The sudden throb deep in his right leg, like a venomous snake awakening, drained the last trace of color from Lin Xiao's already pale face! Cold sweat instantly soaked through the bandages on his back. He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, forcing down the muffled groan that nearly escaped with the sharp pain and metallic taste of blood.
Warning! An abnormally high-activity exotic energy intrusion detected! Unknown resonance detected with the core marker of "Viper's Kiss" toxin! The Source Energy core is under impact! Stability decreased by 0.01%!
In his mind, the dusky-blue light screen flickered violently. The black cracks along its edges seemed to have spread a little farther, while the core's throbbing became erratic and frantic!
Qin Bing's cold, keen gaze was like the most precise radar, instantly catching the drastic change in Lin Xiao's complexion and the momentary contraction of his pupils! Her fingertip, resting on the tablet, paused slightly. A trace of extremely faint suspicion flashed across her frostlike face. This reaction... far exceeded the fear of being "paralyzed"! It seemed more like... a stress response touching some deeper, core secret!
"You..." Qin Bing had just begun, trying to question him further.
Harsh! Piercing! Like fingernails scraping across a metal plate, an alarm suddenly exploded throughout the safe house without warning!
"Woooo—woooo—woooo—!"
Red lights flashed madly! The originally stark, frigid room was instantly dyed an ominous shade of blood red!
The special communicator on Qin Bing's wrist simultaneously burst into dazzling red light and urgent beeps! A cold electronic voice quickly rang out:
Level-One Alert! A high-intensity energy burst has been detected on the outskirts of D-7 District! Energy signature: World-Erosion Contamination! Threat level: A! Number of targets: 2! Approaching at high speed! Nearby combat units, proceed immediately to intercept! Repeat...
Qin Bing's face instantly turned as grim as iron! She whipped her head toward Lin Xiao, her gaze so sharp it seemed almost capable of piercing straight through him! World-Erosion Contamination? The targets were heading straight for the safe house's perimeter? Was it a coincidence? Or... had they come for this student shrouded in mysteries?
"Stay here! Don't move! And don't even think about moving!" Qin Bing's voice was laced with ice shards, carrying an unquestionable command and a trace of cold fury at having her interrogation interrupted by the sudden incident. She did not even have time to examine Lin Xiao's abnormality again. Her body moved like a lithe cheetah as she spun around and charged toward the alloy door!
The heavy alloy door slid open soundlessly, then slammed shut the instant Qin Bing darted through! It firmly shut off the piercing alarm and flashing red lights outside!
The room instantly fell silent. Only the monotonous, oppressive hum from the ventilation outlet remained, along with the warning light above, still slowly rotating and flashing red.
Lin Xiao collapsed onto the cold alloy bed as if utterly drained, breathing heavily. Cold sweat soaked through the thin blanket across his back. The throb from earlier and the impact of the alarm had nearly suffocated him. He laboriously turned his head toward the tightly closed alloy door, his expression complicated.
Had the crisis been temporarily resolved? Or... merely redirected?
He tried to sense the dusky-blue light screen in his mind again. The words Source Energy Points: -0.159 continued to flash stubbornly. The core's throbbing seemed even weaker after the impact, but the turmoil caused by the forced "resonance" with the Viper's Kiss toxin seemed to have calmed somewhat.
Just as his mind began to settle, the dark-green toxin core deep in his right leg—the one frozen by the inhibitor—sent out another pulse. It was extremely faint, yet incomparably clear... a throb!
This time, it was no longer a start of alarm. It was more like... a call born of hunger?
Buzz!
The core of the dusky-blue light screen in his mind also produced an almost imperceptible... pull! It was as if that deadly Viper's Kiss core were some kind of... incomplete, contaminated energy source?
Weak exotic energy detected (high contamination/high activity)... Core's instinctive attraction... Attempting analysis... Warning! Contamination level: 99.7%! Forced contact carries the risk of core collapse and deep contamination!
The icy prompt carried an intense warning!
Lin Xiao's heart jolted! Source Energy Points! That damn poisonous core could actually be instinctively recognized by the modifier as a form of "energy"? Although its contamination level was as high as 99.7%, making it practically equivalent to poison, that sliver of activity... that 0.3% possibility was like a candle flame wavering in the darkness!
He instinctively looked at the wound on his right leg, wrapped in bandages, his gaze flickering violently. Devour the deadly poison to replenish his Source Energy? That was practically drinking poison to quench his thirst! But... if his Source Energy Points ran out and the core collapsed, he would die either way!
As the thought of this life-or-death choice tore wildly at him, a seemingly smooth alloy wall in the room suddenly lit up without a sound!
It was not a screen. The entire wall was like a display being activated, instantly turning transparent like "glass"! Outside the safe house, a massive command and dispatch center brimming with futuristic technology appeared before Lin Xiao's eyes without the slightest concealment!
Lin Xiao's pupils contracted sharply! Qin Bing's so-called "temporary safe house" was actually separated from the Special Operations Ninth Division's core area by only a single wall! This was practically a direct observation window!
The sight before him shook him to the core, instantly washing away his frantic thoughts about the toxin.
It was an enormous underground space, its vaulted ceiling towering overhead and covered with thick alloy pipes and cable trays studded with flashing indicator lights. Below was a brightly lit command platform that operated with the efficiency of a beehive.
Dozens of staff members in black uniforms or white coats worked rapidly at their respective curved consoles. Huge holographic screens floated in midair, divided into countless images: an overhead view of the city, heat maps of energy fluctuations, live surveillance feeds from various locations, rapidly moving locator dots...
What shocked Lin Xiao most was the terrifying combination of "technology and martial arts" displayed in the images!
An Iron Tide, Martial Arts as Its Soul:
At the edge of the platform, teams of fully armed special operations personnel were rapidly assembling. They were equipped not with traditional firearms, but with oddly shaped Pulse Restraint Batons—their bodies flashed with dusky-blue energy patterns, while their tips could release high-intensity electromagnetic pulse nets that instantly paralyzed a martial artist's protective True Qi! Their steps were steady and their auras condensed as they moved, clearly possessing impressive martial arts foundations. Their abilities perfectly complemented the high-tech equipment in their hands.
The enormous holographic screen was tracking two rapidly moving points of light that emitted ominous, dark-red energy fluctuations—the World-Erosion Contamination targets. The display switched, showing two figures in tattered black robes, their limbs twisted and deformed, their bodies radiating dense black energy! They leaped between abandoned buildings like beasts, moving at astonishing speed! Yet whenever they tried to break through in a particular direction, a pale-blue energy grid lit up in the corresponding area of the display—clearly some kind of Psionic Interference Field arranged in advance, forcibly distorting space and slowing their movements!
A flat Low-Altitude Assault Craft, shaped like a gigantic metal bat, silently rose from the hangar beneath the platform. Suspended beneath the craft were not missiles, but two multi-barreled Cryo-Ray Generators radiating a bone-chilling aura! Their targets were clearly the two contaminated forms, and the plan was to imprison them nonlethally in ultra-low temperatures!
The Martial Artist Association? The Ninth Division was the true blade!
Lin Xiao's gaze swept across the enormous emblem wall at the front of the command center. Besides the distinctive badge of the Special Operations Ninth Division, resembling a sword piercing through a gear, there hung the comparatively gentler emblem of the Martial Artist Association, composed of a boxing glove and a taiji symbol.
Yet the two gave off entirely different impressions. The Martial Artist Association's emblem carried an overt, administrative air. The Ninth Division's emblem, meanwhile, radiated a cold aura of bloodshed, secrecy, and absolute control!
A cold electronic broadcast echoed through the command center:
Targets locked! Codenames: Eroded Forms A and B! Contamination level: Moderate! Threat assessment: Strong physical destructiveness, high energy corrosiveness! Prioritize execution of the "Ice Seal" procedure! Restraint team, prepare! The Soul Suppressor squad has arrived at the outskirts of D-7 District! Captain Qin Bing, assume command of the scene!
The display instantly switched to a ruined street. Qin Bing's cold, austere figure appeared in the center of the image! She was rapidly issuing orders into her communicator, moving swiftly through the rubble with actions no less nimble or precise than those of the fierce operatives under her command. The special black pistol in her hand had already been stowed, replaced by a short sword flickering with high-frequency oscillation patterns—clearly meant to counter the corrosive energy properties of the contaminated forms!
The Shadow Alliance's shadow was everywhere!
Lin Xiao stared fixedly at the two twisted Eroded Forms radiating dark-red light on the holographic screen. In several places on their tattered black robes, one could vaguely make out an extremely blurred, eerie mark that seemed to have been formed from warped shadows—an abstract outline of an eye, entangled in countless distorted lines!
The Shadow Alliance!
The name was like a cold venomous snake, instantly coiling around Lin Xiao's heart! Fragments of the World-Erosion Seed, the Viper's Kiss pursuit, the World-Erosion Contamination forms... Behind all of it swayed the shadow of this mysterious and terrifying dark organization! What exactly did they want? To create chaos? Or... did they harbor an even more horrifying plot?
The power displayed by the Ninth Division left Lin Xiao shaken, but the bizarre methods and infiltration capabilities displayed by the Shadow Alliance filled him with an even deeper chill. He was like a pebble tossed into a massive whirlpool, liable to be crushed to pieces at any moment between the authorities and the dark organization!
Just as his thoughts churned, the dark-green toxin core deep in his right leg sent out another distinct pulse! This time, accompanying the pulse, a thread of warmth so faint it was nearly imperceptible, carrying a fishy-sweet, decaying scent, actually ignored the inhibitor's seal and slowly seeped out, attempting to merge into his flesh and blood!
Buzz!
The core of the dusky-blue light screen in his mind shook violently! That instinctive pull instantly grew several times stronger! It was as if a starving beast had caught the scent of blood!
Warning! Highly contaminated exotic energy (Viper's Kiss core) is attempting to erode the host! Risk of contamination spread: Extremely high! Core instinctively resisting... Weak activity detected... Attempting passive separation... Separation efficiency: 0.000001%... Source Energy Points replenished: +0.001
Source Energy Points: -0.159 + 0.001 = -0.158!
A glaring, scarlet +0.001 flashed beside -0.158 and vanished!
Lin Xiao's body abruptly stiffened! A bizarre sensation blending searing pain, icy numbness, and a faint warmth surged from the wound in his right leg throughout his entire body like an electric current!
Devouring the deadly poison... could it really... replenish his Source Energy? Even if it was only a negligible 0.001 points?!!
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