The third underground level of the Extreme Martial Arts Hall, a top-secret biological laboratory.
The air here was perpetually thick with the stench of disinfectant and preservatives.
Beneath the stark white shadowless lamps, Dai Mubai was strapped to a frigid metal testing table by several thick, high-strength alloy chains.
He wore nothing but a thin pair of shorts, and the muscles exposed to the air trembled faintly with fear.
Several researchers in white lab coats stood around him.
They wore masks, their eyes as cold and detached as if they were looking at a laboratory mouse.
"The target's vital signs are stable. We may begin the subsequent tests."
While recording data, one researcher nodded to the assistant beside him. "Begin injecting the No. 3 Mutant Canine Beast Gene Extract."
A thick needle mercilessly pierced Dai Mubai's vein.
The pale green unknown liquid surged through his bloodstream and flooded every inch of his body in an instant.
"Argh—!"
Dai Mubai threw back his head and let out an utterly miserable scream.
He felt as though molten lava had been poured into his veins, while tens of thousands of ants gnawed at his bone marrow. The agony was ten times worse than forcibly absorbing Cosmic Origin Energy.
His body began undergoing a horrifying mutation.
His once-brilliant golden hair fell out in clumps, replaced by a layer of coarse, tough black fur that rapidly spread across his cheeks and chest.
His finger joints cracked with a teeth-grinding sound as they dislocated, while his nails grew wildly outward and curled into sharp, grotesque beast claws.
"Let me go! Please, let me go!"
Tears and snot streamed down Dai Mubai's face as he desperately begged in that cold laboratory. He even wanted to reveal every secret he knew in exchange for release.
Before Jiang Nian had sent him to the laboratory, he had told him that there was only one question he needed to answer to end this suffering.
Which faction had sent him, and where had he come from? If he confessed everything, he would be granted a quick death.
Yet whenever the words "Douluo Continent" rose to his lips, terror seized him.
If he spoke, he would die immediately.
If he did not, he would endure torture worse than death here.
"His vitality is tenacious. The genetic rejection reaction remains within controllable limits." The researcher's cold voice rang out again. "Prepare for the next stage. Switch to the Iron-Armored Scorpion Venom Mixed Reagent."
The pain continued day after day in the underground laboratory.
All kinds of monster Gene Serums that had never undergone safety testing, along with unknown plant extracts, were continuously injected into Dai Mubai's body.
He was treated completely as a test subject.
And as time passed, more and more horrifying mutations appeared on Dai Mubai's body!
His facial bones protruded forward due to genetic mutation, interlocking fangs grew from his mouth, and his legs became thick and bent. He completely lost the ability to walk upright like a human and could only crawl on the ground like a beast.
From crying and begging at the start, to shrieking in agony later, and finally, Dai Mubai no longer even had the strength to scream.
He became numb.
Every day, he lay like a lump of rotten mud inside a filthy iron cage, barely clinging to life.
Waiting for experiment after experiment to descend upon him.
As the one-year deadline for returning to Douluo Continent drew closer, Dai Mubai's murky yellow beast eyes began to fill with an inescapably dense hatred.
He hated!
He blamed all the inhuman torture he had suffered over the past half year, all his humiliation and despair, entirely on Cuihua!
If Cuihua had not met that War General Class teacher; if Cuihua had been bitten to death by monsters in the Wilderness Zone... how could he have ended up as this half-human, half-beast monster?!
It was all that lowly village girl's fault!
This twisted logic became the only motivation supporting him as he struggled to survive in that hellish laboratory.
Half a year passed rapidly amid the day-after-day research.
On this day, the underground laboratory was carrying out its routine daily data collection as usual.
Several researchers gathered in front of Dai Mubai's iron cage, using various instruments to scan his malformed body. Dai Mubai, who had completely shed his human form and become a beast, suddenly moved.
He slowly raised that head covered in black fur and fangs.
Under the stunned gazes of the researchers, a chillingly savage grin suddenly spread across Dai Mubai's grotesque face.
"Heh... hahaha!"
Dai Mubai's vocal cords had long since been damaged by the drugs, and his laughter was hoarse and piercing.
He suddenly pounced against the thick iron bars, his beast claws sending sparks flying as they scraped the metal. Staring at the white-coated humans outside, he burst into unrestrained laughter.
"You bunch of idiots!"
As Dai Mubai laughed madly, murky tears streamed from the corners of his eyes. His expression was utterly deranged. "You people from the Extreme Martial Arts Hall think you're so clever, but you're nothing more than a pack of idiots!"
"You've been played!"
The lead researcher frowned and immediately pressed the alarm button, shouting, "The test subject's mental state is abnormal! Prepare high-voltage shock immediately! Inject him with a sedative!"
Just as several guards charged forward with electric batons.
Without any warning.
A peculiar white light, so pure it seemed almost tangible, suddenly shone down from the void.
The white light completely ignored the hundreds-of-meters-thick superalloy dome above the Extreme Martial Arts Hall headquarters, ignored every energy defense shield, and descended directly into the iron cage in the basement.
The white light completely enveloped Dai Mubai's massive, malformed body.
Dai Mubai's mad laughter stopped abruptly.
His body rapidly turned translucent within the white light, like foam beneath the sun.
In just two seconds.
The white light suddenly contracted, then vanished into thin air without a trace.
The sturdy iron cage was completely empty. Not even a single black hair remained. That half-human, half-beast monster had simply vanished before the very eyes of all the laboratory personnel!
The entire laboratory descended into chaos.
The lead researcher's face turned deathly pale, sweat instantly soaking through the back of his clothes. In a panic, he grabbed his communicator and connected to his superior's private line.
"Supervisor! Something happened! Test Subject No. 9 was suddenly taken away by a beam of light! He vanished into thin air!"
A few minutes later.
Jiang Nian rushed out of his office with a livid expression.
The supervisor in charge of the experiments had just informed him that Dai Mubai, the test subject he had sent over, had suddenly vanished into thin air!
At first, he had thought it was a joke.
But after confirming it again and again, he finally understood that this was no joke, but something that had truly happened at the Extreme Martial Arts Hall just moments ago!
A test subject vanishing into thin air—something that defied all physical common sense—instinctively filled him with intense unease.
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