Chapter 276

"I was never ordinary," Lin Yu replied dryly. "This tunnel has a branch, dug out to hide things, leading in the opposite direction of the observatory. We'll get out from there."

Xuanyuan Qing closed

But the most eye-catching thing was the object in the center of the room—a massive, coffin-like metal container, connected to complex pipes and monitoring equipment. The surface of the container emitted a faint blue glow, the exact same color as the chip in his pocket.

The entire room was empty, but the indicator lights on various instruments were blinking, proving that this place was not completely abandoned.

Xu Xiaochuan held his breath, using the dagger to carefully pry open the ventilation duct grating, his movements as light as possible. The grating loosened, and he peeked through the gap, confirming no one was around, before dismantling the grating and sliding into the room without a sound.

The moment he landed, the shielding box in his pocket began to vibrate violently, nearly breaking free. He had to press down on his pocket with all his might, terrified that the thing would jump out.

His footsteps were extremely light as Xu Xiaochuan slowly approached the metal container in the center of the room. Closer, even closer…

The surface of the container was covered in complex circuits and pipes, with a small control panel on one side displaying a series of data and waveforms. On top was a piece of translucent reinforced glass; through the glass, one could vaguely see a human-like silhouette soaked in some kind of pale blue liquid.

"Xiao Ya…" his throat tightened, his voice barely audible.

Just then, the shielding box in his pocket could no longer be suppressed and popped open! The chip inside flew out, tracing a blue arc in the air, and stuck to the surface of the metal container with a 'pop'!

In an instant, all the lights in the room turned on! Blinding white light poured in from all directions, making Xu Xiaochuan unable to open his eyes. The blue light on the surface of the container surged suddenly, like ocean waves, and the entire metal structure hummed!

"Warning, unauthorized personnel intrusion! Warning, unauthorized personnel intrusion!" A synthesized mechanical voice echoed in the room.

Xu Xiaochuan just wanted to retreat, but found himself completely unable to move—a pale blue ring of light had appeared beneath his feet, like a glowing chain, tightly binding his ankles!

And in the air in front of the container, a holographic projection slowly took shape. It was the phantom of a girl, about thirteen or fourteen years old, wearing a white dress, her long hair disheveled, her face pale and blurred, yet carrying a maturity and exhaustion that didn't belong to her age.

"Who are you?" the hologram spoke, her voice strangely mixed with a child's tone and electronic noise. "Why can you hear me?"

Xu Xiaochuan opened his mouth, but couldn't make a sound. The girl's image was exactly the same as the little girl in the yellowed photo on the wall of his old man's shop!

"Are you… Xiao Ya?" he finally squeezed out a few words.

The hologram tilted her head slightly, her expression puzzled: "Xiao Ya… no one has called me that for a long time." Her image flickered on and off, like an unstable signal. "They call me 'Project YA-001', or 'The Eye of the Ouroboros'."

"Ouroboros?" Xu Xiaochuan's brain buzzed. "No, you're not the Ouroboros, you're Xiao Ya, Zhou Weihong's daughter!"

The girl's image twisted violently, emitting a piercing electronic noise: "Don't mention that name!"

The lights in the room flickered crazily, and the instruments emitted sharp alarm sounds. Amidst this chaos, a circular hatch suddenly opened above the container, and the pale blue liquid inside slowly descended, revealing the person sleeping within—

A young girl with a withered face, connected to all sorts of tubes, her skin so pale it was nearly transparent, her veins clearly visible. She was closing her eyes, looking as if she were sleeping, or perhaps dead. Time had left very few traces on her, as if the passage of time had no effect on her.

But the most terrifying thing was that the top of her head had been opened, and it was stuffed with complex circuits and micro-devices, flickering with a faint blue light, like a flower of evil made of metal, blooming in her brain.

"God…" Xu Xiaochuan squeezed out a suffocating gasp from his throat. "What did they do to you…"

The holographic girl looked down at herself in the container, her eyes devoid of sadness, only a kind of detached calm: "This isn't me, just a shell. I'm already… not entirely here."

Xu Xiaochuan suddenly realized a terrifying fact: "You are the Ouroboros…"

The girl nodded: "A part of it. They used my consciousness as the core, controlling the entire system." Her image twisted again. "But you have something on you… very special, it reminds me of many… locked memories…"

Xu Xiaochuan subconsciously touched the skin on his back: "The receiver?"

"Not just that," the girl's image moved closer. "You have… my father's scent on you."

"Xu Jianhua," Xu Xiaochuan's throat tightened. "I'm his son, Xu Xiaochuan."

The girl's holographic image shuddered violently, like a TV signal suddenly cut and reconnected: "Uncle… Xu? Is he still alive?"

"He… is gone," Xu Xiaochuan whispered. "But he was always trying to save you."

The rubble and broken steps beneath his feet made hollow sounds in the darkness; it was quieter here than death.

The abandoned escalator was twisted, like a pile of broken bones.

Lin Yu walked in the lead, his military boots stepping into the standing water, the splashing sound hitting the walls and bouncing back. He kicked aside unknown objects beneath his feet from time to time.

"This damn place…" Xu Xiaochuan supported Xuanyuan Qing, bypassing a section of the collapsed passage. "It's like a graveyard, how did you find it?"

"Abandoned engineering archives." Lin Yu didn't look back, pointing to the deeper darkness ahead. "They dug this line halfway, the geology was unstable, and it was sealed after three months. The records say it was backfilled, but actually…"

"Actually, it became a military supply warehouse," Xuanyuan Qing's voice drifted, laced with pain. "Old routine."

The subway station was much larger than it looked.

Beneath the peeling wall plaster, one could vaguely see paint slogans from thirty years ago, and cables hung down in a mess, casting twisted shadows under the flashlight beam.

Lin Yu led them through a few turns into a strange space.

This place was probably a rest area originally, now piled high with all sorts of wooden crates and iron cabinets, covered in thick dust.

"Military secret reserve point." Lin Yu kicked open a rusted iron cabinet. "Some things are replaced every five years; this spot was probably forgotten."

Xuanyuan Qing couldn't hold on any longer and slid down along the cold wall.

Lin Yu hurriedly rummaged through a few crates, pulled out some waterproof tarps to spread on the ground, and carefully helped her lie flat.

Xu Xiaochuan shone the searchlight, illuminating Xuanyuan Qing's bloodless face. Her breathing was short and rapid, and the area around the wound on her severed arm had already turned black.

"Infected." Lin Yu quickly opened the medical kit and lifted her arm. "This is what I feared most."