CHAPTER 99: ALIVE

Chapter 99: Alive

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Long Huoyan didn’t believe any of this was a coincidence, not after discovering the presence of the cocoon.

It was clear that the cocoon hadn’t just appeared out of nowherem,l.

According to the initial investigations, the cocoon was connected to an enormous underground network of dark purple tendrils, which seemed to have traveled from a faraway place all the way here.

If that was all, one might think it was the work of some strange creature, but the very area where the cocoon was located confirmed that its presence there was due to someone .

’Someone implanted that thing there on purpose, but who, and what exactly were they aiming for?’

The situation grew stranger the more they discovered, and that only made him feel even more uneasy.

His instincts told him they had just dodged a disastrous bullet, but he also felt that something bigger had begun to move.

He didn’t know who was behind all this, but the exact moment that being containing that strange energy appeared, he decided to get to the bottom of the matter.

***

Meanwhile, the investigation team continued their work, exploring every single spot without leaving any trace unexamined, no matter how small or seemingly useless.

They had divided themselves into various groups, each with different tasks. Some were scanning the upper cave, others were examining the remains of bodies, or what little remained of them, and then there were those who continued to explore all the secondary tunnels.

They had already scouted the main tunnel and most of the secondary ones; now all that was left was to finish organizing everything and collect the various pieces of evidence.

Everyone was immersed in their work, and no one dared cause unnecessary disturbances for fear of punishment from their team leader.

So, no one noticed a certain group of three men moving toward a secluded area of the large underground cavern connected to the big tunnel.

They wore the same green uniforms with black stripes as the investigation team, making anyone who saw them assume they were also members of the investigation team.

Their faces were unreadable, as they kept staring at that area, as if searching for something.

Though they were somewhat hidden from the others’ view, a certain worker nearby noticed them standing there doing nothing, and the sight annoyed him.

"Hey, why are you just standing there doing nothing? Don’t you see how much work there still is?

Don’t stand there and start working! The sooner we finish, the sooner we go home," he said, irritated by their behavior.

But hearing his words, none of the three seemed to care; they continued examining the area in front of them.

Seeing this, the worker grew even more annoyed, he threw down his tools, and approached clearly upset.

"Hey, didn’t you hear what I said? move you as-" he started angrily, but just as he was finishing his sentence, his voice stopped.

He froze in place, as if petrified.

His body was completely still, and the expression that had been full of anger was now empty, without a trace of emotion.

He stayed there for a few seconds before turning and walking, somewhat stiffly, back to his original spot, where he picked up his tools and resumed his work as if nothing had happened.

Since it was a somewhat isolated area of the underground area, few noticed the commotion, and those who did saw the man return to his place and continue working, ignoring the incident and returning to their duties.

No one paid attention to the group of three.

They continued what they were doing, and eventually, after a while, the one in the center pointed to a certain spot of the broken wall in front of them, where a visible crack ran.

The crack in the wall was small, too small to attract anyone’s attention.

But approaching it, amid the suffocating silence of the tunnel, strange sounds could be heard... short, broken, almost suffocated breaths.

The two men on the sides immediately moved without saying a word. They placed their hands on the cracked surface, and strated slowly injecting their Qi into it.

The surface trembled slightly.

The crack began to widen, the lines deepening, and fragments of stone broke off... but instead of falling, they hovered in the air, sliding slowly down before settling on the ground like feathers.

Everything happened without a sound, and even the spiritual waves released were very subtle, almost imperceptible.

When the process ended, where the crack had been, there was a cavity two meters wide, barely a step deep.

The three men stepped aside to look inside.

There, embedded in the rock like a statue, was a human figure... or what remained of one.

The body was shriveled and blackened by burns. The lower half was completely missing, leaving only a broken torso.

One arm was severed, and the head... was mostly destroyed.

Of the entire face, the only thing left was the right eyeball, wet and glassy, seemingly staring at them from the darkness.

It looked dead.

But as they got closer, a slow, irregular breath could be heard.

Then, without warning, that single eye moved, slowly rotating to look straight at them.

That corpse, which until a moment ago seemed to have suffered the same fate as all the others found in the underground area, seemed to come back to life as it stared with its one remaining eye at the group of three standing before it.

The light inside its eye was intense, while strange muffled noises escaped from its mouth before fading away. It was clear it was trying to say something, though unable to.

Despite this, the group of three seemed to understand as they all bowed low, murmuring a greeting.

"Greetings, Young Master," they said in unison.

In fact, that barely living corpse was none other than Yun Hao himself, who thanks to his nascent soul, already considerably developed, had managed to keep himself alive and partially protected from the explosion.