Chapter 59: Blood Pupil Labyrinth

Lin Xue kicked open the seventh container door, a chill laced with moldy smell burst out. Twenty-seven cultivation tanks glowed cold under the moonlight, the Lin Group logo on their surfaces gouged beyond recognition by a sharp weapon. Her fingertip had just touched the control panel when the alarm suddenly shifted into the birthday song.

"Three minutes." The electronic lock screen popped up a countdown, "Three errors will trigger the self-destruct program."

Metallic clanging came from the ventilation duct above. Lin Xue pulled off her tactical glove, the frost patterns on her palm crawling onto the fingerprint scanner. The LCD screen flashed Lin Yuehua's electronic signature before going black, and micro machine guns popped out from the four corners of the container.

Zhang Jun backhanded flung his sword sheath, deflecting two bullets: "Your mom set the password as the chopped chili fish head recipe?"

"Don't be poor!" Lin Xue suddenly shoved an ice cone into the vent, "Southwest corner, three o'clock direction!"

Ice crystals spread along the cables, freezing the firing pins of three machine guns. Zhang Jun seized the chance to roll to the control panel, discovering a half-yellowed invoice jammed in the keyboard gap—the date exactly the day he was five when sent to the orphanage.

"0927." Lin Xue suddenly recited a string of numbers, "The opening spell for my mom's lab."

The electronic lock emitted a piercing beep, the LCD flashing bright red "ERROR". The second wave of bullets grazed Zhang Jun's scalp, spider-webbing cracks exploding on the culture tank glass. The countdown turned to 01:47, and the ventilation duct sounded with hydraulic joint friction.

Zhang Jun suddenly tore open his collar, an oil-wrapped packet fell from the inner pocket of his tactical uniform. The moldy pickled vegetable smell mixed with bloodiness wafted out, Wang Jun's smoky voice suddenly blasting in his ear: "Seal the pickle jar three layers, the password requires three and a half turns——"

He grabbed the oil packet and slapped it onto the scanner, sauce dripping down the keys. The electronic lock emitted an old-fashioned telephone dial tone, the LCD flashing Wang Jun's electronic signature. Lin Xue suddenly lunged forward, yanking his collar, three acid bullets grazing his back and exploding.

The moment the container door sprang open, twenty-seven cultivation tanks burst simultaneously. Purple viscous fluid surged out like a fountain; Zhang Jun's sword blade sliced through the fluid wall, hauling Lin Xue as they rushed toward the dock crane.

Under the moonlight, the outline of an escape boat emerged, bullet holes on its engine cover still smoking. Lin Xue suddenly staggered to her knees, fluorescent fluid seeping from the left shoulder of her combat suit: "Freezer cabin……coordinates……"

The crane's control room suddenly glowed red. A hologram of a purple-robed person leaned on the control stick, mechanical fingers pinching a half jade pendant: "Good daughter, take a look at the escape boat's lower cabin."

Zhang Jun swung a wrench and smashed the projector, discovering a rusted taiji charm embedded in the control console's seam. Wang Jun's recording blasted from the charm: "Three shorts, two longs—pull the lever until it sparks to count!"

The hydraulic joint's friction sound had closed to within ten meters. Lin Xue suddenly stabbed an ice cone into the control panel, cold crawling along the wiring to freeze half the control panel. Zhang Jun yanked off the charm and pressed it into the lever's recess; the escape boat's engine suddenly let out a dying roar.

The crane's hook scraped their clothing as it fell, the escape boat shot like an arrow toward the sea surface. Zhang Jun's back struck the cabin wall, his hand coming away slick— the lower hold stacked with twenty-seven cultivation tanks, their bodies labeled "Primordial Project - Defective".

Moonlight pierced the clouds to shine on the control panel, a blinking red dot approaching the hull. Lin Xue suddenly smirked: "A parting gift from your father."

Zhang Jun's sword tip pierced the deck, hauling up a bundle of plastic explosives counting down. The timer LCD displayed 23:17:42, exactly matching the time they entered the freezer, down to the second.

"If I win, I'll buy you a year's supply of Shan Mountain cola." He ripped open the bomb casing, discovering the wires connected to the jade pendant's slot. Lin Xue suddenly condensed ice crystals into tweezers, clamping the seventh copper wire when the cabin suddenly echoed that hoarse voice:

"The escape boat's autopilot has been activated, next stop—basement three of Cian Mental Hospital."

The hoarse voice reverberated inside the cabin, Zhang Jun's spine instantly breaking out in cold sweat that trickled down his tactical undershirt. Lin Xue's ice-crystal tweezers still gripped the bomb's seventh copper wire, her trembling fingers causing that frost to reflect fractured blue light.

"Damn! This lousy autopilot is worse than Lao Zhao's dating app." Zhang Jun raised the Heavenly Person Sword and slashed at the control panel; the hilt suddenly heated shockingly on impact, purple runes crawling up the blade to the chest.

The escape boat's engine emitted a dying buzz, the hull suddenly sinking three meters, seawater seeping in through deck gaps, mixing with purple sludge to form an eerie stream at the bottom.

"Did the cabin floor regret its medicine?" Lin Xue suddenly cracked a grin, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth frozen by ice crystals, "Last week you fixed the fuse just like this."

She violently yanked open her tactical uniform's inner pocket with her left hand, pulling out a yellowed nautical chart; the seawater-soaked paper's coordinate numbers were slowly fading. Lin Xue's right-hand ice-crystal tweezers still clung to that damned copper wire, not daring to slacken in the slightest.

"The password lock has three layers, the wires are three strands——" Zhang Jun suddenly pointed at the bomb's countdown screen, "23:17:42, isn't that the old man's birthday?"

Lin Xue's pupils suddenly constricted.

The ice-crystal tweezers violently twisted and snapped the seventh copper wire; the bomb's countdown screen flickered twice, then jumped from 23:17:42 straight to 00:00:03.

"Holy shit!"

Zhang Jun snatched the bomb and heaved it out the hatch; the blast wave's surge directly overturned the escape boat. The instant they were flung into the icy seawater, the hull suddenly split open, revealing a dark tunnel entrance.

The vortex wrapped them, dragging them down rapidly.

Zhang Jun's back slammed hard into some metal structure, the impact echoing in the darkness. His soaked tactical suit clung to his body, feeling as heavy as if filled with lead. He reached out, feeling a cold, smooth wall—not water, but some kind of passage.

"This lousy tunnel is more twisted than Lao Zhao's guts!" Zhang Jun crawled up in the dark, his tactical boots crushing glass shards on the floor, emitting a crisp sound.

"Don't move!" Lin Xue's voice came from two meters away, echoing, "You have a pressure-sensitive landmine thirty centimeters to your left."

Ice crystals condensed at his fingertips into a mini flare, blue light revealing the surroundings—they were inside a metal corridor about five meters wide, its walls densely etched with runes identical to those on the Heavenly Person Sword.

"Is this a drainage ditch or a subway?" Zhang Jun tore open his soaked tactical vest, pulled out half a compressed biscuit from his inner pocket, broke it in two, and tossed the larger piece to Lin Xue.

"A wastewater treatment pipe—look at the label, it's an old model from twenty years ago by the Lin Group." Lin Xue bit into the biscuit, her lips purple from the cold, "There's an airflow fluctuation in the southwest corner, three o'clock direction."

She had just taken half a step when the entire corridor shuddered. Purple mist sprayed from the ceiling, condensing along the pipe walls into sludge that dripped onto her tactical boots, hissing and smoking.

"Damn! When will this end?" Zhang Jun swung his sword sheath at the smoke vent, the metallic scraping painfully ringing his ears.

Lin Xue suddenly grabbed his collar and yanked him backward; both slammed into a wall recess, the spot they'd just stood in instantly flooded by acidic liquid.