Chapter 189: Suspicious Little Ming Classmate

"'Shepherd'?"

Shen Zexi frowned; he had never heard of that codename before.

Min Tianyou's very appearance was already eerie, and his words were hard to discern as true or false, making him untrustworthy.

But now they were trapped underground, their retreat sealed by explosions, and they could be attacked at any moment by the powerful foes of Co‑Absorption; aside from trusting Min Tianyou, they had no other options.

At least Min Tianyou was, after all, a member of the Supervision Bureau.

"He's also a cultist of Co‑Absorption," Min Tianyou said, his gaze sweeping the room quickly, especially the desk.

"We currently suspect his ability is illusion, but the Supervision Bureau has no further intelligence on him; even the 'Shepherd' codename was just taken from the horns on his head."

Min Tianyou gave the others a brief rundown of the enemy, and while speaking he walked to the desk whose hidden compartment had been triggered by Ying Duo.

His eyes scanned the empty hidden compartment, squinting as if casually asking:

"It looks like you found something here?"

Shen Zexi, expression unchanged, moved beside Min Tianyou and blocked the Ying Duo behind him—should we say the Ying Duo's hand was fast enough and had already tucked the item away?

"Just some documents; we plan to take them back for the teacher who studies the Old World to examine."

"Old World…."

Min Tianyou gave a light laugh, glanced at the dust‑covered instrument fragments and ornaments on the table, then got to work.

He first tried to shift the positions of the items, and found that only a metal pigeon ornament seemed to be fixed to the table.

He then tried rotating the ornament; after twisting it to some position, a few creaks of old gears sounded from the adjacent wall.

Ka, ka, ka—.

The long‑rusted gears were awakened at this moment, and the rust‑covered metal wall emitted a harsh scraping sound.

A section of the metal wall recessed inward, revealing what looked like a revolving door and an upward‑sloping passage behind it.

A cloud of dust and rust, activated by the secret door, swirled abundantly in the glow of the mineral lamp.

Secret door!

The few of them were startled; although they had arrived here before Min Tianyou and had already conducted a survey, none of them had noticed the secret door.

Ying Duo tilted its head, its hollow eyes staring at the secret door before turning back to Min Tianyou.

It had just interacted with that ornament, but the system gave a clear prompt:

【Insufficient conditions, unable to trigger mechanism】.

He originally thought a key or something similar needed to be found in this lab or elsewhere before proceeding with the next search.

So the missing piece was an NPC‑triggered storyline?

Min Tianyou clapped his hands, shaking off the dust, then turned to the others and said,

"From here, this passage should lead to a relatively safe old exit."

Shen Zexi's doubts did not ease; they grew heavier.

Min Tianyou's familiarity with this place clearly indicated it was not his first visit.

He could almost head straight for this workbench with a clear purpose, as if he had long known the secret door mechanism existed here.

Even if the place had been used again, it had been abandoned for at least several more years.

"Mr. Min."

Shen Zexi did not move immediately, but watched Min Tianyou warily.

"You seem very familiar with this place. This base has been abandoned for so many years; how do you know the mechanisms so well?"

Min Tianyou met Shen Zexi's green eyes calmly, though his words sounded somewhat perfunctory.

"Perhaps it's fate's arrangement? Such scenarios often appear in mystery novels."

Min Tianyou stood beside the secret door, urging the others to hurry inside.

"If we don't act soon, those cultists will arrive."

Shen Zexi glanced at the secret door, then at his teammates' varied expressions, realizing they could not waste time here with Min Tianyou.

"Let's go."

After Shen Zexi spoke, the few entered the hidden passage one after another.

The passage was even narrower, the air thick with the smell of metal corrosion, yet a faint airflow drifted slowly.

When everyone had entered the passage, Min Tianyou, who was last, did not immediately follow.

He simply took out a small iron‑box‑like object from his backpack, pressed the activation button on its top, and set it on the ground.

"Buzz...."

A low hum sounded, and a palm‑sized iron box extended a cleaning brush.

It moved deftly to the secret door area and began efficiently cleaning the laboratory.

In this dust‑filled underground base, it would be far too easy for the Co‑Absorption cultists to track their movements; so, why not simply make the entire lab spotless.

Min Tianyou brought along three or four compact cleaning robots, all custom‑made by the senior who sent him, and they would tidy the place in no time.

After finishing all that, Min Tianyou darted into the passage; just as he was about to close the secret door, he came face‑to‑face with a ghost‑like Ying Duo behind him.

The Ying Duo emerged suddenly from the darkness, its golden eyes unnervingly fierce.

Min Tianyou and the Ying Duo stared silently for a moment; he quietly turned, lifted a nearby cleaning robot, shut it down, and tossed it into the Ying Duo's grasp.

The motion was seamless.

"Good, go play over there."

Ying Duo left satisfied; after many days apart, Xiao Ming had truly become more adept.

Min Tianyou sighed; dealing with others was fine, but he especially did not want to deal with the completely illogical Ying Duo.

He pressed a button on the inner side of the wall; the metal secret door creaked again and slowly closed.

The passage was pitch black, illuminated only by the faint light of the mineral lamps each person held.

The passage seemed to stretch upward for a long distance, overall in a spiral, and it was a miracle that those miners hadn't dug up to this underground base.

In the oppressive silence, they could only hear each other's breathing and the echo of their footsteps in the narrow corridor.

Min Tianyou, who was leading at the front, seemed to break the silence by voluntarily opening a topic.

"Shen classmate, could you let me see that Old Era document you just found?"

"My parents were professors at Mitra Academy who specialized in studying Old World history; I grew up surrounded by it, so perhaps I can help you identify exactly what the content is."

His tone sounded quite sincere, but Shen Zexi became immediately alert.

Shen Zexi truly didn't understand—did Min Tianyou not realize how suspicious he was now? How could he still be so impertinent?

He didn't answer directly; instead, he steered the conversation back to the earlier doubts.

"Compared with the documents we have, Mr. Min, why not take this opportunity to explain why you're so familiar with this place?"

"Is there some non-public information held by the Supervision Bureau, or… have you, Mr. Min, been here before?"