Chapter 23: Wilderness Escape

“I-I’m sorry, Lord Diris.”

Before Diris, one of Johnson’s deputy guards was drenched in cold sweat and offered a feeble explanation.

“It was 416! That scum 416 was just too cunning. Somehow, he suddenly awakened and faked being unconscious. During the experiment, he took the doctor hostage, and we had no choice…”

Squelch.

Before he could finish, a slender, power ful finger shot out like lightning and directly pierced through his forehead.

It was actually a single finger, piercing through the hard skull and stabbing deep into his brain!

All expression in the guard’s eyes froze, and then with a thud, he slowly collapsed to the ground.

This scene instantly made all the guards in the hall turn pale, their bodies trembling, too terrified to even make a sound.

“But you allowed her to be harmed…”

Diris slowly withdrew his finger, took a silk handkerchief from his military uniform pocket, and slowly wiped the blood and brain matter from his finger. His voice was low and hoarse.

“Do you know that to me, the lives of everyone in this entire base combined are not as important as hers? Therefore, I refuse any excuses.”

The bloody and cruel scene had just happened right before their eyes, yet the guards still dared not look up, keeping their heads buried tightly against their chests. Even though every single one of them was terrified to the extreme, they still stood obediently in place, not daring to make the slightest unusual movement.

They had chased wildly through the underground caverns and finally reached the exit. They immediately discovered many prisoners on the rock wall. But they were already half a step too late; at that time, the vast majority of the prisoners had already climbed up the rock wall. After they fired a round, only four prisoners who were still struggling to climb the rock wall were shot down and fell directly to their deaths.

The other prisoners, led by Lin Kun, realized the situation was dire and immediately fled. These guards, looking at the towering and steep rock wall, could only sigh in despair. Even more importantly, Johnson, who had pursued ahead of them, had gone missing. No matter how they called him on the walkie-talkie, there was no response. Without anyone to lead and command, the guards scrambled like headless flies. In the end, they failed to capture a single survivor.

“416…”

No longer paying attention to the trembling guards in the hall, a twisted smile appeared on Diris’s handsome face. He then turned and walked toward the operating room in the Experiment Area.

The guards felt a slight relief in their hearts, their backs already soaked with cold sweat.

Although Diris showed no furious emotions, in the eyes of all the guards, his entire being was like a volcano about to erupt, a demon about to crawl out of the abyss, bringing unparalleled pressure and a sense of danger to their souls.

Arriving alone at the door of the operating room, Diris stood indifferently, waiting quietly.

As an experimental base for researching human potential, their research staff naturally included highly skilled surgeons, and Katherine was still undergoing emergency treatment even now.

This was also one of the reasons he stayed at the base and did not immediately go out to chase the prisoners.

On the other hand, the situation in the wilderness was too dangerous and complex. Two to three hours had already passed from his return to the time the prisoners escaped. Without the cooperation of Awakeners with tracking abilities, catching these prisoners in the perilous wilderness was undoubtedly extremely difficult.

In fact, without needing to be hunted, these prisoners without weapons or food might have already died in the wilderness.

As a powerful Transcendent who had unlocked the Gene Lock, Diris naturally knew how to control his emotions. Before Katherine’s surgery was over and she was out of danger, he temporarily suppressed all his surging, tidal desires for violence and destruction.

Click.

Half an hour later, during Diris’s quiet wait, the door of the operating room opened. Katherine, her face pale, with thick bandages wrapped around her neck, shoulders, and knees, was pushed out on a hospital bed.

“Lord Diris, Dr. Katherine’s vital signs are stable. She is out of danger!”

A white doctor covered in blood urgently shouted to Diris.

“What an astonishing vitality!”

Staring at Katherine’s pale but beautiful face, Diris let out a long breath, and his tightly clenched fists slowly relaxed.

He of course knew that Katherine was also an Awakener whose life energy level surpassed the limits of ordinary people. Her vitality was incomparable to that of a normal person. But it was only upon truly receiving this news that he sighed in relief.

Watching Katherine’s hospital bed being pushed away, Diris asked, “Can I go see her now?”

“Yes. But Lord Diris, there is another situation I’m afraid I must explain to you.”

The physician hesitated for a moment, then continued.

“Dr. Katherine… Although her powerful vitality allowed her to survive, because her trachea was severed, it caused prolonged oxygen deprivation to her brain. This has caused irreversible damage to her brain. We cannot determine when she will regain consciousness. It could be ten days to half a month, three to five years, or perhaps a lifetime. Please prepare yourself mentally.”

Diris’s steps halted, and his voice was terribly low.

“I understand…”

Katherine was pushed out of the operating room and transferred to a quiet room. All the medical staff withdrew.

Before the hospital bed, only Diris’s tall, straight figure stood there.

He reached out a rough, large hand and gently stroked Katherine’s unresponsive face.

“I won’t let you leave me, my love.”

Diris spoke softly, his tone gentle yet revealing a sort of morbid madness.

“I have felt all your pain and helplessness. No one involved in this matter will escape.”

“I will do everything in my power to keep you by my side.”

“No matter… in what form.”

…

Within a lush, vine-entwined rainforest filled with bizarre, grotesque plants, a figure ran madly like a sharp arrow leaving the bowstring.

“Huff, huff, huff…”

His chest heaved like a bellows, and the icy wind blasted against his face. At this moment, Chen Chong naturally had no idea what had happened at the base. His blood was boiling, his mind was completely blank, and he had only one thought.

Run!

“Roar!”

A terrifying, chilling roar followed closely from not far behind. Then, the sound of trees cracking and breaking rang out continuously. A horrifying, ferocious alien monster, over three meters tall with a hideous face and ghastly fangs, violently smashed through trees one after another. It burst out like a demon from hell, closely tailing the desperately fleeing Chen Chong!

The muscles of this huge, unknown alien creature twisted like pythons, unbelievably powerful and robust. It sprinted in pursuit like a werewolf, its pair of razor-sharp claws half a meter long. Most of the trees blocking its path were easily sliced apart, leaving no doubt that any flesh and blood body under this monster’s claws would be torn to pieces!