicles coupled together to form a temporary defensive line.

Thirty humanoid bodyguards swiftly adjusted their tactical positions, moving with centimeter-precision accuracy to completely cover Yu Qing's vehicle. In their eyes, data streams flowed like a torrential downpour, calculating enemy firing points and attack trajectories in real time.

The ancient pulse gun's high-energy rays collided with plasma bullets in mid-air, exploding into blinding bursts of ion flames. The air was quickly filled with the sharp smell of ozone and the acrid smell of energy overload burning.

The escort convoy sent by Chang Sheng had originally designed an ice-water armor defense system to counter the "decoy gun," but they never expected that the other side would use such an old-fashioned pulse weapon that had long been banned from production worldwide. They were thrown into chaos and lost their footing.

The twelve human members quickly surrounded Yu Qing in the center of the vehicle, using their ice-water armor and flesh to form a second shield through the gaps in the humanoid girl's energy defenses.

They had originally considered this mission as a ceremonial performance and never imagined that they would encounter a real assassination attempt.

Because there was no pre-planned attack strategy for the pulse weapon, Yu Qing's convoy suffered heavy losses in the first salvo from the enemy. Nearly a thousand humanoid guards lost more than two-thirds of their number within minutes, falling to the ground and permanently offline.

With danger lurking ahead, Yu Qing had no choice but to decisively order the entire team to retreat back to Yadu to reconsider their options.

A vehicle behind him, which had just attempted to take off and escape, was instantly destroyed in mid-air, scattering debris everywhere. Yu Qing had no choice but to order the remaining units to break through by land.

The humanoid girls retaliated by firing their decoy guns in all directions, forcibly clearing a path for the convoy, which fought its way back towards the city of Yadu. Throughout the entire ordeal, the winged girl named Ella clung to Yu Qing, shielding him from the car window with her body.

Just as the convoy was about to break out of the firing range, Yu Qing's vehicle roof armor was suddenly melted through by a stray plasma bomb, and a large, glowing red-hot alloy component crashed down—

Ella tensed her back abruptly, forcefully blocking the impact. She opened her mouth but only let out a very soft sigh before slowly collapsing and falling silent.

Yu Qing lifted her drooping head, his fingertips brushing across her gradually cooling cheeks, and tears finally welled up silently.

When Yu Qing's convoy retreated in disarray to the outskirts of Yadu, the authorities were greatly alarmed and quickly dispatched reinforcements to bring him and his remaining troops into the city. Upon inventory, only forty-six humanoid maidens and four human employees survived with Yu Qing; the rest had perished on the way.

The attack quickly sparked widespread public outcry. Various factions unanimously condemned the attack and demanded that the authorities thoroughly investigate the perpetrators—after all, the area where the fighting occurred was nominally still under the jurisdiction of the city.

Chang Sheng faced unprecedented pressure, with many accusing him of "staging" the event, claiming a grand welcome on the surface while harboring murderous intent. Some long-buried political intrigues were also unearthed, with accusations that this was a repeat of such conspiracies.

But Yu Qing didn't believe Chang Sheng would resort to such a desperate measure. If he truly wanted to take his life, why go to such lengths? Simply replacing Ella with an assassin and poking him with a single finger would suffice.

Moreover, this was very detrimental to Shengtian's reputation, so he took the initiative to issue a public statement, clearly stating that Changsheng was definitely not the mastermind behind it.

Yu Qing had initially suspected the "Shengdi" Group was behind it, but quickly dismissed the suspicion—Shengdi was currently on the defensive and in dire need of rest, making it unlikely to rashly provoke a new conflict. Moreover, there was already an agreement between the two parties, and he still owed them 700 billion yuan in loans.

What good would it do them to kill their debtors for no reason? Would it be to hand over Shengtian to Changsheng? But Shengdi and Changsheng have a long-standing feud, and Shengdi actually hopes that Yuqing can take full control of Shengtian.

It seems a third force has emerged, seeking his life. This matter is becoming increasingly perplexing. Who has he clashed with with? But then again, this attack seems unrelated to old grudges—it appears the other party intends to use his death to orchestrate a much larger scheme.

But what kind of article would it be?
At this moment, he even suspected that Yu Guiyi was not dead and was taking revenge on him. But he made Eying confirm again and again that Yu Guiyi had merged with the fog of Qiongshan in the instantaneous temperature of 12,000 degrees Celsius.

The atmosphere was somewhat awkward. He didn't know who wanted to harm him, and if he rashly went to Changjin now, he couldn't guarantee his safety, no matter where he went, whether by air or land. If he stopped here and cowered in Yadu, everyone in the world would laugh at him for being a coward.

Moreover, the guy who was in charge of security at Yadu, while investigating this ambush incident, hinted that he wanted him to leave as soon as possible so as not to cause trouble for the people of Yadu.

Chang Sheng's attitude was surprising. He said that he would come to Yadu to personally welcome him next time, and go to Changjin with him in the same car, to live and die together, to silence the gossip of the world.

Yu Qing couldn't refuse this proposal. So they agreed to assemble another powerful convoy five days later and head to Changjin.

This time, the route will still be by land, but there will be accompanying defense forces both in the air and on the ground, and two million harbingers will be mobilized to track and monitor the movements within a 100-kilometer radius of the route.

This may be the most spectacular travel queue in history.

On the day he left the city again, Yu Qing was still stunned by the grand scene, even though he was mentally prepared. This pomp and circumstance made him uneasy; it was completely inconsistent with his social achievements and would easily attract criticism.

But now that things had come to this, he could only accept the offer with a sense of shame. Chang Sheng humbly opened the car door for him and helped him into a brand-new vehicle.

This time, Yu Qing hoped that those who had ambushed him would come again, so he could take the opportunity to wipe them out, or at least give them a heavy blow so they could never cause trouble again. However, they seemed to have calculated that they had no chance of success and did not show up.

Apart from the soaring birds, there wasn't a single fly in the sky. The ground was unusually calm. The convoy finally arrived safely at Changjin.

As Yu Qing stepped out of his car, a breathtaking view unfolded before him—the Shengtian Group headquarters, Yunshan Building, had been newly decorated, its exterior walls adorned with data and light. What surprised him most, however, was the sight of employees lined up to welcome him, stretching from the entrance to the lobby.

They are a vibrant picture of "new humans": the turtle people stand tall with their shells on their backs, the winged people spread their broad wings and sprinkle shimmering dust, the werewolves have bristling hair and eyes like lightning, and the eagle people circle and howl in the sky to show their respect.

There were also enthusiasts of bizarre shapes, such as those with bull heads and horse faces, square heads, and round heads... They were all different in appearance, but they were all wearing uniforms with the Shengtian logo, and they stared at him intently.

Chang Sheng smiled and introduced, "These are the best employee representatives from our different branches—Shengtian is strong because of its inclusiveness."

As Yu Qing stepped onto the red carpet, a burst of enthusiastic cheers erupted from the crowd. A turtle-man employee slowly stepped forward and presented him with a collar button woven from underground crystals; a winged girl descended from the sky and gently placed a flower wreath on his head.

The werewolves growled in unison, singing an ancient war song, while the eagle-men changed formations in the air, spelling out the words "Welcome Yuqing".

Yu Qing was moved by the sincere and colorful scene. He walked towards the crowd, shook hands and high-fived representatives of several races, and hugged some of them tightly.

An employee even reached out his vine-like fingers and gently touched his forehead, expressing his barely suppressed joy.

His immense popularity is likely largely due to his recent generosity. Furthermore, the gloom that had shrouded Shengtian for nearly two centuries due to the lack of a successor has been swept away…

He stepped onto the makeshift platform, gazing at the hundreds of faces below, each unique yet equally fervent. His prepared speech suddenly seemed pale. He began to speak spontaneously, his voice steady and clear:
“I’m not here to stand on high—I’m just here to join you.”

A thunderous applause erupted, lasting for a long time. At that moment, Yu Qing truly felt that he might actually be able to start a different future here. However, he had already promised not to interfere in the company's specific affairs; his energy was limited, and he had more important things to do. (End of Chapter)