Chapter 120

An arrogant answer.

Yuan Lan's words made the Apocalypse Society sound impregnable, as if no other force in this world could destroy it except himself. It was truly arrogant.

But Bai Xuechao's first reaction was not to question this answer. Instead, he raised his eyebrows and asked with interest, "Oh? Under what circumstances would you destroy the Apocalypse Society?"

He treated Yuan Lan's answer as a hypothesis.

"I gave you one opportunity to ask a question, and I've already answered it," Yuan Lan's eyes curved slightly, revealing a frivolous smile, "How about this, we'll ask each other questions. You answer one of my questions, and I'll answer this one of yours. How about it?"

Hearing this, Bai Xuechao's lips curled up slightly.

So that's what he was waiting for.

He guessed that Yuan Lan was going to ask him about the Dark Organization.

But he couldn't refuse, otherwise his attitude would be very questionable. After all, how could a person who wanted to integrate into the Apocalypse Society refuse to reveal information about their former employer?

He said, "Alright, you ask."

"The leader of the Dark Organization is an ordinary person, right?" Yuan Lan's expression took on a somewhat mocking tone, "As for you cadres—oh, the leader's own daughter can be excluded—why have the rest of you been so obedient to the leader all these years? Has no one thought of usurping the throne?"

Bai Xuechao tilted his head, imitating Yuan Lan with a mocking expression, "You call that one question?"

"Then answer why you listen to that old man," Yuan Lan said.

It seemed that Yuan Lan had already confirmed the answer to the first question.

Bai Xuech-ao's face showed no hesitation as he seemingly answered straightforwardly, "We just grew up there and have nowhere else to go. As for the others, I'm not sure. I don't have mind-reading abilities, but I guess it's probably out of loyalty."

In reality, he hadn't revealed any useful information.

"Is that so," Yuan Lan said with a charming smile, "Then you have somewhere else to go now."

Bai Xuechao didn't take the bait and said, "It's your turn to answer."

Yuan Lan didn't hesitate either, but the answer he gave was just as uninformative as Bai Xuechao's, "I'm a person who likes chaos and destruction, so, it depends on my mood."

Bai Xuechao sneered, "Your Apocalypse Society has been around for so many years. Are you just going to throw away the sunk costs?"

In his heart, he knew that Yuan Lan was not incapable of doing it.

Yuan Lan said, "That's the next question. Do you want to have another round of Q&A?"

Bai Xuechao thought to himself, you wish.

"Forget it," Bai Xuechao said with a look of disinterest, his tone lazy, "Even you, the boss, don't care, so there's no point in me asking."

Yuan Lan, who was waiting for a new round of Q&A, had his smiling expression falter. He asked for confirmation, "You're not asking?"

Bai Xuechao said, "Yes, I'm not asking."

Yuan Lan asked again, "Are you sure you're not asking?"

"I'm sure," Bai Xuechao smiled.

Xiao 6 couldn't help but knock on the electronic wooden fish and said, "A smile doesn't disappear, it just gets transferred, hahaha!"

Yuan Lan seemed unwilling to give up, "Aren't you curious about my thoughts anymore?"

"Just now, ah—" Bai Xuechao drew out the last syllable, raised his eyebrows, and a hint of wickedness flashed in his red plum-like eyes as he said in a light tone, "I'm not curious anymore."

"...Alright," Yuan Lan nodded with a smile, "Then in the future, if you want to know anything, come find me for an exchange."

With this, from now on, whenever Bai Xuechao wanted to know something from Yuan Lan, he would have to pay with an answer.

"...Okay," Bai Xuechao also nodded with a smile.

Neither of them got the upper hand.

The seventh floor was the last floor of the laboratory.

After the tour of the entire tower was over, Yuan Lan still had research to do, so he saw Bai Xuechao off.

The two returned to the main hall on the first floor. The statue still stood there, vivid and silent.

"Mu Xinyue will contact you later to give you the thrombopoietin," Yuan Lan said as he walked Bai Xuechao to the main entrance, "I'll try to finish before eight in the evening to take you shopping for clothes and other necessities."

Yuan Lan was actually willing to take him out?

"Actually, I can go by myself," Bai Xuechao said deliberately, wanting to see Yuan Lan's reaction.

Yuan Lan put his arm around Bai Xuechao's shoulder and gently pushed him out the door, holding the doorknob and smiling, "That's not possible!"

After saying that, he raised his other hand and made a "bye-bye" gesture in front of him before closing the door.

Bai Xuechao stood at the entrance, watching the slowly closing main doors.

Was this...letting him move around freely?

Bai Xuechao decisively headed down the mountain, wanting to go to the garden again to see what kind of mutated species the Apocalypse Society was raising.

He had just taken an X8 pill in Yuan Lan's laboratory, and the scent of the lure-pheromone was already hidden. He wouldn't be chased and bitten by a bunch of mutated plants like before, unless he bled.

Bai Xuechao walked down the mountain along the path he had taken with Yu Ruolan before.

Before he reached the garden, he suddenly heard someone calling him from a distance.

"Bai Xuechao!" It was Mu Xinyue's voice.

He followed the sound and looked. His gaze passed over the verdant and neat shrubs beside him and saw a lake as blue as the sky in the distance.

There was a long, white stone bridge over the lake, spanning across it, about two meters above the water.

Mu Xinyue was standing on this bridge at this moment, holding a box of medicine in her hand and waving at him continuously. When she saw him looking over, she frowned slightly and shouted loudly, "Can you swim?!"

The lake surface in front of her was still rippling, not as if blown by the wind.

Bai Xuechao instantly determined that someone had fallen into the lake, and it looked like they had been struggling and had just sunk.

They couldn't swim?

He directly crossed the shrubs and walked towards the lake, while answering Mu Xinyue loudly, "I can."

"Yu Ruolan fell into the water, and I can't swim. Do you want to save her?" Mu Xinyue didn't waste any words either. Her red eyes looked at Bai Xuechao, who was gradually approaching the lake, and her slightly furrowed brows relaxed. Her expression changed from a little anxious to her usual self, "I just called Yuan Lan. If you don't save her, Yuan Lan will be here in a moment."

Special ability users have strong vitality. Even if they drown, they can last longer than ordinary people. It wouldn't be impossible to wait for Yuan Lan to come and save her.

However, Bai Xuechao quickened his pace and stepped onto the stone bridge, taking off his jacket as he walked.

Xiao 6 asked, "Host, are you going to save her?"

"Yes," Bai Xuechao said.

The opportunity to get closer to Yu Ruolan was right in front of him. Why should he let Yuan Lan have it?

Besides, special ability users aren't made of iron. Drowning is not a comfortable experience. If he pulled her out sooner, Yu Ruolan would suffer less.

Bai Xuechao walked to Mu Xinyue's side, threw his jacket on the bridge, and pointed to where the ripples were, "Did she fall in here?"

"Yes," Mu Xinyue said.

This bridge had no railings, so Bai Xuechao jumped straight in.

The icy lake water instantly enveloped him. He endured the feeling of shivering all over from the cold and opened his eyes to swim deeper.

He saw Yu Ruolan struggling and sinking in the water and swam towards her.

He didn't expect this lake to be so deep.

He couldn't estimate the depth, but he knew he had already swum down four or five meters, and it was still very deep below. It was a dark patch, and Yu Ruolan was between him and that darkness.

While Bai Xuechao was swimming over, Yu Ruolan's struggles became slower and slower. Her long blackish-purple hair floated in the water like seaweed.

Her eyes were tightly closed, and she looked very uncomfortable.

Bai Xuechao held his breath and swam for more than ten meters, finally catching up with Yu Ruolan.

When he grabbed Yu Ruolan's arm, she was still conscious. Her body trembled subconsciously, and her eyes barely opened a slit. It was hard to say if she saw him clearly.

Xiao 6 held its face and said, "What an idol drama plot! All that's missing is the artificial respiration after getting ashore! I ship it! Ahhhhhh!"

Bai Xuechao: "..."

As expected of you, shipping master.

Bai Xuechao's lung capacity was not good, so he couldn't stay underwater for too long. He quickly pulled the person and swam upwards.

Yu Ruolan was very cooperative. She didn't grab him tightly out of fear or move around erratically to affect their speed. The two of them were ascending quite quickly.

Halfway up, Bai Xuechao felt a cold current of water welling up from below his feet, as if it were coming from the bottom of the lake.

He felt that something was wrong and looked down.

Xiao 6 also saw it and let out a huge, "Puke!"

Only to see a huge soft-bodied mutated creature emerge from the dark bottom of the lake. It was also floating upwards, and faster than them.

It looked like a leech, or a water leech. Its body was long and spindle-shaped. Its half-meter-wide oral sucker writhed towards them, and inside were circles of tiny, dense teeth, which couldn't help but remind Bai Xuechao of a lamprey. Its smooth, black skin looked extremely slippery and was irregularly covered with crevices, which also had dense teeth.

It looked disgusting.

Perhaps their movements in the lake had woken it up.

Bai Xuechao watched the mutated leech getting closer and closer to them, the circles of fine teeth also getting closer and closer. He couldn't help but frown.

He had never seen this mutated species before.

Without even thinking, this must have been something that Yuan Lan had catalyzed to mutate.

There was such a large mutated species at the bottom of the lake, and Mu Xinyue hadn't warned him just now. Was it on purpose?

Bai Xuechao pulled Yu Ruolan and accelerated upwards, feeling like his lungs were about to explode from holding his breath.

Just as they were less than two meters from the surface and could have surfaced with one more push, the mutated leech that hadn't caught up to them made a move.

It squeezed out several "tentacles" from its soft body, which looked like slender worms. They swam over quickly and wrapped around Bai Xuechao's ankle, waist, and wrist. The wet, cold, and slippery touch made Bai Xuechao feel uncomfortable all over.

Being pulled down by these worm-like tentacles, he couldn't swim at all. Even though they were so close to the surface, he could only spend time tearing off the tentacles on his body.

Based on the strength required to tear off the tentacles, Bai Xuechao judged that this mutated species was at most level 5, but the problem was that he was at the limit of holding his breath.

And while he was tearing off the tentacles, the mutated leech caught up with them.

It seemed to have just discovered Yu Ruolan and extended a tentacle to wrap around her waist.

Yu Ruolan must have fainted, as she didn't react at all.

Bai Xuechao calmly watched the mutated leech approach them. He reached out and pinched a water blade he had condensed in the water. It was only five or six centimeters long, a narrow and thin strip.

The black bracelet on his left wrist made the output of his special ability very sluggish, but it was only difficult to use his special ability, not completely impossible. He had been condensing this water blade just in case since he saw the mutated leech, and he had just finished it. It turned out he really needed to use it.

He quickly cut off the last tentacle wrapped around his ankle, and was about to cut off the one on Yu Ruolan's waist when he reached the limit of holding his breath. He couldn't help but let out a bubble of air.

Perhaps because its tentacles were cut off, the mutated leech began to writhe wildly, its oral sucker on the verge of sucking onto Bai Xuechao.

Even in this situation, the expression on Bai Xuechao's delicate and beautiful face remained calm, as if he had already thought of a solution.

At this moment, puppet threads suddenly rushed into the water and tied up the leech.

A few more puppet threads tied up Bai Xuechao and Yu Ruolan, pulling them out of the water and placing them on the stone bridge.

Mu Xinyue immediately took over the unconscious Yu Ruolan and performed chest compressions on her.

Bai Xuechao had held his breath for too long. Suddenly breathing in the fresh air, he lay on the bridge and couldn't stop coughing. His soaked, snow-white hair stuck to his face, and water droplets flowed down the lines of his face, gathering at his slightly pointed chin and dripping onto the bridge with a "pat, pat" sound.

"Oh my, it seems I arrived just in time," Yuan Lan squatted in front of Bai Xuechao, patting his back with a smile, "Shouldn't you be thanking me?"

"Thank you?" Bai Xuechao raised his eyes to look at him, his eyelashes wet. His lips, which had turned purplish from the cold water, opened and closed, uttering very impolite words, "Don't need you. If you had come ten seconds later, I would have been able to bring Yu Ruolan out myself."

Xiao 6 waved its electronic handkerchief and chimed in, "That's right! My host could have been the hero and saved the beauty himself, but you, this monster, had to interfere! Boohoohoo, I was only halfway through shipping my candy!"

Yuan Lan looked at the soaking wet Bai Xuechao for a long time, then suddenly laughed, "Is that so?"

"Of course," Bai Xuechao had already recovered. He pushed himself up with both hands and sat up, looking at Yuan Lan levelly, and said provocatively, "Or should I go down and demonstrate for you?"

"Alright~" Yuan Lan extended his long arm and pulled Bai Xuechao to the edge of the bridge, making him look at the mutated leech that was pulled out of the water by the puppet threads. His brilliant golden eyes curved, and his voice was gentle and sweet, "I'll count to three, two, one, and then I'll push you down, okay?"

"Cough, cough, cough, cough..." Yu Ruolan's coughing interrupted them.

Bai Xuechao and Yuan Lan looked over.

Yu Ruolan had woken up and was lying on her stomach on the bridge, coughing.

"Little Yu, you're awake," Yuan Lan let go of Bai Xuechao's hand and helped him up, "Look, Little Xuechao went into the water to save you."

Yu Ruolan looked at the soaking wet Bai Xuechao and said in a low voice, "Thank you."

"Yeah, no problem," Bai Xuechao said.

Xiao 6 excitedly pounded the firewall, feeling like it had shipped something.

Yuan Lan asked curiously, "How did you fall in?"

Yu Ruolan subconsciously glanced at Mu Xinyue.

Mu Xinyue was immediately unhappy with this subconscious action. She furrowed her brows and asked, "What are you looking at me for? Are you trying to say I pushed you in?"

"No, no, no..." Yu Ruolan looked at Yuan Lan in a panic and explained, "Don't misunderstand, it has nothing to do with Mu Xinyue. I fell in myself!"

Bai Xuechao: "..."

Xiao 6 couldn't help but cover its face, "Sister, you sound like you're being threatened!"