The Factory

The two of them continued to move forward, destroying all the altars along the way, whether they were contaminated or not.

Ning Yu extracted the Soul Gems from each one, converting and absorbing them into attribute points and Akashic Power.

Their progress was surprisingly smooth, even suspiciously so, as there were no pursuers to stop them as they had expected.

Unconsciously, they had already traveled far from their starting point. The underground passages branched out in all directions, resembling a vast energy transportation network.

Further ahead, a larger square area appeared on the map, and the structure of the surrounding passages began to grow more complex.

"We might have reached some kind of hub or central location," Ning Yu remarked.

The two of them hid in the shadows, and Ning Yu took out some bread, strawberry milk, and other snacks from her system space, handing a portion to Shen Yiyue.

"Should we split up and explore in different directions?" Shen Yiyue suggested, thinking that dividing their paths would speed up the destruction of the altars and their exploration.

"No, let's not set up such a dangerous flag," Ning Yu firmly refused. In scenarios like this, splitting up would almost certainly lead to one of them encountering danger, and being too far away to rescue each other.

Such plotlines were all too common in movies and TV shows.

"Got it," Shen Yiyue said softly, leaning her head on Ning Yu's shoulder, enjoying the brief moment of peace in the darkness.

Ning Yu also fell silent. In the darkness, they couldn’t see each other clearly, but they could feel each other’s presence and warmth.

"Ah!!!"

A sudden scream shattered the silence, and the two immediately put away their food and stood up.

They could tell it was a human voice.

But there were no numbered altars in the square area ahead, which made them curious about what was happening.

"Let’s go there. There seems to be a ventilation duct," Ning Yu said.

As they approached the area, the facilities became more numerous. Ning Yu pointed to a mesh-covered vent above and fired a grappling hook toward it.

Shen Yiyue followed closely behind. Ning Yu lifted the vent cover, jumped up, and then pulled Shen Yiyue in with one hand before replacing the cover.

After the scream, there was no other sound, and everything seemed to return to silence.

They moved forward through the ventilation duct, peering down through each vent they passed.

Below was something resembling a factory, with various mechanical facilities of different shapes and sizes. Glowing liquid flowed between them.

Following the flow of the liquid to the far end, they saw a tall cylindrical device.

At its center were two finger-like probes pointing inward.

All the liquid converged into the device, and the tips of the probes emitted a faint blue light, as if engraving something.

Soon, a glowing orb was formed in the center, as if being 3D-printed by the probes.

The moment it took shape, two pyramid-shaped pentahedrons descended from the top and bottom of the cylindrical device.

The base of each pentahedron was hollow, mirroring each other as they assembled into an octahedron, perfectly enclosing the glowing orb.

Now Ning Yu and Shen Yiyue understood—this was one of the factories where Soul Gems were assembled.

But where did the energy come from?

With this question in mind, they continued moving closer to the source of the scream.

A pool of crimson blood slowly seeped out from under the door of a sealed room, immediately catching Ning Yu's attention.

"There," she signaled to Shen Yiyue.

The two observed the layout of the ventilation ducts and moved to the one above the sealed room.

As they got closer, they faintly heard muffled cries.

It was the sound of someone struggling with their mouth gagged.

"Are there survivors trapped down there?"

Through the vent, they saw the situation in the room below.

A dozen or so people, dressed in tattered clothes, were tightly bound and thrown into a corner of the room, like lambs waiting for slaughter.

They seemed to be suffering from some kind of torment, trembling all over, their pained moans muffled by the white cloths covering their mouths.

In another corner of the room stood more than a dozen armed soldiers, guarding a square tent draped with black cloth.

Every so often, one of the bound individuals was dragged by the soldiers and thrown into the tent.

From inside came muffled wails, screams, and the sickening sound of tearing flesh.

A pool of blood near the door suggested that someone had tried to escape and was killed there.

Undoubtedly, they had failed, and the scream must have come from that.

After a while, a hooded zombie was led out. From its clothes, it was clear that this was the same unfortunate person who had been dragged in earlier.

A large bite mark had been torn into its body, which had already shriveled significantly, as if something had drained it dry.

Even so, it seemed to have some other value to be exploited.

A soldier used a specialized tool to drag it away like livestock, taking it somewhere else.

"Why are they doing this?" Shen Yiyue couldn’t help but frown at the scene.

"I think those people on the ground might all be Awakened," Ning Yu pointed to the remaining individuals on the floor.

Each of them had a collar-like device tightly clamped around their necks.

"Maybe that’s what’s suppressing their abilities."

"This is probably the true source of the Soul Gems," Ning Yu had a growing suspicion.

The soldiers below weren’t dragging anyone into the tent at the moment. Instead, two of them entered and led out a partially cybernetically enhanced Glutton.

Its mouth was smeared with blood, clearly the one that had bitten the poor soul and turned them into a zombie.

It was different from ordinary Gluttons, not just because of its cybernetic parts, but because its entire body was covered in strange crystalline growths.

These crystals were embedded in its flesh, almost as if they had grown out of its skin, creating a deeply unsettling visual.

Now under control, the Glutton walked out of the tent in a stiff, unnatural manner, the crystals seemingly hindering its movement.

By now, Ning Yu had figured out what was happening here.

The so-called Soul Gems were likely being created through this gruesome process.

This Glutton that was being led away would probably soon become part of the energy flowing through the luminous pathways outside, eventually being forged into a Soul Gem.