Chapter 40: The Most Terrifying Beast Form

Ye Xi'an noticed the strange looks of the soldiers around her.

"What kind of looks are those?" Ye Xi'an couldn't help but ask.

It's just a beast form, why are you so surprised?

A young soldier hesitated, then lowered his voice: "Little female, are you sure Doctor Lin is a Grey Eyebrow Snake?"

"Anyway, he said it himself, so it should be true."

The soldier's expression grew even more fearful, his features scrunched together like he was constipated: "You're not afraid? That's a Grey Eyebrow Snake."

Ye Xi'an was puzzled: "Not afraid, so what if it's a Grey Eyebrow Snake?"

Seeing her so fearless, the surrounding soldiers sucked in a breath of cold air—on Zhu Shen Xing, there actually exists a female who isn't afraid of Doctor Lin's beast form?

Another, older soldier with more experience, seeing Ye Xi'an looked just past adulthood, guessed she didn't know about the Grey Eyebrow Snake and explained: "Little female, you might not know, the Grey Eyebrow Snake is the most terrifying beast form on Zhu Shen Xing."

"Why?" Ye Xi'an grew even more confused—how could anything be scarier than humanity itself?

"Doctor Lin's beast form has extremely potent poison." The soldier lowered his voice: "It's said a single drop of venom can kill an adult mammoth. And—" he trailed off.

"And what?" Ye Xi'an pressed.

"And the Grey Eyebrow Snake is the only species on Zhu Shen Xing that can autonomously break free of the female spiritual mark." The soldier's voice trembled with fear: "That means they are completely free of female control, and can even turn around and control females."

Ye Xi'an froze.

On Zhu Shen Xing, the spiritual mark that females place on male beastmen is an innate ability and an important way to maintain social order.

A species capable of breaking free of this control would indeed inspire fear, especially among females, who are easily vulnerable to retaliation from such male beast forms.

"There once occurred a brutal massacre of females on Zhu Shen Xing, simply because that female took a Grey Eyebrow Snake as a husband—that Grey Eyebrow Snake—"

"Enough."

A cold voice suddenly sounded.

Ye Xi'an turned around and saw a pair of straight, long legs; following the pant legs upward, she realized Lin Zhi Jing had somehow already stood behind her.

His white coat was somewhat disheveled, his face still wet with undried blood, a large patch of skin exposed on his left side, the edges of his clothing scorched—clearly he had just gone through a fierce battle.

Lin Zhi Jing's gaze was dark and heavy as he swept his eyes over all the soldiers.

The soldiers immediately fell silent like cicadas in winter, each finding excuses to leave.

In no time, everyone had left; the vast space held only Ye Xi'an sitting on the ground and Lin Zhi Jing, head lowered, his gaze meeting hers.

"You're done fighting?" Ye Xi'an forced calm, feeling a bit guilty, after all just now they'd all been gossiping about Lin Zhi Jing: "Just now—"

"I heard that." Lin Zhi Jing interrupted her, his grey vertical pupils locked onto her eyes: "Are you afraid?"

Ye Xi'an shook her head: "It's fine enough."

A flicker of surprise crossed Lin Zhi Jing's eyes: "Why?"

"Because—" Ye Xi'an took a deep breath: "You saved Bao Jing; if it weren't for you, he would have died."

"Just because of him?"

Ye Xi'an blinked, not understanding what Lin Zhi Jing meant by that question, and blurted: "Yeah. Once Bao Jing wakes up, I'll definitely have him properly thank you."

Ye Xi'an seemed not to notice the turmoil in Lin Zhi Jing's heart, still lost in her own thoughts.

But Lin Zhi Jing's expression subtly changed; a complex emotion flickered in the depths of his eyes, his gaze slightly lowered, his lips pressed into a straight line as if suppressing some feeling. The air filled with a delicate silence, as if even time had paused at that moment.

"No need, I've already received my payment; I don't need extra false thanks."

"As for the spiritual mark—" Lin Zhi Jing's voice suddenly grew low, hand braced on his knee, one leg bent, half-crouched before Ye Xi'an: "I can indeed break free. But—"

His face drew near Ye Xi'an: "If it's you, I might not resist."

Ye Xi'an looked at the handsome face so close, her face flushed instantly: "You—you first move away a bit."

Too close, she was about to have social anxiety again.

Seeing Ye Xi'an so resistant to his approach, Lin Zhi Jing narrowed his eyes, feigning indifference as he rose: "Hurry up, let's continue the experiment."

"Ah?"

Ye Xi'an looked at the laboratory before her, still with dust floating in the air—how could they conduct an experiment?

Suddenly she thought of something: "What about that soldier?"

He couldn't have been beaten to death by Lin Zhi Jing, could he?

Lin Zhi Jing saw what she was thinking, displeasedly pointing at a dark mass in the distance: "Don't worry, he's not dead—just the drug's effect wore off and he went limp."

This is also a side effect of the reagent he's researching; if the user doesn't kill the opponent while berserk, they truly become meat on a chopping board, at anyone's mercy.

"But your lab's gone—how are we supposed to do it?"

"There's still some in the medical room; leaving it there is useless, so I'll give them all to you to try."

Ye Xi'an widened her eyes: "What kind of lowly person am I? What does it mean 'leaving it there is useless, give it to me to try'?"

Lin Zhi Jing laughed at Ye Xi'an's expression: "Don't worry, those reagents have already been given to the soldiers; they're very safe."

After saying that, his expression suddenly turned grave as he gazed deeply at Ye Xi'an: "I'm just curious why the reagent works normally on soldiers but has barely any effect on you."

"So I want to test whether you're only insensitive to the Energy Enhancer, or to all reagents like this."

Ye Xi'an's heart suddenly gave a jolt—would her constitution be exposed so soon?

"Afraid?"

Lin Zhi Jing's tone grew somewhat gloomy; Ye Xi'an immediately shook her head.

"Don't worry, even if they truly discover your special constitution, I wouldn't dare do anything to you—if the higher-ups found out, my clan would probably really cease to exist."

After saying that, Lin Zhi Jing extended a hand to the Ye Xi'an sitting on the ground: "Still not getting up? Prepare to sit on the ground until when?"

Only then did Ye Xi'an realize she was still sitting on the ground, but she didn't need Lin Zhi Jing's help—she pushed up her rear and crawled to her feet.

Seeing his own empty palm, Lin Zhi Jing felt bored, withdrew his hand, and slipped it into the pocket of his lab coat.

They went to the medical room; the door of the medical room had already been replaced with a new one.

"Where is the place where Bao Jing is lying?"

Lin Zhi Jing's motion of searching for medicine paused, then immediately returned to normal: "Don't worry about it first; after I finish testing the medicine, I will naturally tell you."

He took all kinds of strange medicines from the cabinet onto the table, turned around and looked at Ye Xi'an: "Can you still teleport now?"

Teleport?

Does that refer to her suddenly appearing from one place to another earlier?

Let me try.

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(End of chapter)