Bai Chen Zhu walked to the nearest pillar and gently knocked on it. The ‘person’ inside showed no reaction at all, yet the heart exposed on the outside was clearly still beating faintly. Strands of fresh red drifted with the water flow—it was a continuous stream of blood.
“Is this a laboratory?” Bai Chen Zhu took a deep breath to steady his panicked emotions.
Anyone who saw their own kind being used for research would find it hard to remain unmoved. Bai Chen Zhu thought that Han Yuyan was nothing in comparison; the truly deranged ones were right here.
Jiang Ye expressionlessly examined the items on the experimental platform. He seemed utterly unsurprised by this place. “This is just a small outpost.”
The space above and on the surface of the experimental platform was filled with blue-light screens.
The screens scrolled with dense lines of incomprehensible text. Bai Chen Zhu puzzled over them for a long time but couldn’t recognize a single character—just a jumble of fonts he had never seen.
“Can you read this?” Bai Chen Zhu leaned over to look at the large screen in front of Jiang Ye.
“They have translation functions.” Jiang Ye pointed it out to him, and the text on the screen turned into halting Chinese.
Not just Chinese—languages of other major powers and even those from other planets were available.
Even translated into Chinese, it was still dense text that made Bai Chen Zhu’s head spin. He barely caught a few words: ‘human observation,’ ‘mutation,’ ‘contagious’…
Jiang Ye quickly swiped through, and somehow triggered a recording. A human’s wailing cry played, followed by a cold, mechanical translation voice. “What is he saying?”
“He’s calling for his mom.”
Bai Chen Zhu’s scalp went numb. He quickly reached out and snap—shut off the audio. For the first time, he clearly realized just how cruel and cold-blooded the alien race was.
Knowing he couldn’t read it, Jiang Ye explained, “This is just a small research room studying the current directions of human mutation. So far, they’ve only observed zombie-like mutations—the ones you saw in the lab are all like that. Once they learn humans have ability users, the human situation will only get more dangerous. We must find the fragment before that happens.”
Bai Chen Zhu listened quietly. “And then?”
Jiang Ye’s eyes flickered slightly. “Then, we’ll make plans.” He trusted himself, but not others.
Humans weren’t that united. Otherwise, back then, no one would have agreed to ‘reconciliation’ or accepted the ‘antidote.’
That included the people around him.
It was still only the early stages of the apocalypse, but human hearts were unpredictable. So he didn’t dare think too far ahead about finding the fragment, assembling the communicator orb, sending the signal, or what might happen if the alien race discovered them.
Jiang Ye gripped the workbench tightly, unsure what material it was made of.
Bai Chen Zhu listened intently and tugged at Jiang Ye’s clothes. “Someone’s coming.”
Jiang Ye quickly pulled him behind the pipes and cautioned, “Retract your superpowers. They’re very sensitive to mental power.”
It was the first time Bai Chen Zhu had heard such a thing. He swiftly withdrew the mental power he had been using to probe and monitor the surroundings, reverting to normal human senses. He could only feel a blanket of silence.
Heavy footsteps entered.
Bai Chen Zhu held his breath.
The door slowly slid open to both sides. What entered his vision first was a pair of tentacles swaying in midair. The newcomer was truly androgynous, impossible to tell male from female, with a head of gray hair. His eyes had a strange glint, and a pair of blade-like wings hung behind him. He wore robes of an odd style.
Was someone really playing cosplay? Bai Chen Zhu stared in a daze.
His arm suddenly hurt, and Bai Chen Zhu nearly failed to suppress a sound.
He glared fiercely at Jiang Ye, who glared right back. “Is it good-looking?” Jiang Ye asked in a breathy whisper.
Humans were all face-judgers. When first encountering the alien race, it was easy to be deceived. No one could believe such a race would commit atrocities.
Bai Chen Zhu deliberately contradicted him and nodded.
Jiang Ye ground his teeth, his gaze toward the alien growing even fiercer.
The alien walked to the darkened control screen. As it stared at the data that lit up on its own in confusion, its fingertips flew across the system. Just as its eyes suddenly widened, realizing there were others in the lab, Jiang Ye was already behind it. He raised an experimental tool and smashed down with full force.
Bang! The gray-haired alien crashed heavily onto the screen.
“Is it dead?” Bai Chen Zhu emerged from behind him, staying two meters away from the alien vigilantly.
“If only it were that easy to kill.” Jiang Ye frowned. He quickly checked the gray-haired alien’s body but found no fragment. “You check where the fragment is.”
Bai Chen Zhu released his mental power and scanned the cold laboratory.
After a moment, he opened his eyes, ink-black luster flowing within them. “The mental power I sense isn’t here.”
“Someone took it with them?” Jiang Ye’s brows darkened. He pulled out a small knife, his expression full of bone-deep hatred toward the alien.
The lab, filled with human remains, was utterly quiet, save for the gurgling bubbles in the pipes. Jiang Ye raised his knife and said coldly, “Then let’s kill it first.”
The alien’s blood wasn’t red. Strange blue liquid flowed across the experimental platform, while the fresh red in the pipes continued to drift.
—
Bai Chen Zhu was stuffing things into his pocket when his cold expression changed slightly. “Bai Tao’s in trouble.”
They exchanged a glance. No longer caring about the pipes or the alien, they quickly retraced their steps. Before they could reach the surface, they heard gunshots.
Jiang Ye ran fast and vanished in an instant.
Bai Chen Zhu raced toward the noise at his fastest speed. At the same time, he sensed the fragment’s aura right in front of him.
What was going on? He diverted more attention to sense it and ‘saw’ four strands of mental power entangled ahead. Bai Tao’s was marked by him and stood out brightly. Jiang Ye’s carried his aura, which he recognized.
The other two: one was very weak, the other not as strong as Bai Tao’s but emanating the fragment’s aura.
Those two were probably aliens!
Bai Chen Zhu leaned against a tree, gasping for breath. He had finally arrived and saw an alien with a pierced wing grappling with Jiang Ye. Their clash was so fast that Bai Chen Zhu couldn’t make it out at all.
Bai Tao’s scream erupted suddenly, piercing his eardrums. Bai Chen Zhu whipped his head around and saw her clutching an alien’s long hair, smashing its head into the ground. Her own arms and face were covered in blood.
The alien didn’t pass out after a few smashes. It flipped over and kicked Bai Tao flying. She crashed into a tree and tumbled down, covered in fallen leaves.
Bai Chen Zhu rushed over. Taking advantage of its distraction, he shot it in the back. The bullet pierced the tough wing and entered its waist.
The alien howled in pain, eyes wide with shock. As it turned, Bai Chen Zhu swept its legs with a long kick, sending it to the ground. He mounted it and pressed the gun to its forehead.
It gasped raggedly, its strange eyes fixed tightly on Bai Chen Zhu.
Bai Chen Zhu sensed something off. He held the gun steady in his right hand, pulled out the translator he had grabbed from the lab with his left, and shoved it in his ear.
“Human… mental power…”
Bai Chen Zhu pulled the trigger. In the next instant, the bullet pierced the alien’s head, blue blood splattering everywhere. His only thought was: Can’t let the alien race detect the existence of mental power.
Only then did he calm down.
He hurried to check Bai Tao’s breathing and pulse, confirming she was still alive. Jiang Ye and the other alien had vanished somewhere.
Bai Chen Zhu’s gaze fell on the corpse in front of him. He went over to inspect it and found this alien had faint mental power—different from the one in the lab and the one fighting Jiang Ye.
This alien was slimmer, with prettier but shorter wings.
Bai Chen Zhu searched its body thoroughly but found no fragment aura. An idea struck him: It wasn’t that it had the fragment’s aura; it was that the fragment had its aura.
Could this one have destroyed the communicator orb?
Loud commotion erupted in the distance, several trees crashing down in succession.
Bai Chen Zhu quickly scooped up the unconscious Bai Tao and dodged the aftermath.
The intense noise lasted only a short time. Jiang Ye’s call came, and Bai Chen Zhu set Bai Tao down, wiped the blood from her face, and responded.
Jiang Ye arrived panting, limping. He was filthy all over, with many new wounds. Bai Chen Zhu glanced at his vital areas and saw they were fine, so he relaxed.
Jiang Ye wiped his grimy face and flipped the empty shell in his hand before tossing it aside. He told Bai Chen Zhu, “I’m out of bullets.”
