Ling Cage: Twelve Talismans? I have everything I need.

Chapter 88 No Survivors
The ghastly white beam of the helmet light pierced the thick darkness inside the space station.

Yang Chen hovered in the cold passage, the floating corpses before him silently telling the story of their final madness.

This is a scene of fratricide.

Unfortunately, these people died too long ago, and their source energy has dissipated.

"Yuekui, can you see it from there?" Yang Chen's voice came back to the Swift through the communication channel.

Inside the Swift, Bai Yuekui stared intently at the screen, her brow furrowed as she watched the images transmitted from Yang Chen's helmet camera.

"This may have been during the end of the Old World when the Hela Empire brought the products of the ecosystem to this space station for experimentation."

Back then, everyone knew nothing about ecology, so it's understandable that things turned out this way.

"Analysis results confirmed, Moon Queen," ASH's voice rang out.

"Traces of scarlet residue were detected in the passage. Based on the posture of the corpses and the direction of the weapons, it is speculated that the disaster was caused by an accidental leak of scarlet due to an uncontrolled experiment. In the early stages of the leak, the infected individuals killed each other in a state of hallucination and extreme pain. Subsequently, due to the failure or deliberate disconnection of the space station's life support system, all personnel died rapidly in the vacuum and low temperature."

Yang Chen's gaze swept over the floating remains, finally settling on a relatively intact body curled up in a corner.

Something reflected a faint light from the shadows of the bulkhead beneath the body.

He floated over gently and brushed aside a few floating fragments.

A spinal worm.

It was curled up, presenting an eerie state of stillness.

The carapace was covered with a thin, almost transparent layer of ice crystals, and several slender segments stretched out stiffly, like specimens frozen in time.

"Spine Gu..."

Yang Chen leaned forward, picked up the spinal worm, examined it, and then burned it to ashes.

He stood up and continued drifting forward along the passage.

Several cabins were scattered along both sides of the passage. Through the broken observation windows, one could see that the cabins were in complete disarray, with fragments of experimental equipment and many more frozen corpses in contorted positions.

Some of the cabin doors still bore traces of frantic scratching and bloodstains.

His goal is clear.

Search for the core area of ​​the experiment, and any possible clues to survivors.

At the end of the passage, a heavy alloy door blocked the way.

The door was covered with marks of impact and burning, with a large, twisted crater in the center being particularly striking, seemingly caused by a violent explosion inside.

The electronic lock panel next to the door was already broken, and all the indicator lights were off.

The door was painted with conspicuous warning signs and biohazard symbols, and a line of blurry text below was barely legible.

High-risk experimental area

"This is it."

The door here is not manually or physically locked; it should be able to open normally after the repairs are completed.

Yang Chen stretched out his hand, and a blue light flashed.

The dent in the gate quickly healed, and everything around it was also rapidly repaired under the influence of the horse talisman.

“ASH.” Bai Yuekui made the decision immediately.

"Maintaining Swift's escort status, I will enter the space station to rendezvous with Orange."

"Understood, Yue Kui. Please be sure to stay safe." Ash's voice was as calm and reliable as ever.

The outer hatch opened, and Bai Yuekui gracefully floated out of the Swift, using the fine-tuning thrusters to drift towards the end of the passage where Yang Chen was.

Yang Chen waited beside the repaired gate.

Seeing Bai Yuekui approach, he reached out his hand, and Bai Yuekui grabbed his arm, using it to steady himself. The two of them floated together in front of the door.

"Ready?" Yang Chen asked.

Bai Yuekui nodded: "Open the door."

Yang Chen reached out and pressed a button on the control panel next to the door.

The indicator light glowed a faint green, and the heavy alloy door slowly slid inward.

Inside the door was a huge experimental chamber divided into multiple areas. The first thing that caught the eye was a row of huge cylindrical reinforced glass culture tanks arranged along the chamber walls.

Most of the tanks were intact, but the murky nutrient solution inside had long since solidified into opaque blocks of ice.

Within the ice, there are grotesque objects.

With the help of the helmet's bright light, it can be clearly seen that what is frozen are the remains of organisms of various shapes, but all with obvious insect characteristics.

Some have huge, sickle-shaped forelimbs, and their carapaces are covered with sharp spines.

Some resemble beetles or centipedes magnified hundreds of times, their compound eyes reflecting an eerie light beneath the ice.

Beside it were many human bodies, whose limbs, like those of the Devouring Beasts, looked as if they had been transplanted.

“These…” Bai Yuekui floated closer to a culture tank, carefully observing the twisted limbs of the insects beneath the ice.

"This form... matches the characteristics of a group of Devouring Beasts that emerged from the depths of the Earth's core at the beginning of the disaster. It can now be confirmed that the Hela Empire captured and transported them into space for experimentation before the disaster."

Yang Chen's gaze swept over the frozen collection.

"Without sunlight and the magnetic field provided by the Mana flower, they are now in hibernation."

“We don’t need these samples,” Bai Yuekui said succinctly.

Yang Chen understood what she meant.

He didn't speak, but simply raised his right hand, and his palm glowed red again.

The sturdy reinforced glass melted instantly like paper under the terrifying heat of the dragon flames, and the experimental subject was completely incinerated under the absolute heat.

"What are your thoughts now that you see these test subjects?" Bai Yuekui shifted his gaze from the molten remains to Yang Chen.

Beneath the helmet visor, her eyes held an inscrutable quality, and her voice came through the communicator.

"I still remember someone calling me a cold-blooded, emotionless madwoman."

"Cough..." Yang Chen was caught off guard, and his expression froze.

He then coughed tactically, trying to cover up the embarrassment of being suddenly confronted with old grievances.

He subconsciously looked away, avoiding Bai Yuekui's gaze that seemed to penetrate his helmet.

"...That was so long ago, why bring it up? The situation was different back then."

He did remember that when he first saw the clones in Bai Yuekui's laboratory, he felt a certain naiveté and moral superiority.

She has been described with words like "cold-blooded" and "madwoman".

At that time, he could not truly understand the cruelty of surviving in this world, nor could he understand what she was carrying.

After dealing with these artifacts, the two turned their gaze to the depths of the experimental chamber.

There was also a smaller, but equally heavy, isolation door.

"Escape pod array"

Yang Chen used the power of the horse talisman to repair it again, restoring the basic functions of the control panel next to the door.

However, it displays an abnormal status and cannot be opened normally.

Helpless, Yang Chen had no choice but to resort to his old trick and forcibly break down the door.

Behind the door is a large cabin containing three escape pods identical to the one without a door.

Yang Chen and Bai Yuekui's gazes both focused on the fourth support.

There was nothing there.

She raised her head, her gaze piercing through the helmet visor, and met Yang Chen's eyes.

“There will be no survivors here,” Bai Yuekui said slowly.

"Wu Men must have been in a desperate situation when the space station was engulfed by the madness caused by Scarlet Gum and was about to be completely cut off from energy. He used his own potential to bypass the access control that might be locked and directly penetrated the wall to enter the core escape pod array area, which theoretically requires the highest level of authority to open."

As for the others

Just by looking at the other three escape pods, you can tell that they are all empty.

Of the entire space station, only Wumen survived.

(End of this chapter)