The 朝阳宗's misfortune spread like wildfire, and soon all other sects were aware. 暮云宗 urgently summoned 姚月笙 back, but she couldn't bear to leave the unconscious 任元浩 and resolutely refused.
The three sects tightened their security, and the situation became incredibly tense.
Two days later, 任元浩 finally awoke from his coma.
Outside the window, the sun shone brilliantly, and a few birds perched on the windowsill, playing. Sunlight fell upon a woman in a vibrant yellow robe, her posture graceful.
She held some grains in her hand, and the birds seemed unafraid of her, perching on her hand to peck at the food.
It wasn't until 任元浩 turned over that the birds took flight.
"My apologies, I disturbed your pleasant pastime."
"What pleasant pastime? These birds are like rootless people, wandering wherever they fly. I have an affinity with them, so I feed them a little, that's all."
姚月笙, dressed in an ancient-style Hanfu, was tall with a face as beautiful as a painting, reminiscent of 叶兰 standing beside him.
"How are you feeling? After resting for two days, is your body any better?"
任元浩 seemed to recall something and abruptly rolled out of bed. "Blast it! 灰狼 is recruiting today, I should have gotten the address from 黑牛!"
But in the next moment, he remembered 穆子玥's situation and gave an embarrassed smile. "Even after what happened to 穆子玥, I was still thinking of infiltrating 灰狼. How ridiculous."
To his surprise, 姚月笙 said, "I actually think that method might still be viable."
任元浩's eyes widened. "Don't joke. 黑牛 has probably been killed too, and even if not, they're likely not in their original location."
"So what if they're not in their original location?"
At this moment, 任元浩 seemed to hear the most beautiful sound in the world!
Four women in flowing white robes gracefully entered from the doorway. It was 叶兰, 沈兰妮, 杨凌雪, and 纪芙!
"You, how did you find me here!"
任元浩 was initially delighted, then immediately thought of the 朝阳宗 disciples lying dead in the wilderness, and his heart filled with dread.
"Hurry, go! Don't get involved in this mess!"
"What do you mean 'get involved in a mess'? Look how thin you've become without me."
杨凌雪 tossed a pile of snacks at him.
"Exactly! You made us search so hard!" 沈兰妮 gave him a rap on the head.
"Here, we didn't do our homework," 叶兰 handed 任元浩 the completed research notes.
任元浩's gaze finally fell on 纪芙. "Then what are you here for?"
"I'm here to see if my future husband has been secretly 'eating' anyone behind my back."
纪芙 waved her hand. "Looking at you, I'm not going to tease you anymore. I'm the only one with powers among them now. I'm their bodyguard, you can understand that, right?"
"The four of you make a perfect Mahjong table."
For some reason, only upon seeing these four did 任元浩 feel he could finally emerge from his extreme sense of oppression.
After greeting the four, 姚月笙 turned and said, "Now that you're awake, I must return to 暮云宗. All the cultivation sects in the Western Wasteland are in panic, and the situation is volatile. You must be extremely careful."
As soon as she finished speaking, 姚月笙 fled through the door.
"Hmm, a beauty of catastrophic proportions," 纪芙 murmured. "Tell me, is she your new flame?"
任元浩 sighed. "Can you please stop making such jokes? I've always considered you all as friends. I've always been alone, and I don't want to drag anyone down. Why did you have to come to such a dangerous place?"
"Is there anyone more familiar with 江城 and 张良 than us?"
沈兰妮 quietly replied.
"Let's not talk about that now. 元浩, look at the data first. This is what I spent nearly half a month compiling, data on the Lionheart Building and Mandala Gene."
任元浩 looked at 叶兰. After not seeing her for many days, not only had he become thinner, but 叶兰 had also lost a lot of weight, making her look even more pitiable.
He imagined how many nights she had stayed up and how much risk she had taken to 'compile' this data.
"You've worked hard."
任元浩's words were sincere, but they seemed to provoke a confrontation. Fortunately, the women were sensible, knowing that with 朝阳宗's recent upheaval, it was not appropriate to be too boisterous or loud, and they held back.
"Look, this is about the experimental progress of Mandala Gene."
As 叶兰 spoke, 任元浩 was stunned!
He knew how much effort, how many compromised systems, how much code, and how much danger would be involved in stealing such data.
However, with叶兰 and that freak hired by the Oriental family, none of this was too difficult.
"Fusion, rejection, fission?"
任元浩 saw that the "rejection" in the data was highlighted in red.
"In other words, they have now developed to the 'rejection' stage. At this point, large numbers of live subjects are needed as experimental targets, and extracting the Mandala Gene itself is extremely difficult. Therefore, the research funding is very high. The United States has explicitly banned their research, so funding has dried up. Naturally, they need to find good experimental grounds, and dealing with such large research expenses is not a simple matter."
As 叶兰 explained this, she directed 任元浩 along the red line to the Lionheart Group's information.
"Look here, this is the current research progress of the Lionheart Group."
The notebook highlighted 'Shaping,' 'Soul Merging,' and 'Empowerment' in red boxes, with 'Soul Merging' highlighted.
"Do you know why I connected the two parties with red threads?"
任元浩 shook his head.
"The reason is simple. You see, on one hand, they need a large number of live subjects, and on the other hand, they can provide a large number of live subjects. If they, because of 江城 and 张良, were to unite, how terrifying would this force be?"
Everyone fell silent. 任元浩 had also considered this question before, but there was no indication that the two parties would cooperate. Yet, he believed it was only a matter of time.
叶兰 pointed to the data. "The 灰狼 organization is actually the organization 江城 belongs to. However, 江城 is not currently in Xiling, but in some corner of Guyao City. That place is a true hell, a mixed area of psychics, cultivators, and ordinary people. You now have two ways to curb their research progress. The first, and most difficult method, is to defeat 江城 and cause them to lose their strongest live subject for Mandala Gene, the first generation perfect gene source. The second is to infiltrate their rear base and cause widespread disruption, preferably planting the super Trojan horse that I and that freak wrote into their terminals. That way, no matter how powerful they are, it will take them a very long time to rebuild their database."