Xiao Tao smiled, her eyes crinkling, "Big sister, you finally realized! You're right, if I'm not mistaken, they're all still crammed together in our hallway right now!"
Yan Qing thought of the long, empty corridor in the dormitory building, and then of Xiao Tao's increasingly crowded comments. For a moment, she felt a sense of utter confusion.
Damn it, there must be at least a thousand people here, right? They're all crammed into that narrow corridor; they're probably going to be squeezed like biscuits!
And most importantly, why is it happening right in front of my own house again?! Yan Qing felt she was completely speechless.
No! She has to pull herself together!
Yan Qing patted her face, forcing herself to wake up. She vividly remembered that she was currently trapped in a secret room, surrounded like a dumpling; finding a way to escape was the most important thing!
However, inside the room, there were indeed only nineteen bare "mountains of corpses," and two ordinary empty hospital beds. She had already checked them, and there was nothing unusual about the beds; they were just ordinary beds.
As for the nineteen "mountains of corpses," she couldn't immediately discern anything special about them. So far, the only discovery was that the missing parts of each "mountain of corpses" were different.
Undeterred, Yan Qing checked again and unexpectedly discovered a detail she had overlooked.
As a devoted emerald enthusiast, Yan Qing was particularly struck by the emerald necklace found on one of the female corpses. If it weren't for the fact that it belonged to a dead person, she would have loved to keep it for herself.
The woman was about forty years old and was wearing a modified version of a cheongsam.
During her previous examination, she discovered that the cheongsam had been deliberately severed at the limbs, although the legs were still in place, while the woman's two arms were missing.
However, when she passed by the innermost "mountain of corpses," she unexpectedly discovered an arm wearing an emerald ring. After examining it, she determined that the emerald ring should be part of a set with the necklace.
But why would a person's body appear in two completely unadjacent places?
With this suspicion in mind, Yan Qing carefully examined the last "mountain of corpses" and unexpectedly discovered a secret.
It turns out that all the corpses in this "mountain of corpses" were actually pieced together by humans. Many of the faces and limbs didn't match up at all, as if they were forcibly put together for some purpose.
Yan Qing then focused her attention on the last "mountain of corpses." She had Xiao Tao climb to the top of the "mountain of corpses" to look down and see if there were any other clues.
Believe it or not, there really is.
"Big sister, there's a hole here!" Xiao Tao pushed aside the top corpse and immediately saw that the base at the very bottom of the "mountain of corpses" was hollow. The empty space was a large, dark hole.
This discovery startled Yan Qing. Ignoring the nausea of the corpses, she climbed up as well. Sure enough, this last "mountain of corpses" was clearly different from the others.
Judging by sight, she should have no problem passing through this large hole.
Yan Qing took out the sphere in her hand and shone it into the hole. Sure enough, she didn't find anything unusual. At the same time, the bracelet on her wrist was also quiet, and Yan Qing finally felt relieved.
She grabbed Xiaotao's hand and jumped in first, turning back to tell Xiaotao, "Stay close to me."
The cave was pitch black, and the ground to the touch was soft, dry soil, but for some reason, the soil exuded a bone-chilling cold.
Yan Qing couldn't help but shiver. The temperature must be around three or four degrees Celsius. She was wearing a thin summer outfit, and even the white coat was almost useless; she was still freezing.
Instead of using a flashlight, she hung the sphere on her bracelet and used its green light to illuminate the way. This was much safer than using a flashlight, and the sphere also had the function of binding the strange contamination, giving her more time to react.
The two crawled forward silently, one in front of the other. Every now and then, Yan Qing would check on Xiao Tao's location before continuing to crawl forward.
However, this road is just too long.
She could feel herself going downhill, but she had no idea where it led; she was just blindly climbing by sheer willpower.
Half an hour passed before she finally felt the slope beneath her feet gradually leveling out. It seemed she was nearing her destination.
Five minutes later, a faint glimmer of light appeared ahead. Yan Qing's expression changed drastically; was she finally coming out?
At the end of the passage, there seemed to be another closed door, but this time, there was no lock on it.
The sound of high heels clicking away came from not far away. Yan Qing instinctively covered Xiao Tao's mouth, making a "shut up" gesture.
"Shh-"
Two people could be heard talking outside the door; judging from their voices, it was a man and a woman.
"How are your preparations going? This malfunction is quite serious, and I need a lot of adventurers right now." The woman who spoke had a voice that sounded strangely familiar to her.
"It's alright. The first batch of over eighty people has been delivered to you. That should be enough to keep things going for a while." The one who answered was a man, and coincidentally, she knew him better than anyone else—it was none other than the ever-present Mu Yang.
Yan Qing couldn't help but want to complain, "Why is Mu Yang everywhere?! What is this guy trying to do?"
However, the woman who had asked the question earlier seemed dissatisfied with his answer; her tone became somewhat stern.
"You'd better not try anything funny. I heard from the dean that the experiment has reached the final testing phase. If it succeeds, it will be a huge benefit to all of us, and I'm sure you know that very well."
Mu Yang's voice remained as gentle as ever, even his tone conveying a deep sincerity.
"Don't worry, I paid such a high price to stay here, and I'm determined to get my hands on that thing. So, you don't need to provoke me—tell me, how many more test subjects do you need?"
The woman's tone was much more composed. She hesitated slightly before speaking somewhat uncertainly.
"We'll need at least seventy or eighty people. If there aren't enough people, we won't be able to extract anything, so the more people the better."
Mu Yang gave a wry smile. "Assistant Zhu, you really think highly of me! Seventy or eighty people, why don't you just go and rob them? Yesterday I risked being exposed to barely manage to gather seventy or so fresh ones for you, how come they're all dead in just one day? Didn't you say you could last for three more days?"
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