Chapter 135 - 106: Spirit Vein, Dragon Vein!

Chapter 135: Chapter 106: Spirit Vein, Dragon Vein!

[Refining Complete!]

[Obtained Leopard One Memory Pearl x1]

[Obtained Energy Points: 2]

Under the dim yellow light, Lu Jing’an sat bare-chested in a wooden tub. The swirling medicinal steam somewhat obscured his handsome face. He glanced calmly at the pale gold text hovering before him.

It was not surprising that four hours of Refining only yielded this much. It was entirely normal to receive no entry rewards. To Lu Jing’an, the few entries on Leopard One were of limited value; instead, this Memory Pearl was the truly crucial item. He knew very little about Commander Bai, who oversaw the Provincial City. Lu Jing’an had never been a reckless brute who relied solely on hot-blooded courage to barrel his way through. Fighting head-on was a last resort for when all options were exhausted, never his first choice. Information was the primary gateway to victory.

Lu Jing’an leaned back slightly, resting his neck against the tub’s cool rim. He closed his eyes, sinking his mind into the newly acquired Memory Pearl.

...

Leopard One’s memories surged like a tidal wave.

Before the age of ten, Leopard One had been just another little beggar, the kind seen everywhere in the city. Filthy and unkempt, he fought stray dogs for scraps in street corners and alleys. It was an era where human life was worth no more than dirt; even in a beggar’s den, it was hard to snatch a mouthful of spoiled food, let alone for a seven- or eight-year-old child like him.

Later, the Bai Family established Jishantang. They handed out porridge and clothes, taking in the destitute and orphaned. To survive, Leopard One dragged his weak body and squeezed through those vermilion doors.

In his memories, Jishantang was surprisingly clean, yet it was permeated with a heavy, pungent stench of lime mixed with cheap disinfectant. A group of Voiders with deep-set eyes and high noses, wearing stiff, freshly laundered white coats, along with a few stern-faced old men in long silk gowns, conducted extremely detailed examinations on these emaciated children. They measured their height, weighed them, and pried their mouths open to inspect their teeth. They pressed cold stethoscopes against their chests and even used slender Silver Needles to prick their fingertips for blood. Leopard One cooperated timidly, his eyes filled with a desperate longing for warmth and a full stomach.

There were many children with him. After the examination, some were kept. The rest were silently led away by the Voiders toward a courtyard deeper in the back. At the time, Leopard One didn’t understand, but he felt an instinctive fear. The Voiders’ eyes didn’t look like they were looking at human beings. Instead, they looked as if they were appraising livestock for slaughter, or some kind of material.

For those lucky enough to stay, the days initially felt like paradise. Every day, there were white steamed buns, vegetable soup with visible drops of oil, and slightly bitter medicinal decoctions to condition their bodies. Leopard One thought the Bai Family were Bodhisattvas reincarnated. He silently swore to himself that he would repay their boundless grace even if it meant laying down his life.

Over a dozen days later, after their bodies were nourished enough to gain some strength, the old men in long gowns reappeared and began teaching them the foundation of Martial Arts. The training was strict to the point of cruelty. If a horse stance was even slightly off, a rattan cane would whistle through the air and lash their backs, leaving trails of red, swollen welts. Assessments were held every few days. Those who lagged behind in progress or lacked resilience were expressionlessly taken away. It was always the white-coated Voiders who took them. Leopard One trained as if his life depended on it, not daring to slack off in the slightest. He had seen the eyes of the children being led away—hollow and despairing—and they never returned.

In less than a year, he actually managed to pull through. With his qi and blood newly awakened, he crossed the threshold of a Martial Cultivator.

However, this was merely the beginning of another nightmare.

The day he became a Martial Cultivator, the white coats appeared right on time. They brought him to a heavily guarded underground facility beneath the headquarters. The passageways there formed a labyrinth. The walls were a cold grayish-white, and the lightbulbs overhead emitted a sickly, pale glare.

While passing through a long corridor, he looked through a massive glass wall on one side. Leopard One saw the little girl who used to sleep in the bed next to his, the one who always loved to hum softly. She was floating in a pale green, viscous liquid. Her hollow eyes were wide open, and her small body had been completely sliced open from chest to abdomen. Her internal organs were gone, leaving only a light, thoroughly hollowed-out husk of skin that bobbed gently with the flow of the liquid.

Leopard One’s blood ran cold. His calves cramped, and he nearly collapsed to the floor. But he was shoved roughly forward into a blindingly bright room. The room was filled with a bizarre stench—a mix of metal and some strange fluid. He was tightly strapped down onto a cold iron bed. The sheets were covered in dark brown stains that couldn’t be washed out. The Voiders surrounded him, wielding all sorts of grotesquely shaped Equipment that glinted with cold light. They measured him, marked his skin, and pierced his arm with a cold syringe, drawing a full dozen vials of his blood.

Fear wrapped around his heart like an icy viper.

"Ahhh—!!"

A sudden, inhumanly shrill shriek pierced through from the next room. It was so sharp it almost ruptured his eardrums, but then it abruptly stopped.

Terrified, Leopard One lost all color in his face, his teeth chattering uncontrollably. Immediately after, a white curtain next to his bed was violently yanked open. He saw the teenager who had been brought in with him just moments ago.

At this moment, a bizarre, gleaming silver liquid with a metallic sheen was slowly oozing from the boy’s eyes, ears, mouth, and nose. His skin had split open in multiple places, and twisted, sharp silver metal spikes pierced through his flesh, jutting outward. It was as if something was frantically growing and bursting out from inside him. The boy was already dead, his state terrifying to behold.

Leopard One’s pupils shrank to pinpricks as boundless terror engulfed him.

However, struggling was futile. A cold needle pressed against the side of his neck, and that silver, seemingly living liquid was slowly pushed into his veins.