QT: Grace To Grass Counterattack System

Ding Weimin remained silent and slowly lowered his head but that did nothing to diminish He Yuan's smile.

"This..." Jin Qi stared at He Yuan with wide eyes full of shock. This shouldn't be... She desperately wanted to believe that Ding Weimin was somehow making things up. How could Yang Xue have been the one to kill the second Xor queen? He was Yang Xue! A low class mandron who she'd easily set up back then!

Her eyes moved from Yang Xue's figure on the podium to the adamantine glass and then to the Third Marshal, who had his eyes closed eyes and jaws clenched. She could hardly believe it but... the facts were staring right in her face. Her eyes trailed back to Yang Xue and she clenched her fists in hatred.

She had also been in the cave back then and knew all too well that Yang Xue had been left behind with the second Xor queen.

When news had been passing around about Ding Weimin killing the second Xor queen, she hadn't thought much of it and only thought that he had looked for a way to get back into the cave but now that she was going over the events in her head... if he had indeed gotten back into the cave, why hadn't he returned with Yang Xue?

Also... What about the magnetic energy of the second Xor queen? Being in the cave back then had been torturous to their bodies because they had to leave their malfunctioning Tech suits behind so how was it that Ding Weimin had been fine?

These thoughts were naturally pushed to the back of her mind but now that Yang Xue was discovered to be capable of absorbing magnetic energy and also thinking of the fact that Yang Xue hadn't looked as uncomfortable as she and Ding Weimin back at the cave, she felt like beating herself up for not realizing it sooner!

Now... what next?

The merit Ding Weimin had gotten from killing the first Xor queen had gotten him his own legion of special forces in the Third army. As for the merit for the second Xor queen, it had automatically landed him the position of Lieutenant general but since ranks in the Twelve army were strictly age restricted, he had to wait until thirty to become a full fledged Lieutenant general.

Due to this limitation in the rules, the Twelve-army had to come up with another way to compensate Ding Weimin for the time being and had given him sole right to take over the Marshal position of the Third army at 40, which coincided with the year Marshal Ding was retiring.

Leadership of each army of the Twelve-army Coalition was not inherited. This meant that if a person with better qualifications appeared, they could very well take over. This was the reason Jin Qi and the Second Marshal needed the backing of the most renowned army -which was the Third army- since the post of a Marshal was decided on by a vote from all the other Marshals of the Twelve-army Coalition.

The fact above just went to prove how valuable the compensatory merit Ding Weimin had gotten was. It simply meant that he had automatically obtained a unilateral vote from all Marshals and just had to reach the minimum age requirement to become the Marshal of the Third army.

Even then, it was estimated that he would be the youngest Marshal of the Plexar Federation at forty. This was why Ding Weimin was the most suitable suitor in her opinion.

Now, looking at things... Jin Qi clicked her teeth... Ding Weimin's time in the military simply over, full stop. There was no way he could recover from this. None of his past merit could save him.

At that moment, Yang Xue finally looked in her direction with a straight expression. Even then, her eyes saw differently and her nostrils flared slightly. What did he mean by that secretly condescending expression? Was he thinking of getting revenge on her for what she did back then? Was he even aware? She had been careful.

She looked away. Anyways there was no way for the mandron to prove it and besides, this merit wouldn't give him the influence to actually be a threat to her. She was Lieutenant Jin, the granddaughter of the Second Marshal of the Twelve-army Coalition.

Yang Xue was still a nobody to her. As for Ding Weimin... He was already a lost cause anyways so,

Jin Qi calmly looked over to the adamantine glass and pointed a shaky finger whilst feigning a devasted and disappointed expression -it wasn't hard to fake the second one anyways.

"W- Weimin... H- How is this possible?!"

The loud cry from Jin Qi finally broke the silence in the hall. A lot of people were still skeptical. The General's words were just too unbelievable! The reporters, on the other hand, found their voices then and sprang to life.

"General Ding, what do you mean by those words?!"

Silence.

"General Ding please throw more light on your claims."

Silence.

"General Ding did you, in fact, say those words under duress?"

Silence.

They helplessly turned to He Yuan.

"Mr. Yang, are the words of the general true?"

"How did a mandron such as yourself defeat a Xor queen?!"

"If you had indeed defeated the Xor queen, how did the General end up with the accolades?"

"Can you give a detailed account of the events back then?"

"Popular knowledge is that the General and Jin Qi had been in the cave together. How is it that you suddenly killed the Xor queen? How did you end up there? What proof do you have for tthe general's claim?"

He Yuan watched as the reporters presented one question after another without giving him any room to even say a word. The extreme reaction of everyone in the hall actually perplexed him a bit.

He had never encountered a Xor queen face to face so he had no idea of the magnitude of their power but the current outroar told him just how amazing Yang Xue was. It seemed the leaser had outdone himself back at the Xor Queen cave.

To think the mandron hadn't gotten credit for it and had instead been pushed down until he committed suicide. He Yuan slowly shook his head. It was awful.

A lot of the reporters also swarmed to Jin Qi.

"Lieutenant Jin, you and the General had been together at the cave back then, what truly happened? How is it that it was Mr. Yang that killed the Xor queen all of a sudden?"

"Were you aware of this right from the begining and had been an accomplise all along?"

The Sixth Marshal slowly sat back on her seat and scrutinized the calm looking mandron on the stage from head to toe. She still couldn't believe it. He looked so weak, how had he defeated a whole Xor queen by himself?

Impossible. Her eyes moved to the adamantine glass. "General Ding, your words are no joking matter. Do you know the implications of what you just uttered?"

Silence.

Ding Weimin was too ashamed to speak so he slowly inched away from the open part of the curtain with his head still lowered. Even the pain from the magetic energy flowing in his veins was nothing compared to the pain he felt just from knowing what would come next.

Xia Yueyu hurriedly looked to her husband at her son's silence. What was with this development? Ding Wang also had the same dumbfounded expression as everyone else. She refused to believe it! She rushed over to the bottom of the high podium. "That's a lie! Yang Xue is a mandron, how could he have killed a Xor queen?!

-Min'er tell everyone the truth, you just said that just now because Yang Xue is forcing you right?!" She looked to He Yuan. "You're making Min'er give up his achievement for you in exchange for your help, how could you be so cruel?!"

Some protesters stirred at this. General Ding's action of wanting to get together with the mandron a while ago had angered them but now they were more angered by the fact that the mandron would be so greedy!

"You can't do that!" One of them shouted.

"The Twelve Marshals and the Government are still remaining silnet at this point?! Isn't this enough proof that the mandron should be forced to aid the general?!"

"It should be an obligation to the country to aid our soldiers, why is no one speaking up?!"

"Every passing second I spend here, I just become more and more disgusted with this mandron! Who said mandrons were good natured?! They had clearly never met this one!"

"A Yang would always be a Yang! Every single one of them are disreputable creatures!"

Manager Liang finally decided to intervene then. She had seen the examination report that had been carried out on Mr. Yang so she was aware of the presence of a larger amount of magnetic energy that did not belong to the first Xor queen.

The P. R institute researchers had attributed it to an accumulation of magnetic energy over the course of the mandron's life from the places he'd been but it seemed there might be more.

They had to quickly hold this press conference in order to assure the people before the commencement of deeper research but seemed their need to quell the people's curiosity might have caused them to miss an important discovery.

She looked in the direction of the Twelve Marshals. "The Twelve-army Coalition should have a database of the magnetic energy of the Xor queens. Rather than beat around the bush, why don't we do a simple comparison?"

"Yes!" Xia Yueyu immediately shouted in agreement. "That's a great idea. An examination and comparison should naturally be carried out!" She did not believe that Yang Xue had killed the Xor queen. That was her son's achievement!

Hearing his mother's words, Ding Weimin's heart still skipped a beat. He was still perturbed because he knew fully well that an examination would make things more definite. He was already dying from shame in his current position. Now to have things concretely proven in public... It was truly and completely over for him.

The Third Marshal really had the urge to shove a pipe in his daughter-in-law's mouth but he just settled on clenching his fists while the other Marshals sat up straighter.

The Second Marshal side eyed the Third Marshal with a discreet sneer. The old man was always feeling self important because of his 'oh-so-amazing-grandson' This was what that grandson amounted to? A low class thief!

The Sixth Marshal was very satisfied with Manager Liang's words. She still had a strong feeling that some kind of foul play was going on. Even if General Ding hadn't been the one to kill the Xor queen, she absolutely did not believe that it was a mandron who did.

She quickly tapped on her bracelet before looking to Manager Liang. "Get the equipment ready, we would have the test done immediately!"