Chapter 648

In the underground "black clinic" of the old bookstore.

Gao Jie Ming stood at the workbench, with twelve sealed metal test tubes neatly arranged in front of him.

The liquid inside the test tubes presented a deep amber color, slightly glowing under the light, like some kind of highly purified essence. The label on each test tube was marked with a number, date, and a rune mark designed by Gao Jie Ming himself.

That was his "signature," indicating that this batch of potions had been improved by him.

Harding stood opposite the workbench, hands behind his back, his gaze sweeping over those test tubes, his expression flat, but there was a trace of satisfaction that was hard to detect in the bottom of his eyes. Dirk stood slightly behind, holding a portable detector, and was conducting sampling tests on one of the test tubes. The green data stream jumped on the detector's screen, all indicators were within the safe range, and were much higher than similar products on the market. "Twelve, all optimized according to your requirements." Gao Jie Ming put the test tubes one by one into a special metal transport box, covered the lid, and pushed it to Harding, "The success rate increase is slightly higher than the previous batch, increased by about six percent. And the side effects of failure were weakened, concentrating the side effects on fever and lethargy within twenty-four hours after injection, and no signs of organ damage were observed."

"Awesome, your technical level far exceeds our expectations."

Harding nodded, took a flat metal box from the inside of his uniform, and pushed it to Gao Jie Ming.

The box was a bit larger than a palm, with no markings on the surface, but Gao Jie Ming immediately felt the faint energy fluctuation coming from inside. "The materials this time are fewer." Harding's tone carried a trace of apology, "The prophet sent by the headquarters will arrive in two days, and the Society's focus is now entirely on internal investigation and dealing with possible changes. Most resources have been transferred to support those key areas, and the quota allocated to cooperative researchers has been compressed quite a bit for the time being."

Gao Jie Ming opened the box, and inside were neatly arranged uncanny fragments sealed in resin, as well as a sealed container wrapped in velvet cloth. His Eye of Omnipotence was not activated, but just by the perception of his fingers touching, he could roughly judge the level and quality of these materials. Two Hazard Tier fragments, five Danger Tier fragments, and inside that sealed container... was a complete Danger Tier uncanny entity. Although the quantity was fewer than the previous two times, the quality was not low.

Especially that complete Danger Tier uncanny entity, which was a scarce commodity that had a price but no market on the black market.

It could only be said that it was worthy of being an official organization, even in a shortage state, it far exceeded the so-called underground black market.

"Understand." Gao Jie Ming closed the box, placed it on the side of the workbench, his tone calm, "In this kind of time, the Society's resources must naturally prioritize ensuring internal operation. I can wait."

Harding looked at his expression, his gaze carrying a trace of scrutiny.

He had seen too many collaborators; when resources were cut, some people would complain, some would bargain, some would threaten to terminate cooperation, but Gao Jie Ming didn't say any extra words, just accepted it calmly, and then continued to do his own things.

This attitude, either it was really not caring, or it was having enough confidence in his own technology.

Harding felt it was both.

"After this matter is over." He said, his voice lower than just now, as if afraid of being heard by people who shouldn't hear it, "The Society will re-evaluate the resource allocation of cooperative researchers. By then, large batches of materials and data can be approved. Those internal research files you applied for before, I will also help you fight for them."

"Then thank you first." Gao Jie Ming's mouth bent slightly, revealing a trace of smile.

Dirk put away the detector, turned around, and his gaze stayed on Gao Jie Ming's face for a moment, then moved away.

His feeling about Gao Jie Ming had always been very complicated.

After all, this person's origin was unknown, but his technology was outrageously high, and when getting along with him, Dirk always had a strange feeling of having forgotten something.

But Harding trusted him, and the Society's legal department also passed the cooperation agreement, so he, a field agent, had no position to say anything.

"You also have to be careful during this period." Harding walked to the stairs, looked back at Gao Jie Ming, "If the internal ghost doesn't want to be exposed, they will definitely rush to make trouble before the prophet arrives. We have already received several regional intelligence reports, and the frequency of various uncanny events has clearly increased in the past few days, not excluding that someone is deliberately creating chaos to divert the Society's attention."

Gao Jie Ming nodded: "Understand."

Harding and Dirk walked up the stairs.

The sound of footsteps echoed in the quiet bookstore on the first floor for a few seconds, and then the sound of the wooden door being pushed open and closed.

Gao Jie Ming stood in the underground "black clinic," looking down at the metal box containing materials on the workbench, his fingers tapping lightly on the box lid twice.

Suddenly, his eyes moved implicitly.

His gaze penetrated the ceiling, cast toward the distant sky.

That direction is... the harbor.

Gao Jie Ming's spiritual power perception captured a strong energy fluctuation, and it looked like some kind of thing had "broken into" this area from the outside. Then, the booming sound came from afar.

Rumble...

Continuous dull booming sounds came from the direction of the harbor, across a distance of several kilometers, through the obstruction of fog and buildings, and when they reached the old city, they had become indistinct.

But that indistinctness still carried a frequency that made people instinctively uneasy.

Immediately afterward, Gao Jie Ming's keen five senses captured faint screams.

That was the sound of a massive number of individuals mixed together; those screams surged from the direction of the harbor like a tide, one after another, but many were short-lived and were drowned out by some louder sound the moment they were issued.

They mixed together, forming a background noise that made people's scalps tingle.

Harding and Dirk hadn't gone far, and were also hearing the booming sound on the street.

Dirk's communicator exploded the moment the booming sound rang out, and the sharp buzzing sound came from the equipment on his waist.

He grabbed the communicator and pressed the answer button.

"Harbor under attack! Harbor under attack!" The voice on the other side of the communicator was almost roaring.

The background sound was mixed with explosions, glass shattering, and a low, rumbling sound like a huge object moving. "It's a ghost ship uncanny entity! Appearing from the sea surface! Huge size, like a cruise ship! Requesting support! Repeat, requesting support!" Harding's face changed when he heard the four words "ghost ship uncanny entity."

After all, the ghost ship uncanny entity was one of the most troublesome uncanny types on this plane.

This kind of uncanny entity was one of the few that would not be fixed in place, but would move and actively hunt humans, belonging to a highly aggressive type. Moreover, because of the special nature of this ghost ship uncanny entity, their appearance was usually not isolated, and there was usually someone manipulating them behind the scenes.

"Location!" Harding was already running toward the direction of the harbor, Dirk followed closely.

"Harbor Pier 3! It is hitting the pier building! The speed is too fast, ordinary firepower can't hit it at all... Rumble!!!" Listening to the booming sound coming from the other side, Harding hung up the communicator.

"Be careful, there is an uncanny attack, pay attention to safety!"

Harding shouted toward the bookstore behind him, and then turned the street corner with Dirk, disappearing at the end of the stone-paved road.

Gao Jie Ming's spiritual power had been following them.

He saw that Pier 3 had completely fallen into chaos.

And that ghost ship that suddenly poked out from the thick fog, Gao Jie Ming's spiritual power now also captured its full picture.

Its size was larger than any cruise ship Gao Jie Ming had seen before crossing over, and the black hull appeared from the thick fog, like a giant beast floating up from the deep sea.

The surface of the hull was covered with rust, as if someone was using rust to paint, depicting twisted human faces screaming on the hull. Its movement method did not conform to physical laws at all.

Such a huge hull, after hitting the pier, actually turned with unimaginable agility, the bow swaying like a snake, hitting a cargo crane and breaking it in half.

The broken steel frame collapsed with a bang, hitting the pier, stirring up a piece of rubble and dust.

Then it rushed onto the shore without hesitation.

The keel at the bottom of the ship dragged on the ground, making a harsh metal friction sound, and the rubble was ground into powder under the hull.

Clearly a ship, but the speed of sailing on land did not slow down at all, rushing toward the harbor warehouse area.

And everyone who approached it... or rather, was approached by it, would be sucked onto the ship.

Gao Jie Ming's spiritual power clearly "saw" that process.

A dock worker was hiding behind a container, at least fifty meters away from the ghost ship.

He just poked half his head out to take a look, and his body was grabbed by an invisible hand, his feet left the ground, and he was dragged flying toward that black cruise ship.

He struggled and screamed in the air, his hands grabbing the air desperately.

The moment he was sucked onto the hull, his screaming stopped abruptly.

This person's life signs completely disappeared from Gao Jie Ming's perception, as if he had never existed.

Similar scenes were staged in every corner of the pier simultaneously.

It was daytime now, and it was the time when there were the most workers at the harbor.

Facing this sudden attack, a large number of victims were sucked away.

There were also many people trying to run away, but the ghost ship was too fast, and its movement speed on land was even faster than a car.

Like a black giant bird flying close to the ground, flying from the east to the west, from the south to the north, leaving only an empty pier and scattered goods all over the place.

Harding and Dirk rushed to an open space on the outskirts of the old street area.

This place was about five kilometers away from the ghost ship, but they could already clearly see that huge black outline moving in the thick fog.

Harding stopped, took a deep breath, and pulled his hands out of his pockets.

Eye of the Storm.

He no longer suppressed the power of his own uncanny entity.

The storm surged out from around his body within a few seconds, spreading outward with him as the center.

Dirk was pushed back a step by the wind, but soon stabilized his figure, and his hands grabbed Harding's shoulders.

The storm carried the two of them, lifting them from the ground, and rushed toward the direction of the ghost ship at a very high speed.

The distance of several kilometers was shortened to tens of seconds under the push of the storm.

Gao Jie Ming's spiritual power had been following them.

He saw Harding constantly adjusting the angle and intensity of the storm during the flight, so that when they reached the sky above the ghost ship, they were just in the best attack position. This person's combat experience was indeed rich, and his control over the Eye of the Storm was far beyond the level shown in the abandoned factory before.

Inside the harbor, Harding and the ghost ship collided head-on.

The Eye of the Storm opened fully in an instant.

Dark clouds surged out from Harding's body, covering an area of several hundred meters above the ghost ship in the blink of an eye.

Lightning rolled in the dark clouds, and then poured down like a rainstorm, each lightning bolt accurately striking the deck of the ghost ship.

The surface of the ghost ship appeared cracks under the bombardment of lightning.

Those rusty metal plates were blown open, revealing the inner wall underneath that was constantly squirming like a living thing.

After the ghost ship failed to capture the two into its body, it sent out a diffused energy shock from inside the hull.

That shock wave pushed the surrounding air away, forming a short-lived vacuum area, and Harding's storm appeared momentarily disordered in the vacuum area.

Dirk loosened his hands from his shoulders, and the silk threads of the Shadow Snake shot out from his palm, entangling a broken mast of the ghost ship.

The silk threads began to erode the moment they touched the mast, and black patterns spread downward along the mast, and fine cracks appeared on the metal surface where they passed.

The ghost ship reacted quickly.

Its hull shook violently, throwing off the mast along with Dirk's silk threads.

Dirk rolled in the air a few times and was steadily caught by Harding's storm.

The two sides only fought for a few moments, and the buildings near Pier 3 had already been destroyed by more than half.

Warehouses collapsed, cranes broke, and containers were scattered in various places like building blocks.

In a farther place, at the edge of the pier, in an inconspicuous shadow, a man was squatting behind a container.

His attire was very ordinary, the brim of his hat was pressed very low, and his face could not be seen clearly.

This person's breathing was a bit rapid, as if his physical exertion was too great.

In the eyes of others, he looked like an ordinary person who had just escaped from the chaos, but his eyes were not looking in the direction of the ghost ship, but in another direction.

That was the direction of the Spirit Mediums Society.

Gao Jie Ming's spiritual power instantly grasped this man.

The man spat, the spit fell into the rubble on the ground, and was soon covered by dust.

He reached out and pressed a small communicator behind his ear, lowering his voice and saying a sentence.

"Spirit Mediums Society came faster than expected. The Eye of the Storm has already engaged with the ghost ship, I am on the east side of Pier 3, the position is temporarily safe. Requesting support."

The communicator was silent for a few seconds, and then a low voice came:

"... Retreat... already collected enough."

The man didn't say anything else, turned off the communicator, slid silently from behind the container, and moved toward the direction away from the battlefield, sticking to the wall base. His movements were very light, very fast, and he always kept in the shadows cast by the buildings, never stepping into places with light.

Gao Jie Ming's spiritual power had been following him, watching him pass through three streets, climb over a wall, and drill into the back seat of a black sedan parked in the dark.

The sedan started silently and disappeared at the edge of the harbor.