She was sure to come back and save her, the girl who took her away would surely bring her out of the mud again.
Yun He believed so firmly.
It didn't matter if she was sent back to the past again, someone would come to save her even then, and besides, this was just an illusion.
"Just do your best. If you encounter danger, I will find you. At least, I will arrive before you can't hold on."
Bai Cha's words echoed repeatedly in Yun He's mind. When Yun He opened her eyes, she was no longer afraid. She looked directly at her half-dragon, half-human mother and grabbed her shoulders.
"Miss will come to find me, but if you think I'll just sit back and wait, you underestimate me too much. How could I be defeated by an illusion?" Yun He, gripping her mother's shoulders, was exceptionally calm, her gaze even firm. "You missed your chance, but I've made up my mind. I will work hard for both of us."
However, to Yun He's surprise.
The ferocious, half-dragon, half-human creature, her mother, did not show anger, nor did she break down or become hysterical.
The ferocious Yunxia in her memory suddenly became more and more beautiful, younger, as if time were flowing backward, just like her mother when Yun He first knew her—fragile and beautiful, the gentlest woman in the world.
"Mom?" Yun He looked at the beautiful woman embracing her, a little bewildered. She watched Yunxia smile at her, and gradually, she turned into specks of light and dissipated.
And her strength, as if purified, made her body feel light and agile.
What was happening?
The already distorted scenery before her cracked like a thin sheet of glass, turning to ashes. Yun He felt a sudden sense of weightlessness in her heart, startling her into opening her eyes wide.
The cold cement floor was a bit damp. Tangled vines and restraints bound Yun He's limbs. Some of these vines were withered, but they had barbs, and they still hurt when they scraped against her skin.
Yun He struggled with all her might. The barbs tore through her clothes, pierced her skin, and embedded in her flesh. Yet, the strength within her felt light, as if her mother had just given her power.
Yun He stood up with great effort, feeling a bit lost.
"Boom!"
A thunderous noise suddenly came from the dome. Yun He froze, raising her head in shock.
"Boom!"
Another loud noise, this time more pronounced, followed by the sound of steel plates being pierced. The thick granite and steel plate composite barrier was smashed open, creating a large hole.
The moon had just risen, casting a hazy glow, yet faintly, one could see the girl beneath the moon, astonishingly beautiful.
She was still as beautiful as when they first met, her image deeply etched in Yun He's heart, like a goddess.
Her goddess had come to find her!
"Miss Bai!" Yun He exclaimed in surprised delight. It was as if she had been injected with an exhilarating stimulant, her heart pounding so excitedly that she could barely breathe.
Bai Cha leaped down, scooping Yun He up around the waist. Holding Yun He in one arm and Bei Yin Xing in the other, she quickly hopped onto the roof of the haunted house, where Meng Qinghuan and Lucifer were standing.
"Superficial wounds. It seems I wasn't too late," Bai Cha's voice was calm, but a hint of satisfaction could be detected. "Being able to break through the illusion on your own is somewhat beyond my expectations."
After all, it hadn't been a very short time since she rescued Yun He, nor was it an excessively long time. In less than half a year, Yun He had managed to overcome her inner demons, a feat that surpassed most people.
"Miss..." Yun He happily scrambled to her feet. She wasn't seriously injured, and her stamina was relatively good. It was just that she had been tricked and accidentally fallen into a trap earlier.
"Oh, right, Miss! I saw Mo Ziye!" Yun He seemed to remember something and quickly relayed the information she had obtained to Bai Cha. "A middle-aged man was with him. I only saw Mo Ziye's back and heard a few words of their conversation, but Mo Ziye seemed unaware. He also appeared to be investigating something."
Mo Ziye?
Strange, shouldn't he be in class right now? Why would he take leave to come here? He was such a model student. He wouldn't skip class to come out and play, would he?
Bai Cha raised an eyebrow. She didn't think Mo Ziye would be involved in these people's plans. With Mo Ziye's personality, he could easily mess things up. No one would want to involve him in their endeavors.
"Alright, as long as he doesn't delay our mission, it's not important," Bai Cha said. "Now, let's go find Cang Liu Ge and Gu Mingze."
Just as Bai Cha had knocked Bei Yin Xing unconscious and was connecting to the external communication, she received a message from Meng Qinghuan. Gu Mingze was also missing, and the place he was in was empty except for damaged equipment.
Gu Mingze was clearly not as experienced as Cang Liu and Yun He. The communicator and all other clues had been completely destroyed, leaving no useful information behind.
"However, I've figured out the general situation." Bai Cha took out her tablet, pulled up a map, and drew several circles on it. "The surveillance room where Nan Youli is located is in the northeast. The haunted house where Bei Yin Xing is located is in the southwest, and the Xi Yanhua captured by Meng Qinghuan is in the southeast."
As she spoke, Bai Cha drew a line on the map.
"So, according to this angle, which is 120 degrees to the left, the remaining Dong Zhengxun is in the northwest. Therefore, you all guard this area while I go to that castle to capture the person..." As Bai Cha was speaking, Meng Qinghuan felt something was off as he listened. He quickly interrupted Bai Cha.
"Hey? Wait a minute, Little Bai. Shouldn't we be capturing someone in the northwest? Why are you asking us to guard the northwest?" Meng Qinghuan was a bit confused.
"The castle is in the northwest," Bai Cha drew a circle where the castle was and shrugged. "It's just a bit towards the center."
Meng Qinghuan was speechless. That wasn't what he meant. This didn't follow the pattern, did it? This castle was only a few meters away from the absolute center. Did it make a difference?
"I'm asking you to guard the northwest because the other three directions are already surrounded by Xiang Nan's bugs, so it's best for you not to go anywhere else," Bai Cha shrugged. "Of course, if you want to, I don't mind."
Upon hearing Xiang Nan's name, Meng Qinghuan's face turned pale. Although he was a man, and he wasn't afraid of bugs, seeing those densely packed compound-eyed crawling insects made him feel nauseous!
Heaven knows what it felt like for him, the world's strongest offensive support, to be so terrified that his legs went weak when faced with Xiang Nan's room full of various crawling and flying insects.
"Forget it, never mind. I surrender," Meng Qinghuan raised his hands in surrender. "As long as his bugs don't come near me, I'll even let him warm my bed."
Yun He: "..." This must be some deep psychological trauma.
Seeing Yun He's somewhat disgusted look, Meng Qinghuan immediately became displeased and said indignantly, "Little Yun He, why are you looking at me like that, your master? Let me ask you, are you afraid of cockroaches?"
"No," Yun He said calmly.
"What about a room full of cockroaches, the kind that stick to the walls and fly and jump around, thousands upon thousands of them?" Meng Qinghuan asked again.
Yun He: "..."
Even thinking about that scene was chilling. Wasn't this a horror movie?
"So you'd better not look down on your master for being a coward. When you see those rooms full of cockroaches, centipedes, ants, and moths, you'll definitely scream louder than your master," Meng Qinghuan huffed indignantly. "The only crawling creatures of Little Nan's that I can accept are snakes and geckos."
Yun He: "..."
She apologized. She shouldn't have said she wasn't afraid of bugs.
"Ahem, back to the main topic. These people all have some superpowers, but none of them are Dragon Knights. They underwent gene surgery privately," Bai Cha waved her hand, interrupting Meng Qinghuan and Yun He's bickering. "Their abilities are somewhat similar to mine."
"Aren't Miss Bai's abilities from Lord Lucifer?" Yun He asked curiously.
"Not entirely," Bai Cha pricked her finger, squeezing out a drop of blood. The blood immediately flew up and hovered in front of Yun He. "I'm probably one of the first failed subjects of human experimentation. My data was personally destroyed by me. And the powers they exhibit are much weaker than mine, with several times the side effects. So, the data should not have been leaked. Someone has likely started re-exploring this experiment."
"Miss Bai is actually a failure?" Yun He was a little surprised. "If someone this strong is a failure, how strong would a successful one be?"
"Silly, Little Yun He. The success of an experiment can't just be judged by strength, can it?" Meng Qinghuan sighed. "The damage and erosion to the body, as well as whether it can be controlled and the purity of the power, these are a series of issues."
And most of the Shadows had undergone similar surgeries. With power came a price. Shortened lifespan was only natural, as most of them weren't Dragon Knights and couldn't share their lifespan with dragons.
"But speaking of which, human experimentation is illegal, isn't it?" Meng Qinghuan rubbed his face, looking a bit confused. "Pursuing truth isn't done this way, is it? This has been explicitly forbidden by that big shot. Isn't this a slap in the face to that big shot?"
Who knew.
Bai Cha shrugged. "Alright, let's begin."
A vast and luxurious palace had a winding staircase leading all the way underground, where a colossal bronze door stood, thick and sturdy, sealed shut by numerous chains.
Due to the special circumstances, Bai Cha had directly ordered the Sky Island to be sealed off from the outside, and the information and discussions outside were suppressed for a short period, so the number of people present today was exceptionally small.
Scattered staff members occasionally walked through this opulent palace, never imagining that beneath their feet lay a basement as hellish as any.
Dark, damp, with a musty odor and the strange smell emitted by the surrounding moss. Usually, it was dimly lit, filled with weeping and silence. Occasionally, food would be thrown down for them, and sometimes people would be taken away, their fate unknown.
But today, the atmosphere here seemed a little different.
"Royal flush! Heh heh, I only have two cards left!" Gu Mingze grinned foolishly, waving his cards in a showy manner. "I won again this time! Three of a kind!"
Gu Mingze placed his cards on the ground, one red three and one club three, and his hand was now empty.
"Ah! Brother Mingze, you've won six rounds in a row, and I've only won once!" a little girl said indignantly, her face smeared with eight lines of dirt.
"What's that? At least you've won, you guys have all won. I've lost everything." A little boy cried with a mournful face. He already had more than a dozen lines drawn on his face; even a zebra couldn't have drawn so many.
Cang Liu sat quietly nearby, gathering strength for any contingency. He occasionally looked up at Gu Mingze, who was smiling heartlessly and bullying the children.
Cang Liu had never seen someone store so many playing cards and game consoles in their storage bracelet instead of food. However, luckily, Gu Mingze, being so unreliable, had miraculously brought some life back to the despairing children in the dreary basement.
Since he had been drugged and brought here, Gu Mingze was captured not long after. Cang Liu was still unclear about the situation outside, and it would clearly be unwise to rush out. If anything went wrong, all the children in this basement would have to pay with their lives.
Cang Liu was silently calculating the time. He had thrown his communicator in an unreasonable place, and Bai Cha should discover it soon.
The most important thing now was whether the person who captured them would be kind enough to let them wait patiently for rescue.