Thump!
In the deathly silent darkness, the sound of a reviving heart began to beat—only a faint trace, barely perceptible.
"Where... is this..."
As his consciousness returned, Shouye found himself still immersed in liquid.
Only, unlike the frigid currents of the deep sea, the fluid swirling around him was exceedingly warm and rich with energy. Like the swaddling clothes of childhood, it gave him a profound sense of security.
"Creak—"
Beyond the darkness, a door seemed to have been pushed open.
A sliver of light shone in, and soon after, the door slammed shut with a bang.
Yet through the precision instrument holding the immersion fluid, Shouye vaguely saw two blurred figures standing by the distant doorway when the light had come on.
"How is it?" The voice was exceedingly calm, yet for some reason, the calm in the speaker's words carried an overwhelming sorrow.
Soaking in the fluid, Shouye's heartbeat began to accelerate. His sorrow was beginning to leak out; he could even feel tears inexplicably about to spill from his eyes.
"It failed, Lord Bei Huai...
"Three hundred and sixty-five Ghost Beast Feeders—all of them ended in failure. For this first batch of trial subjects, we had clearly selected the finest candidates.
"There were powerful body cultivators, ancient sword cultivators with astonishing comprehension, and even an exceedingly rare dark attribute. Yet without exception, every last one died beneath the power of the Ghost Beasts."
The person answering was clearly of far lower status.
Shouye vaguely remembered that voice. It seemed to belong to the... experimenter in this dark laboratory?
Yet he could tell that even this powerful experimenter had begun sobbing as he spoke. In the end, he kept apologizing. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Lord Bei Huai! This is obviously all my fault. If I had worked a