As the metal door opened, Ling Xiaoyou took the opportunity to restore another wave of Spirit Power for Su Lihua. The method? She simply encased Su Lihua in a flow of water, allowing her to absorb the Spirit Power.
Su Lihua bobbed up and down in the water, looking utterly reluctant. She clearly wasn’t happy with this experience.
But she couldn’t resist Ling Xiaoyou, and desperate times called for desperate measures. This method was more efficient and saved time, so Su Lihua had no choice but to accept it.
As the metal door slowly swung open, Ling Xiaoyou saw what lay beyond—and froze.
It wasn’t the cramped, dark prison cell she had imagined—torches burning silently, shadows deepening where the light didn’t reach. Instead, it was clean, tidy, and bright.
‘But… where are the people?’
Ling Xiaoyou stared blankly at what she had assumed was a “prison cell,” yet she couldn’t see a single Spirit locked up inside. All that was here were rows of shelves, and on them, matte-finish cans that looked like fragile goods.
‘Could I have gotten it wrong? This isn’t a prison for Spirits, but a storage room for food?’
Ling Xiaoyou stepped inside the “prison,” looking around, trying to find any trace of a cell.
But no matter how she searched, she found nothing.
‘That can’t be right. If this is really a food storage room, why would the Unicorn Demon be guarding it? Is it because he thinks we came to steal food? He specifically came here to protect the food?’
‘Then I can only say demons are all a little crazy.’
Ling Xiaoyou grumbled internally, pacing around the storage room. She even picked up a can and examined it closely.
The cans looked ordinary, but they had no manufacturer’s label.
And upon closer inspection, the material wasn’t quite normal either. It wasn’t metal or glass. Instead, it felt more like… wood?
‘That could mean…’
Ling Xiaoyou frowned, then suddenly had an idea.
‘If I’m not wrong about the location, and this really is the “prison” for Spirits, then these “cells” might very well be—’
Thinking this, she placed her small hand on the lid and twisted it gently.
As she turned it, wisps of Yin Qi seeped out from the gap between the lid and the can.
‘I knew it!’
‘These cans are the “prisons” holding the Spirits. Every Spirit has been sealed inside.’
Realizing this, Ling Xiaoyou immediately stopped and screwed the lid back on tightly.
‘I can’t let them out now.’
‘There are at least hundreds, maybe thousands of cans here. If I release them all, even if I could maintain order, this many Spirits would become a glaring target.’
‘If more demons come to reinforce the Underground City, they’ll go after these Spirits first.’
‘So for the greater good, I’ll have to let them suffer a little longer.’
With that, Ling Xiaoyou waved her hand and swept all the cans from the shelf in front of her into her Space Ring. Then she hurried back and forth through the storage room, quickly stowing every can away.
After finishing, she left and returned outside.
“Did you release them all?”
Su Lihua had recovered quite a bit of Spirit Power and was now out of the water sphere. She looked at Ling Xiaoyou, then at the metal door behind her from which no one had emerged, and asked in confusion:
“But where are the people?”
Ling Xiaoyou patted her Space Ring and said calmly:
“The people? They’re all right here.”
Then she gave a brief explanation to a bewildered Su Lihua.
“I see.”
Su Lihua nodded in understanding.
“Let’s go. Next, we need to figure out how to deal with the pathogen in the lab.”
With that, Ling Xiaoyou walked past Su Lihua and headed in another direction.
Su Lihua quickly followed.
Surprisingly, this time they encountered no obstacles like the Unicorn Demon. Ling Xiaoyou had expected resistance on the way to the lab, but the path was completely clear.
It was as if the Underground City had already been emptied of people.
“We’re here.”
Ling Xiaoyou stopped suddenly, looking ahead at the experimental area made of transparent glass.
‘Or rather, what should have been the lab.’
Before them lay a scene of utter chaos.
Almost all the experimental equipment had been destroyed, and the research results were completely gone.
On the floor, several researchers lay in pools of blood, their condition unknown.
“What… what happened here?”
Su Lihua stared in disbelief at the scene. The lab had been wrecked, and this area hadn’t been part of the battle. She couldn’t understand why.
“It’s obvious.”
Ling Xiaoyou sighed softly.
“Someone got here before us and took all the Bomb Disease pathogens and other research results.”
“And they killed the researchers who came to stop them.”
“It looks like we were too late. That Unicorn Demon wasn’t just trying to stop us; he was probably buying time.”
Hearing this, Su Lihua couldn’t help but curse:
“Damn! So that means the demons still got the Bomb Disease?”
“And they’re probably going to spread it somewhere next?!”
“That’s right.”
Ling Xiaoyou nodded, her tone resigned.
“All we can do now is keep a close watch for any signs of a disease similar to Bomb Disease and try to take precautions.”
“But that’s something the Regulatory Division can handle. The two of us alone can’t do it.”
Su Lihua punched the wall beside her, venting her frustration.
“As for what’s next… we’ll deal with it later.”
Ling Xiaoyou turned to look in Bai Shuanglian’s direction, then paused.
Because above that battlefield, a Space Rift had appeared. Right now, Patrollers from the Regulatory Division in combat gear were steadily entering from outside.
“Finally here.”
A relaxed smile tugged at the corner of Ling Xiaoyou’s lips. She called out to Su Lihua and immediately headed toward Bai Shuanglian.