"Why are you standing here?" Fang Ming caught up with Qing Mian and the other two, arriving at the eleventh-floor stairwell.
Zheng Zhu Liu pointed cautiously towards the exit, "There's a group of fierce beasts resting over there, and this place is locked up."
"Locked up?" Fang Ming exclaimed, surprised. He walked closer and saw that the stairwell exit was indeed blocked by an iron gate. After climbing so many floors, this was the first time he had encountered a locked level.
Was there something different about this floor?
"Qing Mian, can you go in and take care of those fierce beasts?" Fang Ming asked Qing Mian.
Qing Mian nodded. This was not difficult for him. After all, if even Number One could do it, it would be even easier for him.
Immediately, Qing Mian disappeared. Soon, a few fierce beasts on the other side of the iron gate let out screams, turning into piles of corpses. Qing Mian had easily dealt with them.
After eliminating these guard beasts, Qing Mian returned to Fang Ming's side through the mirror world.
"We don't know the situation on this floor very well yet, so be careful," Fang Ming cautioned.
Qing Mian and Zheng Zhu Liu nodded in agreement.
"Qing Mian, can this lock be forcibly broken?"
Qing Mian shook his head, "This lock was likely set up by the Professor himself. I can use my abilities to pass through it, but I can't break it. There's a layer of runes on it that restrain fierce species. My attacks will be reflected or even backlash on me."
"Is that so..." Fang Ming walked up to the iron gate and the lock. He picked it up to examine it. It was a very ordinary spring lock, but it was engraved with a layer of strange patterns capable of resisting attacks from fierce species.
But why did these patterns look so familiar?
"Left by my dad?" Fang Ming wondered. These patterns were exactly the defensive patterns preserved in Baimu Village, and according to the information he obtained there, only his father knew these runes.
"What's wrong?" Zheng Zhu Liu asked cautiously.
"Nothing," Fang Ming waved his hand, took out a piece of wire from his backpack, and poked it into the lock cylinder. After a moment, with a click, the lock was opened.
"Let's go," Fang Ming gestured, and the three entered the eleventh floor.
"There are quite a few fierce species on this floor."
As soon as they entered the eleventh floor, Fang Ming's senses detected countless chaotic fluctuations of resentment. Each fluctuation represented a fierce species. There were at least thousands of fierce species on this eleventh floor!
However, the good news was that these fierce species didn't seem to be very strong. With his and Qing Mian's strength, they should be able to handle them.
"This floor should be the Professor's breeding ground," Qing Mian suddenly said.
"Breeding ground?" Fang Ming was confused.
"Yes," Qing Mian explained, "The Professor has never stopped his experiments. All his experimental materials come from this building. For his convenience in conducting experiments, he specifically designated several floors to raise fierce species. This floor should be one of them."
"Oh?" Fang Ming was surprised. This Professor was indeed talented, to actually raise his own experimental materials. He had thought the Professor went out to find materials for his experiments.
"The danger on this floor is not great. Most of the material bodies should be locked up, but you still need to be careful. There might be a guard here," Qing Mian said, his expression becoming solemn when he mentioned the guard, clearly having encountered this individual before.
"Is it very strong?"
Qing Mian shook his head, "I'm not sure, but it's also one of the Professor's successful experimental subjects. An experimental subject that can satisfy the Professor would be at least no weaker than me. It probably has some special abilities, just like me."
"Let's take it one step at a time. If we encounter it, the two of us should be able to handle it," Fang Ming said confidently. "Let's go!"
The three embarked on their way to the twelfth floor. As expected, they encountered many fierce species along the way. However, as Qing Mian had said, these fierce species were all locked in rooms. Each room's door and walls were covered with dense defensive runes. In the corridor, they could only sense the fluctuations of resentment from within the rooms, but they couldn't hear any commotion from inside.
"Woosh~" A few more fierce beasts blocked their path. Fang Ming and Qing Mian attacked simultaneously, quickly dispatching them.
Soon, the three arrived at the stairwell leading from the eleventh to the twelfth floor. Fang Ming glanced back at the eleventh floor, feeling an inexplicable sense of ease. Had nothing untoward happened on this floor?
"Let's go, let's hurry to the twelfth floor." Since they had safely passed this floor, Fang Ming didn't think about it anymore. He wasn't a masochist who needed to fight and kill. Otherwise, if he released all the fierce species in those rooms, it would be enough for him to fight for days.
In a short while, the three reached the twelfth floor. The atmosphere on this floor changed dramatically, the transition so swift that Fang Ming found it a little hard to adapt.
"Are these... cultivation tanks?" Zheng Zhu Liu scanned the surroundings in shock.
This floor was no longer divided into rooms. Instead, it was a modern laboratory filled with a high-tech feel. Huge cultivation tanks stood tall, with green, unknown liquid churning within. Each tank held a dormant fierce species. Judging by the fluctuations of resentment, any fierce species here was likely as strong as Qing Mian!
Fang Ming and Qing Mian exchanged glances, seeing the shock in each other's eyes. How far had the Professor's experiments progressed? Qing Mian, a former successful subject, was merely in the cultivation stage here?
"Fang Ming, look, isn't that the control console?" Zheng Zhu Liu whispered, pointing towards a brightly lit area.
Fang Ming followed his gaze and indeed found something resembling a display screen. He quickly led Qing Mian and Zheng Zhu Liu over.
It was a very advanced supercomputer. Fang Ming took a brief look and couldn't understand it, but Zheng Zhu Liu recognized quite a bit.
"This is the Gamma Star One, a supercomputer developed by the United States ten years ago. Its performance is at least three times higher than any other supercomputer in the world. But how did it end up here?" Zheng Zhu Liu was puzzled.
"Can you use it?" Fang Ming had no interest in talking about Gamma Star or anything else. What he cared about was whether this machine could be used to find out some useful information.
Zheng Zhu Liu hesitated for a moment, "I'll try."
With that, he started typing furiously on the screen. After all, his department was a classified national entity, and he had access to more resources.
"Sizzle sizzle..."
"Qing Mian, do you hear that sound?" Fang Ming frowned. Why did he hear a piercing noise?
"No problem," Qing Mian responded, and his figure disappeared again.
Shortly after, the guard encountered an unknown attack. The giant eyeball on its head was suddenly split in half. It paused for a moment, then its massive body crashed to the ground.
"Dead?" Fang Ming, hiding in the shadows, watched this scene with a strange expression. Couldn't this guy's weakness be that eyeball?
But Fang Ming hadn't seen Qing Mian appear, so he cautiously continued to hide.
"Thump." The guard's fallen body began to move again. The eyeball, which had been split in two, quickly healed. It stood up and continued to walk step by step towards the display screen.
As expected, it wouldn't be so easy to kill!
Seeing this, Qing Mian tried to attack other parts of its body again, but the guard's defense was excessively strong. The attacks that Qing Mian could use to harm fierce beasts only produced sparks when they hit its scales, failing to even break its defenses!
In desperation, Qing Mian had to target its eyeball again. It was easily split into several pieces, and the giant behemoth crashed to the ground again, but it quickly stood up unharmed.
Terrifying defense and powerful self-healing abilities, was this the guard's special ability?
"No, its strength is increasing little by little!" Fang Ming's pupils suddenly contracted, because he sensed that the guard's strength was increasing with each time it was defeated by Qing Mian!
He couldn't let Qing Mian keep cutting it down, otherwise, they would soon create a fierce beast out of thin air!
Moreover, this guy couldn't see who was attacking it, so it ignored everything else and continued to move towards Zheng Zhu Liu. It absolutely couldn't be allowed to get close to Zheng Zhu Liu.
With that thought, Fang Ming gritted his teeth and ran out from the shadows. Using the surrounding cultivation tanks, he rapidly changed his position to close the distance with the guard.
The guard also noticed Fang Ming running towards it and immediately set its sights on him.
"Invader, die!" The guard strode towards Fang Ming, raising its giant axe.
"Boom!" Fang Ming dodged the attack with his agile footwork, but the cultivation tank beneath him suffered the consequences. The guard, with a single axe blow, cut it in half along with the fierce species inside. The fierce species, freed from the cultivation tank, struggled painfully on the ground before its life ebbed away.
"Boom!" Another axe blow came down. Fang Ming quickly dodged again, but this time the ground was split by a meter-long crack.
"Boom boom boom..." Relying on its powerful physique, the guard began to wildly smash at Fang Ming. For a time, Fang Ming was completely unable to fight back and could only constantly dodge. But this was ultimately not a long-term solution. Once he made a mistake, it would be irreversible!