243: Chapter 238 Waves rise one after another

Reaching into his space, Cao Xiao took out an exquisite, hollowed-out platinum incense burner and placed a milky-white, pointed pagoda-shaped incense stick inside.

The incense ignited without fire, and wisps of blue smoke curled out; in an instant, a faint, ethereal fragrance emerged in the hospital room.

This was a soothing incense Cao Xiao had developed based on an online recipe said to nourish the spirit and aid sleep.

Its effects weren't miraculous, but since he used high-grade medicinal materials that were hard to buy even with money, and after careful formulation and repeated testing, it was naturally much more effective than anything on the market.

It could indeed allow someone with excessive mental exhaustion to quickly enter a state of deep sleep, making them difficult to wake, so that they would wake up naturally after sufficient rest with their mental state fully restored.

After about two minutes, seeing He Yueyou's expression become serene and her breathing steady, Cao Xiao finally let out a long breath and settled his heart.

His body still felt weak, his head throbbed with a faint pain, and there was a lingering sense of gloom in his heart; he looked sickly, yet he felt no sleepiness at all.

After carefully checking his body, he confirmed there were no issues.

His consciousness before fainting had remained on that shocking scene he saw in the helicopter, and he had no way of knowing what had happened at that moment.

The images in his intelligent brain were blurred by unknown interference; he only vaguely saw a nimble little black shadow rising into the sky amidst the collapsing world, seemingly heading towards the helicopter.

After that, the image was pitch black, and the next scene was Duan Hong struggling to operate the rapidly falling helicopter to narrowly escape danger.

His myriad thoughts could only turn into a sigh; there was no way to investigate, and he didn't want to risk it again, so he had to keep this matter buried in his heart.

He checked on the condition of Duan Hong and the others; fortunately, other than minor concussions and unknown mental states, they were fine and didn't need to stay in the hospital, and he didn't want to stay there either.

After packing up his and He Yueyou's belongings, he prepared to open the door and ask the bodyguards He Yueyou had brought to prepare for immediate discharge to a hotel.

"Boom!"

Unexpectedly, before he could even walk to the door with light steps, an explosion thundered into his ears; the entire building shook slightly, and the sound of shattering glass was incessant.

"Damn it!"

The explosion was deafening, giving Cao Xiao a real fright; the moment he regained his senses, he let out a roar and sprinted to He Yueyou's side.

Sensing the strong external interference, He Yueyou, though still asleep, showed a change in expression, and her brows furrowed.

Seeing this, Cao Xiao's anger became uncontrollable; he had crashed inexplicably, and after waking up in a daze to hear that He Yueyou had been wronged, he had a nameless fire in his heart with nowhere to vent.

China's public security was the best in the world, with strict bans on guns and tight regulations on the transport and production of dangerous goods; the explosion outside didn't sound like a gas explosion—it was clearly a bomb, and with such power, it couldn't have been caused by a homemade explosive.

Even if military and police departments had important operations, it was impossible to use bombs in a crowded and sensitive place like a hospital.

The people capable of causing such a commotion couldn't possibly be extreme medical protesters; there was no other possibility but a terrorist attack.

China was prosperous, united, and stable; creating a terrorist attack within China was no different from seeking death; the cost was high, and there was no way to start.

Those secretive foreign forces with ulterior motives had never gotten any good results in China; they had long been beaten into quails that dared not show their heads, each one recorded in a little notebook, just waiting to be cleared.

Now that they were suddenly popping up to court death and making a big scene, it was clearly abnormal.

To pay such a high price, and to risk being caught by China and wiped out, causing a major international dispute—no one would believe there wasn't a major power supporting this, with huge interests driving it!

The Gate of Hell had caused such a big commotion two days ago; even if the country strictly blocked and guided public opinion, there were still other countries' satellites in the sky, and it was hard to escape the detection of geological monitoring agencies in developed countries.

He deduced that it was highly likely that some unusual signs had been discovered there, attracting the high attention of certain major powers, and he, as a witness, had also appeared in others' line of sight.

Someone wanted to take him away to learn some information from his mouth.

Because they had all fallen into a coma, unable to determine when they would wake up or if they could wake up, they might have acted decisively upon knowing he showed signs of waking, creating an explosion to cause chaos, drawing away the local forces that might be guarding them, and kidnapping him in the confusion.

He was a bit worried about the casualties outside, but he was about to face the enemy directly; even if they were prepared and powerful, he was not afraid, but he was afraid of waking He Yueyou, so even at the risk of exposure under surveillance, he would not hesitate to use thunderous means to solve it quickly.

With a thought, all electronic instruments within a kilometer were violently taken over by his intelligent brain.

Following this, everyone near the hospital was immediately screened and verified; anyone with an unknown identity or carrying weapons had their memories forcibly read.

In less than ten seconds, the intelligent brain had identified all the intruders: the assault team preparing to rappel from the roof of this inpatient building, the intelligence observers and sniper teams disguised and lurking near the evacuation route, the support vehicles parked on the roadside outside the inpatient building, the remote technical support team in a hotel 300 meters away, and the sniper team on the roof of a skyscraper 800 meters away.

It was a multi-national mix of top special forces weapons and agent equipment, with the most advanced military electronic instruments.

The intruders' military literacy and physical fitness were all comparable to elite special forces; they were organized and coordinated, yet one couldn't see the coldness and cruelty that terrorists should have in their eyes.

The result from the intelligent brain's memory reading also exceeded his expectations: these people were not terrorists, nor were they underground armed forces cultivated by those major powers; they were active-duty soldiers from the US intelligence department's secret unit, and they had received authorization from the head of the US government.

Otherwise, such a heinous incident of sending troops disguised as terrorists to invade another country to create terrorist attacks and kidnappings would very likely trigger a war between the two countries if exposed.

This showed the high degree of importance the US placed on this matter, almost reaching a strategic level.

This result broke Cao Xiao out in a cold sweat; he had originally intended to make these people simply vanish from the face of the earth.

If he hadn't been curious and held back from acting immediately, there would certainly be satellites focusing here now.

If so many people disappeared into thin air in broad daylight, it would only make people more convinced that there was an anomaly.

His identity as a witness would definitely be discovered, and he would likely face huge trouble in the future; he didn't think he had the strength to go head-to-head with the world's number one superpower alone right now.