Divine Beast Creator

Chapter 1869 - 1870: Eerie

As Feng Yuan unlocked the door, it instantly fractured into multiple pieces that slid into the surrounding walls, revealing what it had concealed. Unlike the passage Feng Yuan imagined, behind the door was a bizarre laboratory. Besides the more common experimental equipment, there were many strange metal organs immersed in specimen jars.

"This really does have a bit of a mad flavor."

Scratching his chin, Feng Yuan muttered as he surveyed the weird metal organs. If it were made of another material, this place wouldn’t be much different from some evil lab conducting illegal biological experiments. Of course, even if they were metal organs...

Xiao Ji followed closely behind Feng Yuan into the laboratory. Here, the feeling of being watched did not disappear. Feng Yuan walked to the computer, attempting to power it up to review the data, but got stuck at the identity verification step.

"Xiao Ji, did you see anything like a note with a password written on it?"

Turning to look at Xiao Ji behind him, Feng Yuan asked. Xiao Ji shook its head, indicating it hadn’t found anything. Due to the peculiar gaze, Xiao Ji’s attention was largely distracted.

Looking at the prompt for entering a password, Feng Yuan held his chin in one hand and said,

"Could it be that this place deliberately omits clues? But it shouldn’t be like this."

Each of the previous areas had its own solution, and Feng Yuan didn’t think this place would be an exception. He just couldn’t figure out where the password could be hidden for the time being.

"According to puzzle games, such passwords are typically written on notes and broken into multiple pieces, but..."

Glancing around, Feng Yuan didn’t find any scraps of paper. In fact, he couldn’t find a single sheet of paper. The entire laboratory seemed to be operating in a completely paperless manner.

"Wait a moment..."

Just as Feng Yuan was searching for clues all around, he suddenly sensed something and frowned, looking at the specimen jar placed on the cabinet. The cabinet contained various potions, but none of the potion bottles had labels. Feng Yuan didn’t intend to test what their purpose was, but...

Staring at the specimen jar on top of the cabinet containing a pair of metal eyeballs, Feng Yuan felt that it seemed to move slightly just now. However, those metal eyeballs...

Suddenly clapping his hands, Feng Yuan thought he seemed to understand where Xiao Ji’s strange sensation came from and, pointing at the specimen jar, the black-robed shadow floating behind him stepped forward and swung a sickle to shatter the jar.

The broken metal eyeballs, along with a strange liquid, fell onto the floor. Feng Yuan scooped up Xiao Ji with one hand and said,

"I see, this is what Mad Doctor’s research lab refers to."

Feng Yuan: "I think I know the background of this place; one of the research topics here must be to metalize biological organisms while maintaining their activity."

Veronia, Najia, Yang Hongzhi: "!"

Yang Hongzhi: "How did you find out? Is there any evidence?"

Veronia: "If this is indeed the case, then it aligns, and it really is quite insane."

Najia: "No wonder we couldn’t find the source of the gaze; we initially thought it was a surveillance camera, but it turned out to be those still-living visual organs?"

Yang Hongzhi: "So, should we be cautious of those metal organs?"

Veronia: "Probably not. Those things are likely just for monitoring purposes. I’ve never heard of any technology that can turn metal organs vicious~"

Feng Yuan: "Yang Hongzhi, be sure to protect Xiao Hei and the others. Those things are targeting Spirit Beasts, and I worry whether there might be some specialized means effective against Spirit Beasts."

Najia: "That probability should be low since turning Spirit Beasts into metal creatures isn’t something achievable by human technology, nor can we Divine Beasts manage it."

Feng Yuan: "But here is the Abnormal Space, where world rules are severely compromised. I can’t be certain incorrect rules won’t appear."

Najia: "I understand. I’ll pay attention to safety issues."

Yang Hongzhi: "Um... Uh... How should I protect them?"

Feng Yuan: "Be careful—if it doesn’t work, temporarily put Xiao Hei in the Spirit Beast Space. As long as Najia isn’t ambushed, the problem shouldn’t be huge."

...

Putting away the intercom device, Feng Yuan glanced at Xiao Ji in his arms. Xiao Ji called out to Feng Yuan as he raised his head. Of course, it also heard the exchange between Feng Yuan and the others, but it didn’t expect the enemy targeting itself, leaving it with no power to resist.

Seeing Xiao Ji’s dejected look, Feng Yuan chuckled and poked Xiao Ji’s belly, saying,

"Don’t worry, as long as you don’t separate from me, they definitely won’t be able to do anything to you."

Even if the rules mutate further, it shouldn’t easily affect Divine Beasts. Consequently, Feng Yuan didn’t think this place had the ability for remote transformation. Among their group, only Yang Hongzhi’s Beast Tamer seemed remotely at risk, but as long as he puts the Beast Tamer away, the issue shouldn’t be major.

Najia could already ensure Yang Hongzhi’s safety to some degree. However, Yang Hongzhi didn’t want to rely on Najia for everything to avoid burdening it, hence opting to mainly depend on Xiao Hei and the others.

Though Feng Yuan revealed the truth about the metal organs, many mysteries about them remained. Feng Yuan believed to understand the complete information; he’d likely have to crack the computer’s password.

Earlier, Feng Yuan had also asked the others if they had discovered anything like a password. The answers were not promising. Others also found strange rooms, but like this one, they were completely paperless, leaving no trace for even a scrap of paper, and they didn’t see anything explicitly suggesting it might be a password.

"Strange, it’s not just a password issue, where’s the mechanism release? Wait!"

As something dawned on him, Feng Yuan’s eyes lit up. It seemed he knew where the password was.

Feng Yuan: "Veronia, did you find any switch to release restrictions on your side?"

Veronia: "Release restrictions?"

Feng Yuan: "Wasn’t our initial aim to release the mechanisms in order from each room? Your place is the starting point; I have a hunch other room’s unlocks might require waiting for the preceding room’s activation to reveal hidden secrets."

Veronia: "That’s possible, hang on. I’ll check."

...

After a while, Veronia’s voice resounded again, and simultaneously, this laboratory underwent changes.

Veronia: "It seems to be unlocked just now, but I have no useful information here, only a weird USB drive that popped out."

Veronia: "Could the USB drive be a tool for your side? Should I send it over to you?"

Feng Yuan: "Not for now. The computer was actually a disguise; that USB drive might be used elsewhere."

Looking at the huge screen and control panel hidden behind the cracked wall in front of him, Feng Yuan said thoughtfully. On that enormous screen, there was an image of a city. At the upper right corner of the screen was the city’s name: Prison City.

Veronia: "Don’t need it? Alright, contact me if anything. I’ll continue searching and then head to the last room."

Feng Yuan didn’t mind Veronia’s words and stepped forward to examine the information above. Utilizing the control panel, Feng Yuan brought up the internal archives, only to discover a tremendous amount of data, including the faceless metal people from before.

"Residents?"

Scratching his chin, Feng Yuan felt puzzled by the faceless metal people’s information. It contained explicit details about the faceless metal people’s traits, including their specific behavior of appearing behind paranoid individuals, and also how to prevent them from entering certain areas.

What concerned Feng Yuan the most, however, was the label on the archive—Residents. This, akin to names like wild hounds, seemed not to be labeled arbitrarily. Yet, it didn’t seem to align much with the nature and behavior of residents.

Moreover, what on earth was Prison City? Wasn’t this place a haunted house? Why did it increasingly resemble a puzzle?

"Could they be residents of Prison City? According to the setting, is this laboratory located in Prison City? But, something feels off."

Scratching his chin, as Feng Yuan was pulling out data and muttering, this stuff gave him an eerie feeling, especially since he constantly felt like he had overlooked something. Regrettably, the recorded data here seemed to only contain various monstrous information. Of course, there inexplicably included various anatomical data among them, which Feng Yuan had no clue why they existed here.