"Brother Jian, what's behind us?" Chen Jiansheng asked, puzzled, after just a few minutes of walking as he noticed the middle-aged man frequently looking back.

The man addressed as Brother Jian remained silent.

They stopped upon reaching a spacious area.

I saw a large military-green Canopy Bag erected on flat ground. I estimated that the Canopy Bag was over ten meters in length, with an arched dome and a door in the middle. From the outside, it looked very much like the Mongolian yurts from Mongolia.

They lifted the door flap and went straight in. I waited in place for about three to five minutes, and when I felt enough time had passed, I followed, crouching low.

There was a slit in the door flap, and I peeked inside stealthily.

There were three people inside, all dressed in white lab coats and wearing face masks. Several electronic devices that I had never seen before were placed on tables, and a small diesel generator was operating.

"How is the progress?" the middle-aged man asked as soon as he entered.

One of the white-coated figures spoke, and to my surprise, it was a clear, young woman's voice.

"This place is too harsh," the woman complained. "I don't know how much money the professor took to send us here, but these conditions aren't even one percent as good as our Hong Kong Island Laboratory!"

After grumbling for a bit, she continued, "We've examined the sample you provided," pointing at a large monitor, "and it's showing some bizarre data. This biological sample has almost no water content, yet some of its cells are still active. Moreover, there's a substance in the sample's blood vessels similar to Wei An Amino Acid, which is extremely difficult to extract under current conditions. Tell us the truth, what exactly have you brought us here to study?"

"You talk too much," the middle-aged man said coldly. "Do your job, take your money, and leave. Don't ask questions that aren't your concern."

The woman in the lab coat defiantly pulled off her mask.

She was a very attractive young woman, with distinct features, fair skin, large eyes, and looked to be in her early twenties—a stunning beauty, resembling a mixed-race individual, fluent in Mandarin.

"Hey, hey, hey, what kind of attitude is that!" the mixed-race woman flared up.

Her male colleague immediately grabbed her, trying to calm her down, "Little An, don't be impulsive. The professor asked me to keep an eye on you, to keep you from doing anything foolish." His implication was clear—these were not people they could afford to provoke, and she needed to restrain herself.

Quickly, another white-coated peacemaker took over the conversation with a smile, "Don't worry, boss, we're making quick progress. In two or three days, we'll be able to extract what you want. Considering our tough conditions and lack of equipment, please be patient with us."

"One day, we can only give you one more day," the middle-aged man said, glancing at his watch. "By this time tomorrow, I need to see the final result."

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

With that, the man turned and walked out.

In a panic, I hid behind the tent.

Chen Jiansheng came out to see the man off, patting his chest and saying, "Brother Jian, you go ahead, I'll hurry them along here. And for the Little Master of Silk Spinning, I'll need you to put in a good word for us, haha," as he rubbed his hands together incessantly.

After the man left, Chen Jiansheng slouched in a chair, lit a cigarette, and crossed his legs, saying, "Beauty, I'm not like that guy just now. I'm more approachable. I heard that the substance extracted from that corpse can rejuvenate and grant immortality. Is that true?"

Little An, the beautiful woman in the lab coat, shook her head and said, "We're far from that step. To be honest, I don't think our current technology can achieve that. There are still too many things that don't make sense. At best, what we've extracted is a semi-finished product."

As she spoke, the woman produced a small glass vial containing a pale blue, transparent liquid.

"This is it," said the woman, giving the clear glass vial a gentle shake. Chen Jiansheng swallowed hard, his gaze fixed intently on the light blue liquid inside the small vial.

Chen Jiansheng took a deep drag on his cigarette, exhaling the smoke slowly through his nostrils. He smiled and said, "Carry on, pretend I'm not here," and with that, he flicked away the cigarette butt and began to rest with his eyes closed.

"You two continue, I need to step out for a moment," Little An, clad in a white lab coat, suddenly announced before turning and exiting the tent.

The matter beneath Moth Mountain was still largely unclear to me. Seeing that she was alone, and a woman at that, I knew I couldn't miss this opportunity. It was an ideal moment.

Her accomplices called her Little An, but I referred to her as Researcher An.

With brisk, short steps, Researcher An eventually chose a spot behind a rock for her convenience.

She looked around cautiously, and seeing no one, she began to lift her white lab coat to squat down.

"Don't move!" Seizing the moment, I lunged forward, grabbing her from behind and pressing a small knife blade against her neck.

"Don't scream, or I'll slit your throat..."

"Who... who are you..." Her eyes were wide with terror, her voice altered by fear.

"It doesn't matter who I am. I ask, you answer, got it? And don't you dare lie..." I let her feel the sharpness of the blade intentionally.

"Don't hurt me, I'm just here working under the orders of my teacher."

"I'm asking you, have you seen a pair of brothers, probably in their thirties but not yet forty, and a woman, in her early thirties with a small black mole under her right eye? Tell the truth! Have you seen them or not?"

"No! I haven't! I haven't seen them!" Her voice trembled, and she truly seemed frightened.

Seeing my suspicion, she pleaded with a sorrowful face: "I have no reason to lie to you. We seldom leave this place. Even when we arrived, we were blindfolded. Those instruments were arranged by our teacher. I don't even know where I am right now. Please, I beg you, don't harm me."

The woman was naturally beautiful, a clear mix of ethnicities, and I could feel her figure pressed against me.

I steeled my resolve internally, reminding myself not to show any weakness.

"What is this?" I pulled a transparent small porcelain vial from her lab coat pocket, filled with the same pale blue unknown liquid.

"This was extracted from a sample. It's done using advanced foreign HBJ biotech extraction. This can only be considered a semi-serum substance; it's not to be applied directly to the human body. Personally, I don't think it's of any use."

Her words left me bewildered—serums, biotech extraction techniques—how could our tomb raiding be entangled with such things? From her words, it seemed she was merely following the instructions of her so-called teacher, and she might not even be aware that she was now beneath Moth Mountain, in the Grand Underground Palace, let alone that it was the Underground Palace of the Western Zhou Dynasty's Mustard Marquis.

But I knew one thing for certain: the wealthier and more powerful people become, the less they can let go when their lives near their end. I had learned from the news that in their desperation to survive, they would resort to anything, even heart transplants.

This situation had evolved from tomb raiding to entanglement with the so-called power organization, the Changchun Association, and from there to certain figures in the Hong Kong Island Region.

In my view, the whole affair was becoming increasingly convoluted and enigmatic. (To be continued)

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I have also posted the following more chapters [All free]: https://www.readgates.com/article/7b136c