Chapter 59: The Laboratory

The concert had gone very successfully. Those infected individuals who had been desperately hiding were all rooted out, ability users gained heavy reuse, and the zombies were isolated for observation.

After this internal purge, Luozhou City could enjoy peace for a while longer, while Jiang Ye and the others left Luozhou City, heading northwest all the way.

The trouble was that Deer Cry Ancient City was really quite far. With no navigation now, they drove along with the map, starting and stopping to find the way. Sometimes Zhou Zhuo Hua and Jiang Ye would even argue over a fork in the road.

Jiang Ye won the argument and gleefully drove the car that way, only to find it was a dead end. They had to backtrack, earning a bout of cold mockery from Zhou Zhuo Hua.

It was a kind of liveliness, at least.

Bai Chen Zhu, who was studying his own superpowers, hadn’t opened his eyes, but he could hear their back-and-forth banter in his ears.

After four or five hours, Zhou Zhuo Hua took over the driver’s seat from Jiang Ye.

Jiang Ye yawned and pulled open the back door, scanning the interior. Tang Zhao was leaning against the left side asleep, while Bai Chen Zhu sat in the middle looking at the map.

Jiang Ye climbed in and sat on Bai Chen Zhu’s right side, pulling the door shut.

As usual, he lowered his head to lean on Bai Chen Zhu’s shoulder for a nap, but he was suddenly pushed away.

“What are you doing?” Jiang Ye asked sleepily.

“You lean on me—am I not tired?” Bai Chen Zhu countered.

“Wasn’t it always like this before? What’s wrong with leaning for a bit?”

“Before was before. Now you don’t have that privilege.” Bai Chen Zhu said coldly.

Jiang Ye widened his eyes in disbelief. He glanced at Tang Zhao, who was sleeping soundly against the car window, never imagining his own treatment had dropped to the same level.

He asked, “What is this supposed to mean?”

“Figure it out yourself.” Bai Chen Zhu said indifferently. He closed the map and leaned against the back seat, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Jiang Ye ground his teeth, leaned over, got blocked, leaned again, and got blocked again.

Bai Tao, who had been peeking, let out a schadenfreude-filled sound.

Jiang Ye glared at her with resentment as heavy as a male ghost’s. Bai Tao quickly covered her mouth but provocatively let out a creepy “hee hee hee…”

He’d been mocked. Jiang Ye whipped his head toward Bai Chen Zhu, but Bai Chen Zhu showed no intention of helping him. He just hugged his arms and stared straight ahead seriously, as if the unchanging asphalt road ahead was all that fascinating.

Well, aside from the occasional weirdly twisted zombies, there wasn’t much to see.

Jiang Ye wasn’t having it. He forcibly twisted Bai Chen Zhu’s head toward himself. “What are you looking at? Are zombies better looking than me?”

Bai Chen Zhu slanted him a glance. “Ugly things have their own charm. Glancing at them now and then adds survival pressure—pressure is motivation.”

It made no sense, total nonsense. Jiang Ye grew thoroughly annoyed, unable to figure it out. In the end, he chalked it up to Bai Chen Zhu not liking him anymore and sulked against the car door.

Bai Chen Zhu glanced at Bai Tao. Their eyes met in the rearview mirror, and she lowered her hand from her mouth, clearing her throat and sitting up straight.

They drove on with frequent stops. Summer had arrived, and the blowing wind was scorching hot.

—

Another large mountain.

They parked by the roadside to camp. Mountains rose on both sides, covered in waist-high wild grass. Zhou Zhuo Hua studied the map for directions, while Jiang Ye, out of cigarettes, tossed a candy into his mouth and crunched it loudly.

Bai Chen Zhu stood alone by the road, gazing at the dense forest in the distance, lost in doubt.

“What’s wrong?” Zhou Zhuo Hua noticed his odd expression and walked over to ask.

Bai Chen Zhu pointed at the towering mountain peak in the distance. “There’s mental power fluctuation over there. Mutants have very faint or no mental power at all—this doesn’t feel like mutants.”

Zhou Zhuo Hua’s gaze turned inquisitive. “Someone living in seclusion here?”

The so-called apocalypse was nothing but man-made disaster. Avoiding the world seemed like a good idea.

Bai Chen Zhu shook his head, his expression grave. “What concerns me is that there’s a mental power aura there identical to the fragments.”

Zhou Zhuo Hua was shocked and called everyone else over.

Bai Chen Zhu pointed at the distant mountain. “It’s actually pretty far, and up in the mountains. The car can’t get through.”

The implication was clear: they had to go on foot.

Which fragment was it? From Deer Cry Ancient City? Or the final piece? No way to know.

Jiang Ye was burning with impatience and waved his hand. “You all stay here. I’ll go.”

“You sure?” Bai Chen Zhu raised a brow. “There are several mental power presences there, and none weak. If a mental system one shows up, you sure you can handle it?”

Jiang Ye frowned, his gaze shifting between the distance and his companions. “You come with me?”

With his goal achieved, Bai Chen Zhu relaxed and nodded reservedly, accepting the invitation.

Bai Tao and Tang Zhao immediately chimed in eagerly, “I’ll go too!”

Zhou Zhuo Hua, who hadn’t vied to go, said objectively and calmly, “I’ll stay and guard the car.”

All their supplies were in the car. If everyone left and someone took it, they’d be in trouble—and heading anywhere afterward would be inconvenient.

Bai Tao bit her lip, looking reluctantly at Jiang Ye and Bai Chen Zhu, then at Zhou Zhuo Hua. “But Sister Zhuo Hua, can you manage alone?”

“Dealing with a few zombies is no problem.” Zhou Zhuo Hua twisted her wrist and patted the gun at her waist. “And don’t forget, I’ve got this?”

Bai Tao grew even more tense.

Zombies were no issue, but what if they ran into malicious ability users? The odds were low in this wilderness, especially on the highway, but not zero.

Bai Tao still felt Zhou Zhuo Hua’s side needed her more. “Then… how about I stay with you?”

Tang Zhao cut in from the side. “You go with Brother Bai and them.”

He patted his young, vigorous body. “Can’t have you two girls guarding the car alone. With me here, Sister Zhuo Hua and the car will be fine.”

“Most ability users aren’t a match for Tang Zhao.” Jiang Ye nodded. “Bai Tao, you pick. Ar-Bai and I can handle it just fine as two.”

Bai Tao said urgently, “I want to go! I want to go! I want to see the next fragment.”

She had faintly sensed that under pressure from stronger mental power or when her mental power was depleted, it gradually grew.

But the growth was far slower than others’.

She remembered their first meeting—her mental power had once shocked Jiang Ye’s into making him faint. But now, it only caused him slight discomfort.

She felt left behind in upgrading her superpowers, so Bai Tao was eager to find other ways to improve herself.

The three each packed two days’ worth of rations and hiked up the mountain.

—

The trees were lush and verdant. Fortunately, it hadn’t rained in the past few days, or the mountain path would have been muddy and treacherous.

Mental ability users probably weren’t great with stamina.

Jiang Ye leaned against a tree higher up, his expression unchanged and breathing steady as he watched Bai Tao and Bai Chen Zhu each pick up a tree branch, panting up the mountain like grandpas.

He shook his head, walked down to walk alongside Bai Chen Zhu, and teased him on purpose. “Call me bro, and I’ll carry you up.”

Bai Chen Zhu slanted him a glance and waved his stick like shooing a small animal. Jiang Ye nimbly dodged the stick and grinned slyly. “Just one call. Such a long way—not a bad deal.”

Bai Chen Zhu ignored him. Bai Tao raised her stick instead. “Hey! Big Boss Jiang, I already call you big boss—why not ask me?!”

She’d be thrilled not to walk!

Jiang Ye eyed her sweat-drenched forehead with schadenfreude. “Girl, ever heard of no touching between unrelated guys and girls?”

Bai Tao glared fiercely. “Then what about guys and guys?!”

“Who’s the jerk spouting that nonsense?” Jiang Ye said. “Corrupting high schoolers.”

The implicated high schooler Bai Tao’s face cycled through colors. “You! Double standards! You rascal!”

Jiang Ye was smug as could be, thoroughly punchable.

Bai Chen Zhu was using his mental power to scout the surroundings. He confirmed that aside from the fragment’s aura spot, there were no other life signs nearby.

“Too quiet,” Bai Chen Zhu stopped the two about to fight. “There should be small animals on the mountain, or mutants, but nothing here. Don’t you find that strange?”

Bai Tao’s mental power couldn’t sense nearby changes, and Jiang Ye’s senses could detect them but not distinguish lifeforms. Neither noticed anything off and both shook their heads.

Jiang Ye asked, “How much farther?”

Bai Chen Zhu pointed ahead. “Over that ridge, and we’ll see it.”

Bai Tao took a deep breath, clenched her fists, eyes resolute. “Then let’s push over in one go!”

They said “one go,” but by the time the three reached the summit, it was already evening.

Light and shadow mingled in the woods. Looking down from the top, the dense canopy blocked the view, and the direction Bai Chen Zhu pointed to was hidden in the forest—no sign of human presence from up high.

But Bai Chen Zhu said, “There are three mental power signatures. Two have left, but one’s still there.”

Bai Tao, seeing no creatures, hugged her arms and shivered. “N-no ghosts, right?”

Jiang Ye propped his chin, frowning deeper the longer he looked.

—

They finally reached the destination: an ordinary stretch of woods, looking utterly normal.

Bai Chen Zhu found it strange himself. He stomped the soil underfoot, starting to doubt. “Maybe some object?”

But could an object have the mental power of a living being?

Jiang Ye paced around, eyes narrowing. He said confidently, “Something’s definitely here. I hear faint machine whirring—not something that belongs in a forest.”

Yet right before them was plainly ordinary woods.

Before them?

Bai Chen Zhu realized something. He closed his eyes, abandoning sight, and probed with mental power.

In his mind appeared not woods, but a square clearing with a semicircular building standing there—like a quarter egg upright on the ground.

Bai Chen Zhu snapped his eyes open. Jiang Ye and Bai Tao had come over, curious at his shocked face. Jiang Ye asked, “What’d you see?”

Bai Tao closed her eyes to sense like him but saw nothing.

“We seem to have stumbled on something big.” Bai Chen Zhu felt a chill down his spine. “Let me ‘look’ again.”

He closed his eyes once more. The eerie building appeared again—mental power only outlined its rough shape, not details.

He reached out, and a solid warm hand met his palm.

Jiang Ye understood intuitively. “Try walking toward the weird spot then. I’ll guide you.”

Bai Chen Zhu nodded. Eyes closed, he stepped toward the building one foot at a time.

In Jiang Ye and Bai Tao’s eyes, he stood under an utterly ordinary sapling.

Bai Chen Zhu opened his eyes. “It’s here.”

He rubbed his eyes—the roots were clearly there. He squatted and touched the spot: smooth and cool, utterly different from rough bark.

Bai Tao was puzzled. “But there’s nothing here.”

Bai Chen Zhu struggled with how to explain. He suddenly remembered threading his mental threads into Jiang Ye’s mental sea before, so he raised a hand to cover Jiang Ye’s eyes.

Jiang Ye tensed, hand rising reflexively to refuse, but stopped upon realizing it was Bai Chen Zhu.

Bai Chen Zhu mobilized his mental power, guiding the mental threads in Jiang Ye’s mental sea toward his eyes.

In moments, Jiang Ye opened his eyes to find himself under a semi-oval door, stunned. He stomped the ground ahead—not soft soil, but hard like steel.

Bai Tao hurried over. “Brother Bai, me too! Me too!”

Bai Tao wasn’t Jiang Ye, and her offensive mental power repelled external intrusion. Bai Chen Zhu could only guide her mental power to touch the door.

Unexpectedly, once she knew something was there, her mental power quickly outlined the shape too.

The moment the three bumped into the “tree” trunk—that is, stepped through the door—the woods vanished.

Bai Tao exclaimed, “Whoa, high tech.”

Jiang Ye caught on, unsurprised. “Holographic projection.”

“Just a projection?” Bai Tao couldn’t believe it. “My god, my eyes lied to me!”

Silver gleamed everywhere, full of sci-fi vibes. A staircase slanted downward—hard to imagine who would build such an odd house here, complete with holographic projection to hide it in the woods.

Bai Chen Zhu’s eyelids twitched as he took in the sight. He glanced at the empty surroundings, then at the staircase before them, and pondered aloud, “Bai Tao, wait for us here.”

Bai Tao was surprised. “Can’t I go down with you?”

Bai Chen Zhu said, “This is clearly someone else’s basement. I did indeed ‘see’ that some people had left. If anyone comes back…”

His eyes turned cold. “If any creatures return, we need you to keep watch.”

They couldn’t let themselves get blocked from both ends.

Bai Tao’s heart pounded wildly. She understood the implication in Bai Chen Zhu’s words. “But how will I notify you?”

At that moment, she missed the conveniences of the internet age. There was nothing a phone call or a message couldn’t reach.

Jiang Ye stared at the passage below. “A’Zhu can distinguish people by the strength of their mental power. If you move, he’ll sense it.”

Bai Chen Zhu raised an eyebrow at him. “You stole my line.”

“Sorry about that.” Jiang Ye flashed a suave smile.

Bai Chen Zhu spread open his palm. It was pristine white, with a small mole near the base of his thumb.

Bai Tao tilted her head in confusion.

“Put your hand on it.”

Bai Tao did as he said. Her fingers actually touched a cool, small object that flowed along her fingertips into her and soon vanished.

“I can briefly track your position now. If you’re in danger, just run out of this strange forest’s range, and I’ll know.” Bai Chen Zhu explained.

Though he could sense Bai Tao’s mental power even without this, it would be easy to mix her up if there were several sources of mental power. This was like painting a vivid color on a black-and-white game piece on a map—he could easily distinguish it now.

Bai Tao clenched her hand, worry creasing her brow. “Then you two be careful.”

She watched as the two of them descended the stairs.

The staircase had no locks or security measures; it stood there openly, as if its owners were certain no one else would find it. The steep stairs led straight down into pitch blackness.

Bai Chen Zhu looked around curiously. Jiang Ye walked ahead of him, seemingly very familiar with the route. His back looked completely at ease. “You seem to know this place well. You were also the first to realize it was a projection earlier.”

Jiang Ye scoffed. “How could I not? Before the mask came off, I was a guest here as an honored VIP.”

Jiang Ye’s words indirectly confirmed the lab’s owners.

The Alien Race? What exactly were they? Bai Chen Zhu felt an oddly misplaced curiosity.

Soon, they reached the bottom of the stairs and stood before a passageway.

White lights on the ceiling flicked on automatically, their brightness just enough to see clearly.

Jiang Ye led the way, with Bai Chen Zhu following behind.

They walked along the passage until they reached the end, where they found metal doors lining both sides of the corridor. The surfaces were smooth, without handles.

Bai Chen Zhu studied them for a moment, then approached the largest-looking door. He lightly touched it, and the door effortlessly slid open to both sides, serving only as a partition.

The room inside wasn’t large. In the center stood an experiment table, surrounded by transparent pillars.

Bai Chen Zhu’s pupils contracted sharply.

Inside each transparent pillar was a grotesquely shaped human. Some were rotting, some had malformed tumors growing on their bodies, some had facial features upside down and joints twisted…

He could even see, in the transparent pillar at the far end, a mass of white-and-red interwoven flesh blowing bubbles at them. It cracked open a gash that grinned, revealing a mouth full of teeth.