Chapter 398

The floor of the biochemical laboratory was covered in dust, the air thick and foul, reeking of a pungent, unnatural odor that made every breath feel like it would give you silicosis.

The corridor was dim and endless; under the faint glow of green emergency lights, the ceiling was mostly shattered, with pipes and cables hanging down like exposed human tendons.

"Hakimi dingdong chicken fat baby stomp back get swab kangaroo chicken."

Hui Yu suddenly sang out loud, startling Li Cheng—"What are you doing?"

"Singing to build courage," Hui Yu replied firmly. "It's so dark here—what if something filthy is hiding?"

"I thought even ordinary ghosts and demons couldn't beat you."

Li Cheng's eye twitched; he pulled a 100,000-lumen super-bright flashlight from the storage room and lit the path ahead.

As a nanobot at the pinnacle of scientific technology, Hui Yu had maximum defense and regeneration, and was immune to illusions, curses, and mental control.

If you gave her a peachwood sword, she could whip Chu Renmei, Kayako, and the Great Black Buddha Mother like spinning tops.

As they spoke, the two crossed the corridor and reached the elevator shaft, where a dried blue stain marked the floor ahead.

Li Cheng crouched down, lightly touching the blue stain with his fingertip, frowning slightly. "Blood."

"Huh? That's blood?" Hui Yu asked, puzzled. "Can blood be blue?"

"Yes. Blood color is determined by the oxygen-carrying protein: copper-based proteins produce blue blood, common in mollusks and arthropods."

"Vanadium-based proteins produce green blood, common in annelids and polychaete marine organisms."

"Iron-based proteins produce red blood—that's what humans have."

Li Cheng added casually: "In some world settings, vampires must drink human blood because their bodies cannot synthesize multiple proteins, including hemoglobin."

"So if you go to a nightclub in the Slums called the 【Coven】 that caters mainly to blood kin, you'll see many vampires clutching octopuses and squids like blue-blood cocktails."

"And plant-based blood served to vegan vampires."

The terms "vegan vampire" and "plant-based blood" were both absurd, yet backed by rigorous logic.

Once, a Zhongzhou team captain named Zheng Zhe—who refused to reveal his name—practiced both internal energy qigong and vampire bloodline enhancement; the former was balanced and harmonious, the latter violent and poisonous, and their fusion caused severe bodily damage while temporarily granting explosive power.

Inspired by Zheng Zhe, generation after generation of arena vampires embraced veganism.

Some cultivated inner peace, some nurtured their internal energy, others went straight to becoming monks.

They fused the gentlest, most peaceful Buddhist light with the darkest, most malevolent vampire magic to gain tenfold or a hundredfold power.

To obtain the blood essential for survival, these vegan vampires began buying internet troll traffic, aggressively promoting veganism, insisting parents should feed their children rice oil instead of milk, and striving to raise "in-utero vegan" babies.

And these vegetarian vampires, in order to obtain the blood necessary for survival, also began buying water armies and traffic online, vigorously promoting vegetarianism, emphasizing that parents should feed their children rice oil rather than milk, striving to cultivate "in-womb vegetarian" babies,

Buddhist vampires could drink freely without breaking their precepts.

"Try this rice oil—it's premium rice oil, unlike any other: smooth, chewy, authentic. Our in-utero vegan baby can't go a day without it."

Li Cheng's mind briefly flashed a commercial for "in-utero vegan" products; he shook his head, banished the chaotic thoughts, and used his Information Synthesis Glasses to scan the blue stain closely.

The blood contained red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets—its oxygen utilization and oxygen-carrying capacity far exceeded human levels, indirectly proving the original owner's life essence was exceptionally strong.

Roughly equivalent to a Level 20 melee-type transcendent.

'From the blood spatter patterns on the corridor floor and walls, the blue-blooded creature was attacked here—but no signs of struggle remain. The attacker must have killed instantly.'

Li Cheng silently calculated, then led Hui Yu down the stairs to the basement level one.

Hui Yu sensed something, pressed her hand against the wall, and said solemnly, "There's movement."

Hui Yu sensed something and pressed her hand against the wall, her expression slightly solemn as she said, "There's movement."

Li Cheng nodded. The aboveground three floors of this biological lab were in ruins, but the underground structure remained remarkably intact.

Listening closely, they could clearly hear faint noises from deep below—part mechanical hum, part engine roar, part piercing scream.

Listening carefully, one could clearly hear faint noises coming from deep underground—resembling both machinery operating and engines roaring, with a hint of piercing screams.

Li Cheng and Hui Yu descended further, reaching basement level two.

The entire floor was empty—all equipment, from centrifuges and ultra-low-temperature freezers to pure water systems, cell analyzers, and microscopes, had vanished.

The layer of dust on the floor clearly indicated the items had been deliberately removed.

Worse still, the cables buried in the walls had been ripped out and taken too—like a locust swarm had passed through.

Not only that, even the cables buried in the walls were ripped out and taken away. Like a swarm of locusts passing through.

The two reached basement level three, passed through a narrow, winding corridor, and finally reached the source of the noise.

"It really is a biological lab."

Hui Yu's eyes widened: the entire basement level three was filled with severed limbs and dismembered remains of arena-native species.

Under the flashlight's beam, these limbs were not randomly discarded—they were fused in a grotesque manner with the lab's equipment.

A fish's eyeball embedded in a cryo-electron microscope, a skeleton installed inside a vortex mixer, a bovine skull connected to a cell analyzer.

All instruments were arranged neatly, orderly.

Yet it was precisely this order, combined with the bloody, twisted imagery, that made the scene feel even more morbid and evil.

A biological lab, made of biology.

"A Frankenstein doll?"

Hui Yu blurted it out instinctively—the scene looked exactly like the chaotic, brutal stitching effects of Frankenstein Dolls.

Hui Yu instinctively quipped that the scene really looked like the unreasonably haphazard splicing effects of those assembled cloth puppets.

Li Cheng picked up a centrifuge fused with a sheep's skull; its surface and interior were crawling with dark red mold.

These molds were biological cells with tough cell walls, capable of transmitting bioelectricity like the Zerg creep from StarCraft, powering the instruments.

The instruments being powered meant the entity that created them was likely still nearby.

Hui Yu gripped her skull-crushing power hammer tightly, muttering nonsense like "0.2 seconds per kill" and "strongest female bodyguard ever," standing guard beside Li Cheng.

The flashlight beam pierced the darkness; from deep within the lab came a desperate, shrill human cry: "Is anyone there? Hello?"

Could there really be someone alive in this hell?

Someone actually lives in this godforsaken place?

Li Cheng strode toward the direction the sound had come from, passed through two airtight doors, and arrived at a vast space.

He saw skulls like hills, bones like forests, rows upon rows of ribcages still strung with fascia piled on the ground, forming a track.

At the end of the track stood a train cannon built from severed limbs and broken arms; the cannon body was as tall as a three-story building, the bone barrel's caliber nearly 700 millimeters, angled upward toward the elevator shaft.

From the cannon's base, a human head poked out; the moment it saw Li Cheng it trembled and wept with excitement, lowering its voice: "Are you human? Please, hurry, hurry and save me."

(End of chapter)