232: The real mastermind behind the scenes appears! Earl William!

"Please calm down, Mr. Lin! You are safe here!"

"Safe?! Safe my ass! If Lin Mo comes to kill us, everyone will die!!" Lin Tianhe's eyeballs bulged, and his spittle almost sprayed onto the scientist's face. The extreme fear made him completely lose control, screaming like a cat whose tail had been stepped on!

The last shred of patience on the American scientist's face completely vanished, replaced by cold disgust and impatience.

"Smack!!"

A very loud slap landed heavily on Lin Tianhe's face! The force was so great that his head snapped to the side, and his cheek instantly became red and swollen. The burning pain even temporarily overshadowed his inner fear, leaving him stunned for a moment!

"Mr. Lin!" the scientist's voice was icy cold, carrying undisguised contempt, "Stop your hysterical nonsense! Your fear is worthless! Now—Earl William wants to see you!"

"Immediately!"

Lin Tianhe was completely subdued by the slap and the coldness in the other person's eyes, clutching his face like a dazed puppet.

The scientist roughly grabbed his arm, almost dragging him, and pushed him towards a private elevator next to them that gleamed with a cold metallic luster.

The elevator door slid open silently. The interior space was small, with only cold metal panels.

The scientist shoved Lin Tianhe in, not giving him time to react, and quickly pressed the "-200" button on the control panel outside the door.

"Whoosh—!"

The elevator door closed instantly!

The next second!

"Boom!!!"

Lin Tianhe only felt his feet leave the ground! His entire body felt as if an invisible giant hand was violently pulling him towards the earth's core!

The elevator wasn't descending at all! It was like an out-of-control roller coaster! Plummeting wildly, almost in freefall!

A terrifying sense of weightlessness instantly gripped his heart! His internal organs felt as if they were about to be thrown out of his throat! The numbers on the indicator lights on the wall flickered wildly!

-50...-100...-150... The speed was too fast! So fast it suffocated him!

Just as he thought he was going to be smashed to death in this iron coffin—

"Screech—!!!"

An extremely sharp, ear-splitting metallic friction braking sound! As if it would tear his eardrums!

The immense inertia slammed him violently against the cold metal wall! He almost passed out!

The elevator stopped abruptly.

The indicator light was fixed at: "-200."

Lin Tianhe collapsed to the floor, gasping for air, dizzy and disoriented, with a ringing in his ears. The pain in his cheek and the churning in his stomach made him almost vomit.

The elevator door slid open silently.

A cold, strange odor, mixed with strong disinfectant and something indescribably sweet yet rotten, suddenly poured in!

Lin Tianhe struggled to look up—

As far as his eyes could see, he instantly forgot to breathe!

Massive! Grandiose! Cold!

This was an unimaginable underground space! The dome was so high he couldn't see the top, with only blindingly white shadowless lamps casting cold beams from extremely high above.

And in this vast space, countless cylindrical glass culture dishes, over three meters tall, stood densely packed like a forest!

The culture dishes were filled with a viscous, glowing green nutrient solution.

In every culture dish!

A naked, adult male, eyes tightly closed, curled up like a fetus, was suspended!

Countless tubes, sensors, and injection needles, like eerie roots, were densely inserted into their skulls, spines, limbs... connecting them to the base of the culture dishes!

Silence!

A deathly silence!

Only the low hum of instruments and the faint sound of the nutrient solution slowly circulating.

Thousands of "people," like sleeping specimens, were confined in the green liquid, forming an extremely spectacular, yet chilling and terrifying sight!

This was no laboratory at all!

This was more like a... gigantic human farm! Or rather... a soul slaughterhouse!

Lin Tianhe felt a chill shoot from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head, a bone-deep, icy fear even more intense than when he faced Lin Mo!

In the center of this "human forest," there was a relatively open area.

There was only a huge, circular alloy table gleaming with a cold metallic luster, and on the opposite side of the table, a single high-backed chair, simple in design yet exuding supreme authority.

An old man sat on the chair.

He appeared to be over eighty, with neatly combed silver hair, a thin face covered in deep wrinkles, but his eyes were as sharp as an eagle's, without any cloudiness, only the coldness of seeing through everything and the calmness of controlling everything.

He wore a comfortable dark velvet dressing gown, his hands elegantly clasped on his lap, and an ancient black iron ring glowed faintly on his withered finger.

It was Earl William.

He seemed not to notice Lin Tianhe's disheveled state, his gaze calmly fixed on him, as if looking at a tiny fly that had wandered into a vast, precise machine.

An old and steady voice echoed in the dead silent space, carrying an undeniable authority:

"Welcome, Mr. Lin."

"I finally meet you... Asia Region President."

Lin Tianhe scrambled out of the elevator, almost crawling on all fours to the huge round table, not daring to look at the culture dishes around him, much less into Earl William's eyes. His forehead was pressed tightly against the cold floor, his voice trembling uncontrollably:

"I wouldn't dare... I wouldn't dare! Earl William... I... I am guilty!"

"It was my grave mistake! Allowing the experimental subject Lin Mo to escape... and causing irreparable losses in Northern Myanmar... destroying the foundation of the Asia Region..."

He spoke incoherently, trying to use his plea of guilt to cover the deeper fear of his surroundings and the person before him, a fear that was almost consuming him.

Earl William watched him silently, as if observing a boring performance.

Until Lin Tianhe's voice gradually faded, leaving only his uncontrollable gasps of fear.

Then, he slowly spoke, his voice still steady, but like an ice pick, it instantly pierced through all of Lin Tianhe's psychological defenses:

"Lin Mo..."

"He has indeed returned."