Chapter 634

The underground laboratory had undergone quite significant changes during this period.

A month ago, this place was just a damp, dark basement built with rough stone bricks.

Mold spots grew in the corners, the air was filled with the smell of soil and rotten wood, the light of the gas lamp could not illuminate every corner, and there were always some shadows hidden out of sight.

Now, silver-white metal had replaced those stone bricks, covering every inch of the wall surface.

Extending from the floor to the ceiling, it was seamless at the joints, like a space dug out of a single huge metal ingot. The metal surface emitted a soft, fluorescent white light, the light uniform and stable, illuminating the entire laboratory without any shadows.

Walking inside was like being under the illumination of shadowless lamps at all times.

Laboratory equipment also filled the entire space.

On a row of long tables against the wall, various glass vessels were neatly arranged.

Beakers, test tubes, petri dishes, distillation flasks...

Varying in size and shape, but every piece was clean, shining with a transparent luster under the fluorescent white light.

On the other side of the workspace were several pieces of equipment Jie Ming had taken out from his internal cave heaven.

Several metal cabinets stood in the corners, the cabinet doors tightly closed, storing various eerie fragments and sealing materials inside.

Simple runes were carved on the surface of the cabinets, used to isolate energy fluctuations and prevent interference between different samples.

And the space itself far exceeded its initial size.

When Jie Ming renovated this basement, he used the space expansion technology commonly used in the Wizarding World to "stretch" the existing space.

Now, if anyone were to enter this basement, they would definitely be surprised, because the internal space size was even approaching that of a large assembly hall. After nearly a month of renovation, this temporary laboratory was barely usable for Jie Ming.

He was finally able to put various experiments on the agenda.

At this moment, Jie Ming was standing at the workspace in the center of the laboratory, with a fist-sized transparent incubator in front of him.

The material of the incubator was high-transparency quartz glass, the inner wall had undergone special hydrophobic treatment, and it was filled with translucent culture medium. The culture medium looked empty.

If an ordinary person were standing here, they would feel there was nothing in this incubator... perhaps just water forgotten to be poured out. But Jie Ming's eyes were not an ordinary person's eyes.

Eye of Omnipotence.

Golden light flashed deep in his pupils, and the interior of the incubator underwent a earth-shaking change in his field of vision. Those empty culture media became so transparent they almost disappeared, and in the very center of the culture medium, a tiny thing about the size of a bacterium was floating in the liquid, rhythmically flashing with a faint light.

This was a new type of reconnaissance means he had created using the eerie fragments of this world.

After Jie Ming came to this plane, because he had to take into account the eerie of this world, many conventional reconnaissance means lost their effect.

His spiritual sense scanning was fine to use during the day, as long as the intensity was controlled below a certain threshold, it wouldn't attract any trouble.

But at night, or when encountering certain eerie particularly sensitive to energy fluctuations, spiritual sense scanning became a potential detonator. He could not, like in the Wizarding World, recklessly cover the entire city with his spiritual sense and then sit at home and figure out everyone's background clearly.

And other reconnaissance means, if they exposed too high an energy intensity, would also attract the eerie.

So his most reliable intelligence collection means, besides the limited spiritual sense scanning during the day, was actually the intelligence obtained from black intermediaries. Although those people couldn't get on the table, their news was indeed well-informed.

Where new eerie appeared, what goods were in the black market, what the official Psychic Association was busy with recently, they all knew some. But for Jie Ming, this was too passive.

Jie Ming did not like being passive, so he decided to first solve the problem of reconnaissance.

This bacterium-sized reconnaissance unit in front of him was the answer he gave.

The process of creation was not complicated to talk about.

He needed a reconnaissance unit capable of collecting intelligence over a large area for a long time without attracting the attention of the eerie.

This kind of unit could not have too strong energy fluctuations, could not emit an "unnatural" aura, and it would be best if it could make the eerie feel it was "one of their own." So he thought of eerie fragments.

Those collected eerie fragments came in handy at this moment.

Jie Ming crushed and reconstructed a portion of the eerie fragments, extracted the unique energy characteristics from them, and then fused these characteristics into the reconnaissance creature he designed.

The method was actually quite crude.

Fusing the core structure of the reconnaissance unit and the eerie power fragments almost physically, making this thing look more like an eerie in the external expression of energy fluctuations.

As for the core reconnaissance ability of this reconnaissance unit, it was inherited from a reconnaissance-type rune wizarding tool he had widely used during his low-level wizard period: Eye of Shimmer.

That name was directly continued by Jie Ming.

Although the new Eye of Shimmer had nothing in common with the old one except for the name.

Judging from Jie Ming's current level, the reconnaissance ability and concealment ability of the Eye of Shimmer were not particularly strong.

In the Wizarding World, this level of reconnaissance unit was at most entry-level, and any knowledgeable wizard could see through and counter it in two or three moves. But in this world, it was enough.

After a month of intelligence collection and in-depth observation of the eerie ecology, Jie Ming had confirmed a fact: between eerie and eerie, unless there were special circumstances, they would not affect each other.

They were like signal towers occupying different channels, with no intersection, no communication, and perhaps they couldn't even perceive each other's existence at all.

The Eye of Shimmer was taking advantage of this loophole.

Of course, the technology was not mature yet.

Because of the influence of eerie power, the survival time of the Eye of Shimmer was quite limited.

Jie Ming looked at the small shimmering dot in the incubator, calculating silently in his heart.

From the moment it was "activated," it could survive for about a month.

After a month, it would die and decompose like a living organism, eventually returning to nothingness.

However, Jie Ming was very satisfied.

This was just a preliminary prototype.

After his research on the eerie became deeper, the survival time of the Eye of Shimmer could become longer.

More importantly, this thing could be mass-produced.

He tightened the lid of the incubator and stuffed it into his internal cave heaven.

A dozen identical incubators were already neatly arranged in the corner of the workspace, each with Eye of Shimmer samples slowly growing inside. Just as he was about to start the next experiment, his movements paused.

The magic array around the bookstore sent back information.

Someone was approaching.

Jie Ming looked up, his gaze passing through the ceiling, through layers of bricks and wooden boards, landing on the stone-paved road at the bookstore's entrance.

His gaze seemed to pierce through these obstacles directly, seeing the person coming.

It was that black intermediary.

Jie Ming withdrew his gaze, simply tidied up the things on the workspace, and then walked up the stairs.

When the door of the old bookstore was pushed open, Jie Ming was sitting on the rocking chair, holding a newspaper in his hand.

It looked no different from a month ago.

The oil lamp had been replaced by a light bulb, but Jie Ming rarely used it; most of the time he still lit that oil lamp.

The orange-yellow light danced between the bookshelves, illuminating the dust on the spines of those old books like a thin layer of gold powder.

"Mr. Jie Ming!" The black intermediary's voice came from the entrance, carrying a kind of fawning enthusiasm, "Good evening, good evening."

Jie Ming put down the newspaper and glanced at him.

The black intermediary was wearing a dark gray trench coat similar to the last time, not carrying a suitcase in his hand, but carrying a bulging canvas bag on his back. The bag was large, pressing his shoulders down slightly, but there was no expression of effort on his face.

It could be seen that although this person was not some expert, he was at least mixing in the underground world, and his physical fitness was much stronger than ordinary people. "Come in." Jie Ming said.

The black intermediary walked in hurriedly, closed the door smoothly, and locked it.

His movements were very skilled; obviously, he had already carved this set of procedures into his muscle memory.

"What did you bring this time?" Jie Ming did not exchange pleasantries.

The black intermediary took the canvas bag off his back, placed it carefully on the ground, and pulled the zipper.

The bag was stuffed with various glass bottles and metal boxes of different sizes, with labels stuck on the bottles, written with abbreviations and codes Jie Ming couldn't understand. "The quality of this batch of goods is very high." The black intermediary's tone carried a hint of pride, "They all flowed over from the north recently; it hasn't been peaceful there lately, and many things that were previously kept and not sold have flowed out. I picked a few of the best ones and sent them to you specifically."

Jie Ming squatted down, picked up a glass bottle casually, and examined it under the light.

The liquid in the bottle presented an unhealthy dark red color, with fine flocculent matter floating on the surface.

Just by naked eye and passive perception of spiritual sense, he could already judge the approximate composition of this bottle of stuff.

"Too many impurities." He put the bottle back, "The purification process is not up to standard, the mortality rate after injection is afraid it will exceed ninety-eight percent." The black intermediary's expression stiffened for a moment, then immediately piled up a smile: "That's why I came to find you. These things are waste in others' hands, but in your hands, they are treasures."

Jie Ming did not pick up the conversation.

His gaze swept over the items in the canvas bag, then stood up.

"What about the materials?"

The black intermediary hurriedly took out a cloth bag from the inner pocket of his trench coat and handed it over with both hands: "Those you wanted last time, I got them all. This is not easy to find, especially this..."

He pointed to a grayish-white fragment with a metallic luster on the surface in the cloth bag: "This is a fragment of a Hazard-class eerie, rarely seen on the market. I entrusted several channels and finally got it from an old acquaintance who specializes in this kind of business; the price is not cheap."

Jie Ming took the cloth bag and opened it to take a look.

That grayish-white fragment shone with a cold light slightly under the light, the patterns on the surface were much more complex than the Danger-class eerie fragment, with more layers and a tighter structure.

He nodded and put the cloth bag away.

"There is one more thing." The black intermediary rubbed his hands, his expression becoming a bit subtle, "I have some... intelligence here, don't know if you are interested."

Jie Ming glanced at him.

The black intermediary immediately understood the meaning of this look: speak.

"The Psychic Association side finally confirmed it recently." He lowered his voice, as if saying some great secret, "The people who have gone missing in the old city area recently are not ordinary public security problems, but are done by a new eerie."

Jie Ming's expression did not change, but his attention was clearly focused.

"Already found out clearly?" He asked.

"Found out clearly." The black intermediary nodded, "The association sent two teams to deal with it, the first team has already... folded. Not a single one came back." Jie Ming's eyebrows raised slightly.

"Not a single one came back?"

"Not a single one came back." The black intermediary repeated, his tone carrying a hint of nervousness that could not be concealed, "Already confirmed dead. The association has already issued an internal bulletin, saying that the danger of that eerie is very high, preliminarily estimated to be at least Hazard-class, and it might be the peak of Hazard-class." Peak of Hazard-class.

The appearance of the graffiti eerie appeared in Jie Ming's mind.

That was a Hazard-class eerie, and it was a quite tricky one among Hazard-class.

If this new eerie was also at the peak of Hazard-class, then it was indeed worthy of attention.

"Any more specific news?" He asked.

The black intermediary shook his head: "Just this much for now. The association is keeping the news very tight, and I only found out through a friend inside the association. But I can help you continue to keep an eye on it, and tell you as soon as there is new news."

Jie Ming was silent for a few seconds, then nodded.

"I'll take this batch of goods." He said, "Old rules, come to pick it up in three days. Put the money there, go get it yourself."

He pointed to the iron box in the corner that had always been there.

The black intermediary hurriedly walked over, opened the box and took a look, confirming the amount of money inside was correct.

Then he took out those glass bottles and metal boxes one by one from the canvas bag and neatly arranged them on the bookshelf.

Soon, the goods were arranged, and the money was counted.

The black intermediary put the canvas bag back on his back, bowed to Jie Ming: "Then Mr. Jie Ming, I'm leaving first. I'll come again in three days."

Jie Ming did not see him off, just nodded.

The black intermediary turned and walked toward the door, his hand just touching the door, when he suddenly couldn't help but sneeze.

"What's wrong? Not feeling well?" Jie Ming's voice came from behind.

The black intermediary turned his head and saw Jie Ming leaning on the rocking chair, holding the newspaper in his hand again, his expression as calm as if nothing had happened. "Nothing." The black intermediary shook his head, "Maybe my nose is not feeling well."

He pulled the door, pushed open the wooden door, and walked into the night of Fog City.

The wooden door closed behind him.

Jie Ming put down the newspaper and tapped his finger on the armrest lightly.

That Eye of Shimmer had already attached itself to the inside of the black intermediary's trench coat collar.

With the black intermediary's perception ability, he would never be able to discover its existence.

An extra layer of protection was always good.

Jie Ming did not stand up, but those glass bottles and metal boxes on the bookshelf suddenly shook.

They grew hands and feet of the same material as themselves, and after bowing to Jie Ming, they walked toward the basement in unison. "A peak Hazard-class eerie..."

Jie Ming picked up a bottle of dark red liquid that passed by and observed it carefully, the corners of his mouth bending slightly.

He just happened to be missing a decent research sample.