Chapter 332 Smoke Bomb
“When will you start to teach me to cultivate, Haodong?” asked Lin Momo with eager eyes.
Qin Haodong replied, “Well, you’ve missed the best age to cultivate, so, it won’t work out if you cultivate by yourself now, but don’t worry, I’ll infuse my cultivation into you after I form my Gold Core. It will save you much time practicing and help you enter the Foundation Building Stage with only one step.”
“Then, I’ll rely on you to help me.”
Lin Momo was dying to cultivate so that she could stay with Qin Haodong and Tang Tang forever.
After lunch, she said to Qin Haodong, “The workers are going to change shifts, so, I have to go to the factory to watch them.”
According to Qin Haodong’s measures against formula divulging, the workers were working in three shifts to produce Blood Revival Elixir, while the head of each shift was in charge of one-third part of the formula.
Having said that, Lin Momo was still worried. She told Liu Yage to supervise each shift of workers and when they collected materials, considering that the elixir was designed to save lives and there mustn’t be the slightest slip.
Liu Yage was absent from the factory this day for she had a busy night before, thus, Lin Momo decided to supervise the workers herself.
As Qin Haodong looked up at Lin Momo, he found her ophryon in dark color, which was an ominous sign. “Is it suggesting that something bad is going to happen to her in the factory?” Qin Haodong wondered to himself.
With this thought, he proposed, “Let me go with you since I’m free now.”
“Okay!”
Lin Momo, together with Qin Haodong, walked into the workshop where workers would collect materials for production. For safety, the workshop was closed off by a security door made of heavy steel.
There was a very strict procedure for collecting materials. At present, in the room were only Lin Momo, the supervisor, the head of shift, two pharmacists responsible for the collecting work, and Qin Haodong, who followed Lin Momo there.
To prevent the formula from being divulged, each batch of pharmacists would have to take turns to enter the room and have to exit the room after they collected four kinds of materials.
After her arrival, Lin Momo firstly said hello to the head of the current shift and opened the safe in the corner with his key. Taking out the one-third formula that was under the head’s charge, she started to command the two pharmacists to collect the needed amount and kinds of materials according to the formula.
The first batch pharmacists left the room after finished their work, and the second batch came in.
“Triple-yellow Grass, 200 kg!” said the head of the shift in a loud voice to the two pharmacists.
Normally, the two pharmacists would go to fetch the materials as they were told; however, that day, one of the pharmacists suddenly crouched down covering his belly and groaned in pain after he took few steps.
“Hey, what’s the matter with you?” asked the other pharmacist.
“Oh, I had a stomachache. I’m in great pain.”
Though the pharmacist’s face was under a big gauze mask, one could tell what he said was true from the cold sweats on his forehead.
Lin Momo went to the pharmacist and asked with concern, “Are you alright?”
The head of the shift also went over, saying, “Do you feel you could continue on? If not, I’ll have someone replace you right now to make sure the production goes on smoothly.”
“I’m ok, I feel much better now.”
The pharmacist rose to his feet slowly, still covering his belly, but as a light suddenly flashed within his eyes, he cut toward Lin Momo’s neck with a knife.
The other pharmacist charged at the head of the shift almost at the same time. He stabbed toward the head in the face with one hand and tried to grab the formula with the other.
The purpose of Qin Haodong accompanying Lin Momo to the factory was to protect her. He might look relaxed all along, but in fact, he was on the alert.
The moment the pharmacist took out his knife, Qin Haodong had come to Lin Momo’s side. He grabbed the pharmacist’s wrist, and with a sound of breaking bones, the knife fell on the ground. He then kicked the pharmacist on the belly and sent him flying.
Having saved Lin Momo, Qin Haodong did not pause but aimed at the other pharmacist’s arm by kicking the knife on the ground and sending it flying.
Carrying much force with it, the knife pierced through the pharmacist’s arm, which caused the pharmacist to miss his target.
The head of the shift, who was just an ordinary man, was petrified by the sudden change.
The wounded pharmacist took the chance and seized the formula from the head. After that, he immediately turned back and threw out a round object about the size of an egg on the ground. With a booming sound, dense smoke quickly filled the whole room and blocked everyone’s sight.
“It’s a smoke bomb!”
As he dared not to leave Lin Momo alone, Qin Haodong did not chase the pharmacist despite that he could sense his movement with his Spirit. Instead, he led Lin Momo and the head by their hands to a corner.
As soon as they hid in the corner, gunshots sounded in the room with a rain of bullets falling down where they stood seconds ago. It seemed that the two intruders disguised themselves not only to seize the formula but also to kill Qin Haodong and Lin Momo.
Lin Momo held Qin Haodong’s hand nervously as she asked, “What should we do now?”
“Don’t worry, he can’t see us through the smoke, otherwise, he would not have shot toward the air. He is just trying his luck to see if they could shoot us. I guess, at this moment, he must be escaping.”
After saying this, Qin Haodong added, “So, take it easy. We’re in our own territory, and Saber will come to save us after they hear the gunshots.”
Just as Qin Haodong expected, they didn’t face any further attacks after the gunshots. The wounded pharmacist seemed to have escaped away.
Alarmed by the booming sound and gunshots, Saber leading his men immediately rushed into the room. As they turned on the fume extractors in the room, the smoke dispersed and people regained their sights.
“Are you alright, boss?” Saber, Sword, and several other men came over to Qin Haodong and asked.
.
Waving his hands, Qin Haodong replied, “I’m fine.”
Lin Momo interrupted them in a hurried tone, “Someone took away our formula. Search the factory thoroughly to see if we could catch him.”
“Spear has been on it. He will catch him,” replied Saber.
“Well, I don’t think so,” Qin Haodong objected, “they must have planned everything well, including their way out, so, it’s too late to search for him.”
As expected, Spear returned with his men in a short while and reported, “Boss, we’ve searched every corner of the factory, and we didn’t find them.”
“Let it be, then.”
While speaking, Qin Haodong came to the pharmacist that he had kicked aside, only to find the man died with blood oozing from his eyes, nose, and mouth.
Qin Haodong judged that the man had taken poison after realizing he could not make it out alive.
“We have carefully selected our pharmacists, how could two of them be killers?” wondered Lin Momo.
“Well, they are not real pharmacists. I’m afraid the real pharmacists have been killed,” Qin Haodong answered.
He crouched down and removed the mask from the dead man’s face with the knife, and then rubbed the men on the chest, starting from where, he raised a human-skin mask, revealing a face a European.
The mask, which was exactly the same as the one the fake Tang Long had used, was made of 3D nanomaterials with high-tech, so, it was hard to distinguish it from human skin just by its appearance.
Upon seeing the real face of the dead man, Saber thundered, “So, it was the men from M Country again. Do you need me to bring our men to destroy their den, boss?”
Shaking his head, Qin Haodong answered, “Nope, time is not ripe yet. I’m not sure if Wilson Company is really behind this since it’s not the only company that targets us.”
“These men have gone insane for the formula of Blood Revival Elixir. Luckily, we have divided the formula into three parts that they didn’t take away all of them.” Lin Momo pointed out.
Her words seemed to have triggered Qin Haodong’s mind that he hurriedly ordered, “Saber, have some men go to check the houses of the other two heads, and if they are at home, bring them here.”
Following the order, Saber had Sword and Spear start off immediately with several guards to look for the two heads.
After that, he turned to Qin Haodong, “Boss, are you suspecting that they have put their hands on the other two heads?”
“Imagine if you were the man who is going to make a plan, what would you do to get a complete formula?” Qin Haodong asked.
“Well, in order not to alert the company at the very beginning, I’ll try to get the formula in the hands of the two heads who are at home before sneaking into the company to get the last part. That sounds a perfect plan, doesn’t it?
“If I start firstly with the company, it will put you on alert, and make it harder for me to catch the two heads at home.”
“I agree,” Qin Haodong replied, “If I’m right, our opponents have got the rest of the formula, otherwise, they would not have taken a risk sneaking into our company.”
“Could they have murdered those two heads, Haodong?” Lin Momo chimed in nervously, “does it mean that we’ve lost the Blood Revival Elixir project since they stole the complete formula away from us?”
At Lin Momo’s words, Qin Haodong pulled her into his arms and patted her tenderly on the back and comforted her by saying, “Don’t worry, it seems worse than it really is. They wouldn’t kill unless they had to since the formula was everything they wanted.”
“What about the formula? If they have really got the complete formula, won’t our efforts go for nothing?”
“Don’t worry, it’s not easy to seize my formula from me,” answered Qin Haodong with a smile.
A short while later, Sword and Spear returned with the two heads, who fell unconscious and were carried there.
The two heads respectively named Wang Xiaogang and Jin Jiuyuan and were brought there by Lin Momo from Lin’s Group because she trusted them.
Laying the two heads on the floor, Sword said, “Boss, they are in a coma, and however hard we tried, we failed to wake them up.”
“I see. They must have been drugged.”
While speaking, Qin Haodong took their pulses and gave them acupuncture on their chests. The two people slowly came out of their coma about five minutes later.
“Oh, when did I come here, boss?” Wang Xiaogang asked in a daze.
Qin Haodong didn’t answer the question but asked, “What happened to the two of you?”
“I remember I was watching TV at home when someone knocked on the door asking me to pay for my water. I opened the door, and two guys came in and suddenly caught me and bound me. I was forced to take a white pill, and after that, I passed out,” replied Wang Xiaogang.
“What happened to me was similar to that to him. Two people tricked me into opening the door and forced me to take a pill, and I lapsed into a coma then,” echoed Jin Jiuyuan.
“Did you tell them the contents of the formula?” questioned Lin Momo worriedly.
“Formula? No, I don’t think so. Normally, I won’t tell anyone the secret of the company.”
However, Wang Xiaogang’s tone sounded uncertain because he didn’t remember what happened after he passed out.
Similar to him, Jin Jiuyuan didn’t remember what happened later either.
“No need to question further, the pills they took were psychedelic, so, they must have told them everything about the formula.”