1062 Go into the Cave

The assistant turned and left the lab, walking to the elevator and opening a door nearby. Behind the door was a staircase, with another space downstairs. As same as the lab floor, there was a hallway with doors on both sides, without any other lab though.

These hallways were also guarded by quite some armed soldiers.

"I need a few men." The assistant went downstairs and said to the soldiers in the hallway. The soldiers glanced at each other. At last, the few soldiers near the stair stepped out and moved toward the man.

The assistant thought for a moment and then said to one of them, "You, go out through the back door and prepare a medium-sized van, then wait inside."

"Yes, sir!" The soldier responded, then turned and walked into the elevator.

"I need more men," The assistant looked at the rest of the soldiers as he shook his head and said. The soldiers glanced at each other again, and five men stepped out.

The assistant looked at them, waving as he said, "Follow me."

Then, he turned and went further downstairs. He brought the nine soldiers to the third floor underground and turned right, then walked to the end of the hallway and opened a door. Behind the door was another staircase. It was smaller than the last staircase and made from cement, dimly illuminated.

Down the stairs was a door, behind which was a sealed room. Once the door was opened, cold air gushed out of the room. Tens of human-sized objects sealed in plastic bags were placed on the floor in rows.

"Carry these out of here. Go through the back door," The assistant pointed at the things on the floor and said to the soldiers. The soldiers had guessed out what their temporary mission was once they came downstairs. Of course, they didn't say anything, but wore their guns on their shoulders and started lifting.

…

At noontime, Lin Qiao drove to where Yun Meng's troops were stationed. The latter sensed her presence before she arrived at the camp and landed on top of the car when it was still hundreds of meters away from the base.

Lin Qiao parked and stuck her head out of the window to look at Yun Meng.

"You're here!" Yun Meng leaped off the car roof.

"Are they making any movements lately?" Lin Qiao looked at her and asked.

"No. They seem to have hidden back underground," Yun Meng pressed her lips together and then said helplessly.

"Where is the nearest cave entrance?" Lin Qiao asked.

"Over there, five or six miles from here," Yun Meng pointed at one direction.

"Show me!" Lin Qiao instantly shrank back into the car.

"Okay," Yun Meng walked to the other side of the car and sat into the front seat, then said, "Are you going to search for clues about those creatures?"

While driving, Lin Qiao turned to Yun Meng as she nodded and said, "Kind of. I also need to catch a few of them alive and bring them back to the base for experiments."

"Alive? Can we manage to cage them?" Yun Meng wasn't sure.

After all, those creatures were able to break any kind of metal with their claws. Yun Meng had no idea how Lin Qiao was supposed to lock those creatures up after she brought them back to the base.

"I'll first catch a few of them and then figure it out. I'll pick some weak ones as I will be able to keep them under control," said Lin Qiao.

She did not know what could possibly lock those creatures up, because she hadn't caught any of them yet. Things would be a lot less troublesome if she had something to limit their movements. She had to catch them first, so she could figure out how to cage them. She could simply throw them into the woods in her space anyway. Those creatures would never be able to run away from there.

Soon, Lin Qiao sensed the earthy smell. She put the car into her space, then walked toward the entrance. Yun Meng followed behind her while looking around.

Before the entrance was a square. The entrance was located in the parking lot next to the square. It was large, ten or twenty meters wide and long. A strong, earthy smell could be sensed from it.

"Pay attention to the area and wait for me to come out," Lin Qiao said to Yun Meng, then turned herself invisible and jumped into the cave.

There was no light in the cave, and a slope led from the entrance into the cave. The further down one went, the darker it got.

Of course, Lin Qiao's zombie eyes could still see everything clearly. The path that led from the entrance to the cave wasn't small. It was three meters tall and five meters wide at least. Although, the level-eight underground gorilla would be able to come out through the path only by bending its body.

From the entrance, a forty-five-degree incline led straight into the cave. Lin Qiao moved downward, still moving downstairs when the light was completely gone. She kept moving for about ten minutes after which the ground under her feet finally became flat.

In the flat area was a large, round-shaped room, and above it was a dome. Surrounding the room were five to six different sized tunnels, one of them being as large as the one that Lin Qiao entered through.

Lin Qiao figured the large tunnel was for the level-eight creature exclusively.

She thought for a moment and then bent over, walking into a relatively small tunnel. The entrance of the tunnel was only about a meter and thirty centimeters tall. Thankfully, she didn't need to crawl in. All she needed to do was to bend her body slightly.

The tunnel was dry while the wall was rough, but not moist. A strong earthy smell existed in the cave, but mainly left by those creatures.

Lin Qiao walked further in and found the tunnel to be crooked. It took her twenty minutes to walk to the end of it. At the end of the tunnel was no other tunnel. Instead, there was a hole she needed to jump in.

Lin Qiao squatted by the hole and looked down, but couldn't see how deep it was. She thought for a moment and then popped her claws before jumping in. She inserted her claws into the cave wall to slow herself down, which left a few deep cuts and stirred up a puff of dust.

Puff! Before long, she landed on the flat ground and dusted off her hands and body, then started to observe the bottom of the hole. The air temperature at the bottom was much lower than the top. At the bottom, a tunnel that looked similar to the ones up there extended to an unknown area.

No other smell except the earthy scent from those underground creatures could be sensed. It was all quiet, with no sounds to be heard.

Lin Qiao walked further forward through the tunnel, creating light footstep sounds.

…

Back in Sea City Base, neither Teng nor Lu Tianyi sensed Lin Qiao's departure. At noontime, Lu Tianyi stood on the balcony and carefully sensed the surrounding vibes to find that Lin Qiao's vibe no longer existed in Wu Chengyue's house. As a matter of fact, her vibe could no longer be detected from the entire base.

"Your Mom has left. Have you felt that?" He went back into the living room and said to Teng. The latter glanced at him and said happily, "She left? Great! Bring me back to Daddy's then."

"Why do you want to go back to your Daddy's? Isn't my place good enough for you?" Lu Tianyi looked at him and said.

Teng immediately rolled his eyes and responded, "No. Your food tastes awful."

Lu Tianyi didn't know what to say.