Only Lin Xiaosu remained where he was.
With the gun in his hand and the Heavenly Dao Insightful Eye, he shot down every unpredictable threat around them.
This was the only option available.
His physical skills were his weakness.
He could not even jump across a ditch five meters wide.
The moment he moved, he would expose that weakness and give the enemy an opening. So his best tactic was to stay on the hillside, monitor the entire battlefield, and shoot anyone who showed themselves.
Ten minutes!
A full ten minutes.
Number 88 let out a long howl, slashed down the formidable enemy who had been tangled up with him for a long time, and reached the cabin in a single step.
Chang Ye pointed a finger into the air. There had been no one ahead when she extended it, yet just as her finger reached its target, a figure appeared. The figure swung a blade at Chang Ye's finger.
Though Chang Ye's finger had caught the target's position, it seemed to carry no real killing power. Yet with a flick of her nail, a faint wisp of mist drifted out.
That formidable enemy collapsed.
Poison!
This was her greatest specialty!
Lin Xiaosu saw everything clearly and felt deeply moved.
The bamboo grove suddenly shook. Xinyue rose with the bamboo, flew over the roof, and landed before the cabin, her face brimming with pride. "Instructor, I took out seven people! One hundred points each—that's seven hundred points just from that alone. My total score is secured!"
Her gaze shifted, and she spotted Lin Xiaosu on the distant hillside. She became even more delighted. "Lin Xiaose, you're still standing there? Even if you're a turtle, you should at least crawl to the edge of the ditch..."
Whoosh!
Chang Ye rose into the air and shot toward Lin Xiaosu.
Number 88 turned and entered the cabin behind him.
Chang Ye arrived before Lin Xiaosu. "Come, I'll take you over!"
She reached out and grabbed Lin Xiaosu's hand. The next moment, they crossed the ditch ahead and arrived before the cabin. Throughout the entire journey, Lin Xiaosu felt as though his feet had never touched the ground.
They entered the cabin together.
From the outside, the cabin was no different from an ordinary rural house. But it had to be different, because the strongest elderly woman among the enemies had guarded this cabin the entire time.
Once they entered, they passed through the front room, middle room, and back room, all no different from an old countryside house. Then they saw what was different. At the point where the house connected to the mountain, a cabinet had turned over, revealing a door behind it.
The door was already open.
After entering the inner room, the scene changed completely.
It was clean and orderly, like a modern control room.
A long row of machines flashed with red and green lights.
At the center was a computer. A middle-aged man lay face-down before it. In front of the computer, Xinyue was drenched in sweat, both hands moving so fast they blurred as they danced across the keyboard...
Rows of code flashed upward across the monitor like lightning.
Between the lines of code was a demonic face formed by two crossed skeletons.
The demon even let out a chilling laugh.
Amid that laughter, a percentage indicator appeared on the screen: 93%, 94%...
It jumped roughly once every five seconds...
"Hydra's symbol!" Chang Ye's heart lurched. "They're destroying the computer data! Xinyue, hurry..."
Xinyue's speed visibly increased, but the destruction percentage continued relentlessly toward 100%.
The veins on Number 88's forehead bulged as well...
He knew how important the research data inside was. But the moment they broke into this secret room, the enemy had activated the self-destruct program.
Only six percentage points remained—half a minute!
Could half a minute really solve this problem?
Could they leave Hydra's research data from this secret stronghold for Hidden Dragon?
In an instant, the percentage reached 96%, then 97%!
"Too late! Withdraw!" Number 88 ordered in a low voice.
Once the computer's self-destruct program activated, it would not merely destroy the computer storage. Going by Hydra's usual methods, it would destroy the entire base as well.
Fifteen seconds was only enough for them to escape.
Chang Ye suddenly reached for Lin Xiaosu beside her. This seemed to have become her instinct—in a crisis, she protected him first.
Yet she grabbed empty air.
At some point, Lin Xiaosu had already reached the wall on the left.
This place would explode in another dozen seconds.
There was no time to waste!
Chang Ye pushed off with her toes and crossed ten meters of space...
At the same time, Lin Xiaosu slid his hand across the wall...
Click!
Another door opened beneath his hand.
Number 88's eyes lit up.
"Come!" Lin Xiaosu shouted and jumped down.
Whoosh!
Three figures leaped down almost at the same time.
The stone slab above them closed.
With a thunderous boom, the earth shook and the mountains trembled. The control room above was torn apart completely. Countless rocks and sand poured down, carrying a terrifying blast wave that swept all four of them up and hurled them toward the stone wall behind them.
Just as Lin Xiaosu was helplessly about to crash into the stone wall.
A figure appeared behind him, reached out, and wrapped her arms around him. With a turn, she pressed him against the stone wall.
Lin Xiaosu felt soft warmth in his arms.
Chang Ye!
Amid the explosion's shockwave, Chang Ye used her body as a shield to protect him!
That impact caused a terrifying complication: Lin Xiaosu's lips brushed against her flying hair.
The moment they touched it, Lin Xiaosu felt as though his lips no longer belonged to him.
Neither did the rest of his body.
A moment ago, he had still been experiencing the unique pleasure of soft warmth in his arms. The next moment, all five senses left him. Even the silver fish in his mind seemed to have sunk into a mire, slowly losing itself.
Poison?
She was the Poisonous Person. Had he been poisoned to death by her?
Did it have to be this ironic?
Perhaps this was the last trace of Lin Xiaosu's consciousness...
The next moment, sensation slowly returned to his lips. He felt a pill in his mouth. Centered around that pill, his nerves seemed to slowly awaken.
At last, the silver fish of his consciousness broke free from the mire and returned.
He could move his entire body again.
The dust around them gradually settled. Chang Ye's bright eyes looked at him through the darkness. "Are you alright?"
"I don't think I'm hurt."
Chang Ye let out a long breath. "If you're fine, walk around a little. Number 88 and Xinyue probably found something new."
They walked side by side through a natural cavern, where light shone from ahead.
It was the hazy glow emitted by Number 88's Hidden Dragon uniform. Beneath that dim light lay a person sprawled on the ground, dressed in a diving suit.
"Another enemy?" Chang Ye swept her gaze around. This was a cave that could be seen through at a glance. There were many boxes, but they were relatively small, with nowhere for anyone to hide.
"This is probably the last one!" Number 88 pointed at the person on the ground. "When the explosion above went off, he tried to run. I kept him here!"
"It was 'we'! 'We' kept him here, Instructor!" Xinyue called out, heavily emphasizing the word "we," afraid that her contribution would be erased.
"This is where they stored all kinds of specimens?"
"Yes!" Number 88 said. "We opened and checked four boxes. They were all genetic samples. I have to admit, Comrade Xiaosu deserves the greatest credit!"
There had only been a dozen or so seconds left before the massive explosion. By standard procedure, they should have fled the control room.
They should have run as far as they could.
If they had truly fled, the control room would have exploded, and the specimen room below would have been completely buried beneath the rubble. No one would have imagined that specimens as valuable as the research data lay underneath.
But Lin Xiaosu had thought of it.
And under such extreme urgency, he had opened the hidden door, allowing them to obtain the most valuable target of this operation.
Xinyue pouted in the darkness, deeply displeased. She wanted to highlight herself and belittle Lin Xiaose, but how could she? She actually admired the bastard quite a bit. She simply could not bring herself to say anything against her heart...
Chang Ye said, "Since this person tried to run, he must have been carrying the most important sample. Did you check his personal bag?"
"I was just about to!" Number 88's hand reached for the man's diving suit.
"Wait!" Lin Xiaosu said.
Everyone turned to look at him.
Lin Xiaosu said, "The most important sample may be very unusual. Be careful. If there's some living creature inside, you need to be ready to react at any time."
He was the only person present who knew that one of the samples could not be judged by ordinary standards: the white snake.
He had been tracking that white snake all along.
After Number 325 subdued the white snake, these people had taken it away.
Then they had brought it to this specimen room. It was now on the person before them.
If that white snake suddenly attacked, even Number 88 would be in for a hard time.
Even if it could not kill Number 88, if it escaped and slipped into some crack in the rocks, it would still be a tremendous loss. After all, Number 325 had practically traded his life for that white snake.
Number 88 looked deeply at him. "Step back!"
Chang Ye and Lin Xiaosu stepped back.
Xinyue was full of indignation. "It's just a specimen. You make it sound so terrifying. I'm starting to doubt whether you have any professional knowledge at all..."
Despite saying that, she still stepped back.
Because Number 88 had given the order.
She could act however she wanted before Lin Xiaosu, but she would never dare disobey Number 88's orders.
Because her lifeline was firmly in Number 88's hands.
Number 88 carefully opened the man's diving suit. Inside the storage pouch was only one thing: a metal cylinder.
Holding the metal cylinder, Number 88 slowly opened it as if dismantling a bomb. A cloud of white vapor emerged from within. The moment it came out, the temperature in the cave seemed to drop by several degrees. Inside lay a frozen white snake and a bunch of grapes.
The white snake did not move. It seemed dead, yet also seemed to be hibernating.
Chang Ye lightly touched the white snake with a finger, frowning slightly. "Its scales are unbelievably hard, and their structure is extremely unusual. If all of its scales opened, its crawling speed would be unimaginable."
"That's why it needs a specialized specimen bottle made from G95 material!" Number 88 placed the snake and the grapes back into the bottle, preparing to screw the cap on.
"Wait!" Chang Ye said. "Don't put this together with the snake."
Number 88 opened the bottle again, took out the bunch of grapes, and screwed the cap back on.
"What are these grapes?"
"These aren't grapes. They're Green Orchid flower seeds that Number 325 took from the bud of that mutated Green Orchid. They're his spoils of war." Chang Ye reached out and picked them up. "I'll bring them back and study them."
She was a grandmaster of plant research.
Even within the entire Hidden Dragon team, she ranked among the top three.
Therefore, plant research was part of her actual duty.
Chang Ye took out a bottle that looked similar to the first one but was much smaller, and placed the bunch of grapes inside.
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