6: Chapter 6 The Key of Flesh and Blood

The stench of the swamp fermented in the morning mist.

Lin Yuan's left arm hung across his chest, yellow-green pus seeping from beneath the bandages.

The spiderweb-like red veins had already passed his elbow joint, and every heartbeat tugged at a stabbing pain deep within his bone marrow.

The radiation from the Black Tower's ley lines had taken root in his wound, grinding against his bones like hot sandpaper.

Rat Eye walked three steps ahead, clutching a dagger with white knuckles.

He kept glancing back at the two captives behind him, Scarface and the chainsaw-wielder Jackal, their wrists turning purple from the plastic restraints, their boots dragging through the muddy water.

"My lord, Gate 7 is just ahead," Rat Eye lowered his voice. "The defense map says there's a blind spot for surveillance here, but..."

Golden light exploded across his retinas.

In the hallucination, a golden giant emerged from the mist, liquid light flowing over its ceramite armor, a bolter aimed at Rat Eye's back.

Lin Yuan's pupils constricted, and his right hand reached for his laser pistol.

"Get down!"

Rat Eye dove into the mud.

A laser beam grazed his scalp and shot into the mist, striking a shadow that had lunged out.

The Worker Scorpion's carapace was covered in Tyranid bone spurs, its wound smoking, its tail stinger just three centimeters from Rat Eye's ankle.

Lin Yuan breathed heavily.

The hallucination had not faded; the golden giant's phantom overlapped with the mist, and more Astartes ghosts lined up, whispering "gene-seed."

"Left!" Scarface roared.

Lin Yuan turned and fired, the laser piercing the compound eye of the second Worker Scorpion.

The scorpion tumbled from behind a rusted pipe, its articulated limbs twitching.

"They aren't ambushing," Scarface gasped for air. "They're hunting. Just like last time, surround three sides and leave one open."

His temples throbbed.

In the hallucination, the Astartes turned its head; its faceless visage held only golden light, and one of them raised a hand, pointing to the left.

In reality, a dense rustling sound came from the reed patch on the left.

"Jackal, go to the cover on the right." Lin Yuan pointed with his gun. "Run."

Jackal's face went pale. Seeing Scarface nod, he stumbled toward the cover.

As soon as his footsteps sounded, four Worker Scorpions darted out from the left, lunging straight at Lin Yuan instead of chasing Jackal.

Hallucination and reality misaligned.

Lin Yuan saw the golden giant smash into the Worker Scorpions, but in reality, he swung at thin air.

A 0.5-second misjudgment, and a Worker Scorpion's tail stinger struck toward his face.

Scarface slammed into him from the side.

The stinger veered off course, grazing his earlobe and pinning into a tree trunk.

Scarface rolled with the momentum, used his bound hands to choke the Worker Scorpion's neck, and twisted hard, snapping the carapace.

"You owe me one." Scarface lay in the mud, his chest heaving, his face wearing the excitement of a gambler.

Lin Yuan did not answer.

The laser pistol had 4% energy remaining, and there were larger shadows in the mist.

The reed patch parted, and a massive mutant Sand Scorpion crawled out.

Its right claw was severed, the stump wrapped in biological bandages; it was the commander that had escaped yesterday.

Its left claw held high, embedded with a Class C ID tag of the Anvil Gang.

It was guarding this door.

Lin Yuan understood.

The Sand Scorpion was executing an ancient protocol, guarding the Black Tower entrance to prevent the unscreened from entering.

The commander emitted a high-frequency hiss, and more scarlet compound eyes lit up in the mist.

At least twenty Worker Scorpions assembled into a perimeter, with the gap facing directly toward Gate 7.

They were herding.

Driving the intruders into the door, or toward death.

"My lord, we're blocked off!" Rat Eye's voice trembled.

Lin Yuan looked at Scarface.

There was no fear on the captive's face, only the calmness of long-term calculation.

"That door is a sieve," Scarface licked his cracked lips. "The Scavengers rewrote the access control three months ago, replacing the biometric lock with a flesh key. It requires living human DNA to activate, but the trap kills the provider upon activation. They aren't sealing the Black Tower; they're screening for living material capable of withstanding genetic modification."

The gun barrel pointed unswervingly at the center of Scarface's forehead, while his peripheral vision scanned the metal door half-hidden in vines fifty meters away.

The entrance to the maintenance tunnel of Gate 7 had an identification panel flashing red light; the casing showed obvious signs of violent dismantling, with fresh metal scratches around the screw holes.

The Anvil Gang had indeed been here, and earlier.

"How do you know it was three months ago?"

"Boss Martin brought back a Scavenger technician from the Free Cities three months ago," Scarface slowly stood up, raising his bound hands. "That madman said a gene bank of the Chosen Ones sleeps within the Black Tower, and only flesh can awaken flesh. I saw him modify that door with my own eyes, using parts from the ARK laboratory."

Rat Eye's eyes widened: "Why are you telling us this?"

"Because Martin wants to hog the Ark for himself," Scarface stared directly at Lin Yuan, his eyes holding no loyalty, only cold survival instinct. "And you are not like Martin. You kept us alive because we are still useful. Now I'm telling you, I can disable the trap and let you enter the door alive, on the condition that you let me enter alive as well."

His finger applied one pound of pre-pressure to the trigger.

The hallucination struck again; behind the massive golden throne were endless cold stars.

An aged voice echoed in his mind, like a recording of his grandfather Lin Weiguo, yet also like something far more ancient.

"Verification... genetic sequence... Lin clan... Level 2 access..."

A sharp pain suddenly erupted from the wound on his left arm, not from the muscle, but from deep within the bone marrow.

The spiderweb-like red veins seemed to come alive, writhing under his skin and resonating with the Black Tower's ley lines.

The system interface flickered.

[Warning: gene-seed resonance +15%]

[Current resonance: 22%]

[Body adaptation initiated... irreversible]

Lin Yuan gritted his teeth, the taste of rust filling his mouth.

The red light of Gate 7 suddenly became blinding, forming a harmonious frequency with the stabbing pain in his left arm, as if it were calling out.

"Lead the way." Lin Yuan lowered his gun, his right hand never leaving the grip. "If you lie to me, I will turn you into charcoal before you even activate the trap."

Scarface pulled his mouth into an ugly smile, the expression of a pragmatist confirming he had won his bet.

He turned and walked toward Gate 7, stepping cautiously, observing the marks of pressure plates on the ground.

Rat Eye leaned in, his voice as thin as a mosquito's hum: "My lord, is what he said true? Are the Scavengers really screening living people?"

"It's true." Lin Yuan stared at Scarface's back, at the Anvil Gang's rusted hammer emblem on his uniform. "And he wants to live, so he will do his best. That is more reliable than any loyalty."

Rat Eye's eyes flickered.

He looked at Lin Yuan, then at Scarface, suddenly realizing that this young man's way of treating enemies was different from the wasteland warlords.

It wasn't simple destruction, but utilization—a cold, calculated utilization that reached the bone marrow.

This realization brought a deeper fear, as well as a chaotic worship he himself couldn't understand.

Scarface stopped before the door, crouched down, and used his bound fingers to push aside the vines beneath the identification panel.

The edge of the hidden mechanical interface was engraved with the Scavengers' emblem, an eye surrounded by gears.

"It needs living DNA, but not just anyone's will do," Scarface looked back, his gaze lingering on the bandages on Lin Yuan's left arm. "That madman set a specific sequence to match something inside the Black Tower. The Anvil Gang sent three scouts, and all were sprayed into bone dust by the acid inside the door."

Lin Yuan stepped forward; the pain in his left arm intensified as the distance shortened, as if the door were a magnet and the metal inside him was being frantically drawn to it.

A line of small text flashed across the identification panel screen, recognizable only with Lin clan access.

[ARK-07 Biological Screening Protocol]

[Current Status: Tampered]

[Tampered by: Scavengers - Martin]

[Original Directive: Deny all non-lin clan bloodline]

[Current Directive: Capture all lin clan bloodline]

Cold sweat seeped from his back.

The Anvil Gang's goal had shifted from "Search for ARK" to "Monopolize the Ark."

The Scavengers' infiltration three months ago was precisely to set a trap targeting the descendants of the Lin clan.

Scarface's finger hovered over the activation button, and he turned to look at Lin Yuan, his eyes filled with inquiry and a final test.

"I press this, and either the door opens, or we all die," Scarface said. "Are you betting or not?"

Lin Yuan did not answer.

He raised his left arm, the bandages soaked through, and yellow-green pus dripped onto the metal casing of the identification panel, making a sizzling corrosive sound.

A drop of blood rolled off; the moment it touched the panel, the red light suddenly extinguished, replaced by a deep blue light, as if pulsing from deep underground.

Scarface froze.

Rat Eye opened his mouth wide.

The sharp pain in his left arm reached its peak, then turned eerily numb, as if something were taking root and sprouting in the wound.

In the hallucination, the golden throne collapsed with a roar, turning into points of light; in each point of light appeared the face of his grandfather Lin Weiguo, that face smiling and weeping at the same time.

"Verification successful."

A mechanical voice came from inside the door, not an electronically synthesized sound, but the wet, sticky sound of biological chambers rubbing against each other.

Gate 7 slowly opened.

A cold wind smelling of ozone poured out from the gap, mixed with the scent of coolant and a low-frequency vibration that felt like the breathing of a giant beast.

Scarface's face went pale.

Looking at his hands hanging in the air, then at the opening door, he suddenly realized a terrifying fact.

"You... are you one of Lin Weiguo's people?" His voice trembled.

Lin Yuan drew his laser pistol, the muzzle pointing once again at Scarface's back, though his finger was not on the trigger.

"Go in," Lin Yuan said. "We still have a score to settle."

In the darkness inside the door, something was writhing.

It was not a Sand Scorpion, nor human footsteps, but a more ancient friction, with the mixed texture of metal and flesh.

The spiderweb-like red veins on Lin Yuan's left arm were clearly visible under the blue light, the markings having spread to his shoulder like a web being woven, ready to envelop his entire being.

The system prompt flickered again.

[gene-seed resonance: 22%]

[Trial about to begin]

[Suggestion: Prepare for STC fabrication]

Lin Yuan took a deep breath of cold air, which brought a sobering sting.

He marched Scarface into the darkness behind Gate 7.

Rat Eye followed closely, his hand pressed against the badge at his waist, his eyes flickering with uncertainty, yet deep within them was a tremor of finally witnessing the beginning of something grand.

The door closed slowly behind them, shutting out the stench of the swamp and the hissing of the Sand Scorpions.

In the darkness, only the pus dripping onto the metal floor continued to emit a faint fluorescence.