112: Chapter 112 Torture by Deadly Poison, Shocking Changes in Ningyang City
"Why?" Chen Qing asked in return.
"Yes, why?" the Gentle Man said. "You should know its value. I sent it on this mission to help you."
"A fine help that was!"
Chen Qing suddenly raised her voice, her willow-leaf eyebrows arched, and a cold glint shot from her eyes. The sword at her waist vibrated with a clanging sound, showing faint signs of going out of control.
Sharp sword energy expanded outward, startling the people who had been sitting calmly nearby, causing them to hide far away while glaring at Chen Qing with ill intent.
Jin Yulong looked even more terrified. He knew that he had almost made a move against Chen Qing; he hadn't expected Chen Qing's strength to be far greater than what she had shown back at the company!
How lucky, it was a good thing he hadn't used force.
The Gentle Man remained motionless. As soon as the sword energy approached him, it seemed as if a mysterious force eroded it away, without a trace of it touching him.
Even the expensive golden nanmu chair he was sitting on remained completely undamaged.
Seeing this, a hint of wariness appeared in Chen Qing's eyes. She slowly retracted her sword energy and said, "If you don't trust me, just let someone else do this mission. Sending an experimental subject that isn't even human—are you trying to disgust me?"
She looked at the bloody head, making no effort to hide her disgust.
Everyone looked toward the Gentle Man. Jin Yulong also widened his eyes, screaming "Madwoman" in his heart.
One had to know that everyone present here was a core member. Who didn't know that this Gentle Man cared most about Cyborg experiments?
Who didn't know that what he couldn't tolerate most was someone insulting Cyborgs right to his face?
Had Chen Qing gone mad?!
To his surprise, the Gentle Man did not get angry but instead asked, "So, the mission was not completed, is that right? Why?"
"Thanks to it," Chen Qing said, glancing at the severed head.
The Gentle Man did not speak, only quietly watching the displeased Chen Qing, with no intention of letting her brush it off like that.
The others exchanged glances, but no one spoke.
An oppressive atmosphere spread.
Chen Qing seemed to know she couldn't avoid it. She furrowed her brows slightly and explained reluctantly, "Ming Yueguang is highly focused on Li Yu. I couldn't make a move in the city area, so I grabbed his sister and forced his sister to lure him to the abandoned beast feed factory."
"Before I could make a move, this trash suddenly appeared. It couldn't kill Li Yu and instead triggered the protection Ming Yueguang had left on him."
As she spoke, she revealed a hint of unwillingness.
The others couldn't help but feel surprised.
Although as an assassin, using underhanded methods was normal, Chen Qing was different. In a year, she executed countless assassination and escort missions, yet she was always straightforward and rarely used underhanded tactics.
Yet when facing this Li Yu, she had to resort to kidnapping his sister for coercion.
And the crucial part was that it failed.
No wonder she didn't want to talk about it much.
The Gentle Man pushed up his glasses, looking at Chen Qing with a calm expression; no one knew what he was thinking.
After a long while.
"So you killed it?"
"It would have exposed my identity, so I had no choice but to kill it."
"You weren't exposed?"
"I saved Li Yu; he trusts me, and Ming Yueguang has no suspicions."
"Hmm, at least it's not all bad news."
The Gentle Man nodded slightly, not continuing the topic, but instead looked at his watch and said, "Time is up."
As his voice fell.
Countless blue-purple patterns emerged on Chen Qing's skin. The patterns bulged and writhed slightly, like millions of tiny insects crawling under her skin.
Piercing pain struck instantly.
Chen Qing's face turned pale instantly. She pressed her lips tightly, clenched her hands, and her fingers pierced through her skin, digging into the flesh. Bright red blood dripped down, but she couldn't feel the pain; compared to the pain in her body, the pain in her hands was so weak it could almost be ignored.
She did not scream, as that was the behavior of the weak; nor did she beg for mercy, as that was the act of a coward.
She walked with her somewhat uncontrollable body, step by step, her footsteps heavy as she headed toward a corner of the basement.
Everywhere she passed, people dodged, fearing they might get contaminated.
"If you make a mistake, you must be punished; no one is an exception," the Gentle Man said with a smile. "Everyone, please sit."
Everyone sat down as expected.
The meeting in the basement continued, with no one paying attention to Chen Qing in the corner, or perhaps some were hoping to hear a few pleasant screams.
But an hour passed.
Chen Qing's posture changed from standing, to crouching while leaning on her sword, to collapsing on the floor, and finally resting against the corner of the wall.
Even though she was in pain to the point of death, she didn't let out a single scream.
Another half hour passed.
The meeting ended, and everyone left quietly. The Gentle Man came to Chen Qing and dropped a pill.
"Considering you still have some value, I'll let you live for another month," the Gentle Man said indifferently. "Next time you come, bring me the head of that young Breeder."
Chen Qing did not react at all, as if she were dead.
The man stood quietly for a moment, then turned and left.
The basement door was open, but in the large room, only Chen Qing's figure remained.
It was unknown how much time had passed.
Chen Qing struggled to grab the pill on the floor, threw it into her mouth, and swallowed it.
A few minutes later, the hideous patterns covering her entire body, like soldiers hearing the retreat drum, receded like a tidal wave.
Chen Qing's heart was once again wrapped in a thick, viscous substance.
She rested for a while, recovered some strength, used her sword to support herself, and climbed up from the floor.
Her black clothes were soaked with sweat, and her wet hair stuck to her forehead and cheeks, making her look incredibly haggard, and her complexion was frighteningly pale.
But her eyes were incredibly bright. In her two pitch-black gemstone-like eyes, there was a sense of fortune for having survived a disaster, but even more so, a sense of relief.
"Now, it's safe."
Her voice was hoarse, her tone weary, yet it carried a hint of a smile.
This torture was hard to endure, but she knew it was inevitable. Only by letting these people know that her poison was still there and that she could still be controlled would they not grow suspicious.
And it was precisely because she had gained the trust of Li Yu and Ming Yueguang—this natural "advantage"—that the mission to assassinate Li Yu remained firmly in her hands and would not be reassigned.
In this way, she and Li Yu would be safe for the time being.
Chen Qing dragged her exhausted body, walked out of the basement, and left the Wild Horse Beast Taming Pharmaceutical Factory along the way she had come.
Walking out of the pharmaceutical factory, a gust of wind blew, and Chen Qing's footsteps stopped.
The smell of blood!
She looked in the direction the wind was blowing from. She saw that not far away, the originally pitch-black residential area had unexpectedly lit up with lights. In the light, beast shadows were moving, and bursts of roars and screams intertwined, carried over by the wind.
The thick smell of blood was coming from there.
Bang!
The sound of shattering glass rang out.
Chen Qing looked toward the Wild Horse Beast Taming Pharmaceutical Factory. A glass window shattered, and a person wearing a white lab coat with a terrified expression jumped out of the window.
More people broke the glass but didn't dare to jump, and in the end, they were snatched back by beasts.
Beast shadows, human shadows, roars, and screams were also playing out in this building.
The smell of blood grew stronger.
"Oh no..."
Chen Qing's expression changed drastically. She couldn't spare the time to think about these changes. Her aura exploded, and she shot off like an arrow released from a bow, speeding toward the place where Li Yu lived.