Chapter 285 - 284: C69

The Ultimate Eye mission’s duration was one week.

In the time it took for Jian Yu to leave the Ultimate Eye, travel to Emperor Wolf Star, and return to the Imperial Capital Star, Ji Shiyin had already brought the students safely back to the academy.

Yesterday, the starship returned to the academy with over a hundred people, causing a much bigger stir than when Jian Yu’s small group came back.

Pei Yin even made time to meet with Ji Shiyin personally.

He remembered...

"Zhao Jiangyou wasn’t assigned to Weis Lan." Pei Yin’s expression was thoughtful. "Little Yan took him home."

"Took him home?" Jian Yu’s eyes widened as she looked at Pei Yin in confusion.

Pei Yin’s ears reddened under her gaze. "Didn’t you guys ask Little Yan to keep an eye on Zhao Jiangyou? Little Yan said the man was shifty, so he wanted to watch him personally."

Jian Yu pressed, "How is he shifty? When will they be back?"

"He just looks shifty to me," Pei Yin blurted out.

Jian Yu blinked slowly. "Be serious."

"I am being serious." Pei Yin paused. "Little Yan said that back at the Ultimate Eye, he tested Zhao Jiangyou to gauge his strength."

Jian Yu’s expression didn’t change. "And the result?"

"The man nearly died. Little Yan was afraid he’d actually kill him, so he saved him." Pei Yin scratched his head. "It seems he really is just a low-level Awakener. In terms of his Soul Beast’s Healing ability, it might be slightly better than the average low-level one."

Jian Yu pressed her lips together in silence.

’I don’t believe it.’

’Even if investigating the Slave Market was an Alliance command, there’s definitely something wrong with Zhao Jiangyou.’

’Even without Zhao Jiangyou and Yan Li, Ling Yanzhi and the others probably would have gone to Emperor Wolf Star anyway.’

’So, what was the purpose of Zhao Jiangyou’s words? Was it just to gain our trust?’

’And does the brother he wanted to save even exist?’

Jian Yu mulled it over for a moment. "Zhao Jiangyou has the auras of two different Soul Beasts. I suspect Admiral Yan used him for an experiment."

She looked up at Pei Yin, wanting to hear his thoughts.

"Theoretically, a person can only have one Soul Beast. A Soul Beast is like an Awakener’s own cultivated Companion Beast; they’ll never awaken a second one in their lifetime."

"What are the chances of Zhao Jiangyou awakening two Soul Beasts simultaneously? As of now, are there any experiments that can give a person two Soul Beasts?"

"If it’s impossible for a person to awaken two Soul Beasts, then who does the other Soul Beast aura on Zhao Jiangyou belong to? Is there an experiment that can fuse another person’s Soul Beast into one’s own body?"

"Assuming I let you draw some of Zhao Jiangyou’s blood for research, could you figure out what the other Soul Beast in his body is?"

This barrage of questions made Pei Yin’s brow furrow deeper and deeper.

Before he could even process his shock, Jian Yu threw a few more questions at him.

"I sensed your and Duan Feiye’s auras on Yan Ying. Do you think Yan Ying’s situation and Zhao Jiangyou’s could be from the same experiment?"

Jian Yu’s fingers curled.

So much had happened in just a few days, she hardly knew where to begin.

"Oh, right. Have you or Duan Feiye ever had contact with Yan Ying or Admiral Yan? Did anything strange happen to you when you were a child, like being kidnapped and having your blood drawn?"

"And then there’s Yan Mingjiao. Ayue said her eyes were very strange, not like a real person’s. The plan was to smuggle her body back for you, but when it was time to leave, the body was gone."

"Ayue still has the eyes, I don’t. When he wakes up, you can ask him for them to study."

Jian Yu rarely spoke for so long.

Her voice was soft yet serious, and as Pei Yin listened, his head started to spin.

He pressed his fingers to his temples. "Let me get this straight."

’Eyes, corpses, and now a forbidden experiment...’

"The experiment you’re talking about should be related to the C69 experiment." Pei Yin couldn’t recall any childhood incidents.

"All my misfortunes came from the Pei Family. Nothing unusual happened when I was a kid, and I never had any contact with Yan Tianba. Feifei... he’s pretty much the same."

Pei Yin thought for a long time but couldn’t come up with anything.

He selectively skipped the question about Yan Ying. "The C69 experiment isn’t mature. With current technology, if I were to perform the procedure myself, I could indeed separate a Soul Beast from an Awakener. But I don’t think I could graft someone else’s Soul Beast onto another person."

Si Xu, surrounded by a faint halo of light, drifted over. "You *don’t think* you could?"

Jian Yu’s eyes went wide. "So it *is* possible?"

Pei Yin nodded.

"It is, but the side effects are severe. It turns people into violent, mentally unstable lunatics. That outcome is basically unavoidable."

"The Alliance banned the experiment precisely because the side effects are so severe. According to the case files, one soldier with a severe genetic disease participated in it. He had a strong will and a natural sense of justice. After the experiment, his life was saved, but he became bloodthirsty, cruel, and vicious."

"Furthermore, as for the fusion itself, the results are never ideal. The most likely outcome is turning a high-level Soul Beast into a low-level one."

"Also, two Soul Beasts can’t survive in the same body for long. They’ll reject each other until the weaker one is forced out or dies."

It was like twins fighting for nutrients in the womb; the stronger one might even absorb the weaker one.

Pei Yin was starting to feel eager to meet this Zhao Jiangyou.

"This experiment originally had two goals: one, to strip criminals of their Soul Beasts, and two, to save soldiers who were on the verge of death from severe genetic diseases or catastrophic damage to their Spirit Domain."

"Not many people know about the C69 experiment. I only participated a few times with my professor because the Alliance restarted it. There were no Emperor Wolf Star People on the rebooted research team."

’I wonder who performed the experiment on Zhao Jiangyou. When I saw him the other day, his mental state seemed perfectly fine, didn’t it?’

Pei Yin’s mind was racing. He’d have to study this properly later.

Jian Yu couldn’t help but ask, "What’s the success rate for an experiment like that?"

"Fifty-fifty, I guess." Pei Yin’s tone was smug. "If *I* do it, the success rate is at least eighty percent. As for the other twenty percent, ten is up to fate, and the other ten depends on whether I have the right equipment and materials."

He spread his hands.

"The Alliance has banned this kind of experiment now. Besides, the higher-ups don’t have that many 3S-tier Beast Plants for me to waste."

"But even if I had the 3S-tier Beast Plants, I wouldn’t do it. Grafting someone’s Soul Beast onto another person is extremely difficult and a thankless task."

"The Alliance is just too shortsighted. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have restarted the experiment in the first place."

Si Xu’s eyes flickered. "Who proposed restarting the experiment?"

A corner of Pei Yin’s mouth twitched. "A senior professor from the research institute. He has some connection to Yan Tianba and is always the one pulling strings for Emperor Wolf Star."

’No wonder he suddenly resigned a few days ago.’

’Did he know Emperor Wolf Star was going to declare independence and decide to bolt ahead of time?’

Si Xu nonchalantly sat down beside Jian Yu.

He squeezed Jian Yu’s left hand, his gaze distant and unfocused.