151: Chapter 151: The Leader Emerges from Seclusion

Inside the Veil of Time.

The open space in the center of the camp.

The adjutant stood on the high platform, holding a briefcase.

Below, hundreds of Time Demon Race members stared eagerly at the case.

"This is the third batch of serum that the leader has just purified!" the adjutant raised his voice, his words echoing through the camp.

"The leader's Origin has been severely overdrawn; he needs to rest."

"These ten potions will be distributed first to the brothers who have mutated most severely!"

A cheer erupted from the crowd.

Ten clan members, covered in pustules and severely deformed limbs, were helped forward by their companions.

The way they looked at the adjutant was filled with a godlike reverence.

Expressionless, the adjutant opened the case and distributed the dark red potions one by one.

He watched as these clan members impatiently drank the potions in one gulp.

He watched the pustules on their bodies rapidly shrivel, and their deformed limbs fall off and undergo Rebirth.

The adjutant's stomach churned violently.

"Lord Adjutant, when will the leader come out?"

A clan member who had just returned to normal knelt on the ground, his eyes red. "I want to kowtow to him in person."

"The leader is conducting deeper research. No one is allowed to disturb him."

The adjutant turned around, avoiding the other's gaze. "Disperse, everyone. Return to your respective posts."

The adjutant walked down from the high platform, his heart numb.

For the past few days, he had been relying on this catalyst and inspiring speeches to keep these defeated remnants in check.

At first, the effect was surprisingly good.

But as time passed, the adjutant's job became increasingly difficult.

All twenty people from the first batch who drank the potion had already been sent to the laboratory by him under various pretexts.

All of them were "accidents," all of them "critically injured and on the verge of death," and all of them were sent through that metal door.

Under the pretext of "the leader personally treating them."

The adjutant walked back to his tent, picked up the water cup on the table, and took a large gulp.

His hands were shaking violently.

He had fabricated too many accidents; even he felt it was too fake.

In a corner of the camp, behind some wreckage.

The veteran Reke squatted on the ground, holding a wooden stick.

He drew rows of names on the purplish-red soil, a total of thirty of them.

Around him stood five or six somber-faced patrol warriors.

Reke used a branch to draw an 'X' over Hanke's name.

Next was Bart, then those two sentries.

One by one, the names of all twenty people in the first batch were crossed out.

Then, he drew eight more 'X's over the names of the ten people in the second batch who drank the potion.

"Do you understand now?" Reke looked up at the brothers around him.

A warrior swallowed hard, his voice trembling. "Those who drank the potion... are all gone?"

"To be precise, they all met with accidents within three days." Reke threw away the branch and sneered.

"Hanke had been maintaining that node for a long time; he wouldn't mistake the valve even with his eyes closed. How did it happen to overload the day after he drank the potion?"

"And Captain Bart." Another warrior clenched his fists. "Captain Bart has the strength of a lower Diamond Rank!"

"Even if he encountered a Void Realm rift, it's impossible that he couldn't even send out a distress signal and got blasted half to death!"

"Most importantly, after they were sent into the laboratory, they never came out again."

Reke pointed at the sealed metal building in the center of the camp. "The leader said he was treating them."

"But where are they? If they're alive, we want to see them; if they're dead, we want to see their corpses. There hasn't even been an announcement."

The air became oppressive.

A terrifying suspicion began to breed in the hearts of these veterans.

"Reke, do you mean... there's something wrong with the serum?"

"I don't know if there's something wrong with the serum." Reke stood up, drew the dagger from his waist, and scraped some mud off his armor.

"I only know that the adjutant is lying. There is absolutely something shameful hidden in that laboratory."

Once the seed of doubt is planted, it will take root and sprout.

Various speculations and rumors began to spread secretly throughout the camp.

Some said the leader had gone mad and was treating their clansmen as experimental Materials.

Others said there was no serum at all, and that it was a mind-controlling poison.

The adjutant was still putting on a hard-working performance.

Every day, he appeared on the high platform on time, distributing a small amount of the new potion and praising the greatness of the leader.

He failed to notice the looks directed at him from below the stage.

They had changed from reverence to suspicion, and finally into suppressed rage.

Until late on the fifth night.

Reke, leading two of his trusted men, avoided the patrol's gaze and quietly crept to the metal outer wall of the laboratory.

The toxic miasma howled outside the Curtain, covering their faint footsteps.

Reke pulled a high-frequency eavesdropping patch from his waist and pressed it against the wall.

He put on a single-ear headphone and turned the volume to the maximum.

At first, there was only the humming sound of machinery operating.

Reke held his breath and waited patiently.

A few minutes later, a faint sound came through the headphone.

"Crunch... Crunch..."

First came a crunch, followed by a weak, miserable shriek.

"Kill me... Mor... you beast..."

The voice was airy and hoarse, completely unlike a human voice.

Reke's body stiffened.

He recognized this voice.

This was Carter! The one who had mutated most severely a few days ago, whom the adjutant had personally carried inside!

Carter was still alive! He was suffering unimaginable torture inside!

"Thud! Thud! Thud!"

Impact sounds came from inside the wall, causing even the outer wall to vibrate slightly.

It seemed like some monster was struggling inside.

Reke ripped off the headphone, his expression complex.

He looked at the two brothers beside him. They weren't wearing headphones, but they had also felt the vibration of the wall, and their eyes were filled with horror.

"Go," Reke gestured.

The three of them quickly retreated.

The next morning.

The long-suppressed bubble finally burst.

A mutiny erupted.

There was no warning, no assembly call.

Except for the dozens of Formation Masters who had to remain at the various nodes to maintain the energy output of the Veil of Time.

The remaining thousand-plus Time Demon Race members in the camp all surged toward the center of the camp.

Even the medical personnel responsible for treating the wounded...

...threw down their staffs and potion bottles to join the crowd.

A dense sea of people surrounded the laboratory so tightly that not a drop of water could trickle through.

Dozens of the adjutant's personal guards stood in front of the metal door, holding high-energy burst guns.

Their legs were trembling.

Facing over a thousand pairs of bloodshot eyes, this bit of firepower was completely negligible.

The adjutant stood on the steps, holding a megaphone.

His face looked worse than a dead person's.

"Brothers! Calm down! What are you doing!" the adjutant roared loudly, trying to suppress the situation with his past authority.

"The leader is conducting the most critical experiment! You will ruin the hope of the entire clan by doing this!"

"To hell with your hope!"

Reke squeezed out of the crowd and threw the high-frequency eavesdropping patch in his hand right at the adjutant's face.

The patch hit the bridge of the adjutant's nose and bounced to the ground.

"We heard everything!" Reke drew his greatsword and pointed it straight at the adjutant. "The sound of bones being sawed! Carter's miserable screams!"

"They aren't saving people in there at all; it's a slaughterhouse!"

Rage erupted among the crowd.

"Hand them over!"

"Where is Captain Bart! Where is Hanke!"

"You liar! What did you do to our brothers!"

The waves of anger almost overturned the Veil of Time.

Over a thousand weapons were unsheathed at the same time.

Flying Swords hovered in mid-air, fireballs and wind blades condensed in palms, and plasma cannons were all fully charged.

This outbreak was ten times more intense than the last time Bart led the protest.

Under the dual fear of racial extinction and betrayal by their own kind, their most primal destructive desire erupted.

"Back off! All of you, back off!" the guard captain roared while raising his gun, but his voice was drowned out by the waves of noise.

"Charge in! Capture the adjutant alive! Force the leader to give us an explanation!" Reke roared, leading the charge.

The crowd surged.

Dozens of guards were shoved and stumbled all over.

The defensive line was practically non-existent.

The adjutant retreated step by step, his back pressed against the metal wall.

He looked in horror at these enraged clan members.

It was over. Everything was over.

The lie had been exposed, and he had become the public enemy of the entire clan.

Mor's experiment wasn't finished yet. They would be torn to shreds by this group of irrational clan members.

A Flying Sword grazed the adjutant's scalp as it flew past, cutting off a lock of his hair.

Several strong Body Cultivators rushed up the steps, reaching out to grab the adjutant's collar.

At this critical juncture...

"Pshhh—"

The sound of an airlock depressurizing rang out.

The metal door behind the adjutant slid open to both sides.

Hit by a blast of cold air, the few Body Cultivators rushing at the very front instinctively stopped.

The noisy crowd fell silent for a brief moment.

Everyone's gaze bypassed the adjutant, looking deep into the doorway.

In the cold white light of the shadowless lamps, a figure slowly walked out.

Mor.

His face was pale, his eye sockets sunken, and his entire being presented a sickly exhaustion.

Yet his eyes were terrifyingly bright.

A fanatical fire of triumph, of standing above all living beings, was burning within him.

"What is all this noise about?" Mor barked coldly.

The pressure of a Peak Diamond Rank was released.

The clan members in the front row felt a tightness in their chests and couldn't help but take a few steps back.

Mor walked to the edge of the steps, looking down at the thousand-plus clan members.

"You want an explanation? Fine, I will give you an explanation."

Mor stepped aside, clearing the space in front of the door.

"Come out, my masterpieces." Mor snapped his fingers.

Footsteps echoed from deep within the laboratory, and the ground began to vibrate.

Under the stunned gazes of everyone, dozens of dark figures walked out of the door.

Walking at the very front were five massive Liquid Metal Crabs.

They were covered in dark-gold heavy shells, and their eight thick limbs left deep indentations on the metal floor.

Following closely behind were over a dozen Demon Vultures with wingspans exceeding eight meters.

Their pale white bones were exposed, and the edges of their wings were lined with sharp bone blades.

At the very back were bats.

Some had three heads, some had two, and some had one.

They hung upside down from the beams above the laboratory door, staring coldly at the crowd below.

The camp fell into a deathly silence.

Everyone stared wide-eyed, even forgetting to breathe.

The adjutant slumped on the ground, looking up at these monsters.

His heart pounded wildly.

Did he succeed?

He carefully observed the monsters.

On the shells of the Liquid Metal Crabs, there were no longer any traces of the previous crude cutting and suturing.

On the surface of the dark-gold shells, a layer of greyish-white patterns belonging to the Time Demon Race emerged.

Around the exposed bones of the Demon Vultures, the Time Demon Race's Origin Devilish Qi was swirling.

The sides of the multi-headed bats' cheeks even grew the gill slits unique to the Time Demon Race.

The adjutant let out a long sigh of relief.

He knew his life was saved.

In the crowd, Reke gripped his greatsword, his eyes flickering with doubt and alarm.

"Leader... what is the meaning of this?" Reke swallowed hard and asked loudly.

"You've been secretly breeding these native monsters in the laboratory? Do you plan to use them to fight the toxic miasma and the Demon Tree outside?"

Reke's words represented the thoughts of the vast majority of the clan members.

Seeing these monsters, their first reaction was that the leader had tamed native creatures and planned to form a war beast legion.

"But this number is way too small! There are only dozens of them!"

"And their strength isn't right either. The aura on these monsters is at most mid-rank Platinum. What use can they be?"

The clan members began to whisper among themselves, confused by the leader's actions.

Hearing the discussions of the clan members below, Mor's lips curled upward.

Breeding? War beasts?

The imagination of these fools was limited to just this.

"Leader!" An irrational clan member rushed out of the crowd, pointing at Mor and roaring.

"Don't use these beasts to distract us! Where are our brothers!"

"Where is Hanke! Where is Captain Bart! Where did you take them!"

"That's right! Is the serum actually real! You must make things clear today!"

The questioning voices erupted once again.

Over a thousand pairs of eyes stared at Mor, waiting for an explanation.

Mor stood at the highest point of the steps.

Instead of getting angry, he opened his arms, making a gesture as if embracing the sky.

His face was filled with a sacred sense of "I am great."

"You are looking for Hanke, and looking for Bart?" Mor lowered his head, his gaze finally landing on the largest Liquid Metal Crab.

He reached out and gently patted the shell of the Liquid Metal Crab.

"Aren't they right here?"