Chapter 755: Bureau 749

Yang Xiao recounted their experiences from the past few days to Lu Xun.

Hearing that Chen Ling had led them to break out of the encirclement, a look of surprise flashed across Lu Xun's face, followed by a sigh of relief, as if a burden had been lifted.

"It seems I really didn't misjudge the person..." Lu Xun stood up again and solemnly extended his hand to Chen Ling.

"Director Chen, our meeting in Shennongjia was a bit rushed... Please allow me to reintroduce myself. My name is Lu Xun, a Ph.D. in Astrophysics, and one of the initiators of the Red Star Exploration Project."

Seeing this, Chen Ling also stood up and shook his hand.

"I am Chen Ling."

Chen Ling's introduction was very simple. He didn't explain where he came from, nor why he helped Su Zhiwei and the others. He seemed to be full of mysteries, just like the deep and mysterious starry sky of the universe...

Lu Xun didn't dislike mystery; he only needed to know that Chen Ling's attitude toward them was friendly, and that was enough.

"Actually, this meeting is also a bit rushed..." Lu Xun glanced at the time on his watch. "However, we have at least half an hour now. During this time, no one will disturb us."

"So, what exactly is going on? Who is tracking you?"

A complex look flashed in Lu Xun's eyes. After a long silence, he let out a long sigh:

"...It's Bureau 749."

"Bureau 749?"

Chen Ling and Yang Xiao were both stunned.

"Bureau 749, full name is the Supernatural Incident Investigation Bureau. It used to belong to the defense department, but later became independent to specifically handle the exploration and investigation of civilian supernatural phenomena... Because my work involves space observation, I occasionally deal with their people. My astronomical observation unit is under their supervision."

"Does such an organization really exist?" Yang Xiao asked in surprise. "I always thought Bureau 749 was just a rumor... So, are they an official organization or a non-official one?"

"The situation with Bureau 749 is complicated... You can understand it as a semi-official organization. It has some official background, but the members don't have official status." Lu Xun paused for a moment and continued,

"The daily work of Bureau 749 is to search for and investigate some Divine Path possessors and register them to prevent their abilities from affecting social stability. These registered personnel are called 'White Hands,' while those who operate within our country but haven't been registered are called 'Black Hands.'"

After saying this, Lu Xun glanced at Chen Ling.

Chen Ling, who possessed the Divine Path but hadn't been fully vetted by Bureau 749, was naturally one of the "Black Hands."

"So... the authorities have long known about the existence of the Divine Path and already have a complete management system for Divine Path possessors?"

To be honest, Chen Ling wasn't surprised by this. After all, the Divine Path had existed since ancient times; the authorities couldn't possibly be unaware of it. There must be more than one expert like Xiao Chunping in the country... That so-called Intangible Cultural Heritage Exchange Forum was probably some kind of "White Hand" meeting held by the authorities.

Needless to say, people like Nie Yu, as a fifth-tier [Hunter], had considerable fame on the dark web. People both at home and abroad knew of the existence of the Divine Path, they just kept it a secret.

"Yes." Lu Xun nodded slightly. "The Red Star arrival event this time had too great an impact. There were massive casualties in Shangjing, and Bureau 749 has long attached great importance to it... So they found me immediately, wanting me to lead a team to analyze the Red Star fragments and understand what exactly this thing is."

"And then, you gathered us?" Yang Xiao realized. "I was wondering why this exploration was so urgent..."

"Because we didn't know what the Red Star was, we needed experts from various fields to oversee it. But no one expected that kind of accident to occur in Shennongjia..."

Lu Xun smiled bitterly,

"After the exploration ended, Bureau 749 was very surprised by our encounter. Who could have imagined that an extraterrestrial fragment would melt and disappear into our bodies... So, they proposed taking samples of my body for experimental analysis."

Hearing this, Chen Ling's expression became subtle. He seemed to have guessed the subsequent development of events.

"And then?" Yang Xiao asked immediately.

"Later, they discovered some unknown components in my blood. They couldn't analyze this stuff, and my brain waves had completely deviated from the human category... This discovery was something never seen before in human history.

So, they proposed to conduct more detailed analysis on me, and I agreed... After all, this is a major discovery for humanity. If something can be cracked from it, perhaps human technology could usher in another leap.

They went from my skin to my blood, then to organ slices, and finally even took a portion of my bone marrow...

I cooperated with them in the lab for all kinds of experiments, but no progress was made. Until one day, I suddenly discovered that I seemed to possess some kind of power, capable of turning some theoretical knowledge into reality... This made Bureau 749 even more shocked.

It was also from that time that I sensed something was wrong.

Although I stayed in the lab and didn't have contact with the outside world, I could feel that differences of opinion seemed to be emerging within Bureau 749... More and more people came to take samples from me, and the daily experiments became increasingly intensive. In the end, I even developed symptoms of shock and coma due to frequent blood draws."

"They were using you for human experimentation?" Yang Xiao frowned immediately. "Bureau 749 does this kind of thing??"

"No... this might not be the intention of Bureau 749, but the intention of certain individuals within it. Because later, I was secretly transferred out of the Bureau 749 lab to another place for secret experiments... I'm afraid someone wants to deceive everyone and keep the secrets on me for themselves."

"...And then?"

"I sensed something was wrong, so I secretly borrowed a phone from Dr. Chu and started contacting other members who participated in the exploration... Because I felt that the changes in me weren't an isolated case, and if things went wrong, you might also become targets for this group.

I first contacted Wu Tongyuan. At that time, his plane had just landed in Shangjing, so I told him to buy the next flight straight to Las Vegas.

As for the others, Dr. Ji and Dr. Lou have been in a missing state since the exploration ended. Dr. Chu was by my side, and I didn't have Dr. Su's phone number. Calling her unit, no one answered... I called your unit, and they said you were missing...

Time was tight, I couldn't contact more people, so I could only pretend to cooperate with the experiments on the surface, secretly looking for a chance to leave and then contact you."

"I have a question!" Chen Ling suddenly spoke.

"Go ahead."

"Who is Dr. Chu?"