"Remind Ling Tong?"
Just as Wang Jixuan was about to use his spiritual sense to communicate, Ling Tong's soft voice came from ahead.
"Violating spiritual energy user has been marked."
Ling Tong raised her right hand and made a gesture:
"Researcher Qin Qin, due to your previous illegal actions, the D5 Comprehensive Battle Zone officially issues an arrest warrant for you. Please cooperate."
Two military spiritual energy users moved closer.
Qin Qin still wore a smile on her face.
The old man, known as "Uncle Feng," narrowed his eyes and snorted coldly.
An invisible shockwave rippled from the center of the old man's forehead, sweeping through the area indiscriminately!
The two spiritual energy users trembled and instinctively ducked, but before they could crouch down, a transparent shield burst out around Ling Tong, and she charged forward!
Her mechanical arm pushed forward, ready to fire the destruction cannon!
It seemed like a transparent wall appeared in front of Uncle Feng, and an invisible hammer came crashing down towards Ling Tong!
Suddenly, a buzzing sound came from behind Ling Tong. The two military personnel quickly removed their military jackets, revealing their red and deep blue painted mechanical arms and combat suits, aiming four destruction cannons at Uncle Feng's head.
Uncle Feng made a quick decision and jumped to the left, rolling out of the way!
He was likely a telekinetic user, but his physical abilities were much stronger than an ordinary D-level enhanced user. His dodging and rolling looked quite… awkward.
Ling Tong dashed in front of Qin Qin without any hindrance, grabbing her by the neck and slamming her to the ground, stepping on her back while aiming the destruction cannon at Uncle Feng's head.
"I don't want to start a war between the Spiritual Energy Capital and the D5 Battle Zone over a researcher."
Ling Tong said softly:
"But if you directly reach into the D5 Battle Zone, I will immediately eliminate any dangerous infiltrators in the fortress.
"Now, leave."
Uncle Feng slowly got up.
At this moment, the four C-level spiritual energy users in the lab, along with Uncle Feng's subordinates, stared at Ling Tong in confusion.
Uncle Feng sneered, turning around slowly and squinting as he said:
"Very good, the D5 Battle Zone truly lives up to its name. That devilish commander has trained a bunch of little devils."
The mechanical arm emitted an electronic sound: "Destruction cannon level two ready."
"We're leaving!"
Uncle Feng glanced at Qin Qin and led his men toward the door.
As Qin Qin lay on the ground about to shout, Ling Tong lightly stomped her foot, and she immediately lost her voice, coughing instead.
Uncle Feng and his group strolled out, and the two combat sisters smiled, raising their hands to point at Uncle Feng, "escorting" him and the other spiritual energy users away.
Wang Jixuan felt a sharp gaze.
Uncle Feng seemed to be threatening him, pointing at Wang Daolong's helmet.
Wang Daolong showed no reaction.
[Just a bit of a troublesome demon cultivator.]
The two half-mechanical soldiers escorted Uncle Feng to the elevator entrance and watched as the elevator ascended, while Wang Jixuan continued to eavesdrop with his spiritual sense.
The discussion among the spiritual energy users was quite interesting.
"Uncle Feng, are we just going to let this go?"
"With three half-mechanical soldiers here, unless there are three of me."
"So, Uncle Feng, what should we do now? Just go back like this?"
"This place just suffered an attack from a blade beast horde... Immediately send a message to headquarters, asking them to announce support for Fortress 76 in the Central Basin. We came here as reinforcements."
"You're so wise, Uncle Feng!"
"Uncle Feng is brilliant!"
"Hmph, that Ling Tong will eventually pay for this!"
Hearing this, Wang Daolong suddenly remembered something.
During the fierce battle at dawn, these guys had been hiding here and didn't participate.
He mentally raised the threat level of these five spiritual energy users.
[Just an evil demon cultivator that is of no use to human society.]
'Find an opportunity to take them out.'
...
The two half-mechanical soldiers who came to help did not enter the lab and stood chatting at the door.
They were clearly a couple, both older than Ling Tong. The mechanical sister had wine-red long hair, with a 40% modification progress, while the mechanical brother was even more heavily modified, nearing 60%, retaining only his head and torso.
As a result, this mechanical brother's combat power was higher than Ling Tong's.
They were initially there to support, but since they hadn't found a suitable opportunity to enter yesterday, and the blade beasts had already retreated, they were now put to use.
As for what was happening inside the lab… it was none of their business.
They wouldn't steal Ling Tong's achievements.
Qin Qin was handcuffed and dragged by Zheng Shiduo to a corner of the Spiritual Energy Home laboratory.
The young boy lay quietly in the crystal nutrient chamber, covered in sensors.
Zheng Shiduo sighed, "Ah, this little guy is really pitiful."
Ling Tong turned her head and said, "Please invite Mr. Black Storm in."
"Coming."
Wang Jixuan strolled in casually, hands behind his back.
As he passed the lab door, the mechanical brother suddenly reached out and slapped Wang Jixuan's back.
Wang Jixuan swayed and dodged the greeting, turning to extend his right hand for a light handshake.
"Hello."
"Hahaha, I mean no harm! Hello, my code name is Deep Sea, and this is my wife, code name Red Snake. Let's have a drink together later!"
"Sure," Wang Jixuan nodded with a smile and turned to enter the lab.
He could catch snippets of the two half-mechanical soldiers' quiet discussion with his spiritual sense.
"Quick reflexes."
"His energy response is only E-level, but he took down a mid-level special winged dragon."
— At this moment, Wang Jixuan wasn't using his energy reservoir.
"That was a team effort, not just him alone. It was mainly Captain Zheng's taunting skills that were outstanding."
"I warn you! Don’t play with Zheng Shiduo! He’s too abnormal!"
Wang Jixuan withdrew his spiritual sense and glanced at Qin Qin, who was being dragged by Zheng Shiduo. She looked pale, completely lacking her previous confidence.
Ling Tong said, "This boy is Meng Caiyuan, still unconscious."
"Mm," Wang Jixuan raised his hand against the crystal nutrient chamber, carefully sensing.
A B-level spiritual energy user was gradually breaking down.
One common trait of spiritual energy users is that their bodies can adapt to spiritual energy; however, there was a force within Meng Caiyuan that was damaging his internal organs.
Wang Jixuan quickly identified what that force was.
The remnants of a blade beast!
It could be seen as the resentment of the blade beast's remnants!
This situation wasn't hard to treat; it just required purifying this resentment, placing a demon-sealing talisman on the boy's forehead, which would greatly alleviate his suffering without needing to inject a lot of drugs to keep him in a coma.
Wang Daolong made a gesture to Ling Tong, leading her aside.
They leaned in close, almost shoulder to shoulder. Just as Ling Tong was about to speak, a voice slipped into her ear.
Spiritual sense communication.
"His internal spiritual energy exceeds that of eight Zheng Shido, but is lower than that of Uncle Feng just now.
"His life is likely down to three months before organ failure leads to death, with his brain and vital organs failing simultaneously."
Ling Tong asked softly, "Can he wake up now?"
"He should be able to. You can interrogate Qin Qin first; if she refuses to cooperate, I have other methods."
Wang Jixuan simply communicated:
"But I must tell you, while I can save this person, whether to save him depends on my judgment… Is he valuable?"
"He can influence the blade beast horde."
Ling Tong replied briefly:
"And I just detected that, as a failed product, he doesn't have a self-destruct chip installed in his brain.
"The only uncertainty now is whether he can communicate with that young king insect."
Wang Jixuan pondered slightly: "I'll try not to intervene."
Ling Tong turned to look at the disheveled Qin Qin: "Wake him up."
Qin Qin shrugged and pouted: "This is our Thirteenth Institute's precious asset. If you touch him, it's like declaring war on us."
Ling Tong glanced at Zheng Shiduo: "Captain Zheng."
"Here! Major, just give the order!"
"The interrogation process must not insult her dignity or involve sexual humiliation."
"Understood!"
Zheng Shiduo smiled, narrowing his eyes, and struck Qin Qin's neck with a knife-hand, dragging her toward the corner while calling over three female team members who had clear animosity toward the Thirteenth Institute's researchers.
Ling Tong and Wang Jixuan turned their backs.
As long as she didn't see it, there was no need to write it in the daily observation report.
"That Uncle Feng will be a big problem later."
Ling Tong said softly:
"B-level spiritual energy users can generally reach out to the higher-ups of the Thirteenth Institute, which is not easy to handle."
Wang Jixuan asked in confusion: "How is the Thirteenth Institute so powerful? Can they really have such a high status just relying on spiritual energy user technology?"
"Of course not. Behind the Thirteenth Institute is a large group of multinational capital from the Golden Age… Those biological experiments were originally funded by these multinational capitals, and they directly conducted human experiments.
"The [Thirteenth Biological Research Institute] is a sanctuary created by the remnants of big capital and prominent families from the Golden Age, while the [Spiritual Energy Capital] is the ideal state they created, and the [spiritual energy users] are tools for them to maintain their own interests.
"Later, because spiritual energy users played a crucial role in the war, these forces held humanity's society by the throat, forcing them to recognize spiritual energy users."
Ling Tong explained in detail:
"Now is the fortress era, with little communication between fortresses and battle zones, mostly just material logistics.
"The essence of a battle zone is a military-political complex in a localized area.
"And the Thirteenth Institute has set up Spiritual Energy Homes in every fortress, attempting to influence all of human society.
"The hegemony of the Spiritual Energy Capital has now fallen into the hands of the top spiritual energy users, who inherited the legacies of those multinational capitals and the will of those vampires.
"The space fortresses follow a different development path, and they will use their last resort to preserve the spark of civilization for humanity when necessary."
Wang Jixuan asked, "So now, on a global scale, who has the upper hand, humanity or the blade beasts?"
"Definitely the blade beasts, with absolute superiority."
Ling Tong replied:
"Blade beasts have many characteristics we cannot understand.
"Over eighty years ago, when blade beasts occupied sixty percent of the surface world, the activity of the main blade beast groups suddenly dropped significantly; they hid underground and became inactive. Now, the active blade beast groups are only a small portion of the edge tribes and newly bred tribes."
"What about in the ocean?" Wang Jixuan asked.
"Blade beasts can continuously evolve. They don't like the ocean, but to attack the floating fortresses we originally set up in the ocean, they evolved into ocean variants."
Ling Tong crossed her arms and said with interest:
"According to investigations, blade beasts can absorb the genes of certain organisms. They have individuals specifically for evolution and mutation, producing various mutants through mass spawning, then killing off the unfavorable mutants and leaving the beneficial ones.
"This iteration speed is often very fast.
"So, many mutated spiritual energy users or balanced spiritual energy users can trigger many animal traits."
Wang Jixuan: …
He thought mutated spiritual energy users were just tainted by demonic energy and half-demonized.
Well, believe in science.
In the background, Qin Qin's muffled pleas for mercy came through:
"Could you… could you scare me a little first… if you scare me a little, I'll talk… no need to hit… please don’t hit me anymore…"
Ling Tong asked quietly, "Are you satisfied now?"
"Mm? I'm not angry with her."
"Is it because she's a very attractive woman? She clearly offended you before."
"I just find such people a bit annoying," Wang Jixuan shrugged, "Compared to that, I care more about them causing trouble while we're out there fighting."
Ling Tong nodded and turned around.
The three female spiritual energy users immediately jumped away from Qin Qin, standing to the side with their hands behind their backs.
Compliance, elegance, restraint, rationality.
Zheng Shiduo dragged the battered Qin Qin over, even kindly helping her adjust her clothes to avoid exposing herself.
"Researcher, how did you end up falling like this?"
Qin Qin closed her eyes, afraid to retort, and trembled as she asked, "What do you want? I can give you anything, but this experimental subject is very precious… he’s almost dead… he doesn’t even have a concept of the Thirteenth Institute or the military… he was born in the lab, just a clone… please, can I finish that paper?"
Wang Jixuan raised an eyebrow: "Let her submit that research paper, but remove the author's name."
Qin Qin tried to glare with her swollen eyes, gritting her teeth and wanting to fight back.
...
Information about Meng Caiyuan quickly fell into the hands of Ling Tong and Wang Jixuan.
Wang Jixuan flipped through a few pages and was about to use the nutrient chamber to wake Meng Caiyuan for interrogation when his spiritual sense lightly stirred.
A pair of eyes was watching him.
Meng Caiyuan was still unconscious, but above his forehead, a faint shadow appeared.
A soul?
"Ling Tong, you all go out for a moment and turn off all the cameras here."
(End of Chapter)