Chapter 318: Desperate Echoes

"Who is outside?" The older researcher suddenly raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the surveillance screen, his face changing drastically, "Bad! Intruder! It's Lin Yu! How did he get in?"

He almost pounced on the console, his fingers even pressing the wrong keys due to panic, before slamming down on that bright red emergency button.

"Emergency defense program initiated! Seal all passages in Zone A! Immediately release the No. 7 anesthetic inhibitor!" he roared into the internal communicator.

The alarm sound rose sharply, becoming more sharp and ear-piercing.

The alloy isolation door in front of Lin Yu, accompanied by a heavy air pressure sound, began to descend slowly from above. At the same time, light blue mist began to spray from the gaps in the ceiling and walls, spreading rapidly.

Anesthetic gas!

The moment he inhaled it, Lin Yu felt a strong sense of dizziness strike, his reaction speed significantly decreased, and his vision began to blur slightly.

He retreated a few steps, his body muscles instantly tightening to the limit, and he rushed toward the narrow gap of the constantly shrinking door without regard for anything!

At the same time, Chengzhai, Lin Family Bone-Setting Hall.

Xu Xiaochuan stood frozen in place; he stared fixedly at Xuanyuan Qing, who was breathing weakly on the bed, then looked at the night outside the window, and the white giant tower looming at the end of the night.

The mark on his back was burning as if a branding iron had been pressed directly onto it. The intense scorching pain instantly penetrated his whole body, making his eyes go dark and almost making him unable to stand steady.

Not a hallucination! ===== CHAPTER 319 =====

"Lin Shu... Sister Qing..." His lips trembled, his voice dry and hoarse, "What the hell... am I supposed to do..."

In the corridor of the top-floor isolation zone, the alloy door descended heavily, leaving only a final narrow slit. Lin Yu's sprinting speed had been severely affected by the anesthetic gas, his footsteps staggering. He could clearly see inside the door: Xuanyuan Qing seemed to be struggling unconsciously, her brows tightly furrowed in pain, as if she could sense his presence but was unable to open her eyes.

Those researchers had already retreated to the depths of the laboratory, watching this side in terror.

It was too late!

The gap in the door was less than half a meter and still shrinking. Lin Yu bit down hard on the tip of his tongue; the intense, sharp pain forcibly dispelled part of the anesthetic effect, bringing a brief moment of clarity. He poured all his remaining strength into his right leg and, with his body at a nearly twisted angle, kicked fiercely at the lower edge of the closing alloy door!

"Bang——!!"

The metal impact produced a deafening roar. The alloy door trembled violently, and its downward momentum was forcibly stalled for a fraction of a second.

Lin Yu's eyes were bloodshot; time seemed to freeze at this moment.

His shoulder slammed into the cold, hard lower edge of the door panel, his bones feeling as if they were about to fall apart.

Lin Yu let out a muffled groan. Using this recoil force, his muscles suddenly bulged, and he actually managed to force the heavy, descending alloy door upward, opening a slight gap.

His entire body was like a compressed spring suddenly released, forcibly squeezing through that gap!

Bang——!!!

The incomparably heavy metal door slammed down behind him with a heart-stopping thud, completely cutting off all paths of retreat.

Pale blue mist had already filled the air; the moment he inhaled it, a dizzying sensation of the world spinning rushed straight to his head.

Lin Yu had been prepared. In the split second he squeezed through the door, his left hand had already fished a fingernail-sized, pitch-black hard pill from the inner pocket of his combat suit, and without a second thought, he shoved it into his mouth and crushed it with his teeth.

An indescribable, spicy bitterness exploded instantly in his mouth, mixed with the rust-like scent of blood, forcibly dispersing the drowsiness brought on by the anesthetic gas.

He didn't even have time to look at the way he came; his eyes were fixed dead on the pale hospital bed in front of him, and he lunged forward like an arrow released from a bowstring.

The air was thick and choking with the scent of disinfectant and various medicinal agents.

He rushed to the bedside, and Xuanyuan Qing's lifeless face came into view. That face was so white it was almost transparent, showing not a trace of living breath.

Dense, tangled lines were connected to her body, several of which were particularly thick, greedily extracting the last bit of weak life energy from within her.

Lin Yu's teeth were clenched tight, a beast-like low growl emitting from his throat, but the hand holding the surgical scalpel was terrifyingly steady.

The blade traced a cold, chilling arc, so fast it left only a phantom image.

Ssh! Ssh! Ssh!

Several thick tubes used for extracting core samples were severed in response, and strange-colored, viscous liquid sprayed out, staining the pure white bedsheets with large, filthy marks.

He leaned over, his fingers steady, quickly and precisely pulling out those thick needles deeply embedded in Xuanyuan Qing's skin and flesh.

The forced connection was severed. The data on the row of core monitoring instrument screens beside them jumped wildly for a moment, then turned into a chaotic mess of static and garbled code.

The alarm sound suddenly spiked, sharp and piercing, as if it were about to tear a person's eardrums.

Several instruments were overwhelmed, even emitting electric sparks and making crackling short-circuit sounds.

"Damn it! He's inside! Stop him! Quickly, stop him!"

In the security compartment, the older researcher who witnessed everything through the one-way glass—Zhao Kang's deputy—saw the color drain completely from his face, his voice distorted and warped by extreme fear.

He practically lunged toward the console, his hands shaking uncontrollably, and slammed fiercely onto another bright red emergency button.

"Activate backup defense! Gamma sequence!"

Hum——

Several hidden compartments slid open silently on the walls on both sides of the laboratory and the ceiling.

Silver-gray metal arms suddenly reached out. Their structure was precise, and their ends were either stunners flickering with blue electric arcs or injection syringes loaded with unknown liquids, rushing toward Lin Yu at high speed from various tricky angles with a whistling sound that tore through the air!

Lin Yu immediately shielded Xuanyuan Qing with his body, while simultaneously yanking the mobile instrument rack beside him to serve as a temporary shield.

Bang! Bang!

Two mechanical arms slammed fiercely into the instrument rack, electric arcs scattering everywhere.

Lin Yu used the force to retreat half a step, his left hand taking advantage of the momentum to scoop up a fallen stainless steel tray from the floor, and without even looking, he whipped it backward toward his side.

Clang!

The tray hit the sensor of a mechanical arm attempting to sneak an attack from a blind spot with pinpoint accuracy.

The movement of that mechanical arm visibly stiffened for an instant.

Lin Yu seized this fleeting flaw, his body shifting sideways like a slippery fish, narrowly avoiding the pincer attack of the two mechanical arms in front.

His right hand was so fast it left only a blur; two silver needles quenched with paralytic alkaloids had already been flicked out, precisely piercing into the flexible joint gap of one of the mechanical arms.

Zzzzt——

A piercing sound of electrical crackling rang out, and that mechanical arm instantly stiffened, as if all its power had been drained, hanging down limply.

But more mechanical arms had already adjusted and launched another fierce attack.