Long River Eternity

Lin Ding and the other two quickly ran down the stairs and passed through a not-so-long passage.

A room the size of a basketball court appeared before the three of them. Inside, iron pillars, each as thick as an adult man's calf, stood unevenly. These pillars had originally supported the roof of the ruins, preventing its collapse. Now, chains held people trapped on the pillars, their lives unknown.

Some of these people had strong muscles with bulging blood vessels, and were roaring in low voices; some were skin and bones, with disheveled hair, and were dying; some had ulcers all over their skin, pus and sores, and they hung their heads and were motionless; others were covered with tumors, which was disgusting.

Seeing this, Liu Xianxian covered her mouth with her hands and ran to the side, vomiting violently. Lin Ding and Wei Wu also frowned, their stomachs churning.

I should have skipped eating before coming here.

Lin Ding looked around and saw about ten people tied to iron pillars. All of them were deformed and had no human form.

Lin Ding looked around and found that there were iron rods standing on the wall on the left side of the room. There was another room next door, which was extremely dark and he could vaguely see people crowding around inside.

"There's someone over there! Let's go and take a look." Lin Ding said, and walked towards the next room.

When he arrived in front of the iron fence, Lin Ding saw that there were five or six people locked up in the next room. Although these people looked haggard and had dull eyes, they had not mutated and were no different from normal people.

At this moment, another painful scream came from the far end of the room. It turned out that there was a door connecting to another room, and a faint green light was flickering inside the door.

"Turns out there is another room over there." Lin Ding thought.

Although this place was extremely strange, Lin Ding did not rescue anyone without knowing whether the people imprisoned were good or bad.

"There is another room over there." Lin Dingxiang said to the two of them.

So the three of them walked lightly and slowly approached the room.

Arriving at the doorway, they saw only a doorframe, no door. They peered inside, only a single incandescent light emitting a dim glow. In the light, they saw a researcher in a white lab coat pinned to the wall, head bowed, breathing heavily. Opposite him stood a large, precision instrument, behind which stood six or seven other researchers, also in white lab coats. One was expertly operating the instrument, while the others were recording data in notebooks.

The man pinned to the wall at this moment raised his head, his lips curled up, his eyes revealed madness, and he said in a hoarse voice: "Come again, come again! I feel like I'm about to break through to the Kaiyang Realm, hahahaha, come again!"

The researcher operating the instrument also smiled wildly and said, "As you wish!"

He quickly operated the instrument. Soon, a green light gradually lit up at one end of the instrument, and then a green light shot out towards the man on the wall. The man screamed frantically. At first, there was a crazy smile in his eyes, but it soon turned into fear. He roared loudly: "No, turn it off quickly, turn it off quickly! It's going to explode! Ah!!"

The man behind the instrument said ruthlessly, with a smile on his face and madness and indifference in his eyes, "It's not enough. If you can't break through, die."

The others also looked at the man with sneers on their faces, and were indifferent to his shouts.

The man's roars became quieter and quieter. As his voice weakened, his muscles actually began to wriggle slowly. Then the amplitude of the wriggling became stronger and stronger. The man's body soon swelled up. Then, huge tumors grew out of his body. Finally, with a "bang", the man exploded, and the broken flesh and internal organs covered the walls, roof and ground.

Lin Ding quickly covered Liu Xianxian's eyes with his hands to prevent her from seeing such a bloody scene.

"Another loser. Who's next?" the man operating the instrument said indifferently.

"I come!"

"I come!"

"I come!"

The other researchers standing by not only showed no fear when they saw the blood and flesh flying everywhere, but they were actually going crazy and scrambling to get the next spot in the experiment.

Lin Ding and Wei Wu were shocked by this scene and found it difficult to accept for a moment. The two rookies had never seen such a scene before.

Just as the man designated the next person, that person excitedly walked to the wall, not caring about the blood and flesh on the wall and the ground, and was about to fix himself on it, Lin Ding finally came to his senses.

Lin Ding took a step forward, walked into the room, and shouted loudly: "Stop! Are you crazy? Are you all rushing to die?"

Everyone was startled by Lin Ding's sudden appearance and looked at him.

"Who are you? What are you, a little brat, doing here in this important ruins?" The researcher who was about to secure himself shouted at Lin Ding.

"You are conducting experiments on living people here and killing many lives. Do you want to go to the City Lord's Mansion to answer for your crimes or do you want me to tie you up and take you to the City Lord's Mansion?" Lin Ding also scolded.

"You are so young, yet you are talking nonsense. We are making contributions to mankind, but you know nothing!" said another researcher.

At this moment, the man operating the instrument turned around and said, "Are you Lin Tiansheng's son? You lived here with your parents for a while six years ago, right?"

Lin Ding was startled when he heard the man call out his father's name. He looked at the man carefully. In the dim light, Lin Ding finally remembered: "Dean Zhang? Why is it you?"

Lin Ding recognized the middle-aged man as the director of the Research Institute of Ruins No. 5. Six years ago, Lin Ding's parents came to Ruins No. 5 to excavate ancient artifacts. It happened to be Lin Ding's summer vacation, so they took Lin Ding to live in Ruins No. 5 for more than a month.

In Lin Ding's memory, Dean Zhang was a gentle and kind person who was polite to everyone. Dean Zhang also had a son who was the same age as Lin Ding. When his parents went to work, Lin Ding played with Dean Zhang's son, Zhang Xiaohu, in the rest area. After a few visits, the two families became friends.

What Lin Ding never expected was that the once amiable Dean Zhang had turned into a madman who killed people without blinking an eye.

Lin Ding asked the question in his heart: "You were not like this back then. What happened? Where is Xiaohu?"

Dean Zhang sneered and said, "Come to think of it, this instrument was excavated with your parents back then. The year after you left, Ruins No. 5 was invaded by monsters led by Kaiyang Realm cultivators. Because this is only a small-scale ruin, the highest combat power is only at the Kaiyang Realm. Although the monsters were eventually repelled with the joint efforts of all personnel, I was powerless to stop Xiaohu and his mother from being eaten alive by the monsters because of my lack of strength."

"How could this happen?" Lin Ding was shocked. He never expected that his childhood playmate would be gone forever.

Dean Zhang ignored Lin Ding and continued, "After that, I lived in regret all day long. I was only at the Yaoguang Realm and had no ability to seek revenge. I could only numb myself with work and try to make myself forget them. Unexpectedly, by some strange coincidence, I really repaired this instrument two years ago. After the instrument was repaired, I lost the object of my pain and lived in a daze all day long.

One day, a year ago, while operating an instrument, I was half asleep and accidentally exposed myself to the radiation it produced. Surprisingly, I discovered that this radiation contained immense energy, capable of rapidly elevating one's cultivation. This gave me hope for revenge, and indeed for all of humanity. However, this radiation is extremely difficult to control, with different effects on each person. If only we could find the patterns within it, our realms would rapidly improve, and we would no longer have to worry about demonic beast invasions. Isn't this a great discovery for the benefit of mankind?!"

The more Dean Zhang spoke, the crazier his expression became. In the end, his face was horrifying and terrifying, a mixture of laughter and tears, filled with hatred and anger.

"Although I sympathize with your situation, this is not a reason for you to conduct experiments on living people!" Lin Ding said.

"I've also conducted experiments on animals and monsters, but they have no reference value at all. Only by conducting experiments on humans can we record the most useful data. They are all contributing to human progress. It's their honor." Dean Zhang said paranoidly

"The man just now said that he couldn't stand it anymore. Why don't you stop? You are simply deceiving yourself. I think you are crazy. You are all crazy!" Lin Ding said loudly.