The atmosphere in the laboratory grew heavy as Mo Jie stared intently at Ye Ling, his body trembling involuntarily.
Even now, he couldn't sense any powerful aura from Ye Ling.
Yet, despite this, Mo Jie felt immense pressure.
His rational mind told him that if he moved even an inch, his head would surely roll!
Large beads of cold sweat trickled down Mo Jie's forehead. In the vast laboratory, only Ye Ling's footsteps echoed.
Ye Ling walked up to Mo Jie, removed the short knife from Mo Jie's arm, and asked indifferently, "Do you know about the Hong Chen Pavilion?"
Upon hearing Ye Ling's words, Mo Jie's pupils contracted violently. Without the slightest hesitation, he bit down hard, crushing his own teeth.
Ye Ling's expression shifted slightly.
*Bang!*
Mo Jie's head exploded with a deafening roar, the violent shockwave sweeping outwards. The entire Zone One laboratory was instantly engulfed in flames.
All precious data, including the experimental subjects in the cultivation pods, were reduced to ashes!
"Suicide?"
Ye Ling stood in front of Lin Yu, looking at Mo Jie, who had been blown to dust, his face filled with disbelief.
Before Ye Ling had mentioned the Hong Chen Pavilion, he could still see an extremely strong will to survive in Mo Jie's eyes.
Although that will to survive wouldn't have made Mo Jie beg on his knees, Ye Ling knew that Mo Jie would have resisted and not resigned himself to fate.
However, the moment Ye Ling uttered the name Hong Chen Pavilion, Mo Jie instantly became resolute in death, without hesitation crushing the micro-bomb hidden in his teeth, not even giving Ye Ling a chance for soul-searching!
A sixth-rank异士 (yi shi - specialist/cultivator) sacrificing himself so readily…
What immense resolve that required!
"The background of this Hong Chen Pavilion… is far greater than I imagined."
Ye Ling looked at the short knife in his hand, his brow furrowed. Black flames then ignited, burning it to ashes as well.
Although he hadn't had the chance to interrogate Mo Jie before his self-detonation, it didn't mean Ye Ling gained nothing.
Realizing the extraordinary origin of the Hong Chen Pavilion, Ye Ling naturally wouldn't give Jiang Xingye another chance to commit suicide when he searched his soul.
"Brother… who was that person?"
Lin Yu had yet to recover from Mo Jie's self-detonation. Mo Jie's decisive and ruthless suicide had terrified her.
Ye Ling cautioned Lin Yu, "To train a sixth-rank 异士 into a death warrior, the opponent's background is far greater than I imagined. When I'm not around, be extra careful. Trust no 异士 who approaches you proactively."
"Oh, okay…"
After giving his instructions, Ye Ling still felt uneasy. He injected a portion of his spiritual energy into the Little Qilin, to be used as an automatic emergency defense when danger arose.
Otherwise, if Lin Yu were to encounter a sudden explosion like today, the Little Qilin might not react in time, and Lin Yu could perish in the blast.
"Let's go. Such a huge commotion has been caused here, the people inside should react soon."
Having done all this, Ye Ling scanned the laboratory underground with his spiritual energy and found that the researchers were accelerating their progress, heading towards the elevator that led underground.
The researchers in the underground base saw Ye Ling and Lin Yu entering the elevator on the surveillance screens in the hall, their faces filled with anxiety.
"Quick, quick! The intruders have killed Mo Jie. They'll be here in at most five minutes. What's the recovery status of Subject Zero?"
"Its various indicators are stable. As long as the students are fed to it, preliminary recovery can be completed."
"Everything is ready here. We can begin the recovery experiment!"
As Ye Ling stepped into the elevator, the researchers in the underground base hastened their progress. The twenty-odd students from Jiangcheng University were also forcefully herded into cages by the guards.
"What… what are you doing? This is a crime!"
"Let me go! My dad is a lawyer at the Jiangcheng事务所 (shi wu suo - law firm), and he won't let you get away with this!"
"Professor Huang, save me!"
As the students were about to be pushed into the cages, they became extremely panicked and began to struggle frantically.
However, they were now controlled by well-trained mercenaries, and their struggles were utterly futile.
"Teacher Huang! I've always been on your side, make them let me go!"
"I'm with you!"
Ou Gui cried, not expecting Huang Jianchuan to capture even him.
But Huang Jianchuan seemed not to hear Ou Gui's cries. He left, led by two men in black.
Seeing Huang Jianchuan abandon them heartlessly, despair filled the eyes of the other students, and their cries intensified.
They now deeply regretted not noticing something was wrong earlier, like Lin Yu and Li Lele, otherwise, they wouldn't have ended up in this situation.
Ou Gui, seeing Huang Jianchuan abandon him, his expression twisted, shouted hoarsely, "Huang Jianchuan, you beast, I'll haunt you even as a ghost!"
"Behave yourself!"
A burly mercenary, unable to stand Ou Gui's shouting, struck him hard on the head with his rifle butt, knocking him unconscious.
Seeing Ou Gui knocked out, the other students dared not make a sound, falling silent and only daring to sob quietly.
After knocking Ou Gui out, the burly mercenary dragged him into the cage and then shouted at the remaining students, "The rest of you, line up one by one and enter in order."
"If there's any more noise, don't blame me for being ruthless!"
With Ou Gui as a precedent, the other students dared not cause any more trouble. They nervously entered the cages, their bodies trembling.
Regardless of gender, everyone who entered the cage began to cry, their plight utterly miserable.
After all the students were sent into the cages, the mercenary looked at Jian Gu, who was still standing in place, and said sternly, "What are you still standing there for? Aren't you going in?"
"I… I have to go in too?" Jian Gu was startled and quickly took out his ID card, saying, "I'm a researcher in Zone One. We're on the same side!"
Jian Gu had not participated in Project Zero. Although he didn't know exactly what would happen inside the cages, none of the volunteers who had participated in Project Zero had ever come out.
He didn't need to think to know that going in meant certain death!
"What's with all the nonsense? We're short on people, so naturally, you researchers have to fill in. Where do you think your colleagues went?"
"Wh-what?"
The mercenary roughly grabbed Jian Gu and threw him into the cage, then shut the iron door.
"Hey, hey!"
Jian Gu, seeing himself locked in, felt anxious. Before he could even shout, he felt the cage begin to move.
Soon, the cage moved above a pit. Dozens of spotlights below lit up, revealing a colossal creature!
"What a huge snake! Are they going to feed us to this snake?"
"I don't want to die!"
A student, seeing a snake over a hundred meters long and more than ten meters wide coiled in the pit below, screamed in terror.
Hearing the student's scream, everyone looked down. Upon seeing the giant snake, two people with megalophobia even fainted on the spot!
Jian Gu gripped the iron bars tightly, staring at the colossal creature below, sweat pouring down his face.
He never imagined that beneath the Tianhui Third Institute, such a monster was hidden!
If this creature were exposed to the outside world, it would shatter all common sense and overturn the entire biological world!
"How… how can it be this big? Doesn't gravity crush it?"
Jian Gu stammered, his eyes fixed on the snake below, which was covered in green scales and had two protruding horns on its forehead. The more he looked, the more it resembled the flood dragons in myths that were on the verge of transforming into dragons!
"Open the cages, offer the sacrifices, and begin the revival."
At this moment, a cold, mechanical voice echoed around. The doors of the cages suspended in mid-air suddenly opened!
Before the students could react, they were horrified to find the entire cage tilting.
They were about to be dumped out!