Chapter 269: Xu Yi’s Escape
Zhuang Mobai, thinking of his own situation this past year, immediately understood. “You’ll be a high-ranker in the future.”
Zhuang Mingxu stood up, glanced back at Dean, and said coldly, “You better not move around carelessly, or else…”
He didn’t finish the sentence but glanced at a syringe in the trash bin. Dean shrank back. Zhuang Mingxu seemed to find something amusing and laughed heartily.
Zhuang Mobai followed by his side, and the two took the elevator down to the fifth basement level.
Compared to other floors, this one had many more people—a row of laboratories stretched as far as the eye could see.
The first thing that caught the eye was Liu Yang, Lin Tian, and the others. They lay on cold tables like dissection slabs, their bodies completely exposed with no privacy, various tubes running into their bodies continuously pumping something in.
They looked like they had been tortured, their foreheads covered in sweat, barely alive. Even when they saw Zhuang Mingxu, their eyes only trembled slightly.
Zhuang Mingxu walked past them one by one. In the middle was Lu Xi, who was asleep, his hair soaking wet even though he was a child.
Lu Weiyi had always liked this younger brother. If he knew the suffering Lu Xi was going through here, he’d be furious.
“He’s a weapons manufacturing expert. We can put him in a more suitable position,” Zhuang Mingxu suggested.
“Oh?” Zhuang Mobai looked him over doubtfully.
“Postdoctoral degree. Before the apocalypse, he was involved in national-level weapons manufacturing. He had been researching crystal-core weapons. According to what Xiaoyi said, he’s already made major breakthroughs. I think we should be humble and respectful, especially since his father is an ability user in our family.”
“I’ll consider it,” Zhuang Mobai said without committing either way.
They kept moving forward. A few A-grade ability users appeared ahead. At that moment, someone was injecting Ning Yuan with an unknown medicine. Ning Yuan’s body arched like a bent bow, like a dying fish, his throat making hoarse noises repeatedly.
Zhuang Mingxu’s muscles were tightly tense; he was afraid that if he wasn’t careful, he might accidentally rush in.
Right now, he was nowhere near strong enough to confront Zhuang Mobai. Even trying to rescue these people was a pipe dream. All he could do was keep Zhuang Mobai occupied, buy some time, and figure out another plan.
“This is the adjustment? How many times does it have to meet the standard?”
“Adjustments vary depending on each person’s body. Initially, it’s once every twelve hours. Then the intervals shorten until they can endure four hours continuously. That’s basically the standard. Those who can’t make it die halfway through.”
Zhuang Mobai was proud of his research and shared everything without hiding a thing.
Zhuang Mingxu forced himself to look away from Ning Yuan as Zhuang Mobai continued walking forward, leading him to Antonio’s laboratory.
Antonio was awake and looked over at the noise, his eyes sharp and vicious enough to leap out.
Zhuang Mobai was pleased with this and pressed the device in his pocket again, chuckling.
“This is your donor,” Zhuang Mobai said, adjusting the machine beside him. “He’s very different. When he hears his lover suffering, his body undergoes a series of changes. It’s truly amazing—I want to study this closely.”
“That will have to wait until I no longer need healing abilities,” Zhuang Mingxu said, meeting Antonio’s gaze. He reached out and touched Antonio’s forehead, finger slowly tracing. “This crystal core will be mine someday. Enjoy feeling it in your body for the last time.”
Antonio stared at Zhuang Mingxu, his voice hoarse: “Lu will hate you.”
“When I’m strong enough, I’ll imprison him. Then who cares if he hates me? He’ll be with me, right?” Zhuang Mingxu laughed wildly.
He withdrew his hand and looked deeply into Antonio’s eyes. “You better hold on. Don’t die.”
Antonio gave a bitter smile, his voice cold: “I’ll personally kill you.”
Zhuang Mingxu stood silently for a moment and then walked out.
“Your rival’s next door, aren’t you going to see him?” Zhuang Mobai looked at Antonio’s data refreshing again, in a good mood. He was considering arranging this several more times.
Zhuang Mingxu had already seen Li Zhuang next door, who was watching him.
Separated by transparent glass, the two looked at each other from a distance—one lying on a dissecting table as prey, the other like the butcher’s blade.
“Not worth it,” Zhuang Mingxu said, placing his hand on the glass and tapping lightly. “He won’t be an obstacle between us.”
Li Zhuang carefully observed the tapping pattern and silently translated it in his mind: “Dean is safe. Keep trying. Hang in there.”
Li Zhuang moved slightly, like a nod.
Zhuang Mingxu turned around and said to Zhuang Mobai, who was still adjusting machines, “I heard Li Ji is here. I want to see my enemy.”
Zhuang Mobai wasn’t very wary of him. As he said, he wouldn’t last if he walked too much here—especially with the guards and monitors. Letting Zhuang Mingxu wander freely was a test. “Go ahead. Don’t mess with the machines. He’s a good donor.”
“Got it.”
Zhuang Mingxu made a round, actually entered Li Ji’s experiment room, looked at the fallen dog for a while, and stole an ID card from a technician before returning to his room.
*
In the space, Lu Weiyi continuously absorbed crystal cores for six hours. His body was already at its limit but still far from leveling up.
The crystal core energy that he couldn’t absorb was forcibly pushed into his body, like it could explode at any moment. His face grew increasingly pale and ugly.
“Father, what’s wrong with you?” Taotao, having eaten snacks, sat across from Lu Weiyi and chattered away non-stop, not caring about the lack of response.
When bored, he dragged some interested creature from a corner of the space, asked what it was, guessed the answer herself, and acted amazed by everything—he had even less worldly experience than Zhuang Ai Yi.
“Are you absorbing energy? Your body can’t handle it,” Taotao held his chin with both hands, staring at Lu Weiyi for a moment. “Ah, I know! Here’s a treasure for you.”
He suddenly vanished and reappeared holding a peach.
It was a fruit from a peach tree.
Lu Weiyi had eaten one before; the peach branch grew out from his body, and he hadn’t touched it since.
“Father, eat it! Taotao’s treasure,” Taotao offered it eagerly with both hands. “This is Taotao’s essence, it’s a treasure.”
Treasure…
At this point, Lu Weiyi felt hopeless about leveling up. His pale face was extremely weak, no better off than the people in the lab.
There were teammates outside whose situation was unknown…
He couldn’t give up any possibility.
He took it and bit into it deeply. The juice was sweet and delicious.
Suddenly, he understood why people prayed to gods and Buddha—when truly helpless, they’d try anything.
After swallowing the peach, Lu Weiyi felt no change and sighed deeply. He then took out the last pearl core, hoping to gamble on it.
Before he could open the pearl core box, pain erupted inside his body like an explosion. It reminded him immediately of what had happened after he ate the peach.
“Treasure…”
Lu Weiyi collapsed to the ground, curling up tightly, glancing at the clueless little brat nearby.
“What a liar!”
*
Outside the villa, accompanied by the sunset, several filthy cars sped over and stopped abruptly just before the base gate.
The alert guard’s tense expression relaxed slightly, about to curse, when the driver’s window rolled down, revealing Lu Xiao’s cold face. “Open the gate!”
“Lord Xiao, you’re back!” The guard immediately switched his attitude, impressing even the prepared Qi Lin.
After a thorough check of the vehicles, they entered the base. Qi Lin clenched his fist excitedly, “Finally back.”
Once inside, Lu Xiao quickly headed toward the villa area.
At the gate, among the crowd of solicitors, a child excitedly jumped up waving but was swiftly silenced by a nearby man who quickly covered the child’s mouth.
“Uncle Xu, my uncle,” Zhuang Ai Yi happily introduced, thinking he wasn’t recognized.
“I saw you. Let’s sneak over quietly. We can’t let anyone see us,” Lu Xiao said. He was one of the Zhuang family’s men. Since the Zhuang family dared to capture Lu Xi together, they clearly didn’t care about this person at all.
At this moment, Xu Yi wasn’t sure if seeking out Lu Xiao was the right thing to do, but he really had no other options. The August weather was unusually hot. At noon, ordinary people wouldn’t go outside. Zhuang Ai Yi’s face was red from the sun, clearly sunburned.
Xu Yi wasn’t feeling well either. As a healer, his stamina was terrible. The child’s stamina was even worse and he often needed to carry him. They had spent the whole day running from the villa area to the base gate. Now it seemed they had to go back and quietly find Lu Xiao…
Just thinking about it, Xu Yi felt like he had made a huge mistake. It was only then that he truly understood what Xu Sa meant.
He didn’t have a single friend nearby, and when in trouble, he couldn’t even find a place to hide, let alone anyone to help.
“Indeed a failure,” Xu Yi wiped the sweat from his face and looked at the eager child beside him.
Zhuang Ai Yi was very obedient. Maybe because he had stayed in the safe base area for a long time, everyone in the family treated him well. Xu Yi, who lived with them, was considered part of the family in his eyes.
Before, there were many people in the family, and no one in the group wanted to openly reject Xu Yi, but they were also uneasy about him interacting with the child, so they usually kept an eye on him. Zhuang Ai Yi didn’t notice this, but Xu Yi did and never caused trouble.
Now that Xu Yi had brought him out, Zhuang Ai Yi listened to everything Xu Yi said. When he occasionally couldn’t walk anymore and saw Xu Yi was also exhausted, he wouldn’t let him carry him.
“If I left you behind…”
Zhuang Ai Yi’s mouth opened in shock, his eyes filled with panic and tears.
“I’m just teasing you,” Xu Yi said, holding him close. The child was like a little warm stove; despite the summer heat, Xu Yi felt quite safe with him, at least…
He wasn’t alone.
*
The villa where the only small team lived was now empty.
With Qi Lin guiding, Lu Xiao parked the car at the gate.
Qi Lin jumped out and rushed inside. He was momentarily puzzled by a large tree at the entrance but didn’t stop and quickly darted inside.
“Squad leader! Liu Yang, Lin Mo—”
Qi Lin saw the bloodstains everywhere in the house and panicked, looking around frantically. He used his speed ability to the fullest, running up and down the stairs in under a minute. By the time Lu Xiao entered, Qi Lin was already running out.
“Something’s wrong. They’re in trouble,” Qi Lin said.
