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He made a final, stubborn attempt to resist. “I just used a few consciousness-related techniques. I’m not capable of actually harming you.”

Su Chen coldly laughed, “You may be only able to use consciousness-related techniques, but that doesn’t mean that you’re incapable of harming us. In fact, apart from your transformation and your proficiency in our language, I know of at least one more method that you’re using to deal with us. Do you dare say that you haven’t?”

Patelocke froze.

Duan Jiangshan and Ji Ruoyu glanced at Su Chen. “What else did he do?”

“Of course it’s that!” Su Chen pointed at the wall off in the distance. “I said earlier that something that was immortal and had an insatiable appetite was a lie made up by him, so what’s the deal with this image of Patelocke’s Nightmare, then? Do you dare deny that this isn’t an illusory image you created?”

As he spoke, he suddenly unleashed a powerful strike.

The fist slammed into the transparent wall.

Boom!

Amidst the massive rumble, everyone watched as the image in front of them disappeared.

There was no pile of insatiable meat. Instead, what replaced it was a room filled with Origin Formation inscriptions arranged in a six-pointed star formation.

Within that room stood a massive organism.

“Purple-Scaled Beast!? Ji Ruoyu, Yue Longsha, and the others yelled in shock.

Behind the wall was a Purple-Scaled Beast. However, it was clearly much larger and fiercer than the one they had encountered in the forest.

A mid-tier Demonic Beast.

“It is......” None of them could understand why a Demonic Beast would suddenly appear in the research lab.

Su Chen said, “If I’m not mistaken, this guy’s the real jailor of the research lab.”

Everyone was stunned.

If a Demonic Beast was the jailor of the research lab, then the one it must have been imprisoning was the former master of the research lab, Patelocke?

Such a strange twist of events was impossible for them to wrap their heads around.

The Demonic Beast seemed like it had been struck by some Origin Skill, and it stood there, strangely motionless. However, the intense aura emanating from its body reminded them all that it was truly a mid-tier Demonic Beast.

“You’re saying that everything we’ve run into thus far is because of that Demonic Beast?” Duan Jiangshan asked in disbelief.

“Do you remember our earlier doubts? It would be understandable if something was controlling the Origin Formations, but why would the Vicious Beasts cooperate with the Origin Formations and attack us simultaneously?” Su Chen said. “Now, you know the answer. To a Demonic Beast, controlling the Vicious Beasts on this mountain isn’t anything difficult.”

“How does it control the Origin Formations?” Ji Ruoyu asked.

“Of course, it’s by using the central control mechanism. Right now, we are just in a small jail cell in the research lab. The Demonic Beast is in the control room. Otherwise, the research lab and the central control mechanism would be combined, which doesn’t make much sense.”

“How can a Demonic Beast control the central control mechanism?” Yu Mengnan was dumbfounded. “How could it possibly reach this point?”

“It was obviously trained. Don’t forget that Demonic Beasts have intelligence. As long as it is taught, it can even communicate with other humans. Learning how to control a system like this isn’t that much.”

“Who taught it? Those people left a long time ago. This couldn’t possibly be the same Demonic Beast from thirty-six thousand years ago!” Yue Longsha said.

“Of course, it inherited it through its bloodline. If you brand a certain mission into its bloodline and pass that bloodline down indefinitely, the Purple-Scaled Beast and its descendants will serve as the jailors of this place.”

“That’s not possible!” Duan Jiangshan was shocked. “How can knowledge and orders be passed down through a person’s bloodline? The Arcana Kingdom never had such skills.”

“But Patelocke does because the primary reason for this research lab’s existence isn’t to pursue immortality, but to improve and facilitate the transfer of information. This way, when Arcana Race individuals were born, they would have already had a wealth of knowledge available to them and wouldn’t need to go through a study period. This would save them a lot of time...... Am I right, Master Arcana Patelocke?”

Patelocke was stunned. “How did you know?”

“In the research lab we just walked past, more than half of the specimens were pregnant...... That doesn’t look like a pursuit of immortality. Originally, I couldn’t figure out the direction of your research. At first, I thought you were trying to graft lifeforms together and create a new race. Though the plan is quite massive, the ambition behind it isn’t that grand. But if you were to create a new race, you could put it to good use...... For instance, you could control its memory.”

Su Chen laughed, “Creating a new race, implanting specific memories in the individuals of that race, then turning them into slaves of the Arcana Race to replace the Human Race, Ferocious Race, Feathered Race, and other slaves with a rebellious nature – now that’s quite a grand ambition! In the future, you would be able to take this one step further and use it on Arcana Race individuals. If you think about it broadly, Arcana Race newborns would have had all of this knowledge preinstalled. If you think about it selfishly, you could control the Arcana Race with this singlehandedly.”

Everyone was stunned by what Su Chen said.

“I just so happened to have read a few books that mentioned that during the Arcana Kingdom period, a few Arcana Masters skilled in controlling hordes of beasts were able to dominate the continent for some time.”

Upon hearing this, Patelocke howled, “Those bastards, stealing my grand invention!”

His originally benevolent, amicable expression contorted viciously. All of his pretenses disappeared instantly. His figure instantly grew large until his head was at the ceiling.

“Those traitors! They dare disobey my, Patelocke’s, orders! I’ll skin them alive!”

“You don’t need to trouble yourself with that. They died thirty-six thousand years ago,” Su Chen said coldly.

Upon hearing this, Patelocke’s frenzied appearance began to stabilize.

Yue Longsha, who had also read a few records of ancient Arcana history, was suddenly enlightened. “You mean the Beast Spirit Controllers? So Beast Spirit Controllers actually originated from this lab?”

In ancient Arcana History, a unique profession known as Beast Spirit Controllers had appeared before.

They purportedly had a unique ability to control large hordes of beasts without relying on any tricks or tactics.

On the Primordial Continent, most things abided by the laws of equivalent exchange. To individuals who were proficient in controlling other lifeforms, usually the more targets a person controlled and/or the stronger those targets were, the more energy one would need to expend.

However, the Beast Spirit Controllers shattered this restriction. It seemed like they could control an unlimited number of beasts, making it so that each Beast Spirit Controller was like a general, each with an army at his command. During the height of their prestige, they left quite a mark on the Arcana Kingdom, which was why they were subsequently mentioned in the history books.

Su Chen nodded. “Yes, it should have been then. Beast Spirit Controllers existed only for a short time in the Arcana Kingdom time period. Even though their appearance was flashy, they never reached the peak. Their disappearance was just as sudden as their appearance. Most people didn’t understand why this was, but it seems that there is really only one reason...... The technique they used wasn’t completed yet.”

Patelocke froze for a moment before nodding. “Yes, that’s right! This technology wasn’t even close to perfect. Even though we did succeed in imprinting memories in a bloodline, allowing them to be inherited, any beast that was modified to incorporate this technology would have its capacity to grow stronger greatly limited. After a certain point, there would be no way for the beasts to get stronger. Individuals who used this technique on themselves would result in organ failure due to the intense radiation.”

“So that’s how it is.” Su Chen finally understood. “Let me piece together the situation, then. Because of your merciless behavior in the research lab over a long period of time, even killing your own assistant, the rest of your assistants finally couldn’t take it anymore and rebelled against you together. However, they paid a heavy price during this battle. After you died, you were imprisoned within this stone tablet, and only a few of them were able to escape alive from the research lab. By using the technology they had been working on here, they began to control hordes of beasts, imprinting the beasts’ bloodlines with a commission to be absolutely submissive to their will. That’s how the Beast Spirit Controllers appeared. However, because the beast armies would only listen to their masters’ commands, once the controller themself died, the beast armies would scatter.”

“That should be how things happened,” everyone agreed.

“But I have one more question. I don’t understand why they didn’t try to kill you?” Su Chen asked.

“Because they wanted to keep me around so that I would help them improve the technology! They never gave up on performing the experiments!” Patelocke howled. “But how could I allow those traitors to use me? This is my research lab; I should be the one in control! Thankfully, I left behind a few secret tricks that I could use. With those tricks, I moved my research lab from its original location in void space and allowed it to drift before putting myself into a deep sleep. I would rather wait for a few ten thousand years for my research lab to reenter the main world after it ran out of energy than give those guys a chance!”

Patelocke’s howls resolved the final question in Su Chen’s heart.

“So that’s why.” Su Chen nodded. “Then you admit that you still have a few tricks up your sleeve that you haven’t shown yet?”

Patelocke began to laugh, “Yes. What point is there in refusing to admit it now? You damn human, your intelligence is so annoying. You guys are just lowly, cheap lifeforms. I gave you an opportunity, but you insisted on taking this path. Now, I, the great Patelocke, will give you one last opportunity. Let me out of this prison this very instant; otherwise, I will kill you all!”

Immediately following his menacing words, the whole research lab was enshrouded in a dark fog, and it was as if everyone had suddenly been thrown into a haunted area.