Chapter 459 Going Underground

Chapter 459: Heading Underground

On the way back, Kong Rui gripped the steering wheel of the black car with focus. An indescribable atmosphere hung in the air. In the passenger seat, Lin Xiaoan gazed silently out the window, her eyes slightly cold, as if contemplating what was to come.

In the back seat, Su Bai sat beside Jiang Hong, the atmosphere similarly tense.

Su Bai tilted his head slightly, glanced at the unfamiliar cityscape outside the window, frowned, and then broke the silence. "This route seems a bit off."

He put on a tone of confusion, but his sidelong glance was calm, as if his words were merely a probe.

Jiang Hong reacted swiftly, his face wearing its usual smile, his voice detached and composed. "Mr. Su, it must have been a long time since you returned to Qingliu City, right? The city has changed quite a bit. This is a quicker route now."

On the surface, Su Bai furrowed his brows, deliberately injecting a hint of hesitation into his tone. "Is that so? It has indeed been a long time. Maybe I should just get out and walk? I could see how the city's changed."

He made a show of tensing up, seemingly hinting that he was becoming alert.

Jiang Hong's smile grew strained at this moment, his tone gradually cooling.

"Is that so?" The pretense in Jiang Hong's voice faded, turning sharp. He suddenly reached out, openly touching Su Bai's arm.

Instantly, the puzzle pieces within Su Bai's body were awakened. Sensing external malice, they grew restless. All the pieces, including "Yao," stirred within the puzzle space. Su Bai fought to calm them, holding their power fluctuations in check to appear incapable of resistance.

The next moment, Su Bai felt a chilling energy pass through Jiang Hong's hand and touch his skin. The sensation was bizarre, even capable of disrupting the flow of bodily fluids within Su Bai.

At this point, Su Bai suddenly had a strange feeling, as if... he was still human.

Although Su Bai hadn't lost control of his body, he could clearly sense that if this power were used on an ordinary person, it would have left them weak and paralyzed. Moreover, Su Bai could feel that Jiang Hong had likely brushed against the threshold of "power," his application of it clearly superior to other players.

His original plan was to let Jiang Hong's power affect him without a change in expression.

But in that instant, a sudden impulse made Su Bai silently cleanse Jiang Hong's ability entirely. Although Jiang Hong had grasped some rudiments of the Red Moon's power, before Su Bai, his power was almost instantly dissolved.

Feeling his power being cleansed, Jiang Hong let out an angry laugh. "As expected of the powerful Healer Captain Qin spoke of, to shake off my control so easily."

He then turned to Lin Xiaoan in the passenger seat, his voice cold. "Xiao An, it's your turn."

A strange smile played on Lin Xiaoan's lips as she turned to look at Su Bai, her voice soft yet sinister. "Mr. Su, why don't you just have a nice sleep? By the time you wake up, we'll have reached our destination."

As she spoke, Lin Xiaoan's hand slowly reached toward the back seat, her fingertips carrying a mysterious energy aimed directly at Su Bai.

A few seconds later, normally, Lin Xiaoan's hypnosis should have taken effect; an ordinary person under her ability would have fallen into a deep sleep. However, Su Bai felt no drowsiness at all.

Nevertheless, to avoid blowing his cover, Su Bai allowed his body to enter a state of Meditation. In this state, he appeared to be asleep, but his perception of everything around him remained crystal clear.

Jiang Hong, his gaze wary, reached out and gently touched Su Bai's shoulder to confirm his state, then let out a sigh of relief, muttering under his breath, "He's asleep."

He turned his head, his expression relaxing slightly, a sarcastic edge entering his voice. "It seems this Mr. Su Hang, while formidable, is after all a support-type player. His combat power isn't high, and he doesn't seem to have many defensive items on him."

Hearing this, Kong Rui also chuckled. "Once we get to the lab, I'm definitely going to search him, see if he has any good stuff. Call it compensation for our manual labor." His tone carried a hint of resentment when mentioning their earlier work.

In his meditative state, Su Bai "slept soundly" while secretly listening to the conversation in the car.

He gradually began to realize that Jiang Hong's earlier claim about changing the route wasn't necessarily a lie; their car was indeed getting closer and closer to the Mist Shop.

As the owner of the Mist Shop, Su Bai could naturally sense its location. Using this connection, Su Bai could roughly infer his current position in Qingliu City.

And now, rather than saying they were getting closer to the Mist Shop, it was more accurate to say they were getting closer to the University District street. Moreover, after the vehicle began to slow down, their location started to resemble the abandoned park and factory area Su Bai had visited when he encountered the No. 1 sample!

A loud *clang—* The sound of a heavy iron gate being pushed open reached Su Bai's ears. The air was tinged with the smell of rust. As the vehicle slowly drove in, this eerie atmosphere grew stronger.

After the vehicle came to a stop, Jiang Hong and Kong Rui lifted the "sleeping" Su Bai out and carefully placed him on Kong Rui's back. Kong Rui carried Su Bai with steady steps, but within the steel-structured building, their footsteps were amplified, echoing around them as if they had entered a cold, metallic special room.

Su Bai kept his eyes closed, his body still in a meditative state, but his perception hadn't weakened in the slightest. He could feel they had entered a metal-constructed building. The next moment, Su Bai suddenly sensed the space beneath his feet narrowing, the airflow in the air beginning to diffuse outward, and the temperature dropping slightly.

They were entering a small, enclosed space.

An elevator?

Su Bai felt they were moving downward. The humming sound confirmed that the elevator they were in was slowly descending.

Did Qingliu City have such underground structures?

The only thing Su Bai could be sure of was that Jiang Hong and his group were definitely not the ones who built this underground facility. Whether in terms of time, resources, or secrecy, pulling off a secret space of this scale in such a short time exceeded the capabilities of a player team.

The only reasonable explanation was that this space had originally existed underground in Qingliu City. Jiang Hong's group had merely discovered it, repurposed it, and transformed it into the current laboratory.

This explanation made sense and also implied that this place held its own secrets.