Chapter 35 Laboratory

Apart from the occasional chirping of insects and birds, the wilderness was very quiet. The dim sunlight filtered through the dense leaves, barely illuminating the surrounding area.

The group moved forward cautiously. The drone had been destroyed by the beetle swarm, and the team had lost its reconnaissance weapon.

"It seems a little too quiet." Ruan Lu whispered to Gu Nian. He and Gu Nian were very close.

Gu Nian's expression was more cautious. According to her experience, this might mean that a more powerful mutant beast had marked its territory here.

However, there was a sound of wind rushing past in front of them. A two-story-high beast appeared in everyone's sight, its crimson fur like burning flames, running through the jungle, heading straight for their team. They could even smell the beast's breath.

"Be on guard!" A voice suddenly rang out from Cui Xing, the scout walking in the front, followed by a dull "crack" sound. Everyone watched helplessly as the huge monster leaped and swung its front paws to slap Cui Xing away. Unable to dodge, Cui Xing's neck hit the thick tree trunk directly, and with a dull "crack", his head turned at a strange angle, and blood splattered.

"Crack!" "Snap!" There were a few more screams, and almost at the same time, one person died and another was injured!

Gu Nian immediately raised his hand and shot an arrow towards the giant beast's eye. However, the giant beast stretched out its claws and held the arrow directly. It even grinned, revealing an expression that could almost be called a sneer, and a puffing sound came from its throat.

The next second, the arrow suddenly exploded, and white mist quickly spread, obscuring the giant beast's vision. Almost at the same time, taking advantage of the delay of the smoke bomb, the team members in the front quickly retreated and left the danger zone.

Seeing that she had succeeded in her first strike, Gu Nian fired three more armor-piercing arrows straight at the top of the monster's head. Even though the white fog blocked her vision, she could still roughly determine the monster's location based on the vague image.

"Puchi." The sound of the arrow piercing flesh and blood could be heard. The beast roared wildly in pain, and its huge body began to bump around. The wind it created dispersed the white mist, and Gu Nian could see clearly that it was a beast with blood-red fur and the shape of a lion, but behind the lion was a tail similar to that of a scorpion. There was a pitch-black spike on the top of the scorpion's tail, shining with cold light.

Shouzhi led the remaining soldiers to quickly fire a volley of bullets, but the bullets hit the monster's fur without any pain, and could not form an effective attack at all. Shouzhi had no choice but to string together a string of □□, pull the fuse and throw it at the monster. The □□ shone with fire in the air, and then the monster's roar was heard, but only shallow scars were left.

The monster looked at everyone angrily. It slowly retreated, avoiding their attacks. From time to time, it would suddenly attack when no one was prepared, consuming the manpower in the outer circle of the team.

This beast has wisdom. Everyone had this thought in their mind. Its behavior is too human. Unlike the group of mutant beetles just now, this lion-like monster even knows how to pick on the weak first.

Yuan Hong, Zhao Cheng and several close combat masters were fighting with the giant beast, but due to such a huge size difference, they seemed to be at a loss.

Yu Ziqiu frowned. Ever since she entered the gray area, she always had a feeling that she was being watched. The attacks of the mutant beasts were full of traces of human intervention. It was as if she and her group were being monitored. At the current pace of the attack, it would probably be dark by the time they captured the giant beast.

If we can't win the battle quickly, the enemies lurking in the shadows will only find ways to create more and more obstacles. As the leader of the second action team, Yu Ziqiu knew that if all actions were under the control of the enemy, then the mission would not be far from failure. Thinking that there were still a group of wounded waiting to be picked up, Yu Ziqiu gritted his teeth and shouted: "Split the team! One team stays to contain the enemy, and the other team continues to move forward!"

When she gave the order, she looked at Shou Zhi, who nodded in support of her decision. Yu Ziqiu felt relieved and quickly calculated that the military still had a batch of heavy weapons that could suppress the enemy with firepower. With this in mind, Yu Ziqiu had already made a decision. She shouted to Yue Jian, "Mr. Yue, could you please take a small team and continue to move forward? Find out the situation in the laboratory?"

Yuejian was chopping at the monster's scorpion tail. His sword moves were as smooth as spring water, blocking the poisonous needles from the scorpion tail. He used his wrist to chop hard, heading straight towards the scorpion tail, directly chopping off the poisonous needles.

Hearing Yu Ziqiu's call, he understood. He signaled Yuan Hong to block the attack first, and he jumped back to get out of the attack area. "Okay, you pick a few more people."

The battlefield was changing rapidly. Yu Ziqiu selected Gu Nian, Zhuo Huai, Cai Ji, and a military soldier named Wei Rui to go together to form a temporary team to continue breaking out into the depths of the wilderness, while the others stayed behind to hold back the giant beast.

Gu Nian quickly shot arrows while evacuating. When she passed by Yu Ziqiu, she handed him a pill and said, "Here, it's a pill for instant explosive power."

This giant beast has already held up all the team's combat power, and now they have to send more people. Gu Nian doesn't think it will be easy for the people left behind to deal with this beast, and casualties are inevitable. Before leaving, she worked hard at home to refine three Vajra, and sent one out, which was considered her best effort to help.

Yu Ziqiu took it subconsciously. She didn't think the medicine was useful, but considering Gu Nian's good intentions, she put it in her pocket and quickly joined the battle.

-------------------------------------

Yue Jian was in the front, slashing with his sword to clear a path. The tall and strong man Cai Ji was also beside him. His strong physique directly blocked the branches that were extending everywhere for those who came later.

The short boy Zhuo Huai walked very fast. He said to everyone, "I had a brain disease before the natural disaster. After the natural disaster evolved, I don't know how, I can recognize other people's brain waves. However, I can only recognize human brain wave signals, so it is only useful when I go to the laboratory." He raised a thumb and compared himself: "Basically, you can think of me as a human detector. Other than that, I am just faster than others."

Another member, Wei Rui, is fair-skinned and smiling. He is from the military, carrying a huge instrument case on his back. "I am a communications soldier. I was young and ignorant, so I worked as a hacker for a few years. Later, I was drafted into the army while serving my sentence, and it was considered a work-for-prison term."

Everyone was speechless. They didn't expect that you, who looked the most harmless, were still serving your sexual term?

As for Gu Nian's ability, there is no need to say much. As he traveled all the way, the bow and arrow in Gu Nian's hand never stopped. He would shoot arrows at any mutant beast that came into his way. Even if the mutant beast did not die, it would lose its ability to move, which greatly accelerated the team's progress.

After listening to Zhuo Huai explain his abilities, Yue Jian asked, "Are there any other humans nearby?"

Zhuo Huai shook his head: "Within one kilometer, there are only our people. One kilometer away is beyond my sensing range."

Yue Jian frowned and said, "Slow down and pay attention to the surrounding area to see if there are any small mutant animals following you. If there are any, kill them immediately."

Slow down? Everyone was puzzled. Why should we slow down during this emergency?

Gu Nian seemed to be thinking about something, and asked in a low voice: "Do you suspect that the other party is controlling the mutant beast to monitor us?"

"Yes, otherwise it doesn't make sense. The traces of that group of mutant beetles and the mutant scorpion lion beast behind them being deliberately lured here are too obvious. It can't be called a coincidence that it happened twice. The other party must have some way to track our whereabouts, and the possibility of people nearby has been ruled out. Judging from their actions, the most likely possibility is that they are controlling the mutant animals." Yue Jian said.

In an instant, everyone was horrified. In this wilderness, mutant beasts were everywhere. Everyone instinctively felt that even the birds flying in the sky and the occasional rabbits jumping in the grass were not safe.

Gu Nian also carefully observed her surroundings. Lotus poked its head out from Gu Nian's clothes, patted her face, and pointed its little furry claws toward the sky. Gu Nian looked up and saw a group of mutant bees, each as big as a palm, flying high in the sky.

This group of mutant bees seemed to have been following them. Gu Nian had not thought in this direction, but now that it was pointed out, she suddenly felt enlightened. Without hesitation, she raised a burning arrow and shot it fiercely towards the horizon, driving away this group of mutant bees.

Yue Jian saw her attack and was moved, "You mean, that's surveillance?"

Gu Nian didn't answer and said, "Keep going."

Yue Jian understood, and everyone continued to move forward. Sure enough, after walking a distance, the mutant bees that were not burned to death continued to gather. Everyone stopped hesitating and concentrated their fire to attack, and all the mutant bees were shot down.

Now everyone started running at full speed. The situation was critical, and everyone wanted to get to the laboratory as quickly as possible.

"There's someone!" Zhuo Huai said, "Southeast, one thousand meters away!"

As Zhuo Huai spoke, a valley appeared in the group's field of vision. The humans that Zhuo Huai sensed were in the valley. Here was the mysterious laboratory.

The valley entrance is deep and dark, like an evil ghost with malicious intentions.

Zhuo Huai lowered his voice and said, "There are two different brain waves at the entrance of the valley. They should be guards."

Two people? Yue Jian raised his eyebrows, exerted force on his feet, and moved along the shadows lightly and gracefully like a cheetah, while Cai Ji, who was good at close combat, followed him. Although he was tall, he could sneak silently. The others tacitly found a hidden place to wait.

Not long after, Yue Jian and Cai Ji each brought someone over.

Yuejian took out a cell phone from each of the two guards and threw it to Wei Rui, "Take a look at the information inside."

Nowadays, there is no large-scale network covering the whole country, but each organization will establish signal base stations in a small area and operate local area networks. After all, humans can hardly survive without the Internet.

Wei Rui connected the phone to his computer, intending to export all the information. However, he soon smiled helplessly, pointed at the screen and said to everyone: "There is a four-digit password, but the most troublesome thing is that you can only enter it once. If you make a mistake, the phone will explode immediately."

Although this design is simple and crude, it stumped the hacker Wei Rui. It is not difficult to crack the password, but during the attempt, the mobile phone exploded and the memory card was completely destroyed. Such a simple and crude design is actually the best way to prevent hackers.

It seems that the only way to get the password is from the phone owner.

"Who will interrogate?" Yuejian asked.

The two members of the military met Yuejian's gaze and shook their heads.

Cai Ji smiled and said, "I only know how to fight."

Wei Rui said innocently: "I only know how to hack equipment."

Yue Jian held his forehead with his hand. He could only temporarily perform the interrogation himself. It was really not an elegant job. He rolled up his sleeves, untied a crystal pendant tied to his wrist, and then woke up one of the guards.

Wu Fei woke up from his coma, with a splitting headache on the back of his head. But as soon as he regained consciousness, he understood his situation. Someone was trying to sneak into the laboratory, and he had fallen into the hands of the other party. He looked at the group of people in front of him with hatred. He was a loyal believer of the Father God and would never betray his faith. Even if the other party tortured him severely, he would not get any useful information from him!

The stunningly beautiful man standing in front of him asked him the first question, "Is the first digit of your phone password greater than 5?"

Wu Fei laughed unscrupulously: "Oh my God, are you guys stupid? How could I possibly say that?"

Yue Jian simply ignored his answer. He lowered the string, and the crystal pendant hung straight down without moving. However, after he asked Wu Fei a question, it began to sway rhythmically.

"Very good, it seems to be less than 5, the range has been narrowed a lot." Yuejian said.

Wu Fei's laughter stopped abruptly, but he soon continued to smile sarcastically: "How do you know? Just rely on this thing?" He turned to the others and said: "There is only one chance to get the password, do you trust him so much?"

Yuejian ignored him completely and focused on asking questions continuously, quickly locking down the password number.

Wu Fei's face became more and more ugly, and he even began to look at Yue Jian with fear. The other person's eyes were calm, but in his eyes, he was like a cold devil. Why did he know whether the answer was yes or no without his answer?

Less than two minutes later, Yue Jian said to Wei Rui: "366 2."

Wei Rui swallowed his saliva. He didn't dare to refute or question Yue Jian. After all, he had been told before they left that Yue Jian would lead the team. Moreover, for some reason, as soon as he picked up the crystal pendant, Yue Jian's temperament suddenly changed. The human aura on him was quickly drained away, and what was left was an indifference as cold as ice and snow.

Wei Rui nervously entered the numbers. Please, make sure it's correct! We can't afford to fail! He prayed desperately.

With a click, the phone unlocked. Wei Rui's eyes lit up, and his ten fingers flew across the computer, quickly starting to integrate the information in the phone.

The others also found it incredible and secretly glanced at the crystal pendant in Yuejian's hand, their eyes filled with unconcealed curiosity.

Finally, it was the naive Cai Ji who asked the question that everyone wanted to ask. He pointed at Yue Jian's crystal pendant and asked, "What is this?"

"It's just a pendulum, an introductory course in divination." Yuejian said nonchalantly.

We have all heard of the pendulum, but what we want to ask is, how can it be so accurate! The others silently raised their questions in their hearts.

"I have seen other fortune tellers, but don't they always burn incense, take a bath, and pray to gods before fortune telling? And their accuracy rate... hehe." Cai Ji scratched his head and said.

Yuejian thought about it, as if thinking about how to answer this question. "No need to do that, just look and listen. When you make a divination, you will see the most likely thread of fate and hear the echo of fate." He said calmly.

"Then what if you can't see or hear it?" Cai Ji asked curiously.

"If you can't see or hear, then you are not suitable for this job. After all, some things still require talent." Yue Jian replied.

Cai Ji wanted to ask more questions, but Wei Rui said, "I found it! This laboratory is used to conduct experiments on mutant beasts."

He spoke very quickly, and continued in one breath: "The leader of this laboratory is called Mr. Qiu, who claims to be the messenger of the god Bethida. He believes that all living beings have sins and must atone for their sins in this life. As a messenger of God, he wants to help everyone go to the kingdom of God in heaven as soon as possible. Everyone in this research institute is his believer."

“This sect believes that the end of the world is unstoppable, which means they want to destroy the world on their own initiative… The mutated rat tide is a plan to destroy Jiangcheng…” The more Wei Rui spoke, the uglier his expression became, and he broke out in a cold sweat on his back.

Madman, really a madman! How could there be such a person, who wanted to die and wanted to drag the world to die with him? Wei Rui couldn't understand.

Gu Nian remained silent. She knew that with the continuous occurrence of natural disasters in the future, many people would end their lives in despair and give up the difficult struggle for survival. Doomsday theories became popular, and various religions began to flourish, becoming the life-saving straw in the hearts of desperate people... But these religions only brought people temporary paralysis and even deeper pain. This Mr. Qiu seemed to be one of them. Not only that, he even planned to destroy Jiangcheng, which was unforgivable in Gu Nian's eyes. Judging from the current environment, Jiangcheng could be regarded as a peaceful and harmonious shelter, and Gu Nian also lived a relatively comfortable life in it. Anyone who wanted to destroy her life must be her enemy.

The rest of the team had the same idea as her, and everyone was thankful that the rat tide was discovered in advance and dealt with immediately. Otherwise, the consequences would be disastrous.

Gu Nian asked the question buried in her heart: "The wilderness is full of dangers. How did they build a laboratory here? Who is Mr. Qiu, and how did he master the technology to transform mutant beasts?"

"From some chat messages on the phone, it seems that they relied on a holy object bestowed by the god Pelshida. That holy object is deep in the laboratory and can protect the entire laboratory from being invaded by mutant beasts. They also used this holy object to help them capture mutant beasts. Even the place where the laboratory was built was found by Mr. Qiu under the inspiration of God. It is said that there is fresh spring water and a stable environment here. As for the mutant beast transformation technology, it was brought by Mr. Qiu himself." Wei Rui said.

It seems that the Beshida Cult still has some strength, no matter what, everyone present thought. Gu Nian was startled when he heard the words "fresh spring water". So, is there really a spring water in this laboratory? He must find a way to explore it. Gu Nian did not forget that there was still a spring in his farm space.

Yue Jian asked: "Is it possible to find out what's going on in the laboratory?"

Speaking of his professional field, Wei Rui also became excited: "This phone will automatically connect to the laboratory's local area network. Because of this, my computer has also entered their local area network. Give me ten minutes, and I can hack into their network and call up all the connected surveillance cameras and cameras in the laboratory."

"Okay. Hurry up." Yue Jian said. Taking advantage of this time, he woke up another guard and did the same thing, first figuring out the phone password, then cross-examining him with the information he just got, and confirming that the information was correct.

At this time, Wei Rui finally called up all the surveillance in the laboratory.

Everyone gathered around Wei Rui's computer screen to watch. This laboratory seemed to be built in a cave in the valley. From the surveillance, it only had one floor, divided into dozens of rooms. From the surveillance, half of the rooms were used as cages to imprison mutants, while the other half were used as experimental rooms, filled with equipment and instruments. In the entire laboratory, in addition to a dozen assistant researchers, there were only five or six guards. Yes, if there were more people, the Jiangcheng authorities would not have been unable to find out any information. It seems that the establishment of this laboratory mainly relied on the skills of Mr. Qiu, who had unknown origins. And further inside, you can see a passage, but unfortunately, there is no surveillance after the passage.

Yue Jian asked Wu Fei: "Is this where Mr. Qiu lives?"

Wu Fei didn't want to answer the devil's question. He kept silent and prayed desperately to Father God in his heart. However, the still pendulum had already told everyone the answer.

"Are the sacred objects of the gods also behind this passage?" Yue Jian continued to ask.

Wu Fei tightly shut his mouth and even tried to control his thoughts, but the pendulum still did not move. He realized desperately that the pendulum in front of him was like a mind reader, and could accurately detect the result. Struggling was just a waste of effort.

Everyone in the team understood that the most important place seemed to be behind the unsurveilled passage. The hidden room behind it was Mr. Qiu’s residence and also contained important things.

"Priority number one, Mr. Qiu; priority number two, laboratory data, especially those related to mutant rats; priority number three, the so-called sacred object of the gods." Yue Jian said. "Get ready to go."