91: Botanical Garden

Under the night sky, the Botanical Garden was enveloped in an eerie, deathly silence.

The air was thick with a pungent odor, a mixture of rotting organic matter and strong acid. The figure stood still in the moonlight—it had a roughly humanoid silhouette, but its entire body was covered in smooth, hard, porcelain-white armor, like a cold, living sculpture.

This was precisely the individual codenamed "Crystal Orchid."

Its mutated hands hung at its sides, continuously emitting a pale mist with a faint fluorescent glow.

This highly corrosive Bio-enzymatic Mist spread silently, and wherever it passed, delicate flowers, emerald-green leaves, and even wooden benches rapidly softened, collapsed, and liquefied into bubbling pools of dark, viscous sludge.

Not far ahead, a young couple who hadn't managed to escape in time were plunged into despair.

The girl's sandal accidentally stepped into a pool of sludge liquefied from a flower bed, the sole emitting a faint sizzling sound. She was too terrified to move, letting out a frightened whimper.

Her boyfriend tried to pull her out but inhaled a wisp of the drifting mist. He immediately clutched his throat, coughing painfully.

Crystal Orchid's armored face, lacking distinct features, turned toward these two sources of vibrant life energy. It slowly raised the hand emanating the deathly mist, the pale fog coiling toward the helpless couple as if it had a life of its own.

Just as the pale, lethal mist was about to reach the helpless couple, a low, penetrating hum suddenly shattered the Botanical Garden's deathly silence!

The moment the sound rang out, a silver-white figure tore through the night like a ghost, cutting into the scene at a speed difficult for the naked eye to follow!

Without the slightest pause, he delivered a fierce aerial side kick, carrying immense kinetic energy, and slammed it squarely into Crystal Orchid's porcelain-white armored chest!

"Thud!"

A dull, thunderous impact echoed as Crystal Orchid was sent flying backward by the sudden, tremendous force, crashing heavily into a patch of shrubs not yet affected by the enzyme mist, causing violent shaking.

The silver-white figure used the momentum to execute a backflip, landing steadily and positioning himself squarely between the terrified couple and Crystal Orchid.

He quickly crouched, grabbing the sludge entangling the girl with one hand and helping the nearly suffocating boyfriend up with the other, using a deft force to push them backward out of the danger zone.

"Go! Get out of here!" A hoarse, urgent metallic voice came from beneath the faceplate, carrying an undeniable command.

The couple snapped out of their daze and, without even thanking him, supported each other as they stumbled and fled toward the Botanical Garden's exit.

Only then did Lu Jianchuan slowly turn around, his azure-blue visor coldly locking onto the porcelain-white figure struggling to rise from the shrubs ahead, assuming a combat stance.

Lu Jianchuan stared at the porcelain-white figure struggling to its feet, and the stiff forms of the medical staff controlled by the "neuro-weaver" in the hospital instantly flashed through his mind. "Just like back then... controlled again?"

He immediately understood the state of this Evolver before him—a prisoner with no control over itself. At the same time, he recalled his previous experience of successfully disrupting and even destroying those Parasites using electric current.

"Use electric current... like last time, free him from the control!"

His mind made up, Lu Jianchuan moved, charging forward again. Crystal Orchid's reactions remained instinctual defense and attack, its arms emanating enzyme mist as it clawed and swiped wildly. Lu Jianchuan moved nimbly, weaving through the spreading pale mist and sharp claw strikes, landing several probing heavy punches on the opponent's porcelain-white armor with dull thuds, aiming to test its defenses and find weaknesses.

After a few rounds of maneuvering, Lu Jianchuan seized a massive opening when the opponent lunged and missed. He abruptly closed the distance, his left hand clamping down like an iron vise on Crystal Orchid's neck, holding it firmly in place. Simultaneously, his right palm pressed against the armored area on its back.

"Endure it... it'll be over soon!" he whispered beneath the faceplate.

The next moment, he channeled his energy, and a faint but extremely precise blue-white electric arc erupted from his right palm, attempting to reach its neural center and destroy the control core.

However, the anticipated liberation did not occur. A nearly invisible, mesh-like network of faint blue light suddenly appeared on the surface of Crystal Orchid's armor! The electric current Lu Jianchuan released was completely guided and dispersed by this network, dissipating into the air as scattered sparks.

"What?!" Lu Jianchuan's heart sank. Stimulated by the electric shock, the "neuro-weaver" issued stronger commands! Crystal Orchid's body erupted with tremendous force, its arms swinging back violently, forcing Lu Jianchuan to release his grip and retreat.

Lu Jianchuan inwardly cursed. "Damn, I didn't expect it to have a way to neutralize electric current!" He continued to maneuver around Crystal Orchid, blocking the corrosive enzyme mist attacks while thinking rapidly. "If I use a stronger current, I might be able to forcibly break through that defense... but doing so could seriously injure or even... kill him." This thought made him hesitate for a moment, nearly getting grazed by a stream of enzyme mist on his arm armor. "But I can't let this continue! Otherwise, more innocent people will get hurt, and he'll only sink deeper into this controlled nightmare!" After a brief struggle, Lu Jianchuan's eyes regained their determination. "I have to take the gamble! Control the intensity... at the very least, I have to stop him first!"

His resolve firm, Lu Jianchuan hesitated no longer. He clenched his fists tightly, and a noticeably stronger yet still restrained, blinding electric arc instantly erupted, coiling around his arms like two constrained thunder serpents, emitting a hair-raising crackle!

Seizing the moment, he stopped evading and instead charged forward abruptly, his palms precisely grabbing Crystal Orchid's two wrists as they attacked again! "Ugh—!" The powerful enzyme mist sizzled as it burned the armor's surface, but Lu Jianchuan held on tightly, refusing to let go.

Gritting his teeth, he focused all his mental energy on controlling the output. The enhanced electric current continuously surged into Crystal Orchid's body through the points of contact!

"Zzzzap—!!!"

Brighter blue-white electric light enveloped Crystal Orchid! The faint blue network on its body surface, used for channeling the current, flickered frantically, lasting less than a second before it overloaded, abruptly extinguishing and disintegrating! Under the energy impact, large areas of the porcelain-white armor turned charred black, even showing signs of cracking!

Crystal Orchid's body convulsed violently, its movements quickly becoming stiff and sluggish. Finally, when Lu Jianchuan felt the opponent's resistance completely vanish, he immediately cut off the current and released his grip.

The light in Crystal Orchid's eyes completely dimmed, its body losing all strength as it slumped forward limply, collapsing to the ground and ceasing to move.

The enhanced electric current had forcibly overloaded its Control System, temporarily halting its activity.

Just as Lu Jianchuan cautiously prepared to approach the fallen Crystal Orchid to check its condition, a faint, painful cough came from not far behind him to the side.

His heart tightened, and he immediately turned to look. Behind a cluster of half-withered shrubs, a familiar figure lay weakly on the ground, face pale, covering its mouth and nose with a hand while struggling to breathe.

It was actually Lin Wan!

"Are you okay?" The distinctive, processed hoarse metallic voice came from beneath the faceplate, tinged with obvious urgency. "Are you hurt? Did you inhale any of that mist?"

With his support, Lin Wan managed to stand shakily, coughing lightly twice before lifting her pale face and shaking her head, her voice weak: "I'm... I'm fine... I'm okay. I just hid here earlier and accidentally inhaled a bit of that white mist. My throat and chest feel a little uncomfortable... I should be fine after resting a bit."