"… She said this base will be completely gone by tomorrow. If we do not evacuate, we bear the consequences ourselves."
Professor Huang finished relaying Han Lian's warning, then immediately began packing the documents in his office. He had no desire to sit here and wait for death.
Noske exploded, snapping coldly to the guards beside him, "Take Professor Huang away and lock him up. Stop fearmongering with nonsense."
The two guards exchanged a look, doubt flashing in their eyes. They had heard the stories about Ms. Han Lian from the last group transferred out. She was not someone to provoke.
"What are you standing around for? Take Huang Ruiyang away!"
Noske's nostrils flared with rage as he barked the order. He was the base's chief director here. No one could defy him.
In the end, Professor Huang was escorted away. Noske took a slow turn through Professor Huang's office, found nothing, and returned to his own domain.
But when he opened his door, he stepped into an empty room. Thinking he had the wrong place, he backed out to check the placard, then rushed back in, panic finally breaking through.
"Where is my research? Who entered my office?" His roar drew guards and researchers alike. They crowded the doorway, yet no one dared step inside.
Noske shouted hysterically at a female assistant, "Pull the surveillance. I want to see who did this."
Ten minutes later, Noske saw the culprit who had cleaned out his office: Han Lian. She even gave the camera a mocking smile, then flicked her sleeve, and his office turned bare.
A vein throbbed at Noske's temple. Before he could speak, a researcher burst in, flustered and breathless. "Mr. Noske, bad news. The experimental subjects are self-immolating. The fire suppression system cannot extinguish the flames on their bodies. What should we do?"
As the words fell, guards and staff rushed toward the laboratories. At the same time, the base alarm blared to life, the mechanical voice repeating over and over:
"Alert. The base has activated the self-destruct program. Evacuate within thirty minutes. Evacuate within thirty minutes."
Panic detonated through the entire facility. Everyone scrambled to evacuate.
Noske snarled to the Guard Captain at his side, "This is Han Lian's plot. We cannot leave!"
The Guard Captain's face went cold. His duty was to protect the research base. Now that the base had initiated self-destruct, his duty was to evacuate every researcher and preserve their lives. He shouted back just as loudly, "Mr. Noske, please evacuate with us. We can return after the crisis is over. Do not cling to false hopes."
He grabbed Noske by the arm, intending to drag the mad scientist out by force.
Noske tore free with fury. "I am the base's chief director. I have the clearance and the key to cancel the self-destruct. I am going to the main control room to stop it."
Without waiting for a reply, he spun and ran.
The Guard Captain could not simply abandon Noske. He signaled two guards to follow him, then turned to organize the remaining personnel for evacuation.
By then, Han Lian had already released Professor Huang. She smiled. "Go with your colleagues. Leave this place."
Professor Huang only nodded and sprinted back to his office. He needed to secure his most important research data.
Han Lian shook her head and flashed away to rendezvous with Yunxi.
Yunxi was in the process of destroying the humanoid monsters. These filthy, soulless things could not be allowed to leave.
Zi Yan careened through the cages crammed with monsters, busy to the point of delight. Any creature it touched crumbled to ash in an instant, without even the chance to scream.
The mindless monsters began to flee Zi Yan in a frenzy, throwing the entire space into chaos.
"Ran Xi, are we almost done here?"
"Almost."
Yunxi sent a sound transmission to Zi Yan, telling it to stop playing. Zi Yan shattered into countless sparks, each landing with unerring precision atop a monster's head. In the blink of an eye, every abomination was dead. Silence fell over the lab, leaving only a carpet of ash.
"Go. Let's meet up with Yun Chen and Xun Kun. They should be starting the formation."
"Right."
When Yunxi and Han Lian arrived, Yun Chen was already using Buddhist power to trace formation patterns, while Xun Kun placed spirit stones in coordination, keeping the array's energy steady.
After Yun Chen finished one sigil, he waved his sleeve and pressed it into the base floor. He carved nine minor array forms in succession, then withdrew his power and swallowed a pill to adjust his breathing. Xun Kun stood guard at his side.
Next it was Han Lian and Yunxi's turn. The two guided ice-aligned spiritual power as the primer, linking the nine small arrays. A burst of golden light flashed as the formation took shape, and Xun Kun covered it with a sweep of his sleeve.
"Set the array!"
Yunxi shouted, and Han Lian struck in tandem, driving the linked array deeper into the foundations of the base.
With that done, the four vanished from the facility. Half an hour later, a chain of explosions ripped through the research base. Everything was hurled skyward, then smashed back down, and in the next instant, the yellow sands swallowed all traces.
Noske, caged by his own madness and stubbornness, was buried beneath the desert along with the entire base.
The two soldiers the Guard Captain had sent after Noske returned to him against all odds. A heartbeat later, the captain saw a wall of sand boiling toward their evacuation convoy.
There was no time to ask how the two had escaped. He gunned the engine and led everyone away at speed.
Yunxi was pleased with the sandstorm she had caused. It would drive the rest away and make it easier for them to work unseen. Even if investigators returned, they would never find the base's original site.
"Han Lian, is everything that needed to be destroyed destroyed?"
Yun Chen tilted his head and asked.
"Rest easy. All destroyed. Everything that needed to be taken has been taken."
"Good. Then we head to the next place."
Xun Kun brought the flying boat around. This time they were bound for the film city, the place where Yunxi had first fallen.
Yunxi rubbed the storage bracelet on her wrist. "Yun Chen, it seems the locations where we entered Azure Star were chosen for a reason. After we set the formation at the film city, should we go to the Sack Manor next, and finally the scenic zone where you fell?"
Yun Chen closed his eyes and began to calculate. After a long moment, he opened them. "Amitabha. Ran Xi is correct. Those are indeed the next three sites."
Han Lian let out a hearty remark, "I knew it could not be coincidence. Of course it had to be my desert."
Xun Kun thought for a moment. "My guess is that these four places still hold residual spatial power. We were accidentally transmitted here. To open the Ghost Gate, we must borrow the strength of space."