CHAPTER 436: CHAPTER 404: SKELETON

The floor of the biochemical laboratory was covered in dust, the air was thick and filled with a pungent smell, making one feel as if they might develop pneumoconiosis with just one breath.

The corridor was dark and gloomy, and under the faint green glow from the emergency lights, one could see the ceiling mostly damaged with various pipelines and cables hanging down like exposed human veins.

"Hajimi ding dong chicken chubby baby stepping on the back making nucleic acid kangaroo chicken..."

Gray Rain suddenly sang out loud, startling Li Cheng, "What are you doing?"

"Singing to boost courage." Gray Rain justified: "It’s so dark here, it would be terrifying if something dirty was hiding."

"I thought even ordinary ghosts and goblins couldn’t defeat you."

Li Cheng’s eye twitched as he took out a super bright flashlight with ten thousand lumens from the warehouse to illuminate the path ahead.

As a pinnacle of science and technology, the nano robot, Gray Rain had maxed out defense and regeneration, unbothered by illusions, curses, or mind control,

If given a Peach Wood Sword, she could easily take on Chu Renmei, Kayako, and the Great Black Buddha Mother like a spinning top.

During their conversation, the two walked through the corridor and reached the elevator, where they saw a dried blue stain on the floor ahead.

Li Cheng squatted down, gently touched the blue stain with his fingertip, frowning slightly, "Blood."

"Eh? Is this blood?" Gray Rain asked in confusion, "Is there even blue blood?"

"Yes, there is. The color of the blood is determined by its hemoprotein. Hemocyanin, containing copper, is common in mollusks and arthropods.

Chlorocruorin, containing iron, is common in annelids and polychaete marine life.

Hemoglobin, containing iron, is found in humans."

Li Cheng casually explained, "In some fictional settings, vampires drink human blood because they can’t synthesize various proteins, including hemoglobin.

Therefore, if you go to a nightclub in the slum called the [Demon Banquet], which caters mainly to bloodline customers, you would see many vampires holding octopuses and squids as blue blood drinks,

And the plant-based blood provided for vegan vampires."

The terms vegan vampires and plant-based blood are quite mind-boggling, but there’s a detailed logic behind them.

There was once an anonymous captain of the Central Continent Team, Zheng Zha, who mastered both Inner Power Qigong and bloodline enhancement, where the former is balanced and peaceful, and the latter is violent and sinister. Their integration counteracts each other,

Causing severe harm to the body while temporarily granting explosive strength.

Inspired by Zheng Zha, one generation after another of killing field vampires started following the vegan path.

To either cultivate one’s moral character or nurture inner strength, or to directly go all in and become a monk.

Combining the gentlest and most peaceful light of Buddhism with the darkest and most insidious bloodline magic power to gain tenfold or hundredfold strength.

For these vegan vampires to obtain the blood they need to survive, they also started employing internet ghostwriters to vigorously promote veganism, emphasizing that parents should rather feed their children rice oil than milk, striving to cultivate "inborn vegetarians" in children,

Thus making the blood of these vegans technically vegan blood.

Buddhist vampires can drink it freely without worrying about breaking their vows.

"Try this rice oil, it’s high-end rice oil that’s different, smooth, chewy, and the taste is just right, our inborn vegetarian baby can’t go a day without it."

The image of an advertisement for inborn vegetarians seemed to appear in his mind, Li Cheng shook his head, shook off chaotic thoughts, and carefully scanned the blue bloodstains with his Information Integration Glasses.

The blood contained components like red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets, with an oxygen utilization rate and supply capacity far exceeding human blood, indirectly proving that the life essence of the blood’s original owner was very strong.

Almost equivalent to a Level 20 Close Combat Transcendent.

’Judging from the blood spatter marks on the corridor floor and walls, the blue-blooded creature was attacked here, but there were no signs of a struggle nearby. This suggests the attacker completed the kill instantaneously...’

Li Cheng pondered silently and, with Gray Rain, walked down the stairs to the first underground level.

Gray Rain sensed something and placed her hand on the wall, with a serious expression, "There’s movement."

"Hmm."

Li Cheng nodded. The ground floors of this biological laboratory were a ruin, but the underground structure was quite intact.

Listening carefully, one could clearly hear faint noises coming from deep underground, a mixture of mechanical operation, engine rumbling, and...piercing screams.

"Keep going down."

Li Cheng and Gray Rain continued downward to the second underground level.

In this whole vacant floor, all equipment, from centrifuges, ultra-low temperature freezers, and pure water systems to cell analyzers and microscopes, had vanished without a trace.

Judging from the dust accumulated on the floor, it was evident they had been moved away.

Not only that, but even the cables embedded in the walls had been pulled out and taken, as if locusts had passed through.

"Further down."

The two reached the third underground level, navigated through narrow winding corridors, and finally found the source of the noise.

"It really is a biological laboratory."

Gray Rain widened her eyes as she saw an entire floor full of dismembered parts of native species from the killing field.

In the flashlight’s beam, these body parts weren’t simply discarded but bizarrely integrated with the biological laboratory’s equipment.

Fish eyes embedded in cryo-electron microscopes, bones installed in vortex mixers, cow heads connected to cell analyzers.

All the equipment was neatly arranged and systematically placed.

Yet it was precisely this order, combined with the bloody and twisted scene, that made it appear even more pathological and evil.

A biological laboratory made from biology.

"Assembly Puppet?"

Gray Rain blurted out instinctively; the scene indeed resembled the unreasonable montage special effects of an Assembly Puppet.

"It isn’t."

Li Cheng picked up a centrifuge fused with a goat’s skull, finding dark red mold growing across the desktop and inside the centrifuge.

These molds were biological cells with resilient cell walls, capable of transmitting bioelectricity like the Zerg’s creep from StarCraft, providing power to the instruments.

Instrument power meant that whoever made these instruments might not be far away.

Gray Rain gripped her Skull Shattering Power Hammer tightly, muttering nonsense like "0.2 seconds per kill" and "the strongest female bodyguard in history," guarding Li Cheng’s side.

The flashlight pierced the darkness, and from the depths of the laboratory, came a miserable human voice, "Is anyone there? Hello?"

Could anyone still be alive in this ghastly environment?

Li Cheng strode towards the direction of the voice, passing through two airtight doors into a vast space.

Skeletons stood like mountains, bones like forests, rows of bio-ribs connected by fascia lay on the ground, forming a track,

At the track’s end stood a train cannon constructed of mangled limbs, the cannon itself towering as high as three floors, with a caliber of nearly 700 millimeters, angled toward the elevator shaft.

At the cannon’s base, a human head protruded, trembling and crying with excitement at the sight of Li Cheng, muttering in a low voice, "Are you human? Please, save me."