Tian Jing had left the special skills team. The Li family only knew she was recalled by the special skills team for an urgent matter, not that she was going on a mission. If they knew...
Even if they knew, they couldn't stop her.
As soon as Tian Jing entered the devil desert, a woman approached her and asked if she was Captain Tian.
Tian Jing glanced at her attire; she was supposed to be disguised as a man.
Tian Jing's actions confirmed it.
The woman gestured with her right hand, "Captain Tian, please follow me."
Tian Jing did not move. "I need to see those monsters. Otherwise, my antidote might not be real."
The woman paused, then made a request via her mobile phone. Afterward, she led Tian Jing deeper into the desert.
Seeing the withered trees and the coded messages on them, Tian Jing couldn't help but narrow her eyes. The other party hadn't even changed the entrance; was it due to lack of time to move it, or were they overconfident?
At the iron gate, the woman extended her hand to Tian Jing. "I'm sorry, but I need to confiscate your bag and search your person..."
Before the woman could finish speaking, Tian Jing had already ensnared her with vines.
Tian Jing looked up at the top of the iron gate. "So timid? You ask me to come alone to exchange for someone, and you still want to search me. I'm a wood element planter with superpowers. Without seeds, how can I feel secure?"
"Hehehe."
A harsh mechanical laughter echoed from the top of the gate. "Alright, no search. Please enter."
As soon as Tian Jing entered, the large iron gate slowly closed.
The confined space gave a sense of suffocating fear.
Coupled with the roars of the monsters, it truly felt like the apocalypse.
Tian Jing walked along the only main road in this steel town, looking at the monsters within the iron fences on either side. She frowned.
No wonder Han Lushi and the others called these creatures monsters. The ones imprisoned were all half-human, half-beast.
Either their upper bodies or lower bodies were animalistic; not a single one was fully human.
But they all shared a characteristic: stiff, decaying, and foul-smelling.
The gates of the iron fences were painted in different colors: yellow, green, blue, red, and brown.
Yellow, green, blue, red, brown?
It should be gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, right?
Besides the five colors, some gates had symbols like ice, snow, lightning, and wind. The monsters behind these gates were few.
At the end of the road stood a two-story building, constructed entirely of steel and bulletproof glass.
The door to the first floor was open. Several foreign men with different hair colors stood inside. Among them was an acquaintance of Tian Jing.
"Captain Tian, welcome."
"Matvey, where are my two team members?"
Matvey glanced at the blonde man beside him.
The blonde man appraised Tian Jing. Despite her disguise, it couldn't conceal her beautiful features. A slight smile curved his lips. "A guest from afar. Captain Tian, please come in."
Tian Jing stepped through the doorway without hesitation. "I'm here. Let's dispense with the false pleasantries. Release my two team members."
"Don't rush."
The blonde man's Mandarin was exceptionally standard. "I'll give Captain Tian a tour of our laboratory."
"Alright."
Tian Jing also wanted to see what the laboratory looked like.
"Please."
The blonde man led the way to the elevator.
Tian Jing calmly followed him into the elevator.
Matvey closely followed Tian Jing into the elevator. Then, two more men entered. The four of them surrounded Tian Jing.
Tian Jing's expression remained unfazed as she felt the elevator descending. After what felt like three or four floors, the elevator stopped.
After everyone exited the elevator, the blonde man and Tian Jing walked side by side at the front, while Matvey and the other two walked behind.
What met their eyes were glass rooms, each two to three hundred square meters in size. Inside the rooms were busy lab-coated figures and experimental beds covered with various instruments. On the beds lay unconscious experimental subjects.
Some experimental subjects were fully human, some fully beast, and others half-human, half-beast.
"Why?"
Tian Jing turned to the blonde man beside her. These experiments made her feel disgusted, even after experiencing the apocalypse.
The blonde man shrugged. "It's simple. For a higher pursuit, and for power and wealth."
Tian Jing stood by a glass wall, looking at the experimental subject bound to the bed.
This experimental subject had already begun to zombify. Its muscles were stiffening, and its pupils were tiny black dots.
This single glass room contained over a dozen beds, each with a subject on the verge of zombification.
Lab coats were still gathered around the beds, conducting experiments and recording their findings on paper.
Tian Jing continued walking. The first few glass rooms contained similar zombifying subjects.
In the last few glass rooms, there were no experimental instruments at all, only dense clusters of zombies.
The doors of the glass rooms bore the five colors and symbols of lightning and ice.
The zombies were fighting each other. Their fights were simple and brutal, directly attacking each other's foreheads. Whoever could quickly extract the opponent's crystal core won.
Watching the zombies consume crystal cores, Tian Jing sighed and shook her head.
"You are too arrogant. When their level gets high enough, you won't be able to control them, and it will be a global disaster."
"Impossible."
The blonde man was very confident. "We can create them, so we can destroy them."
"What about the psychic type?"
Tian Jing turned to look at the several rooms with identical scenes opposite them. "You cultivate psychic types because you think this type is very useful, controlling others without anyone noticing, right?"
"Once a psychic type reaches a high level, they develop intelligence. You will be controlled by it without realizing it."
The blonde man fell silent.
Tian Jing turned back to him. "Is it already becoming difficult to control them? Level six now? A level six intelligence is like that of a young child, isn't it?"
"If it rises one or two more levels, it will remember its memories from when it was human. At that time, heh heh heh..."
The blonde man took a deep breath. "Captain Tian, you understand zombies so well. Can you solve this problem?"
Tian Jing shook her head. "The only way is to eliminate them early."
The blonde man remained silent.
Tian Jing turned around. "I've seen enough. Where are my two team members?"
The group re-entered the elevator, this time ascending to the second floor.
The second floor resembled a hospital ward, with many people inside, receiving IV drips and wearing oxygen masks.
Tian Jing was led into a ward. There were only two hospital beds inside, occupied naturally by Wang Zaiquan and Shen Wei.
Both of them had bandages on their upper bodies and arms, their faces contorted in pain. An unknown liquid was being infused into their arms.
Sensing someone's arrival, they opened their eyes. Seeing Tian Jing, they were both startled, then excitedly and anxiously called for Captain Tian to leave quickly and not to mind them.
Tian Jing handed her backpack to the blonde man. "Here are ten thousand doses of antidote. I want to take them away."
Matvey quickly took the backpack, opened it to inspect the contents, then casually took out two doses and gave them to Wang Zaiquan and Shen Wei, telling them to drink.
Tian Jing nodded at the two of them.
After they drank, everyone in the room stared at them nervously.
Of course, Tian Jing's nervousness was different from theirs.
"I don't hurt anymore?"
Wang Zaiquan exclaimed as he felt his body. The intense pain that made him want to bite and scratch was gone.
Shen Wei chimed in that his body was also recovering.
Tian Jing's eyes flashed, and she smiled, nodding. "The antidote I brought is 200% effective. How could it not work?"
Wang Zaiquan remained silent.
Shen Wei expressed his gratitude and guilt. "We have burdened you."
"Don't say that."
Tian Jing shook her head. "As long as there's a sliver of hope, I will bring you home."
She turned to the blonde man. "You've tested the efficacy of the medicine. Can I take them now?"
"Don't be in a hurry."
The blonde man smiled. "Their bodies haven't fully recovered yet. It will be inconvenient for you to take them back alone. Why not wait a few more days?"
"No need."
Tian Jing refused. "I'll take them back to recuperate."
The blonde man hesitated for a moment before agreeing. "Alright. However, Captain Tian has also seen our laboratory. Don't you have any thoughts?"
"No," Tian Jing shook her head.
The blonde man didn't give up. "Captain Tian may not fully appreciate how difficult it is to raise one's ability level. I believe your two team members have experienced it firsthand."
"You met Matvey several years ago. He was only level five then. Look at him now."
As he spoke, Tian Jing sensed a strong aura around her. She looked at Matvey and the other two men in surprise. "Level eight?"
These three were all level eight. Then, what about the blonde man?
Seeing Tian Jing's gaze, the blonde man released his own level.
Level nine?
Tian Jing's eyes widened. It wasn't an act; she was genuinely shocked.
However, upon seeing the reddish tinge in the eyes of the four men, Tian Jing relaxed. They had high levels, but that was all. If they maintained their power for too long, they would surely lose their minds.
No wonder they knew the antidote wasn't entirely real; it was because its efficacy couldn't reach them.