Chapter 1537: Harmless Treatment
In the narrow ventilation duct, the spirit magnet kept splitting into dozens of small strands of mercury, each finding and drilling into an exhaust fan that was running at full power or even at an overload.
The originally rhythmic running sound of the exhaust fans suddenly became uneven, sharp, and ear-piercing. It was as if their internal parts had fallen off. Driven by the high-speed propellers, the inner walls of the exhaust fans were scratched and riddled with holes.
Accompanied by plenty of sparks and smoke, the dozens of exhaust fans that were scattered all over the ventilation duct almost became paralyzed at the same time.
With just a wall acting as separation, the expanding flames and thick smoke in the burning, as well as exploding, sewage treatment station, immediately poured into the underground laboratory. It turned the area around the tunnel into a mess.
Chi! Chi!
The automatic fire protection and antivirus facilities installed above the tunnel were all activated, and they sprayed a large amount of sticky foam down.
The staff in the underground laboratory had already put on three layers of protective clothing. Their line of sight went beyond their gas masks, but their field of vision was narrow and visibility extremely low.
Now, their gas masks were stained with plenty of foam, which they could not wipe clean no matter how hard they tried. Between the bright flames and the black poisonous fog, it was naturally more difficult to detect the presence of intruders.
Moreover, when the fire and anti-virus systems had been automatically activated, a large door had silently opened from the seemingly smooth tunnel wall. There was a small fire station with a variety of safety equipment inside, including fire foam spray cans, negative pressure airproof clothing, gas masks, first aid kits, and many other safety equipment.
Originally, the equipment had been prepared for workers who suddenly got exposed to high temperatures or highly toxic environments and did not have time to escape to the safety zone.
But now, it worked to Meng Chao’s advantage.
He retrieved all the strands of the spirit magnet from the ventilation duct and made sure not to leave even half a drop of “mercury” behind.
Even if the people from Horizon checked the exhaust fans that had been burned into sc.r.a.p metal, they would only a.s.sume that the earthquake had been too strong, the flames had been too fierce, and the toxic fog had contained a high degree of erosion. Hence, the entire system became paralyzed as a result.
Before a large number of workers stumbled into the tunnel, Meng Chao quickly put on a full set of equipment and smeared a large amount of foam on his gas mask, turning into a shiny, human-shaped tin.
He leaned against the corner of the wall and coughed loudly, pretending to inhale a lot of poisonous fog, which burned his esophagus and lungs.
Sure enough, the workers were most concerned about the earthquake’s energy level and trend, as well as managing the sewage treatment system’s damage. They did not care about his life or death.
Only a rather fierce worker grabbed him and asked about the situation outside.
Obviously, he was fooled by Meng Chao’s superb acting skills.
When a large number of workers rushed out of the tunnel, Meng Chao moved against the current and went straight into the heart of the underground laboratory.
He secretly poked a small hole under his gas mask, allowing the aura and sound from the outside world to leak in.
At that moment, Meng Chao still did not know the exact structure of this labyrinthine underground laboratory.
But that was not a problem.
As the earthquake waves and spirit magnetic storm kept crashing into the underground laboratory, the monsters imprisoned there all became restless. They let out ferocious, mournful, fearful, and distorted howls from time to time.
They also secreted a large amount of sweat with a very strong smell.
Following the sound and aura, Meng Chao easily locked onto the location where a large number of monsters were gathered.
“The monsters are the best carriers of the Blood Flower.
“Since this is the Blood Flower laboratory, the large number of monsters gathered here are naturally the raw materials for the experiments.
“In other words, as long as we find the monsters, we can follow the clues and find the underground laboratory’s core area!”
The first thing that Meng Chao found was not a living monster.
Instead, it was a large number of b.l.o.o.d.y, oddly-shaped monster corpses.
They were all piled up in a harmless treatment workshop.
Most of the monsters had gone through high-intensity experiments. After they died, they had to be sent to the acid pool and the incinerator. They had to be decomposed into the most basic particles or even turned into ashes before they were discharged into the sewage treatment system for the next heavy process.
“These… What the h.e.l.l are they?”
Seeing rows of monster corpses dangling in the air from huge iron hooks, Meng Chao secretly frowned.
He had seen a lot of things.
From Dragon City to Picturesque Orchid Lake, from monsters to Totem Beasts, and even in his fragmented apocalyptic nightmares and the mottled ancient battlefield, he had seen all kinds of strange creatures.
That was especially so when his cultivation advanced to the Deity Realm.
Even if the Crystalline Nine-headed Dragon appeared in front of him, he could still talk and laugh with it.
However, should he extract the ugliest monsters from the depths of his memory, compared with the ferocious appearance of the monster corpses in front of him, Meng Chao still could not distinguish which kind was creepier.
At first glance, these monsters looked like they were part of the Demonic Halberd Pig’s subspecies.
There was a large population of Demonic Halberd Pigs. They had strong reproductive and adaptive abilities as well as thick skin. They could withstand all kinds of modulation and were the best specimens for conducting biochemical experiments. They were the lab rat equivalent of monsters.
Agricultural University had previously bred a very special Demonic Halberd Pig. Using gene knockout, the Demonic Halberd Pig’s tusks, thick skin, and mane were removed, making the white and fat pig look like a lab rat that had been magnified hundreds of times.
However, the little white pigs hanging there…
Meng Chao spotted a Demonic Halberd Pig. Indeed, with gene knockout, its tusks, thick skin, and mane had been removed at the embryonic stage.
Meanwhile, its entire body was inlaid with hundreds of eyeb.a.l.l.s!
Even though the Demonic Halberd Pig had died long ago, most of its eyeb.a.l.l.s were still bulging, and they were filled with radiating blood vessels. They were like tumors that still maintained their vigorous vitality.
No, it was not as simple as tumors.
The pig had died with its eyes wide open, and Meng Chao sensed a few wisps of fear from the eyeb.a.l.l.s.
He realized that the eyeb.a.l.l.s had just released an extremely high-intensity spirit attack.
“These d*mn things are fundamentally different from the Demonic Halberd Pig’s natural eyeb.a.l.l.s.
“These aren’t the eyeb.a.l.l.s of Demonic Halberd Pigs at all. Instead, they had apparently shrunk the Demonic Air Ripping Eye by a few hundred times and forcefully grafted it onto the Demonic Halberd Pig’s body.
“Could the genes of the Demonic Halberd Pig and Demonic Air Splitting Eye be intertwined through Blood Flower’s stimulation?
“To come up with such a gene modulation method, the person in charge of this laboratory is definitely a genius, an extremely evil genius!
“Nevertheless, there seems to be a slight deviation in his train of thought.
“The Demonic Air Splitting Eye’s spirit attack originates from its brain, which occupies more than 90% of the s.p.a.ce in its body, not from the eyeb.a.l.l.s floating on the surface.
“No matter how many eyes grow on the Demonic Halberd Pig’s body through genetic modification technology, if its brain isn’t fundamentally modified, it won’t be able to release too strong a spirit attack. Instead, the Demonic Halberd Pig’s brain would be drained due to overload from the spirit attack.
“This Demonic Halberd Pig must have died of brain edema and brain failure caused by the spirit backlash, right?”
Meng Chao noticed that there were faint burn marks on the pig’s nose, ears, and mouth.
It must have been caused by the spontaneous combustion of the brain and the fire escaping from its seven orifices because it could not withstand the spirit backlash.
Although there was a problem with the idea, failure was the mother of success.
Meng Chao could completely imagine that after repeated attempts, the host of the laboratory overcame a series of technical difficulties. He could make a large number of the pigs, and they could be seen everywhere. Their skin was rough, and their flesh was thick. The Demonic Halberd Pig, which possessed considerable physical attack, had mastered the ability to release Fear Bombs at will, just like the Demonic Air Splitting Eye.
At one point, he would have a terrifying “monster army”!
Moreover, this was just the Demonic Halberd Pig.
After all, Meng Chao had extracted a large number of fierce high-level beast remains that were hundreds of times more powerful than the Demonic Halberd Pig from the underground river!