Chapter Sixty-Four: A Crisis Unfolds

Xia Yan sighed softly, a trace of tenderness in his eyes. He put down the Myriad-Change Blade, took out the equipment he carried, and connected it to the terminal device.

Xia Yan felt a deep sense of emotion. Emilia, you win, he thought; in just ten seconds, you persuaded me. However, what I trust is definitely not the Demon race, but the person named Emilia. I hope your promise holds true, otherwise I will regret it for the rest of my life.

Ten seconds passed. Xia Yan swung the Myriad-Change Blade, and a sheet of flame consumed the terminal device, instantly turning the deepest part of the central area into a sea of fire.

"Next, kill all the researchers and destroy all related research equipment." Xia Yan walked back the way he came, fully prepared for his next steps. Strictly speaking, his mission was already complete; Xiao Qing had retrieved the data, and whatever Xia Yan did next had nothing more to do with the Demon race.

Let it be as I wish!

"Sister Emilia, the research data has been received," Xiao Qing breathed a sigh of relief.

"Is that so?" Emilia's expression shifted slightly. "What about Xia Yan? What is he doing right now?"

"He should be figuring out how to escape the research base. As long as he can get out, following the route we mapped out should be very simple... wait—" Xiao Qing let out an exclamation. "What is he doing?"

"What is he doing?" Emilia asked hurriedly.

"He... he is killing the experimental subjects. He's gone mad, what is he doing?!" Xiao Qing said in disbelief. "He's not escaping outward; instead, he has activated his demonic abilities and is slaughtering those test subjects."

"Xia Yan..." Emilia bit her lower lip. Her expression was furious to the extreme, even more so than that time in the Glory Arena. She found it hard to believe that Xia Yan had defied her words once again.

"Sister Emilia, our objective has already been achieved. This Xia Yan is completely out of his mind; he's dead for sure," Xiao Qing said softly. "If we delay any longer, the intelligence will definitely be leaked. Whether the patriarch of the Wilber family or an even stronger member of the Winged Tribe arrives, he will undoubtedly die."

"I want to communicate with him," Emilia snorted.

"We can't. Contacting him now will easily expose our location. Once the research base detects external hacker intrusion, they can lock onto Xia Yan directly," Xiao Qing urged.

"When his life is on the line, who cares about exposure?" Emilia said with disdain. "Contact him."

"Alright!" Xiao Qing's face darkened slightly, knowing she lacked the confidence to completely block the signal source.

Soon, the connection to Xia Yan was established.

"Xia Yan, get your ass back here!" Emilia yelled into the device.

Xia Yan ignored her.

"I told you, the Chain of Purity can only ward off most negative emotions; it cannot withstand direct contact with the test subjects. Even a brief close-range contact will cause negative emotions to invade. A small amount might be manageable, but once it accumulates, a human cannot withstand it!" Emilia bit her lip, shouting at Xia Yan on the other end.

"The mission is already finished. Isn't that enough?" Xia Yan shook his head, not stopping the movements of his hands. His attacks were extremely fierce; with every strike, he ended the life of a test subject.

"Killing them, what's the point?" Emilia asked, uncomprehending. "The experiments can be restarted; killing these test subjects is useless. Destroying the research equipment and killing the researchers is all pointless, unless you can destroy the entire Winged Tribe."

It wasn't that Xia Yan didn't understand what Emilia was saying. As a person in power, her vision extended further than his, and she saw the essence of matters much more clearly.

Did destroying everything really have any meaning? Xia Yan understood that he was only deceiving himself!

It was just a pity that he was neither a king nor a leader; he didn't need to lead a large group of subordinates far into the future. Therefore, he could act on his own whims—doing what he felt was right, what was wrong, and what needed to be done so that his own conscience wouldn't feel so guilty.

"Xia Yan, I promised you I wouldn't use the research data, but if you die, my promise becomes meaningless," Emilia roared at him. "So get your ass back here!"

"Enough." Xia Yan frowned. He tossed his optical computer away casually to be buried within the rolling black mist. The blade light in his hands grew even fiercer; not a single one of these test subjects could escape his slaughter.

"The connection is lost." Xiao Qing's face turned ugly. "Sister Emilia, he threw away his optical computer, we've completely lost..."

"Why must it be like this?" Emilia's expression was gloomy as she muttered, "I went through so much effort, not for you to die here. Why don't you understand?!"

Xiao Qing sensed something was wrong, and when she caught sight of Emilia's expression, she almost let out a scream.

That was undoubtedly an expression of fury capable of destroying everything.

Xiao Qing's heart trembled slightly, and just as she wanted to say something, she saw Emilia strike the table.

Sensing immediate danger, she shrieked, instantly activating her bloodline and soaring into the air!

"The house is collapsing, the house is collapsing!"

Violent energy surged outward in all directions like a fierce, ferocious dragon. With a deafening roar, the eastern wall shattered, sending fragments and masonry flying in all directions.

Xiao Qing wailed repeatedly as the eastern wall of the villa completely caved in, and the indoor furniture was entirely ground into fine powder.

Hundreds of meters away from the villa, Vivienne, who had just finished purchasing supplies from outside, saw that one side of the nearby villa had collapsed. Crying out in shock, she hurried over immediately.

Yet inside the villa, only Xiao Qing remained. Evidently, Emilia had been in such a foul mood that she tore right through space and left.

Debris and rubble littered the villa everywhere, looking thousands of times worse than the aftermath of an earthquake. The only stroke of extreme fortune was that the structure hadn't completely flattened.

Vivienne and Xiao Qing looked at each other, both breaking out in involuntary cold sweats.

"What happened? What's going on? Where is milady?" Vivienne asked anxiously.

"That Xia Yan made Sister Emilia angry just now, so she turned the house into this," Xiao Qing briefly explained the sequence of events, instantly causing Vivienne's face to darken.

"He made milady angry again?" Vivienne was furious.

She still remembered last time when a piercing scream from milady had collapsed the walls, but this time the situation was far worse.

"Has this happened before?!" Xiao Qing was also astonished.

Deep inside, Vivienne found it rather bizarre. Milady was always composed when dealing with other matters, yet she could never maintain her calm when it came to Xia Yan. Although it probably wasn't affection or romantic liking, Xia Yan was undeniably very important to her.

Even so, by making such a choice, Xia Yan had doomed himself to certain death.

Assuming he could withstand the patriarch of the Wilber family or even the leader of the Winged Tribe and survive...

Was that even possible?

Impossible!

***

Wilber Family, Research Base Central Area.

Xia Yan knelt on the ground, gasping for breath. The floor was covered in blood and severed limbs; every single test subject had been slaughtered by his hands.

"Ugh!" Unable to hold it in, Xia Yan vomited three consecutive mouthfuls of blood, all of them a grayish-black color, mixed with a dense concentration of negative emotional energy that made anyone's hair stand on end just by looking at it.

This blood even exuded thick black vapors.

Xia Yan felt utterly exhausted, his body too weary to move. His spiritual energy was nearly depleted, and keeping his eyelids open took immense effort.

Above all, his heart felt so heavily oppressed it felt as though it might burst out of his chest, forcing him to press his right hand heavily over his heart to prevent it from exploding.

"Even with the Chain of Purity, I'm almost at my limit." Xia Yan sat quietly, forcing a shred of calm into his heart to recover his state as quickly as possible. Every second counted now.

Five minutes—he could allow himself at most five minutes. Any longer, and death was certain.

Or rather, it was already a nine-in-ten chance of death; Xia Yan had never harbored high hopes for survival anyway.

Since he had made this choice, Xia Yan knew he was merely brushing shoulders with the Grim Reaper.

Four or five minutes passed. Xia Yan's complexion remained poor, though slightly better than before. At this moment, his entire face was wreathed in black mist.

Gripping his blade, he stood up and walked step by step toward the outer perimeter. There was still work to be done; he had no time to waste.

As long as he drew breath, he had to keep moving. No matter what, the value of life had to be squeezed into something more useful.

"Miss Tolu, Adam's life signal has vanished, and the location of his death is right inside the central area!" Qiong was extremely anxious, pacing back and forth in panic without a shred of a powerhouse's demeanor—or perhaps he wasn't particularly strong to begin with.

"Why did it disappear? Did he betray us?" Tolu inquired.

"I can't be certain, but Adam's death is probably no accident; it was man-made!" Qiong said with sharp perception. "If Adam was killed, that brings up a very crucial problem."

"A problem?" Tolu asked with a frown. "What problem?"

"Within this research base, Adam's strength is likely the greatest among us, which is why he became the head of the security zone. Aside from Lord Noah, he is practically invincible here. Who could possibly possess the strength to kill him?!"

"No matter what, Adam is most likely a traitor; otherwise, he couldn't have entered the central area," Tolu said with sharp eyes. "I was originally wondering if Adam was the one who killed Ke Quan, but looking at it now, that doesn't seem to be the case. Aside from Adam, there is an external intruder."

"Then what should we do?!" Qiong looked utterly helpless.

"Capture or kill the external intruder and wait for Lord Noah's arrival—that is the only thing we need to do," Tolu said. "Remember, if this intruder's strength surpasses Adam's, the people in the most danger will be the two of us. Don't split up; gather all the security personnel together and find a way to kill him."