Chapter 497: Chapter 491: Monster

Perhaps this was a primal instinct for danger, honed over many years in the apocalypse of her past life.

She instinctively sensed a spreading aura of danger, a feeling that was impossible to describe with words.

"To think the parasite source could be burned to ash and still leave half of itself behind." A chill ran down the spines of Song You’ai and her companions.

’If Xie Ning hadn’t turned back, if she hadn’t sealed the entire corridor...’

’Doesn’t that mean this half of a parasite source could have slipped away right under our noses to find a new host?’

The expressions of everyone present grew solemn.

"Sis, I’ll burn the corridor again!" Song Kexin volunteered, stepping forward and tossing out several clusters of blue flames, scorching every nook and cranny of the entire hallway.

By now, her flames were mostly under her control. They only scorched their intended targets, bypassing everything else.

This level of precise flame control was something Housekeeper Youen couldn’t yet achieve, so he followed behind Song Kexin, helping to patch up spots with smaller flames.

Cres scanned the entire corridor meticulously several times with his spiritual power, finally taking a deep breath. "Nothing here."

Xie Ning nodded. The strange feeling in her heart had also begun to fade.

This instinctual sense of crisis had pulled her back from the brink of death many times before.

This time was no exception.

It had helped her out immensely once again.

’I’ll have to keep strengthening my Cultivation of abilities like Spiritual Prediction. The more proficient, the better.’

Xie Ning walked to the heavy laboratory door, twisted the metal lock, and opened it in no time at all.

Just then, Yu Tianfeng ran over with a few people.

Seeing the laboratory door open, they quickly followed Xie Ning and the others inside.

The laboratory’s walls were pale blue, and rectangular, fish-tank-like glass containers were placed all around.

They were stacked one on top of another, the water inside them a bit murky.

The laboratory was incredibly stuffy. Just walking in made one feel dizzy, and their eyes grew uncomfortable.

Xie Ning’s gaze swept over the glass containers before her, finally settling on what was straight ahead.

The large fish tank in the very center was much bigger than the other glass containers.

Through the thick glass, the group could only see some yellowish, murky water.

Xie Ning’s gaze sharpened, and she suddenly issued a command through the Spirit Net: "Spirit Barrier!"

Cres didn’t even have to think, activating his spiritual power to erect one Spirit Barrier after another around the group.

At the same time, Xie Ning drew out a wisp of spiritual power, condensed it into a blade, and slashed forward.

The others didn’t have time to react before they felt as if something had struck their heads. With a BUZZ, all their faces changed drastically.

Gu Chen, however, didn’t react as strongly as Song Kexin and the others. While they were all clutching their heads, he was even able to concentrate and look toward the source of the sound.

He saw a strange, half-bodied thing crawling out of the large glass container.

It had a human-like head, but its features were utterly monstrous.

With a green face and sharp fangs like a monster, it was completely bald, but a pair of filamentous gills grew behind its ears.

It slammed heavily against the glass container, and the murky water inside roiled violently.

Gu Chen and Lu Wei saw it clearly at the same time: the green-faced, fanged monster was using a fish tail, over a meter long, to slap the water’s surface.

"Holy shit." Song Kexin clutched her head and looked up, letting out a curse. "What the hell is that thing? A mermaid?"

Yu Tianfeng took a pair of noise-canceling headphones from his bag and struggled to fit them over his ears, which were wrapped in a thick scarf.

The world felt much quieter.

He took a step forward, holding his medical kit. "I never expected Gushang Base’s medical center to be hiding a laboratory for studying fish monsters."

"I’m going to go take a look."

"Wait a second." Xie Ning yanked the kid back.

"That thing is disgusting. If mermaids looked like that, would the prince still want her??" Song Kexin shook her head and, like Yu Tianfeng, started fumbling in her bag for noise-canceling headphones.

Xie Ning glanced at them, her face devoid of expression. "Are you idiots? It’s not a sonic attack, it’s a Spiritual Attack."

’What’s the point of wearing noise-canceling headphones? Completely useless.’

Song Kexin’s hand, rummaging for the headphones, paused. She zipped up her backpack in defeat. "Sis, what do we do now? Can we still get close?"

"Don’t tell me all these other glass containers are full of mermaid monsters too??"

So far, the other glass containers remained silent and motionless.

But if they were all mermaid monsters capable of Spiritual Attacks, they would have to retreat first.

"It’s fine," Cres said with a serious expression. "According to my spiritual power scan, the ones on the side should still be in their juvenile hibernation period."

"Where did they get these mermaids?" Song You’ai asked, surprised. "Does anyone else at Gushang Base know about this?"

"Probably only the people in the laboratory area knew," Xie Ning said flatly, her face tense.

’It’s the apocalypse. It’s not surprising for all sorts of demons and monsters to come crawling out.’

"What was the name of the leader of Gushang Base again? There’s something wrong with him, right? Why is this base growing mutated plants for inhibitors and also breeding these mermaid monsters?"

Gu Chen nodded. "There’s definitely a problem."

’A very serious one.’

According to Huang Genmei and the others, Chen Zheng had died six months ago.

’So were these things cultivated after Chen Zhaowei took over, or did they exist before? Either way, something is definitely not right with that father-son duo, Chen Zheng and Chen Zhaowei.’

"So, are we still going to look for them in the underground shelter later?"

"We’ll decide after everyone has gathered," Gu Chen said grimly, turning to look at Lu Wei.

Lu Wei nodded. "I’ll report it now."

It seemed they needed to report the strange situation here to the Capital in real-time.

This included the abnormalities concerning the Chen father and son, as well as these mutated plants and the monstrosities in the cultivation vats.

Yu Tianfeng put on a pair of double-layered protective gloves, turned to the group, and smiled. "It’s fine, I’ll go take a look."

Gu Chen, expressionless, yanked him back. "Wait!"

He released a bolt of lightning and tossed it into the glass container.

In a flash, the murky water in the container began to CRACKLE AND POP.

Yu Tianfeng was heartbroken. "Nonsense! If you kill it, what’s left for us to study? Stop messing around and let me go collect a sample."

Xie Ning was exasperated. "You really are fearlessly reckless."

"Did you not experience its Spiritual Attack?"

"Let Cres restrain it with his Spirit Net first, then we’ll go over with you."

Yu Tianfeng blinked. "Fine, then. Hurry up! A dead test subject isn’t worth much."

The group divided the labor and began to cooperate.

First, they had Cres isolate the glass container in front of them with his spiritual power.

Just in case, Xie Ning erected a Space Barrier around it, enclosing the large central glass tank.

After all this was done, Xie Ning and Gu Chen finally led the eager Yu Tianfeng toward the glass container.

Lu Wei, meanwhile, established a real-time call with the official conference room in the Capital, transmitting the video feed directly.

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