Chapter 292 - 289: Dragon Seal
By the time the Innate Realm security captain and his men from the villa district arrived, it was all over.
In fact, the commotion that had drawn them over was deliberately caused by the Yang Family.
"What happened? Did the automatic alarms malfunction?"
The villas in Cyan Dragon District were a whole different matter from those in Jinshui District. They had a comprehensive security system, which included not only conventional measures like cameras but also high-tech devices like "Source Detectors" and "Vibration Detectors."
But no matter the equipment, it wasn’t appropriate to point it directly into someone’s home. This was one of the difficulties of villa security.
What if a couple both had high Martial Cultivation? Should they knock on the door every time they detected a vibration?
But for half the building to collapse without any alarm going off, forcing them to rely on their hearing to notice it, was more than a little ridiculous.
A team of security guards rushed over. When they saw the side of the large villa had collapsed, their hearts sank.
"What was the owner’s name again... They spent a fortune on renovations!"
"Who cares what his name is! Save people first! Check for survivors!"
However, when they went inside to search, they found... signs of a fight, but not a single person...
Only... a large hole torn in the living room floor, revealing a basement below.
"Huh? For this model of house in our complex, the basement isn’t supposed to be in this location, is it? Captain! They built an illegal structure!"
The captain slapped the back of his team member’s head. "Are you drunk?! Who gives a damn about illegal structures at a time like this!"
But as the men called the police and cautiously began to investigate below...
...they discovered a surprisingly well-equipped laboratory underground.
Most of the jars and containers were empty, but one or two still held disgusting insects preserved in liquid...
It was obvious these weren’t good people.
The security captain’s face was grim. "Let’s go back up. This isn’t a simple security incident. It’s a criminal den. Let the police handle it."
But as he looked up at the gaping hole, the security captain couldn’t shake a certain feeling.
It seemed as if it had been broken intentionally, to make it easier for them to discover the secret here...
’Who was the righteous hero who did this?’
——————
In the dead of night, the Yang Family had already moved everything they had acquired to an abandoned warehouse in the Vermilion Bird District.
The location had been scouted out long ago.
A total of 17 people had been captured. That was too many; there was no need to keep the small fry.
After a preliminary screening, only the truly important individuals would be kept, and they would be moved again at that time.
Inside the factory, the members of the Yang Clan never removed their cloaks and masks, remaining silent in the shadows from start to finish.
All the Rebel Species members were tied up securely, except for two unlucky souls who were paralyzed from the neck down.
They had also brought back a large amount of laboratory data, Gu Insect samples, and entire computer hard drives, which would provide Lin Yuebai with ample material and specimens.
It was a massive haul.
Among the group, only Long Jiu was an expert in interrogation. Her techniques, passed down from the Rebel Species themselves, were an interdisciplinary art form, blending psychology, physics, and biology. Anyone who could last ten minutes against her was an absolute tough guy.
Interestingly, after becoming a Yang Family Shadow Guard, she ended up using these very skills back on the Rebel Species’ own people.
One could say she was paying homage to her roots.
Meanwhile, in a corner of the warehouse, Yang Shen wasn’t watching the interrogation. Instead, he sat face-to-face with five youths who had vacant stares.
Xu Bamboo’s gaze swept over the five’s faces. Although their features were different, their similar expressions made them seem as if they were cast from the same mold.
"Didn’t you say... Long Jiu was the only one left... How are there so many more..."
Yang Shen sat on a discarded crate, his tone hard to read. "To be precise, these guys really aren’t from the same batch as Long Jiu..."
He had already "chatted" with them before revealing himself, so he knew they were the so-called "Dragon Soldiers."
In fact, it wasn’t Lu Chengfeng who had ordered these five to burst through the ceiling; it was Yang Shen.
He did it so that whoever came later would understand this was no ordinary security incident.
After all, the police and official authorities would have very different attitudes toward "wealthy villa owner abducted in a home invasion" versus "righteous hero takes down Rebel Species base."
"According to known information, the Dragonification Experiment has been going on for decades, but it only started seeing relative success in the last twenty years or so."
"Jiang Xingjian said... Long Jiu was used as a test subject when she was a child. There were about ten children in her batch, including Long Ba and Long Qi... Long Jiu was the only one who survived."
"But clearly, their technology is still advancing... The Dragonification Experiment in the Si Realm Great Cloud Marsh has never stopped."
The Three-headed Dragon is the best proof of that...
Yang Shen pointed at the five in front of him. "They aren’t Middle Stage of Innate, but Late-stage Innate... Also, they should be around 24 years old."
Xu Bamboo was surprised. "That’s not right. Even if they’re mentally impaired, how did they reach Late-stage Innate so quickly?"
Late-stage Innate at 24 years old—that was a level extremely difficult to achieve even for a regular Yanhua Martial Artist, or even a Jiangti student...
Yang Shen sighed. "Because they don’t need rest. They feel no fatigue, have no emotions or desires. They’re just like machines..."
Because their Divine Souls are already abnormal, they don’t need sleep. They don’t have to worry about hidden injuries, drug accumulation, or even their lifespan.
It’s unbelievable, but a living person can’t out-grind a robot. These guys literally ground their way to Late-stage Innate, doing nothing but taking pills and Body Forging every single day.
Their life expectancy has even dropped... to 40 years old, a ridiculously low number for a Late-stage Innate Martial Artist.
According to the sparse memories of the "Dragon Soldiers" themselves, at their peak, there were dozens of them. In the end, only a dozen or so survived.
The rest trained themselves to death.
From a risky experiment where not even one in ten survived, to being able to stably produce Late-stage Innate Dragon Soldiers... the Dragonification Experiment had made huge progress and never stopped moving forward.
Yang Shen could even make out a faint line of development.
From the very beginning, driven by an obsession with dragons, they wanted to create one. After achieving preliminary success, they shifted to researching methods to control them.
This "method to control dragons" led to the operating system in Long Jiu’s brain and the precursor technology for the Dragon Soldiers. This technology is now called the "Dragon Seal."
From there, the "Source Transformation Gu" technology was born, resulting in Martial Arts Psychosis and the "Soul-Devouring Gu" that consumed his Uncle’s Divine Soul.
If they were given a few more years, God knows what else they would come up with.
Yang Shen let out a breath of stale air and looked at the most special captive not far away: Lu Chengfeng, who was still in his ’Insectification’ form.
This guy had basically handed Yang Shen the remote control, put in two new batteries, and told him, ’Sir, press whatever you want.’
Originally, Yang Shen hadn’t thought he could even control this guy.
According to the "controllable Lu Chengfeng," he wasn’t qualified to enter the Early-stage True Gang realm in the first place. As a first-generation half-breed of Yanhua and the Si Realm, even with resources piled on him, the most he could reach was Late-stage Innate, and he only got there when he was nearly 60.
It was all thanks to having the "Dragon Seal" implanted a year ago. It was like he’d handed off the "hard work" to another, emotionless part of himself, which was how he luckily became a True Gang master.
It was a bit like an "external brain"... He didn’t have to worry about the hard parts at all; he just needed to enjoy and receive the results.
Just a moment’s thought was enough to understand how incredibly valuable this technology was...
An external brain... a second soul... an AFK training device...
No matter what you called it, it was nothing short of miraculous!
Too bad Lu Chengfeng got completely owned by the Cultivation Side.
His original intention was to activate his mechanized combat instincts for a desperate fight, but he ended up turning himself into a toy...
He even got stuck in a bug... If Yang Shen didn’t issue a command to the "Dragon Seal," Lu Chengfeng would be stuck forever...
However, this also confirmed one thing for Yang Shen: the Dragon Seal and consciousness weren’t mutually exclusive; they could coexist.
This also meant there was hope for Long Jiu to return to normal in the future. Although he didn’t know the state of her "other half," it was still good news.
It seemed the "Dragonification Experiment" had fully entered the application stage. Jiang Xingjian hadn’t used it, but that was just because he was a special case; plus, he’d controlled the Jianghuai Sub-temple for years and was at odds with the Main Altar...
The details of the Dragonification Experiment were only known to the higher-ups at the Main Altar; they were even keeping Jiang Xingjian in the dark.
Yang Shen stood up and walked toward Long Jiu’s interrogation area, telling Xu Bamboo to stay put to avoid seeing something unpleasant.
He said aloud, "In any case, we’ve finally caught a big fish. As the nephew of the Main Altar Master, Lu Chengfeng may not be a researcher, but he knows a lot of secrets... We’ve also gotten clues about the location of the Dragonification Experiment in the Great Cloud Marsh."
"After the winter break starts, we’re going to the Si Realm to solve all these problems."
Xu Bamboo watched Yang Shen’s back and called out from a distance, "This time, we go together."
His tone was unshakably firm.
Yang Shen smiled.
"Of course!"