"Slap!"
The sound of skin meeting skin was crisp. Bai Cha had used seventy percent of her strength in the slap, sending Mo Ziye tumbling to the ground. He lay there, his mind a blank, unable to recover for a long time.
Michael, who had just arrived on the scene, saw the situation and quickly stepped forward to grab Bai Cha. However, his path was blocked by a black blade of light. Michael immediately stopped and turned his head to see Lucifer already by Bai Cha's side.
The dark power had neatly sliced through the diamond-hard floor. The person who had made the move was clearly serious. If it had landed on someone, it would have been disastrous. Michael immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
"Master." Lucifer had just finished handing over the person in his hands to the military and had rushed over. Hearing Mo Ziye's nonsensical words from afar, his anger also surged.
How painful it must have been to hit with her hand. Mo Ziye was so injured; Bai Cha's hand must be sore, right?
Lucifer cradled Bai Cha's pale hand, gently massaging it, and frowned at the bewildered Mo Ziye on the ground. kuAiδugg
"You are accusing me, Mo Ziye." Bai Cha tightly gripped Lucifer's fingers. Perhaps it was due to her intense anger, but Lucifer could feel his fingers creaking. Even Lucifer felt Bai Cha's inner rage.
"Mo Ziye, do you have any conscience? Do you only stand on the moral high ground and accuse others? Look at your people, what have they done? Look at him, he became like this because of your experiments!" Bai Cha pointed furiously at the half-dead spider-man behind her.
Xiang En, behind her, had an unrecognizable face. He now looked like a middle-aged man in his late twenties or early thirties. The forbidden experiment had preserved his youth, but it had also left him with grotesque scars.
These scars were so severe that even Bai Cha, who had specialized in torture, couldn't describe how they were inflicted. His entire body was covered in patches of unknown white and blue, undulating between the hideous wounds.
Bai Cha finally felt a sense of sorrow. The sudden pang of sadness made her nose sting. After a few deep breaths, she managed to control her emotions.
"Uncle En, please bear with it. I'll take you to Mo Yuntian." Bai Cha blinked hard, holding back her tears. "There are two Holy Dragons in Z Country. With me here, they can definitely heal you. I know all the Holy Dragon owners. Your son is alive; at least go and see him."
Bai Cha said the name "Xiang En" very softly, not wanting the people around to notice her relationship with Xiang En. But Xiang En heard it. The half-spider legs still attached to his back twitched with difficulty, as if responding to Bai Cha's words.
The most shocking thing about Xiang En was the connection between his spider legs and his body. These six thick spider legs seemed to have directly pierced his skin. His flesh was turned outwards, appearing like a ripped drumhead, faintly purplish, making one's scalp tingle. He was barely breathing.
"Little Uncle." Bai Cha's voice was still choked with sobs. She suddenly realized something. She suddenly understood.
No wonder those monsters hadn't attacked her earlier. No wonder. Most of the monsters there were probably her ancestors, her ancestors who might have died long ago, all ending up in such a half-dead state, and after death, still being treated so disrespectfully and inhumanely!
Those were the people she revered. Whenever she went on a mission, she would pray for her ancestors' protection.
It turned out they were all struggling in a fiery pit, and none could escape.
"Misunderstanding? Are you trying to say they couldn't possibly do anything illegal? You said the same thing about Sky Island last time!" Bai Cha gritted her teeth, her expression grim. Lucifer could even detect a hint of madness in Bai Cha's eyes. "And what happened? Where do you get off telling me I'm suppressing you for my own selfish desires? Mo Ziye!"
"But, maybe there's a misunderstanding. Although it was their fault last time, hasn't this time not been fully investigated yet?" Mo Ziye was somewhat unwilling, or rather, in disbelief. "I know them all. They were all very good to me. They each told me to study hard, to become someone who contributes to the country and leads them. How could they do something like this?"
"What if I hadn't arrived in time? The evidence and the victims here would have all been buried in the fire. The capital would have been thrown into chaos. Do you know how many innocent people would have been implicated?" Bai Cha was truly enraged, her heart filled with a mixture of coldness and disappointment. "You all suspect my investigation first. If you have the guts, go yourselves!"
"Why don't you go! For what have our ancestors gone through fire and water? Why should we be treated like this and still be suspected! Is this your justice!"
Bai Cha's voice was loud, almost a hysterical roar. Quite a few people had gathered here. This was the first time she had vented her emotions in front of so many people. This was the first time Lucifer had seen Bai Cha reveal the anger and madness befitting her age.
In the past, no matter when, she had always been steady and indifferent, as if she had experienced millennia of hardship. But this time, she was rarely so mad, so wildly furious, like a little lion whose faith had collapsed.
If it were those from the neutral factions who hadn't interacted with them, Bai Cha wouldn't have said anything. But for Mo Ziye, who had been in close contact, Bai Cha never expected him to say such things.
So, their sacrifices were meaningless? No matter what, someone would always blame them, accuse them of selfishness, accuse them of unfairness.
What were they guarding?
"We will definitely explore the mysteries of the human body and thus explore the mysteries of the world." Bai Cha retrieved a picture taken with mechanical colored contact lenses from her portable system and printed it out with a small printer attached to her belt, throwing it in front of Mo Ziye. She read it out word by word.
"The experimental subject today died from not being able to withstand the pressure, but it's alright. They have made a great contribution to unlocking the progress of human mysteries, and they will be remembered by us."
"This is the mystery of the human body. As long as it is fully understood, the truth of the world can be explored."
"This toxin seems to have no antidote, but it's alright. If we infect a few more, we can definitely develop one."
Bai Cha took a deep breath, her expression icy. "So, is this what I did?"
Mo Ziye lay on the ground, stunned, and remained silent, as if he hadn't recovered.
"Ridiculous. They conducted human experiments not even to research cases or to save anyone, but for their own selfish desires, for the so-called truth of the world." Bai Cha swallowed and forced herself to calm down. "Damn it, they made contributions, so they should be protected forever. Then who will protect me! Aren't we acting under orders? And in the end, we don't even get good treatment, is that it?"
Her angry voice became calmer but sounded increasingly cold, with a hint of despondency.
"Mo Ziye, you're actually accusing me? Do you think your Mo family, why are you standing in the light and receiving attention?" Bai Cha, held tightly by Lucifer, suppressed the urge to walk over and slap Mo Ziye. "Back then, your father was trapped in a laboratory three floors underground. It was my father who dug through sixteen floors of rubble to pull your father out."
"When people from your faction committed crimes, as the leader, the Mo family always had to bear joint responsibility, didn't they? It was us who racked our brains to find evidence to exonerate you. When your father's experiment exploded, I personally blocked the explosion and rescued your father." Bai Cha said coldly, "Including when my mother sacrificed herself, it was because behind her were you and the laboratory. Mo Ziye, do you have a conscience?"
Mo Ziye was stunned. Bai Cha's voice seemed to be coming from far and near, making it hard for him to hear clearly, yet each word felt like a massive stone crashing into his heart, making Mo Ziye dizzy and disoriented.
He recognized every word, each so simple, yet together they felt like mountains pressing down on him, leaving him bewildered.
"Do you think you deserve to stand in the light and receive attention? It's because we paved the road for you with our bodies." Bai Cha released Lucifer's hand, gave Gong Yuechen a deep look, and turned back to the laboratory.
She still planned to go back and see if she could find any useful information. She couldn't just give up if it was going to be burned.
Gong Yuechen was brought back to his senses by Bai Cha's gaze. He moved his hand, only to find his limbs had become somewhat stiff. His hands were ice cold, filled with guilt and a little bit of timidity.
He felt like he was drifting further away from her.
When he was young, he had met Bai Cha a few times. Although they were distant relatives, they still saw each other a few times a year. Gong Yuechen liked his sister very much.
Even when Bai Cha had little contact with him, Gong Yuechen could feel the bond of blood between them. But now, whether it was his imagination or not, he felt like Bai Cha was getting further and further away from him.
"You can't go in." A weak voice drifted intermittently. Bai Cha froze, and saw a blood-stained hand grab her shoe.
The hand was very weak, lacking even much strength. Bai Cha could easily break free by lifting her foot slightly, but she didn't. Bai Cha crouched down and grasped the hand.
"Little Uncle." Bai Cha quickly looked at Xiang En, who was being bandaged urgently.
"You can't go in… the poison evaporates with fire, there's no antidote." Xiang En tried to speak word by word. His pupils were dilated and unfocused, his grayish lips trembled, but his eyes were surprisingly bright. "Run, run quickly, and never come back… you must…"
It was evident that Xiang En was in a very bad state. He was breathing heavily, and the people nearby found it difficult to listen. Unexpectedly, before he could finish speaking, his body trembled violently, and he lost all signs of life.
He fell to the ground with his disheveled hair, his unfocused and dilated pupils staring straight at the sky, reflecting the shadows of white clouds in the blue sky. The spider legs behind him gradually turned grayish-white, losing their toxicity and vitality. Like lime powder, they were scattered into the air by the wind.
He hadn't finished his last words. Bai Cha only heard Xiang En say "you must" with all his might. She couldn't hear the rest.
Must what? Must they pay for their crimes? Or must they avenge themselves?
Or, must they leave here, leave… the shadows?
In that instant, Bai Cha sadly realized she couldn't do anything.
There was something hard in her hand, which Bai Cha had secretly taken when she grasped Xiang En's hand. Just by touching the outline of the object, Bai Cha knew it was the insignia of the Light Faction.
In the past, whenever a member of the Shadow Faction encountered an accident during a mission, they would tightly grasp crucial evidence and hold onto their last breath to convey a message to the next person. Hands holding hands, passing on the torch, transmitting hope.
Bai Cha couldn't imagine that Xiang En, this dead person who had been "revived" by forbidden experiments and suffered torture, still remembered to hold her hand.