Chapter 214
Chapter 214
“May 4, 1911.
“Shiye seems to have done something behind my back.
“July 13, 1911.
“The fishhooks we sent out to find test subjects have not returned.
“I do not know what happened. Perhaps the local patrolmen were involved.
“July 15, 1911.
“Terrible news has arrived. The snakehead who brought us test subjects and brides has been arrested.
“We have no choice but to suspend all operations, lest the investigation lead them to the area around Qingzhai.
“Shiye curses that patrolman surnamed Qin day and night.
“August 2, 1911.
“Shiye and I had an argument.
“Only now do I realize how cunning and shameless this man from Huaguo truly is.
“He has already contacted my home country behind my back.
“He concealed a great deal about the experiments from me.
“In truth, he had long since prepared to leave. He tampered with the medicine I took every day. I, too, was one of his test subjects.
“October 21, 1911.
“My knee has rotted and become infested with maggots, leaving me barely able to move. I have realized that I am no longer the master of this base.
“Like a dog wagging its tail and begging for scraps, I had no choice but to plead with Shiye and win back his friendship.
“December 25, 1911.
“It is Christmas again. I miss my wife and daughter.
“December 26, 1911.
“I found letters in Shiye’s room. That damned piece of vermin has been corresponding with my wife behind my back all this time.
“I must think of a way to kill this cunning man from Huaguo.
“December 28, 1911.
“I tried injecting myself with a small amount of New Blood. The results were not bad. At the very least, I did not die on the spot.
“But something has changed in my knee.
“1912…
“The experiment failed. My body has begun to mutate.
“Lately, I find myself constantly thinking of the past, of how I used to pray beneath an image of the Lord.
“It seems I have become a devil in this foreign land. This is not my fault.
“March 1912.
“Our operation has been exposed. We must evacuate immediately.
“We cannot take the River God with us, so we have decided to seal it away and return when the time is right.
“Shiye is taking the New Blood and much of the research with him. He is going to Italy.
“Perhaps he will find more test subjects and opportunities there, allowing him to take his exploration of the Door one step further.
“Now that I have mutated, I refuse to become a test subject. I have decided to stay here and die.
“I begged Shiye to look after my family. I begged him to protect my wife and daughter.
“March 8, 1912.
“For the sake of our former friendship, Shiye has honored his promise and agreed to perform Soul-Container Consecration for me.
“I have just swallowed three bottles of potassium cyanide. It is time to bid this world farewell.
“Shiye said that the key to opening the Door is an emotion pushed to its absolute limit, combined with a medium.
“He has experimented with familial love, friendship, romantic love, and more. Yet now, as I wait to die after swallowing the poison, a thought suddenly occurs to me.
“Is the strongest emotion in this world not fear?
“When those hounds track this place down, I hope they, too, will experience that ancient, primal, all-consuming fear amid the explosion!”
…
Snap!
Qin Ying slammed the notebook shut.
Her shoulders heaved several times before the overwhelming disgust in her heart turned into a physical reaction.
She retched repeatedly.
Having eaten nothing for a long time, she brought up only a few mouthfuls of stomach acid.
She sat amid the soggy, slimy books, chilled to the bone.
She could not stop herself from cursing the diary’s owner, and Shiye, in the most vicious language she knew.
Seeing her like this, the Thunderbird flew anxiously onto her shoulder and nuzzled Qin Ying with its head.
The “Door” Experiment had been going on all this time. This place was the source of all the evil.
The turmoil in her heart transformed into pure, unbridled rage.
Qin Ying closed her eyes and took several deep breaths before finally calming down.
After a long while, she rose to her feet.
She rubbed her numb fingers and exhaled a plume of white mist.
“I’m fine now,” she told the Thunderbird.
She made her way down from the second tier of bookshelves, intending to find something she could use to set the waxified corpse below ablaze like a human torch.
She skirted the puddles and approached the oak desk, only to freeze.
A chill crawled up her spine.
The Wax Corpse, which had nearly melted into sludge, had disappeared from the chair.
Deep impressions remained on the oak chair, their edges smeared with white corpse wax.
But the thing that had been sitting there was gone.
Qin Ying’s expression sharpened. She followed the slug-like trail across the floor.
The white streak extended deeper into the room.
She had never imagined that the Wax Corpse could still move when it was already dead and reduced to such a state.
She tightened the straps of her backpack and was about to follow when something occurred to her.
Returning to the oak desk, she bent down and tore off one of the blasting caps attached to its underside.
With the short knife formed from Di Shang in her right hand and the blasting cap in her left, she cautiously followed the trail.
It led all the way to the end of the study and behind the door where the River God was being held.
The River God had been wailing and begging earlier, but now it had fallen silent.
Holding up the Migu Flower to light her way, Qin Ying went back inside.
The room was deathly quiet. On either side stood one Specimen Bottle after another, each containing a deformed, narrow-waisted monster.
She advanced with extreme caution, while every feather in the crest behind the Thunderbird’s head stood on end. Both remained on guard in case the Wax Corpse suddenly lunged out from somewhere.
Just then, the River God in the pool spoke.
“You’re back?” Its voice was filled with unmistakable delight. “Have you come to free me?”
“See? I told you we were the same kind.”
Qin Ying kept her head lowered, using the Migu Flower’s light to examine the floor.
The white trail of corpse wax vanished near the pool, leaving no indication of where it had gone.
Still holding the Migu Flower, she stopped at the edge of the railing.
The River God remained submerged in the murky pool, its entire body tightly bound in chains.
It seemed completely unaware that something had approached.
Beneath its overly long eyelids, its mismatched eyes gazed at Qin Ying with anticipation.
Qin Ying stared at it in silence for a long time before finally asking, “If I set you free, what price are you willing to pay?”
“There’s no such thing as a free lunch. What are you willing to give for your freedom?”
The River God in the pool seemed to have expected her to say that.
It briefly lifted its eyelids, then replied, “Everything. Whatever you want.”
Qin Ying looked at it, a smile slowly spreading across her face.
“Everything?”
“That’s quite a claim. How generous of you.”
“Then you won’t mind answering a few questions first, will you?”
Without waiting for the River God to agree, she asked, “When did you wake up?”
According to the logbook, they had taken the appropriate precautions before sealing off this laboratory.
For example, they had chained the River God to the bottom of the pool.
So when had this monster managed to break free and create the space outside?
The River God clearly hadn’t expected that question. Its mouth stretched wide for a moment.
“I’ve been awake for some time.”
The thing was cunning and refused to give her a direct answer.
Standing above it, Qin Ying pressed her lips together and regarded it coldly. “You certainly hid it well.”
Throughout that long period of experimentation, this Xi Nang had never allowed those people to discover its ability to create enclosed spaces.
It likely hadn’t dared to reveal that ability back then. The reason it was taking such a risk now had to be the bride.
“Did those people ever come back looking for you?”