7.11 – At this moment, everything caught up to him
translator: xiin
editors: alamerysl & BlueBug
Lou Cen sent Xue Ling home in the evening, and Xue Ling snuck out of the house that night.
The Duke"s Palace was silent in the middle of the night. Xue Ling had the system shield him from the Duke"s Palace"s security and monitoring, and ran out without anyone noticing him.
For some things, once he made the decision to do it, he did not want to procrastinate in case something else happened that was not within his control.
The underground city was always open, and there were actually more people there at night. Xue Ling had the system hide him from view. He could not let anyone know that he had been here, or leave even the slightest clue of his presence.
The laboratory did not carry out any experiments at night. When Xue Ling stepped into the lab, the scans provided by the system showed that there were not many people inside. Xue Ling ordered the system to invade the research lab"s system and turn on the state of emergency, sending messages to all of the researchers" nano-computers and request for them to rush to the Research Laboratory immediately.
The ocean – over a thousand miles away from its emperor – suddenly became turbulent at this moment, waves surging restlessly as an unknown force seemed to take control over the water, startling awake quite a few deep-sea merfolk.
This familiar fluctuation brought tears to many merfolk"s eyes. It was a fluctuation that couldn’t possibly be more familiar to them. Over a decade ago, before their king left them, the ocean had also roared like this. That time, the ocean had wanted to protect their emperor, but this time it was their ruler who was controlling the ocean.
The sea water constantly flowed **, and following Xue Ling"s will, it poured into the research laboratory"s underground rooms.
Countless instruments and equipment were all submerged in water. Researchers all received urgent summons, and everyone rushed to the laboratory"s rooms.
They were all in a panic, because the research laboratory"s central control system was completely paralyzed. They could not control the system to see the situation across the entire laboratory, and there were still patients waiting to be transformed into merfolk, and artificial merfolk who had already been operated on in the facilities. If any problems occurred here, then the link between them and the entire underground city would be broken, and a lot of problems would arise.
Meanwhile, Lou Cen was startled awake from his sleep.
He had gone to bed particularly early today, and slept particularly deeply. Perhaps it was precisely because of this that everything in his dream had seemed so real, real to the point where his entire back was drenched in cold sweat, and his brain was thrown into confusion.
There had been no sound in his dream. Everything was so quiet that he could not see anything but a merperson lying on a cold research table.
That merperson looked exactly like his little merman, but Lou Cen knew deep in his heart that this was not the little merman that he knew.
Nevertheless, he still could not accept that a person who looked exactly the same as his merman suffering that kind of cruel treatment. His scales had been cut off and torn off over and over again, and his entire fishtail was b.l.o.o.d.y; his flesh and blood were the psychopathic researchers" study materials, and they came to collect some every few days. They would use a scalpel and joke around as they cut his flesh from his body.
No one was allowed to treat a merperson like this. Those people were simply crazy.
The little merman laid on the cold research table, and it seemed that he had already become numb to such daily torture. His face was always expressionless, and his eyes seemed to contain no life, but sometimes he would blink, and in those times, Lou Cen could see that there was still hope in his eyes.
Until one day, the researchers whispered something into his ear, and then Lou Cen discovered that the will to survive had thoroughly disappeared from his eyes.
Lou Cen did not know what kind of news that had been, but he felt a lot of pain in his heart.
Although he knew that this merman was not his favorite person, he was still distressed for this little merman. Being able to hold on day after day despite his daily treatment indicated that he was a strong person, but because of that researcher"s words, he had lost the courage to live… Who was it that had the heart to make him let go of the world…
Lou Cen’s thoughts were still churning when he saw the little merman looking in his direction, stunned. He opened his mouth, and made a sound.
His eyes were full of tears as he looked at Lou Cen, grievance and resentment written on his face, and his eyes full of despair. "…"
Lou Cen woke up from his sleep and unconsciously opened his nano-computer"s interface, wanting to get into contact with Xue Ling.
But the displayed time brought him back to himself, and he stayed his hand. Everything that happened in the dream felt particularly real, and he could still recall the cold touch of those instruments. Lou Cen ma.s.saged his forehead, pondering about exactly where the scenario in his dream would appear. If it was really an illegal merfolk research laboratory, then weren"t the merfolk kept inside living lives as miserable as the one that he had seen in his dream?
Even a breeder may not be able to endure that kind of torture, but that little merman forced himself to suffer through it…
Only, he had not been able to hold on until the person he had been waiting for came for him, and had left forever.
His nano-computer flickered, and Lou Cen came back to himself and opened the message.
[ Something happened in the underground city. Do you want to come and see? ]
This person was an informant of his from the underground city. For him to send news to him at this time meant that a major incident had really happened there.
Speaking of the underground city, Lou Cen"s brow wrinkled slightly. If there was really such a laboratory, then the most likely place for it to exist would be there…
It would be best if this kind of place was destroyed.
The seawater had completely flooded the underground level of the research laboratory. The good news was it had not continued to rise. Because the fact that an incident had occurred had been spread out, the research laboratory was surrounded by quite a few people, and all the researchers had been called together in the main control room, many people were blocked outside the entrance with disappointed expressions.
But, as they waited, the researchers did not come out. Instead, they smelled the scent of blood.
The system"s fur was all standing on end, because the scene before its eyes was rather beyond its ability to accept. It had followed its host for so long, but this was the first time that it had seen its host so vicious. It had followed its host"s arrangements and gathered all the researchers together, and then its host had locked them all up in the room.
And killed them all one by one.
Although it was difficult, Xue Ling still forcefully pulled on all the power he could use from this body. As a big demon, it was not as though he had never killed before, and the people before him now were all the culprits responsible for torturing and killing the original owner of this body. Although they still had backers and financiers behind them who funded their research, without the researchers, the original body would not have been tortured to the point where he chose death.
Destroying them was tantamount to destroying the research laboratory. After saving a copy, Xue Ling formatted all the data from the research laboratory, and sent it to the Imperial Research Academy, which was the place that advocated the loudest for the protection of merfolk. If these things were to be seen by them, those old scientist would definitely swarm into the streets to protest and pet.i.tion for the destruction of such a place.
All the information had been destroyed, and what was left was to kill everyone.
Researchers were mostly ordinary people, with very few breeders within their jurisdiction. The first thing that Xue Ling did was to kill them all.
He did not have to show his face. The seawater was his greatest weapon. Water was the best, most flexible tool for killing. As long as he willed it, it would become any sort of killing tool. Even after they were shot through with water arrows, those breeders still did not know where their enemies were and what the situation was.
Xue Ling turned on ma.s.sacre mode.
Blood flowed to the ground and mixed with the seawater, slowly diluting until it gradually became impossible to see.
Within the room, corpses were piled in a mess all over the floor. Xue Ling tiredly stood up, and had the system check the number of researchers one last time and cross check it against the log of researchers who had entered to make sure he had not missed any, and prepared to leave.
He could not keep up his current physical strength for much longer, and could only hope that the road back went smoothly. Using this body"s ability early had the possibility of triggering his maturity phase to begin ahead of time, and he would have to sleep for a while. He could not pa.s.s out before he wrapped up some things.
The people outside had already encircled the entire research facility. Because the matter this time was quite big, and some people had smelled the scent of blood, knocking on the door without receiving a response, the underground city guards had been alerted, and they were now trying to force the door open.
Xue Ling slipped out by taking advantage of the gap between them as they pried open the door. His steps staggered a little, and his head felt faint.
This was why he did not like the bodies in these worlds. The power of his own body was suppressed, and he could only use these strange little skills, and there were none that were useful when he really needed to use them. Xue Ling was a little annoyed about the uselessness of his own body, and had just planned to leave after resting for a while, but he unexpectedly saw Lou Cen"s figure.
“What is he doing here…” Xue Ling had not thought that the man would not be sleeping in the middle of the night and instead come here to watch the bustle. It was still bustling here, and when those thirty odd researchers were discovered in the room, the entire underground city would be sealed up. Lou Cen"s ident.i.ty was questionable, and it would be a very big problem if he was discovered here. Also, he was an SSS breeder, and he was the one they were most likely to label a murderer out of the people here.
Xue Ling rather disdainfully pursed his lips, and although he really wanted to call the man a pig teammate, he still headed in his direction.
Lou Cen seemed to want to fish in muddy water to see what would come out. The strength of the people around him was not as high as his, so he met with no resistance as he walked forwards, but just as he was about to approach, a pair of hands tugged on his own.
Lou Cen’s footsteps hesitated, and his entire body tensed up. There was n.o.body close to him, but he could clearly feel that there was a pair of hands holding his. If he hadn"t been rather familiar with that person"s aura, he would have already made a move by now.
“Keep quiet. Follow me. I"m afraid you won"t be able to get out later." Xue Ling lowered his voice and spoke quietly by the man"s ear, and then had his wish fulfilled as he watched the man"s face turn ugly.
He only had to think about it to understand. He had not been sleeping at home in the middle of the night and rather showed up in this kind of place, it would be strange if the man"s expression was good.
Lou Cen wanted to open his mouth and say something, but felt Xue Ling pinch his arm, and shut his mouth. Even so, his expression was bad, and his face clearly conveyed the words "I need an explanation" in capital letters.
Xue Ling had originally already been at the end of his strength, and was too lazy to concern himself over his temper. He had the system arrange a protective shield for the man, and then pulled the man all the way out of the underground city. It was not until they arrived outside the Central Mall, and were in front of the suspension car that he had sneakily driven over that Xue Ling finally let out a breath of relief, his entire body collapsing into the man"s arms.
Lou Cen frowned as he caught him in his embrace. He picked him up, and carried him into the car.
When the door was closed, Xue Ling finally gasped out, "They will close up the underground city soon. There are only records of you entering, but none of you leaving. You"ll definitely come under suspicion. The two ident.i.ties that you"ve set up can"t be used anymore, and need to be destroyed as soon as possible."
Lou Cen looked at his pale face and pressed his lips together. “I’ll handle these things. What’s wrong with you now? Did something happen to your body? Should I take you to the hospital?"
Xue Ling waved his hand. “It’s all right. The excessive use of strength has forced the maturity phase to come early, that"s all." He said it like that, but his face showed his unhappiness. "Sure enough, I was still too anxious. If I"d known that there would be so many researchers, I would have waited until adulthood before going."
With Lou Cen"s level of intelligence, the fact that he had shown up here, and adding on his words, was enough for him to approximately figure out the gist of what had happened here. And considering the dream he had tonight, General Lou"s body began to emit a chilling aura.
“Although I can wait, there are some things that I think you’d better make clear to me now.” Lou Cen pulled Xue Ling into his arms, and stroked his hair. "Wenwen, I want to protect you, rather than not knowing anything while you keep everything from me. I don"t want to only realize what"s going on after it has happened."
Xue Ling curved his lips, and had been about to speak when his expression suddenly turned solemn.
The suspension car started when it received his command, but a leisurely sound floated in from outside.
“Your Highness needn’t worry too much. I only followed the aura you left behind to see if I could find you. I had not expected to be so lucky." This person’s spiritual powers were very strong – his words could be transmitted directly through the suspension car and into the interior.
At this moment, everything caught up to him, and Xue Ling rubbed his forehead in some frustration. Although he did not regret today"s actions, all his matters had collided together, leaving him rather exhausted.