Meanwhile, Jiang Xiao and his group had already embarked on their journey to the laboratory.

The rescue team leader, with a hint of guilt, guided the way throughout.

The group was heavy-hearted but filled with determination.

On the way, Jiang Xiao's thoughts spun rapidly.

He tried to find connections in these fragmented pieces of information, looking for the clue that could unravel all the mysteries.

Finally, after several hours of trekking,

they arrived at the place known as the secret laboratory.

It was hidden within what appeared to be a small crevice in a huge rock on the outskirts, surrounded by desolate weeds and the like.

At first glance, it seemed very normal, with almost no traces of anyone having entered.

The rescue team leader noticed the doubt and distrust on everyone's faces and spoke softly.

"Everyone, don't be nervous. This is indeed the entrance to the laboratory, but for confidentiality, everything has been done discreetly."

Saying that, he gently pressed a button on his chest.

With a low mechanical hum, the seemingly solid rock slowly flipped, revealing a passageway the height of a person.

The passage was reinforced with steel and concrete, appearing extremely solid, in stark contrast with the desolate surroundings.

The group looked at this scene in amazement, their view of the rescue team leader changed, and their curiosity about this mysterious laboratory grew stronger.

On either side of the passage, two guards in uniform suddenly appeared.

They held their weapons tightly, their expressions stern.

But when their eyes fell on the rescue team leader, seeing him with a group of outsiders, their faces instantly showed shock.

"Captain, why did you bring outsiders here?"

One of the guards asked stammering, with obvious panic in his voice.

The rescue team leader answered expressionlessly.

"The situation is special, they are here to help, just let them pass."

The guards exchanged glances, clearly troubled, but under the rescue team leader's firm gaze, they finally stepped aside to clear the way.

.....

"Oh? Didn't realize, a 'little clerk' like you has such power, to clear the way directly?"

Facing Shi Shi's teasing, the rescue team leader chuckled awkwardly, indicating that within the base, he still had some influence.

Everyone else understood this clearly.

If he didn't have a higher status, he definitely wouldn't have access to matters like wastewater management.

Jiang Xiao and the others followed the rescue team leader's footsteps through the passage, entering the interior of the laboratory.

The scene inside was shocking:

The lighting was dim, various instruments and pipelines were intricately distributed around, and in the center was a gigantic water tank, within which floated some objects emitting a blue glow.

The rescue team leader pointed at the water tank and said.

"Those are the alien organisms we discovered in the depths of the ocean. Their death might be the cause of this disaster."

Jiang Xiao and the others approached the water tank to see those objects of different shapes.

Some resembled water buffalo, some looked like enormous jellyfish, and some seemed like creatures not belonging to this world.

The only common feature was that they all had purple patterns on their bodies, looking both beautiful and dangerous.

"Are these skeletons?"

Jiang Xiao asked in confusion.

The rest were also staring at the rescue team leader with curiosity. Although these creatures seemed dead, their flesh was well preserved, which didn't match the word skeletons at all.

The rescue team leader knitted his brows, evidently puzzled by the scene before him.

He shook his head, his gaze sweeping over the bizarre-patterned creatures, with a few traces of disbelief in his voice.

"I... I don't know what's going on. Last time I was here, there were indeed only skeletons in the tank, and they were samples that had been studied for quite some time."

He turned to Jiang Xiao and the others, a hint of tension and puzzlement in his eyes.

"These well-preserved creatures, it's the first time I've seen them. Perhaps... Perhaps the organization brought them up from the ocean depths as fresh samples without my knowledge."

Jiang Xiao furrowed his brow tightly. He approached the tank, carefully observing these bizarre creatures.

Their bodies floated quietly in the water, seemingly asleep, but those purple patterns seemed to suggest something ominous.

"Fresh samples?"

Jiang Xiao asked in a deep voice.

"Shouldn't we contact the researchers in charge of this section? They should know more about the situation."

The rescue team leader nodded, taking out a communicator to try and contact other base members.

However, when he pressed the communicator's button, there was no response, only silence and stillness.

"Is there a problem with the communicator?"

Beside him, the old man frowned, trying to use his own equipment to communicate, but similarly failed to send out a signal.

"Why is the signal here being interfered with?"

There was a hint of urgency in the rescue team leader's voice.

"Something doesn't seem right; we must quickly find the manual signal control room to see if we can solve this issue."

Jiang Xiao nodded, realizing that the situation might be more serious than imagined.

He gestured for everyone to remain alert, then followed the rescue team leader deeper into the laboratory.

They traversed narrow corridors, each step feeling unusually heavy.

The walls around were filled with dense pipelines, and the occasional mechanical roar chilled them to the bone.

Finally, they arrived at a room that appeared to be a control center.

Screens in the room displayed various data and images, but one screen, in particular, caught their attention.

It was a massive undersea fissure, where something seemed to be slowly moving, with those purple patterns flashing with an eerie glow on the screen.

The rescue team leader stepped forward, his fingers trembling as he operated the console, attempting to restore communication.

Jiang Xiao and the others watched the screen's images nervously, each guessing what living being this was, and what connection it had with this disaster...

Just as they were utterly absorbed, a sudden tremor shattered the laboratory's silence, and the entire space seemed to shake.

"What's happening?" someone exclaimed.

The rescue team leader hastily lifted his head from the console, his face pale.

"Not good, it seems the situation outside has changed... This is the movement of a weapon platform starting up; we must evacuate immediately!"

Weapon platform?

Jiang Xiao sneered. That made more sense.

No wonder they entered such a tightly secured base so easily.

No wonder there hadn't been a single living person seen since entering.

Now it all made sense.

It must be that those two gate-keeping Karami contacted the laboratory staff inside.

They were probably exposed to the cameras from the very beginning, weren't they?

Watching the rescue team leader putting on an act of "panic-stricken" like the others, Jiang Xiao felt Shi Shi went too easy on him earlier...

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