Chapter 384: Within the Great Curtain (Two-in-One)

Zeng Ru stared at the fragment, completely unable to stop imagining the consequences of the accident.

Just as she tried to calm down, the Information Component in her hand suddenly vibrated.

Buzz.

Zeng Ru stared at the number, took a deep breath, and answered.

"How is it?"

She tried to keep her voice steady.

But the response from the other end sent her heart plummeting to rock bottom.

"Reporting to Director Zeng, we tracked Director Su's trail to the roof of an abandoned building in the Anthill. Our tests confirm a massive surge of weird energy occurred there. It is highly likely a battle took place."

"Furthermore, after our technicians analyzed the combat traces, it seems Director Su was subjected to a high-temperature, high-pressure, explosive event. Judging from the impact marks and the shifting center of the weird energy, this event was most likely... self-detonation."

"Additionally, we recovered a fragment at the scene suspected to be a component from Director Su's Mechanical body."

"..."

"Director Zeng, are you still there? Hello, Director Zeng—" Beep beep beep.

Zeng Ru hung up the Information Component.

She stared blankly at the documents on her desk. Her vision had already blurred, and her mind was spiraling into the abyss.

What was she going to do now...

The company had a total of only twenty-four Sixth Tiers. Each one had cost Nuochen Biotech over 100 million eerie points (roughly equivalent to nearly 10 billion surface coins). More importantly, these Sixth Tiers were the fruit of hundreds of years of painstaking accumulation, the lifeblood of the corporation.

Excluding the executives and direct members of the Zeng Family, only eight of those Sixth Tiers served purely as bodyguards.

Nuochen Biotech had reached its current standing precisely through this relentless accumulation.

And now, Su Hong was dead.

A Sixth Tier barely over a hundred years old, right in his prime.

One of those eight bodyguards was gone, and she was finished.

With the Stars System, and the tracking and analysis authorized directly by her, Su Hong's death would immediately be traced back to her.

Coupled with their previous losses...

There was no way she could maintain her position as executive director.

As she sat there in a daze, another call suddenly came in from an unblocked number.

She glanced at the number and considered hanging up, but after a moment of hesitation, she answered.

A man's flippant voice came through the line:

"Hello? The beautiful Miss Zeng."

"What do you want?"

Zeng Ru pursed her lips, her eyes filled with resentment. For this man to call her right now, there could only be one reason: he wanted to mock her.

"Nothing much. I was just wondering... I heard you took a nasty tumble recently, and... I also heard you lost a Sixth Tier?"

"You planted a mole in Nuochen Biotech?"

Her gaze turned razor-sharp. The report had only just reached her desk, yet it had been simultaneously transmitted to Song Qian. Clearly, there was a traitor among her subordinates.

"Bingo!"

Song Qian's lips curled into a smirk.

"Impressive, my beautiful Miss Zeng. As expected of the successor Mr. Zeng handpicked for Nuochen Biotech. Oh, wait, my mistake—I should say, the former successor."

"You!"

Zeng Ru glared fiercely, but a moment later she deflated, swallowing the threat she had been about to make.

She knew why he was willing to expose his mole right now. Song Qian was certain she had no capital left to turn the tables. She was about to be stripped of her position; she was no longer on his level.

"..."

After a brief silence, Zeng Ru spoke:

"Song Qian... help me out."

"Help you?"

Song Qian's tone was playful.

"That doesn't sound like something our beautiful Miss Zeng would say. Shouldn't you be wanting to kill me right now?"

"..."

Zeng Ru fell silent for another few seconds before saying, "Even if I'm stripped of my position, in my father's generation, only Seventh Brother and Eldest Brother can barely hold the fort. No matter what happens, the rest of them will never surpass me."

"As for Eldest Brother and Seventh Brother... one has mediocre talent and relies solely on his marriage into the Chen Family to maintain his standing, while the other is too extreme and even more ruthless than I am. Just because I'm stepping down now doesn't mean I can't climb back up."

Song Qian smiled faintly.

"And your point is? Beautiful Miss Zeng, what use is there in telling me about the Zeng Family's internal affairs?"

"I don't think I can help you, nor do I have any reason to."

"No, you can." Zeng Ru pursed her lips, her eyes hardening with resolve. "Let's get married. How about it?"

"..."

"..."

Song Qian froze for several seconds before bursting into laughter.

"Hahaha, Zeng Ru, you really are crazy! When it comes to acting insane, I don't think you're any worse than your seventh brother!"

He was laughing so hard that tears welled up in his eyes. He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and grinned.

"But it's definitely something to consider. Tell you what—just wait for my notice!"

"..."

"..."

With that, Song Qian hung up the phone.

Zeng Ru stared at the disconnected Information Component, her face cycling between pale and flushed.

Wait for his notice!

That was a line used when interviewing entry-level employees. For Song Qian to say it to her was a blatant slap in the face!

Yet, she had no choice but to take it.

If she wanted to turn the tables, a marriage alliance with Song Qian was the most direct and effective method.

The head of the Song Wang Group was in poor health. Although he was a Smart Seed and had preserved his bodily fluids in advance, rumor had it he suffered from a strange disease. Even with his fluids preserved via vacuum-freezing technology, the survival rate of his seed continued to plummet.

This resulted in the current generation of the Song Wang Group only having five children.

Out of those five, Song Haozhe was a notorious piece of trash who loved causing trouble, and he had long been removed from the list of candidates for the next successor.

The fourth child had already died during the infighting among the brothers other than Song Haozhe.

Though publicly deemed an "accident," anyone with eyes knew he had been assassinated.

Among the remaining three, the eldest brother got terrified after seeing the fourth brother's fate and chose to voluntarily bow out, completely ignoring family affairs.

That left only the second brother still actively warring against the third brother, Song Qian.

But he wouldn't be able to hold out much longer.

Song Qian was ruthless, yet he knew when to advance and retreat. That alone was rare, but more importantly, he possessed a trait most conglomerate heirs lacked:

His own personal strength was high.

Though barely in his thirties, he had already undergone twenty-four mechanical augmentations. It was said he was only three modifications away from advancing to the Sixth Tier.

Such a Sixth Tier was completely different from the bodyguards who were Sixth Tiers.

First was the ascension process. Whether they were Smart Seeds or bionic species, most bodyguards relied on force-feeding and throwing money at the problem to ascend. Song Qian, on the other hand, hired the very best mechanical tuners and combat instructors, and used the best equipment.

Second was the difference in status. These bodyguards signed contracts with the company and had various limiters installed inside their bodies prior to ascension to prevent betrayal. In other words, if Song Qian were to fight one of the corporate Sixth Tiers, the other party wouldn't even be able to fight back.

Because of this, Song Qian was incredibly highly regarded by the head of the Song Wang Group. If she could forge a marriage alliance with him, she would absolutely be able to turn the tables.

Just as she clung to this last shred of hope...

Suddenly—

Her Information Component rang again.

This time, it was an unknown number.

Initially, she didn't want to answer it, but a bad premonition echoed in her heart. Ultimately, driven by some inexplicable impulse, she picked up the call.

From the other end came a voice she found both familiar and unfamiliar—a raspy, drake-like voice.

"Hello? Is this Director Zeng?"

"Who are you?" Zeng Ru asked warily. Very few people had her private number.

She never expected that such a conservative question would immediately earn her a mouthful of venom:

"Who gives a shit who this master is!"

Before she could even react, the man on the other end laughed viciously:

"Heh, Zeng Ru, you dared lay hands on my people, so I fucking wrecked you! You hear me? You were exactly the target! You idiot!!!"

With that, the line directly went dead.

Zeng Ru stared blankly at the Information Component, absolutely unable to believe she had just been cursed out like that.

"Motherfucker..."

Before her rage could even flare up, another call suddenly came in. This time, it was on the public Information Component next to her.

It should be about work.

She took a deep breath and picked it up.

"What is it?"

"Director Zeng, it's a disaster!"

Her secretary's panicked voice came from the receiver:

"Someone secretly filmed our company! And... and... I'm sending you the link right now!"

Normally, if her subordinates were this panicked and reported so incoherently, Zeng Ru would have been screaming at them. But today was different. Making an exception, she suppressed her temper and clicked the link her subordinate sent.

But the moment she looked at it, a cold sweat broke out across her skin.

"Speak!!!"

In the video, a few people wearing Nuochen Biotech uniforms were interrogating several heavily bound captives.

The leader among them violently slapped the face of a man dressed like a cameraman.

"Talk! Tell me where that artificial human went!"

"I... I don't know..."

The man's eyes were glassy and unfocused; it was obvious his state wasn't right.

"Motherfucker!"

The leader ruthlessly slapped the man again, then barked viciously at the lackeys beside him:

"The drug dosage isn't high enough. Give him a few more shots—"

The men nodded and immediately pulled out a syringe.

Emblazoned clearly on the syringe was the Nuochen Biotech logo, along with the label: Truth Serum Type 466.

Clatter—

Before the video even finished, Zeng Ru's arm fell heavily against the desk, her face devoid of color.

It was over...

Truly over...

Who did this? Just who the hell did this?

The scandal of the footage leaking was a minor issue. At worst, she could just eliminate the personnel involved to silence them. But if the mole who filmed this couldn't be rooted out, the situation would be far more severe than her current losses!

Not only that—

Right then, her subordinate sent over another link.

Zeng Ru opened the video. She watched as the fake "Luo Wei" in the clip recounted the story of her artificial creation... Her heart trembled madly, bleeding.

She was finished...

Terrified, her body went completely limp, and she slumped right out of her chair. Meanwhile, Yan Jing remained entirely oblivious to all this.

The phone call from Mao Si was merely a simple command he had issued to that body in advance.

Right now, he was standing in a pitch-black space.

The exact moment he brought the Piano into this space...

The great curtain lit up once again.

Within the Great Curtain, the nine massive stars were still rotating. In the distance, thousands of eerie territories were divided by the starlight, their landscapes fading in and out of view.

Compared to the last time, the figures Within the Great Curtain seemed to have grown a bit brighter.

In what was originally a purely black world, more and more colors were beginning to take shape. He could even make out the rough outlines of certain figures.

For instance, he had previously noticed some colorful silk ribbons and guessed they might be draped around a graceful holy maiden. Now, however, he could see they were actually coiled around a ridiculously muscular giant. He could even vaguely make out the brute's bare chest.

Then there was a dragon robe. Yan Jing had noticed it before and originally assumed it belonged to some supreme being—an entity radiating majestic divine authority, or at least the aura of a world-conquering emperor. But looking at it now, it was actually being worn by a young child.

Furthermore... Yan Jing vaguely sensed that there were quite a few more figures present than last time.

Seeing Yan Jing appear, the figures Within the Great Curtain instantly erupted into a frenzy.

"He's here! He's finally here!"

"Is it him? Is he the one who brought the item that let that guy out? He doesn't look all that special..."

"That's him! This kid always brings good stuff!"

"Can you newcomers just piss off?! I'm warning you, if you drag any more people in here, I'm going to cleave you with my axe!"

"We stayed here using our own skills! You've got quite the nerve; if you have the ability, then try kicking us out!"

"Shut up! Everyone shut up! Let's see what good stuff the kid brought this time!"

"Yeah! Keep quiet!"

Even though some tried to put a stop to it, the crowd of figures continued bickering noisily.

Right at that moment, a figure Yan Jing hadn't seen before spoke up.

"Quiet."

Yan Jing didn't know this person's identity, but the moment that single word was spoken, the entire crowd actually fell silent.

He couldn't help but take an extra glance at her. She appeared to be a woman with a graceful figure, surrounded by translucent Crystals, sitting cross-legged on what looked like a boulder high above.

Seeing the crowd quiet down, Yan Jing began his routine. He dragged the Piano right in front of the great curtain, muttering under his breath.

"Sigh... It's getting harder and harder to get my hands on good stuff. I'm just too weak. I practically had to put my life on the line to snatch this one back."

"If only I were just a little bit stronger..."

"Next time, I'd definitely be able to bring something even better."

Within the Great Curtain, some figures began to whisper.

"Has this guy always been this shameless?"

"In what universe is he weak? He feels even stronger than the golden generation from our era."

"Indeed. Even the emperors of our time wouldn't have surpassed him in their youth."

"Shh... Just let him do his thing. He's always like this."

Yan Jing pretended not to hear them. Once he finished positioning the item, he crushed the Ritual Blessing Coupon and sprinkled it over the top, then stepped back. As a bell tolled, he closed his eyes.

Only then did the figures Within the Great Curtain cast their gaze onto the Piano.

This time was different from the previous instances. For the first time, the vast majority of the figures took one look and immediately averted their eyes.

"It's a good treasure... but it's been polluted."

"I'm already heavily polluted as it is. If it were a weaker item, I could manage it, but... this thing isn't weak." "Same here... As that kid grows stronger, the items he brings in get stronger too. It's not easy to handle..."

"Sigh. If only he had brought back an unpolluted item. Perhaps the kid is right—he isn't strong enough, so this is all he can snatch."

However, a few figures still spoke up with delight:

"Might be worth a shot. After absorbing this thing, we might be able to get out."

"Agreed. It's a tiny bit worse than the item from last time, but given all my preparations over the years, it should be enough."

"It's just that the curse is going to be a bit troublesome..."

"Yeah, I'm hesitating too. If we touch it directly, it could spell trouble."

And so, the crowd began debating whether one person should absorb it, or if they should split it.

If a single person consumed it, they might be able to get out directly, but they would also have to shoulder a massive amount of the curse.

Yet if they divided it among the group, the efficacy wouldn't be enough, and they would bear the curse for nothing.

As a result, not a single person wanted to go with the splitting option.

Just as they hit a stalemate, the tiny figure wearing the dragon robe, who had been standing quietly to the side, suddenly spoke up.

"We shall take it."