The crack was imnse; two trucks could drive side by side. The pair walked about a hundred ters into it with their flashlights before reaching the end—a wall built of concrete and stones, fashioned in accordance with the natural shape of the crevice, blocking the path. In the center of the wall was a thick iron door, about six to seven ters wide, firmly closed. The door was painted with large red letters that, despite the ravages of ti, faintly conveyed the warning: "Military No-go Zone, Unauthorized Personnel Keep Out."
The door was locked with an iron chain as thick as an arm, which was covered in red rust from years without treatnt. The lock appeared to have rusted shut as well.
Faced with this massive and seemingly heavy iron door, Xiao Buli knew that it would be extrely difficult for an ordinary person to get inside. Not to ntion figuring out how to break that arm-thick chain, but just pushing this huge object would take a lot of effort.
Without much sentintality, Xiao Buli thought that since fate gave him the chance to obtain superpowers, he might as well make good use of them. He asked Qin Shimoon to step back a bit, took his stance, and delivered a Mysterious Ice Slash onto the chain. With a single stroke, the now brittle chain fell apart into several segnts.
After sheathing his sword, Xiao Buli channelled his Internal Energy. The thick iron door was almost rusted shut, but after exerting force three tis in succession, he heard the creaking of the door as it slowly opened a crack.
A stale, damp sll of decay surged towards them. The two stood still for a mont to let the air circulate before they turned on their flashlights and walked in. Unlike the natural pathways outside, the corridor inside was entirely paved with asphalt, and the rock walls on both sides were reinforced with steel bars and concrete. Strong concrete pillars were placed at intervals, clearly indicating that much of the base had been man-made and fortified.
At this mont, as the two had walked through the iron door, Hei suddenly made a whimpering sound. This wild animal, full of Wildness, seed to have a certain fear of the underground world.
Seeing this, Xiao Buli scolded Hei, who then reluctantly followed them in.
"Really, why do they always build these bases in godforsaken places? It's as if they're not mysterious enough unless they do," said Xiao Buli, joking with Qin Shimoon to ease the eerie and secretive atmosphere.
"Generally speaking, if experints are conducted in desolate places, they are often hazardous, like the nuclear tests carried out in the desert during the early years after our country's founding. Another scenario is that the experint is top-secret, built out of sight to avoid foreign spies," Qin Shimoon explained in a low voice, seemingly especially cautious in the darkness.
Xiao Buli nodded. Military matters didn't interest him much, and he would probably have never set foot in such a place if not for the possibility that this base's original experintal project might have been related to the death gas.
As the two walked through the tunnel, they occasionally felt breezes, which suggested that the ventilation system was still operational—a testant to the quality of the construction.
The several-hundred-ter tunnel soon ca to an end and another tal door appeared before them. Xiao Buli saw the gap in the middle of the door and knew it was a pair of sliding doors. What was odd, though, was that at the center of the door was a panel the size of a chessboard, containing twelve square tal blocks. Ten of them bore the Arabic nurals 0 to 9, and the remaining two were flat plates. At a glance, it almost looked like a combination lock.
With Internal Energy running through his hands, Xiao Buli tried to push the door but it wouldn't budge. A closer look revealed that the doors were ant to slide horizontally; it seed that it might take so effort to force them open.
"Step back," Xiao Buli told Qin Shimoon, readying himself to exert force.
"Wait," Qin Shimoon interrupted while studying the combination lock after being silent for a while. She walked up to it and pried out the lowest flat plate, leaving a vacant space in the otherwise tight grid of twelve squares, allowing the two numbers adjacent to the plate to slide into the empty spot. It was much like a puzzle ga Xiao Buli had played before.
Xiao Buli stopped and watched Qin Shimoon's actions with a touch of surprise.
As the tal blocks slid back and forth, the sound of tal grinding on tal echoed from within. After the ti it took to smoke a cigarette, Qin Shimoon stopped her manipulations, looked over her work one more ti, and reinserted the tal block into the only gap remaining. Following her action, the door clattered and began to move.
Though a bit jerky from years of disuse, the door still opened, revealing the space inside. Qin Shimoon shined her flashlight in, but what followed took both of them by surprise.
From the mont they entered the tunnel, they had depended on their flashlight beams for light, with utter darkness everywhere else. But as the door opened, an electrical buzz echoed around them, followed by a crackling sound, and lights suddenly blazed on in the tunnel and corridor.
This unexpected lighting imdiately put Xiao Buli on alert; his hand instinctively reached for his sword as he backed against the wall, warily surveying his surroundings. Everyone knew that turning on lights would require soone to flip a switch. Since he and Qin Shimoon were both right there, it was evident that neither of them had caused it. Could it be that soone else was inside the base, or had he ultimately fallen into Qin Shimoon's trap?
More anxious than Xiao Buli was Hei. Having lived in the wild all its life apart from the sun, it had never seen so many unexplainable sources of light. Its body pressed low, fangs bared and emitting a series of threatening growls from deep in its throat.
"Hahaha," Qin Shimoon chuckled as he observed the reaction between the wolf and the man before him. "Don't worry, the lighting is synchronized with this big door. Since the password has been cracked, it must be soone from the base, and that's why the lights turned on."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Buli felt a bit embarrassed but still, a flicker of caution crossed his mind. "How did you know the password?"
Qin Shimoon turned around to glance at him with an even more amused look in his eyes. "It was written in the docunts, didn't you see it?"
Xiao Buli, taking her words at face value, was montarily startled as he tried to recall but couldn't find any such mory. Could it be that he had been too focused on searching for the address and ga records and had missed it?
"Stop thinking about it, she's clearly playing you. Can't you tell?" that voice piped up again, sounding positively gleeful.
If Xiao Buli had chosen to ignore the voice each ti it appeared before, this ti he found it impossible to disregard.
He harbored a growing suspicion that there was sothing not quite simple about the matter, and Qin Shimoon's knowledge of the base seed overly detailed.
Watching Qin Shimoon walk further inside, Xiao Buli grabbed her wrist in a hurry, "Wait, tell , what exactly are you hiding from ? This is an order." Xiao Buli stared hard into Qin Shimoon's eyes.
Qin Shimoon smiled at him, responding calmly, "I've never hidden anything from you. Isn't this the place you were looking for?"
Sothing was definitely off. Even without that voice chiming in, Xiao Buli felt there was sothing untrustworthy about Qin Shimoon's words. Was it her overly confident assurance or the barely-concealed amusent in her eyes?
"Tell what you know about this base, and don't hide anything. This, is an order!" As he uttered the last four words, Xiao Buli pronounced each syllable with force, as if this sharp tone could sohow enhance the function of the Soul Contract.
But Qin Shimoon just shook her head slightly, "My understanding of this base is no different from yours, and I've told you everything already.
She raised her eyebrows with a hint of challenge, satisfied now?"
Qin Shimoon's hand slipped from Xiao Buli's grasp as she turned to continue walking forward. "Oh, I understand now. Those stone pillars you saw earlier might be the base's wind power generation system. Otherwise, how could it still have electricity after decades, don't you think?"
Xiao Buli, watching her steadily receding figure, paid no mind to her words. No, there was definitely sothing amiss. Qin Shimoon's replies just now were not the straightforward answers typically bound by the Soul Contract.
Could there be sothing wrong with the Soul Contract? The thought startled him; it wasn't impossible, after all, the contract had been provided by them. Although Wu Min'er had asserted its reliability, who knew if the contract had an expiration or if its effects were weakening now? Either way, it was necessary to confirm this further.
With this concern in mind, Xiao Buli suddenly called out to Qin Shimoon's retreating back, "Co back and kiss , this is an order."
The woman in front halted abruptly, and Xiao Buli could see her back shudder. It was unclear whether it was out of anger or the effect of the command.
Then she turned around fiercely, and her eyes seed to flare with fire as she glared at him. Xiao Buli provocatively raised his eyebrows, and though Qin Shimoon clenched her teeth, she had no choice but to take step by step towards him, forced to play along. Having co this far, could she let a single kiss undo all her efforts? As a soldier, Qin Shimoon had made greater sacrifices to carry out missions, but as a woman, she truly did not wish to kiss a man she had no feelings for.
Despite the turmoil within her, she kept walking forward, and Xiao Buli, seeing her conflicted approach, naturally assud she was struggling against the Soul Contract.
It seed the power of the Soul Contract hadn't faded after all. Xiao Buli felt relieved as he watched her lips draw nearer, and his heart unavoidably stirred. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, we welco you to vote and support it at . Mobile users please visit m.qidian to read.)
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