Chapter 132: The Sound of a Heartbeat

"There's a protective layer?" Tang Mubai exclaimed in surprise.

He immediately controlled his descent and flew toward the edge of the zone. Once he reached the perimeter, he descended from the sky and landed in a wooded area.

*Swish! Swish!*

Stepping across the foliage, he glided rapidly through the air, just three to five meters above the ground. A moment later, he arrived at the center of the restricted zone. Before him lay a deep, clear pool of water, surrounded by scattered cyan-green crystals.

Unlike the other murky areas of the swamp, the water in this pool was pristine. However, its depth was beyond imagination; the center was pitch black, as if a colossal beast were lurking in the depths. The source of the intangible sense of crisis Tang Mubai had felt was precisely the center of that pool.

Yet, the cyan-green crystals of varying sizes scattered around the pool drew his attention even more strongly. It seemed these were the very source of the strange mutations affecting the fierce beasts in Restricted Zone No. 9.

With this thought, Tang Mubai slowly stepped forward, picked up two football-sized cyan-green crystals, and immediately retreated, distancing himself from the pool.

The moment he withdrew, ripples suddenly appeared in the center of the deep, clear water. The calm surface began to churn from below. However, once Tang Mubai cleared the central area of the restricted zone, the churning water suddenly returned to stillness, and the ripples slowly faded away.

...

*Hoo!*

High in the sky, Tang Mubai clutched the two cyan-green crystals, looking down at the center of the restricted zone, exhaling a soft breath as he panted slightly. For a brief instant, a terrifying sense of crisis had gripped his heart. Although it vanished quickly, Tang Mubai had sensed it clearly.

The entity lurking at the bottom of the pool was undoubtedly at the Lord level! Furthermore, it was a Lord-level creature that had touched upon the King level! Although the lion-headed man Tang Mubai had previously killed by surprise possessed the power of a half-step King through his second transformation, he had not actually reached that realm. But this creature at the bottom of the pool was ninety-nine percent certain to have reached that level.

Without his "Yin-Yang Sword Qi" to protect him, if Tang Mubai had confronted it, he would have been killed in seconds. Fortunately, his intuition had warned him, and he had retreated as soon as he secured the two crystals. Having collected the Yin energy, there was no longer any need to remain in Restricted Zone No. 9.

Tang Mubai immediately flew away from the restricted zone and landed where his truck was parked. Upon touching down at the foot of the mountain, he glanced at the tire tracks; unsurprisingly, they belonged to the vehicle used by Fang Lin and his group.

It was a strange coincidence that both parties had parked in the same spot. Judging by the tracks, Fang Lin’s party had already departed. Tang Mubai placed the two cyan-green crystals on the passenger seat. He did not start the car immediately, instead sensing the crystals for any anomalies. He discovered that while energy surged within them, it did not leak out.

After sensing them carefully for a while and finding no danger or oddity, he set them aside, started the engine, turned around, and headed back toward the 38th Territory.

On the way back, he drove at maximum speed, successfully returning to Red Leaf City before noon. He drove the truck into the garage at his base, retrieved the two crystals, and took them to the storage room, intending to study them further after lunch.

*Clang!*

The storage room door closed.

As Tang Mubai walked away, a silvery-white light suddenly erupted within the dim underground space. The source of the light was an oval-shaped boulder, half a human’s height. This was the very stone he had picked up after killing the fox-headed man during the night of the beast-man riot—a stone he had casually brought back before leaving.

At this moment, the silver oval boulder seemed to have been activated, radiating waves of silvery-white light. The light grew brighter and more intense. Eventually, the entire storage room was enveloped in silvery-white rays. The two cyan-green crystals Tang Mubai had brought back were caught in the glow, wrapped up like silkworms in the silver light.

The next moment—

*Zip!*

The silvery-white light ensnared the two crystals, lifting them off the ground to float in mid-air. Like a web, it slowly moved the crystals toward the silver oval boulder.

*Tap! Tap!*

With two soft sounds, the cyan-green crystals clung tightly to the outermost surface of the silver boulder, as if drawn by a magnet.

*Hum~*

The air vibrated. The silver oval boulder shuddered, and the light filling the room, disturbed by an invisible force, became chaotic. A moment later, it rapidly contracted, wrapping tightly around the silver boulder and binding the two cyan-green crystals firmly to its "body."

Then—

*Thump-thump!*

A sound like a heartbeat emanated from within the silver oval boulder.

With each beat, the two cyan-green crystals flashed, and a surge of energy was released and absorbed by the silver boulder.

*Thump-thump!*

The silver boulder continued to pulse, the crystals flashed again, and more energy was drained away.

*Thump-thump! Thump-thump!*

In the dim underground storage room, the strong, rhythmic sound of a heartbeat echoed continuously.

...

Upstairs in his home, Tang Mubai, who was in the middle of lunch, suddenly felt a jolt. He set down his chopsticks, concentrated, and listened intently. The next moment, he abruptly dropped his chopsticks, rushed out of the room, and instead of taking the stairs, leaped down directly. He arrived at the underground storage room, quickly opened the door, and charged in.

What met his eyes was the silver oval boulder, emitting waves of fluorescence and rotating slowly in place. Two football-sized gray stones lay discarded on the floor, causing Tang Mubai’s eye to twitch.

"The energy inside the cyan-green crystals has been completely drained?"

Tang Mubai could easily see that the stones on the floor were the very ones he had just brought back from Restricted Zone No. 9. He hadn't expected that in the blink of an eye, their energy would be gone. The culprit was obviously the silver oval boulder.

This stone, half a human’s height, had been stolen from the Martial Arts Association's vault by the fox-headed man. The association had never been able to figure it out, and Tang Mubai had only picked it up because he sensed something unusual about it. After bringing it back, he had tossed it into a corner of the storage room and ignored it.

He had never imagined it would suddenly "come to life," absorbing the energy from the two crystals and radiating this glow. As it rotated, Tang Mubai sensed no malice or threat from it. This made him pause and stare for a moment, his curiosity piqued, and he walked into the room to observe it at close range.

Its appearance remained the same—half a human’s height, oval-shaped. Its silver surface, bathed in the fluorescence, appeared hazy, ethereal, and miraculous.

Tang Mubai walked to the side of the silver boulder, focused his mind, and attempted a deep-level investigation. Unexpectedly, at that moment, a burst of silver light erupted, transforming into countless threads that enveloped him, pinning him firmly to the silver boulder just as it had done to the crystals.

The next moment, Tang Mubai realized that his own internal blood energy was being forcibly drained by a terrifying suction force!