107: Chapter 107 Drawing Infernal Energy into the Body, the Eye of the Storm

00:55.

Five-minute countdown.

The hydraulic locks of the blast door let out a muffled hiss of exhausting air.

The two heavy metal doors closed seamlessly behind Jiang Feng.

The red lights and shrill alarms in the corridor were completely cut off.

A coldness that didn't belong to the physical realm rushed toward him.

Jiang Feng stopped; the isolation zone hall before him was shrouded in darkness.

Six figures in white hazmat suits knelt in the center in postures that completely defied human joint structure.

Their kneecaps were likely shattered, their arms folded backward, and their foreheads were pressed tightly against the ground.

They faced the very center of the hall, where a stack of blackened Pre-Qin Bamboo Slips was piled.

Black mist roiled over the surface of the bamboo slips; the pile of rotten wood seemed like a breathing, living thing.

"Consultant Jiang, you are three centimeters off the central coordinate. Shift to the left."

Lu Cheng's voice came through the earpiece, speaking at a rapid-fire pace amidst the frantic, crisp clacking of a keyboard.

Jiang Feng shifted his heels to the left, stepping onto a layer of unknown slime on the floor that made a nauseating squelching sound.

He stood firm in his position.

Directly above, an Energy Focusing Field composed of three massive metal rings began to operate.

A low-frequency hum drowned out the evil whispers drifting through the air.

Jiang Feng closed his eyes.

The moment he stepped into this focusing field, the mark in his mind that had been playing dead came to life.

[Belongs to Me].

The mark from the Liao Dynasty golden mask completely tore away its disguise at this moment.

It let out a sharp clamor deep within Jiang Feng's mind.

It was starving.

Jiang Feng had no intention of being a do-gooder in this mess.

He was going to use the ancient malice filling the room to feed the time bomb in his head.

Either the bamboo slips would overstuff the mark to death, or the mark would devour the bamboo slips entirely.

In this dog-eat-dog gamble, Jiang Feng was the dealer.

The dense black mist clinging to the bamboo slips sensed Jiang Feng's presence.

More accurately, it sensed the ancient aura of the same level within him.

Like a startled python, the black mist twisted and stretched violently in mid-air before transforming into dozens of black arrows, lunging straight for Jiang Feng's face.

Outside the blast door, in the command area.

Lu Cheng stared intently at the main monitor. The red wavy lines on the screen had broken past the chart's upper limits, triggering frantic alarms.

"Warning! Energy peaks on Level B5 are rising abnormally!" a young researcher shouted while staring at the dashboard. "Focusing field load exceeds eighty percent! Core component temperatures are alarming!"

Lu Cheng grabbed the microphone, her body leaning heavily against the console.

"Consultant Jiang! The data feedback from the Energy Focusing Field doesn't fit the neutralization logic at all! Your body isn't generating a rejection magnetic field! You're absorbing those pollutants!"

Her precise artificial intelligence neural pathways simply couldn't process this phenomenon that defied the laws of thermodynamics.

Jiang Feng listened to Lu Cheng's warning through the earpiece, his Adam's apple bobbing.

The moment the black mist hit his face, he felt as if he had swallowed a mouthful of red-hot coals.

"Dr. Lu," Jiang Feng's voice transmitted back to the command area through the piercing static.

"Just do your job. This is called 'Drawing Evil Within'."

"If I don't take it in, how can the Evil-Suppressing Talisman take effect?"

"Manage the power supply for those iron rings. Whatever you do, don't let the power to my Formation Eye cut out."

"As for the rest, mind your own business."

In the command area, Qian Li had ruffled his hair into a bird's nest with both hands, his military boots pacing rapidly in place.

"Old Li! Has the backup power been switched over? Those iron rings must not stop!"

Qian Li roared, pointing at Jiang Feng on the monitor.

Old Chen stood less than half a meter from the blast door.

His left hand gripped the handle of a folding knife in a reverse hold, while his right index finger rested on his tactical belt buckle.

His eyes were bloodshot from staying up, his gaze locked onto the handle of the physical maintenance tunnel next to the door.

If any sound not belonging to Jiang Feng came from inside, he would immediately use the most violent means to blow open that tunnel.

Inside the isolation zone, Jiang Feng's current state was abysmal.

A large area of his skin began to take on an eerie luster.

Dark gold patterns climbed up from his collarbones, over his neck, and spread to his jawline.

This was the [Belongs to Me] mark fully activating; the mask's power was forcibly manifesting on his flesh and blood.

It opened its greedy maw, frantically devouring the bamboo slip's malice surging into Jiang Feng's body.

Pain—an indescribable, excruciating pain.

Two overbearing energies that didn't belong to this era treated Jiang Feng's body as a gladiator arena, engaging in the most primal tearing and biting.

Jiang Feng's knees shook, and a strong metallic taste of blood welled up in his mouth.

But he forced himself to stand straight.

The passive skill [Empathy Shielding] played a life-saving role at this moment.

The skill operated at full power.

An invisible barrier blocked the spiritual backlash from the dying bamboo slip malice and the screams of countless ancient sacrifices from Jiang Feng's subjective consciousness.

He couldn't afford any emotional fluctuations. If even a sliver of fear or retreat appeared in his subconscious, his body would instantly turn into a pile of shredded meat.

Time jumped to 00:58.

Eighty percent of the black mist on the surface of the bamboo slips had been drained.

The pile of bamboo slips in the center began to show visible decay and turned ashen.

Jiang Feng opened his eyes.

A brilliant golden glow emanated from the depths of his pupils.

The [Belongs to Me] mark inside him had bloated to a terrifying limit.

It had devoured too much malice of the same origin; its volume had expanded dozens of times in Jiang Feng's perception, even pressing against his meridians.

But this was exactly as Jiang Feng had calculated.

Once overstuffed, it was time to vomit.

The mark reached its critical threshold of endurance.

It stopped absorbing and began a reverse oscillation.

It wanted to digest these restless things in its belly.

Under the mark's forced strangulation, the bamboo slip malice absorbed into Jiang Feng's body was torn apart and annihilated.

A silent implosion occurred at the cellular level within Jiang Feng.

No sound could be heard from the outside, but Jiang Feng's body swayed violently as if he had been struck by a heavy truck.

The last wisp of drifting black smoke around the bamboo slips twisted unwillingly a few times before drilling into Jiang Feng's nostrils, disappearing completely.

The six researchers kneeling on the ground stopped their strange twitching.

Like toys with broken springs, they collapsed one after another onto the dirty floor, falling into a deep coma.

00:59.

Only the last minute of the countdown remained.

Jiang Feng panted heavily.

He looked up, his gaze passing the metal rings to look at the surveillance camera above the blast door.

He knew the people outside were all staring at him.

But this was far from over.

The trouble with the bamboo slips was resolved.

However, the [Belongs to Me] mark inside him had not gone to sleep.

Having digested the massive energy, it now turned to look at its host with an unprecedented sense of satisfaction and an almost overflowing desire for cruelty.

Not satisfied with merely leaving a mark.

The entity within the golden mask was about to reel in the net.

It attempted to completely seize Jiang Feng's body and consciousness for its own in this final minute.

The veins on Jiang Feng's neck bulged, his knuckles cracked as he clenched his fists, and his body trembled uncontrollably and violently.

Yet his eyes remained exceptionally clear.

This was not just the mark reeling in the net; it was also Jiang Feng's counter-kill.