NOVPUBZhou Bai looked at the scene before him and sighed inwardly, "Human experimentation? The Plague Department really has lost all its bottom line as I had thought."
His mind suddenly recalled the process by which Yan Tianjun of the Plague Department used human lives to create aberrant weapons.
"Since you have no bottom line, then I won't be particular about integrity when dealing with you."
...
Yan Shan witnessed the entire accident from beginning to end.
When he saw those lines of distorted text and felt his mind gradually become chaotic, he was the first to realize something was wrong.
It was a sensation similar to when he had previously been attacked by Gu Letian.
Fear acted before his brain had time to react, prompting him to dodge the flashing text in the air.
Then, to his astonishment, a cultivator of the Fifth Realm ferociously unleashed the power of his Primordial Spirit and shut down the Array, the name he chanted making Yan Shan's blood run cold.
"My name, Gu Letian. Who is summoning me?"
Yan Shan stared in fear, 'Gu Letian... has he truly arrived?'
All layers of the Array were directly shut down, and an evil presence swept through the place. Accompanied by distorted text flying through the air, cultivators stood still as if their souls had been stolen.
In Yan Shan's fearful gaze, the sky above the laboratory was torn open, and a mass of black, twisted material slowly descended from the heavens.
The black substance continuously twisted and undulated as if heads were struggling inside, trying to break free.
'Is this something summoned by Gu Letian?'
'What foolishness have we done! Why did we provoke him?!'
Yan Shan looked in horror at the mass of black material. 𝒏𝙤𝙫𝒑𝙪𝙗.𝙘𝒐𝙢
The next moment, roars sounded, and Yan Shan saw that the real Poison Master, standing beside him, had stepped forward.
"It's the real Poison Master! He's a cultivator of the Eighth Realm, perhaps he could..."
The real Poison Master had barely taken a step when he suddenly froze in place, confusion flickering in his eyes.
An evil voice came from the darkness.
"Mortals must not gaze directly at the Heavenly Dao."
Greed being stripped away...
Life being stripped away...
Strength being stripped away...
All desires for food, life, power, riches, and the opposite sex were stripped from the real Poison Master.
Clutching his head, he screamed in agony, then turned to look at Yan Shan with a face of despair.
Such was the look of utter despair; Yan Shan saw not even a hint of attachment to life in his eyes, as if everything in the world had lost its meaning to him.
Yan Shan could not imagine what he had experienced to show such a look of despair.
Was this really the real Poison Master who treated civilians like ants and unscrupulously experimented on humans? The real Poison Master with a heart of stone and ruthless methods?
The next moment, under Yan Shan's horrified gaze, the real Poison Master directly shattered his own heart and slowly collapsed to the ground.
Immediately after, a boundless black ooze poured out from the mass of darkness like a tidal wave, engulfing the entire laboratory.
Hands made of black mud reached out from the wave, grabbing at the soulless cultivators.
Yan Shan watched as numerous black little hands gripped his body. He wanted to resist but felt whispers in the air sap his strength.
In the distance, some cultivators from the Plague Department started to commit suicide, others crazily attacked those around them.
Desperation flashed in Yan Shan's eyes, and the next moment, darkness completely swallowed his vision.
Meanwhile, a clear alarm sounded throughout the special management district, and throngs of personnel retreated to the outside. Occasionally, some cultivators went against the flow, rushing towards the direction of the laboratory.
Waiting in the office area, Meng Ruocun stared blankly at everything, completely clueless about what had happened.
She stopped a fleeing staff member and asked loudly, "What happened?"
"The distortion outbreak from the laboratory!" The staff member said in panic, "Run for it!"
"Distortion outbreak?" Meng Ruocun walked to the window in a daze and looked toward the laboratory.
There, she saw the once impregnable laboratory crumble, with large patches of black mire gushing out from its crevices.
More and more cultivators gathered around, employing Daoist magic to stop the spread of the black mire.
...
"...in the end, you were enveloped by the black mire and passed out, that's all you experienced in this accident. Do you have anything else to add?"
Yan Shan lay in the hospital bed, with two members of the Plague Department sitting in front of him.
Yan Shan glanced at them and shook his head slightly, "No, that's all."
As they prepared to leave, Yan Shan couldn't help but ask, "How many people died?"
"I'm sorry, the accident is still under investigation, and we cannot disclose any information at this moment."
Watching their retreating figures, Yan Shan turned his head, flashes of the laboratory persisted in his mind, spurring a deep-seated fear and exhaustion.
"Can we really catch Gu Letian?"
"We don't even know what he is..."
In this moment, Yan Shan felt an impulse surging within him—that was to abandon revenge and return to Central City.
Whether to be kept like livestock or to be looked down upon, he just wanted to spend the remainder of his life in Central City, to live out his days in peace, never again delving into anything related to Gu Letian, the distortions, the madness, those malevolent beings—he no longer wished to have any part of it.
Moments later, there was a knock on the door, it was Meng Ruocun who walked in, "Yan Shan, are you alright?"
...
On the other side, among the ruins of the laboratory, a large number of people were sorting through the debris, continuously unearthing various instruments and relics.
Suddenly, someone shouted, "A Sealing Shadow Charm! I've found a Sealing Shadow Charm!"
Not long after, the Sealing Shadow Charm was placed on a conference table, and as images played out one after another, Plague Department cultivators occasionally gasped in shock.
After watching, a long silence ensued, then someone said, "Is this... Gu Letian?"
"Clearly, the real people of the Plague Department had an accident during their experiment; during the process of reading that book, they summoned a malevolent entity."
"Over 30 Plague Department cultivators committed suicide. Over 20 people attacked each other, resulting in injuries and disabilities. The remaining bodies are still being excavated."
"A significant amount of materials, equipment, and magical treasures vanished along with the Guihai Black Evil wave."
"The Three Pure Dao Sect is inquiring about what we did, demanding an explanation."
"What about Qiu Xingze?"
"Unconscious."
"And the book?"
"Gone."
"What about Zhou Bai? He's the one who brought out that book, right?"
"At the time of the incident, we found him in a massage parlor."
"..."
"Report the situation up to Lord Luo Tian, it's no longer something we can decide."
...
Zhou Bai glared at Christina in front of him and said, "There are so many places you could've gone... why to that kind of establishment? You've ruined my reputation!"
Christina hung her head and sighed, "Ah, who knew you humans were so depraved... they told me it was just a normal massage."
Zhou Bai: "Why on earth would you get a massage?!"
Christina, indignant, retorted, "Foolish human, you have no idea how nice a back massage feels."
