219: "Gao Lingfeng, your teammate, He Jingrui is still alive."

He Jingrui, relying on his strong willpower, struggled to support his heavily wounded body, stumbling and staggering back towards the Midnight Diner.

However, severe blood loss and over-exertion of strength, like a tide, swallowed his last shred of clarity.

Finally, as he passed a street corner, his vision suddenly went black, and he completely lost consciousness, falling heavily to the ground.

Almost the instant he collapsed.

In the deeper shadows of the corner, pairs of eyes, gleaming with cold, bloodthirsty light, lit up.

Thirty ninjas, clad in dark combat suits with fine scales covering their exposed skin, emerged silently.

As fellow island nation genetically modified warriors, these dark guards, responsible for rear-guard action and intelligence retrieval, had witnessed the brutal battle that had just taken place.

They had long been terrified by He Jingrui's ferocity and had lost all will to fight, only daring to trail far behind him the entire time, not daring to approach rashly.

Now, seeing He Jingrui fall, their cautious thoughts couldn't help but resurface.

But a tiger's Wei (prestige/power) remains even in death, so for a time, they didn't dare to easily go up, fearing it was a trap set by the target.

It wasn't until they observed for a while longer and confirmed that He Jingrui had truly lost consciousness.

"Target appears to have lost consciousness. Quickly sever his limbs, neutralize his threat, then capture and withdraw!"

The leading dark guard, in his excitement, let out a suppressed cry in the island nation's language. Immediately, figures like ghosts lunged forward, their sharp claws and poisoned short blades aimed directly at the unconscious He Jingrui.

However, just as their sharp blades were about to touch He Jingrui's body—

"Hehehe... On someone else's territory, still thinking of harming someone else's hero? Little devils, are you perhaps underestimating the people of Huaxia too much?"

An aged, playful laugh suddenly rang out from an extremely close distance behind the thirty dark guards.

The dark guards were scared out of their wits; they hadn't noticed anyone approaching at all.

In their horror, they instinctively twisted around, swinging their weapons backward.

But what met their eyes was only a denser patch of darkness, and a tiny black line moving too fast for visual capture.

Pfft—!

Thirty masked heads flew into the air almost simultaneously, their faces still frozen in extreme shock and terror.

The headless bodies swayed, then fell heavily to the ground, and the sickly green blood flowing from their wounds quickly spread across the dirty pavement.

The shadows writhed, and Hu Xuan, dressed in ill-fitting, oversized clothes, slowly walked out.

He brushed off non-existent dust from his clothes, looked at the corpses on the ground, and curled his lip in disgust.

"Tsk, what a stain on this ground."

Then his gaze turned to the unconscious, weakly breathing He Jingrui, and he sighed helplessly.

"This kid, always showing off... Shadow, take him back to the Midnight Diner. Any later, and his 'seafood smell' will have him pickled."

As the old man spoke, the darkness behind him seemed to come alive, quickly coalescing into a blurry, humanoid silhouette shrouded in swirling black mist.

Shadow nodded silently, and the black mist extended, gently lifting He Jingrui as if he weighed nothing, then silently merged into the shadows of the alley, disappearing.

Hu Xuan glanced at the corpses on the scene again, shook his head, and then stepped out, his figure dissipating like a wisp of smoke.

At the same time, the Demon Capital Underground Research Institute.

The highest-grade biological isolation chamber was urgently sent into Ye Chen's main laboratory.

All samples collected by the Sharp Blade Squad: solidified and unsolidified blood fragments, soil stained with strange liquid, broken cloth strips... were all neatly arranged for analysis.

Ye Chen stood before a massive data analysis screen. On the left side of the screen was the masked person's voice print waveform after noise reduction and restoration, while on the right, a vast amount of voice print information in the database scrolled rapidly for comparison.

On the other side, the gene sequencer was operating at high speed, performing in-depth analysis of the blood samples.

"Beep—!"

A crisp notification sound rang out.

The voice print comparison system first locked onto several highly similar targets, but after a secondary screening, one file, originally marked as "deceased," was singled out, with a match rate as high as 92.7%.

Almost simultaneously, the preliminary genetic testing report was also generated.

Ye Chen's gaze swept over the key data indicators and gene sequence characteristic fragments on the report, which highly matched a top-secret archival record belonging to "former Fox Hunt Squad member He Jingrui" that he had accessed within his authority.

"Interesting."

Ye Chen said "interesting," but his expression remained unchanged throughout.

He picked up the printed report and turned to leave the laboratory.

Passing through several alloy gates that required extremely high clearance to open, Ye Chen arrived at the deepest isolation observation area of the research institute.

The atmosphere here was suffocatingly oppressive.

Inside the giant, super-hardened tempered glass laboratory was a figure completely bound by a special restraint suit, yet still struggling madly.

It was Gao Lingfeng, the former captain of the Fox Hunt Squad, who had gone berserk due to the Gourmet Cells going out of control and was confined here.

At this moment, Gao Lingfeng had long lost his former resolute and stern demeanor.

An ominous crimson mist permeated his body, blue veins bulged under his exposed skin like wriggling earthworms, his facial muscles were twisted and grotesque, and he continuously emitted meaningless roars.

Occasionally, one could also see his joints exhibiting unnatural twisting and swelling, as if new bones were attempting to grow beneath his skin.

Ye Chen stood quietly outside the glass, observing and recording every subtle change in Gao Lingfeng with instruments, as was customary.

His facial expression remained as calm as water throughout, as if this sight, which could absolutely not be publicly revealed, was no different from an ordinary sample in a laboratory vessel.

After observing for a full ten minutes, Ye Chen finally spoke, his clear and calm voice transmitted through the special sound transmitter, clearly entering the isolation room.

"Gao Lingfeng, your teammate, He Jingrui, is still alive."

This sentence was like a stone sinking into the sea, not stirring a single ripple.

Inside the isolation room, Gao Lingfeng continued to roar and struggle madly, hitting his head against the restraint board behind him, his eyes cloudy and wild, showing no trace of human reason.

Ye Chen watched him silently, waited for about another minute, and seeing no effective response, he stopped lingering and turned to leave.

But just as he had taken two steps, from the continuous mad roaring in the isolation room behind him, a sound seemed to be mixed in—a suppressed, almost extreme whimper, as if squeezed from the depths of his soul.

Ye Chen's steps halted.

He turned back, adjusted his glasses, and his gaze behind the lenses pierced through the glass at Gao Lingfeng as if it were tangible.

However, Gao Lingfeng's behavior was no different from before; he was still a completely insane, purely bestial figure, twisting and roaring madly.

Ye Chen stood still, staring blankly at Gao Lingfeng for a full ten seconds.

His gaze seemed to penetrate the chaotic surface, reaching directly into the depths of the soul imprisoned by madness.

Finally, he said nothing, turning and leaving the observation area.

The alloy gates silently closed one by one behind him, completely isolating that crimson and roaring scene.

Inside the isolation room, only Gao Lingfeng remained... or rather, a trapped beast.

And on the metal floor, which was dented with numerous pits, a tiny, almost imperceptible crystal clear droplet lay quietly, reflecting the cold light of the room.

Soon after, it was enveloped and evaporated by the intensely hot crimson mist.

As if it had never appeared...