“Do you want to take a look?”

“Regarding… the tenth floor beneath the Huazhi…”

Cui Zhongcheng’s voice echoed in the elevator.

Gu Shen didn’t respond immediately.

In those brief seconds, he was deep in thought. Zhonggui's previous hint had been very clear: if Huazhi was really conducting live experiments… then it was highly likely they would place this project on the tenth floor.

With a "ding,"

Cui Zhongcheng had already taken the liberty of making the decision for Gu Shen. He pressed the elevator button for the tenth floor. In the entire Huazhi Building, aside from the councilor, only he had this authority.

By the time Gu Shen reacted, the elevator doors had already opened.

Cui Zhongcheng walked forward slowly, alone.

Gu Shen could only follow behind.

The tenth floor beneath the surface was an extremely secure base. The overall color scheme leaned towards dark gold, as if it were built from bronze, giving it a very retro feel.

“I believe Huazhi wouldn’t…”

Gu Shen had just opened his mouth when his voice abruptly stopped, because as one bronze door after another opened, rows of cylindrical, transparent capsules were revealed. Nutrient fluid flowed within the capsules, and curled-up infants were slumbering inside.

One after another, these were all young children.

Moreover, their individual stages of development varied.

Some appeared to be just a month old, while others were perhaps a year or two. But the one thing they all had in common was that their eyes were closed, currently lost in sleep.

“What you see before you is what Zhonggui refers to as the morally objectionable ‘experiment’… but unfortunately, there’s nothing to hide, because a long time ago, this was already a mature bill passed by the council through vote. It’s not just Dadou, but Changye City has people doing it as well. We call it the ‘Genetic Reformation Act.’”

“Zhonggui is just a pawn. If it weren’t for the councilor's gift, he would have no status, no position, and even less the authority to understand all of this.”

Cui Zhongcheng’s expression was calm as he stopped, turned to face Gu Shen, and said softly, “Your teacher, Zhou Jiren, has long known what secrets lie buried on the tenth floor beneath Huazhi… For small fry, there’s no need for them to know any of this.”

Gu Shen looked at the children slumbering in the capsules, one after another.

Immersed in the nutrient fluid, the infants' consciousnesses were lost in chaos. Some of the children who had grown up in the nutrient tanks had already grown hair, flowing like seaweed. Everything in the bronze base felt deathly still, and who would have thought that rows of living beings were housed here?

“Should I be happy…?” Gu Shen said softly, “You telling me this obviously means you no longer consider me ‘small fry.’”

“Don’t misunderstand. Based on your current strength, you’re still a small role. The team leaders of True Heart Society are at least Deep Sea Fourth Layer cultivators, you’re not even as good as them,” Mr. Cui said calmly. “I just don’t want you to do anything foolish because of Zhonggui’s words in the future… such as secretly exploring the secrets of the tenth floor.”

This secret wasn't a secret at all in the eyes of the bigwigs.

“Since you brought me here to see it, then you’ve also recognized my… future.”

Gu Shen slowly walked over to a nutrient tank and looked at one of the infants inside. He suddenly felt a complex, sorrowful emotion in his heart. “I have a few questions to ask. What was the council’s purpose in agreeing to genetic engineering? What will be the fate of these children after they’re created?”

“……”

Cui Zhongcheng didn’t answer the question.

He came to Gu Shen’s side.

“During the conversation on the Jiangtan last night, Zhou Jiren persuaded the councilor to let you join the ‘New World’ project. He said it was so you could see the process of the bill's implementation, but in reality… what he hoped was for you to know what we're working towards by doing all of this behind the scenes.”

“The people on the surface, including Zhonggui, and even me, are all just pawns.”

Cui Zhongcheng said softly, “To accomplish something, sacrifices are unavoidable… Some sacrifices are tangible, such as death, such as destruction, while others are intangible, such as concealment, such as deception. In the ‘New World’ project, my task is very simple: to ensure that every pawn, under my coordination, can stand in the position it should be in and ultimately complete this layout. In this layout, tangible and intangible, sacrifices are always inevitable.”

“So… Zhonggui doesn’t need to know that much. He only needs to know that in the process of implementing this project, I can fulfill all of his requirements.”

Gu Shen looked at Mr. Cui with a complicated expression.

So, that also meant… that Xing Yun's authority in the implementation of the New World project was likely false.

He had been subjected to concealment and vaguely sensed that he was being kept in the dark, so he wanted to explore the secrets of the tenth floor.

“The implementation of the Awakening Act is essentially a response to a major crisis that is about to befall the human world.” Cui Zhongcheng touched the children in the nutrient tanks and said softly, “The emergence of transcendent source essence is causing the world of the Five Continents to collapse… you may not yet have a concept of what the collapse of order means.”

He slowly walked to the end of the two rows of nutrient tanks. A bronze door opened, revealing a very small storage cabinet. Under layers of purple silver wrapping, an extremely tiny black dot was suspended in the storage cabinet.

“Look.”

“Logic is destroyed, the framework no longer exists… and that forms such a ‘bottomless pit’ like existence.”

Cui Zhongcheng said woodenly, “The reason why the Huazhi Building was built is actually to cover up this reality. In the location of the tenth floor beneath the surface, a collapsing ‘black dot’ originally appeared. If no measures were taken, this black dot would spread endlessly, until it swallowed the entire Dadou… Many such black dots have already appeared.”

“This is the consequence of the collapse of order.”

Mr. Cui looked at Gu Shen and said softly, “Once the transcendent source essence collapses from within, there’s no way to stop it. The purple silver here needs to be replaced regularly to ensure that no accidents occur. During the construction of the building, the radius of this black dot of collapsed logic increases by one millimeter every year.”

“One millimeter per year…”

Hearing this, Gu Shen felt slightly relieved.

The speed wasn’t fast.

“You must be thinking that it would take a thousand years for it to increase by one meter. And how big is one meter?” Cui Zhongcheng opened his arms, gesturing to a distance. He turned back to look at Gu Shen and said, “But… what if I told you that the number of black dots in this world is far more than just one? And that there are many places we haven’t discovered, and the number of black dots is increasing every year?”

Gu Shen’s expression gradually became solemn.

“And what if I told you…”

“What if the worlds outside the Five Continents have already been destroyed by black dots of collapsed order?”