Chapter 16: The Resurrected
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
A person of religion boasted not. Since Tang Luo had said that he would purge evil, then he had to see it through.
Dr. Jack and the other hostage led the way while Tang Luo followed behind. The three of them headed to the underground experiment lab in the hospital.
Little Chu and Zhou Zhenguo left first. They didn't have the slightest desire to be a good person or to destroy evil. They merely sighed inwardly that Master Xuanzang was indeed a Master. With fierce and ferocious methods and the heart of Buddha, he was a good man.
Tang Luo didn't have the intention of letting them come along either.
Should the two of them meet with danger, the straightforward act of saving people would bring Tang Luo virtuous merits too. However, he hadn't sunk that low yet.
Besides, this behavior of forcing others into danger and subsequently saving them wouldn't earn him any power of virtuous merits.
If even something like that could work, Tang Luo would have been able to accumulate virtuous merits by whipping up an Infinite Virtuous Merit-Producing Life-Release
Virtuous merits had their own temperament too.
Earning and accumulating the power of virtuous merits wasn't a difficult task. However, being deceitful and resorting to tricks wouldn't work.
A hidden door was opened. What appeared in front of the three men was a spiral staircase, which led downwards, and had walls on both sides.
A few kerosene lamps hung on the walls and provided a degree of visibility.
Tang Luo asked nonchalantly, "How many people are there inside?"
"Huh?"
The limping Dr. Jack spaced out for a moment before he replied, "There isn't anyone in there."
"You're telling me that there's no one inside such an important experiment lab?" asked Tang Luo.
"There really isn't anyone in there!"
For fear that this lunatic, who claimed to be a detective, would initiate a new round of Russian roulette with him, Dr. Jack immediately followed up. "There are only test subjects in there."
Tang Luo's gaze shifted to the other man.
"I've only been here once. There were quite a lot of people in there at that time."
"It's not like we're carrying out experiments today, what would we need people in there for? Having someone guard the one and only entrance would do! You were here as an assistant the other time! Idiot!" yelled Dr. Jack.
Judging from his savage countenance, if Tang Luo hadn't been here, he would probably have already strangled the bespectacled doctor to death.
"Let's walk on. Don't cause any further delay." Tang Luo couldn't be bothered to watch them fight.
The trio continued to make their way down. After walking for a minute, another door appeared in front of them. Jack unlocked it with his key.
Inside was a five-meters long passageway. At the end was another door. A faint smell of blood wafted towards them.
"There's a mechanism here. You must lock the door behind us before you can open the door in front," said Jack as he stood in front of the second door.
Tang Luo locked the door behind him.
A series of clicks and clacks resounded. Some kind of mechanism had probably been activated.
Dr. Jack opened the heavy and solid wooden door in front of him. A pungent smell, which made one want to throw up, assailed their senses, as though what they had opened the door to was an abattoir.
"Ugh!" The bespectacled man started retching.
By right, one would need to put on a surgical mask when coming down here. It would more or less be able to reduce the smell somewhat. Moreover, the smell wasn't as bad the other time as to how it was today.
Jack didn't look any different from his usual self, however. He walked in and switched on the lights.
This was a relatively spacious underground chamber. Approximately five meters high, the area exceeded 300 square meters.
There were more than ten operating stone platforms, which looked like narrow beds in there. Each operating platform was barely enough to fit an adult lying down. There were bloodstains all over the operating platforms. A few of them were even covered by white fabric stained with blood. Underneath the white fabric were 'experiment materials'.
On the ground next to the stone platforms were several drainage pipes, and the odor came partially from them.
Apart from the stone platforms, there were also various machines and medical apparatuses that looked extremely horrifying.
Electric cables laid exposed, coming across as incredibly crude.
The place looked more like an interrogation and torture chamber than a lab.
Tang Luo and the others pushed the door open and entered the chamber.
A few sounds rang out. And then, as if in response, hoarse cries could be heard, rising and falling at times.
On one of the walls of the room, several long and narrow coffin-shaped holes had been dug out. They were locked by metal gates to form tiny and cramped prison cells, which were used to imprison test subjects.
A few of the cells had probably been dug too close to each other, causing them to connect and form a large prison cell.
The lights in the lab weren't particularly bright. The rays of light reached only the front part of the cells. The deeper areas were cloaked in total darkness.
Human shadows shifted about as if agitated by the rays of light.
On the walls opposite the prison cells were a few doors as well.
Beyond these doors were the offices of researchers like Jack. A large amount of data was stored in there, including even data on some of the members of the organization. All the data were of middle and lowly-ranked personnel.
As for the behind-the-scenes founders of the organization, those government officials and influential figures would never leave behind such obvious clues and information for others to use against them.
However, Dr. Jack was an extremely important researcher. They could keep their identities a secret from others but not from him.
Tang Luo had already stored the identities of those people in his memory. When he found a suitable timing, he would be able to go ahead and root out the evil.
"Let's get the data?" Jack limped towards the closed door.
Tang Luo followed after him at a leisurely pace.
The bespectacled man stood at the doorway with an extremely troubled look on his face. He wanted to escape, yet he didn't dare to. That foreign detective's behavior was completely unbridled. He was a total lunatic and weirdo.
If he chose not to escape, when the time came where he ended up in the hands of the Cotland Yard, he should still be able to stay alive. After all, he was just an unimportant pawn.
But should he choose to escape, he probably wouldn't even be able to stay alive.
Unlike Jack, the bespectacled man had personally witnessed the destruction Tang Luo's table-flipping had caused.
To the other party, killing him was probably as easy as killing a little chick.
After unlocking one of the doors, Jack walked towards the cabinet in the room. "All the files are in there."
"Take them out," said Tang Luo.
Without saying much, Jack opened the cabinet and took out document after document, as well as a bottle of chemical.
"Can I staunch the bleeding first?" asked Jack as he placed the documents and files on the desk.
The wound on his calf wasn't a small one. Blood had been flowing from it the whole time.
Even though the bleeding wasn't very serious, the blood loss had built up over time. Jack's complexion was deathly pale by now, and even standing was a gargantuan task.
Currently, he was leaning all his weight on the cabinet to prevent himself from collapsing.
"Do what you want." Tang Luo was non-committal. He picked up the files on the table and started flipping through them.
Core members, who truly knew what the organization was doing and their objective, made up only a small number. There were only a total of twenty-odd people.
However, there were quite a significant number of people who either barely knew what was going on or only knew that they were contributing their services to a certain large and powerful force.
Tang Luo also noticed that a gang, who called themselves the Crow Gang, had kidnapped some people for the organization. By a stretch, they could be considered peripheral members.
People capable of taking on the role of researchers, such as the bespectacled man and Hodge, would first bring them into the organization. After that, they would be let in on the truth bit by bit and become core members.
Hodge had died before he could achieve much.
In the case of the bespectacled man, he had only just stepped into the industry when the entire industry was destroyed—all thanks to Tang Luo!
Beep, beep, beep!
Just as Tang Luo was flipping through the documents, a series of beeps similar to warning sirens suddenly went off.
Bam!
Jack crashed against the cabinet with a mix of shock and pain on his face. He lost his grip on the bottle in his hand. The chemical solution of unknown composition and carrying a pungent smell splashed onto him.
He looked like he was in a sorry plight.
"What's that sound?"
Tang Luo continued looking through the files. He couldn't even be bothered to lift his head.
"The doors of the prison cells have been opened," replied a furious Jack. "That idiot, Scott! The offensive abilities of the patients are very strong!"
"Oh," Tang Luo responded casually and kept the documents. "Are these documents all of them?"
"Yes, if you're just talking about data on the members." Jack didn't keep anything from him.
All the members' data that had been organized into paper documents were here. There was also a great deal of relevant data on the research on immortality in the other rooms.
"In that case, let's go." Tang Luo needed only the data on the members.
"Ah!"
At that point, Scott's incredibly tragic scream was heard coming from outside the door that hadn't been fully closed. It was mixed in between the howls of the mentally ill patients.
He had obviously been attacked.
"I'm not going out anymore!"
Jack's countenance changed drastically. His leg, which he had just stuck out, drew back in.
Suddenly, Tang Luo grabbed him, opened the door, and threw him outside as if he was throwing a ragdoll.
Jack crashed onto the ground and let out a muffled grunt. He struggled to lean against the stone platform next to him.
Scott's screams weakened. The howling of the patients weakened as well. Instead, another sound started to become loud and clear.
If one were to listen closely, they would realize that it sounded like chewing and swallowing.
"What's this?" asked Tang Luo.
In the underground research lab, there was a warped monster that hadn't been there earlier.
It looked like a human, except much taller and bigger. It was about three meters tall. Its lower limbs were as thick as an elephant's, while its arms were thin and long. Its palms were incredibly huge, the five fingers on each palm as though the appendages on an arthropod.
It was big enough to pick up an adult directly, and in actuality, that was what it did as well.
The remainder of Scott's body was held in the monster's hand and lifted horizontally.
While keeping a humanoid form, its head, which had sparse strands of hair on it, was buried into Scott's remains as though it was eating roasted meat skewers.
The sound of swallowing resounded in the chamber.
At the same time, ripples went through its dull gray gigantic stomach. In its dry and shriveled chest, which was starkly juxtaposed with its gigantic stomach, was a bloody hole. A yellow greasy substance and dark blood trickled from within, giving off a terrible smell.
This was visible to those watching.
As the monster fed on Scott's corpse, that bloody hole was also visibly recovering. A large amount of the greasy substance secreted from the wound while the bleeding was reduced. In no time, the tiny wound was sealed.
Next to the monster were a few mutilated corpses.
"This… the result of our current phase of research." A twisted smile spread across Jack's face. "We call it the Resurrected. I've already awakened it."
This monster, known as the Resurrected, must have been imprisoned in that huge prison cell and had been in a state of hibernation.
Not only had it been awakened, but it had also even been set free. This had nothing to do with Scott. The one who had released it was Jack.
In that cabinet earlier, there was also a special switch. Once activated, it would open all the prison cells and, along the way, awaken the Resurrected through great pain.
"The Resurrected? Resurrection of the dead?" asked Tang Luo.
"Yes, the next phase would be the Immortals. I'm already very close to success!" Jack's expression suddenly turned incredibly savage. "But it has all been ruined by you!"
"So, this is the reason why you want to perish together with me?" There was no change in Tang Luo's expression at all. The monster standing ten meters away didn't seem to affect him in any way.
His indifference displeased Jack greatly. Everything of his and all of his efforts had been destroyed by this person in front of him. What right did he have to do that?!
What right did this man have to act as if he had merely done something trivial that wasn't even worth mentioning?!
What right did this man have to act as if he had just done all these casually and didn't care much about it at all!?
Compared to his behavior now, even breaking into arrogant laughter would have made Jack feel slightly better.
"Perishing together?" Jack smiled sinisterly, and while pointing at the clothes on himself, he said, "No, it's going to eat only you."
The Resurrected was uncontrollable, but as its creator, Jack still had a few means of self-preservation.
For example, a unique smell that the Resurrected hated and wished to distance itself from.
Right now, Jack was suffused with this particular smell.
-- Gift
received