150: Chapter 150 The Regret of a Demonic Master

One month later.

National High-Energy Physics Research Institute, seventh underground floor, special containment zone.

There was no sunlight here, only the pale, cold light emitted by LED strips. The air was filled with a mixture of ozone and disinfectant, and the low-frequency humming of machinery permeated every corner.

Inside an observation room enclosed by three layers of special lead glass, a fist-sized, translucent sphere of light floated.

The sphere of light was a sickly dark red, its surface pitted and scarred like a rotten apple eaten by worms. It was bound in the center of a strong magnetic field, surrounded by tubes and probes that looked like blood vessels.

This was the once arrogant and domineering Old Ancestor of the Blood River—Su Yang—who had attempted a blood sacrifice of the entire city.

However, his official code name now was "High-Energy Spirit Particle Aggregate Experimental Specimen A-001."

"Increase the power; the third set of experimental data hasn't finished running yet."

A researcher wearing a white lab coat and thick-rimmed glasses pressed a red button on the console with an expressionless face.

Zzzzt—!

A ghostly blue electric arc instantly struck the dark red sphere of light.

"Ah—!!!"

Although separated by vacuum glass, that scream which pierced straight through the Soul was clearly transmitted outside the observation room via a special acoustic transducer.

Su Yang's Primordial Spirit twitched violently in the magnetic field, and the already thin red light dimmed even further.

"Energy output is stable." The researcher glanced at the dashboard and pushed up his glasses, as if discussing a newly replaced AA battery. "The conversion efficiency of this Soul energy is really high; one unit of electrical input yields three units of Spiritual Qi output, and it's clean and pollution-free."

"Make a note: I suggest listing this 'biological battery' technology as a key research project in the next five-year plan."

The intern beside him recorded it rapidly on a tablet, their eyes devoid of any pity, filled only with a fanaticism for science.

At this moment, the airtight door made a soft sound and slowly slid open.

Gu Changan, dressed in a crisp black uniform and still holding his signature thermos, walked in.

"Director Gu!"

All the researchers in the lab immediately stopped their work and stood up to salute.

"Sit, everyone sit." Gu Changan waved his hand and walked to the glass window, looking at the dying sphere of light inside with great interest. "How is our 'Old Ancestor' doing today?"

"Reporting to the Director, the specimen's activity is good." The lead researcher reported. "This week, we conducted sixteen anti-matter bombardment tolerance tests, twenty-eight Soul cutting and regeneration experiments, and round-the-clock energy extraction on him."

"Although the specimen has shown signs of mental breakdown multiple times, as long as we feed him a little low-purity industrial Spiritual Qi, he can recover to his original state within half an hour."

The supervisor pointed at the sphere of light, his tone filled with a hint of admiration. "I have to say, the toughness of a Cultivator's Divine Soul is truly the best among all Materials discovered so far; it's practically a prototype for a perpetual motion machine."

Upon hearing the words "perpetual motion machine," Su Yang in the glass cabinet shuddered violently.

He struggled to condense his Divine Thought into a twisted human face, pressed it against the glass, and stared fixedly at Gu Changan outside.

That face no longer held its former arrogance and hubris, leaving only endless fear and pleading.

"Gu... Grandpa Gu..."

Su Yang's voice was hoarse and broken, laced with tears. "Kill me... I beg you, kill me..."

Gu Changan took a sip of his goji berry tea and pressed the talk button. "Yo, isn't this the Old Ancestor of the Blood River who wanted to blood-sacrifice the whole city? What's wrong? It's only been a month, and your Dao Heart has already collapsed?"

"I won't Cultivate anymore... I really won't..."

Su Yang cried like a two-hundred-pound child; if he still had tears, the observation room would probably be flooded by now.

"It's too painful... This kind of life is not meant for humans!"

"I get electrocuted in the morning, cut up at noon, and at night I have to have my energy extracted to power the entire lab... Even when I sleep, I'm forcibly woken up for nightmare tests!"

Su Yang roared in despair. "Even when the Righteous Path besieged me a thousand years ago, they just gave me a quick death with a sword! You are abusing me! This is inhumane!"

"Give me a quick death! Even if it means Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering, and I never reincarnate, that's fine! I don't want to live anymore! I really don't want to live!"

He had never imagined that death would become a luxury.

Over these thousand years, he had killed and committed arson countless times for immortality, and stopped at nothing to live one more day.

But now, he finally understood that in this cold, industrialized Hell, living was the greatest punishment.

Gu Changan watched Su Yang's humble begging for death, his expression showing no fluctuation.

He took a neatly folded A4 paper from his pocket and stuck it to the glass.

"Want to die? That's not going to happen."

Gu Changan said slowly and methodically, "According to Article 18 of the newly revised 'Bureau of Anomalous Affairs Act,' and the 'National Special Energy Protection Regulations.'"

"Su Yang, in view of your crimes against humanity, endangering public safety, and illegal plunder of biological energy, you have been sentenced to life imprisonment."

Su Yang was stunned. "Life imprisonment? Doesn't that just mean sitting in jail until I die? I can wait! Fifty years? One hundred years? As long as I outlive you, that's fine, right?"

Gu Changan smiled.

That smile, in Su Yang's eyes, was ten thousand times more terrifying than a devil in Hell.

"Old Ancestor, do you have some misunderstanding about the words 'life imprisonment'?"

Gu Changan extended a finger and tapped the glass lightly.

"For humans, life imprisonment is only a few decades; once a person dies, the sentence naturally ends."

"But you are different."

"You are a High-Energy Spirit Particle Aggregate; as long as the outside world provides you with energy, you theoretically possess an infinite lifespan."

Gu Changan's voice was soft, yet it was like a heavy hammer, smashing Su Yang's last shred of hope.

"In other words, as long as the national power grid doesn't cut off, and as long as the lab has enough funding, you will never die."

"Your life sentence is a true 'sentence without end.'"

"We will preserve this special life form of yours forever—five hundred years, one thousand years, ten thousand years... until we have studied you thoroughly, and until we have squeezed out your very last bit of residual value."

Boom!

Su Yang felt as if his Divine Soul had been struck by lightning.

Eternity.

The eternal life he had pursued his whole life had truly been realized at this moment.

But the price was living eternally in this sunless basement as a specimen, a battery, a target.

"No!!! You can't do this! I am a person! I have dignity!" Su Yang crashed into the magnetic field frantically, letting out a shrill scream.

"Dignity?"

Gu Changan sneered, took a tablet out of his briefcase, tapped it a few times, and then aimed the screen at the glass window.

"Come look at the world outside, and see how well everyone is living without you."

The screen played a news video.

In the footage, the once arrogant Su Group building had already been sealed off, and the huge "Su" character sign was being dismantled by a crane.

At the court auction, the "Cultivation resources" that Su Yang had hoarded—things like thousand-year-old blood jade and Yin-gathering coffin lids—were being auctioned off cheaply as handicrafts and special building Materials.

"This station reports: Famous Donghai City entrepreneur Su Yang, due to suspected involvement in major criminal cases, has had all his assets placed into bankruptcy liquidation proceedings. The proceeds from the auction will be used in full to compensate the victims of the 'APP fraud case' from a month ago..."

The scene changed.

The entrance of the Bureau of Anomalous Affairs.

Dozens of citizens were holding silk banners, beating gongs and drums.

The banners displayed eight gold-stamped characters: [Eliminating Devils and Defending the Dao, Scientific Cultivation].

One of the aunties being interviewed was one of the victims who had almost self-detonated in the square back then.

She was beaming, excitedly saying to the camera, "I'm so grateful to the government! If it weren't for Director Gu and his team, my husband would have been killed by that crappy Cultivation APP! That kind of harmful thing should be arrested and shot for five minutes!"

Gu Changan retracted the tablet and looked at the completely dazed Su Yang.

"See that? Old Ancestor."

"You thought you were a world-destroying Devil Head? You thought you were a terrifying disaster?"

Gu Changan shook his head, his tone filled with disdain.

"In the eyes of the common people, you are just a pyramid scheme fraudster, a hooligan making noise, and a pest that needs to be cleared out."

"Your ambition, your Demonic Path—in the face of modern civilization's order—is not worth a damn."

Pfft.

Su Yang's Primordial Spirit suddenly spewed out a puff of black Qi.

Attacking someone's psychological defenses.

This was the true meaning of attacking someone's psychological defenses.

His thousand years of pride, his self-righteous "dignity of a powerhouse," were at this moment trampled under Gu Changan's feet and crushed to powder.

He hadn't been defeated by some peerless expert.

He had been defeated by an era he looked down upon, defeated by those Mortals he regarded as ants.

"I... I was wrong..."

Su Yang's sphere of light rapidly withered, finally shrinking into a dark spot the size of a walnut, floating silently in the center of the magnetic field, with no more sound.

His spirit had completely dissipated.

From then on, there was no longer an Old Ancestor of the Blood River in the world, only an experimental consumable numbered A-001.

"Alright, stop playing dead."

Gu Changan handed the tablet to the supervisor beside him. "Give him some 'nutrition.' This afternoon, experts from the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense are coming to test the penetrating power of the new Soul-devouring missile; make sure he adjusts his state."

"Yes! Guarantee to complete the mission!"

Gu Changan turned and strode towards the door.

Just as he stepped out of the lab door, that long-lost System notification sound suddenly rang in his mind.

"[Ding! Detected that the host has completely shattered the Demonic Path restoration conspiracy and successfully performed 'life-long' physical containment on the target!]"

"[Task settlement complete.]"

"[Rating: Perfect (SSS Rank).]"

"[Reward obtained: Quantum Primordial Spirit Cultivation Technique (Original Copy).]"

"[Remark: This Cultivation Technique has had all Demonic Path side effects removed. After System improvement, it can utilize the principle of quantum entanglement to strengthen the host's Mental Energy, achieving 'human brain supercomputing.']"

Gu Changan's footsteps paused slightly, and the corners of his mouth curled into an arc.

Quantum Primordial Spirit? Human brain supercomputing?

Interesting.

If this thing were combined with the Tianhe-3 in the Bureau, wouldn't the efficiency of processing documents double?

"As expected."

Gu Changan walked out of the elevator, looking at the bustling scene of traffic in Donghai City outside the window, and muttered to himself.

"That whole Cultivation business has long been outdated."

"These days, if you want to be truly invincible..."

He patted the thick volume of the "Criminal Law."

"You still have to Cultivate the 'Law.'"