"Hmm... that bamboo slip... could it be one from the Huǒzhǒnglù?" Ye Feng exclaimed in surprise as Xiaoxiao brought the item to him.
Instantly, a flash of light appeared in his hand, and a rather ancient-looking, reddish-brown bamboo slip materialized. It was indeed the very slip attached to the end of the Huǒzhǒnglù.
"Brother, does this look like the missing part of that Huǒzhǒnglù?"
Earlier, at Han Qiuli's villa, Xiaoxiao had heard Ye Feng mention that the Huǒzhǒnglù might be incomplete, and Ye Feng seemed to care about it a lot.
So, when Xiaoxiao heard Xu Xun looking for similar items here, she had been paying close attention. To her surprise, she had found a bamboo slip that looked extremely similar.
"Let me see!"
Saying this, Ye Feng took the bamboo slip Xiaoxiao handed him and began to compare it.
"The material, the color, even the style of the font are all the same... but the content doesn't seem to connect..."
"Looking at the mountain and river pattern at the bottom of this slip... it seems like a few slips are missing between this one and the bundle of slips!"
Ye Feng muttered after a careful inspection and comparison.
Then, he looked at Xiaoxiao. "Xiaoxiao, where did you find this?"
"Brother, over there, where you were looking at the documents just now! I found it!"
Xiaoxiao quickly pointed to the side, her expression quite excited.
As she spoke, Ye Feng walked towards the location Xiaoxiao indicated, a wooden drawer with gold trim, appearing to be quite old.
Inside the drawer, amidst the silk lining, there was an indentation shaped like a bamboo slip.
"Brother, judging by the indentation inside this drawer, there might have been four slips, but when I found it, there was only one left!"
"I don't know where the other three are. Perhaps someone took them!"
At this moment, Xiaoxiao also walked over and added.
"Indeed!"
Ye Feng nodded. "Xiaoxiao, you did a great job! Here's a candy for you!"
With that, Ye Feng handed Xiaoxiao a White Rabbit candy.
Xiaoxiao immediately took it and happily began to eat it.
Meanwhile, Ye Feng stored the bamboo slip and the Huǒzhǒnglù in his spatial storage and continued searching.
"Dong dong!~"
Just as Ye Feng was about to put the drawer back and check other drawers, a muffled sound came from the wooden drawer upon collision.
"A false bottom?"
Hearing this sound, Ye Feng was surprised. He immediately pulled out the entire wooden drawer and tapped it a few more times.
"Dong dong~ dong dong~!"
The echoes continued to sound.
Seeing this, Ye Feng smiled slightly, took out a small knife, and cut open the drawer's compartment. He discovered a small bottle of transparent injection fluid beneath.
Next to the transparent injection fluid was a small note: "The Scarlet substance experiment is basically a failure. Out of thousands of giant experiments, only one bottle of Scarlet substance was successful. The reason for success is unknown!"
"Holy cow... it's actual Scarlet substance..."
Reading the contents of the note, Ye Feng was somewhat speechless.
After reviewing the documents in the room earlier, he had discovered that the Red Bank ruins had conducted quite in-depth research on serum enhancement.
They had even classified the enhanced serums. According to the Red Bank ruins research, enhanced serums were generally ordinary animal-enhanced serums, granting abilities related to animals. However, like the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Pterodactyl series, they were ancient animal series with extremely potent abilities...
There seemed to be another type of serum that could grant super-powerful abilities, called the Phantom Beast series enhanced serum... but only the name appeared in the documents, with no specific details...
What surprised Ye Feng was that the Red Bank ruins had actually researched something to eliminate the side effects of injecting enhanced serums, called Scarlet substance.
However, based on the information, the Scarlet substance researched by the Red Bank ruins had failed.
Scarlet substance could only alleviate the side effects of enhanced serum power, or even suppress them, but the subsequent rebound of side effects was even more fatal...
Ye Feng had already stopped paying much attention to Scarlet substance, considering it a failed product. He hadn't expected to find a vial of actual Scarlet substance now.
"Scarlet substance... Scarlet... I didn't expect this Scarlet substance to be a transparent liquid..."
Looking at the Scarlet substance injection fluid in his hand, Ye Feng was quite surprised.
"Brother, what's wrong?"
Seeing Ye Feng squatting by the wooden table where the Huǒzhǒnglù bamboo slip was found, looking a bit lost in thought, Xiaoxiao asked curiously.
"Uh, nothing much... I just feel that this table is very out of place with the other items in this secret room... it's very abrupt..."
"And the wood of this table should be Phoebe zhennan wood. Such things are extremely precious, and in ancient times, they were basically reserved for royalty... Logically, it should emit a faint, elegant fragrance."
"But I smelled it just now, and it had a muddy, earthy odor, as if it had been buried in the soil for a long time..."
"Moreover, this table looks very old, like an antique. Combined with the earthy smell, if it were in the past, I would even think it was something a tomb robber had stolen from some royal tomb..."
Ye Feng muttered, looking at the Phoebe zhennan wood table in front of him.
"I don't understand much of what you're saying... but this table is indeed a bit strange..."
Xiaoxiao looked around and scratched her head, then said.
After a slight hesitation, Ye Feng finally stored the entire Phoebe zhennan wood table into his spatial storage. He had a feeling this table was not as simple as it seemed...
Immediately, Ye Feng began to examine the documents at the scene again.
...
By the time Ye Feng had read most of the documents in the secret room, it was already two o'clock in the afternoon.
"Gurgle~"
At this moment, a rumbling protest of hunger sounded.
However, it didn't come from Ye Feng, but from Xiaoxiao.
"Ah~!"
Xiaoxiao's pretty face immediately turned red, and she quickly waved her hands. "Brother, I'm not hungry. Please continue reading the documents~"
"Gurgle~!"
As Xiaoxiao spoke, her stomach rumbled again, making her face even redder.
"Gurgle~"
Before Ye Feng could speak, his stomach also protested.
"Gurgle~"
"Gurgle~"
...
Then, Ye Feng's and Xiaoxiao's stomachs seemed to have made a pact, one rumbling after the other, in perfect sync. At first listen, it was quite rhythmic.
"Pfft!~ Hiss~"
Ye Feng and Xiaoxiao looked at each other and couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"Xiaoxiao, let's have lunch!~"
Saying this, Ye Feng quickly took out braised chicken legs, bread, dried meat, braised eggs, and other food from his spatial storage.
Then, they ate while drinking hot water from their thermal flasks.
At this moment, Ye Feng had a good understanding of what the Red Bank ruins were.
It was initially a secret military base researching enhanced serums. Later, a commander named Joseph arrived, and the research on divine stone irradiation began. It was also this person who brought many desperate situation elixirs, which was why there were trapped giants in this base... Scarlet substance was extracted from the bodies of those giants...
And just as Ye Feng had guessed, that giant that was teleported into the strange gym earlier was indeed the "gym equipment" in the gym.
The one who "worked out" using the giant inside was Joseph.
However, something happened later, and Joseph was torn to shreds by the "gym equipment" while working out...
Strangely, the documents indicated that Joseph was fine and had transformed into a state called "Ghost." The description ended there...
As for experiment subject No. 17, a high-level fifth-tier zombie, it was initially suppressed by Joseph using nuclear radiation. However, after mutating into a sixth-tier zombie, it became immune to nuclear radiation and even seemed to like it... Its body seemed capable of absorbing nuclear radiation... It ended up causing chaos in the nuclear reactor, eating nuclear fuel rods... triggering the nuclear reactor's explosion...
The nuclear power plant with a large crater that Ye Feng and Xiaoxiao saw on their way was caused by experiment subject No. 17...
"This sixth-tier zombie is that terrifying...?"
"Hoo~!"
Ye Feng let out a breath. He realized the situation at the Red Bank ruins was quite complex.
"Let's go, Xiaoxiao. We'll continue moving forward. If there's nothing else, we'll leave here!"
"This underground structure seems to extend downwards. We might be very far from the surface now..."
After finishing their simple lunch, Ye Feng and Xiaoxiao continued their descent.
...