"Ye Feng, these should be humans who failed the divine stone irradiation experiment. This divine stone experiment base should exist to create replicas of Cerberus, that is, the dog-headed strongmen!"
Qiao Ying said, shining his flashlight over a pile of strange dog-headed strongmen corpses.
"Humans?"
Ye Feng frowned slightly and looked at Qiao Ying, "The divine stone irradiation experiment is to produce dog-headed strongmen?"
Qiao Ying shook his head gently, "The divine stone irradiation experiment is to allow the subjects to possess so-called divine power, that is, spatial power, not specifically to produce dog-headed strongmen... However, the most common successful subjects are dog-headed strongmen..."
"Of course, after being irradiated by the divine stone, the subjects will also gain some other strange powers..."
"Speaking of the divine stone experiment... there's something I've always been unable to understand..."
Qiao Ying's eyes were full of doubt, "That is, the divine stone irradiation experiment is free... as long as certain conditions are met, one can undergo the divine stone irradiation experiment..."
"Holy cow, what kind of organization is so benevolent?"
Upon hearing this, Ye Feng was immediately surprised.
"Uh... it's the Dark Holy Cult..."
After a pause, Qiao Ying spoke again, "The Dark Holy Cult is an organization with a mysterious origin, mysterious members, and even mysterious goals..."
"It was only during the Great Cataclysm that this organization became known to many people... I heard some human powerhouses say that the Dark Holy Cult has probably existed in this world for thousands of years..."
"Previously, when I explored ancient ruins, I discovered that this organization was also interested in ancient ruins, and their target was the Angel's Stone of Hope..."
"For this reason, I specifically investigated this organization, but I didn't gain much... I only know that this organization is looking for something... providing free divine stone irradiation experiments, allowing people to gain powerful strength, is also related to what they are looking for..."
Qiao Ying quickly explained to Ye Feng.
After listening to Qiao Ying's words, Ye Feng frowned and asked, "Qiao Ying, what did you mean by 'certain conditions' just now?"
"I'm not very clear about the general selection criteria, but once people are preliminarily selected, as long as they get close to the divine stone and it reacts, they will be taken for the divine stone irradiation experiment, whether they are willing or not..."
As he spoke, Qiao Ying shone his flashlight towards a place not far to the left, which looked like an altar stone platform. "That place is the so-called God Conferring Platform that the dog-headed strongman mentioned earlier. The divine stone experiment subjects would be tied to the platform to receive irradiation from the divine stone above..."
"Brother, hurry over!"
At this moment, Xiao Xiao's surprised voice came.
"Huh? What's wrong?"
Ye Feng frowned slightly and quickly ran towards Xiao Xiao's location.
"Xiao Xiao, what's the matter?"
Ye Feng looked at Xiao Xiao with concern. She was currently squeezing between a bunch of open cabinets.
"Brother, look here, there's a photo of Bing Jie!"
As she spoke, Xiao Xiao pointed her spotlight in front of her. "I've searched here. Many cabinets have been pried open, and only this one is locked. I put a lot of effort into opening it, and I thought it contained some treasure, but it turned out to be a photo of Bing Jie!"
"Hmm?"
Hearing this, Ye Feng frowned, walked to Xiao Xiao's side, and looked in the direction she was pointing. He saw a photo inside a black safe.
"Xiao Xiao, are you sure the person in the photo is Bing? Could it be someone who looks like her?"
After picking up the photo and examining it, Ye Feng couldn't help but feel a little confused, because the Bing in the photo looked much younger than he remembered...
"No way, this is Bing Jie!"
Xiao Xiao was very certain.
"Brother, there's writing on the back of the photo!"
At this moment, Xiao Xiao, who was standing opposite Ye Feng and happened to see the back of the photo, spoke again.
"There's writing?"
Ye Feng frowned slightly, flipped the photo over, and found a line of text written on it: "Dead branch reacts, optimal divine stone subject!"
"Dead branch? Optimal subject?"
Looking at the words on the back of the photo, Ye Feng was bewildered, not quite understanding what it meant.
"Ye Feng, this place was probably abandoned for some unknown reason. Those who left were in a hurry... Many cabinets had keys, but they were pried open violently..."
"Look, the keys are all on the ground..."
As he spoke, Qiao Ying held a key, closed a cabinet, and then reopened it.
"And speaking of which... the dog-headed strongman we just encountered... his strength was very ordinary... I'm afraid they were considered failed products that died and were discarded, and they managed to survive..."
After a pause, Qiao Ying looked towards the stone gate and said.
"This divine stone experiment base has been abandoned..."
Ye Feng frowned slightly, put the photo, which was very likely Bing's, into his spatial storage, and then explored the divine stone experiment base with Xiao Xiao and Qiao Ying.
The presence of the dog-headed strongmen earlier had terrified many explorers. Most of the surviving explorers had fled, while a few brave ones who stayed behind did not dare to enter the stone gate and explored elsewhere...
...
More than two hours later,
It was already evening.
"This divine stone experiment base is so bizarre, there's no useful supplies... Damn it!"
Ye Feng, who had returned to the surface, was very angry.
He and Xiao Xiao and Qiao Ying had been exploring underground for a long time. Apart from encountering a bunch of miscellaneous monsters that were hard to name, there were no divine stones or any useful supplies to be found...
"Ye Feng, that photo of yours is probably a very important item to the founder of this divine stone experiment base!"
"From the condition of the safe, the person at that time wanted to destroy the safe and take the item, but failed. They only managed to destroy the defensive array outside the safe..."
"It's estimated that the situation was very urgent and chaotic at the time, and the person left without even checking carefully..."
Qiao Ying, who was standing beside Xiao Xiao and watching her paint, walked over and comforted Ye Feng after hearing his words.
"That seems to be the case... If we really pass by the City of Arcane Arts next, I'll ask Bing about it..."
"Speaking of which, it's been a long time since I've had any news from Bing..."
Ye Feng had tried to send messages to Bing using the Mirror Arcane Yuan coin, but had not received any replies.
"Brother, the sun is about to set, are we going to spend the night here?"
At this moment, Xiao Xiao, who had just finished painting the "Sunset over the Mountains" picture, asked Ye Feng.
"No, we'll drive a bit further and find a place to spend the night!"
Ye Feng shook his head decisively.
After all, the underground caves here were all-pervasive, and who knew where a monster's nest might be. Although he wasn't afraid, he didn't want to be disturbed by monsters in his dreams...
...