Chapter 118 - 106: Giant-Winged Demon (2)
He had a warm smile on his face and a refined, scholarly demeanor, like a professor giving a lecture at a university.
"Sit."
The Doctor smiled, gesturing to a metal chair in the center of the platform.
Lin Ye did as he was told and sat down, his body a little stiff with tension.
"Welcome, young man."
The Doctor’s voice was gentle and magnetic.
"To be honest, I’ve wanted to meet you ever since you first joined our company."
"Unfortunately, the project I was working on at the time was too critical, and I simply couldn’t get away. So, it wasn’t until today that I could formally invite you over."
Then, the Doctor’s tone shifted.
"Do you feel any nausea, dizziness, or any other discomfort here?"
Lin Ye shook his head.
The Doctor nodded, a look of immense admiration shining in his eyes from behind his glasses.
"Good."
"Very good."
He gazed at Lin Ye, his smile growing even gentler.
"I would like to invite you to participate in a truly momentous experiment."
"I want to know where your true limits lie."
The Doctor leaned forward slightly. Behind that warm smile, there seemed to be a kind of crazed anticipation.
"You will be willing, won’t you?"
Without waiting for Lin Ye’s reply, he took something from the pocket of his white lab coat.
It was a blue crystal, only the size of an egg, yet its color was deeper and purer than the giant Source Crystal below.
It lay quietly in the Doctor’s palm, as if it held the entire starry sky within.
"Do you know what this is?" the Doctor asked.
An expression of panic and confusion appeared on Lin Ye’s face, perfectly timed.
’He had to see this act through to the end.’
He needed to make the man before him lower his guard.
As for the Source Crystal...
Not only was he unafraid...
He was even a little excited.
’What a pure crystal!’
Lin Ye could feel that this Source Crystal’s purity was far higher than any of the ones he had swallowed in the abandoned chemical plant.
"This is a Source Crystal."
"One hundred sixty-seven years ago, the world’s first Celestial Abyss opened. From that day on, these beautiful crystals, containing immense energy, began to grow all over our planet."
"In the early years, a global craze to study them erupted. Some ignorant, wealthy people even treated them as rare extraterrestrial gems, cutting, polishing, and collecting them in their homes."
He held up the Source Crystal to the light and said admiringly, "It truly is beautiful, isn’t it? Like a tear shed by a god upon the mortal world."
"But soon, people discovered its other, fatal side."
"It contains a potent poison—or rather, a type of aggressive, overwhelming radiation we had never seen before."
"Any living creature, if exposed to its radiation for an extended period, will have its very soul and bones corroded by the energy it emits. Within days, their genetic chains will shatter, and they will ultimately dissolve into a pool of pus."
"And so, people began to fear it, to destroy it, viewing it as a curse brought by the Celestial Abyss."
"The world believed it was a poison deliberately spread in our world by the Celestial Abyss Realm, with the goal of exterminating all life on our planet."
At this, the Doctor suddenly let out a soft chuckle.
"But that is the prejudice of fools."
"They simply don’t understand."
"This is not poison. This is a gift bestowed by the Celestial Abyss..."
"It is the key... that unlocks our path to eternal life, to a higher form of existence!"
His voice suddenly rose, his eyes flashing with a fanatical light.
"Have you ever considered, Lin Ye..."
"What if, instead of passively coming into contact with it and being affected by its radiation..."
"...we actively consumed it? Or ground it into the purest liquid extract and injected it directly into our bodies? What would the consequences be then?"
Lin Ye’s vision blurred.
A huge virtual screen was suddenly projected into the air before him.
It was a surveillance recording.
On the screen, Lin Ye saw two very familiar faces.
Shi Lei. Shi Hao.
The two brothers were in a deep coma, strapped to a metal operating table.
Several researchers in hazmat suits forced their mouths open and shoved two eerie blue Source Crystals directly down their throats.
Soon.
An unimaginable scene unfolded.
Shi Lei’s and Shi Hao’s bodies began to convulse violently and bloat at a speed visible to the naked eye!
Beneath their skin, it was as if countless living things were writhing madly. The tooth-grinding sound of their bones shattering and restructuring filled the air.
Their human features rapidly faded away.
Thick carapaces, sharp bone spurs, twisted limbs...
In just a few dozen seconds.
Two living human beings had turned into two hideous, terrifying Fusion Monsters.
For the first time, an unconcealable shock appeared in Lin Ye’s eyes.
He had imagined countless possibilities.
He had always thought that these Fusion Monsters were created by Dawn Creatures through some sort of evil experiment, recombining human and animal genes to create monsters with multiple biological traits.
He had never imagined...
...that the truth could be so simple, yet so bizarre!
"You’re surprised too, aren’t you?"
"Consumption versus contact—there’s only a fine line between them, but the consequences are a world apart!"
"The most wondrous part is that these features from other animals simply appeared out of thin air!"
"I didn’t implant any animal genes in them. I did nothing! These features just grew on their own!"
"Sometimes I even wonder..."
"Where did we humans really come from? Are we... are we not just creations, casually pieced together by some creator from a higher dimension?"