Volume 5, Chapter 92 – The Factory

The Feathering Club.

This place gave Tao Sicheng a very bad feeling.

She had sensed it the moment she entered the first floor of the building. Whether it was the choice of floor tiles, the interior decor, or the placement of the reception desk and chandeliers, every detail gave off a sinister feeling.

Tao Sicheng had the reputation of being a gifted young lady, and when she was little she had also studied a bit of feng shui. Carefully recalling that knowledge, she vaguely remembered that this kind of layout resembled a baleful array called the Yin-Path Spirit-Locking Formation.

This formation had no evil effect in itself, but it could lock down all the yin-sha of a place so tightly that it could never break free, no matter what.

Tao Kangyuan did not have her experience, but he could still feel the gloom around them. He could not help edging closer to his sister, his whole body trembling slightly.

After passing through the lobby, Rongyin led the two of them to the elevator.

Once inside, Tao Sicheng had thought they would simply press one of the buttons above. But instead, as a sheet of blue light swept over Rongyin’s face, a burst of electronic beeping rang out inside the elevator. With a click, the floor buttons sank inward and slid downward, while an entirely different set of buttons rose up in their place.

This set of buttons was not very different from the first one, except that each number now had a minus sign in front of it.

So the true destination was underground.

Tao Sicheng watched as Rongyin pressed the “-21” button. The next instant, the elevator jolted with a boom, every light inside went out at once, and a sense of weightless freefall surged up, mixed with the unknown danger that might lie ahead, making Tao Sicheng feel a little sick.

Boom!

After another violent jolt, they had finally arrived at basement level twenty-one.

The elevator doors opened, and the brother and sister involuntarily widened their eyes.

Spread before them was an enormous underground cavity. It looked like a military-industrial facility built inside a hollowed-out layer of earth, fully equipped with hanging stairs and corridors of every kind. All around them, more than a dozen lift platforms could be seen moving up and down. In the “workshop zone” at the very bottom, groups of workers would periodically carry goods over, load them onto vehicles, and haul them away. Lights, shouting, and movement all blended together into a bustling, prosperous underground spectacle.

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At first, Tao Sicheng had even found that bustle oddly familiar and almost comforting. Whatever side those people were on, their very existence represented human activity, enough to somewhat offset that cold, gloomy aura.

But very quickly, she changed her mind.

Because she had already seen what those workers were transporting.

It was exactly what she had seen earlier on the street—a whole large crate packed full of broken human bones.

What exactly was this…?

Shock and curiosity drove her to stop on the suspended walkway and stare. She fixed her gaze on one of the partitioned workshops down below. It was sealed only with plastic sheeting and a transparent canopy, and inside she could vaguely see a few figures in white coats moving around. It looked as if they were thrusting some sort of massive syringe-like device into a squirming flesh-colored organism.

One of them forcefully pushed the liquid inside the needle into it. Then, in less than three seconds, the flesh-colored organism began convulsing even more violently, swelling from within before bursting into fragments.

Because of the distance, Tao Sicheng could not hear the sound it made when it exploded, but she had already imagined that disgusting noise in her own head. She could not help leaning back slightly as she watched the canopy being pulled open and a white-coated figure, stained red from head to toe, wheel a rolling bed out—

locked onto that bed was a complete human skeleton.

The nearby staff saw it and immediately came over to remove the skeleton, tossing it into a huge container on the other side for storage. The now-empty rolling bed was pushed away by someone else, brushing past another rolling bed that was being brought over.

Tao Sicheng saw that strapped onto the newly arrived bed was a bloated body like a mountain of flesh. Its sex characteristics were completely unrecognizable now; only from the narrow slits squeezed out between masses of fat could one barely identify the features of a face.

Those people sent the figure into the same partitioned workshop as before, and then the exact same process repeated itself. Very quickly, she—or he—also exploded into a cloud of blood mist, leaving behind only a human skeleton that had returned to a slender shape, which the employees dismantled and threw into a crate.

“Ugh… urgh—!”

Tao Sicheng had, after all, spent time around Spirit-Vein Demons, so she could still endure this sight. But Tao Kangyuan truly could not take it. He dropped straight to his knees on the suspended walkway and began retching violently. His vomit dripped down through the gaps in the steel grating, drawing the attention of quite a few people below, who looked up and pointed this way.

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“What kind of place is this?” Tao Sicheng could not help demanding of Rongyin. “Why is it so… so…”

“Cruel?”

But those words were not answered by Rongyin.

Tao Sicheng turned toward the voice and saw a middle-aged man standing there in a black suit, his entire head and face wrapped in thick bandages.

“Clan Chief!” Rongyin immediately dropped to her knees before him. At the same time, she sent out a faint streak of black qi that struck the backs of the siblings’ knees, forcing them down as well.

“At a time like this, there’s no need to fuss over such formalities,” the middle-aged man—Rongwen—said flatly.

“All of you, get up.

“Any questions you have, I’ll answer them along the way.”

He had the three of them rise and follow him through this “factory of flesh,” and he did indeed explain things to them as they walked.

“I am Rongwen. You may address me Clan Chief, just as Ah Yin does.

“As for this place, as you can see, it is a secondary processing plant specifically for handling ‘ascended specimens.’

“The so-called ‘ascended specimens’ are the things that survive the ‘Great Feathering.’ With sheer strength of will, they resist the temptation to burst apart. If you use insects as a metaphor, then it means they possess sturdier cocoons, and what is wrapped inside those cocoons is of higher quality as well.”

“So that’s why they need secondary processing?” Tao Sicheng cut in. “Those that explode after the injection are failed products, right? Then what do the finished products look like? What exactly are they pursuing?”

“What are they pursuing?”

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Rongwen stopped walking, swept his gaze over the area below, and raised a hand to point somewhere.

“See for yourself.”

Tao Sicheng turned her head and saw an open-air “workshop.” There, strapped to a metal bed frame, was a man with eight thin, bony arms. The joints of those arms looked like insect limbs, while his elongated horse-like face had rolled-back eyes showing only the whites. Another white-coated figure had hooked something into the back of his neck and was making a dragging motion above his head, as though pulling something out.

Then something utterly bizarre happened.

As the procedure continued, a crack silently split open atop the man’s head, and from that crack there was pulled a white, half-transparent humanoid figure that looked exactly like the man’s ghost.

This was clearly a successful attempt. The ghost was seized by the white-coated figure and sealed inside a metal canister. Once it was done, the surrounding people all crowded over, cheering and applauding the white coat with great enthusiasm.

“That is a ‘soul gu,’” Rongwen said.

“The world knows that Demon Pools are formed from the lingering obsessions of sapient beings after death, but the Feathering Sect believes this is not death, but new life. In their view, all Demon Pools can actually be regarded as entirely new lifeforms—they merely lack certain necessary guidance.”

“Clan Chief,” Rongyin said in a lowered voice, “why are you…”

“Why am I talking about all this?” Rongwen shook his head. “Hadn’t you already guessed?”

“In ancient times, what kind of fate befell tribes like the Li people once their totem was destroyed? I don’t need to emphasize that again, do I?”

“That our master is willing to shelter us is already an act of grace. And right now, the focus of our master’s plans lies with the Feathering Sect. We need not entertain thoughts of our own. As long as we carry out our master’s instructions properly, that is already the greatest form of service we can render.”

“Yes…” Rongyin lowered her head at once. “I understand…”

So Rongyin’s guess had been correct?

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Tao Sicheng was terrified.

Whether it was the Li people or the Feathering Sect, was there really another will behind them, manipulating them both?

Could it be Rongwen’s “master”?

No matter how fallen the Li people were, Rongwen was still the chief of an entire clan. Yet he had personally come to receive us… and was even giving Kangyuan and me these explanations. Was it because he valued our talent that much, or was there some other scheme behind it?

“You needn’t worry.”

Seeing the wariness in her eyes, Rongwen grinned.

“Although I don’t understand either why our master specifically named you and ordered that you be brought here, it does not look as though it will be a bad thing.”

So it really is about me.

Tao Sicheng frowned. That ominous premonition had finally been confirmed.

In terms of status, I’m nothing more than the orphaned daughter of a ruined family. There is nothing special about me at all.

So the cause must lie in that so-called Nine-Fusion Spirit Vein.

He says it’s not a bad thing… but who would dare guarantee something like that?

Grumbling inwardly, Tao Sicheng still decided she had to remain on the highest possible alert.