Chapter 591: Level 69

Another tremor came from beneath our feet; the intensity of the battle over there was already transmitting through hundreds of meters of rock to here.

"Chi Jinan?" Qi Junyi couldn't help but ask.

"Still fighting." Shen Zexi was already very proficient with the party system; in the party panel, Chi Jinan's Blood Bar kept dropping.

Ying Duo ran at the front of the party, letting out a cold snort without turning his head: "That lunatic."

"He has his own goal," Qi Junyi had nothing left to hide from them, "the curse on him has gnawed away his sanity almost completely, but he has set his target on the deity; as long as the one he wants to kill is still alive, his will won't break."

"He looks quite lucid to me."

No one answered Ying Duo's remark; after all, Chi Jinan had just enough sanity to give Ying Duo a haircut...

Ying Duo didn't need to respond; he just opened the message interface and posted a note to the party.

【Ying Duo: Keep the fragments for me.】

It doesn't matter whether Chi Jinan looks; it's enough that Xi Ren Sheng sees it.

"Arrived."

Shayu Peak halted its steps.

At the end, the passage suddenly narrowed; the rock walls on either side were no longer roughly hewn natural stone but neatly cut stone slabs.

The surfaces of these slabs were coated with a thin moisture‑proof paint, and the walls still trembled visibly, while dust fell from the ceiling.

The air was filled with a salty, damp scent of the sea.

They quickened their pace.

At the corridor's end stood a half‑collapsed door; through the broken opening they could see inside clearly.

It had originally been filled only with Fang Zhiyan's tentacles, but faintly one could still discern that the space, once a laboratory, had been almost completely torn down by Chi Jinan.

Only the ceiling overhead and the nearly hollow pillars remained, and in the very center of this ruin, Fang Zhiyan stood.

Chi Jinan no longer had a single clean piece of cloth on his body; his tactical vest had been ripped into strips by the tentacle suckers, exposing a myriad of wounds beneath.

Some wounds were still oozing blood, some had been bleached white by holy water, especially the one near his left rib, so deep it almost showed the color of bone.

But he kept moving forward.

The blackness in his eyes had been completely replaced by scarlet.

"You're more interesting than I expected," Fang Zhiyan's voice came through the gaps of the tentacles; he seemed nothing like he was engaged in a life‑or‑death duel.

"I'm curious to see how you've fully mutated into an Aberrant Species; rest assured, I won't kill you. Having a creature like you in the new world would be even more interesting."

A slashing strike answered for Chi Jinan; the bodily fluid spewed from the severed tentacle splashed his face, and he didn't even wipe it away. Using the momentum of the slash, he twisted his waist, turned, and swung another blade at a sucking disc that was pulsating on another tentacle.

Fang Zhiyan sidestepped the severed tentacle stump and said, "From this angle, you're even superior to some of my students in certain aspects."

His words were sincere; if those wounds belonged to an ordinary person, the Mutation Factors would have already gnawed them clean from the inside out.

Even Ying Duo would feel wary when the Mutation Value is too high, since he has to consider potential risks, but Chi Jinan does not.

Someone who has been soaked in deeper madness, of course, won't be frightened by such a small scene.

Fang Zhiyan smiled, about to say something else, when his peripheral vision suddenly caught a flash of luminous green.

Lin Xun had been utterly defeated; all the Gloomy Fluorescent Stones here had been fully drained of Mutation Factors, some injected into Lin Xun's body, some used to repair the Core.

"Then you should take him as a student."

Ying Duo, upon entering, heard Fang Zhiyan's words, lifted his gaze to scan the current situation, and sneered coldly.

"Then let's just drop it," Fang Zhiyan said helplessly, spreading his hands. "Although he's a decent sample, he's still a bit lacking to accomplish my great undertaking."

"Yi~ Great Undertaking brother."

Xi Ren Sheng, hearing Fang Zhiyan's words, felt a wave of nausea and a full goose‑bump, and immediately darted over to Ying Duo's side.

"Partner, this thing is a bit tricky..."

Although his face still wore a mocking expression, when Xi Ren Sheng faced Yang Yixie, his complexion instantly turned serious and solemn.

He glanced at the level displayed above Fang Zhiyan's head and couldn't help but click his tongue.

【Fang Zhiyan - Lv. 69】

Xi Ren Sheng didn't know what the level cap was for Yang Yixie's game, but judging by the current scene, he would even believe a claim that the max level is 70.

But the most terrifying thing, that should be this.

On the mini‑map, Fang Zhiyan showed no hostility toward them; even the dot representing him was a friendly green.

Fang Zhiyan truly didn't want to kill them, and genuinely wanted to use them for experiments, to create the so‑called "New Humans," which are essentially monsters that have embraced Mutation.

Ying Duo walked straight ahead, the soles of his shoes making a faint rustle on the broken stones.

"You're arriving at the perfect time; we can now... complete this final experiment."

Fang Zhiyan ignored Xi Ren Sheng's sarcastic tone and instead made an inviting gesture toward Ying Duo, just as he had in Tianmian City.

Fang Zhiyan glanced toward Ying Duo's back, his gaze lingering on Luo Jinyou for a moment, "All that's missing for collection is that piece on his body. I originally thought you'd need a lot of time to deal with Lin Xun, but it seems you've improved quite a bit in this period..."

"Isn't that thanks to you?"

"Do you remember I once told you not to get too close to the experimental material before the experiment is finished?"

Fang Zhiyan's tone suddenly grew cold, but he quickly reverted to his gentle, coaxing manner, "Never mind, since you've come, it shows you still choose power."

At those words, even Chi Jinan, who was cutting a tentacle, paused his slash.

He turned his head sideways, his ink‑red eyes scanning between Ying Duo and Fang Zhiyan for half a second, then resumed cutting.

Ying Duo treated him merely as a backdrop; the master and disciple were unusually in sync at that moment.

"But you shouldn't have touched Luo Jinyou; you bypassed me and struck him directly."

"After all, you two are so close; thinking it over, it seems only I can play the villain now?"

As soon as the words fell, the tentacles behind Fang Zhiyan retracted slightly.

"Fine then," Fang Zhiyan adjusted his glasses, "You are the final experimental subject I chose; Lin Xun may be obedient, but still not worthy enough."

"So you still want to complete our deal?" Ying Duo asked.

"Of course," Fang Zhiyan said, smiling and nodding, "the issue between us has never been about whether to trade, but about priority."

"You think my approach is wrong, I like your wild imagination, you're unhappy that I took it upon myself to mess with your companions, yet you still came—what does that show? It shows we still share a common goal."