Chapter 211: Documents

After leaving the laboratory, Lei Yin walked over to the black-clad man at the computer and asked, “What’s the matter?”

The man pointed at the document open on the screen and said, “Sir, take a look at these confidential documents.”

After hurriedly reading through the documents, Lei Yin immediately understood a lot of things.

He turned around and walked back to Seth, pointing his gun at Seth’s head and saying, “Come with me.”

After taking Seth back to the refrigeration chamber, Lei Yin suddenly asked, “How did you find out about the ruins?”

“I don’t really understand what you mean.”

Seeing his expression, which didn’t appear to be deceitful, Lei Yin guessed that Seth genuinely didn’t know. After all, he was just a researcher, and his job was only to conduct research.

After a moment’s pause, Lei Yin asked another question, “What kind of research are you conducting?”

Seth glanced at him, then lowered his head and said, “We are trying to combine the genes of the Visitors with human genes to see what kind of being we can create. This research actually started fifty years ago, but at that time, the technology wasn’t advanced enough, so the project was put on hold. It was only in recent years, with breakthroughs in genetic science, that the military resumed the plan.”

“So, the Japanese government’s secret ‘inter-species gene fusion technology’ research was also encouraged by you, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. To speed up the progress, the military had Japan participate in the project. They are responsible for developing living cell gene fusion technology, while we are responsible for activating the cells from the Visitors’ bodies so that they can fuse with human genes.”

At this point, Lei Yin finally understood why the Japanese government was conducting such research. This had been a long-standing question for him. Although the hybrid creatures with human and beast characteristics possessed incredibly strong physical bodies, in an age flooded with weapons, such creatures would have little impact on the battlefield. A single helicopter with weapons could easily eliminate them. But if they were just experimental subjects, everything made sense.

Lei Yin thought for a moment and then asked, “Were the people outside and the gorilla corpses failed experiments?”

“Yes. Most of those people were illegal immigrants, with some being death row inmates. The military brought them here for us to use in experiments.” Seth dared not look at Lei Yin’s face.

“Were there any successful test subjects?”

At this question, a glint of fervor suddenly flashed in Seth’s eyes. “Yes, so far, nine people have survived successfully, and each of them has developed various changes. As we had speculated earlier, the Visitors are a highly evolved species. Not only do they possess technology far superior to humans, but their communication is likely through brainwaves. This is evident from their significantly degenerated oral structures. After successfully fusing the genes, the test subjects—originally ordinary humans—became beings with extraordinary abilities, much stronger than typical espers. We were surprised by these results as well.”

Seeing the expression of this mad scientist, Lei Yin felt the urge to shoot him on the spot.

Not wanting to waste any more time, Lei Yin had Seth secured and quickly walked out of the lab.

He approached the soldiers whose hands were cuffed and pulled up General Matt with one hand. The general, still weak, was almost being dragged along.

Lei Yin led the general into an empty room, coldly looking at him and saying, “You’ve gone to great lengths to capture Lei Li just to find the location of the ruins, haven’t you?”

The general looked at him with surprise before finally speaking, “How did you find out about this?”

“I’ve already read those documents. Now tell me, how did the Black Dragon member who knew about the ruins explain it to you?”

The general spoke weakly, “If I tell you, you must promise not to kill us.”

Lei Yin, with his dark eyes, looked at him and nodded, “I promise not to kill you.”

Although the general wasn’t sure if the other side would keep their promise, he gathered his thoughts with a glimmer of hope and said, “Three years ago, those people destroyed one of our experimental bases located off the coast near New York. They also took some very important documents. In order to get those documents back, we captured several core members of their organization, hoping to obtain useful information from them. During the interrogation of one member, we discovered that he had once participated in the excavation of the ruins.”

Lei Yin interrupted him. “How did you know it was an excavation of the ruins?” He recalled that Lei Li had once said that the members who participated in the excavation did not enter the ruins themselves, so they should not have known what was inside.

“He didn’t know what it was either, but in a hypnotized state, he drew a pattern from the surface of the object. That pattern was identical to the one on the unidentified flying object that crashed during the Roswell incident, so we concluded that the ruins must be another craft that had fallen to Earth.”

“Did he say who else, apart from Lei Li, went into the ruins with him?” Even with Lei Yin’s composure, he couldn’t help but feel a little nervous and sweaty in his palms. This was a critical question for him. If that member had revealed his identity, those with close ties to him in Japan would be in serious danger.

The general replied, “Apart from knowing that what he excavated was another craft, we didn’t obtain any further information. During the hypnosis session, he suddenly woke up and, in his attempt to resist and escape, was shot and killed by our men.”

“Why did that happen?” Lei Yin pressed further.

“That member was very strong-willed. We could only successfully hypnotize him with the help of drugs, but halfway through, he suddenly woke up. We don’t know why he was able to wake up; it was an unprecedented situation.”

Lei Yin felt a sense of relief. He knew that the general wasn’t lying. He understood why the member woke up midway—each member of the Dark Group had undergone drug resistance training, so they had a far stronger resistance to anesthetics or sedatives compared to ordinary people.

“You wanted to capture Lei Li to get information about the ruins from him?”

“Yes.”

That explained a lot. No wonder Lei Yin felt that their previous pursuits seemed cautious; they didn’t want to accidentally kill Lei Li.

Lei Yin suddenly shifted his tone, “Now that we’ve reached this point, I believe you know who we are, don’t you?”

Upon hearing this, the general’s face turned pale with dread. “Didn’t you just promise not to kill us?”

“I promised not to kill you myself, but I didn’t promise I wouldn’t have someone else do it. You know too much. If you were in my position, I believe you would do the same.” With that, he walked out.

Furious and humiliated, the general began cursing behind him. If his hands hadn’t been cuffed behind his back, he would have lunged at Lei Yin and fought him.

Outside, Lei Yin saw that Lei Li had returned. The group of black-clad men who had gone with him each carried large backpacks full of supplies.

Walking up to Lei Li, Lei Yin asked, “How did it go?”

Lei Li replied, “I’ve gathered all their documents, files, and experimental tapes. Did you find anything?”

“Some unexpected things. I’ll tell you more after we’re out of here. Are the explosives set up?”

“They’re all ready, from the top to here. It’s all rigged. I was worried there might not be enough explosives, but we found plenty of good stuff in their armory. It’ll definitely blow this place sky-high.” Lei Li looked very excited.

Lei Yin glanced at his watch—it was already 4 AM.

At dawn, many of the residents of Dover City, still asleep, were awakened by a massive explosion. The shockwave from the blast shattered windows in numerous houses.

No one knew exactly what had happened. Some people thought it was an earthquake, but when they saw the towering fire in the distance, most assumed that the nearby oil depot had exploded.

After the explosion, residents saw fire trucks and military vehicles continuously heading towards the nature reserve.

The simultaneous riots in multiple cities and the shocking sound of the explosion created a sense of impending war among the public. Anxiety and confusion spread rapidly through the crowds.

On the other hand, the military also went into emergency combat readiness. Countless soldiers in camouflage boarded transport planes and vehicles, enforcing martial law in cities across various states.

Seeing this, the public’s sense of unease grew even more. Many believed that war had truly broken out and began frantically packing their luggage and valuables.

No one had expected that just a few hours ago, everything had been as calm as any other night, but within a dozen hours, it had turned into the current situation.

That night, the vast majority of people couldn’t sleep.

Five hundred nautical miles off the coast of Boston, two medium-sized ocean ferries were quietly departing from the United States under the cover of night.

These two ferries, with the captain and first officer included, had only eight crew members, and there were only four lifeboats. This was far below the minimum safety standards for a conventional medium-sized trans-ocean ship. However, as a smuggling vessel, safety wasn’t a primary concern. After all, for the snakeheads, the stowaways in the cargo hold were less like passengers and more like troublesome cargo.

But now, these snakeheads, who were usually fierce and menacing, dared not shout at the people sitting in the cargo hold. Instead, they served the group of mysterious men with utmost caution and care, fearing any misstep.

In the captain’s room, a man in his forties was feeling extremely frustrated and regretful.

After negotiating the price with the man last week, he had been overjoyed. He never expected to land such a big deal just as the smuggling vessel was about to leave the U.S. When the other party later increased the number of people and asked for another ship, he quickly contacted a colleague who had just arrived in the U.S. to bring a second vessel.

However, when he arrived at the designated time and place to pick up the passengers, he was shocked to see a group of armed men, all masked, boarding the ship.

The snakehead felt like he could vomit blood from regret but dared not refuse them boarding. He couldn’t imagine what would happen if he did. The colleague who had brought the second ship was also terrified and wished he could kill the man. But now, what could they do? They just hoped these men wouldn’t actually do anything drastic.

In the reception room of one of the ships, a dozen men dressed in suits or casual clothes sat inside. Six of them were between forty and sixty years old, while the others were young men around Lei Li’s age.

Lei Li took off his mask and said, “You should all be aware of our current situation. We can say that this is the most difficult time for our Black Dragon, but as long as we safely leave the U.S., with the funds and connections we’ve accumulated, making a comeback won’t be too difficult. What we’ve lost is only our territory in the U.S.”

A man in his fifties with graying hair stood up and said, “You’re the head of the Black Dragon, and it’s natural for us to follow your orders, even the plan to incite riots in various cities. However, our losses this time are substantial, and I still don’t understand why the U.S. military has targeted the Black Dragon. I hope you can give us a reasonable explanation.”

Lei Li’s expression turned serious. “Uncle Jian, you should remember that three years ago, there was an organization that tried to take down the Black Dragon, right?”

The man frowned. “Of course, I remember that. Those bastards even blew up several of our branches, including one in California. Don’t tell me those people were military personnel.”

Lei Li sighed helplessly. “You’re absolutely right; they were supported by a military-backed research organization. They wanted to take down Black Dragon to fund their research. That was when we became enemies with the military.”

A man of similar age to Uncle Jian, with a deep scar on his left cheek that reached his chin, spoke with barely contained anger: “Why didn’t your report mention this?”

Chang’an, who had been silent until now, spoke with an emotionless voice, “Liu Yun, watch your tone. Don’t forget who you’re speaking to.”

Liu Yun shot a glance at Chang’an and, grumbling, fell silent.

Lei Li interjected, “Uncle Yun, please don’t misunderstand. I only found out about this not long ago. If we had known the military was after us, we would have left the U.S. three years ago and not waited until now.”

Since Lei Li’s explanation made sense and gave him an out, Liu Yun’s expression softened considerably.

A middle-aged man in casual clothes lit a cigarette and said, “After making such a scene, there’s no way they’ll let us off easily. Even if we leave the U.S., there will definitely be more trouble ahead. What’s your plan?”

Lei Li said, “After finding out our opponent was the military, I made a plan with Chang’an. We want to incite riots in various states to distract the military, then break into their research base. My ultimate goal is to obtain evidence and data about their covert experiments. With that, they should be wary of us, and we can use the ensuing chaos to leave the U.S.”

“Are these documents really so important that they’ll back down?” an elderly man in a Tang suit, with a slightly plump build, asked skeptically.

“It’s hard to say, but it’s certain that these documents are crucial. They may still cause trouble for us in the future, but it will likely be in secret, not as openly as if we were a terrorist organization. So, everyone should be more careful going forward.”

No one else spoke, and each person wore a thoughtful expression.

When it was clear that no one else would say anything, Lei Li turned to a young man in his thirties on his left. “Are your people safe and on their way out?”

The man responded, “Yes, boss. After the riots started, I arranged for them to leave by car, and they should reach Montreal by tomorrow.”

Lei Li asked about the situation of a few others, and finally, the group of over ten people left the reception room.

After they had gone, Lei Yin walked out from a small side door.

With a contemplative look, he said, “They’ve aged so much over the years. I still remember how they looked when they were young.”

Lei Li said, “Master, don’t you want to meet with Uncle Jian and the others?”

Lei Yin shook his head. “There’s no need. To them, I’m already a dead man. There is no more Yan Yuxiao.”

After a moment of silence, he continued, “If they become too troublesome, you might as well let them all retire and live out their days in peace.”

Lei Li quickly said, “Master, I didn’t mean that.”

Lei Yin waved his hand. “Old men are troublesome, because they like to wield their seniority. You should understand the saying, ‘A new ruler means new ministers.’ Black Dragon is now yours to lead. You should support your own trusted forces, not let old emotions affect your authority. Running a gang is no different from running a company. A well-structured company is much more enduring than one built on family ties or favors. That’s all I’ll say. Think about it carefully.”

Lei Li sensed an indescribable helplessness in his master’s tone as he spoke.

Chang’an’s eyes also grew dim. Only he truly understood Lei Yin’s feelings. The moment those people were replaced, it meant that the era that belonged to them had come to an end.

Although, if he wished, the master could re-enter the world and take command of the underworld, the people who would follow him were no longer the same as before.

Those people had aged, or passed away.