587: Preparing for the experiment

He Dong paused as he read this, his fingertips stopping abruptly, a flash of astonishment and gravity crossing his eyes.

He never expected that they would capture a Disciple from a top Sect just after stepping into this strange Xuanhuan world, before they had even established a firm foothold, directly getting entangled with such a behemoth.

Whether this sudden entanglement would be a blessing or a curse remained to be seen.

As for the other captured natives, their status was far less prominent than Jiang Lu's. They were merely bandits entrenched in the mountains outside the city closest to this Forbidden Ground. Their leader, whose headless corpse they possessed, had the highest cultivation, so there was naturally no value worth digging into.

He Dong scanned the intelligence records regarding these individuals, his gaze cold and heavy, and immediately issued orders in a deep voice.

"Take those bandits away and carry out a humane execution. Seal the bodies immediately and transfer them to the Research Department for dissection and analysis. Oh, and send that previous Cultivator corpse over as well. Have the research team expedite the study of the local Cultivator's Physical Body structure and energy operation methods."

"Understood!"

The officer beside him acknowledged the order in a deep voice and turned to carry it out.

In He Dong's view, since all intelligence had been extracted from these bandits, they were useless alive. However, their Physical Bodies were excellent samples for studying the native creatures of this Cultivation world, and were crucial for figuring out the world's rules and unlocking the mysteries of Cultivators in the future, so they certainly could not be discarded casually.

After dealing with these trivial matters, He Dong's gaze returned to the light screen, fixed firmly on the three characters "Golden Core Stage". His fingertips tapped the table unconsciously as he fell into deep thought.

He had already thoroughly studied the records of Cultivation civilization in the artificial intelligence database. He understood that this type of Xuanhuan world, with its own self-contained system of Heaven and Earth, would inevitably impose rule suppression on them as outsiders, weakening their technological weapons and personal combat power. However, the specific degree of this suppression was not mentioned at all in the data, providing no reference whatsoever.

Was this suppression strong or weak? Could Imperial standard firearms injure a Golden Core Stage Cultivator? Would the power of ship guns be significantly reduced by the rules of Heaven and Earth? These unknown key factors directly concerned the life and death of subsequent operations and had to be confirmed as soon as possible.

After pondering for a moment, a flash of determination crossed He Dong's eyes. He looked up and ordered in a deep voice.

"Go bring that Jiang Lu from the Lingxiao Immortal Sect to see me."

"Yes!"

The guard Soldier nearby acknowledged the order and walked quickly toward the interrogation room.

...

In the spacious and empty training room, the light was bright and blinding. Jiang Lu was escorted by two tall Soldiers. Her steps were unsteady, but her back remained straight, and there was a hint of vigilance and confusion hidden in her eyes.

Along the way, everything she saw was strange creations she had never encountered before. The walls shone with a cold metallic luster, unknown luminous objects floated overhead, the ground was as smooth as a mirror without a speck of dust, and there were some box-like objects covered in patterns placed in the corners, emitting strange energy fluctuations.

What shocked her even more was that most of these "freaks" she saw along the way had strange appearances. Some had hideous horns, some had skin covered in fine scales, and others were as bulky as Vicious Beasts. They looked nothing like the Human Race, and in her eyes, they were no different from the demons and monsters in local legends.

After all, there were very few human officers in the Empire, and even if some officers could use mimicry bodies, they mostly used them when going out; inside the starship, most preferred to show their true faces.

The few who looked like the Human Race had complex and strange auras, completely lacking the Spiritual Qi circulation that a Cultivator should have.

Jiang Lu became increasingly convinced that these people must be the mysterious existences hidden deep in the Forbidden Ground, the unknown forbidden secrets of this world. She feared she had stumbled into a massive danger this time.

"Miss Jiang."

He Dong's voice interrupted her thoughts. He stood in the center of the training ground with a calm expression, his tone revealing neither joy nor anger.

"Based on your previous statement, you are a Golden Core Stage Cultivator from the Lingxiao Immortal Sect, correct?"

Jiang Lu regained her focus and composed herself. Knowing that she was at the mercy of others and resistance was useless, and that only cooperation could save her life, she immediately nodded and replied, her voice calm.

"That is correct. I am indeed Golden Core Stage, but I have only just achieved the Breakthrough to the Early Stage, so my cultivation is still shallow."

She still could not guess the purpose of these mysterious existences. They neither killed her nor forced her to reveal Sect secrets, only inquiring about shallow questions regarding the Cultivation Realm. Yet, the more this was the case, the greater her inner unease grew. She could only be cautious at every step, not daring to hide anything.

He Dong nodded slightly upon hearing this and pointed to the other side of the training ground. There stood an Imperial D-grade full-coverage battle armor with sharp lines, a faint energy shield surrounding it. It was empty inside, with no Soldier operating it; it was controlled by the artificial intelligence.

"Then I would trouble Miss Jiang to launch one full-power Golden Core Stage attack at that battle armor."

As his voice fell, two Imperial Soldiers nearby immediately stepped forward, deftly and cautiously removing the restraint devices from Jiang Lu's body. The light sound of metal buckles unlocking was exceptionally clear in the spacious training ground.

No one noticed that in every corner of the training room, several Imperial Soldiers who had activated full stealth mode were already quietly in position, their energy guns locked onto Jiang Lu's vital points, the energy muzzles ready to fire.

If she made even the slightest unusual move, she would be riddled with holes by dense energy beams in an instant, ensuring she wouldn't even have a chance to resist.

Jiang Lu felt the restraints on her body disappear and raised her hand to flex her wrists. Upon hearing this, she was slightly stunned, then shook her head helplessly, her tone carrying a hint of genuine difficulty.

"I'm sorry, it's not that I don't want to cooperate, but my internal Spiritual Power is already exhausted, and I cannot mobilize even a tiny bit. In this Forbidden Ground, I cannot feel even a shred of Spiritual Qi, and I cannot even perform the act of drawing Qi into my body."

She smiled bitterly to herself. The strange mist she had inhaled when she first broke into the Forbidden Ground had been frantically devouring the Spiritual Power in her body, and coupled with her escape along the way, after several struggles, it had already been completely drained.

Now, although she was free from the mist, there was not even the most basic Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi of the Cultivation world in the air of this place. Even if she wanted to circulate her Cultivation Technique to replenish it, it was like a clever housewife trying to cook a meal without rice. She possessed the Golden Core Realm, but was no different from a Mortal.

"Spiritual Power?"

He Dong repeated it in a low voice, his eyes suddenly lighting up, and his mind instantly cleared.

No wonder his Soldiers were able to capture these natives, who claimed to be Golden Core Stage Cultivators, without any effort; it turned out that this Forbidden Ground lacked Spiritual Qi, making them toothless tigers! The details of this rule suppression were actually more specific than what the data had recorded.