Chapter 26: Night Spirit
“Team alpha? An A rank organism? How many people did they lose?”
“There wasn’t a single casualty, it was an orphaned pup. It was probably born just a few days ago!”
“What a lucky find! They won’t be able to spend all of that huge commission fee from Juli Corp for the rest of their lives!”
Zhou Yu paused. He thought that Mo Ye was pretty lucky to not have ended up like that A rank organism. Despite all its power, it still ended up as research material.
It was scared. It was crying for help.
Zhou Yu suddenly opened his eyes, overcome by a bad premonition. He pushed aside the covers and dashed out.
At night, the base entered into a secured state. Zhou Yu was only able to move around in the resting area for field personnel, he couldn’t go anywhere else.
Zhou Yu immediately contacted Song Zhi through the intercom.
“Mr. Song, I want to see the A rank organism team alpha brought back!”
“Certainly. I will grant you access privileges. It’s in the biological conservation center in area X.” Song Zhi agreed without asking for any explanations.
“Thank you.”
Zhou Yu opened the pa.s.sageway and quickly headed for area X.
There were various types of life forms isolated behind transparent walls and all kinds of plants were growing there as well. It reminded Zhou Yu of the first time he had been inside Juli Corp’s research center in that desolate botanical garden.
At the innermost corner of the area, Zhou Yu saw researchers bustling about and also Song Zhi in a black suit.
Song Zhi turned with his arms crossed in contemplation and saw Zhou Yu.
In the gla.s.s box behind him was Mo Ye!
It was curled up inside, looking downcast. Even its ears and wings were drooping.
“Why is it here…” Zhou Yu walked up to the gla.s.s wall and placed his palm onto it.
“You recognize it?” Song Zhi looked at Zhou Yu with interest, “Looks like there are still many secrets you haven’t told me.”
“How did you capture it?” Zhou Yu asked Song Zhi.
There was an oppressive edge to his gaze.
“It climbed onto team alpha’s car. They discovered it when they were scanned upon returning to the base.” Song Zhi watched Zhou Yu’s expression, then he suddenly came to a realization, “It came to find you, didn’t it?”
Zhou Yu clenched his fist, neither confirming nor denying it.
“This type of creature is called a night spirit. It won’t grow to be very big and it’s not strong at attacking, but it is very rare,“ Song Zhi replied.
“If it has a docile temperament, why is it cla.s.sified as rank?”
“Organisms are not ranked by their level of danger. It’s just that in the usual case, higher ranked organisms have more destructive potential. However, the night spirit… their bodies contain a special type of enzyme that is only emitted for only a brief period of time. It can speed up the healing process of wounds, promoting the synthesis of hemoglobins. It’s completely miraculous, and it has top research value.”
Zhou Yu’s fingertips trembled. No wonder he had been able to survive after being stabbed by all those sharp-beaked fish, it was because of Mo Ye!
“We’ve been wanting to study such an organism for a long time, but they truly are very rare. We’ve only been able to find the remains of such a creature before. The research team was able to use those remains to clone a night spirit. However, the base was destroyed and the embryo vanished from the face of the earth.”
Zhou Yu’s face remained expressionless, but in his heart, he understood that Mo Ye was the clone created by the research team.
Nevertheless, Song Zhi was observant enough to detect the change in Zhou Yi’s mood.
“Wu Yun mentioned in his report that he tried to bring back a box containing an embryo, which had been successfully incubated. Unfortunately, the surviving hatchling fell into the Angel’s Tears with you… therefore, this must be…” Song Zhi pointed to Mo Ye on the other side of the gla.s.s wall.
“That’s right,” answered Zhou Yu.
“You should have reported that to me.” Song Zhi didn’t seem to intend to criticize Zhou Yu, but his tone was very low.
In any case, Zhou Yu didn’t plan on lying. He looked at Mo Ye.
Mo Ye, who had been curled up the entire time, seemed to sense Zhou Yu’s line of sight and slowly raised its head. When its gaze met Zhou Yu’s, its ears perked up and its little wings started to flap. It charged at Zhou Yu, but it knocked into the gla.s.s wall and bounced back instead.
It immediately got back up and switched to a different position to rush forward, only to crash into the gla.s.s again.
“Mo Ye! Stop!” Zhou Yu beat the gla.s.s.
Mo Ye, however, was persistent. He rammed into the gla.s.s again and again. It was unable to comprehend how it was separated from Zhou Yu, who was just in front of it.
It started running towards him with more and more power so that even the gla.s.s walls started to tremble. Each time it fell down it showed a hurt expression. It looked miserably at Zhou Yu, but it continued to use even more force the next time.
It glared with its large eyes, angry. It retreated to the furthest corner and madly ran forward.
Zhou Yu was struck with terror. Mo Ye seemed to be unhesitant in destroying itself in order to enter into Zhou Yu’s world
The monitors issued a warning. The researchers had no choice but to look to Song Zhi for instructions, “Mr. Song, if this continues… That night spirit will ram itself to death…”
“Release a sedative gas,” Song Zhi issued an order.
“That won’t work, the sedative gas is ineffective against this type of organism! The enzyme in their body will quickly neutralize the sedative!”
“Then…”
“Let it out!” Zhou Yu hauled up the researcher by the collar.
“That’s impossible,” Song Zhi walked over and placed his hand on Zhou Yu’s shoulder, “Night spirits are extremely fast creatures. If we let it out then it will be very hard to capture it again.”
“So you’ll watch it ram itself to death?”
“Mr. Song, according to the scan results, it has already cracked its shoulder bone from the impact of collision.”
“Ignore it. Night spirits have a strong recovery ability.”
“What?” The researchers were shocked.
Song Zhi only looked at Zhou Yu through his downturned eyelashes, “You planned on releasing it into freedom, didn’t you? Since it did not cherish that freedom, then it must pay the price.”
Zhou Yu clenched his fist, he knew deep in his heart that once Mo Ye was fixed on doing something, it would do it even if it split open its own skull. In Mo Ye’s mind, he, Zhou Yu, was more important than its freedom.
“If you won’t let it out, then let me in,” said Zhou Yu.
“Zhou Yu, don’t do anything foolish,” Song Zhi coldly warned him.
“Foolish? Do you think I’ll run off with it? A small team of guards here are more than capable of beating me into pulp. You would you rather study a night spirit dead than alive?”
After Zhou Yu spoke, the other researchers looked to Song Zhi as well.
Song Zhi sighed again, “Fine, let Zhou Yu in. I absolutely won’t allow that night spirit to come out.”
Saying that, Song Zhi turned around and left.
Zhou Yu came to the double-layered entrance. He walked in when the first door opened.
When Mo Ye understood that Zhou Yu was going to come inside, it immediately hurried to the door and started banging on it with its claws.
When the outer door closed, the second, inner door opened. Mo Ye leaped up and threw itself into Zhou Yu’s embrace.
Zhou Yu held it, it was soft and warm, but also much lighter.
“Didn’t I tell you to leave? Why didn’t you listen? Now you’re stuck behind a gla.s.s room, are you happy??”
Zhou Yu hugged Mo Ye while sighing over Mo Ye.
Mo Ye rubbed its head all over Zhou Yu’s chest, and hooked its claws onto Zhou Yu’s collar, refusing to let go.
Zhou Yu leaned against the wall and sat down while feeling around its ears and wings. Just as he touched its left wing, it cried out. It had been fractured when it was running into the gla.s.s.
“You little dummy. This gla.s.s is made with special materials, its density surpa.s.ses metal. You can’t break it,” Zhou Yu sighed. If there was anything left in the world that could make him feel so helpless, it was probably just Mo Ye.
Mo Yu sniffed the finger Zhou Yu had used to poke him with an expression of antic.i.p.ation. Zhou Yu realized what it wanted to do, so he sent his index finger into Mo Ye’s mouth. Its little tongue wrapped around him as expected, and after a slight sting, Zhou Yu felt an indescribable mood wash over him.
Unwilling to part, reluctant to let go.
It was the first time Zhou Yu really felt like he was the center of the world to another being.
Mo Ye turned to the side and nestled on top of Zhou’s leg. It squinted and displayed a pleased look.
Zhou Yu helplessly shook his head.
Mo Ye raised its fractured wing and it let out a crackling sound, then it flapped the wing lightly.
Zhou Yu knew that it had recovered.
He couldn’t feel Mo Ye sucking on him anymore, it was probably full now. Zhou Yu stroked its back, its soft down slowly rose and fell with its breaths, like a gentle wave. Everything was peaceful.
Zhou Yu thought that Mo Ye had fallen asleep. Just as he was about to retrieve his finger, Mo Ye suddenly opened its eyes and looked at Zhou Yu with alertness. It bit down hard on Zhou Yu’s finger, and although it didn’t hurt, he was completely unable to break free from it.