Chapter 32

Was it an accident, or a murder?

Zhou Zhi's body collapsed before his eyes. Xiao Shengyun propped himself up and vaguely saw a massive black tide gradually surging within Zhou Zhi's body.

It was very close to the action center. Ye Ting arrived with his men a few minutes later, promptly put the fake roses in the store into a sealed box, and took Zhou Zhi to the medical room here before sending him to Nanshan Hospital.

After being taken to the vehicle belonging to the operations unit, Xiao Shengyun took a while to recover. He was still a little dizzy, so he simply rolled down the car window and let the cool breeze in.

"Are you feeling better? There are some antagonists and sedatives in the car. Would you like one?" Ye Ting was driving in the front.

He returned from Yue Ning's grave, and after only a short nap, he received another phone call and rushed out. His hair was disheveled, and he had some stubble on his chin.

"No need." Xiao Shengyun pressed his hand on his heart, which was pounding violently and aching slightly.

"How is Dean Zhou? What other flowers are there, and what are they?" he asked, frowning.

"have no idea."

"Um?"

Neither of these questions has an answer right now.

The light ahead was yellow. Ye Ting stepped on the gas, and the car sped through the intersection. Two kilometers ahead was the action station.

There weren't many people in the office building. All five detachments were out on missions recently, leaving only a few civilian staff behind.

Xiao Shengyun returned to his office, which was nearly empty. As soon as he entered, he saw the familiar blond-haired man. Huang Yu looked up when he heard the noise and waved after recognizing the person.

He has hardly ever been here since he joined the company. There's nothing on the table except for a computer.

The computer contains all the relevant information for this mission.

The founder of Shengtian Group is named Yang Tianhe. He founded the company ten years ago. The company's initial projects were in the pharmaceutical field, and later it invested in other industries, gradually growing and expanding.

According to the information found, Yang Tianhe was a researcher at a research institute before he founded the company, and later served as a manager of a certain laboratory, a very high-ranking position. However, he suddenly resigned when his future was bright.

Because a long time had passed, the research institute only sent some information, which mainly consisted of Yang Tianhe's past experiences and the research projects he led, and seemed to contain nothing unusual.

Xiao Shengyun recalled the giant tree that Yue Ning had drawn. Every pollution has a source of pollution. Obviously, those infected vine people were all infected by the same source of pollution, and the source of pollution was in the hands of the church.

So Yang Tianhe came into contact with the source of pollution while he was at the research institute?

The factory where Xiao Shengyun used to work was also polluting because the boss cooperated with a subsidiary of Shengtian Group, and those substances were secretly transported in.

Yang Tianhe founded the company to cover his tracks and allow the pollution to spread more widely.

But what was his purpose in doing this?

If he wants power, he should continue working at the research institute; if he wants money, Shengtian Group is already large enough.

And then there are the fake roses that have recently appeared. These things suddenly pop up and are scattered throughout the city, seemingly just to lure the people from the Operations Department over.

But none of these problems need to be solved. The location of the church is already known. As long as the leader can be captured, these problems will be easily solved.

Xiao Shengyun sent another message to Ye Ting to inquire about Zhou Zhi's condition. He breathed a sigh of relief upon learning that Zhou Zhi had recovered and had been sent to Nanshan Hospital.

He closed the file and opened the intranet, a network jointly built by special agencies from various countries, containing information about each agency and all intelligence related to pollutants.

The webpage loads a dense barrage of news articles as soon as it opens.

“The pollution in the western edge of the island is decreasing. Witnesses have spotted signs of human activity on the other side of the containment zone. The local security department has dispatched personnel to investigate.”

"The Second Academy has discovered the existence of thought space, which will have a huge impact on the physics community. Next, we will interview Academician XX..."

"A new species has been discovered in Southeast Asia, and this species..."

Xiao Shengyun opened the research institute's official website, which contained introductions to the five research institutes.

The work of the Daiichi Life Research Institute mainly focuses on the study of the organizational structure of pollutants and drug development.

The Second Research Institute primarily develops weapons and equipment targeting pollutants.

The Third Research Institute explores the functions of polluted plants and animals.

The Fourth Research Institute is responsible for researching the talents of Awakened Ones.

However, there was no information about the Fifth Research Institute. If Zhou Zhi hadn't mentioned it before, Xiao Shengyun would have had no idea that such an institution existed.

Zhou Zhi's background was listed in the Life Research Institute's profile section. Curious, he clicked on it, and soon a large amount of text appeared.

Dean Zhou's experience over the past twenty years can be summarized in two words: "upright and virtuous, with a smooth journey."

His father was a soldier, and his mother was a researcher at a lighthouse. He entered the best university at the age of 15 and graduated at the age of 20 to enter the research institute.

Before the age of twenty, it was an abbreviation. Every year after the age of twenty, there were numerous research projects and research results. The most famous achievement was the development of a third-generation antagonist, which can continuously and stably reduce the pollution level in the human body, saving a large number of patients and alleviating the problem of awakened individuals being devoured.

Xiao Shengyun noticed that Zhou Zhi's father and mother's names were highlighted in red, which meant that the two had sacrificed their lives. If they were still alive, they probably wouldn't have been written on them.

He tried to piece together a person's past experiences from a large amount of text, but there were only a few lines about the period before the age of twenty, with various incomprehensible drug names and chemical terms taking up almost the entire length of the text.

It's pointless.

Xiao Shengyun was getting a headache from looking at all this stuff. Just as he was about to exit, he accidentally clicked on the name with his mouse, and a new webpage popped up.

This webpage is somewhat similar to a search engine, with various related information mixed together below. Under the term "pollutants," instead of case reports or other information, the pop-up ads are titles that resemble those of marketing accounts.

The mystery of the disappearance of a genius boy.

"The demon's child who returned from the abyss."

"Pollutants disguised in human skin!"

What are all these things?

He randomly clicked on a webpage, which contained a news report.

"In March 2140, a student from XX University mysteriously disappeared. Traces of pollution and irregular distortions of space were discovered at the site of his disappearance. The Lighthouse believes that his disappearance was caused by the immense force of the pollution, which created a space tunnel, drawing the student into it. However, a month after his disappearance, the student reappeared at the site. His appearance triggered a red alert for pollution in the area, and a large amount of pollution rapidly spread. The area has now been sealed off, and unauthorized personnel are prohibited from entering."

"According to the lighthouse, the place the missing students entered was the Otherworld—the space where the pollutants originally lived. Therefore, the possibility of the space collision theory being valid regarding the source of the pollutants is extremely high."

"Currently, student A (i.e. the missing student) has been sent to the research institute. The concentration of pollutants in his body has exceeded the concentration of Class A pollutants. The question of whether a person can be transformed into pollutants has aroused widespread discussion in the scientific community."

Someone once entered the other world and actually came back alive?

Xiao Shengyun clicked on the accompanying picture out of curiosity. It was a very blurry photo. In the center were many enforcers wearing protective suits. They were gathered together, and through the gaps in their bodies, the photographer captured the figure of the Demon Child.

The figure looked familiar; to be more precise, the two had been shopping together just a few hours earlier.

All the information and details of the parties involved on the webpage were blocked or hidden. The photo was also blurry. Only the person in the middle of the executor's group was lying on the ground with red on his body, which could be blood or something else. His facial features were not very clear, but Xiao Shengyun felt that the person was Zhou Zhi.

It's illogical, based solely on intuition.

He had originally wanted to read some other reports, but upon hearing footsteps not far behind him, he immediately closed the webpage.

Ye Ting rushed into the office, clearly something big had happened again. He glanced at the people in the office and said, "There is a special mission that requires ten people to go to Nanshan Hospital. Those who can go on the mission, please assemble at the door now."

What's wrong now?

Xiao Shengyun was somewhat puzzled. Now that they knew the location of the church, all the personnel from the Action Department who were out on missions were being recalled one after another, and they were also requesting support from the Central Committee to prepare for the final battle. But at this moment, they suddenly dispersed their forces.

He got into the car with the others, and the vehicle drove towards Nanshan Hospital.

The hospital was shrouded in a huge blue protective wall, which must be the ability of some awakened being. As soon as you entered, the smell of salt, dampness and decay filled your nostrils.

Nanshan Hospital at this time is like a large fermentation tank, with the blue protective wall as the lid, covering all the garbage and impurities inside. You can't see them from the outside, but you can only feel them when you go inside.

What happened here? Everyone noticed something was wrong.

Li Qianfang greeted them at the entrance and led the executives toward the inpatient department, explaining, "You should all know what this place is. In this island nation, hospitals are also prisons. Not long ago, this was a hospital, but when patients misbehave, this becomes a prison."

He briefly described the current situation, which was terrible. The church had somehow added fake rose powder to the medicine, causing a significant increase in the contamination levels in all patients' bodies.

Li Qianfang was utterly baffled. He had already dealt with the rats in the church, but unexpectedly, they still managed to find a loophole. Every patient was a source of contamination, and the massive amounts of contamination intertwined, quickly turning the area into a high-risk zone.

Li Qianfang used his talent to close the hospital. Just then, Ye Ting brought Zhou Zhi to the hospital, and Zhou Zhi asked Ye Ting to send an executive to supplement the manpower.

"The smell here isn't very pleasant. Your next task is to go to the first floor to get protective suits, then inject all the patients with antagonists. If any patient behaves abnormally, you can retaliate directly, just don't kill them," Li Qianfang said.

He looked up at the sky. He didn't know if it was because of the protective wall or the bad weather, but the sky was gray and gloomy. The world under the sky was decaying, and some people were trying to find medicine to cure it.