Chapter 349: The Secret of the Research Institute

The pitch-black gate was like the gaping maw of an Abyss, exerting a silent sense of intimidation.

Gloom is the greatest enemy of humanity; being in an environment of extreme gloom brings great fear. Ye Bai recalled the intelligence he had previously read.

【The Shenmi Shiyanshi hides many secrets, equivalent to the Beautiful Country's District 13. Buried inside are many relics of the Old Gods. Contact with these relics will result in being cursed by the gods, and you will also turn into a lizard-man, an octopus-man, a hundred-eyed man, or be directly cursed to explode and die. Skills of the light attribute or dark attribute can suppress the curse, but to expel the curse, one still needs to find a Pet Beast that possesses the holy attribute.】

So the Gloom Butterfly Emperor must have unconsciously touched a relic of the Old Gods and entered an indescribable state.

But isn't the Gloom Butterfly Emperor a dark-attribute Pet Beast? How could it be infected by the curse? Could it be, as the intelligence said, that it only suppressed the curse, and a true holy-attribute Pet Beast is needed to possibly expel the Exotic Beast? Ye Bai felt it was necessary to conduct an experiment to carry out a deductive argument.

This was to avoid the risk of his spirit being defiled by the relics of the Old Gods and becoming a hundred-eyed man after he entered the Shenmi Shiyanshi (Research Institute).

The only Exotic Beast he had with a true holy attribute was the Water Qilin Beast.

However, the Water Qilin Beast's level was somewhat weak, and it would likely be difficult to expel the curse.

"Changeable Butterfly, did you obtain the memories of the Clone?"

"What exactly is inside this Research Institute?"

Ye Bai asked the Changeable Butterfly; he wanted to know the intelligence regarding the Research Institute.

His time was running out, and he could only use the nighttime hours to come here.

If he were away from his room for too long, it would inevitably arouse the suspicions of others.

The suspicion referred to here meant those people from the Beautiful Country; they would suspect what Ye Bai was trying to do in the Banan Suo.

At that point, Ye Bai would be unable to clear his name.

The Changeable Butterfly furrowed its brows; it seemed it really did not have much relevant memory.

In the Gloom Butterfly Emperor's memory, there was only a pitch-black expanse, with an occasional flash of blue light.

The entire Research Institute was very large, with many black shadows walking in the darkness, and the Gloom Butterfly Emperor's memory also had some gaps.

It seemed the Gloom Butterfly Emperor's memory had been tampered with by something.

Right, the Changeable Butterfly saw countless eyes in the Gloom Butterfly Emperor's memory.

From that moment on, the Gloom Butterfly Emperor's memory developed gaps.

The end of the memory was the Gloom Butterfly Emperor feeling that it had to return to its Pet Beast Master, use its newly grown eyes to look at the Pet Beast Master, and make him become an existence just like itself.

The Changeable Butterfly fed the intelligence back to Ye Bai.

"There are countless eyes inside?"

"The Gloom Butterfly Emperor's memory was tampered with?"

"This is not a good thing."

If the memory was tampered with, it meant those hundred-eyed abilities might exceed those of the Gloom Butterfly Emperor.

But it was hard to say for sure; after all, even the Weeping Angel statue did not have a specific level, yet its abilities were very Weird.

Once it got close to a person or an Exotic Beast, it could inevitably seize their Soul to become its own nourishment.

"It seems that many risks are hidden within the pitch-black gate."

"Changeable Butterfly, create another Clone of the Gloom Butterfly Emperor, then use the Gloom Shelter skill to see if it will still be mentally defiled by the hundred eyes."

After all, the Gloom Butterfly is known as the assassin in the night, and its concealment ability is among the best in the Changeable Butterfly's family.

Ye Bai wanted to understand clearly by what method these indescribable things parasitized eyes onto the Gloom Butterfly Emperor and also tampered with the Gloom Butterfly Emperor's memory.

Through air transmission?

Or by direct gaze?

These indescribable things were somewhat similar to conceptual gods.

It was a pity that humans could not contract such things; to prevent the fear from spilling over, humans could only think of every possible way to suppress these things.

If it weren't for the Sunflower Emperor Clone, those two Weeping Angel statues would have inevitably brought Ye Bai huge trouble.

Ye Bai felt he had to think it through carefully; otherwise, he would rather seal the gate again and give up this opportunity for exploration than put himself at risk.

After all, having one hundred eyes growing all over one's body was truly too terrifying; just thinking about it made one's hair stand on end.

If only the Information System could reveal the weaknesses of the hundred eyes.

Milky-white light spots appeared on the Changeable Butterfly's body.

These light spots condensed in mid-air into the pitch-black Gloom Butterfly Emperor.

It flew through the air without a sound.

A layer of pitch-black light could be seen gathering on its body; this was the Gloom Butterfly Emperor's Gloom Shelter skill.

This skill was of the dark attribute, and its effect was to increase the Gloom Butterfly Emperor's concealment and resist a portion of physical attacks.

The Clone rushed into the gate again and disappeared.

The pitch-black opening seemed to emit a silent mockery, accusing Ye Bai of overestimating his own capabilities.

The Gloom Butterfly Emperor's body was very light, and one could barely hear the sound of its wings flapping.

For the remaining time, he had to wait for the Gloom Butterfly Emperor's return; hopefully, everything would go smoothly.

After a while, the Gloom Butterfly Emperor finally rushed out from the gate.

However, its body was covered in a pungent odor, as if a large amount of strong acid had been splashed onto the Gloom Butterfly Emperor.

Having completed its mission, the Gloom Butterfly Emperor's body dissipated, leaving a pool of golden liquid on the marble floor.

The Changeable Butterfly also obtained the Gloom Butterfly Emperor's memory. This time, after the Gloom Butterfly Emperor used Gloom Shelter, it flew past the hundred eyes' territory with ease.

The hundred eyes were parasitic on the walls of the Research Institute, with countless eyes turning everywhere, seemingly capturing something.

A deep blue light radiated from the pupils of these eyes.

After using Gloom Shelter, it was as if the hundred eyes could not see the Gloom Butterfly Emperor.

Therefore, the hundred eyes used their special abilities by gazing at their opponents, thereby releasing the hundred-eye curse onto the opponent's body.

This experiment also tested the conditions for the hundred eyes to trigger the curse.

However, upon reaching the next area, the Gloom Butterfly Emperor was hit by a sudden strong acid, and it struggled for a long time before breaking free from the restraint.

The Myriad-Change Butterfly discovered that the strong acid dripping from the Dark Butterfly King onto Baiyan actually caused Baiyan's body to dissolve into a pool of pus at a speed visible to the naked eye.

It seems this acidic substance is Baiyan's nemesis.

Ye Bai looked at the golden liquid remaining on the ground, which was emitting a sizzling sound, and he hurriedly took a straw and an instrument for testing acidity and corrosiveness out of his Pet Beast Space.

Very quickly, the acidity was tested, and its corrosiveness was comparable to aqua regia.

"If only I had information about this Research Institute."

This feeling of entering a mountain of treasure but being unable to take anything simply made Ye Bai want to scratch the walls.

But Ye Bai did not want to put himself at risk.

"Myriad-Change Butterfly, create a True Guangming Nüshen Die clone and enter the Research Institute once more."

"See how much damage light-attribute skills do to these unspeakable things."

Ye Bai spoke to the Myriad-Change Butterfly once again.

The True Guangming Nüshen Die clone appeared, its entire body radiating a soft white light.

After it buffed itself with the two light-attribute skills Shengsheng Biyou and Holy Light, it rushed into the gate of the Research Institute.

Not long after, the light, which was as bright as day, was swallowed by darkness.

It is unknown how long he waited before the Myriad-Change Butterfly finally received the memories of the True Guangming Nüshen Die.

The scope of this exploration was much larger than that of the Dark Butterfly King; at the very least, the True Guangming Nüshen Die had toured the entire outer perimeter.

Besides Baiyan, the Myriad-Change Butterfly also finally saw clearly what kind of existence those things spraying golden strong acid were.

These things were like palm-sized little trumpets; whenever the True Guangming Nüshen Die passed by, they would spray strong acid from their trumpet-shaped mouths.

Moreover, after these little trumpets discovered an outside invader, they would grow frantically, and their numbers would become increasingly large.

However, with the help of the Holy Light protection, the True Guangming Nüshen Die successfully broke out of this area.

Next, it experienced a mountain of blades array, an ice path, and so on; just as it was about to step into the middle-layer area, it was grabbed by a giant steel Zhua and put into a mouth to be chewed up.

Only then did the memory completely end.

The Myriad-Change Butterfly transmitted this memory to Ye Bai.

The meticulous Ye Bai was pleasantly surprised to discover that the True Guangming Nüshen Die had once passed through a corridor that actually had an indicator map of the entire Research Institute.

Although the core area had been intentionally blurred by someone, this indicator map could allow Ye Bai to take fewer detours.

This could be considered the biggest harvest of the night.

In fact, the most secure way for Ye Bai would be to wait for the Information System to provide him with information.

But this would require a massive amount of time; by the time he knew all the information, the Storm Dragon would likely have already been expelled from within the borders of the Beautiful Country.

By then, his every move would be under the watch of agents, and he would have no freedom.

Not to mention coming to this Lake Bottom Research Institute.

Once discovered by someone, he would definitely be captured, unable to live and unable to die.

"It must be that the unspeakable things imprisoned in the Research Institute have all run out."

"This is quite troublesome."

Ye Bai looked at his watch; it was now three o'clock in the morning, and there were four hours left until seven o'clock.

These four hours were enough for him to go and walk around the outer area.

That's right, Ye Bai planned to explore a portion of the Research Institute every day, focusing on a steady and solid approach.

"I cannot be greedy for progress in this Research Institute."

"Sunflower Fairy, create Sunflower Emperor clones and have them surround me completely."

"Myriad-Change Butterfly, create a True Guangming Nüshen Die clone to protect me."

"Space Pelican, set up spatial coordinates to facilitate our shuttling."

The Space Pelican was Ye Bai's final defensive measure; once he encountered danger, the Space Pelican would use spatial movement to lead Ye Bai back to a safe area.

The light radiated by the Sunflower Emperor clones illuminated this area.

The floor of the Research Institute corridor appeared very dilapidated, and the ground was still covered with dried bloodstains.

The walls of the corridor were covered in bloody handprints, which looked hair-raising.

The Sunflower Fairy hid in Ye Bai's hair; once the clone's Holy Light illumination failed, the Sunflower Fairy would step in to help.

First update

(End of this chapter)