Chapter 116

The third floor opened up to a small main hall right at the top of the stairs. There were corridors on both sides, each with a room, and the doors were tightly closed.

In the main hall, there were specimens of two level-6 mutated creatures. One was a white tiger with large wings, and the other resembled a hyena with a row of bone spurs growing from its back. Yuan Lan had no intention of preserving them properly, simply letting the sunlight from the window shine on them, coating their fur with a thin layer of golden light.

Bai Xuechao's gaze swept lightly over the two specimens, thinking to himself that Yuan Lan probably had some kind of fetish for specimens; humans had to be made into specimens, and so did mutated species.

He followed Yuan Lan into the room on the left.

Upon entering, Bai Xuechao saw a mutated snake submerged in a huge cylindrical container, and his brow twitched.

It was not out of fear.

It was because this type of mutated snake was a new species that had only appeared in the north in April of this year. It was level-5, extremely rare, and highly venomous. Only the Dark Organization had discovered it early, capturing all three that existed at the time and continuing to monitor the area, preparing for long-term capture.

The Dark Organization extracted its toxin for assassinations and also sold the toxin.

The toxin was rare and temporarily had no cure. Just 0.06 milligrams could render a person weighing within 100 kilograms unconscious within 10 seconds of being poisoned, and they would die in about 2 minutes.

The old leader had Liu Jingchun take this new type of toxin abroad to expand their business. With it, Liu Jingchun, in a very short time, successfully elevated the Dark Organization from a marginalized position on the fringe of the foreign special ability power circle into the circle itself, gaining some say—after all, this new toxin was incredibly potent, and only the Dark Organization possessed it.

For those two-plus months, the Dark Organization made a huge fortune from the new toxin, flourishing both at home and abroad. The old leader was in high spirits, smiling from ear to ear every day.

Why only two-plus months?

Because just over a month after this new toxin started circulating, an antivenom serum to counter it appeared through private channels abroad, and it was genuinely effective, dealing a fatal blow to the organization's burgeoning new toxin business.

It was unknown which genius discovered that the new toxin originated from this snake and even created an antivenom serum. Clearly, the time to produce an antivenom serum was very long, and cultivating antibodies required at least half a year, yet the other party managed to produce it in about a month, and in considerable quantities.

After another half month, due to the emergence of the antivenom serum, the new toxin business became increasingly bleak, with profits plummeting both domestically and abroad.

When Bai Xuechao was sent to Shoukang Private Hospital, Jiang Yunyi was strictly investigating whether anyone within the organization's research department had leaked intelligence about the new toxin, while Liu Jingchun, who was abroad, was in charge of investigating who had created and was selling the antivenom serum.

At this very moment, seeing this mutated snake that only existed in the north appear here, Bai Xuechao understood everything.

He almost laughed out of anger.

The Dark Organization and the Apocalypse Society had different spheres of influence, one in the north and one in the south. At least on the surface, both sides had always minded their own business, maintaining a tacit peace. But as it turned out, Yuan Lan was cutting off their financial lifeline behind their backs. He really had nothing better to do.

Could it be that Yuan Lan did not want the Dark Organization's power to grow, and was therefore suppressing them.

It was not that he felt sorry for the organization, but that when the profits from the new toxin plummeted, he was the one sent by the old leader to investigate the reason.

He had not slept for three whole days and two nights, investigating from home to abroad, finally discovering that it was because a serum specifically targeting their toxin was being sold secretly, and it had cleverly bypassed their intelligence network, which was why they were so late to find out.

Then, because of staying up all night and catching a chill, he suffered a severe fever for five days.

Fortunately, the old leader did not assign him the follow-up investigation. But even if he had, his physical condition at the time would not have supported continuing the investigation.

His health had already been deteriorating during that period.

Later, even after he was hospitalized, he knew that Jiang Yunyi had not found a traitor in the research department, and Liu Jingchun had failed to find out who the seller of the serum was abroad. The old leader had thrown a huge tantrum over this and punished both of them, though not severely.

Bai Xuechao complained about Yuan Lan internally, but his face did not show it. He said in a rather meaningful tone, "So it was you."

"I was found out at once," Yuan Lan admitted with a smile, pushing Bai Xuechao's shoulder toward the container as if to show him a closer look.

Very well, the grudge for the five-day fever was now on Yuan Lan's account.

Bai Xuechao looked straight ahead at the container, walking while asking with some interest, "How did you manage to produce a large amount of antivenom serum in just one month?"

...And by the way, he also used the antivenom to step on the Dark Organization and make a huge profit. This was what angered the old leader the most.

At that time, the business of the new toxin was booming, and many factions wanted to buy it, with the price per gram being sky-high. But while it was booming, all factions were also on edge, since no one knew if their enemies would buy this toxin. It was fast-acting and had no cure; once poisoned, death was certain.

Therefore, when the antivenom serum appeared, almost all factions purchased a few doses just in case, earning more than the Dark Organization did from selling the toxin.

Especially, once it was known through intelligence that a certain organization had bought the toxin, then all organizations that had feuds or conflicts of interest with that organization would be bound to buy the serum to prevent being successfully poisoned and having no way to respond. The Dark Organization was just selling a knife, while the seller of the serum could sell at least five shields.

In this "commercial" confrontation, the Dark Organization had someone stepping on their head to make money.

If the Dark Organization earned two hundred million during this period, the other party earned at least one billion, and they could not even catch them. Who would not be angry?

"Actually, it only took three weeks." Yuan Lan said, pointing to a row of large, now empty, cages placed against the wall, "After confirming the source of the toxin, I raised seven kinds of mutated animals there, injected them with the toxin one by one, and found the one that produced antibodies the fastest."

The rest did not need to be explained; of course, it was to capture that type of mutated animal in large numbers and cultivate the antibodies.

But that was not what Bai Xuechao wanted to hear most.

He stood shoulder to shoulder with Yuan Lan in front of the container, turned his gaze to Yuan Lan's eyes, and asked, "And before that?"

He wanted to know more about how Yuan Lan had confirmed the source of the toxin in such a short time.

Yuan Lan, with a mischievous streak, did not clarify but smiled mysteriously, "You guess?"

He gave Bai Xuechao a look that said, "You should know."

In fact, Bai Xuechao already had an answer in his mind—it was none other than Yu Ruolan's special ability, but the question he faced was whether to say it frankly. Yuan Lan's gaze hinted that he already knew something, but his words asked him to guess, meaning Yuan Lan wanted to know his inner thoughts through his answer.

Bai Xuechao thought to himself, Yuan Lan probably was not sure whether his conversation with Yu Ruolan was just a casual chat or an attempt to obtain intelligence with ulterior motives.

If he directly said it was Yu Ruolan's special ability, he would reveal that his previous conversation with Yu Ruolan was not just a simple chat but an attempt to probe for information, and that he even knew about her special ability. Yuan Lan might ponder his intentions and possibly become more guarded against him.

But saying it would also be a kind of frank "trust." He was not deliberately hiding the information he had learned, thus sending a signal—

He was gradually letting down his guard, trying to integrate into the Apocalypse Society.

Whether he was sincere remained to be seen.

If he guessed another answer, although it would not completely prove that he was just casually chatting with Yu Ruolan, given that Yuan Lan was still trying to win him over, Yuan Lan would not pursue it further, but would simply maintain his level of wariness toward him.

However, Bai Xuechao had a hunch that if he did this, Yuan Lan would control the amount of intelligence he knew because he was still unclear about his attitude.

For instance, in this laboratory tour, the information he could know next would be controlled by Yuan Lan.

This would increase the difficulty for him to obtain more intelligence.

In short, Yuan Lan must have wanted to confirm his attitude through his answer.

This was a tacit test that both of them were aware of.