The Lair

"Earlier than us? What do you mean? Are you referring to some component within your body? Could it be that you were born even earlier than the Progenitor Virus we first discovered?"

Seeing the other party finally speak, Spencer's tone grew somewhat agitated.

Because communication was possible, it meant there was an opportunity for negotiation.

And the various abilities displayed by this young man were precisely the most perfect form he had dreamed of ever since founding the company!

To maintain a human appearance and sanity while possessing god-like power.

Immortal, indestructible, unaging, undefeated—this was the true ultimate lifeform!

And he, who had sat in a wheelchair for years while his body gradually decayed, was in desperate need of fusing this power with his own!

But Xia Tianming stopped speaking again, instead coming to a halt before a room at the end of the corridor.

There was a presence of life inside this room.

In the memories of Wesker and those shareholders, none of them had ever entered this place; they all seemed to harbor a sense of disgust and aversion toward it.

He turned, pushed open the door, and walked inside. The air in the room was thick with the smell of disinfectant mixed with the stench of blood. On the seemingly pure white walls, one could faintly discern traces of dried bloodstains.

No matter how many times they were scrubbed or washed, the blood spots that had permeated deep into the walls could never be cleaned away.

On the medical tables in the room lay various surgical instruments, a collection that seemed to include tools required for every department imaginable.

It appeared this room was the "Hell's Kitchen" where the monsters displayed in the corridor's glass cases were created.

Xia Tianming noticed another door within this laboratory. A large amount of faint life energy was emanating from behind it, so he walked over and pushed it open. A much heavier, foul stench rushed out, causing even him to frown.

Behind the door was a more spacious area, yet it was packed with over a hundred hospital beds, each occupied by someone receiving an intravenous drip.

No, perhaps they could no longer be called human; they were living test subjects being injected with biochemical viruses!

Although the degree of mutation in their bodies was currently not as severe as the monsters in the display cases outside, it was only a matter of time before they became just like them.

These people lying on the beds were either captured resistance fighters or survivors snatched from the wasteland.

They had escaped the harsh environment of the apocalypse and the ferocious biochemical monsters, only to be betrayed by their own kind...

Their bodies were covered in disgusting, massive pustules, and various colored tissues seeped out, staining the bedsheets in a chaotic mess of colors that obscured their original hue.

That thick, putrid stench was spreading directly from their bodies!

Beyond that, these people subjected to biochemical experiments were emitting agonizing groans, a sound that echoed against the ceiling of the massive ward, filling the space with an atmosphere of despair...

"Uncle... are you here to cure my sickness too..."

At that moment, a weak, childish voice reached Xia Tianming's ears.

He turned his head to see a little girl of about ten years old lying on a nearby bed.

The hair she once possessed had been replaced by a scalp full of festering sores. Her right eye, which should have been bright, was pushed out of its socket by a swollen viral tumor, and her head was unnaturally large, while her body was so thin and frail it seemed as if it would shatter at a touch.

The IV drip beside her was continuously feeding her a pale green liquid, and Xia Tianming could sense that it was laced with biochemical toxins.

Even so, she still struggled to pull back her cracked lips, which were nearly devoid of teeth, and forced a smile.

Judging by her words, those researchers must have used the excuse of curing her to trick her into becoming a biochemical test subject...

"Yes, I am here to cure you."

Xia Tianming lowered his pitch-black eyes and spoke calmly to the girl.

The other test subjects nearby, sensing someone was there, rasped out in hoarse voices:

"Please... kill me..."

"I don't want to... live anymore..."

"I'm in so much pain... wuwu..."

They twisted their deformed bodies on the filthy beds like maggots, but every movement only brought them more agony.

The little girl struggled to lift her right hand and extended a finger; the coldness of her body made her crave the warmth of a normal person.

Xia Tianming looked at her, raised his hand as well, and extended his index finger to touch hers.

In the instant their fingertips met!

A black-red tentacle snaked from Xia Tianming's finger into the girl's index finger!

Then, this Blacklight tentacle surged like unstoppable lightning, shattering and devouring the biochemical viruses causing her current misery within her body, rapidly dividing and proliferating until it instantly flooded every one of her blood vessels!

The tumors on her face vanished at a speed visible to the naked eye, and her beautiful blue eyes were revealed once more.

The damaged organs within her body were filled and repaired by the Blacklight tentacles, which took over their missing functions and restored them to normal operation.

Even the teeth that had fallen out of her mouth grew back completely!

In less than three seconds, the little girl's dying body had miraculously recovered to near-normal. Her complexion improved in an instant, and her childish face regained its rosy glow!

Although the IV drip beside the bed was still pumping biochemical viral fluid into her, the moment it entered her body, it was instantly devoured by the Blacklight virus filling her veins, making it no different from an injection of glucose.

"Uncle, you're much better than those doctors in white coats..." The little girl felt the pain in her body vanish and revealed a pure, innocent smile.

In the education-starved apocalypse, at her age, she had no concept of how bizarre it was for all her illnesses to be cured in an instant.

However, the "patient" in the adjacent bed saw this eerie scene and exclaimed in shock, "You... who are you..."

"Your savior."

Xia Tianming said this in a calm tone, then suddenly spread his arms like Jesus. Immediately after, countless black-red tentacles surged from his ten fingertips, darting toward every hospital bed in the room like server cables and burrowing into the bodies of every patient!

In less than five seconds, the hundreds of hospital beds in this room were all covered and connected by the Blacklight Virus, transforming into a massive black-red viral carpet!

The biochemical viruses within these patients were completely purged and converted into the Blacklight Virus!

It did not end there; the viral carpet began to spread rapidly across the floor, walls, and ceiling. Dense, writhing tentacles extended from the surface of the carpet, causing one's sanity to plummet!

In no time, the spacious ward was completely enveloped, turning into a terrifying, nest-like scene!

As for the hundreds of patients here, they were all "healed" almost simultaneously. They sat up from their beds in astonishment, looking at their intact bodies in disbelief, as if they were dreaming.

After Xia Tianming created all of this, he severed the tentacle connections between his fingers and the carpet, yet he maintained a certain psychic resonance with the entire nest in his perception!

Xia Tianming was like a terminal server, and every sub-server here was connected to him.

Every person and every breath in this nest was synchronized in his mind in real-time, and even the thoughts within these people's minds flowed into his own consciousness!

Is this the legendary psychic resonance...

However, Xia Tianming could autonomously filter out useful information and discard the useless content.

For instance, the few bugs currently hiding in a medical cabinet.

With just a single thought from Xia Tianming, the tentacles of the carpet near the medical cabinet lashed out violently, overturning the large cabinet and spilling out several researchers wearing white lab coats.

Having heard the massive commotion outside earlier, they had been so frightened that they hurriedly found a cabinet to hide in.

Now, seeing themselves exposed and witnessing the ward transformed into a hellish, terrifying scene, they scrambled to their feet, desperate to flee.

But they discovered their hands and feet were trapped in the writhing carpet, unable to move at all!

"Don't... don't kill us... we were only doing these experiments under the instructions of our superiors..." Seeing that man walking toward them, the researchers were so terrified that tears and snot streamed down their faces as they begged for mercy.

Yet, they found that Xia Tianming didn't even glance at them, passing right by them and walking out of the ward that had become a Blacklight nest.

This... what was going on? Had he spared their lives?

Suddenly, the researchers sensed someone approaching them.

Looking up, the scene before them caused their eyes to widen until they nearly split!

They saw that the test subjects on the hospital beds had all sat up at some point, staring at them with pitch-black eyes like abysses!

"I'm so hungry..."

The little girl who had been the first to be "healed" by Xia Tianming had already stepped off her bed. With pitch-black eyes devoid of any whites, she walked toward the researchers.

She revealed a sweet smile, except that several black tentacles extended from her slightly curved lips, writhing flexibly like snake tongues...

Researcher...

"Ah!!!!!"