Chapter 414 - 413: Taking the Bullet

In an instant, the nutrient solution burst through the crumbling glass wall, surging out.

Alarms blared throughout the laboratory as red lights flashed erratically. The surrounding test subjects frantically pounded on the thick glass. A series of dull thuds echoed through the spacious room, enough to make your skin crawl.

Amid the intense chaos, Ye Linyuan calmly stepped out of the glass container.

The flickering lights cast a long, imposing shadow that radiated a palpable pressure.

Lü Xin’s confident smile faltered. But after just a fleeting moment of panic, she regained her composure.

She grabbed a nearby male, using him as a shield as she ordered the others to split up—half to attack Ye Linyuan, the other half to protect her.

Dozens of males immediately swarmed Ye Linyuan, kicking and punching.

Ye Linyuan snatched one and tossed him aside while his serpentine tail coiled around two others, slamming them into the rest of the attackers.

Seeing them fight like cavemen, Lü Xin’s breathing steadied slightly.

Test subjects had escaped before, so the laboratory was built with special materials designed to suppress most Superpowers.

Furthermore, Ye Linyuan had a chip that had been implanted under the skin of his arm just after his birth.

The procedure was off the record. None of the test subjects knew about it.

When Ye Linyuan had tracked them down a few days prior, he had killed more than a dozen complete test subjects and nearly taken Lü Xin’s life. Fortunately, she had managed to subdue him by activating the chip control at the critical moment.

All she needed to do now was repeat the same trick.

Just as Lü Xin pulled up the remote interface, a bullet suddenly pierced through the main terminal.

The screen flickered for two seconds before plunging into darkness.

Lü Xin looked up, her eyes meeting those of Jiang Qingli, who was pushing herself to her feet against a wall.

’I almost forgot there was another female here.’

"Qingli, you still don’t understand us. People who conduct experiments never keep only one copy of their data," Lü Xin said. "Rebooting only takes three minutes."

"But you won’t have the chance to," Jiang Qingli said, her gaze fixed in Ye Linyuan’s direction.

A sense of dread washed over Lü Xin. When she turned back, she saw Ye Linyuan, his hands dripping with blood, toss something the size of a fingernail toward her.

The male test subject beside her caught it and opened his palm for her to see—

Ye Linyuan had brutally dug the chip out of his own body!

Lü Xin felt as though her insides had been doused with gasoline; a single deep breath would be enough to set her ablaze.

She looked at Jiang Qingli, her voice chillingly cold. "Did you really think I wouldn’t touch you?"

In the time they had worked together, Lü Xin had formed a high opinion of Jiang Qingli. From a professional standpoint, she undoubtedly admired her.

If Jiang Qingli hadn’t come here, Lü Xin would never have planned on making her a test subject.

Lü Xin raised her hand, giving a signal. A row of hovering robots appeared overhead. Panels on their undersides slid open, revealing gun barrels aimed at Jiang Qingli and Ye Linyuan.

Lü Xin sighed. "Qingli, these bullets are custom-made for S-class males. They’re incredibly powerful, and I don’t want to hurt you. If you surrender now, I can spare you. I’ll only kill Y-01."

It’s difficult to extract genes after a human has died; the process is very likely to result in a failed specimen.

Just like Baili Chengyan.

Lü Xin felt that Jiang Qingli’s genes were too good to waste, and she couldn’t resist giving her one more chance.

"No." Jiang Qingli didn’t even bat an eye. "I have no desire to be treated like a test subject and locked in a glass cage."

Her refusal was icy and resolute.

Lü Xin frowned and shot a look at the male beside her. "Go get her."

The male glanced warily at Ye Linyuan, who had already taken down several men and was now occupied with a group of five or six others on the far side of the room.

Lü Xin said coolly, "He won’t care about her."

She had read Ye Linyuan’s file.

When Y-01 was just an embryo, he was injected with an extremely high proportion of advanced beast genes.

Logically, a test subject like that had a high probability of never being born at all.

And yet, he had miraculously survived.

According to laboratory records, most of Y-01’s behavior was more beast than human—

Aggressive, savage, amoral, emotionally volatile, and severely lacking in empathy... Aside from his handsome exterior, there was nothing human about him.

Twenty years ago, when the laboratory was being purged, Y-01 escaped in the chaos. The military captured several of the fleeing test subjects and euthanized them.

But they never found Ye Linyuan.

One researcher had stated frankly, "Given Y-01’s nature and his abilities at this stage, the most probable outcome is that he was killed by a Mutant Beast."

The military searched for a few weeks without success and eventually gave up. No one believed a five-year-old child could cause any trouble, so everyone assumed he was dead.

That was why Lü Xin had been utterly shocked when she first saw Ye Linyuan in the First District.

She soon discovered that Ye Linyuan had learned of the laboratory’s secret continued existence and was trying to find them to destroy the project and kill them all.

In order to ensure the experiment could proceed smoothly, and to capture Ye Linyuan to study his current data, Lü Xin had used Fang Chi to get to the Twelve Cities and had taken charge of the operation personally.

After capturing Ye Linyuan, Lü Xin had been astonished to find he had been marked.

’Could such a lowly creature really experience emotions like a human?’

But whether he could or not, Lü Xin had now completely removed Ye Linyuan’s mark.

And when she had used a Spiritual Attack on Jiang Qingli right in front of him just now, he hadn’t seemed to react at all.

Before she could say more, she saw Ye Linyuan snatch someone up with his serpentine tail and fling the body in their direction.

Only then did Lü Xin realize that the dozens of test subjects were all unconscious, lying in a heap at Ye Linyuan’s feet.

Ye Linyuan looked up, his sinister, slitted golden pupils fixed on Lü Xin.

As if to say she was next.

A chill shot down Lü Xin’s spine. She stumbled backward, running for the exit while screaming, "Fire! Fire!"

Two of the males covered Lü Xin’s escape.

Before leaving, Lü Xin didn’t forget to turn on the surveillance feed to see just how long Ye Linyuan would last.

The two remaining males activated the switch.

A chaotic hail of bullets sprayed indiscriminately in their direction.

Jiang Qingli watched the door shut. She sat motionless in the corner.

’I have no strength left. Anyway, I have the Barrier and the protective device from 030. I already tested it, I won’t get hurt. I’ll just rest for a bit.’

But just as the bullets were about to reach her, a dark, serpentine tail suddenly wrapped around her waist from behind and lifted her into the air.

Jiang Qingli turned her head and saw Ye Linyuan, his face covered in blood, dragging her toward him. Her heart seized in shock.

’Hey, wait, wait, wait!’

’Is Ye Linyuan going to use me as a shield?!’

’Even if we’re strangers to him right now, using me as a shield is a bit much...’

The snarky thought had barely formed in her mind when the firing sequence initiated, and the bullets swarmed toward them.

The next second, Jiang Qingli was suddenly pulled into a tight embrace.

A hand pressed the back of her head, holding her flush against Ye Linyuan’s chest.

Through his combat suit, Jiang Qingli could clearly feel herself enveloped by the familiar coolness of his body.

His presence was all-encompassing, like a steady, unbreachable shell.

Jiang Qingli froze.

It wasn’t until she heard the dull thuds of bullets striking him, followed by the young man’s muffled grunt, that she realized what was happening—

Ye Linyuan was shielding her from the hail of bullets with his own body.

Even though he couldn’t remember her at all.