Chapter 96: Livestock and Beasts

"The door has the four characters 'Gate of the Broken' written on it, hmm... written in Chinese," Zhao Jiayi said, tilting her head.

"Gate of the Broken?"

Lin Qing didn't quite understand and asked again, "What is behind the door?"

"I don't know either," Zhao Jiayi said helplessly. "I just happened to pass by at the time. The car was moving so fast that I only had time to sweep with my telekinesis once; I couldn't penetrate slowly. Moreover, I felt the material of that door was a bit strange. When my telekinesis spread to that door, it almost couldn't penetrate at all."

"Oh?" Lin Qing pondered thoughtfully.

Zhao Jiayi's telekinesis could penetrate and spread for over a thousand meters in the air, but underground, penetrating soil and rock was much more difficult.

There actually existed something that couldn't be penetrated?

"What about that newly appeared group?" Lin Qing said. "Could they have just come out of the underground research institute today?"

"No," Zhao Jiayi said. "I saw quite a few footprints near that door underground, but the floating dust is still there, clearly indicating it hasn't been opened for a long time."

Lin Qing realized, nodding, "So there really is an underground passage."

Now, sensors for life detectors are everywhere in Lin'an City, and satellites are watching from the sky. If such a large group of people really entered the Lin'an City area, it would be unlikely not to be discovered.

Therefore, they most likely entered through an underground passage, and there must be jammers and anti-detection measures near the exit.

"When you investigated with your telekinesis before, didn't you discover that elevator shaft?" Lin Qing asked in confusion.

"Above that elevator shaft is a double-layer wine cellar, separated by several meters of rock plate. I didn't expect that either," Zhao Jiayi said, shaking her head. "Penetrating with telekinesis consumes quite a lot of energy; it has to be done bit by bit. When I discovered it was a large wine cellar at the time, I didn't continue penetrating downwards."

She muttered, "If so many people hadn't gathered there all at once today, and the elevator shaft hadn't just happened to be opened, I wouldn't have been able to discover that door eighty meters underground so quickly."

Lin Qing could understand her meaning.

Telekinetic investigation doesn't sense everything within the covered range all at once; to investigate precisely, it also has to be done bit by bit.

Even penetrating air consumes some energy, let alone substances like rock which are thousands of times denser.

"In a while, we'll pretend to go eat breakfast and go to that area again."

Lin Qing said, "When the time comes, you investigate again. Is there a chance of being discovered? If there's a risk, let it be."

"No," Zhao Jiayi said confidently. "Among that group, there are several Gene Awakened, but not a single Telekinesis Awakened; otherwise, I would have discovered them immediately."

Lin Qing nodded slightly and said, "Then let's investigate again."

He had little interest in the underground research institute behind that door; mainly, he was worried.

Finding out early would allow for defensive preparations.

Moreover, the Order Level has not dropped, indicating that group has no intention of staying or disrupting the order.

Half an hour later, Lin Qing and Zhao Jiayi changed into casual clothes and went to a tea restaurant with some reputation and good reviews near White Oak Street to eat breakfast.

After Zhao Jiayi signaled that it was okay, they quickly finished breakfast and returned to the branch station.

"How was it?"

Only after entering the private rest room did Lin Qing look at Zhao Jiayi.

Fortunately, the people in the branch station always thought his relationship with Zhao Jiayi was special; even if he often brought her in and out of the rest room, it wouldn't arouse suspicion.

Zhao Jiayi thought for a moment and said:

"Inside that hotel, there should be devices that block life detectors, and they are very smart. They have never used the hotel's power, only backup power, so the patrols have never been able to find any clues from power consumption."

"Based on my telekinetic investigation results, there are currently about seventeen life levels similar to yours there, three Gene Awakened with obviously stronger life fields, and a white old man with an absurdly strong life field aura, whom others address as 'Professor Suoge'."

"I estimate his control over genes should be at a higher level, a figure capable of autonomously modifying and synthesizing genes."

"Additionally, from the conversations and reactions of those people, one unawakened person named 'Luo Wu' obviously holds a very special status, even higher than the three Gene Awakened."

"These people should be trying to open the door to the underground research institute, and the condition for opening the door seems to be gathering the gene map information of one thousand successfully gene-modified individuals?"

"It seems they are almost there now, waiting for the results from another research institute."

Zhao Jiayi thought and spoke as she went, and after quite a while, she summarized the situation she had investigated.

"Professor Suoge?"

Lin Qing pondered for a long moment and asked, "A level higher than Gene Awakened, capable of autonomously synthesizing and modifying genes?"

"I don't understand either; this was told to me by an uncle who used to be a patrol officer," Zhao Jiayi said. "He taught me to distinguish different levels of life evolution by identifying the strength of life fields."

"Oh?" Lin Qing nodded slightly and said, "What levels are there above that?"

"Above that?" Zhao Jiayi thought for a moment and said, "Above that is the level Uncle Lu mentioned, breaking the genetic limits of living organisms. He just said this is called 'Primordial'."

"Primordial?"

Lin Qing pondered thoughtfully and asked again, "What level of strength is that Professor Suoge roughly? How does he compare to a Senior Patrol Chief?"

"Definitely much, much stronger," Zhao Jiayi thought for a moment and said. "They are not even on the same plane of existence, just like the huge gap between ordinary people and Gene Awakened."

Lin Qing realized.

No wonder Zhao Jiayi shivered in the car before; it seems it was because she discovered that Professor Suoge?

"Lin Qing, what should we do now?" Zhao Jiayi couldn't help but ask.

"Do you still have some of the unregistered mobile phones from last time?"

Lin Qing said, "Write an anonymous letter to report to the Patrol Headquarters. Remember to mark some keywords; the terms Professor Suoge, Primordial Research Institute, Underground Research Institute, Life Detector Blocker, and Underground Passage must all be included."

He looked at Zhao Jiayi. "Now the headquarters is also preparing to thoroughly search Lin'an City. As long as your report letter contains these words, after the intelligent system retrieves them, the headquarters will definitely take it seriously."

"Report to the headquarters?" Zhao Jiayi asked in confusion. "Isn't it the Patrol System?"

"The Patrol System connects directly to the local municipal bureau, but the municipal bureau has problems now," Lin Qing shook his head slightly. "Besides, this situation is already beyond what the municipal bureau can handle."

Zhao Jiayi nodded slightly.

She immediately took out a prepared unregistered mobile phone; this phone was not yet assembled, still had many phone components, and could not automatically send signals.

Following what Lin Qing taught, after putting all these phone parts into a waterproof bag, Zhao Jiayi pretended to go out. Passing through a park with few surveillance cameras, she quietly used telekinesis to control the waterproof bag to fly into the park. Under the cover of vegetation, she made it fly into an artificial lake. Separated by the lake water, she quietly assembled the phone inside the waterproof bag.

After the phone turned on inside the waterproof bag underwater, she controlled the phone to write an email and sent it to the reporting platform of the Patrol Headquarters.

Finally, the phone shattered and disintegrated again within the telekinesis, turning into numerous parts. At the same time, it tore the waterproof bag open, letting these phone parts sink to the bottom of the lake, and then threw the waterproof bag far away.

A tip letter with no traceable source was completed.

……White Oak Street, Imperial Hotel.

In the spacious, luxurious suite on the top floor, an elderly man with white hair and a face full of wrinkles sat before his desk, two three-dimensional projection screens before him, rapidly scrolling downward at an astonishing pace, each second revealing vast amounts of information.

The old man sat slightly hunched, his gaze fixed unblinkingly on the information streaming across both screens.

Unlike his aged, flickering-as-a-candle-in-the-wind body, his eyes were young and bright, brimming with boundless vitality.

So much so that not a single wrinkle marred the skin around his eyes—even as his pupils rotated constantly to scan the data, they retained their lively, agile motion.

This was far more than reading ten lines at a glance; "ten pages per glance" was a more accurate description.

"Professor Suoge."

Suddenly, a man in his early twenties stepped out from the adjacent room.

He was young and muscular, his features nearly perfect, yet his pupils flickered between dull darkness and cruel crimson, his skin alternately sprouting keratinous scales and reptilian plates—as if in the next second he would transform into a ferocious monster.

"Has the institute over there not finished yet?"

The young man growled: "The Inspection Headquarters could arrive at any moment—we're running out of time, and I'm barely holding back."

!.

" Luo Wu, my child, don't rush. Even if the Inspection Headquarters arrives, it will take time to locate this place."

Professor Suoge turned his head slightly. "Of the ten children adopted by Professor Luo, you possess the highest talent. But because you're too impatient, too obsessed with surpassing the 100% gene optimization index, you've never managed to suppress the instincts awakened by your modified genes. You are human—not a beast."

The young man, Luo Wu, replied grimly: "Better to become a beast than to end up as livestock."

"Only the living have the right to become livestock. Corpses are fit only for feed."

Professor Suoge shook his head gently. "Calm down first. Otherwise, you'll lose yourself before the institute even opens."

Luo Wu fell silent, closed his eyes, and adjusted quietly for a long while, until the abnormalities on his body slowly faded.

"Child, I have good news for you."

Professor Suoge smiled. "The thousandth successful gene modification subject has appeared. The gene modification blueprint for one thousand subjects will be sent by the boss any moment now—the institute's gates are about to open."

Luo Wu's eyes lit up with excitement: "Perhaps this institute holds the method for stable fourth-tier gene optimization—or even BioWeapons from Zhixing Group?"

"Child, don't let greed blind your eyes."

Professor Suoge slowly shook his head. "Stably using fourth-tier energy for gene optimization is something only Zhixing Group can achieve. It is the crystallization of generations of wisdom from a highly advanced civilization. Even if Dr. Chu Hui learned it, making it usable by Earth humans would be as difficult as climbing to the heavens. And that is not what you need to consider right now."

He sighed. "As for bio-weapons? They're all semi-finished products. The cost of using them is immense."

"Better to die fighting than to become livestock," Luo Wu growled.

Professor Suoge shook his head. "Among the boss's subordinates, the most brilliant No. 10 isn't even one of our Earth kin—he never wanted to live. Why should you?"

Luo Wu fell silent, then said grimly: "Regardless, this underground institute is my last hope."

Professor Suoge sighed slowly. "Rest assured—I'll guard this place for you. Believe me, unless the Inspection Headquarters' enforcers arrive, no one will disturb you."

At that moment—

"BEEP!"

Professor Suoge's watch suddenly blared a shrill alarm.

—This was a sound triggered only in dire emergencies.

He frowned slightly, opened the newly received alert, and his face instantly paled.

"The Inspection Headquarters has already departed? Two enforcers leading the team? This… how could they move so fast?" Professor Suoge murmured.

"What?" Luo Wu froze.

"Summon everyone immediately. Wait at the institute's entrance."

Professor Suoge growled. "Wait for the boss to transmit the thousand gene blueprints. Then enter directly—once your genes awaken, you won't be able to enter the institute. You still have a chance."

"But the Inspection Headquarters has many senior inspectors who haven't awakened their genes yet. And the metropolis is full of geniuses—if they all come to fight for it…" Luo Wu frowned.

"Don't worry."

Professor Suoge said. "Nearly all metropolis geniuses become Zhixing Group's vassals, and they look down on Dr. Chu Hui's research. The real geniuses in the Inspection Headquarters are all from the metropolis too—they look down on it as well. You only need to watch out for those who haven't become Zhixing Group's vassals."

Luo Wu slowly nodded.

"Rest assured—even if the Inspection Headquarters arrives, I'll find a way to buy you more time," Professor Suoge said coldly.

…

This day was destined to shake the entire Lin'an City.

At ten a. m., the Imperial Hotel on White Oak Street collapsed in a thunderous ruin.

Under Zhixing Group's deterrent, no one dared violate regulations by using banned items like explosives—or even touch them.

The collapse was caused by pure, terrifying power.

Witnesses far away claimed they saw a monstrous, towering humanoid figure, resembling a giant beast, being attacked by two other figures, roaring as it smashed through the hotel's interior, shattering one load-bearing wall after another until the entire building collapsed.

Although all non-essential personnel had been evacuated before the hotel fell, the sight of its ruins alone was enough to send chills down the spine.

Only those who knew the truth understood: this was the result of a battle between two enforcers and a terrifying criminal from the Original Research Institute inside the hotel.

The criminal's power seemed to exceed the Headquarters' estimates—even with both enforcers joining forces, they failed to kill him, and he escaped by sheer will.

After the chaos subsided, both enforcers sustained minor injuries and confirmed the culprit of this disaster.

Suoge Brown, a criminal ranked as Professor-level by the Original Research Institute, was officially added to the Inspection Headquarters' Black List today.

…

"Is this the power of an enforcer?"

As Lin Qing oversaw the city inspection team securing the scene, he gazed at the distant, utterly collapsed hotel ruins, his heart trembling.

Merely witnessing this scene, he understood: within a short time, his gap with an enforcer would be impossible to close.

Right now, without Instant Light, his strength couldn't match even a senior inspector, let alone an enforcer.

"But… if I just wait one more day."

Lin Qing took a deep breath. "Tomorrow, I can draw the original version of the Free Body combat technique in advance."

Sorry, after taking the medicine I felt a bit sleepy in the afternoon; I only started writing after waking up, so it's a bit late.

(End of this chapter)