Chapter 785 - 652: Research and Action

The metal plates of the underground laboratory steadily provided a luminous white light.

Jeming stood in front of the workbench, with a half-dismantled seal rune stone plate spread out before him.

The stone plate was silvery-gray, its surface covered with dense grooves, within which faint blue rune powder lingered.

His fingers moved slowly along the grooves, a thin layer of spiritual power formed by alchemy at his fingertips, analyzing the stone plate's structure layer by layer during the touch.

This was what he had been doing for the past half month.

The study of the Shadow Thief had come to an end.

Now Jeming was researching the hazardous level anomaly previously purchased at an auction, sealed in a metal box.

As for the Shadow Thief, it had been repeatedly examined by Jeming over the past half month.

Its energy structure, mechanism of devouring shadows, the connection with the host's life level, and even its "dormant" cycle in a sealed state had been repeatedly analyzed and documented using the All-Purpose Eye and Fate System.

The results were quite substantial, naturally.

On the left side of the workbench, a row of incubators housed new Eyes of the Micro-Light, slowly growing in the cultivating liquid.

As a rare anomaly with its own body, the Shadow Thief was not just a study of anomalous power for Jeming.

Its very existence structure and energy distribution could serve as a reference for optimizing the Eye of the Micro-Light.

The energy frequency of the second-generation Eye of the Micro-Light had been recalibrated, significantly extending its lifetime and allowing compatibility with the aura of most anomalies, thereby reducing the instinctive responses that made spiritualists bristle.

After completing the preliminary inspection of the seal stone plate, Jeming intended to conduct further tests.

He instinctively raised his head to look to the left, then suddenly remembered that area was now occupied by the culture containers for the Eye of the Micro-Light.

Scratching his head, Jeming gestured, and several experimental apparatuses on the left were collected into the Inner Grotto Heaven within his body, then with another gesture, a bizarrely shaped experimental apparatus was summoned from the grotto heaven.

Placing the stone plate into the apparatus and completing a series of operations, he finally commenced the second round of testing.

Suddenly, Jeming sighed, his voice filled with helplessness.

He had expanded this underground laboratory as extensively as possible in all directions.

All four walls had been pushed several meters outward, tripling the original area of the basement.

Space expansion techniques had also been used.

The wizard technique that "stretches" existing space was cautiously performed four times, each time increasing the internal volume by about fifty percent.

But this was the limit; it could not be expanded further.

The problem lay with the anomalous powers.

This basement was located beneath the old district of Wudu, where the soil and rocks had been permeated with various residual anomalous energies over centuries.

When the space expansion factor grew too large, the internal space would become unstable, leading to chaos in the realm of laws.

Jeming noticed this issue after the third expansion: the energy fluctuations of two anomalous samples in the laboratory began to show random, irregular changes.

To confirm this phenomenon, Jeming conducted a control experiment.

He divided the same batch of anomalous samples into two groups, one in the expanded laboratory and the other in his bedroom on the second floor of the bookstore.

The results were clear: the samples in the laboratory exhibited inexplicable random energy fluctuations, while those in the bedroom were normal.

This was the influence of anomalous power.

When the spatial structure was artificially altered, the residual anomalous energies in the soil would be activated, affecting the internal environment of the laboratory.

If Jeming attempted further expansion by force, the research results would no longer be reliable, and each experiment would yield random conclusions.

For a researcher, this was unacceptable.

As for digging down... he had considered it.

But beneath the old district lay a dense network of underground pipelines, and what was called the underground black market primarily used these pipelines as bases of operations.

Even avoiding these pipelines, digging deeper was not an option.

Less than thirty meters down, the land entered a peculiar rock layer.

During the day, he had scanned this rock layer with spiritual power and discovered an extremely faint periodic vibration deep within.

Later, Jeming learned from reference materials that people in this plane referred to similar situations as "anomalies deep underground."

No one knew the specific level, because no one had returned alive from that depth.

But Jeming had seen related records in the internal data of the Spirit Communicator Association: the anomalous characteristics were closely entwined with the concept of "earthquakes," and once provoked, they could wipe an entire city off the map.

This was not an exaggeration.

There had been similar incidents on this plane before.

One hundred and twenty years ago, a city accidentally triggered a deep anomaly during underground construction.

Over three days, a continuous high-intensity earthquake destroyed the city, killing over 300,000 people.

The city was abandoned afterward and remains a forbidden zone to this day.

Jeming did not intend to become the next case study.

He also considered another approach: sending anomalous fragments or powers into the Inner Grotto Heaven for research.

This would completely avoid the environmental constraints of this plane, as the space was vast, the environment stable, and absolutely safe.

But this idea was dismissed by him almost as soon as it emerged.

The reason is simple, even the Eighth Level Wizard Oston failed.

While campaigning on a plane, Oston carelessly allowed the bizarre phenomenon of the laws to infiltrate his backyard, leading to the "infection" of that micro-glass garden plane.

That was an Eighth Level Wizard, yet he couldn't completely block the bizarre infiltration.

Jeming doesn't believe his inner grotto heaven is more stable than Oston's plane.

After the formation of his true form's Dharma, the inner grotto heaven is the foundation of his inner cycle, the support of his true form.

If bizarre power were to infiltrate it, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Before thoroughly understanding the essence of the bizarre, recklessly incorporating unknown power into his core system is not something a good researcher should do.

Therefore, he could only continue to squeeze into this laboratory, which was already too small for him.

In a setting that could be considered crude, he finally completed the current stage of research. Jeming arranged the last piece of equipment, closed the cabinet door, and walked back to the workbench.

Suddenly, his body paused for a moment.

He lifted his head, his gaze piercing through the ceiling and the floor of the bookstore on the first floor, out onto the street.

Someone was approaching the bookstore... it was the Black Agent.

When the wooden door of the old bookstore was pushed open, the door hinge sounded louder than usual.

Obviously, the person pushing the door was too hasty, not controlling their strength.

The Black Agent stood at the doorway, the collar of his trench coat raised, the brim of his hat pressed low.

His breathing was a bit heavy, it seemed he had run from the street corner to the bookstore's entrance.

And he had run urgently, as if something was chasing him.

Jeming sat in the rocking chair, holding a newspaper, and glanced at him.

"Close the door," Jeming said.

The Black Agent hurriedly shut the door, sliding the latch into place.

He turned around, took off his hat, his forehead soaked with sweat, looking quite nervous.

"Long time no see, Mr. Jeming." He lowered his voice, "I'm really sorry, the investigation has been too strict recently."

Jeming put down the newspaper, saying nothing, waiting for him to continue.

"The Spirit Communicator Association has suddenly tightened control over bizarre resources and genetic potions since last month." The Black Agent pulled a cloth package from the inside of his trench coat, placing it on the table, but unlike usual, he didn't open it.

"Many things on the black market are out of stock. It's not that they're sold out; no one dares to sell them. This time, I took several detours and changed cars three times to shake off possible tails."

Jeming's gaze fell on the cloth package.

Judging by the shape and weight, this shipment was much less than usual.

"Do you know why they're investigating?" Jeming asked.

The Black Agent shook his head, then nodded, and finally sighed: "I heard it's related to the incident at the abandoned factory last time. I'm not sure about the specifics, but someone I know working in the association's logistics department said they're investigating internal personnel. They're not investigating us, they're investigating their own people."

Jeming's expression didn't change, he had anticipated such occurrences.

After all, the people in the Spirit Communicator Association aren't foolish. The performance of the other side during the battle was too obvious, and with few clues, they would naturally prioritize investigating internal spies and the flow of major resources within the city.

"Has anything been found out?"

"I don't know." The Black Agent wiped his forehead's sweat, "We won't be informed of such things. But the control is very real, and now, the market price of bizarre fragments has tripled, while genetic potions are even more exaggerated; some banned items have increased fivefold and are still unobtainable. I could only bring this much stuff this time, you'll have to make do with it."

He said this as he opened the cloth package. Inside were a few small bizarre fragments and two genetic potions sealed in metal tubes.

Indeed, much less than usual, but their quality looked pretty good.

Jeming picked up a fragment, examining it under the light.

Hazard Level, middle to high quality, it seems the Spirit Communicator Association's self-examination has affected these black markets.

"Payment as per the usual terms." Jeming put down the fragment, closing the cloth package, "Next time you come, bring more intelligence. Having less goods is not an issue, but intelligence cannot be lacking."

The Black Agent nodded repeatedly, pulling out a folded note from his pocket and carefully placing it on the table:

"This is what I've gathered these past few days. Can't guarantee it's all accurate, but it should be useful."

Jeming opened the note, glanced at it.

There were a few handwritten lines, scribbled, recording some recent movements of the Spirit Communicator Association: which department's warehouse had increased its guards, where batches of bizarre fragments had been transferred, and which areas recently had frequent appearances by people from the association.

These details weren't new to Jeming, he could see them with a spiritual power scan during the day.

But the fact that the Black Agent could provide these suggested his sources were indeed delving deep.

"Understood." Jeming kept the note, "You should leave. Come less often recently; if there's anything, I'll contact you."

The Black Agent breathed a sigh of relief, saluted Jeming.

He put his hat back on, raised his collar, cracked the wooden door open a sliver, peered outside for a few seconds, then slipped out.

Jeming sat in the rocking chair, his fingers gently drumming on the armrest.

The Spirit Communicator Association investigating thoroughly indicated they were indeed taking the issue of internal moles seriously.

This wasn't a bad thing, at least it showed the higher-ups of the association didn't intend to merely muddle through the situation.

However, it also meant obtaining high-quality research materials from the black market would become increasingly difficult.

"But, with the issue of research materials, it shouldn't be long before it's resolved..."