Demon King – Chapter 485 – The Basement

She had already descended several levels along the ladder. Just as Eiru was muttering about when this would finally end, her legs at last touched solid ground.

“Tsk, was this even reported? This is obviously an illegal expansion, right?”

Her Majesty the Demon Lord muttered a small complaint. Going straight from the third floor down to a basement like this, no matter how you looked at it, there was no way it would pass safety inspection.

The surroundings were pitch-black, not a single light in sight. If the little Demon Lord did not have exceptionally strong night vision, she would really be stumbling around blindly right now.

In the darkness, Her Majesty the Demon Lord passed through a tunnel that was not particularly long. After winding through a few bends, she finally reached the end… but all that stood before her was a wall.

“A dead end? Are you messing with me? All that trouble for just a tunnel?”

Eiru believed there had to be something behind this wall. Otherwise, why would the director go through all this effort only to dig out a half-finished tunnel? That would be way too pointless.

Lightly feeling along the wall with her hand, the little Demon Lord quickly found a section that felt different from the rest. With a bit of force, she pressed upward, and it just happened to form the shape of a door handle.

“See? Trying to fool me?”

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Gloating a little, Eiru twisted the handle and pulled hard. The entire wall slid open sideways like a sliding door.

Behind the wall was no longer darkness. It finally looked like a place where a normal person could stay. But the scene before her made Her Majesty the Demon Lord start to wonder if she had walked onto the wrong film set. What was with this movie-style development?

The environment behind the wall gave off a strong high-tech base vibe straight out of a movie. But it was not exactly a high-tech base either. Compared to something that outrageous, this place felt more like a small-scale exhibition hall.

There was not a single person on this side of the wall. And the little Demon Lord also noticed that this creepy place interfered with her magic to an extreme degree. She could barely maintain invisibility, and even basic magical perception was impossible.

Something was wrong. Very wrong. After scanning the surroundings a few times and confirming there really was no one else around, Her Majesty the Demon Lord began sneaking around, quietly observing the things inside, tiptoeing through the area.

There were many transparent glass containers nearby, filled with a strange icy-blue liquid. They looked like some kind of culture vessels, giving off a strong biological laboratory vibe.

But unfortunately, because the liquid itself was transparent, the little Demon Lord could clearly see that there was nothing inside.

These glass containers were arranged neatly. Not far from them, a cabinet filled with test tubes and books, along with a table beside it, caught Eiru’s attention.

“What’s this?”

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Arriving at the table, Her Majesty the Demon Lord discovered what looked like a research log placed on its surface. So someone really had been secretly conducting experiments here?

There was more than one research log. There were also a large number of booklets on the shelves, all bearing the marks of time. Clearly, this place had existed for quite a long while. At the very least, this unknown research had been going on for many years.

“Amber Crystal?”

Eiru noticed two familiar words on the bookshelf. Could it be that this place was researching Amber Crystal?

After taking that booklet down, Her Majesty the Demon Lord was disappointed to find that the information inside was nothing more than scattered reports about Amber Crystal from the internet or newspapers. It was basically a pile of outdated intelligence.

She casually opened another book. This time, the contents were actually related to the director’s little granddaughter. Already quite concerned about that matter, Eiru naturally began reading with great interest.

“There is no doubt that Yaoyao is not suffering from some strange illness at all. She is the legendary child cursed by Amber Crystal.”

“I refuse to believe it! This cannot be some curse. There must be some kind of influencing factor. There is no way something like this exists in the world!”

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Even through the text, Eiru could feel the old director’s hysteria. No one could possibly accept the inevitable death of their own family. And even more so when this granddaughter was his only emotional support.

Continuing to read, Her Majesty the Demon Lord’s expression grew increasingly grave. Because the director’s research project was aimed precisely at those Daughters of Amber Crystal.

Firmly believing that there had to be something on the Daughters of Amber Crystal that triggered their bodily mutations, the director decided to search for commonalities among them from a scientific research perspective.

In order to find these common points, the old man deeply studied the legends of Amber Crystal. Relying on his connections and intelligence network, over the course of twenty to thirty years, he managed to locate other Daughters of Amber Crystal and used various methods to bring them to this orphanage.

The first Daughter of Amber Crystal brought here was initially subjected only to simple sample research, such as blood draws and hair collection. But after achieving nothing, a terrifying idea began to sprout in the director’s mind.

With his granddaughter being everything to him, and already somewhat unhinged in his desperation to save her, the director anesthetized that poor girl and extracted some of her bone marrow.

Through comparisons of bone marrow, blood, and various cells, the director discovered with delight that there truly was a special factor… or perhaps something like a hormone, affecting these so-called cursed girls.

“I have temporarily named this substance the ‘Amber Crystal Factor’. There is no doubt that this is the cause of Yaoyao’s bodily mutations… this thing is inducing and stimulating her transformation toward another kind of organism.”

‘Transforming toward another kind of organism? Don’t tell me it’s our demon race…’

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This passage scared the girl quite badly. Skipping over a large chunk of formulas and theoretical derivations in the middle, Eiru flipped straight to the back to look for the conclusion.

The content that followed was even more horrifying. Although this Amber Crystal Factor could be extracted from any cell in the bodies of Daughters of Amber Crystal, the amount extracted from places other than blood and bone marrow was far too small.

Even extracting it from blood and bone marrow yielded very little. Moreover, once removed from the human body, this substance could not be preserved. Even under vacuum or low-temperature conditions, it would evaporate and disappear for unknown reasons. Since the research required larger quantities, the only option was to extract it from that poor girl.

“It works! It succeeded! Although only temporarily, by injecting the extracted Amber Crystal Factor into Yaoyao’s body, her vital signs and condition have stabilized!”

On one hand, it was needed to prolong his granddaughter’s life. On the other, it was needed for research. The required amount of Amber Crystal Factor was an extremely terrifying number. But where could it come from? Only by extracting it from the various parts of other Daughters of Amber Crystal.

Thus, he anesthetized and imprisoned the Daughters of Amber Crystal he brought in, confining them in this very basement, extracting various things from their bodies to obtain the factor…

Under such torment, that girl passed away in less than a year. And the research in this basement once again fell into a deadlock.