Bai Chunian surveyed the area. The exit was blocked by these four, and there was no retreat. The dome above had curved glass, but breaking it from inside wouldn’t be easy.
His gaze settled on the alpha carrying the light machine gun—large, muscular, unlike the usual slim, pale, youthful specimen.
“You are…?”
“3114, Imperial Crocodile,” the alpha said, setting the gun on the ground, legs apart. His scaled forearms were as thick as others’ thighs, olive eyes slitted like a crocodile’s.
Noticing Bai Chunian’s suspicion, he laughed roughly: “Not all specimens were designed by one person. Yours came from that perverse Hummingbird Aileen—stick-thin, unremarkable.”
Eris turned to him, firing a shot: “Shut up. Even riding a cab, you’d be squished in the back, head down, dummy.”
At this close range, ordinary bodies would have been riddled with pellets. The shotgun blast splattered across Imperial Crocodile’s chest, yet it struck like nails against a fortified wall.
Imperial Crocodile shifted slightly, and the scattered pellets fell to the floor. His skin, armored like crocodile hide, barely dented and quickly returned to its original shape.
“Nyx, handle him.” Imperial Crocodile brushed the fragments from his scales and turned to the blond alpha in the suit sitting by the reagent table.
The blond alpha coughed lightly. “Eris, don’t start infighting.”
“Snitches never amount to anything anyway,” Eris grumbled, yet restrained himself, hugging the shotgun as if obeying some unspoken rule.
“Nyx?” Bai Chunian glanced over. “The Puppeteer? You’re with Red Throat Bird—what are you doing here?”
“No longer,” Nyx said, loosening his unbuttoned collar for a breath of air.
“The one behind me, Ji Sheng Gu, is our friend. He just matured today, and we’re here to take him. And conveniently, you get to witness the birth of the most beautiful creature in the world.”
Bai Chunian glanced back at Ji Sheng Gu’s remaining cultivation time: 10 minutes and 45 seconds.
He already knew from Golden Silk Worm’s testimony why the Puppeteer had left the Red Throat Bird terror organization.
Red Throat Bird had purchased too many specimens in their cultivation periods. To reach maturity, these specimens required massive feeding, usually provided manually. The fastest way to accelerate maturity was to feed them humans. But Red Throat Bird lacked sufficient feed for the captured specimens, so they had to continue buying AC accelerants from Research Institute 109. Mature specimens also required regular injections of expensive anti-interference vaccines to prevent infection from special viruses.
It was essentially a high-level dependency. Though the factions buying specimens gained cutting-edge weaponry, they became tied to the institute’s products. For wealthy factions, it was a minor cost, but it allowed Research Institute 109 to grow rapidly and secure its global influence.
After Red Throat Bird lost important assets (white lion cubs) in M-port, their leader refused further cooperation, halting purchases of special weapons and associated products. Some core members, led by the Puppeteer, argued for continuing purchases. This internal conflict sparked turmoil, and several key members left with loyal subordinates. The Puppeteer had initiated and planned this defection.
“Coming out in broad daylight like this—aren’t you afraid of Red Throat Bird’s leader retaliating?”
“Retaliation?” Nyx crossed his legs and lit a cigar. “I joined Red Throat Bird for resources. Didn’t get what I wanted—why stay? You? You work for IOA. What do you want?”
“I work for the one who gave me a second life. Our ideals align.”
“Nothing more than revenge against the institute. Divine Envoy, join us—your wish will be fulfilled soon.” Nyx smiled, walking to the deep water tank, flicking ash while manipulating the control panel. “I heard you’re close with Electric Phantom—we welcome him too. This place is free: no laws, no rules. The strong enjoy everything and can personally deal with those they dislike.”
Bai Chunian raised his hands. “You all are great at poaching. Several faction leaders have already told me the same thing.”
Eris nudged him with the gun. “You really won’t join? You can forgive me for the lies. Nyx is good—you see the new outfit he made me.” He adjusted the slightly crooked gem on his collar.
“He’s treating you like a puppet, isn’t he? Puppeteers specialize in this.” Bai Chunian almost forgot—Eris’s prototype was originally a cursed doll.
Eris’s expression darkened.
“Then I can’t let you go.” In a flash, he turned and shoved a shotgun round into the barrel, swiftly racking it and aiming directly at Bai Chunian.
Eris’s hands were lightning-fast; reloading had barely a pause.
Bai Chunian had already predicted the move. As Eris pulled the trigger, Bai Chunian dove, sliding under his crotch, grabbing his ankle, and yanking hard.
The exploding round struck Ji Sheng Gu’s glass cultivation pod.
A hole shattered the pod, nutrient fluid spilling out. Imperial Crocodile rushed to press his back against the breach, cursing, “Eris, you useless disaster!”
Eris gleefully fired round after round at Bai Chunian. He darted among cabinets, reagent tables, and instruments with incredible agility, never touching a single obstacle, while Eris rampaged like a natural disaster, leaving nothing intact.
Pellets tore through several pods, and Ji Sheng Gu’s pod erupted with countless holes, fluid spraying faster. The glass cracked under pressure, ready to burst.
If a specimen left the fluid before reaching full cultivation, suffocation and atrophy would occur—precisely why Bai Chunian targeted the pod.
He jumped from above, drew a dagger from his thigh holster, and stabbed downward at Eris’s head. Eris instinctively dodged; Bai Chunian feinted, bypassing him, and jammed the dagger into a crack in the pod, twisting with force.
The pod exploded entirely, fluid flooding the floor. Imperial Crocodile was drenched, while Ji Sheng Gu fell free, his fragile peacock tail feathers quivering weakly in the air.
In the corner, the nearly invisible Mourn silently flipped the hourglass. Ji Sheng Gu returned to position, the leaked fluid pouring back into the pod, glass shards reassembling.
“Ugh.” Bai Chunian ground his teeth in frustration, leveraging the wall, switching guns, and charging at Mourn’s hourglass. Bullets streaked toward Mourn’s head but were blocked by Imperial Crocodile at the last instant.
Bai Chunian landed once more, surrounded on all sides.
He raised an eyebrow lightly. “All of you, come at me together.”
Eris was in full frenzy, unable to stop. Activating his J1 ability, Misfortune Descends, the reagent cabinets around Bai Chunian crashed down like dominoes following his evasive movements.
However, the core laboratory used shadowless lights, rendering Eris’s A3 ability Facing the Abyss useless.
Mourn inverted the hourglass, siphoning all oxygen from Bai Chunian’s landing spot. Yet in the next instant, Bai Chunian leapt off the last collapsing cabinet, swung behind Mourn, and struck hard—Mourn’s spine shattered like white glass.
Imperial Crocodile blocked his path like an unyielding wall. Bai Chunian drew a dagger, spun it in his hand, and drove it toward Imperial Crocodile’s chest.
The sharp blade, infused with all of Bai Chunian’s strength, sank only a centimeter into Imperial Crocodile’s chest. He pressed against the alpha’s shoulders, silently invoking the M2 ability Annihilation on the codename “Imperial Crocodile”—but it had no effect. The alpha did not recognize that name as his true self.
Imperial Crocodile sneered, spreading his hands and clamping Bai Chunian between his chest and back.
His J1 differentiated ability, Giant Crocodile Jaw Shears, inherited the bite force of a prehistoric crocodile, channeling immense shear power through both arms—enough to snap stone instantly. Their body masses were not even comparable. Bai Chunian felt his sternum creak as it nearly fractured under the crushing grip.
Imperial Crocodile mocked, “Little white cat, are you scratching me? Even the Divine Envoy is nothing special.”
“I know, I’m terrible.” Yet within Bai Chunian, a surge of force erupted, shaking apart Imperial Crocodile’s crushing arms. He rebounded off the wall, landed steadily, his bones reinforced with J1 Skeletal Steel. Even under such immense force, he remained unharmed.
Imperial Crocodile was momentarily startled.
Before Bai Chunian could catch his breath, Eris’s shotgun fire slammed toward him again.
Laughing maniacally, Eris shouted, “Want to fight outside? All these lights make me useless!”
Bai Chunian didn’t wish to linger. He dashed again toward Ji Sheng Gu’s cultivation pod, swapping magazines mid-air, chambering a round, and firing decisively at the back of Ji Sheng Gu’s neck—only to be blocked once again by Imperial Crocodile’s wall-like body.
Less than five minutes remained on the maturation timer. If unresolved, disaster would follow.
Nyx watched quietly by the deep water tank.
“Eris, hurry up. Stop playing around.” His voice was soft as he flicked the silver square-keyed device in his fingers.
Resembling a key but lacking teeth, it had a square hole at its tip.
The device sensed Eris, flew toward him, and attached automatically, inserting the square peg under the nape. Slowly, it twisted.
The IOA Medical Society had researched glands’ potential for linkage, fusion, symbiosis, and command relationships—certain glands were naturally able to form a command bond with specific other glands.
Research Institute 109 also discovered this trait. Glands capable of being commanded were typically fully-mimetic specimens (mid-level number 10), with a probability of just 0.003%. Over the years, three Messenger specimens had emerged. Though their individual strength was unremarkable, when paired with a compatible commanding gland, they displayed overwhelming power.
Correspondingly, the commanding specimen was also special, usually possessing one item unusable by anyone else but effective on the commanded.
On Eris, the twisting key was a puppet spring—his commanding master was the Puppeteer.
“Ah, perfect. I’m so addicted to having the key inserted. It feels like I could crush the world.” Eris’s ball-and-socket joints rotated, the silver engravings crawling over him. The faint scent of Erica carnea pheromones filled the air. His pale green eyes fixed on Bai Chunian. “I want to grind your thigh bone to make a ring for someone.”
“…” Bai Chunian staggered back in shock.
Eris’s speed surged. He lunged at Bai Chunian, who dodged, while Eris crashed heavily to the floor, fingers tearing into it with ease.
With ball-and-socket joints capable of infinite rotation, Eris twisted his arm from front to back as Bai Chunian landed behind him, striking Bai Chunian’s abdomen with a devastating blow.
Even with skeletal reinforcement, it felt like a hundred hydraulic presses pounding him at once. Bai Chunian’s back slammed into the wall, then fell onto the shattered reagents on the floor, kneeling and coughing up blood and organ fragments.
Before he could rise, Eris was upon him, seizing his neck and driving a knee into his sternum.
The force exceeded even reinforced bones, sending tremors through his heart.
“Ha ha ha ha—you’re soft like a kitten!” Eris lifted Bai Chunian from behind, lips brushing his gland. “Did you come alone? And Electric Phantom—did you two pretend to be strangers to trick me? I’m so hurt.”
Bai Chunian grabbed Eris’s wrist, silently invoking his ability—but Eris anticipated the move, twisting Bai Chunian’s hand backward with ease.
Bai Chunian gritted his teeth and groaned, veins bulging in his neck.
“Apologize before you die. Say you’ll never dare again.” Eris leaned down, sinking his fangs into Bai Chunian’s gland, tearing at the most vulnerable spot. Pain ripped through him, his body pinned immovably by the Puppeteer.
“Enough.” Nyx waved lightly. Eris released him. Slowly, Nyx approached the kneeling, blood-stained Bai Chunian, squatted, and lifted his chin.
Bai Chunian’s lips and area beneath his nose were bloodied; his face pale, color slowly fading.
“Tell me.” Nyx tucked his blond hair behind his ear, lowering his gaze. “Where did the only HD reagent from the deep-water storage go?”
“…”
“It’s hard to answer, isn’t it?” Nyx gently wiped the blood from the corner of Bai Chunian’s mouth. “Then I’ll ask you—Electric Phantom, where is he?”