Chapter 571: Fate's Gift

After discovering that the Medicine in his hand had been tampered with at some unknown time, Ying Duo immediately abandoned using it, instead initiating a teleport to flee, but was attacked just before the moment he was about to be digitized.

Ying Duo rarely looks this disheveled.

He handed the problematic test reagent he had previously identified to Meng Kexin, who lightly swayed it in her hand, her brows slightly furrowing.

"Do you take these medicines often?"

Honestly, Meng Kexin was very worried about Yang Yixie's condition.

The fact that Ying Duo could unhesitatingly hand a Medicine to the Player to drink indicates that he had no defenses against these Medicines, or had verified they were safe, yet the Player still ran into trouble.

"When I caused trouble before, I always used these."

Ying Duo nodded; Fang Zhiyan had always been generous with his Medicine supply, and Ying Duo himself was a huge consumer of blue energy, with each battle's submunitions and power consuming vast amounts.

"But I haven't drunk any during this operation yet."

And when the Player drank for the first time, an accident occurred.

Aside from a fight with Chi Jinan before the official departure, and then before entering the Core area having set a trap for Chi Jinan again, the firepower in Ying Duo's hands truly had no outlet to release energy.

His blue energy wasn't heavily consumed, and under the mech's protection he didn't even have a chance to get injured.

In other words, if these Medicines had indeed been tampered with, Ying Duo's body was probably already seeded with countless Mutation seeds by Fang Zhiyan.

Yet Ying Duo, who treats blue Medicine like mineral water when causing trouble, has no issues at all.

"Beep."

Shen Zexi silently picked up the Mutation Detector, avoided Ying Duo's hair, and scanned Ying Duo's current Mutation Value.

【Mutation Value: 34】

Normally, this Mutation Value would already be high, but in the current environment, and given that the subject is Ying Duo, the figure is somewhat low.

Shen Zexi was silent for a few seconds, then used the borrowed Mutation Detector on the Player, emitting a "Beep".

【Mutation Value: 64】

It's normal.

"So is the problem in the Medicine, or in Ying Duo?"

Qi Hengyu could now ask this question without changing expression; no matter how miraculous or absurd the matter, if the subject is Ying Duo, it seems to become reasonable...

"What if both are possible...?"

Luo Jinyou, speaking as someone who has been through it, hesitated before speaking.

Regardless of whether there's any logic, suspecting Ying Duo first is the right move.

"It looks like the Medicine Bottle has been tampered with."

Meng Kexin suddenly blurted out a useless line; the others all looked at her, but she remained unmoved, merely feeding a little energy into the Medicine Bottle, causing the entire Medicine to turn a deep pink.

But only for an instant; the next second, the Medicine reverted to blue.

"The material of this Medicine Bottle is very special; it seems that after contacting some specific factor, the internal liquid absorbs it."

And this so-called "specific factor", though its nature in the ambient air is unclear, should be something that only appears in the Eternal Silent Abyss region.

That explains why Ying Duo could drink for so long without issue, yet the Player had an accident after a single drink.

From the start, Fang Zhiyan had been scheming for a long time, planning to use Ying Duo's habit of gulping blue Medicine as a hidden move.

As a result, by accident, the Player fell into the trap.

"There's no other way for now; drink more Holy Water."

Meng Kexin shook her head; saying that was oddly akin to "drink more hot water."

By the way, how does one use the bathroom here...?

Xie Jingyan was in charge of temporarily staying with the Player, while the others rested separately; most people, seeing those Ying Guang Lu traces, chose to stay away, as those things are truly odd.

After Shen Zexi used the Mutation Detector to check the situation, he simply had a few people rest on the spot in this area.

Although the nearby Ying Guang Lu was somewhat conspicuous, everyone had dealt with Ying Duo for a while and had developed some resistance.

During the break, Shen Zexi specifically sought out Ying Duo.

"Where do you think Fang Zhiyan might be now?"

Shen Zexi was somewhat worried; unquestionably, all the sudden changes they now faced occurred after Fang Zhiyan's disappearance, almost as soon as Ying Duo announced Fang Zhiyan's missing status in the Team Channel, disaster followed.

"Perhaps in some underground laboratory?"

Ying Duo thought for a moment and gave a perfunctory answer.

After all, since the fungi here can disguise themselves as researchers calling for help, researchers must have been stationed here before, certainly from the Dome Mutation Department.

Given that, having a Dome laboratory here is perfectly normal.

Before the Church was still hesitating, unwilling to conduct a thorough investigation of the Eternal Silent Abyss, the Dome had already carried out extraction and research operations in the Core area here.

"But I think the laboratory may already be empty."

These mushrooms have fully rooted throughout the underground of the Eternal Silent Abyss; Fang Zhiyan's ability to cultivate such bizarre mushrooms to this degree likely means those researchers have become food for the mushrooms.

Nevertheless, they could try to locate the laboratory; there they might find recorded weaknesses of the experimental subjects, or perhaps the core of the experimental subject lies there.

"Actually, I just discovered this..."

Shen Zexi unconsciously raised his hand to scratch his face, his gaze drifting for a moment, then produced a mud‑stained scrap of paper and thrust it into Ying Duo's hand.

He assured that he had only muttered to himself a moment ago, wishing for any clue at this point...

Then he found, in a patch of muddy ground, a piece of paper with barely legible text.

It must be a fragment stepped on by the only surviving Special Ability Practitioner who used fire, during his escape.

Using his precise control over water elements, Shen Zexi removed all the stains, revealing the hidden text beneath.

"... Subject 07, three minutes after vital signs vanished, suddenly recovered; heart rate dropped to zero, but brainwaves surged dramatically... It linked to something..."

Because it's only a fragment, the information recorded is intermittent, yet filled with near‑mad sentences:

"Link successful! We really linked to a deity!"

But after the ecstatic joy, the next passage was completely opposite.

"Stop! We have to stop! He's lost! The professor deceived us!"

"......"

Even though it was only a few simple sentences, all the essential points were fully included.

It's hard to imagine what kind of document could, even from a tiny fragment, clearly explain what Fang Zhiyan's experiments here entailed.

Is this fate......?