Purification and Lingering Doubts

Lin Xiao stared at the fresh scrape marks on the ventilation duct opening. The metal surface reflected a cold gleam under the laboratory lights. Hansen and Miller had already risen and begun checking their equipment, preparing to withdraw. The purification system's suction roared continuously beside them. The air in the laboratory was gradually clearing, but that cloying stench of rot still lingered faintly.

Lin Xiao's fingers unconsciously rubbed the hilt of his dagger as the mysterious figure's movements replayed over and over in his mind—skilled, precise, and without hesitation, as if the transfer had long been planned to take place amid the chaos.

He turned to Hansen and Miller. "We should get out. Fletcher is waiting."

But as he stepped toward the laboratory entrance, his gaze swept over the duct opening again. The container was no longer there. It was moving through the ventilation system's dark passages, its destination and purpose unknown.

And Lin Xiao knew that some things, once released, could never be taken back.

The three of them returned along the route they had taken, passing through the laboratory's now-cleared spaces. The purification system was still operating at full power, its powerful suction echoing through the empty hall like the breathing of some enormous beast. The mist had mostly dispersed, but the blue liquid on the floor was still flowing, corroding the metal beneath it with faint sizzling sounds.

Hansen walked to Lin Xiao's left, moisture clinging to the lenses of his gas mask. "Captain, those creatures... did they really leave?"

"They left." Lin Xiao answered briefly, his gaze sweeping across the depths of the laboratory. The emergency exit door stood half-open, and beyond it was pitch-black and utterly still. The sample creatures had indeed all withdrawn, following that translucent creature into unknown areas deeper within the base.

Miller walked on the right, his gun still aimed forward, though his movements had visibly relaxed. "I've never seen anything like those things... They looked intelligent."

"They have some kind of behavioral pattern," Lin Xiao said. "But this isn't the time to discuss it."

They passed the final shattered cultivation chamber base. Lin Xiao noticed that the half-melted organic residue inside was slowly contracting, as though it had lost its vitality. Blue liquid seeped out from the remains and dripped to the floor, but its corrosive speed had clearly slowed.

The purification system was working.

The concentration of chemicals in the air was dropping, though that nauseating sweet scent still stubbornly clung deep within their nostrils.

The blast door at the laboratory entrance came into view. It stood half-open, white emergency lighting shining in from outside. Lin Xiao could hear voices, footsteps, and metal clashing beyond it—Fletcher's men were taking control of the situation.

He stopped and looked back at the laboratory one last time.

This ruin had once been one of Hydra's most secret biological research facilities. Now, it had become a display of death and the bizarre. Fragments of cultivation chambers littered the ground like the bones of some gigantic creature. The walls were covered in corrosion marks, and in some places, the metal panels had become as thin as paper, ready to rupture at any moment. On the floor, blue liquid formed winding streams that eventually flowed into the drains, though the drainage system was clearly overloaded. The liquid had pooled into shallow puddles near the entrance.

Hansen and Miller stopped as well, following Lin Xiao's gaze.

"This place is finished," Hansen said quietly. "All the samples are destroyed, and the equipment too..."

"Not necessarily," Lin Xiao cut him off. "Some things may have been moved beforehand."

He thought of that container.

The metal case the mysterious figure had shoved into the ventilation duct.

What had been inside? Core samples that had not leaked? Experimental data? Or something even more dangerous?

"Captain?" Miller asked in confusion.

Lin Xiao shook his head. "Nothing. Let's go."

He took the lead toward the blast door, crossed the threshold, and left the laboratory's strange world behind for the relatively normal realm of humans.

The sight outside was more chaotic than Lin Xiao had expected, yet more orderly as well.

The emergency lights flooded the corridor with white light, though they cast long shadows across the walls. More than twenty soldiers were stationed along both sides of the hallway, weapons in hand, watching every direction. Several bodies lay on the floor—all members of Blood Axe's Radical Faction, bearing obvious gunshot wounds and corrosion marks.

The air was thick with the smell of gunpowder, blood, and the harsh sting of disinfectant.

Fletcher stood beside a control console in the middle of the corridor, issuing orders to an officer. His protective suit was stained with grime, and the sleeve over his left arm had been torn open, exposing a bandaged wound underneath. But when he saw Lin Xiao and the other two emerge from the laboratory, his tense expression visibly eased.

"Lin!" Fletcher strode over and patted Lin Xiao's shoulder through his protective suit. "You're all right. Thank God."

His palm struck the suit with two dull thumps. Lin Xiao could feel the urgency and relief in that force.

"The leak is contained." Lin Xiao removed his gas mask and took a deep breath of the corridor's relatively clean air—though it was mixed with all kinds of odors, at least it no longer carried that cloying stench of decay. "The purification system has been activated, and the gas concentration inside the laboratory is falling. But all the sample creatures withdrew. They left through the emergency exit passage."

Fletcher frowned. "Withdrew? Where did they go?"

"I don't know," Lin Xiao said. "The passage leads deeper into the base. It could lead to other research areas, or abandoned mine tunnels. We need to send people after them."

"I'll arrange it." Fletcher nodded, then looked at Hansen and Miller. "What about you two? Are you hurt?"

Hansen removed his mask as well, his face drenched in sweat. "I'm fine, Captain. It was just... terrifying."

Miller said nothing and merely shook his head, but Lin Xiao noticed his hands trembling slightly—the aftermath of being so close to those strange creatures.

"Go get checked at the medical station," Fletcher told them. "Then rest. You did well."

Hansen and Miller exchanged a glance, saluted Fletcher, and turned to leave. Their footsteps echoed through the corridor, gradually fading away.

Only then did Fletcher turn to Lin Xiao and lower his voice. "What exactly happened in the laboratory? After communications were cut off, all I could hear were alarms and gunfire."

Lin Xiao briefly described what had happened: finding the control panel, activating the purification system, confronting the sample creatures, and the translucent creature's final actions. He deliberately omitted the mysterious figure's part—now was not the time.

"That creature... it helped you activate the purification system on its own?" Fletcher asked in disbelief.

"It was more like it wanted to activate the system for itself," Lin Xiao corrected. "It seemed to know those gases threatened it, or threatened whatever it was guarding."

"Whatever it was guarding?" Fletcher repeated, his eyes sharpening.

Lin Xiao offered no explanation and changed the subject instead. "Where's Blood Axe?"

Fletcher's expression turned cold. "Detained over there."

He pointed toward a temporary holding area at the end of the corridor. Four armed soldiers stood guard. Three people sat on the floor between them, their hands bound behind their backs. One was powerfully built and still a head taller than the others even while seated—it was Blood Axe.

But Blood Axe no longer had any of his former arrogance.

His protective suit had been stripped off, exposing the combat uniform beneath. A large patch of skin from his left shoulder to his chest had turned an eerie blue-black, as though severely burned. Yet there were no blisters on the surface. Instead, it was covered in fine cracks. Deep within those cracks, blue fluorescence seemed to flow faintly.

The corrosion had penetrated deep into his body.

Blood Axe hung his head, breathing heavily and painfully. Every inhale was accompanied by a rattling sound from his chest. His two trusted subordinates were in slightly better condition, but their faces were deathly pale and their eyes unfocused.

"He won't last much longer," Fletcher said coldly. "The corrosion has entered his internal organs. The medical officer said he has, at most, a few hours."

Lin Xiao walked closer.

Blood Axe seemed to notice his approach and slowly raised his head. Pain and rage twisted together across that rugged face, but deep in his eyes, Lin Xiao saw a trace of... fear?

"You..." Blood Axe began, his voice hoarse like sandpaper scraping. "What did you do..."

"I did what you should have done," Lin Xiao said calmly. "Contained the leak. Saved the base."

"Saved it?" Blood Axe suddenly laughed, blood frothing in the sound. "You think... you think this is over? Those things... they're only the beginning..."

His voice grew weaker and weaker, finally turning into a violent coughing fit. Blue liquid seeped from the corner of his mouth and dripped onto the floor, corroding tiny pits into it.

Lin Xiao crouched down until they were eye level. "What do you mean, they're only the beginning?"

Blood Axe stared at him, his gaze unfocused, but a strange smile tugged at his lips. "You'll... know soon enough..."

Then he closed his eyes and said nothing more.

Lin Xiao stood and looked at Fletcher. "He's still useful. Before he dies, we need to get more information out of him."

"I'll have an interrogator brought in," Fletcher said. "But right now, we have something more urgent."

He pointed toward the laboratory. "Are you certain the leak is completely contained? No other hidden dangers?"

Lin Xiao's heart stirred.

The opportunity had arrived.

"I need to inspect it once more," he said. "Although the main leak valve has been shut, some secondary pipes may still be seeping. If gas accumulates again after the purification system stops..."

"Go," Fletcher said with a nod. "But be careful. Take two men with you."

"I can manage alone," Lin Xiao said. "Too many people would only get in the way. I'll be back quickly."

Fletcher hesitated, but after seeing the determination in Lin Xiao's eyes, he finally agreed. "Ten minutes. If you're not out in ten minutes, I'm taking people in."

"Understood."

Lin Xiao put his gas mask back on and turned toward the laboratory.

The blast door shut behind him, cutting off the corridor's commotion.

Inside the laboratory, the purification system continued to roar, though it was no longer as deafening as before. The air had become clear, and visibility was fully restored. The lights illuminated every corner of the ruins, making those bizarre details even clearer.

Lin Xiao did not inspect the leak valve.

He walked straight toward the equipment storage room, toward that ventilation duct opening.

His footsteps echoed through the empty hall. The blue liquid still covered the floor, but it was flowing much more slowly now. In some places, it had begun to solidify into a pale-blue translucent film. Lin Xiao carefully avoided those areas, stepping around the wreckage of shattered cultivation chambers.

The storage room door stood half-open.

Lin Xiao pushed it open and entered.

The room was small, around twenty square meters. It should originally have held spare parts and tools. Now, most of the shelving had collapsed, and tools lay scattered everywhere. The air smelled of metal and machine oil, mingled with that persistent sweet scent.

The ventilation duct opening was on the innermost wall, around two meters above the floor.

Lin Xiao walked beneath it and looked up.

The metal grille had been removed from the opening and tossed into a corner. The inside of the duct was pitch-black. It was about forty centimeters in diameter, wide enough for a slender person to crawl through or for a suitcase-sized container to be shoved inside.

He reached up and touched the edge of the opening.

The metal surface was cold, but there were obvious scrape marks along the edge—fresh marks, where the metal had been rubbed bright and exposed the silvery-white layer beneath. The scratches ran from outside to inside, indicating that something had been forcibly shoved in.

Lin Xiao carefully examined the details of the scrape marks.

They were very fresh, with no dust settled in them. The force behind the scraping had been uneven, deep in some places and shallow in others, as though the container had caught several times because of its angle before being shoved in with force.

He crouched down and inspected the floor.

The storage room floor was covered in non-slip steel plates, coated with a thin layer of dust. Directly beneath the duct, Lin Xiao saw a series of faint footprints.

He switched on his tactical flashlight, set it to low brightness, and carefully shone it over them.

The footprints were shallow, but their outlines could be made out—standard military boot tread, medium size, roughly size forty-two. They led toward the duct opening, then turned and headed away. The departing prints were deeper than the incoming ones, indicating that whoever left had been carrying something heavy.

Lin Xiao followed the footprints with his eyes.

They extended to the storage room door, then vanished in the corridor—the floor outside was covered in liquid and debris, destroying the trail.

He stood and looked at the duct opening again.

The ventilation system was the base's artery, connecting every major area: the laboratory, living quarters, command center, even the external exits. Once shoved inside, the container could have been carried by the airflow anywhere. But since that person had chosen to act at this moment, the route and retrieval point must have been planned in advance.

Lin Xiao closed his eyes and recalled the base layout.

The ventilation system's main duct started from the laboratory area and extended northward, passing three junctions: one leading to the living quarters, one to the second underground level's research facility, and another...

Leading to the external exhaust outlet.

But the external exhaust outlet was protected by security mesh and surveillance. If the container had gone out that way, it would certainly have been discovered.

Then it was more likely that the container had been intercepted at one of the junctions. That person, or an accomplice, had been waiting at a node in the duct system and would retrieve it as soon as it arrived.

Lin Xiao opened his eyes.

He needed to find that node.

But first, he needed to know exactly what was inside the container.

He scanned the storage room for other clues. The collapsed shelves and scattered tools looked like the chaos caused when sample creatures had burst in. Yet Lin Xiao noticed that the placement of some tools was oddly deliberate.

A pair of hydraulic shears lay in a corner, their blades stained with blue liquid—nothing unusual. They might have been used to cut through corroded pipes.

But beside them sat a portable spectrometer, its surface perfectly clean and free of any stains.

That was not normal.

In that kind of chaos, every tool should have been affected. Unless... someone had deliberately placed it there, or had just used it.

Lin Xiao walked over and picked up the portable spectrometer.

It was still warm.

He pressed the power button. The screen lit up and showed the record of its last use: thirty-two minutes ago.

Exactly when the laboratory leak had been at its worst and everyone had been busy dealing with the crisis.

Lin Xiao pulled up the analysis record.

The final entry read: Unknown organic compound sample. Spectral match rate 87%. Significant differences from the main culture fluid composition. Recommended designation: "Prototype-Alpha."

Prototype-Alpha.

Lin Xiao's fingers tightened.

This was not one of the samples that had leaked. This was something more primitive, more central.

The container that person had taken held a Prototype Sample.

He switched off the instrument and returned it to its place.

Then he walked to the storage room door and gave the ventilation duct opening one last look. From deep in the dark duct, he could faintly hear the howl of rushing air, like some kind of whisper.

The container was gone.

Carrying Hydra's most dangerous biological weapon prototype, it had vanished into the base's vascular system.

Lin Xiao turned and left the storage room.

By the time he returned to the corridor, exactly nine minutes had passed.

Fletcher was still beside the control console, listening to an officer's report. When he saw Lin Xiao emerge, he ended the conversation and walked over. "How was it?"

"There were minor leaks in some secondary pipes, but I temporarily sealed them with sealant," Lin Xiao said. "The purification system can run for another half hour. By then, the gas concentration should fall to safe levels."

Fletcher let out a breath of relief. "Good. The medical team is ready. Once the air quality meets the standard, they'll enter to clean up the scene."

"Clean up?" Lin Xiao asked. "The remains of those sample creatures..."

"Destroy everything," Fletcher said decisively. "Use the high-temperature incinerator. Leave no trace behind."

It was the right decision. Those things were too dangerous to leave behind even a single cell that might revive.

But Lin Xiao thought of that container.

The Prototype Sample that had already been taken away.

"Fletcher," he said, his voice calm. "When the laboratory leak happened, besides us and Blood Axe's people, who else was nearby?"

Fletcher paused. "What do you mean?"

"I was just thinking. The leak happened suddenly, but someone may have used the confusion to do something else," Lin Xiao said. "For example... steal some uncontaminated core samples."

Fletcher's eyes sharpened. "Did you see something?"

"No." Lin Xiao shook his head. "But during my inspection, I noticed some equipment had been placed strangely. Like someone had used it in a hurry, then put it back."

He chose to reveal part of the truth while concealing the most critical part—now was not the time. He needed to investigate on his own first.

Fletcher fell silent for several seconds before saying, "I'll have someone check all entry and exit records. But Lin, stabilizing the base is the most important thing right now. Blood Axe's Radical Faction has been suppressed, but there are still remnants. The neutral faction is watching. We need to establish control as quickly as possible."

"I understand," Lin Xiao said.

"You did well." Fletcher patted his shoulder again, more gently this time. "Go get some rest. Tomorrow... we'll have a lot to deal with."

Lin Xiao nodded and turned to leave.

But he did not return to his quarters.

He headed toward the base's surveillance center.

The surveillance center was located on the second floor of the command building, a room filled with screens. Normally, four operators should have been on duty there, but only two remained—the others had been reassigned to deal with the laboratory crisis.

When Lin Xiao pushed the door open, the two operators were staring at the screens with exhausted expressions.

"Captain Lin." One of them recognized him and stood up. "What do you need?"

"I want to review the surveillance recordings for the laboratory area," Lin Xiao said. "Starting from half an hour before the leak occurred."

The operator hesitated. "That... requires Captain Fletcher's authorization."

"The laboratory leak is still under investigation, and I need to confirm some details." Lin Xiao's tone was calm but left no room for argument. "Captain Fletcher authorized me to handle all follow-up matters. If you need confirmation, you can contact him now, but I'll tell him you delayed the investigation."

The duty officer's expression changed. In the end, he sat back down and began operating the console. "All right, I'll pull it up now."

The screen lit up and split into sixteen smaller windows, displaying real-time surveillance footage from every angle of the laboratory. But Lin Xiao noticed that three of the feeds were black—the cameras had been destroyed. It could have been the specimen creature, or it could have been someone else.

"Play it back," Lin Xiao said.

The footage began to rewind.

The time returned to thirty-five minutes before the leak.

Everything in the laboratory was normal. Researchers bustled around the workbenches, while the samples floated quietly in blue liquid inside their culture chambers. Then the leak occurred—a culture chamber suddenly ruptured, and liquid burst out as the researchers fled in panic.

The footage fast-forwarded.

Lin Xiao saw himself, Hansen, and Miller enter the laboratory. He saw them confront the specimen creature. He saw the purification system activate.

Everything had gone as expected.

Until—

"Stop," Lin Xiao said.

The footage froze at eighteen minutes after the leak.

In the corridor surveillance feed outside the equipment storage room, a blurry figure flashed past. The person wore an advanced protective suit, unlike the standard-issue model used at the base—lighter and more form-fitting. He carried a metal container roughly the size of a suitcase.

The figure paused outside the storage room for three seconds, then pushed the door open and went inside.

Forty-two seconds later, he emerged empty-handed and quickly left the camera's range.

The entire process took less than a minute.

"Can you make out his face?" Lin Xiao asked.

The duty officer enlarged the footage, but the visor of the protective suit reflected the light, revealing only a vague outline. He was about 1.75 meters tall, leanly built, and moved with agility.

"Track his route," Lin Xiao said.

The duty officer switched feeds and pulled up footage from the other cameras.

But then something bizarre happened.

After leaving the storage room, the man entered a surveillance blind spot in the corridor. Then... he vanished.

None of the subsequent cameras captured him.

It was as if he had never existed.

"That's impossible," the duty officer muttered. "There are only two exits from this corridor, and both are under surveillance..."

"Unless he knew the location of every camera and knew how to avoid them," Lin Xiao said.

He recalled the independent subnet he had discovered earlier—the hidden network monitoring the base's surveillance system.

This person had definitely used that network. He had planned his route in advance and avoided every active surveillance point.

"Captain Lin, this..." The duty officer's voice trembled slightly. "Who is this person? How did he get in?"

Lin Xiao did not answer.

He stared at the frozen frame, at that blurry figure.

A mysterious figure.

A third-party force.

They had been watching the base all along, waiting for an opportunity. The laboratory leak had not been an accident, or at least not entirely an accident. They might have triggered it, or perhaps they had foreseen it and used the chaos to carry out their plan.

But what was their goal?

Had they taken the Prototype Sample for research? Or for some other purpose?

Lin Xiao recalled Blood Axe's final words.

"You think this is over? Those things... they're only the beginning..."

The beginning of what?

A greater crisis? Or another conspiracy?

Lin Xiao shut off the surveillance feed and turned to leave the monitoring center.

In the corridor, the white glow of the emergency lights remained bright, but the shadows seemed deeper. The sharp smell of disinfectant filled the air, yet it could not conceal that faint, sweet fragrance—it had seeped into every corner of the base, like some ominous portent.

Lin Xiao headed toward his temporary quarters.

His steps were steady, but his thoughts churned.

The container was gone.

The mysterious figure had vanished.

The whereabouts of the Prototype Sample were unknown.

And within the base, there were still Blood Axe's remaining men, neutral factions watching from the sidelines, and a possibly lurking third-party force.

The purification was complete.

But the doubts had only just begun.