Chapter 753 Master and disciple
Cheng Yu and the others also fell into deep thought. Everyone had gathered here from everywhere outside the Sacred Mountains. If the Pyro Company really had some prehistoric pterosaurs hidden in the Sacred Mountains, they should have seen them already.
Ever since the Pyro Company gave their assistance during the attack on Stronghold 74, many people started wondering if the Pyro Company had really just been demonized. Jiang Xu, the chief editor of Hope Media, was even one of those who reflected on this.
“Everyone, look over there.” Ren Xiaosu said as he pointed to a spot away from the cluster of buildings, “It’s a farming settlement. You can even still see uncut corn stalks growing on it. It looks like it has been abandoned for some time already. The Pyro Company actually used to farm in the Sacred Mountains? This doesn’t feel like their style at all.”
Everything that Ren Xiaosu and the others had just witnessed was in stark contrast to their impression of the Pyro Company. What they had encountered were the bloodthirsty T5 combatants and rumors demonizing the Pyro Company in the outside world. However, there were many artsy buildings here and a farming settlement surrounding it. It looked like a paradise, except it was quite neglected.
Luo Lan, who was standing at the side, suddenly said, “All of you should know that our Qing Consortium has always been at odds with the Pyro Company, so we’ve never stopped our investigations into them. In fact, the Pyro Company’s foreign policy was not that radical just six years ago. At that time, their main method of obtaining DNA samples was by stealing them.”
As he said that, Luo Lan glanced at Li Shentan and said, “For example, the theft of the DNA samples from the psychiatric hospital in the Southwest. If it were today, they would just openly obtain it with force. Their way of doing things is different now. The Pyro Company combatants you encountered back then are not the same as the ones today. They didn’t used to be so hostile.”
“Six years ago?” someone said puzzledly. According to Luo Lan, six years ago seemed to be the watershed moment for the Pyro Company. What happened to the Pyro Company at that time? “There might’ve been a leadership change.” Luo Lan sighed. “I’m not sure about the specifics either.”
Ren Xiaosu looked at the farming settlement and the artsy building complexes. It seemed like all of this was slowly fading with time.
The group started approaching the cluster of buildings. They could not see it clearly when they were a distance away. But as they got closer, everyone realized there were many Pyro Company combatants’ bodies strewn on the ground along the way. It looked like they had been dead for several hours.
The blood on the ground had already coagulated and dried into a dark purple patch. Vanilla said as he crouched down and opened the eyelids of a dead victim, “The time of death is less than six hours.”
In fact, this was a very simple way of verifying when someone had died. As a professional hitman, Vanilla naturally knew about this.
After death, the cornea of a person would start clouding. In about 36 hours, it would turn so opaque the pupil could not even be seen clearly anymore.
Therefore, judging the time of death based on the degree of corneal opacity was a simple method that could be employed in the absence of any instruments.
“Vanilla is right. Those 11 people who left the group have indeed entered the research base. Furthermore, their methods of killing are very strange. It’s obvious these people did not struggle at all when they died, so it shows those 11 must be very skilled at carrying out sneak attacks,” Cheng Yu explained. “Y’know, the Pyro Company combatants here are at least T3-ranked, or even T4-ranked.”
This time, it was the others that got anxious before Ren Xiaosu’s group could get anxious. After all, they were all here for the purpose of either seizing the data or capturing the No. 001 Experimental.
In any case, the Pyro Company’s Sacred Mountains was like a treasure trove that had many consortiums coveting it. Now that they realized someone had gotten there first, they could not help but get anxious. Otherwise, they would not be able to answer to their higher-ups when they got back. “Let’s head in then.” Li Shentan flourished his hands. “It’s also good that we have someone clearing the way for us.”
Their group reached the cluster of buildings very quickly. At the beginning, everyone was very alert. But gradually, they realized there were no survivors in the areas they passed through.
All of the Pyro Company members were dead.
The defenses made up of several hundred T3-ranked and above combatants had been taken care of just like that.
Moreover, there was not even a single gunshot wound on the bodies of the Pyro Company combatants. It looked like most of them had been killed by melee weapons. Some of the Pyro Company soldiers did not even look like they had the chance to disengage the safety on their rifle.
Some Pyro Company members also died due to some strange reasons. They did not have any wounds, bruises, nor extravasated blood under their skin and just died very mysteriously.
There were so many corpses lying everywhere that blood had been flowing into the depths of the building complexes. Everyone found it a little hard to imagine. “Just where did those 11 come from? They actually killed their way through all the defenses of the Pyro Company’s research base?”
Initially, Vanilla and Li Shentan did not believe those 11 people could cause much of a stir.
The reason why Vanilla kept saying he wanted to prevent others from getting ahead of them was to make everyone start moving quickly so he could carry out the boss’s plan.
But something unexpected had happened. The 11 people who broke off from the group were even more powerful than they had imagined. They had actually broken through the Pyro Company’s last line of defense?
But which organization did those people belong to? Wang Yun felt that something was off no matter how he thought about it. Those people… seemed very familiar with the Pyro Company’s core research base.
And outsiders were not capable of infiltrating this place, not even the Qing Consortium.
After eliminating all possibilities, Wang Yun suddenly froze. Could they be from the Pyro Company? Although he did not know why he arrived at this answer, it was the only one left after the other possibilities had been ruled out.
The group rushed to the center of the building complexes where the largest building that resembled the double helix structure of a DNA molecule stood. It was also the most prominent one among the cluster of strange buildings.
But when they arrived at the bottom of that building, everyone was stunned.
They saw 11 corpses lying neatly under that building while a young man sat cross-legged next to them. He was wearing a golden circlet on his head and had his eyes tightly closed.
The young man seemed to be in a trance and turned a deaf ear to the arrival of Ren Xiaosu and the others.
Ren Xiaosu looked at him in a daze and was momentarily speechless.
Meanwhile, Li Shentan was standing off to the side. Actually, he and Ren Xiaosu knew from the beginning they would definitely encounter another clone here.
ICO
Just as Yang Xiaojin had said, if the Pyro Company could only awaken the superpowers of a few superhumans’ clones, they would definitely use their limited methods to create unlimited possibilities.
In the era of the “Rise of Gods,” only the strength of two people had been validated by this era, Li Shentan and Chen Wudi.
Since the Pyro Company possessed both their DNA samples, there was no reason why they would only clone Li Shentan and not Chen Wudi.
Meanwhile, this “Chen Wudi” did not disappoint the Pyro Company either. Even though those 11 people easily broke their way through the Pyro Company’s last line of defense, they still ended up getting killed one after another by the “Chen Wudi” who was sitting in front of them.
“Chen Wudi” did not even have any injuries, nor did he look like he was in a pathetic state.
As for those 11 corpses, they looked a little ghastly.
“Chen Wudi” said without opening his eyes, “Everyone, your journey ends here. It’s time for you all to get some rest.”
His voice was calm like water in an ancient well; there were no ripples at all. Or rather, he felt more like a god from the heavens who had abandoned mortal feelings ever since he was born.
