Deformity Museum

The [Myriad Tentacles] erupting from Xia Tianming's body instantly swallowed the hundreds of soldiers in the spiral corridor, then retracted like a thousand birds returning to their nests, carrying the viral nutrients back into his body!

The spiral corridor, which had been filled with gunfire, explosions, and screams just a second ago, fell silent in an instant, save for the occasional clatter of blood-stained, empty helmets rolling down the stairs.

The Hunter, which had been preparing to feast, saw its "gourmet meal" suddenly vanish and let out a low, rumbling growl, seemingly dissatisfied that its master hadn't left it a single scrap of meat.

Devouring these hundreds of soldiers provided Xia Tianming with nearly ten thousand points of viral energy in one go!

However, this time, his mind did not prompt him on how much more was needed to break through the Blacklight Threshold.

Could it be that he was now free to develop as he pleased?

One had to know that the Blacklight Virus possessed the potential for infinite evolution, meaning there was no upper limit to its growth!

From devouring cells to consuming an entire planet, nothing was out of reach; it was merely a matter of the degree of evolution and time.

Alex Mercer had once evolved enough to consume all of Manhattan in eighteen days, and in this post-apocalyptic biochemical world, with countless resources at his exclusive disposal, his growth would only be more rapid!

After retracting the Myriad Tentacles, Xia Tianming, who had been hovering in mid-air, continued his descent, slamming into the ground like a bomb with a thunderous boom that kicked up a cloud of dust and left a massive, spiderweb-like crack in the concrete floor!

It was time to continue forward; having wiped out so many of the enemy's forces at once, they likely wouldn't be able to scrape together such numbers for a while.

The Hunter also leaped down from above, landing heavily on the ground. It shook its massive body, shedding the numerous bullet casings embedded in its shallow flesh, and followed behind Xia Tianming like a docile pet dog.

He had now landed at the very bottom of the spiral corridor; had he walked down level by level, it would have taken at least ten minutes.

Regardless of the height from which he fell, the Blacklight Virus would never suffer any fall damage; after all, one had never heard of a virus invisible to the naked eye dying from a fall, and he was a collection of such viruses.

Relying on the memories provided by the consumed Wesker, the route to the main base lay at the bottom of this spiral corridor.

At the spot where he had landed, there was only a single, massive bronze door carved with exquisite patterns, standing tightly shut as if waiting for a fated person to open it.

Yet, Xia Tianming didn't even spare it a glance; instead, he turned around and walked toward a blank section of the concrete wall directly opposite the bronze door.

Suddenly!

He clenched his right hand into a fist and easily shattered the wall in front of him, causing a burst of crackling electrical sparks to erupt from the spot!

Immediately following, the seemingly seamless wall began to unfold from the center toward both sides, revealing a hidden passage concealed within.

This was the only route leading to the main base!

As for the exquisite bronze door opposite, it was merely a low-level decoy; the path behind it led to a dead end, filled with countless traps waiting for anyone foolish enough to enter.

Xia Tianming walked straight into the dimly lit passage, and the Hunter, panting with its crimson, barb-covered tongue lolling out like a pet dog, followed obediently behind him.

Once he entered the passage, the hidden door behind him automatically slammed shut, and the lights in the corridor flickered on one by one with Xia Tianming's footsteps, revealing everything within to his eyes.

Though called a passage, it was more like a horror museum filled with bizarre and grotesque creatures.

Because the sides of the corridor were not cold concrete walls, but transparent glass display cases, inside which were samples of failed experiments injected with biochemical viruses—a truly shocking sight!

The first to come into view were a batch of deformed infants that had begun their modifications while still in the embryonic stage!

Some had two heads of different sizes, others had a dozen densely packed eyeballs on a single face, some were missing limbs, and others had grown organs or appendages that did not belong to humans!

They were in no way inferior to the ghost-infant imagery found in any horror movie!

Further on were experimental samples of humans at every stage of life: men, women, youths, and the elderly. The deformities and mutations on their bodies shattered all horror fantasies!

Some lacked limbs, their large intestines exposed from their abdomens, twisted and mutated into octopus-like tentacles used to support their bodies;

Others had their abdominal cavities completely sliced open, exposing their internal organs, with sharp ribcages splayed outward as if they could open and close at will like a bloodthirsty maw;

Still others crawled on the ground like scorpions, their spines and tailbones having burst through the skin of their backs, curving into the air, with venomous, hook-like stingers growing from their tails!

They were all failed products of experimentation, pinned to foam boards like art pieces displayed behind the glass—one could only imagine the twisted tastes of the person who created them!

Along the hundreds of meters of corridor that followed, various other strange and grotesque monsters were on display.

From insects to invertebrates, mammals, and humans, the Umbrella Corporation had used almost every living creature on Earth!

But without exception, their expressions were all twisted in agonizing pain, having been injected and modified while still alive!

Furthermore, these human test subjects were all survivors captured from the wasteland, not mass-produced clones from the Umbrella Corporation's assembly-line factories.

Because those researchers believed that clones were tainted with heavy industrial impurities and were not "pure" enough, they insisted on using humans born naturally on the surface for their experiments.

Thus, they were still scouring the surface for survivors to this day—not to preserve the seeds of humanity or ensure its continuation, but to use them for all manner of inhumane experiments...

Xia Tianming slowed his pace as he passed through the corridor, observing the "exhibits" that defied both heaven and man on either side.

He wanted to feel anger, to criticize such behavior, but having been completely stripped of the various emotions inherent to humanity by the Blacklight Virus, his calm eyes were filled only with numbness.

The Hunter, meanwhile, bared its teeth and hissed at the deformed experimental subjects in the cases, which were even uglier than itself, wanting to tear them all to shreds.

But without its master's command, it dared not take any action.

"On the road to human evolution, some sacrifices must be made. They are all heroes and the foundation stones for the perfect humans of the future..."

Suddenly, a weathered voice echoed through the passage, attempting to glamorize the deformed monsters in the display cases.

Xia Tianming recognized this as the voice of Spencer, the founder of the Umbrella Corporation, and knew that since he had entered this underground base, Spencer had been observing him through surveillance cameras hidden everywhere.

Seeing that he did not speak, Spencer asked again: "Child, where do you come from? The depths of the Earth's core? Or are you an extraterrestrial lifeform? Or perhaps a mutation of the biochemical virus?"

"My existence predates all of you."

Xia Tianming spoke in a cold, indifferent tone.

In truth, he was only twenty years old, but he did not know why he had said such a thing—was it the Blacklight Virus within him controlling his words...?