You, a living person, are telling me I've served in the underworld for ten years?

She looked at everyone as if they were beautiful jade waiting to be carved.

Lei Ting quickly bowed to Li Rou.

"May I ask who you are...?"

"Just call me Fairy Li Rou."

Li Rou waved her hand casually, her gaze returning to Chen Yang, her smile deepening.

"You've crammed so many people into my program, which has saved me a lot of trouble finding apprentices."

"So? Stay? Training here is a hundred times better than being bled and dissected in those lousy labs outside! At least, no one will treat you like 'material' to be slaughtered anymore!"

Her words were highly persuasive and contained a strong sense of self-confidence.

Chen Yang looked at the women and asked in a serious tone.

"You've all heard that. You now have two choices."

First, I will immediately send you back to a safe location outside, where you can return to your respective countries or contact your families. Second, stay here and become disciples of this Fairy Li Rou, embarking on a path that may be incredibly difficult, but is enough to take control of your own destiny, possess the power to protect yourself, and even seek revenge!

To tell you the truth! The forces that have captured you for experiments are extremely powerful and terrifying, spread across the land! Without their support, I can't guarantee your safety after you leave, or whether you'll be targeted again! The choice is yours! Now, give me your answer immediately!

Chen Yang's words were like a bucket of cold water, cooling down the excitement that had just overwhelmed him with a sense of freedom. The harsh reality was laid out before him.

A brief silence.

"I'm willing to stay!"

Lei Ting was the first to step forward, her eyes filled with unwavering determination.

"I don't want to be a weakling waiting for someone to save me anymore! I want to become strong! Strong enough to save others, strong enough to smash all those scum who used us as experimental subjects!"

"I'll stay too!"

"Fairy...can I stay and learn your skills? Please..."

"Go home? I... I don't even know where my home is... They said my family might have been murdered... I have to stay! I have to get revenge!"

The girl in the blue striped prison uniform, her eyes filled with intense hatred, shouted through gritted teeth.

"I want to stay too!"

"...Stay and cultivate!"

One, two, and more and more people stepped forward! In the end, without exception, all the rescued women chose to stay!
The initial fear and anxiety were gone from their eyes, replaced by a flame ignited by cruel reality—a desire to survive, a burning rage for revenge, and an insatiable thirst for power!
"Good! Good! Good!"

Li Rou said "good" three times in a row, her eyes sparkling with satisfaction.

"Don't worry, here, as long as you have talent and are willing to work hard, I, Li Rou, will definitely not let you go to waste! The sect is newly established and needs manpower right now!"

She clearly intended all of these people to be her first disciples.

Li Rou looked at Chen Yang with great interest.

"Little Chen, you did a great job! You sent your sister a batch of really good seedlings! They're much better than those blockheads!"

Chen Yang didn't have time for pleasantries and spoke quickly.

"I'm leaving these people in your care! I need to leave immediately; the situation outside is unclear!"

"Don't rush!"

Li Rou raised her hand to stop her, her delicate brows slightly furrowed, revealing a radiant aura of wisdom that transcended the mundane.

"Silly brother, are you still planning to go back through that broken door the same way?"

She pointed to the spot where Chen Yang had just connected to the outside world.

"You opened the door here, but you'll still be in that cell when you go out! That place is in complete chaos now, isn't it? The whole rat hole is probably turned upside down! Are you planning to go out and become someone's dumpling?"

Li Rou gently waved her jade hand in the air, as if plucking an invisible string, causing the entire Sumeru space to ripple almost imperceptibly.

I'll give you a 'back door'.

Spatial coordinates... well, they're set five miles southeast of where you came in. There's a sand dune on the leeward side there, which is well concealed.

This little thing is no problem for your older sister!

With a flick of her finger, a dark blue spatial rift silently opened in front of Chen Yang. Unlike the chaotic fluctuations he experienced upon entering, the other end of this rift directly revealed a familiar scene of moonlit sand dunes.

Thank you!

Chen Yang felt relieved and sincerely thanked her. Li Rou's help had completely solved his most pressing problem!
"Get lost! Don't delay my teaching of my disciple!"

Li Rou smiled and waved her hand, no longer looking at him. She turned to face the group of young women whose faces were filled with trepidation yet hope, her voice carrying a reassuring power.

"Alright, little ones, my name is Liu Piaopiao. Follow me! Let's go to Qingxin Garden to settle down first! Today, I'll teach you what spiritual energy and spiritual roots are..."

A pretty young woman with bright, lively eyes emerged from the crowd, greeting the bewildered newcomers with both gentleness and efficiency.

"Junior sisters, please follow me this way..."

Without further hesitation, Chen Yang stepped into the spatial rift leading to the unknown sand dunes.

My body felt slightly lighter, as if I had passed through an invisible water curtain, and the surrounding scenery changed instantly!
The dry air, carrying the smell of gravel, rushed towards me, and soft, fine sand lay beneath my feet.

The cool, bright moonlight bathed the vast desert in a silvery glow.

Behind him, the spatial rift silently closed and disappeared the moment he stepped out, as if it had never existed.

His current location was at least six or seven miles away from the sulfur mine hill where the "Pandora" base was hidden! Looking back, the huge shadow of the mine was like a giant monster lurking in the darkness, still silent, completely unaware that its lair had been ripped open.

Chen Yang let out a long sigh of relief, his tense nerves finally relaxing a little. That was close! If Li Rou hadn't pointed the way and opened the door in time…

He identified the direction, then disappeared back into the night, rushing towards the location where Zhao Fabai and Wang Shengxiong were hiding to provide backup.

Its figure was elusive, moving through the sand dunes like a ghost.

However, just as he had traveled only two or three miles and crossed the pass of a huge sand dune—whoosh—! Whoosh whoosh whoosh—!!
A sudden, extremely shrill and penetrating air raid siren shattered the silence of the desert under the night sky!
The sound came from the very center of the Pandora base!
A piercing sound wave swept across the wilderness like a massive, tangible wave! Immediately afterwards, blinding beams of searchlight suddenly blazed from the direction of the mine! The previously steady searchlights now swung wildly, like the eyes of a startled beast! The enormous alloy gate burst open with a deafening roar!

Beams of bright headlights from off-road vehicles and armored trucks tore through the darkness, their engines roaring like furious bellows! The gun barrels of all the perimeter watchtowers instantly shifted direction! Human voices, the barking of wolves and dogs, angry shouts, and commands rose and fell between the alarms!
The entire Pandora base was completely awakened from its silence, turning into a raging beehive, an enraged steel hedgehog!

Inside the highest command tower at the base's center, a huge red light flickered with an ominous glow.

A bald, burly man in a high-ranking military officer's uniform, with a hideous scar on his face and eyes as fierce as a hyena, was shouting into the communicator, spitting everywhere.

"All personnel!"
Level One Alert!! Seal off all exits! Armored platoons on mobile patrol!

"Report from the prison ward! Something terrible has happened! All the important 'samples'... those women who were captured... have vanished! Like they've evaporated into thin air!"

A panicked, breathless voice came through the communicator.

"What?! All the women have run away?!" The bald officer—the leader of the local warlord "Hyena"—had his eyes bulging out of their sockets. He grabbed the communicator and roared at the entire base, his voice distorted with shock and rage.

"Listen up, all of you! The 'goods' in the mine are all gone! Someone's up to something! Search the place right now! Turn the base upside down! Find out who did it! Find out how those women got out!"

The veins on his forehead were bulging.

"It's definitely a mole! Or a rat has sneaked in! I'll skin him alive! Everyone! Get moving! Chase him!!"

The orders from the base command tower spread like wildfire, like a virus.

The soldiers who had just rushed out of the gate fully armed, the ragtag soldiers pouring out of the tents and barracks, the genetically modified warriors with bloodshot eyes and bulging muscles... after a brief moment of stunned silence, they exploded like an anthill doused with boiling water!

"woman!
Those crucial experimental materials have disappeared!

A small-time gang leader with a scar on his face brandished an old but gleaming AK47, roaring hoarsely in his local dialect.

"They escaped?! How is that possible? They were locked up in an impenetrable fortress!"

Some people find it hard to believe.

"Damn it! There's definitely a mole inside! Investigate him!"

Another leader, exuding a menacing aura and sporting gold teeth, roared and kicked over a nearby ammunition box, which clanged loudly.

"Catch those rats! I'm going to skin them alive and hang them on a flagpole to burn as sky lanterns!"

A burly man, his body wrapped in bullet chains and carrying a modified RPG, let out a beast-like roar.

"Chase!

They were in shackles, a group of weak women; they couldn't go far!

More soldiers and militants were stirred up, their eyes bloodshot, like hyenas smelling blood, they rushed out of the base gates in a chaotic frenzy, searchlights sweeping wildly, jeep engines roaring and kicking up clouds of yellow dust as they sped towards the boundless, dark wasteland. The soldiers cursed and swore, vowing to torture and abuse anyone they captured.

They never imagined that they would never find those women again, let alone see a single hair on their heads.

These "rats" that the al-Qaeda militants considered impossible to escape have already moved to another safe dimension.

***

The bizarre news of the base's prisoners mysteriously disappearing en masse spread like lightning through a unique encrypted network to some dark corner of the world at an astonishing speed.

The Heavenly Alliance is an extremely hidden stronghold deep underground in the mountains.

The cold electronic equipment flickered with a ghostly blue light, and the air was filled with the smell of disinfectant and some kind of synthetic lubricant. The sealed room on the top floor had no windows, only a few stark white explosion-proof lights providing illumination.

Three figures dressed in identical hooded black robes were nailed to the smooth, reflective ground like ghostly statues.

The silence was broken by a hoarse, cold voice.

"Africa, the Blood Jackal base, all the 'seed materials' for Project Pandora have disappeared under the highest security level..."

His tone was filled with disbelief and barely suppressed anger.

The brief silence was even heavier than before.

"Disappeared into thin air?"

The man in black robes on the left spoke, his voice like the scraping of metal.

"Hundreds of test subjects with varying physical conditions, all in shackles? This is no coincidence. It's destruction! Precise and daring destruction!"

The last two words were filled with gritted teeth and hatred.

The black-robed figure on the right slowly raised his head, the shadows under the hood resembling two bottomless black holes.

"The ability to instantly relocate over a hundred people right under the noses of the 'Blood Jackals' and gene warriors, without alerting any alarms or leaving any physical traces of intrusion..."

His voice was deep and imposing.

"This ability, this method... is by no means a worldly force."

It doesn't belong there.

He paused.

“It belongs to ‘us’…or at least it once did.”

"A mole?!"

The man in black robes on the left clenched his fist tightly, his knuckles making a soft cracking sound.

"Investigate! Immediately use the highest authority to purge the African branch from top to bottom! Any suspicious individuals, better to kill a thousand innocent people than innocent ones!"

"An internal cleanup is certainly necessary, but the most important thing right now is to find out where those 'seeds' went!"

The black-robed man in the middle regained his cold composure, but one could sense the storm brewing within his voice.

"To be able to take so many people away silently, the transfer must have required a carrier."

Spatial magic... Hmph, it's not omnipotent.

They can't go far! The most likely outcome is that they'll use transportation to escape that continent as quickly as possible.

He suddenly waved his hand, and a shimmering star map popped up in the void.

"Order all available official and non-official resources in Africa and surrounding areas! Investigate! Investigate all flights that took off from the capital airports in the region within the past 24 hours!"

Especially on direct flights to East Asia! They'll scrutinize every passenger list, cargo manifest, even the in-flight meal rations! They won't let any detail slip by!

"Yes!"

The other two bowed and accepted the order, their figures appearing even more sinister in the dim light.

They fell silent, like drops of water merging into the darkness, slid silently out of the secret room, clearly to immediately carry out this massive and meticulous investigation order.

Inside the secret chamber, only the heavy breathing of the black-robed man in the center could be heard, carrying a furious growl of someone whose divine power had been challenged by an ant. The light from the electronic screen illuminated a tiny silver totem on his sleeve, shaped like a cold claw mark.

The air seemed to have solidified into lead.

***

Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away from the Bloodjackal base, which had descended into mad chaos, lay a remote ravine behind a sparse thicket of thorns.

The moonlight was dim, and several huge weathered rocks formed a natural shelter.

An old jeep, covered in mud and looking weathered, was turned off and lay quietly dormant.

Two men, one burly with a rugged, wary face, the other slightly thinner, cautiously peered out, watching the occasional beam of searchlight piercing the night sky at the edge of the distant wasteland and the faint roar of engines. (End of Chapter)