318: Chapter 315 is absolutely brilliant!

Su Lin withdrew his hand from the back of Su Hongling's head and took two steps forward, carefully examining the tightly closed, heavy stone door.

Although the runes on the surface of this stone door were ancient and emitted a palpitation-inducing eerie glow, its internal energy circulation circuit...

"The arrangement of these runes seems chaotic, but in reality, they follow a strict Law of Siphoning."

Su Lin placed his palm gently against the cold surface of the stone door and slightly closed his eyes. The Chaos immortal essence within him acted like thousands of extremely fine threads, slowly seeping into those dried-up grooves along his palm.

In the world of his perception, the internal structure of this door was like an extremely precise multi-layered mechanical lock. If one were to use external force to strike it, the Formation inside the door would immediately reverse that force, instantly detonating the self-destruction Restriction of this entire underground Immortal Cave.

"Revered Master, can it be opened?" Chu Weiwei leaned in from the side, poking her head out to peer curiously, her purple eyes filled with expectation.

"Quiet for a moment," Su Lin instructed in a low voice, then completely immersed his mind into it.

He mobilized the power of the world tree seedling deep within his Qi Sea. That pure Chaos aura, capable of analyzing the Laws of all things, surged out along his Meridians. It skillfully avoided the defensive traps on the stone door and directly enveloped the core Formation eye.

"Unlock."

As a short word escaped Su Lin's mouth, a series of dense clicking sounds, like gears interlocking, came from inside the stone door.

Following that, those originally dim runes lit up one by one with an eerie blue light. The two incredibly heavy stone doors slowly retreated to the sides without any external force pushing them.

Su Lin waved his sleeve, and a gust of clear wind dispersed the unpleasant odor before he took the lead and stepped through the door.

The space behind the door caused everyone's footsteps to pause.

Inside, there were no mountains of gold and silver treasures, nor were there any radiant Immortal Artifacts or Magic Treasures.

What met their eyes were rows of massive glass columns reaching straight to the ceiling.

These columns were arranged in perfect alignment, filled with a ghastly green preservative liquid. Suspended within each column was a hair-raising body.

These bodies could no longer be identified by their original race. Some had Human Race torsos but were attached to the limbs of fierce beasts; some had their skulls split open, embedded with extremely complex metal Formation Plates; and some had multiple pairs of bone wings growing from their backs, their flesh forcibly sewn together with some kind of eerie thread.

"What... what are these things..." Yan Rusi was pale with fright, her hands tightly covering her mouth for fear of letting out a scream. Her already pale face looked even more bloodless under the reflection of the eerie green light.

"They are failed rejects."

Su Lin's gaze was calm as he walked slowly among these glass columns, carefully observing the scenes inside.

"The owner of this place was conducting a Fusion experiment that violated the Laws of nature back then. He attempted to forcibly stitch together the Dao Fruits and Divine Souls of Lower Realm ascendants with the Void Yao Beasts native to this Taihuang Immortal Domain."

Hearing these words, Su Hongling's brow furrowed into a knot. She looked at the deformed bodies in the columns with disgust and gave a heavy snort: "Truly disgusting! To turn perfectly good people into this ghostly state, the hearts of these Upper Realm Immortals are even blacker than the lowest of the low evil Cultivators in the Lower Realm!"

Chu Weiwei, however, showed a completely different reaction.

Like a child entering a candy shop, she moved with light steps, lingering before the glass columns. A hint of morbid fanaticism and a thirst for knowledge surfaced on her pure little face.

"Marvelous... truly too marvelous!"

Chu Weiwei stopped in front of a column containing a monster with multiple metal arms. Her hands traced the stitching marks on the monster through the glass.

"This method of directly connecting living Meridians to metal Formations is simply a masterpiece of divine craftsmanship. Look at its spine; it was actually pulled out entirely and replaced with a Thunder Spirit Crystal Marrow capable of continuously generating the power of thunder. If a bit of crushed juice from the Nine Nether Underworld Flower could be added during the stitching, the rejection reaction of these bodies could be reduced by at least half!"

While excitedly muttering, she pulled out a small notebook she carried with her and began recording rapidly with a specialized charcoal pen.

"Chu the Third, can you be a bit more normal?" Su Hongling felt a wave of revulsion at her behavior and couldn't help but rub the goosebumps on her arms. "Critiquing a pile of dead meat here—don't you find it unlucky?"

"What do you know? This is called academic research." Chu Weiwei didn't even look up as she continued scribbling in her notebook. "Many of the stitching techniques recorded here, if modified, could be used on Revered Master's enemies in the future to ensure they experience what it truly means to be between life and death."

Su Lin shook his head helplessly, too lazy to correct this girl's severely twisted values.

He continued walking toward the depths of the hall.

After passing through hundreds and thousands of glass columns filled with specimens, they arrived at the end of this space.

There was a white jade platform several feet higher than the ground, and in the center of the platform sat a dark silver long table made of an unknown material. Scattered on the long table were some rusted and decayed knives, chisels, and several lackluster Jade Slips.

Su Lin stepped onto the platform and picked up one of the Jade Slips.

The surface of this Jade Slip was covered in fine cracks, and the spiritual power inside had almost completely drained away. Su Lin cautiously separated a bit of Divine Sense and probed into it.

The information remaining in the Jade Slip was extremely fragmented and broken. Accompanied by bursts of ear-piercing noise, several blurred fragments of consciousness flashed through Su Lin's mind.

[...7,600th attempt... failure. The husks of the Lower Realm ants are too fragile; they simply cannot carry the violent Bloodlines of the Taihuang exotic beasts...]

[...The injection amount of immortal spirit ash must be increased to forcibly erase their remaining self-awareness... Only absolutely obedient weapons meet the standards of the Main City...]

[...The Materials sent by that fool Xuan Tian are getting worse and worse. The batch of Sword Cultivators sent last month died on the spot just as we reached the stage of skull-cracking and Formation-planting. Warn him, if he doesn't gather a hundred top-grade Cauldrons by next month, it will be time for a new overseer of Liuyun Town...]

As his Divine Sense reached this point, the last bit of spiritual light in the Jade Slip was completely exhausted, turning into a pinch of white powder that scattered from between Su Lin's fingers.

Su Lin's gaze turned completely cold.

All his previous various guesses were now fully confirmed.

This Liuyun Town was not only a mine for exploiting low-level half-Immortals but also a supply station providing live experimental Materials for higher-level forces in the Upper Realm.

Those who were expelled for being unable to pay tribute, those ascendants who disappeared mysteriously—their final destination was all within this sunless underground workshop.

Cut up like livestock, stitched together, and made into emotionless killing machines.

"Senior Su, what did you see?" Yan Rusi asked courageously, seeing Su Lin's expression was off.

"I saw the filthiest corner of this Taihuang Immortal Domain."

Su Lin brushed the powder off his hands, his tone calm yet carrying a chilling pressure. "Xuan Tian, that Earth Immortal, is nothing more than a low-level agent responsible for collecting Materials. Behind this, there is an even larger dark hand."

Just then, the faint sound of dripping water, "drip, drip," suddenly came from the depths of the hall.

This sound was particularly abrupt in the deathly silent and empty laboratory, instantly tightening everyone's nerves.

"Old Man, did you hear that?" Su Hongling gripped her sword hilt, her red vertical pupils scanning the surroundings warily in the dim light, her muscles entering a state ready to explode at any moment.

Su Lin frowned slightly and looked in the direction of the sound.

The sound was coming from a shadowed corner behind the white jade platform. Several black metal vats, many times larger than the usual glass columns, stood there. These metal vats had no transparent observation windows, and their surfaces were covered in heavy sealing runes.

"Drip... drip..."

The sound of water became clearer, and with it came an extremely thick, nauseating stench of decay, as if corpse water stored for ten thousand years had suddenly broken its Seal and poured out.

"Something is leaking." Chu Weiwei also stopped her pen. Her nose, which was extremely sensitive to various toxins, sniffed lightly, and her expression changed drastically. "Revered Master, this smell isn't right! This liquid contains extremely strong corrosiveness and vitality, as if something is waking up!"

Hardly had she finished speaking.

Crack!

On the surface of one of the black metal vats, that thick layer of sealing runes suddenly split open with a long crack.

Dark green viscous liquid gushed out wildly along the crack, splashing onto the cyan jade floor below, instantly burning large pits and emitting pungent white smoke.

"All personnel, on alert!" Su Lin barked.

Following his command, Su Hongling's figure flashed, acting like an indestructible shield blocking the front. Chu Weiwei quickly fished out several medicine bottles filled with various colored powders from her sleeve, her eyes excited yet wary. Yan Rusi was so scared she hid behind Su Lin, not even daring to breathe loudly.

Boom!

That black metal vat finally could not withstand the terrifying pressure from within and completely exploded in a deafening roar.

Countless sharp metal fragments mixed with dark green liquid flew in all directions.

Su Lin rolled his long sleeves, and a wave of Chaos immortal essence turned into a barrier, blocking all the fragments flying toward them.

Once the dust and toxic mist had slightly dispersed, everyone finally saw the monster that had walked out of the metal vat.

It was a terrifying aberration standing thirty feet tall.

Its lower body was a giant beast with thick limbs and covered in black scales, while its upper body was composed of the torsos of seven or eight different Cultivators forcibly fused together.

The heads of those Cultivators grew on the monster's shoulders and chest at extremely distorted angles; some had their eyes tightly shut, some were wailing in pain, and some had hollow eye sockets with black blood flowing out.

In the monster's back were inserted dozens of thick metal tubes. These tubes were buried deep into its flesh, their ends connected to an energy Formation Plate flashing with red light.

Roar!!!

The aberration let out a shrill roar that sounded neither human nor beast. Those dozen-plus stitched-together throats spoke simultaneously, forming a highly piercing sonic shockwave that caused the glowing Ores at the top of the hall to fall one after another.

"What... what kind of ghost thing is this!" Su Hongling's eyes widened. Even with her vast experience, she was disgusted by this visually shocking stitched-together monster.

"This is the ultimate experimental product they left behind back then, which has been sealed in this vat.

The energy fluctuations from when we opened the door just now activated its awakening program."

Su Lin's gaze was cold as he quickly assessed the monster.

The aura emanating from this aberration was extremely chaotic, with violent Yao power and twisted immortal essence intertwined. Its pressure had actually steadily reached the peak of the Earth Immortal Early Stage, even faintly showing a trend of breaking through to the Earth Immortal Middle Stage.

Combined with its unreasonable massive size and the abnormal defense brought about by the stitching, this was definitely an extremely difficult opponent.

"Old Man, let me chop it!"

Su Hongling was eager for the challenge; facing a strong enemy, her innate battle-hungry blood completely boiled.

She stomped heavily on the ground, and her entire being shot up like a cannonball. The no edge great sword in her hand, carrying the gravity Law that could crush the Void Realm, smashed down fiercely toward the aberration's chest covered in heads.

"Mountain Splitting Slash!"

Its thick lower body suddenly crouched, and then two of its arms swung upward in a way that violated joint structure, actually using bare palms to catch Su Hongling's great sword.

Bang!!!

The dull sound of the impact echoed through the hall.

Su Hongling only felt a violent shock in the webs of her thumbs. The no edge great sword was actually held fast by those two large, scale-covered hands. Although the blade cut through the monster's flesh and broke a few bones, it could not advance another inch.

The dark green toxic blood flowed down the blade, making a sizzling corrosive sound.

More terrifyingly, several other arms on the aberration's chest reached out simultaneously, turning into several afterimages and grabbing toward Su Hongling in mid-air with the sound of whistling wind.

"Second Senior Sister, watch out!"

Chu Weiwei shouted, and several medicine bottles in her hand were thrown out in response.

Bang, bang, bang!

The medicine bottles exploded on the aberration's arms, and clouds of eerie blue extreme-cold toxic powder instantly covered those arms. The toxic powder contacted the flesh and immediately triggered a violent freezing and corrosive reaction, causing the movements of those arms to suddenly stiffen.

Taking advantage of this opening, Su Hongling decisively let go of the sword, her body performing a mid-air roll to dangerously avoid the monster's encirclement, landing steadily back on the ground.

"What a hard turtle shell!" Su Hongling shook her numbed hands, a hint of unyielding ferocity flashing in her eyes. "Its strength is quite large, but its reactions are a bit slow."

"Don't go head-to-head with it," Su Lin's voice sounded in the minds of the two.

"This monster has fused with various Law fragments and cannot feel pain. That set of metal tubes and the Formation Plate on its back are its power core, providing a continuous supply of energy."

Su Lin's gaze was sharp as a knife as he pointed out the monster's fatal weakness.

"Weiwei, use your corrosive toxic mist to block its vision and movement path. Hong Ling, you are responsible for drawing its main attention."