Douluo Continent: Becoming a disciple of Jing Liu, illuminating all the gods

Chapter 67 Jianmu

Jing Hongchen roared in unison, "Leave no one alive!" As he spoke, a burst of intense red light erupted from his body. Behind him, a metallic radiance, resembling a red lotus, rapidly swirled and coalesced. In an instant, thousands of red metal tubes, no thicker than a finger, were aimed at the air.

A crimson helmet appeared on Jing Hongchen's head, and a metal mask covered his face. In the next instant, countless beams of red light bombarded the sect master's true form in the air.

The Mingde Hall experts who came with Jing Hongchen also unleashed their soul tools, launching a powerful attack on the Body Sect experts. A fierce clash ensued. For a moment, soul power surged throughout the underground base, constantly erupting with deafening roars.

The underground base of Mingde Hall.

The violent roar and the earth-shaking tremors forced both sides to stop fighting, their expressions turning pale. If the area collapsed, none of them would survive.

"Why isn't the poison killing you?" Jing Hongchen asked through gritted teeth. Suddenly, as if realizing something, he shivered and roared, "Bastard! How dare you..." With that, he turned to run into the Mingde Hall. He suddenly remembered where the violent roar had come from.

However, how could the Body Sect, whose plan was already more than half complete, allow him to interfere at this time? A terrifying green storm suddenly descended from the sky. Poison Undying, who had spared no effort to expend his own source soul power, actually transformed into nothingness, and countless terrifying figures rushed straight towards the group of powerful figures from Mingde Hall.

Its imposing aura clearly indicated its intention to kill Jing Hongchen, and it completely ignored the attacks of other powerful soul masters.

Left with no other choice, Jing Hongchen had to turn back to fight. He relied solely on his powerful level-nine soul tools; in terms of true strength, he was far inferior to Du Busi. This Limit Douluo was very likely the only one of his kind on the entire continent. With peak strength at level ninety-nine, if it weren't for the fear of the collapse of the entire underground world, at least a third more of the Mingde Hall's experts here would have perished.

The battle was instantly reignited, and despite the frenzied clashes between the powerful figures on both sides, the casualty figures didn't rise too much. After all, while their attacks couldn't be launched with full force, their defenses were formidable! And Du Busi's goal was precisely to hold off these Mingde Hall experts, creating opportunities for his own people.

With a "whoosh," Chen Qiye flashed out from the end of the tunnel and appeared in a passageway.

The soul-guiding lights on both sides of the passage were flashing continuously, indicating the instability of its structure.

This must be the interior of Mingde Hall, right? But why is the Body Sect attacking Mingde Hall?

As he pondered this, he walked slowly forward, his mental detection fully activated, searching ahead.

After walking for a while, suddenly, he had an idea and slipped into a passage on the left. A large, black metal door opened silently, revealing a spacious laboratory inside.

At this moment, the laboratory was deserted. Judging from the lingering aura, many of the Mingde Hall experts who rushed outside must have left from here.

Now that he was inside, Chen Qiye naturally wanted to take a look. He walked into the spacious laboratory.

The laboratory was enormous; the circular structure was over a hundred meters in diameter and thirty meters high. The moment Huo Yuhao stepped inside, he was immediately drawn to the colossal object before him.

This is a huge humanoid metal body, standing fifteen meters tall. Its massive body is entirely cast from metal. Although it looks somewhat rudimentary, the overall structure is complete. The chest area is open, and there seems to be a chair or something similar inside.

After probing, Chen Qiye discovered thousands of core magic arrays on the giant metal figure. Moreover, the precision of many of these arrays was unprecedented in his knowledge. Even more terrifying was the apparent presence of an extremely powerful energy within the giant metal figure itself. This energy was inherent to the metal.

Chen Qiye instantly realized that this must be the predecessor of the Dou San mecha.

Chen Qiye No. 2 took the mecha without saying anything.

Meanwhile, Chen Qiye discovered something that shocked him: the Jianmu tree, and a Jianmu tree with a huge amount of life energy. Although it was only a short-lived tree, in the context of the Douluo Continent, this was probably no less than a godhood.

Mingde Hall.

Standing in the underground base, Jing Hongchen nearly ground his teeth to powder; what he saw before him could only be described as shocking.

The entire underground base was like soil that had just been turned over before planting, a scene of utter devastation. Less than a third of the expensive experimental tables remained intact; the rest were completely destroyed. Various rare metals were scattered everywhere, and the underground base was a picture of utter ruin.

What frustrated Jing Hongchen most was that the terrain around the underground base had become unstable due to the shockwaves from the previous intense battle, and collapse was not out of the question. He was currently directing his men to reinforce the underground base, stabilizing it first.

Since its founding, Mingde Hall had never suffered such a devastating blow. Leaving aside the casualties, the damage to its infrastructure was astronomical. Mingde Hall wasn't just his own; it was the entire Sun Moon Empire's research base for soul tools! Moreover, it bore the heavy responsibility of producing high-end soul tools. Even with his status in the Sun Moon Empire, he was still undeniably responsible for such a major accident, and he would have to bear immense pressure from the royal family.

"The Body Sect! The Body Sect!" Jing Hongchen's eyes blazed with fury. The previous pursuit had yielded no results; they had only gone halfway when the Body Sect Master, Poison Undying, who was covering their retreat, blew up the tunnel. The Body Sect members vanished into thin air.

Jing Hongchen immediately mobilized the army and placed the entire city under martial law. But he knew very well that this was meaningless; with the strength of the Body Sect's experts, how could the army possibly stop them?

"Master." Lin Jiayi's voice trembled slightly as he approached Jing Hongchen, bowing his head and not daring to look at him.

"How is the situation?" Jing Hongchen tried to calm herself down.

Lin Jiayi lowered his head and said, "The situation at the warehouse is fine. Nothing is missing, and all the high-level soul tools stored there are still there."

Hearing this, Jing Hongchen breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, he had heard some good news. It seemed that the Body Sect's purpose in this trip was indeed that 100,000-year-old soul beast embryo. They actually dared to launch a surprise attack with the full strength of their sect. This grudge must be avenged.

"But..." Lin Jiayi's next two words made Jing Hongchen's heart clench again. She turned around abruptly and looked at her capable subordinate: "But what? Don't stammer, explain clearly."

Lin Jiayi gritted his teeth, his voice trembling, and said, "But, Subject One has gone missing..."

"What?" Jing Hongchen felt a sudden darkness before his eyes, and his body swayed, almost falling over. Lin Jiayi quickly stepped forward to support him.

Jing Hongchen felt as if the sky had fallen, her chest felt tight and she was so sad that she felt like she was about to die.

"Say it again." This time, even his voice trembled slightly.

Lin Jiayi said in a trembling voice, "Subject Number One has gone missing, Master."

Jing Hongchen coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed into Lin Jiayi's arms.

What does Subject No. 1 mean? It means the highest achievement of the entire Mingde Hall in the research of soul tools. Although it is only a semi-finished product, it is equivalent to the crystallization of the Sun Moon Empire's research on soul tools over thousands of years!

Jing Hongchen stared at Lin Jiayi, his face pale, his eyes filled with fear. While he could still suppress the significant damage caused by the attack on Mingde Hall using his prestige within the Sun Moon Empire, the theft of Experiment Subject No. 1 was something he could never afford. This was a matter of national security.

Taking a deep breath and barely suppressing the surging blood within him, Jing Hongchen whispered, "Who else knows about this?"

Lin Jiayi quickly shook his head and said, "I went to Laboratory Number One to check it myself. After discovering that Subject Number One was missing, I immediately sealed the main door of Laboratory Number One, changed the access code, and reported it to you."

Jing Hongchen managed to calm herself down and said, "Well done. This matter must not be known to anyone."

"Yes," Lin Jiayi quickly replied.

Jing Hongchen's face flushed red and then paled, his heart filled with intense hatred for the Body Sect. His only hope now was that Experiment Subject One contained too much advanced technology to be used casually. And once the main body was disassembled, it would immediately trigger a self-destruct mechanism. This was specifically designed to prevent theft, and now it seemed that his initial choice was correct.

Even so, the loss of so many precious metals is still astronomical. Fortunately, Mingdetang has a high degree of autonomy, and as long as this matter is not exposed, there is still hope of recovery.

Forcing himself to stand up straight, Jing Hongchen's originally volatile emotions calmed down in the face of the crisis.

"Jiayi, pass on my order: everyone present today must keep quiet. Anyone who dares to spread the word about what happened today will be executed without mercy."

"Send people to all major auction houses, including our country, to keep an eye on all high-end auctions. If Experiment Subject No. 1 is found, immediately bid for it and take it back at all costs."

"In the name of Mingde Hall, issue a kill mission to all mercenary guilds and assassin guilds. Offer a high bounty for the heads of all members of the Body Sect."

At this point, Jing Hongchen paused slightly before continuing, "Except for the injured Mingde Hall disciples, all healthy Mingde Hall members are to be put on emergency mobilization mode. Spare no effort to repair the underground base as quickly as possible. Tell the elders that they need to rebuild Mingde Hall's defenses. This time, there can be no more blind spots, understand?"

"Yes," Lin Jiayi quickly agreed. Seeing that Jing Hongchen had regained her composure, he felt relieved.

Jing Hongchen seemed to suddenly remember something and asked urgently, "How are the exchange students from Shrek Academy? Especially that Huo Yuhao. Were there any casualties among them in this battle?"

Lin Jiayi is also a meticulous person. He had already guessed that Jing Hongchen would ask about this, and had done some investigation beforehand.

"At Shrek Academy, Fan Yu and He Caitou are out testing their soul tools and are not in the base. The other students are also outside the experimental area, so the initial explosion didn't affect them. They were all very cunning and retreated to a safe area as quickly as possible, without participating in the previous battle. Several people were injured, but none of the injuries were too serious. Huo Yuhao was among the injured. Our medical soul master examined him, and although he is unconscious, his body did not suffer a strong impact. He was probably just stunned by the shockwave and will recover after a period of rest."

"As for Chen Qiye, he has not been found yet."

Jing Hongchen breathed a sigh of relief and said, "What? Give the order to take good care of them and make sure nothing goes wrong."

"As for Chen Qiye, hurry up and send people to find him, no matter if he is dead or alive."

……

Lin Jiayi hesitated for a moment before saying, "Master, do you think this matter might be a conspiracy between Shrek Academy and the Body Sect? How could the Body Sect so accurately pinpoint the location of our underground base, especially the location of Experiment Subject One and the 100,000-year-old soul beast embryo? And how could they forcibly break through the defenses of the 100,000-year-old soul beast embryo? There's probably a mole among them!"

Jing Hongchen glared at him fiercely and said, "Idiot. Do you think I don't know there's a traitor? But it's definitely not Shrek Academy. What's in your head? Do you think the people from Shrek Academy know where our 100,000-year-old soul beast embryo is? They can't even get into the true core area of ​​Mingde Hall. Besides, Huo Yuhao is still with me as a hostage. Shrek Academy isn't that stupid. Maybe they'll be overjoyed if they find out, but it's definitely not them. Do you think they have a good relationship with the Body Sect?"

"Alright, hurry up and do as I say to minimize the negative impact of this incident. I need to go to the palace immediately. It seems I really should pay a visit to His Highness the Crown Prince. It's truly fate!" With that, Jing Hongchen mustered her spirits and strode away.

Even though Mingdetang has been trying its best to suppress the news, how could such a big thing be kept secret?

Within days, news of the surprise attack and heavy losses suffered by Mingde Hall had spread throughout the continent. Although the Sun Moon Empire did not officially name the perpetrator, the fact that Mingde Hall immediately issued a kill order against the Body Sect revealed their true target.

The entire continent was shaken. The three kingdoms that once belonged to the Douluo Continent were overjoyed. Although they didn't know the extent of Mingde Hall's losses, for them, this was definitely a good thing!

The Emperor of the Sun Moon Empire was furious upon learning of this, and his already poor health worsened. Jing Hongchen, the head of the Mingde Hall, was severely punished, stripped of his dukedom. Had it not been for Crown Prince Xu Tianran's intervention, the punishment would likely have been even more severe.

Following the attack on Mingde Hall, the price of high-level soul tools on the continent plummeted, while the price of rare metals soared. The incident quickly became the talk of the town.

(End of this chapter)