Chapter 52

Chapter 52

For Yun Feng, this was undoubtedly a profound humiliation, especially in front of his subordinates.

Thus, Yun Feng would rather die than dance to entertain others.

Just as Jiang Linchuan had guessed, Yun Feng stood frozen.

"Are you challenging me?" Shen Jin asked calmly.

"No," Yun Feng replied, looking at him, "but could we try a different approach?"

"Alright, no dancing, then sing a song." Shen Jin looked at Wu Yao with an affectionate gaze, "Do you enjoy music?"

Wu Yao tilted his head back, seeking help from Jiang Linchuan.

Jiang Linchuan’s gaze settled on Shen Jin’s face, his brow subtly furrowed.

"Can I try to make him laugh?" a team member offered, raising his hand to rescue Yun Feng. "I can do it."

A harsh lash of the whip was the team member’s reply. Shen Jin smiled, surveying the others, "Who else wants to volunteer in his place?"

Jiang Linchuan’s brow furrowed deeper.

Yun Feng glanced at his team members, finally closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and prepared to sing.

"How about just whipping him instead?" Jiang Linchuan interjected.

Shen Jin slowly turned to him, "What do you mean?"

"Whip him thoroughly to let them vent their frustrations," Jiang Linchuan clarified.

Shen Jin observed him silently.

Jiang Linchuan was helping Yun Feng. For many humans, emotional anguish far surpassed physical pain.

His human was constantly aiding others—the wounds on his hands and arms were all sustained for other humans. Now, he was not only betraying him but also assisting other humans against him.

Excellent.

"You do it," Shen Jin calmly tossed the whip to Jiang Linchuan.

Jiang Linchuan caught it.

Old Turtle opened the cell door, and Jiang Linchuan stepped out.

Without hesitation, Jiang Linchuan raised the whip high and brought it down hard on Yun Feng.

After three lashes, Jiang Linchuan looked at Shen Jin, "Is that enough? Any more and it could be fatal."

Shen Jin was unusually agreeable, "Of course, you decide."

Yun Feng breathed a sigh of relief, weakly mouthing "Thank you" to Jiang Linchuan.

Yun Feng was thrown back into the cell. Jiang Linchuan returned the whip to Shen Jin and murmured, "Let’s talk for a bit."

Shen Jin lifted his eyelids, his face etched with coldness and detachment, "Jiang Linchuan, you are a very good human."

"What do you mean?" Jiang Linchuan was taken aback, sensing this was not a compliment.

"It means..." Shen Jin leaned close, whispering in his ear, "Starting today, you are no longer fit to serve me. I don’t want you anymore." A human who betrayed him, a people-pleaser—he could get lost.

Humans were never reliable.

*

I don’t want you anymore.

From that day on, Shen Jin ceased visiting the underground lab. The team members on Yun Feng’s side all had flowers planted on their heads. Each received one bowl of food daily—insufficient to sate their hunger, yet they still had to provide nutrients for the plants. The entire group grew pale and weak, but even so, their pursuit of belief remained unwavering. Every day, they shielded the researcher as he analyzed various data.

Jiang Linchuan’s situation was slightly better. Nothing was planted on their heads, and with Old Turtle’s discreet intervention, their food improved.

Of course, Wu Yao fared the best. Every day, people devised new ways to make him laugh, with Xiao Lanhua diligently tallying nearby—each successful laugh counted as one million.

In contrast to Yun Feng and his comrades’ readiness to face death, Zheng Jian and a few others spent their days plotting an escape. They meticulously recorded all available information, hoping to find an opportunity to flee. Only their Captain Jiang lay on his bed, arms tucked behind his head, his face etched with worry.

"Captain Jiang, I’ve been observing," Zheng Jian whispered, "These monsters are just ordinary, with no special powers. At most, they’re a bit stronger or have wings to fly. None of that is truly formidable. As long as we avoid the warden and the Abyss Lord, our chances of a successful escape are quite high."

"Escape? Only to be captured again?" Jiang Linchuan said calmly.

"So we’re just supposed to stay locked up here forever, waiting to be turned into flower pots?"

Jiang Linchuan glanced at the daredevil team across the way, "There will be a resolution, sooner or later." Either they would deal with the Abyss Lord, or the Abyss Lord would deal with them.

For now, there was no rush to escape.

But one matter was urgent.

"I feel like something’s amiss. I need to go and clarify a few things." Jiang Linchuan sat up, went to the bars, grabbed them with both hands, and forced them apart. The iron bars instantly bent, creating a gap wide enough for a person to pass through.

Everyone in the cell stared in shock—the material of these bars was specially made, and he just bent them like that?

Jiang Linchuan slipped out. Zheng Jian immediately tried to follow, but Jiang Linchuan turned and bent the bars back into place.

Zheng Jian: "..."

Xiao Lanhua, who was keeping count, pointed at him, trembling, "Y-you... you... you..."

"I’m just going for a quick stroll. I’ll be back soon." Jiang Linchuan nodded politely to her, then walked past her, opened the cell door, and exited.

Xiao Lanhua: "???"

Jiang Linchuan headed upstairs. On the way, he encountered several monsters, all staring at him wide-eyed.

Jiang Linchuan waved at them casually, "I’m going upstairs to see your warden. I’ll be back shortly." Then he swaggered past them and continued upward.

"..."

One more flight of stairs, and he ran into Hua Fudie, swaying with a glass of red wine while dancing.

Hua Fudie looked at him. He looked back at Hua Fudie.

The two had met before—it was this one who had taken him home when he was injured, feverish, and lying on the ground.

"Hi," Hua Fudie waved at him, mumbling, "Out for a walk?"

Jiang Linchuan nodded thoughtfully, "I’m looking for... the Abyss Lord."

"Abyss Lord?" Hua Fudie’s eyes shifted. His adoptive father had always used the Abyss Lord’s name, so he couldn’t blow his cover. He shook his head, "The Abyss Lord isn’t here."

"Then what about that brat of mine? Is he here?"

"...He's up there."

"Which floor?"

"Eighteenth floor."

"Okay, thanks." Jiang Linchuan walked past him and continued upward.

Hua Fudie: "..." Grandpa is truly grandpa, completely at ease wherever he goes.

Jiang Linchuan climbed the stairs floor by floor, encountering hardly any monsters along the way. After all, monsters were still a minority, and these monsters didn't possess much power on their own—they relied entirely on the Abyss Lord, and now also on Shen Jin.

A large sign hung at the entrance of the eighteenth-floor corridor, bearing the words "Laboratory."

Jiang Linchuan pushed the door open. What he saw were tall, human-shaped... radishes, lotus roots, trees, bananas, potatoes...

Some had noses and eyes carved into them, some had crooked heads, some had only limbs, and others had twisted noses and slanted eyes—it looked truly grotesque.

Jiang Linchuan walked further in, weaving past the human-shaped plants until he came face to face with a slender man in a white lab coat and a mask.

Shen Jin wasn’t surprised to see him, merely casting him a lazy glance. "Captain Jiang, have I been overly lenient with you?"

Captain Jiang?

He used to call him by his name directly.

"What are all these? Vegetables for dinner?" Jiang Linchuan frowned slightly.

"...Are you crazy?" Shen Jin rolled his eyes, then spread his arms proudly. "This is my experiment. Isn’t it impressive?"

"Experiment? Your experiment? What kind of experiment?" Jiang Linchuan fired off three questions in a row.

"An experiment to destroy humanity and allow monsters to thrive and survive for generations."

"Relying on these?" Shen Jin hoisted himself onto the table, swinging his long legs and tilting his head to look at Jiang Linchuan through his glasses. "Don’t think I don’t know what you humans are up to."

"A hundred years ago, the Abyss Lord made an agreement with that human general. What the general thought at the time, whether he was sincere, no longer matters. What matters is what he ended up doing."

"What did he do? He conducted experiments, trying to make humans stronger than monsters. He wanted to defeat the Abyss Lord, to take him down. He wanted humans to rule the world. He didn’t want a powerful monster threatening him. Captain Jiang, am I right?"

Jiang Linchuan said nothing, his gaze fixed intently on him.

The current Shen Jin was very different from the Shen Jin he knew—not the hot-headed youth with a bad temper, nor the gentle, refined facade of Bai Ba Ba. This was Shen Jin’s "true face."

Shen Jin pushed his glasses up with a finger.

"Humans showed monsters no mercy at all—driving them away, imprisoning them, experimenting on them. So, the original agreement has long been voided, hasn’t it?"

"The Abyss Lord said he sent monsters to negotiate with humans, but humans kept delaying. Why? Because they were trying to find a way to suppress the Abyss Lord. Am I right?"

Shen Jin had always been clever; it was just that his initial entry into human society made him seem naive.

Jiang Linchuan didn’t deny any of this. Instead, he said to Shen Jin, "Believe me, I will protect you and the little one."

"Believe you? Protect me?" Shen Jin sneered. "You've got some nerve. Why should I trust a human?"

"Compared to a human who betrayed me, I naturally trust the powerful Abyss Lord more."

"Trust the Abyss Lord?" Jiang Linchuan narrowed his eyes. "What did he tell you?"

"He told me a lot, and I think he makes sense." Shen Jin jumped off the table and wandered through the human-shaped fruits and vegetables, hands behind his back. "Monsters can make humans stronger, but humans offer nothing of value to monsters. They are utterly useless."

"Since that’s the case, why not wipe humans out completely and turn this world into a world for monster-people?"

"Monster-people?"

"Exactly, just like the evolved humans you’re experimenting with." Shen Jin patted the human-shaped lotus root. "Take Nezha as an example. Before he died, he was a powerful human. After death, he took form through the lotus root and became a monster-person. You must understand, there’s a fundamental difference between the two. Humans emphasize inheritance, lineage, and bloodlines. That’s why you want to eliminate monsters that can take human form and instead research humans who can possess monster abilities."

It was a bit convoluted, but Jiang Linchuan understood.

Shen Jin’s learning ability was indeed strong; he had grasped the worst aspects of human nature.

"Then how do you plan to turn this world into a world for monster-people?" Jiang Linchuan asked.

"That’s incredibly simple." Shen Jin curled his lips slightly, a glint in his eyes. "As long as I master the way humans think, I can generate countless brilliant ideas. For example, by exploiting human women the way human men do, we can easily transform the world."

Jiang Linchuan frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Don’t understand? It’s simple. I learned this from watching TV dramas." Shen Jin raised an eyebrow, explaining to Jiang Linchuan. "Human women have no clans, no inheritance, no bloodlines. They don’t care about surnames or ambition. They only care about love. As long as you give them love, they will dedicate themselves to carrying on the lineage for human men who lack reproductive abilities and to perpetuating the men’s clans."

Jiang Linchuan: "..." What kind of TV dramas has he been watching?

"Look." Shen Jin pointed to the tall human-shaped vegetables and fruits behind him. "I can make them all have blood and the appearance of human men. They will be stronger, more majestic, more devoted, and more handsome than human men. As long as they can give human women love, these women will devote their entire lives to the propagation of monsters."

Shen Jin raised a finger. "As long as there’s no reproductive isolation, it will take only one generation to wipe out all the useless human men. Then the world will become a world for monsters."

Shen Jin grew more excited the more he thought about it. "This is the experiment I want to conduct. So, am I not brilliant?"

Jiang Linchuan raised a hand to massage his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

Such a crazy, twisted, and inhuman idea... had actually been experimented with by humans many years ago.

They wanted to make humans stronger, hoping that stronger humans would produce even stronger children. So, women used as test subjects were imprisoned and turned into tools. Deformed, horrifying children were born and then buried underground.

But what humans failed to achieve, the Abyss Lord and Shen Jin, with their abilities, had a high chance of accomplishing.

Jiang Linchuan opened his mouth, intending to discuss some noble values, but ultimately gave up. It had to be said that a monster newly introduced to the human world had glimpsed some essential truths about humanity and accurately seized upon them to plot world domination.

Shen Jin picked up a sugarcane and began carving it. "I think the primal activities of humans are still important. I’ve been studying some videos lately and think human men are utterly useless. Since we need human women to help monsters bear children, the experience should still be enjoyable. Do you think this length is acceptable?" Shen Jin held up a carved sugarcane, about the length of a forearm, for Jiang Linchuan to see.

Jiang Linchuan nearly choked on his own saliva.

"Feeling both envious and scared?" Shen Jin glanced at him. "Don’t worry, when that day comes, I’ll personally snap your neck. It won’t be too painful."

"Alright, seeing you irritates me. Get lost back to your cell." His tail coiled around Jiang Linchuan, and with ten times the speed, he flung him back into the prison cell.

In the cell, Yun Feng and the others took the opportunity to transmit the data they had recently collected. Whatever message they received seemed to excite them.

"What are they really up to?" Zheng Jian, recalling what Jiang Linchuan had said earlier about the new humans, felt uneasy. He asked Jiang Linchuan, "Captain Jiang, do you think we should agree to the Abyss Lord’s demands or eliminate him?"

Before the overwhelmed Jiang Linchuan could respond, the cell door opened. Tu Mi entered the opposite cell and began drawing blood from Yun Feng with a syringe—about 800ml. Shortly after, Old Turtle brought food. The meals for the opposite cell returned to normal, with many blood-nourishing foods added.

Jiang Linchuan’s brow suddenly furrowed. The blood that lets the little one and Shen Jin live like humans came from him. So, Shen Jin was fully capable of giving a monster human blood and enabling it to live a normal human life.

If Shen Jin succeeded, things would truly be a mess.

Jiang Linchuan stood up, looking at the pale-faced Yun Feng in the opposite cell, and asked in a low voice, "What exactly is your plan?"

Although Yun Feng and Jiang Linchuan often held opposing stances on many matters, at this moment they were both captives of the Abyss. Thus, Yun Feng naturally assumed they were on the same page about some things, so he shared the latest news with Jiang Linchuan: "The military may have pinpointed the Abyss Lord's weakness. We have a chance to be rescued."

"Weakness? What weakness?"

"It's not 100% yet, but the military will definitely take action soon."

It seemed the military was dead set against negotiating with the Abyss Lord.

From a young age, Jiang Linchuan knew ordinary humans had zero say. He held no lofty ideals nor extreme views due to his past experiences, and it was no different now. The decisions and plans of high-ranking military officials were beyond his influence or change. All he wanted now was to protect Shen Jin and the kid—even if Shen Jin was a madman determined to eradicate human men.

Jiang Linchuan slid through the iron bars and slipped out.

Xiao Lanhua: "..." Out again? This is just way too casual.

Jiang Linchuan, familiar with the route, went up to the eighteenth floor.

This time, the floor was covered in severed limbs. Shen Jin stood before a giant lotus root, arms crossed, talking to himself: "Can't trust what's on TV after all—nothing but holes."

Hua Fudie sat nearby chowing down on watermelon: "Even though I think your plan is epic and doable, at this rate of making one every few days, when will we ever replace all human men?"

"I've got it." Shen Jin's eyes suddenly lit up. "3D human printing—create perfect human forms. We can pump them out on an assembly line."

"No fucking way, *Yifu*, you're a genius." Hua Fudie shot up. "I'll go buy a 3D printer right now."

Jiang Linchuan said flatly: "Won't they all look the same?"

"What's wrong with looking the same? As long as the mothers are different, the children will be different. The fathers can be discarded after use." Shen Jin remained unperturbed by his arrival. "In just a few generations, it'll be completely changed."

"Can you pause your crazy ideas for a moment?" Jiang Linchuan walked up to him.

"Too late. Look over there." Shen Jin pointed behind him.

A chill ran down Jiang Linchuan's spine as a dreadful thought crossed his mind. He slowly turned around and, even though he was mentally prepared, broke into a cold sweat at the sight of Yun Feng standing there completely naked.

The nose, eyes, and mouth were sculpted perfectly.

Jiang Linchuan: "..." If Yun Feng saw this, he'd probably have an aneurysm on the spot.

"This will be my first masterpiece. Octopuses and earthworms have strong regenerative abilities. Blend them with blood to grow real flesh, add a pair of wings, give it eagle vision, a bear's sense of smell..."

Jiang Linchuan covered Shen Jin's mouth with his hand, wrapped an arm around him from behind, and steered him toward a nearby bedroom.

Hua Fudie shouted: "Grandpa, let go of my *Yifu*! If you don't release him, I'll call you grandpa again!"

Hua Fudie got himself pinned to the wall.

Jiang Linchuan kicked the door shut. Shen Jin turned in his embrace, suddenly clenched his five fingers around Jiang Linchuan's throat forcing him to tilt his head back, and spoke grimly: "Jiang Linchuan, I’ve been too lenient with you, haven’t I? Letting you get way too comfortable?"

Jiang Linchuan didn't even blink: "I want to apologize. You choose how."

"What?"

"How can I apologize to make you forgive me?" Jiang Linchuan didn’t waste time explaining—it was pointless anyway—and cut straight to the outcome.

"Why should I forgive you? A human who betrayed me deserves to die."

"Isn't death too easy a way out for me?"

Shen Jin narrowed his eyes.

That did seem to make sense.

"Humans can be particularly hung up on pride sometimes, proud, unable to bear humiliation," Jiang Linchuan reminded him. "Why not keep me around to humiliate me whenever you want?"

"How would you humiliate me?" Shen Jin released him, took a step back, and gave him the once-over. "You’re shameless. I’ve never seen you care about face."

Jiang Linchuan: "..."

"Besides, I plan to make a monster that looks just like you to serve me instead."

"Don’t." Jiang Linchuan moved closer and whispered in his ear, "Haven’t I made you feel good these past few days? Did you miss it?"

Shen Jin pressed his lips together and said nothing.

Jiang Linchuan doubled down: "If I use my mouth, you’ll feel even better. And for a human man, that’s the ultimate humiliation."

Shen Jin’s eyes uncontrollably lit up: "...Really?"

"Of course, it's true."

"I could make a monster to do that for me too."

"..." Jiang Linchuan clenched his jaw. "A radish is brittle—it’ll fall apart after two tries. Try mine." Jiang Linchuan took Shen Jin’s slender hand and guided it to his lips, nipping at his fingertips. "Want to give it a try?"

The warmth of his tongue spread like a jolt of electricity through Shen Jin’s fingertips. Shen Jin hesitated.

Jiang Linchuan took advantage to push him onto the bed. The powerful Abyss Lord landed on the bed with ease.

Jiang Linchuan dropped to one knee before him, looking up: "I’m about to be humiliated. After humiliating me, can you forgive me?"

"Hah, are you telling me what to do?" Shen Jin lifted his foot and pressed it against Jiang Linchuan’s shoulder. "Jiang Linchuan, you should know you’re trying to stay alive here. You’re not calling the shots here."

"Okay, Master, I understand." Jiang Linchuan smiled at him, reached out to grasp his ankle, and squeezed it lightly. "Let’s begin then."