I'm really not a Sanctuary Warlock.

"But I am the best traveling merchant. I have seen it all and I have experienced all kinds of storms."

Lynn couldn't help but laugh as he watched her put on a brave face while her tail trembled uncontrollably.

"Okay, then stick close to me, don't run around, don't touch anything, and don't shout."

"...I'm not a three-year-old cat."

"So how did you trigger this mechanism just now?"

The cat immediately shut its white mouth tightly.

The two walked down the spiral stone steps.

The stone steps were narrow, and each step was covered with a thin layer of dust.

The blood-red amethyst on the wall emitted a dim light, barely illuminating the path beneath our feet, but also casting an eerie red hue over everything around us.

The further down you go, the clearer the crying becomes.

After walking for about three or four minutes, the stone steps came to an end.

Lynn raised the lantern.

Before them appeared an underground space several times larger than the circular stone chamber above.

Then, he was completely stunned.

Under the light of the lanterns, rows of iron cages, large and small, were densely packed in this underground space, numbering at least a hundred.

In one of the most recent iron cages, a woman who was so thin she was practically skin and bones was huddled up.

Her skin was an unnatural grayish-white, with bluish veins dilating and spreading beneath her skin. All her hair had fallen out, and her empty eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. Her cracked lips opened and closed repeatedly, emitting faint groans.

Beside her, there was a man locked up; judging by his build, he was probably under thirty.

But all the joints of his limbs were twisted and reversed, his fingers turned into gray claws that were more than ten centimeters long, and a fist-sized fleshy lump rose on his back, slowly wriggling as if something alive was hidden inside.

Further away, Lynn saw an even more shocking sight.

Some of the caged people had scales all over their bodies, some had a waxy carapace covering their skin, some had parts of their bodies melted into a gel-like substance, and some had their limbs amputated, with foreign tissues that were not human growing at the cuts.

Next to each iron cage stood a pipe connected to the ceiling, through which flowed a kind of eerie green liquid, which was injected into the body of the person inside the cage through a syringe.

At the deepest part of the space stood a huge stone slab, densely covered with runes and patterns, as well as numerous handwritten notes.

laboratory.

This is a living laboratory.

Lynn's fists clenched involuntarily.

He thought he had seen enough darkness.

But each time, the world manages to refresh his understanding.

"Meow..."

A very faint sob came from behind me.

"They...they're so pitiful, meow. Who...who would do such a thing to living people?"

Lynn was silent for a few seconds, then reached out and gently rubbed the cat's head.

He carried the lantern and walked to the nearest iron cage, squatted down, and carefully examined the condition of the gray-skinned woman inside.

Identification techniques.

Race: Human (Mutating)

[Level: 3]

[Sanity: 19 / Embraced by a demon, rejected by an evil god]

[Note: This individual is being forcibly injected with low-purity demon blood, causing a severe rejection reaction and pushing them to the brink of mental collapse.]

Demon bloodline fusion experiment.

Lynn's expression changed.

He then used the identification technique on the man next to him whose joints were reversed.

Race: Human (Mutating)

[Level: 7]

[Sanity: 21 / Embraced by a demon, rejected by an evil god]

[Note: This individual is being forcibly injected with low-purity demon blood, causing a severe rejection reaction and pushing them to the brink of mental collapse.]

Let's look at another one.

Race: Human (Mutating)

[Level: 1]

[Sanity: 18 / Embraced by a demon, rejected by an evil god]

The identification results for each caged person were largely the same.

They were all experimental subjects who had been forcibly injected with demon blood.

Lynn stood up and strode toward the deepest stone slab engraved with runes.

He needs to know who did all this.

The notes on the stone slab were messy and he couldn't understand a lot of the technical terms, but some of the repeated entries were written very plainly.

"The 117th experiment failed. The test subject suffered a mental breakdown and became demonized and out of control when the fusion rate reached 40%. The matter has been dealt with."

"The quality of the test subjects provided by the city lord is getting worse and worse. Most of them are the elderly, the weak, the sick, the disabled, and the homeless. Their basic physical condition is too low, and they simply cannot withstand the pain of fusion. We need younger and healthier materials."

"We are short of funds and have applied to the city lord for additional funding. The city lord's attitude is ambiguous, and he seems dissatisfied with the progress. If there are no further breakthroughs, we may have to cut off the supply."

"We've finally made a major discovery! The key to breaking through 50% fusion is that the test subject must be strong enough. Ordinary people are too weak and will collapse quickly after being injected with demon blood. We need to find test subjects of a higher level."

As he wrote this, his handwriting became increasingly messy and unrestrained.

"The chaotic city needs order, it needs power. If I can successfully create artificial demon warriors, then this city will no longer be in chaos. I will be the one to save this city, I will—"

The words that followed were completely illegible, as if they had been interrupted by something halfway through writing, and the ink trailed out in a long tail before disappearing at the edge of the stone slab.

Lynn finished reading the entire content and turned around.

His gaze swept over the hundreds of iron cages in front of him, over the experimental subjects inside who were no longer human, and finally landed on a blood-stained table next to the stone slab.

On the table was an open, heavy notebook, next to rows of glass containers filled with various liquids.

These liquids are still fresh.

There was no dust on the bottle walls.

Someone has been here recently.

And it's very likely that it's been coming all along.

"Lynn..." Cat White appeared behind him without him noticing, "Can these people... still be saved, meow?"

Lynn did not speak.

He has already examined those experimental subjects with high fusion rates. Their body structures have been completely destroyed by the demon blood, and the organ mutations are irreversible. Even if he uses [Tide Moon's Blessing], he is probably powerless to do anything about it.

But those with low integration...

He walked quickly to an iron cage, inside which was a girl who looked no more than fifteen or sixteen years old. Her body was curled up in a ball, with only a few scattered gray spots on her skin. Her chest rose and fell slightly, and although her breathing was weak, it was still relatively steady.

There might still be hope.

Chapter Fifty-Three: The Cycle in That Day

The thought flashed through Lynn's mind.

Anyway, we should give it a try.

Without further hesitation, he began to communicate with the Sirens.

"The grace of Xiyue".

As the command was given, a cool, moonlit glow instantly filled the entire underground laboratory.

Where the radiance passed, the strong stench in the air was greatly diluted.

"Meow..." The cat squinted its eyes comfortably and unconsciously let out a pleasant hum.

Lynn ignored her; his attention was entirely focused on the experimental subjects in the iron cages.

The moonlight-like energy seeped into their bodies, bringing about subtle changes.

Some of the experimental subjects' horrifying mutated features, such as scales and carapaces, have faded slightly in color.

The painful groans subsided, as if their suffering had been relieved.

it works.

But it doesn't have much effect.

It only provides temporary relief, far from being a cure.

The physical structures of the vast majority of experimental subjects had been completely destroyed. At best, this level of treatment would only lessen their suffering in the final moments of their lives.

Lynn's heart sank.

Just then.

"Clap clap clap."

The crisp sound of applause came from the spiral stone steps leading up to them.

Lynn turned around abruptly and saw that there was another person in the shadows at the entrance.

The newcomer was tall and slender, dressed in a well-tailored black tuxedo and a spotless white silk shirt.

He wore a pair of elegant monocles, and his eyes behind the lenses were appreciatively scrutinizing Lynn in front of him.

"A brilliant healing spell, with a wide range and pure energy, but unfortunately... it was used in the wrong place."

As the man spoke, he slowly walked down the stone steps.

"The price of wanting to be a hero is very high, and you don't have that ability right now."

His words were calm, without sarcasm or malice; he was simply stating a fact.

"Let me introduce myself." The man stopped three meters in front of Lynn, bowed slightly, and gave a standard aristocratic bow. "My name is Felix."

"Three years ago, I was fortunate enough to participate in the overthrow of the city's former lord's rule, so I guess I was one of the changemakers."

Lynn remained vigilant, unsure of what the man before him intended to do.

Felix seemed to read his mind and continued.

“I know you have a lot of questions, such as where this place is and who these people are.”

Without waiting for Lynn's reply, he walked straight to an iron cage and looked at the experimental subject inside, who had completely lost his human form.

"But there's one thing I must tell you first."

"You can't save these people."

“They will die immediately if we take them out of this place.”

what?

Lynn and Cat White were both stunned.

"Why?" Lynn asked instinctively.

“Time,” Felix replied simply. “Time is a wonderful thing. Just like me, who is talking to you now, comes from three years ago, and the people in these cages are also from three years ago.”

Lynn's mind raced as he tried to understand the meaning of the sentence.

Someone from three years ago?

How can this be?

“We’ve locked the timeline of the underground area of ​​this mage tower to the day the revolution ended three years ago,” Felix said calmly. “Since that day, time here has been repeating itself endlessly, every day is a cycle of that day.”

"Only in this way can everyone's lives be saved."