The Girl in the Blood Pool

"Hey? What are you doing here?"

Mira, holding a giant tentacle demon in one hand, looked at Chiba at the end of the passage, paused, and said.

Chiba: "???"

"Chiba, we were just about to rescue you. We didn't expect you to escape on your own." Seeing the boy at the entrance of the passage, Ailong had some wounds on his body, smiled slightly.

Lixi said, "Thanks to Miss Mirajane, we were saved."

What's going on? I came here to save you, why are you trying to save me instead?

Mira threw the tentacle demon away with one hand, then quickly ran to Chiba's side and looked him over.

"What's wrong? Don't you recognize me?" Chiba asked with a smile.

Mira looked at him. "I'm afraid you've been dismembered. I want to see if you're missing any limbs."

Chiba: "..."

He roughly ruffled the girl's hair, then looked at Ailong and the others, saying, "I've been discovered, so I released two floors of prisoners. It's chaos outside. Let's escape quickly while the chaos is still there."

"We found a secret passage deep inside the lab, it seems to lead even further in, should we go in and take a look?" Mira smoothed her hair, which had been ruffled by Chiba, her little face showing a hint of excitement.

"It might lead to the outside. It's so chaotic outside right now, it would be troublesome if we were discovered. The people here aren't pushovers." Ailong had obviously fought with the people in the lab, so he didn't really want to go out from the outside.

Of course, his concerns were valid. If they were discovered by the patrol, they would likely be caught in a fierce battle. Moreover, this was the enemy's base camp, and reinforcements would arrive very quickly. They might end up being captured again.

"Alright, let's take the route you suggested." Chiba didn't want to hesitate any longer.

"Okay! I'll lead the way!" Mira took the lead and walked forward.

The four followed closely behind.

The passage was a downward-sloping, winding staircase. After walking for about half an hour, or rather, after turning around for half an hour, Chiba felt that the path was like a bottomless pit.

"We're almost there..." Mira sensed a peculiar presence and narrowed her beautiful eyes.

Soon they came to a wall.

Chiba used Rasengan to blast open the wall, then stepped inside.

Inside, there is another world.

It was a space much larger than the previous laboratory, but compared to the vast amount of equipment inside, the few instruments here appeared remarkably clean and tidy.

In the very center was a square pool of blood, about three or four meters on each side. Fresh blood churned in the pool, and a pungent smell of blood filled the air, piercing everyone's nostrils.

In the center of the blood pool, there was a black-haired girl who looked about fourteen or fifteen years old. The girl was completely naked and curled up in the machine, her skin pure and white.

Chiba touched his nose, and after confirming that he wasn't bleeding, he gasped.

"Hiss..."

Chiba was certain that this was not the sound he had made.

He glanced behind him; Ailong and Koi were staring blankly at the girl in the pool of blood, their eyes fixed on her.

Damn! Two sleazy young men.

"What are you looking at?!" Lixi puffed out her cheeks and covered Ailong's eyes with her hands.

Chiba was slightly surprised. He only knew that Koi called Ailong" Big Brother," but he didn't know about Lixi's relationship with them.

I suppose Lixi is probably Ailong's partner.

"Ahem! No... nothing, I was just a little curious why there's a blood pool here..." Ailong scratched his head awkwardly.

Lixi stared at him with her beautiful eyes, then suddenly snorted and went off sulking.

Ailong had no choice but to coax her.

Chiba suddenly felt a chill run down her spine...

"What were you looking at just now?" Mira turned around and looked at her with a smile.

Chiba thought for a moment, then said seriously, "Look at the moon."

Koi couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Mira sneered, "So, you can't even come up with an excuse to fob me off?"

"Can you not slap me in the face?" Chiba asked, trembling.

"What do you think?" Mira had already raised her fist.

"Bang! Bang!"

"I think it's very unusual for a girl like this to suddenly appear here." The bruised and swollen man stood in front of the blood pool and said seriously, "She is very likely one of their very important experimental subjects."

"Pfft..." Lixi couldn't help but laugh at his pontificating manner.

"Serious! Serious! I'm talking about a very serious topic," Chiba tried to save face.

"I'm... I'm sorry, I promise I won't laugh again, unless..."

"Unless what?"

"Unless you really can't help it..."

"..."

Well, I've completely lost face in front of these three.

"Enough with the nonsense, why don't we just go up and see for ourselves?" Mira glanced at Chiba, seemingly threateningly, and said, "Of course, I'm the one going up, not you. If you dare to look around again, I'll beat you up again."

Chiba trembled.

Mira then Take Over into Satan Soul Form, flapping her wings and flying towards the blood pool.

She approached the machine, which contained a light green nutrient solution. However, from the outside, the girl's face appeared extremely haggard, as pale as a sheet of paper. Numerous tubes were inserted into her body, leading to the outside; it was unclear what they were used to administer.

Suddenly, the girl in the machine gently opened her eyes, and when she met Mira's gaze, her lips moved slightly.

Mira clearly saw it: she was saying, "Save me."

But she didn't know how to save her. Break the device? But she looked so weak; what if she died?

Seemingly aware of Mira's difficulty, the girl moved her lips slightly again.

Pull out the tube and break the device.

That short sentence seemed to have exhausted all her strength. She slowly closed her eyes again, as if she had fainted.

Mira then flew around and pulled out all the tubes from the outside of the device. To prevent the device from falling into the blood pool, she held the instrument in one hand and flew out of the blood pool with it.

Mira reached the group, placed the device down, and then shattered the glass with her claw, allowing the nutrient solution inside to slowly flow out. Lixi quickly embraced the delicate girl.

The girl had her eyes closed, and seemed to have truly fainted.

Ailong took off his black coat, turned his head away, not daring to look at the girl, waved the coat in his hand, and handed it to Mira, saying, "Wrap yourself up first."

"Um!"

Mira took the black coat. Actually, Ailong's coat was quite large, somewhat like a cape, and it was more than enough to cover the girl.

But after Mira wrapped the girl in the clothes, she strangely discovered that the girl's originally pale face had regained some color.

"Who are you people?! You... you actually released the 'core'?!"

At that moment, a sharp, youthful voice reached everyone's ears.

At the entrance of a passageway opposite them, a tall young man in a white coat was pointing at them, his eyes wide open as if he had seen a ghost.