Chapter 263: Witness History

Xuanyuan Qing leaned against an iron pillar that was about to snap from rust, panting heavily, her lips devoid of blood. Her fingertips were ice-cold, the power of the silver bell fragments nearly bottoming out.

"You okay?" Xu Xiaochuan leaned over and asked in a low voice.

Xuanyuan Qing raised her face, rain flowing down her cheeks, indistinguishable from sweat. "Won't die." She gritted her back teeth and stood straight, leaning on the pillar.

The factory gate was shut tight, a faded iron sign hanging on it with "старый колодец Industrial Pumping Station" written in Russian and Chinese. The lock had long since rusted away, but the door wouldn't budge, so there must be another way in.

Lin Yu scanned the surroundings, his soaked white hair sticking heavily to his face. "Split up and look for another entrance."

Xu Xiaochuan went around to the side of the factory, pushed aside weeds taller than a person, and found a ventilation duct. The metal grille was rusted and broken, the black hole just big enough for one person to crawl through.

"This way!"

The three of them crawled into the ventilation duct, crawling down the slope. The air grew stuffier, hot and humid, mixed with a strange smell—the smell of rust, ozone, and an indescribable fishy stench, the nauseating smell of rotting meat mixed with disinfectant, rushing straight to their crown.

The passage was pitch black, and they crawled for who knows how long before seeing a narrow maintenance hatch ahead. Lin Yu carefully pushed it open a crack.

The sight before them made all three of them forget to breathe.

A huge underground space, terrifyingly empty, at least two hundred meters in diameter, so high the ceiling couldn't be seen. Suspended in the very center of the space was a huge thing—a monster still beating and writhing, pieced together from countless pieces of flesh and metal parts, looking like a deformed heart.

Dense optical fibers and thick pipes were inserted into this "heart" from all directions, with colorful liquids flowing inside. The monster's surface was covered with a layer of translucent membrane, through which one could vaguely see the circuits and flesh inside pulsing rhythmically.

"That's 'Observer-000'," Lin Yu said in a very low voice, "the biological computer core."

Xuanyuan Qing covered her nose, her stomach churning. "This thing... I've seen it in old books... early laboratory stuff, unstable, prone to going out of control."

Xu Xiaochuan's back burned abruptly! The blue light was nearly about to burn through his clothes! He felt a strong suction coming from that "heart," like an invisible thread trying to connect him to the monster.

"It's... scanning me." Xu Xiaochuan was covered in cold sweat. "It's aiming for my genes."

Above the biological computer was a transparent canopy resembling a cockpit. Zhou Weihong's digital image floated inside, much clearer than what they had seen in the hub, nearly indistinguishable from a real person. His face held a near-manic triumph, his hands gesturing in the air as if operating some invisible screen.

"Xu Jianhua DNA sequence detected," Zhou Weihong's voice echoed through the entire space via loudspeakers, carrying a metallic resonance. "You really came. Welcome to my masterpiece, children."

Lin Yu's muscles tightened, the tips of his white hair standing slightly upright. "Be careful, this old thing definitely dug a pit."

No sooner had he spoken than rhythmic footsteps sounded from the shadows all around. Dozens of figures walked out—heavily armed cyborgs, all with the "Observer" eye symbol printed on their chests, holding high-energy pulse guns in their hands.

Walking at the very front was a middle-aged man wearing gold-rimmed glasses, dressed in a crisp suit, completely out of place in this dilapidated place. His lenses reflected the blue light of the biological computer, making it impossible to see his expression.

"Xiao Chengzhou." Lin Yu squeezed the name out through his teeth.

Xiao Chengzhou dusted his cuffs unhurriedly, the corners of his mouth hooked into a half-smile. "Professor Lin, it's been a long time. The last time we met was at the Void Energy Laboratory, right? You really had a limitless future back then."

He scanned the three of them, finally stopping on Xu Xiaochuan for two extra seconds. "Welcome to Professor Zhou's masterpiece. Oh right, those cyborgs outside, consider them an appetizer I sent you."

Zhou Weihong's digital image snorted coldly. "Xiao Chengzhou, do you really think I don't know about your little schemes?"

Xiao Chengzhou pushed up his glasses, his lenses flashing. "Professor Zhou, we've been cooperating for thirty years, always getting what we need. You provide the technology, I'm responsible for securing 'resources' and 'maintenance.' Isn't that quite good?"

"You want to wait for me to finish uploading, then snatch the control." Zhou Weihong's voice was terrifyingly calm.

The smile on Xiao Chengzhou's face remained unchanged. "You're too confident, and you underestimate me too much. For these thirty years, I haven't been idle in studying every one of your technologies, including the parts you thought I couldn't understand."

He turned to look at Lin Yu and the others. "As for you three, just an accident. I thought you'd obediently go to the south of the city to die, but I didn't expect you to stumble upon this place."

Lin Yu's tactical boots scraped against the metal floor, his white hair growing silently. "So, you two have been in cahoots from the start?"

Xiao Chengzhou chuckled. "Just cooperation. Professor Zhou needs experimental subjects and money, I need technology and power. A very fair trade, until just now."

Zhou Weihong's digital image flickered, the flesh membrane on the surface of the biological computer writhing violently. "Upload progress 75%, core fusion about to complete," a cold female voice broadcasted.

"You came just in time," Zhou Weihong's voice began to distort, "witness history."

The biological computer core erupted with blinding blue light! Dozens of tentacles condensed from energy shot out from the surface of the core, like wildly growing seaweed, lashing out in all directions!

"Scatter!" Lin Yu roared, his white hair instantly turning into countless whip shadows, lashing at the nearest energy tentacles.

Xiao Chengzhou stepped back and waved his hand at the cyborgs beside him: "Prioritize taking these three out, then control the upload system."

The cyborgs raised their guns immediately, pulse beams tearing through the air and shooting toward the three of them. Xuanyuan Qing leaped abruptly, the bronze liquid at her fingertips turning into claws, precisely slicing through the gun barrel in a cyborg's hand.

The scene instantly turned into a chaotic three-way melee.

Lin Yu charged directly at Xiao Chengzhou. Unexpectedly, this guy who looked scholarly had also been modified, his speed and strength terrifyingly fast. During the fight, the sleeve of his suit on his right arm was torn, revealing the metal skeleton flashing with blue light underneath.

"Void energy," Xiao Chengzhou analyzed calmly while dodging Lin Yu's attacks, "unstable, but powerful enough. I've read plenty of your data, Professor Lin."

Lin Yu's white hair acted like it was alive, splitting into dozens of strands and lashing at Xiao Chengzhou from tricky angles. "Then you should know why I became like this."

Xiao Chengzhou's mechanical right arm suddenly deformed, unfolding into a complex energy interference device. "Because of Professor Zhou's experiment. But that was just an accident, right?"

"Accident?" Lin Yu's voice was cold enough to drop icicles. "You destroyed..." ===== CHAPTER 264 =====