Chapter 317: The Gate of Life and Death

The beep-beep-beep warning sound became more and more urgent!

Just a fraction of a second before the internal alarm was about to explode completely, the garbled code on the screen stalled, and all the crazily jumping data instantly solidified. The glaring red warning symbols disappeared, replaced by a huge green "√" symbol representing passage.

"Authority override... temporary access authorization... valid time: 10 seconds..."

Click!

The crisp sound of the biological lock being released came.

Lin Yu didn't hesitate at all, violently pushing open the second heavy isolation door and flashing inside.

Behind him, the green light went out suddenly, and the alloy door locked silently again, isolating everything outside.

The scene behind the door instantly made his pupils shrink, his heart feeling as if it had been gripped by an ice-cold hand!

The shadowless lamp, bright to the point of being stinging, illuminated the pure white narrow corridor behind the door, and the air was filled with a thick, nauseating smell of medicine.

Directly in front of the corridor, two guards wearing silver-gray, exoskeleton-structured special protective suits turned around violently the moment he pushed the door and entered, like two precision war machines!

What they held in their hands were not the conventional firearms used by the security guards or special agents before, but weapons with strange shapes, hard lines, and ghostly blue energy luster faintly flashing at the muzzle.

Energy weapons!

The next second, a sharp, ear-piercing alarm sound, enough to pierce the eardrums, suddenly resounded throughout the top-floor area!

"Woo—woo—woo—"

The red alarm light rotated like crazy eyes, instantly dyeing the originally pure white walls with a layer of eerie blood color!

From the hidden loudspeaker at the end of the corridor came Zhou Minghui's cold, emotionless voice, like a judgment from hell: "Intruder has entered the core area! Initiate highest defense level! Authorized to use lethal force! Kill without mercy!"

The two internal guards' energy weapons had their muzzle charging light become dazzling, the ghostly blue energy beams like a venomous snake spitting its tongue, locking onto him firmly. The breath of death rushed toward him!

"Kill without mercy?" Lin Yu repeated in a low voice, these four words piercing his eardrums like poison-quenched ice picks. Zhou Minghui's voice, transmitted through the loudspeaker, was cold without a trace of human temperature, sounding more like a synthesized voice from a faulty navigation instrument. He had no time for anger, or rather, anger had turned into something purer and more dangerous.

Silver needles popped from his fingers, silently sinking into the depths of the throats of the two guards who had just been knocked down, his movements clean and neat, even carrying a surgical precision, ensuring they wouldn't make any more sounds, nor would they have any more movements. He tore off the communicators on their bodies, didn't even look, exerted force with five fingers, and the plastic and metal shells made a cracking sound of being unable to bear the weight in his palm, the wreckage discarded casually.

The alarm sounded like a crazy drumbeat, knocking on every corner. Red light rotated, dyeing everything with an ominous color.

Three minutes, at most three minutes, reinforcements would seal this place.

He suppressed the killing intent that was almost burning his reason—especially toward Zhou Minghui. Xuanyuan Qing was still alive; this was the only coordinate supporting him from not immediately turning into a wild beast that only knew how to kill.

He rushed along the pure white corridor; on both sides were cold alloy doors, every one of which could lead to hell. The alarm light above his head rotated, light and shadow flickering on his face. Relying on the memory remaining from twenty years ago, as well as his speculation on the layout of the hospital's dark side, his footsteps didn't hesitate in the slightest, his target clear—the area at the very end of the corridor, where the label had been deliberately blurred, but couldn't deceive his eyes.

S-level isolation ward.

He slammed on the brakes, his body almost sticking to the thick observation window.

His gaze penetrated the bulletproof glass.

Inside, the shadowless lamp light was stinging. Xuanyuan Qing lay on the central hospital bed, her complexion ashen, not the white of weakness, but a transparency close to some inorganic matter. Her body was covered in various tubes, connected to rows of precision instruments flashing with ghostly blue or fluorescent green light. Her chest had almost no rise and fall, that weak breathing as if it would stop completely the next second.

Several researchers in sterile suits surrounded her, their expressions a mixture of exhaustion and fanatical focus. They adjusted instrument parameters, recorded data, and when their eyes fell on Xuanyuan Qing, there was no fluctuation, as if observing a precious experimental piece of equipment, not a living person.

"Spinal canal pressure continues to drop, and neural stem cell activity is also decaying... if we keep extracting like this, the 'container's' physiological functions will collapse completely." A researcher wearing glasses looked at the screen, his voice hoarse, carrying undisguised worry.

"No way, the clone cultivation side can't wait, 'Ouroboros' order is a death order, must ensure the on-time delivery of the YA-001 consciousness carrier." Another researcher, older, didn't raise his head, his tone like discussing the weather, "Besides, the YA-001 consciousness preliminary compatibility test results are very ideal, this is the most important thing. As for this 'container'... loss is part of the plan." He paused, the corner of his mouth even pulling into a strange smile, "Being able to contribute to the 'Ark Project' to this extent, she can be considered... used to the fullest, right? The year-end bonus is probably all counting on this project."

"But this is a living person! This extraction frequency and dosage, it's simply..."

"What is it? It's a necessary sacrifice." The older researcher interrupted, his voice cold and hard, "Remember your duty, Dr. Chen. Don't forget how you got in back then."

Container... clone... consciousness carrier... used to the fullest... necessary sacrifice...

Every word was like a red-hot needle, stabbing into Lin Yu's nerves. He could even smell the faint, extremely weak scent belonging to Xuanyuan Qing mixed in the thick disinfectant smell. His fists clenched silently, his knuckles making a slight "click" sound due to excessive force, his nails piercing his palms, bringing sharp pain, but far less than one ten-thousandth of the tearing of his heart.

The sealed memory fragments surged up uncontrollably. The cold operating table, desperate eyes, tampered data, missing companions... and his own silence and turning away back then.

If... if he hadn't left...

Xuanyuan Qing!

"Ugh—ah—!" A low roar, suppressed to the extreme and almost not sounding human, erupted from the depths of Lin Yu's throat. He violently swung his fist, using all his strength, and smashed it hard against the thick bulletproof glass in front of him!

Bang!!

The muffled, heavy sound echoed in the corridor. There wasn't even a crack on the bulletproof glass, and the counter-shock force made his entire right arm numb, his bones feeling as if they were about to crack.

This loud sound, and his action of smashing the window, finally startled the interior of the laboratory. ===== CHAPTER 318 =====