Chapter 1153: Experiment

The air fell into a dead silence.

Professor Ye stared at him fixedly, his hand gripping the collar tightening, even causing veins to bulge.

"...Does Sun Zhongliang know what you are doing?"

"Director Sun certainly knows." The supervisor slowly pried open Professor Ye's palm. "But his opinion can no longer change anything... Professor Ye, to tell you the truth, due to some confidentiality reasons, the international situation is quite tense. The people above have given a death order: we must find a solution to the problem within a short time."

"Solve the problem? What kind of problem is it that even Sun Zhongliang doesn't have the qualifications to intervene??"

"...I can't tell you that for now." The supervisor paused for a moment. "However, if Professor Ye pays attention to life, you should be able to notice anomalies in the last two days... Some changes that we cannot understand are happening."

Two hands reached out from behind to hold Professor Ye's shoulders, pressing his body back into the wheelchair. How could an old man's strength compete with a young man's? He had no power to resist at all and couldn't move a muscle.

"I will not help you research my student." Professor Ye said hoarsely.

"Professor Ye, whether you intervene or not, we will continue the research on Dr. Chu... If one day isn't enough, then ten days, a hundred days... until we have results. It doesn't matter to us, but this is not easy for Dr. Chu."

The supervisor bent down and patted Professor Ye's shoulder gently, his voice extremely calm:

"You are not helping us research Dr. Chu... but using your life's learning to save your own student, do you understand?"

Professor Ye's hands on the wheelchair gripped tightly.

He slowly turned his head to look behind the glass. Several figures in biohazard suits were moving about in the laboratory, countless instruments and needles were gathered on the thin young man, and a pair of complex, pale green eyes were watching here from afar...

In a trance, Professor Ye seemed to see the naive young man in a brown sweater and black-rimmed glasses again, standing under the university podium communicating with him earnestly—sincere, vivid, and full of infinite possibilities.

Professor Ye's chapped lips trembled. He slowly moved his gaze away, turned the wheelchair in silence, and moved toward the outside of the observation room alone...

The old man's back was like a leader sheep straying from the flock, stumbling yet firm.

"...Prepare an independent laboratory for me."

……

"We're entering the city ahead."

The family sedan sped along the elevated road at 180 km/h. Chen Ling held the steering wheel calmly, looked at the road sign above, and said slowly.

The sunset gradually sank to the end of the skyline. Perhaps because of the overcast clouds and smog, even the dusk appeared dark and chaotic. Under the heavy clouds, neon lights flickered silently in the steel jungle.

Crossing two cities and riding for more than four hours, Lu Xun and the others didn't feel the slightest bit sleepy. They all tensed their bodies, gripping the armrests beside them tightly, feeling their whole bodies stiffened with tension.

"...Director Chen, now that we've entered the city, can we stop driving so fast?" Lu Xun's lips were a bit pale. "If we get stopped by the traffic police, it'll be troublesome..."

"They won't see us." Before Chen Ling could explain, Yang Xiao spoke up. "I've already turned off all the road surveillance along the way."

Lu Xun: ...

Lu Xun's expression was extremely strange. He looked at Yang Xiao through the rearview mirror, his gaze as if saying, "I remember you weren't like this before."

"But Director Chen is worthy of being Director Chen, to be able to find the way here without navigation." Lu Xun sighed. "For someone like me, I can't go anywhere without navigation..."

"I'm just driving casually." Chen Ling looked at the sticky note next to the steering wheel. "We were able to drive here because the script was written that way."

【18:55 PM, Chen Ling and the others drove off the elevated road and entered Minshan District.】

—Fate Weaving.

As Chen Ling's rank continued to increase, the effect of Fate Weaving was also strengthening. Although it was still a bit difficult to use in actual combat, it was fine for daily assistance.

After driving into the urban area, Chen Ling still had no intention of slowing down. The current speed was difficult for ordinary people to handle, but it was nothing to him... He looked at the city gradually sinking into darkness, his gaze extremely solemn.

The satellite disconnection might just be a temporary signal issue in the eyes of ordinary people, but Chen Ling knew very well that this meant the regression of civilization had reached a critical value, to the point where even ordinary people noticed something was wrong...

Chen Ling knew that the Great Cataclysm was roughly divided into three stages: first, the world war that broke out after countries realized that high-precision weapons were gradually failing; second, the disaster impact brought about by the intersection of the Gray Realm after the war ended; and third, the establishment of the nine major bases in the chaotic world to preserve the sparks of civilization.

And now, the precursors to the Great Cataclysm had already appeared.

"Dr. Lu, can you find the location of the laboratory?"

"I can, but..." Lu Xun gripped the armrest and said stiffly, "But before that, can we pull over and stop for a moment?"

Chen Ling was startled and skillfully turned the steering wheel to park on the side of the road.

As soon as the car stopped, the three figures rushed out almost instantly, gathered around a green tree on the side of the road, and began to vomit violently.

"..." Chen Ling was a bit speechless. "It was only a four-hour drive, is it really that exaggerated?"

"Who drives at 180 km/h for four hours straight... *retch*..."

Chen Ling: ...

Among the three, Su Zhiwei had been learning martial arts since childhood, so her reaction was the lightest, while Lu Xun and Yang Xiao took a full five minutes to recover before moving toward the car.

"See the blocked mountain road ahead?"

Lu Xun pointed to a road extending into the depths of the mountain and said,

"If you keep going along this road, there is a tunnel, and the laboratory is deep down at the end of the tunnel... However, there are quite a few guard posts along the way. At that time, I relied on Starlight Guidance to get out smoothly. If we break in head-on, I'm afraid it won't be easy."

Yang Xiao looked at the direction of the mountain in the night and walked straight toward the street lamp nearby.

As he pressed his palm against the surface of the street lamp, the light of the lamp flickered slightly, as if a current had already followed the circuits of the entire area, deep into the mountain...

He closed his eyes and sensed for a moment.

"There is indeed a huge power-consuming cluster below... However, I couldn't find the entrance to the closed-circuit monitoring line. They seem to have turned off all the surveillance."

"Would a laboratory generally not have surveillance installed?" Su Zhiwei's brows were locked tight.

"Of course not."

Chen Ling, in his bright red opera robe, stood under the flickering street lamp, his eyes quietly watching the direction of the mountain.

"It seems someone guessed we would come, and even predicted Dr. Yang's ability, so they specifically cut off the surveillance power... Not only that, there are likely 'White Hands' with Divine Paths lying in ambush near the laboratory.

The new owner of this laboratory... is not simple."