The dim lights in the corridor flickered, illuminating bloodstains.

"Quite rare indeed."

A playful voice came from beneath Xie Lan's collar, "Didn't even do it sneakily?"

A sneaky-looking mouse emerged from his collar, chuckling with a hee-hee, "You're scared like this just by a member of the Tong family?"

"The materials I've got are sufficient; there's no need to do something that's not worth the loss," Xie Lan said, walking ahead with hands behind his back. "Besides, when you encounter an opponent who's prepared in advance, the effectiveness of poison and spells are both discounted. Why bother?

Let him deal with those people from the Evil Cult. I still want to mix in Cliff City in the future; why should I make an enemy of the Security Bureau and the Tong family?"

He paused, his smile turning sinister as he looked back,

"Nevertheless, he must be feeling quite regretful."

.

"Fear not a thief who steals but one who covets."

After the elevator opened, Ji Jue couldn't help but sigh with full vigilance—how could he not know Xie Lan?

Even if he didn't know Xie Lan, did he not know himself... pretending to be unconcerned all this while, in reality, still covertly coveting his own little possessions!

Moreover, heaven-sent treasures should belong to the virtuous, right?

So many living Chosen Ones, if you used the Dissociation Technique on them, just the experience gained for the Matrix would be immense, not to mention the materials.

What a great harvest that would be?

Such a pity to cast pearls before swine...

Better write a secret letter to the Security Bureau to report him!

Just like Ji Jue's last inviting probe, throughout the conversation, the other party was similarly probing for intelligence about Ji Jue and his companions—looking at it now, the other party had arrived so much earlier and probably knew the situation inside the hospital building long ago.

That seemingly well-meaning advice at the end was still probing to see if he was aware.

Sneakily inciting Ji Jue and the others to fall into a trap.

As for the reason... being busy with research is probably just an excuse, or partially true, but ultimately, it must be the Undying Disease left by the Nine Evils, right?

He, a member of the Vortex System, would have to be brain-damaged to run into the hospital building.

Just as the crowd faces Slaughter, often calm and composed, nurturing their nature, with eyes as clear as college students; the Embers stay eight hundred miles away from the remnants of the Corrosive Furnace...

Bringing food to someone's door is not done this way.

"It looks like we can't expect much help from the other side."

Ji Jue heaved a sigh and dismissed his initial thoughts. However, when the time came... if everyone was in a bad way, why not conveniently drag the opponent down too?

While dark and cunning thoughts spun through his mind, he heard Tong Hua's worried sigh next to him: "If those who attacked us really are from the Evil Cult, it's going to be bad.

If the Time Ruins collapse in Cliff City, the consequences are unpredictable."

"Don't worry, there are still some who are alive, right?"

Ji Jue finally looked down at the bottom layer of the small cart, where a huddled Chosen One kept trembling and foaming at the mouth.

Still breathing.

Tough life.

Pity...

Ji Jue flicked his fingers, sentimentally pitying: Luck really isn't so good.

.

.

It felt like a very long dream.

A nightmare or a good dream—it was hard to say.

Unprecedented excitement and unprecedented profound lethargy alternated in his brain, the torture of torpor and the rotating satisfaction of joyful exhilaration coming in turns, until it became a feeling of despair like never before.

Will and rationality had dissipated in the scattered hormones.

Turned into a mess of mud.

And when Kong Yebai finally opened his eyes again, he saw a strange ceiling, covered in bloodstains, with red Spiritual Circuits intersecting each other, densely overlaying every inch of the floor, wall, and ceiling, the air filled with the acrid smell of blood, while behind the walls came sharp wails and screams of terror.

As if he had come to Hell.

When his scattered consciousness struggled to reassemble, he saw a blood-stained face, smiling.

"Uh? Awake already?"

At the makeshift desk-turned-operating table, Ji Jue was still busy, raising his hand to wipe the blood and sweat from his forehead, smiling faintly at him: "Sorry, I'm still a bit busy here, it'll be your turn in a bit, please wait a moment."

His pupils trembled as he tried hard to widen his eyes, looking at the table.

The body that had been dismembered, and even the head that had been tossed aside, bore the familiar face of Wang Ximin, who had just arrived with him!

And now, right in front of him, his dead teammate had been drained of blood for storage, stripped of spiritual essence turned to ash, even the shattered Matrix was thoroughly dismantled, ground to dust before his eyes.

However, the very mastermind behind all this continuously smiled from start to finish, looking up and gently advising, "Too much sticky rice is indigestible. You all should eat less; it's a hassle to clean up."

"Save, save me..."

Kong Yebai shook violently, struggling, but couldn't break the shackles on his body. Suspended from the wall, half-conscious, he was unable to mobilize his spiritual energy, his Matrix non-responsive.

His instinctive screams became mute.

But soon, he couldn't scream anymore.

"Shh!"

Ji Jue raised a finger, "Quiet during work hours."

The flowing Mercury climbed up his legs like a living thing, cold and sticky, entering his mouth and nose, silencing all cries.

Yet it forced him to keep his eyes wide open, to see clearly how his teammate was drained of all value, sparing neither bones nor flesh, tossed into a basin to feed the Ghost Fetus.

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