Chapter 323: The World Has Changed

As that person landed, the sound of searchlights switching on kept echoing through the factory.

Blinding light sources appeared from all directions.

They all shone on Tang Luo and Ao Yulie, instantly illuminating their position as brightly as a stage center.

The spillover light was also enough to make the other areas clearly visible.

One could see that over twenty people had already silently positioned themselves throughout the factory, some standing, some crouching, some lying prone.

Their postures varied, but the one thing they shared was the iron-blooded, fierce aura they exuded, and the firearms with red-dot sights in their hands.

Above Tang Luo and Ao Yulie's heads, each had around ten red dots; once the triggers were pulled,

those bullets would head straight for the two's heads.

"Who are you? Who sent you?" a man spoke up and asked.

"Leave them alive; I'll question them later." Tang Luo said to Ao Yulie.

"Yes, Master!" Ao Yulie cupped his fist.

"Open fire!" That man decided instantly and immediately gave the order.

The factory was instantly filled with gunfire, but the soundproofing here was excellent; once the gunshots transmitted outside they became sparse and scattered.

Almost inaudible.

A howling gale rose up from beside Tang Luo and Ao Yulie, forming a visible rotating airflow, like a miniature tornado.

Yet it did not affect the outside world in the slightest; even at a spot only one step away from the whirlwind enveloping the two, the dust on the ground showed no intention of stirring.

Ao Yulie raised his right hand; one could see that all those fired bullets had frozen inside this whirlwind, trembling slightly.

The constantly shifting airflow kept them all suspended in midair.

The gunfire did not stop; the twenty-odd people split into three groups with no gaps between them and took turns firing continuously, bullets pouring in endlessly.

But every bullet, upon entering the whirlwind, froze completely, not a single one escaping.

Ao Yulie waved his raised right hand, and those bullets scattered and flew back, faster than when they came.

The gunfire ceased, leaving only stifled cries of pain.

As the Third Prince of the West Sea Jade Dragon, even weakened, he still commanded wind, rain, thunder, and lightning.

"Let's go." Tang Luo said, walking to a pitch-black door.

"Don't open it!" someone shouted weakly.

Tang Luo was unmoved; he opened the door, and a thick stench of rot wafted out.

The two walked inside.

"This... what are these, zombies?" Ao Yulie covered his mouth and nose and spoke.

Inside the door was a staircase leading down, not long, just a normal flight from the first floor to the second.

At the end of the stairs was a corridor three to four meters wide; on both sides of the corridor were rooms resembling prison cells.

But they were much larger than cells, four on each side, eight in total.

Inside the cells, packed densely, shoulder to shoulder, stood people.

These people included men, women, old, and young; each exuded a foul rotting stench, their faces iron-gray, no different from corpses.

As Tang Luo and them opened the door and entered,

those closest to the stairs, sensing the light, immediately grew agitated, slamming into the iron bars before them, even gnawing with their teeth.

"A bit like the zombies in those barbarian zombie movies?" Ao Yulie said.

"Hah—" Tang Luo let out a light breath, walked up to one of the cells, reached out, tore off a bar, and grabbed one person's head.

That person's position was not reached by the light; even with his head seized by Tang Luo, he still had a vacant, dull-witted look, completely unresponsive.

"Master, this is..."

Ao Yulie sucked in a cold breath, a hard-to-describe expression on his face.

Tang Luo performed the Soul Guiding technique, and deliberately displayed the state for Ao Yulie to see.

He saw Tang Luo holding a fragmented, incomplete soul.

This soul looked as if it had been thrown into a meat grinder, shredded, then randomly stitched back together, a chaotic mess.

Moreover, the faintly discernible appearance of the soul did not match the appearance of the body outside.

It was not this person's soul, but one forcibly stuffed into the body to keep the body "active," only to slowly rot from the inside out.

Estimated to take several months before these "bodies" would completely lose mobility.

Seeing the microcosm revealed the macrocosm; clearly, all the "people" here were the same, each harboring a chaotic, unknown, shattered soul fragment inside.

Souls randomly destroyed, spliced, then stuffed into other bodies.

"Even the Underworld's punishment for the most heinous criminals doesn't seem to operate like this." Ao Yulie said.

"This should be the ability of the Book of Life and Death; whoever did this is the holder of the Book of Life and Death." Tang Luo did not answer directly, but said, "These people are beyond saving."

Saying that, he turned and walked out.

What Xiaotian Dog discovered was precisely this kind of special situation.

Having come to verify the situation, next, just questioning those people outside should lead to finding the holder of the Book of Life and Death.

The two walked out again; Tang Luo casually reached out, the Glazed Nirvana Great Hand Seal not manifesting its form, and seized that man who had spoken earlier into his grasp.

"Let's keep it simple: you talk more, you suffer less." Tang Luo said to this person.

He also did not immediately use Soul Guiding; ultimately, performing Soul Guiding could not be easier than just swinging a fist brutally.

"Young Master Quan Er! It was people hired by Young Master Quan Er's side who employed us to protect this place!" The man's integrity was evidently low; he spoke immediately.

"Who is Young Master Quan Er?" Tang Luo asked.

"... You don't know?" The man froze.

"Oh, we're outsiders, just arrived here recently." Tang Luo said.

"Even if you're an outsider, how could you not know Young Master Quan the Second? That's Jinxiu Quan." the man said.

"Seems like... I've heard of it?" Ao Yulie recalled.

When learning some basic information about this mission world, he had taken note of a company called "Jinxiu Commerce."

Named Jinxiu, but in reality neither brocade nor embroidery, it was a veritable colossus, influencing, even controlling the nation's economic lifeline — a super chaebol.

And the family controlling this chaebol was the Quan family.

Quan is a fairly common surname in this country, but if you prefix it with the two characters Jinxiu, making it Jinxiu Quan, there is no doubt — they are the upper class, true nobility.

The current helmsman of the Quan family is a man in his seventies, with three sons in total; the second son died young in an accident.

The heir is the eldest son, who has already gradually taken over many of Jinxiu Commerce's businesses from his father, but he has only two daughters, no son.

The third son is a dissolute young master, leaving a trail of romances everywhere; even in his fifties he still doesn't know restraint.

Perhaps because he played too hard before, he also has only two sons.

The youngest son is Young Master Quan the Second, named Quan Chenghong, but his birth wasn't exactly glorious — he was the product of his old man's wild sex party, a one-night stand, and the other party was a hermaphrodite.

If not for a paternity test confirming it was indeed a biological child, and the third generation having only this one son, Quan Chenghong probably wouldn't have been admitted into the family so easily.

For a family like the Quans, holding such enormous wealth and power, they would certainly want many children and many blessings.

Although the third-generation heir can basically be confirmed without suspense as Quan Chenghong's half-brother, Quan Chenghong still holds a considerably important position.

The family is also grooming him.

For instance, in Xijing, Quan Chenghong controls several enterprises, and he himself resides long-term in Xijing.

From the man's introduction, they were invited by people around Young Master Quan the Second, originally thinking they'd be bodyguards.

Unexpectedly, upon arrival they were actually "exiled" to a ghost place like this, guarding a group of bizarre zombies, not letting them escape, and not letting them be discovered by outsiders.

Fortunately, these "zombies," in the absence of light, are extremely quiet, just standing there dazedly, with basically no reaction to external stimuli.

Greatly reducing these people's workload.

Although unable to leave, the money Young Master Quan gave was not little, and he promised that after working for a year, they'd get a large sum and be sent abroad, guaranteed a worry-free second half of life.

The Quan family's power and influence are not something these small-time mercenaries can resist.

So they stayed here, and every week a dedicated person delivered living necessities — transported from the sea in the dead of night.

All personally shipped by that manager-assistant beside Young Master Quan.

Sometimes a few more "zombies" would be delivered, locked into the underground cells.

These mercenaries didn't think much, nor dared to think much, just honestly doing their security work.

On the surface it's Young Master Quan the Second, but actually, behind the scenes, could it be the Quan family doing something?

Don't forget, among the industries the Quan family built their fortune on, there are medical pharmaceuticals!

The mercenary's code is to take money and do the job, not pry into the employer's secrets, let alone something where knowing more just makes it more dangerous.

The security outside are also Young Master Quan the Second's people, but they don't have much contact with them; it's more surveillance of them.

Their weapons, naturally, are also provided by Young Master Quan the Second.

These people are all mercenaries who've been on battlefields and killed; naturally they don't take killing to heart.

Sensing Tang Luo and the other's undisguised entry, they quickly took countermeasures.

Unexpectedly...

These two's "bizarre" degree was even more exaggerated than the zombies inside the room.

They did things humans fundamentally cannot do.

The man really wanted to tell his companions: "The world has changed."

"Looks like the Book of Life and Death is in that whatever young master's hands." Ao Yulie said.

"Let's go, get the Book of Life and Death first, then cross over those people." Tang Luo said.

Originally planned to find people first, then find the Book of Life and Death; the Book of Life and Death "jumped" out first.

Then get it first and talk later; anyway there's still 72 hours left, time is enough.

If not enough, worst case just stash the Book of Life and Death somewhere first.

The mission must be completed, the enemy camp's gods and demons walking about, Tang Luo must also cross them over; he wants it all.

Leaving that man behind, Tang Luo and Ao Yulie walked out of the factory.

Leaving behind a group of people with expressions of joy at surviving a disaster, not expecting to be let go so easily.

Their injuries were severe but not fatal; find the security outside, and they can...

The smile on the man's face instantly vanished, because he thought: first, not to mention whether those few guards have been killed.

They themselves committed such a huge "mistake," letting two people in, discovering a huge secret, and then swaggering away.

How could the Quan family possibly let them go?

They might even become the Quan family's test subjects, become things like those zombies.

These two didn't kill them because there was no need; the Quan family would be happy to be that knife.

"Quick, contact Manager Zheng, only he can save us!" the man shouted.

Someone struggled to hand over a satellite phone.

But this action was clearly superfluous, because high in the sky, Tang Luo lightly pointed, and a wisp of lapis flame fell from the heavens.

Diagonally downward, like a meteor streaking across, it fell into the steel refinery.