Devil's Eye Reborn - Shadow Angel Awakens - Chapter 67

Chapter 67: Chapter 65: An advanced laboratory
 

The passageway behind the door was highly advanced, with smooth, flawless steel walls. The ceiling was lined with soft white lights, but the path was as intricate as a spider’s web, extremely complex and winding. Every few steps, we encountered multiple forks. Without the Howling Sky Dog’s excellent sense of smell, tracking the faint scent left by Samael, we would have certainly gotten lost.

Following the Howling Sky Dog’s guidance, we made rapid progress through the maze-like corridors, constantly turning left and right. However, we encountered no one along the way. The silent corridors echoed only with our footsteps.

“It’s really strange. In such an advanced base, there’s no one to guard here,” Yan’er said. I pondered for a moment, about to respond when Miyamoto Musashi, who was leading, suddenly said, “Who said there’s no one?”

Just then, we heard the synchronized footsteps of a dozen people approaching from the corner. Suddenly, twelve armed guards appeared. They hesitated only briefly upon seeing us before realizing we were intruders. In unison, they reached for their weapons.

But before they could raise their guns, Miyamoto Musashi’s tall figure loomed behind them like the Grim Reaper.

Their machine guns were just lifted when twelve heads rolled to the ground.

“Such poor quality, always the same,” Miyamoto Musashi said coldly, his black samurai attire spotless. He gently removed his hand from the hilt of his katana, as if it had never left its sheath.

I looked at the twelve headless corpses, deeply impressed by Miyamoto Musashi’s swordsmanship. I had only seen a faint flash of his blade, yet he had executed a seamless series of actions—drawing, beheading, and sheathing his sword—in an instant, taking twelve heads at once with crisp precision. Even without activating my Devil eye, I could tell his lightning-fast sword-drawing technique was extraordinary. If I had to compete with him for the ‘Ark’ later, it would be a tough battle without a divine weapon.

At that moment, Yang Jian gestured for us to stop.

“Hmm, this is the place. Samael left from here,” Yang Jian said, dismounting the Howling Sky Dog and walking to the corner where the black-clad guards had appeared.

I peeked around the corner and saw a smooth steel door at the end of the corridor. Like the previous doors, it had a semicircular indentation in the center, but it also had a numeric keypad next to it.

“A password is needed in addition to the eyeball,” I said, walking up to the door and looking at my reflection.

Yang Jian walked up beside me and said, “Let me take a look inside first.” With that, he closed his eyes, activated his demonic energy, and the blood seam on his forehead opened, revealing the demonic “Clairvoyance Eye.”

The “Clairvoyance Eye,” with its evil appearance, scanned left and right, its pupil contracting and expanding. After a moment, Yang Jian retracted the Devil eye, opened his eyes, and said with a frown, “Inside is a laboratory. Besides the two-armed guards at the main door, the rest are unarmed staff. However, I can’t see behind one of the doors in the lab; it seems something important is hidden there.”

Musashi turned to Yang Jian and asked, “Is Third Brother inside?”

“I can’t see him for now. He might be behind the door I can’t see through. However,” Yang Jian paused and looked at me, “the ‘Ark’ is inside the laboratory.”

The ‘Ark.’

Hearing Yang Jian’s words, I clenched my fist, and a slight smile appeared on my lips. If everything went as planned and we managed to take the ‘Ark,’ my chances of becoming the true Satan would greatly increase. But we had to be cautious, as a single mistake could result in the severe punishment of being struck by heavenly lightning.

I pondered for a moment and asked, “Is the ‘Ark’ being studied?”

“Although no staff are near it, many instruments seem to be scanning and analyzing the ‘Ark’,” Yang Jian replied.

“Alright, let’s kill the two guards and knock out the unarmed staff,” I suggested to Yang Jian.

Yang Jian agreed and extended his hand to the Howling Sky Dog’s mouth. The dog then spat out one of the black-clad guards’ heads. Yang Jian handed the saliva-covered, wide-eyed head to Zicheng and said, “Please check the password for this door.”

Zicheng, looking a bit weary, forced a smile at Yang Jian, took the head, and activated the “Eye of Reminiscence,” staring into the lifeless eyes. After a few seconds, he dispersed his demonic energy and said, “The password is ‘0715’. Remember to insert the eyeball first and wait six seconds before entering the password.”

I nodded, took the head from Zicheng, and noted his dazed expression. Since killing the orphanage director and experiencing the “Heavenly Tribulation,” Zicheng had been in a daze, often lost in thought and speaking without energy.

“Zicheng, if you see Li Hongwei later, will you kill him immediately?” I asked, extracting the eyeball from the head and placing it in the door’s indentation.

The eyeball began to spin rapidly, splattering blood. I counted silently. One, two, three, four, five, six.

“I… I don’t know. I feel a bit tired,” Zicheng replied, his tone uncertain.

“Is that so? Well, don’t think about it for now. We’ll decide when we find him,” I said with a smile, calmly entering the password on the cold keypad.

A faint sound of mechanisms working came from within the steel door.

Perhaps I should do something to reignite Zicheng’s hatred. Several evil ideas quickly formed in my mind.

At that moment, the door opened. Two startled faces appeared on either side, but in the next second, I grabbed them and smashed them together, turning them into a bloody mess.

Stepping over the guards’ bodies, I clapped my hands and activated my demonic energy, summoning the “Eye of Illusions.”

The researchers in the lab turned at the sound, their eyes locking onto my strikingly red pupils.

I smiled at their shocked faces.

Suddenly, their vision blurred, and they saw my nonexistent clones. Panicked, they tried to resist, but my “clones” simultaneously delivered a light chop to their necks. The pain was fake, but it tricked their highly visual-dependent brains, causing them to faint.

“Neat and tidy,” Yang Jian praised, watching the staff collapse simultaneously, as the door behind us closed with a “shush.”

“Thanks,” I said with a smile, glancing around the lab.

The square laboratory was quite large. Besides the side we entered from, the other three walls were lined with massive, advanced computers. The computer screens flickered with colorful lights, operating normally, seemingly undisturbed by the commotion. However, my gaze didn’t linger on them because something else in the room quickly captured and held my attention.

In the distance, inside a very large glass container, faint golden light flickered. Two angelic statues, the size of infants and lifelike in appearance, knelt facing each other with their eyes closed, hands clasped in prayer, and serene expressions.

They both had a pair of disproportionately large wings on their backs, tightly wrapped around each other. Below them was an unremarkable rectangular box.

“The ‘Ark’,” I said, walking up to the container and touching the glass, looking at the silent cherubim. “This box is the legendary ‘Ark’, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s the sacred relic that has been kept in Satan’s former residence for two thousand years. I didn’t expect the Satan Cult leader to bring it here,” Yang Jian said, walking up beside me.

I didn’t respond, my attention wholly fixed on the ancient ‘Ark’ behind the glass. Although the golden cherubim were striking, the worn-out box was even more captivating. As I looked at the ‘Ark’, I felt a strange sense of familiarity, as if I had seen it long ago. It seemed as though something inside the box was calling out to me, as if someone who had been trapped for many, many years was begging me to release them from the darkness. Someone filled with endless sorrow.

“Is it ‘Hell’?” I murmured to myself.

Just as I was lost in thought, Yang Jian suddenly grabbed my shoulder and shook me hard, shouting, “Kid!”

The violent shaking brought me back to my senses. I steadied myself, turned to Yang Jian, and asked in confusion, “What’s the matter?”

Yang Jian frowned and said, “Kid, you were too engrossed.” He pointed to my right hand. I looked down and saw that I had unknowingly pressed my hand against the glass, creating numerous cracks. I stared at the fractured glass, slightly shocked. If the glass container hadn’t been as thick as a wall, I would have shattered it. Yet, I had been completely unaware of my actions.

“Is the ‘Ark’ really that captivating? It had you so entranced,” Yang Jian asked with a smile.

I replied seriously, “Don’t you feel as if it has an invisible voice, silently calling you to release it?”

Yang Jian turned to look at the ‘Ark’ in the container for a moment, his face showing doubt. “No, I don’t.”

I nodded, not saying anything further.

Perhaps because I am Satan, I resonate with whatever is inside the ‘Ark’. This increases the likelihood that ‘Hell’ is hidden within the box. I noticed scanning devices on either side of the container and turned to check the data on the computer screens. However, the complex information was beyond my understanding.

“It seems we’ll need to wake up the researchers,” I said, frowning.

As I turned and squatted next to an unconscious researcher, I heard Yan’er’s anxious voice from afar, “Big Brother!”

I looked up and saw Yan’er standing by a large door next to the lab, her face full of worry.

I immediately walked over and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Mom… I can smell Mom’s scent coming from this room,” Yan’er said anxiously, pointing to the door.

Yang Jian also came over and looked at the door. “My ‘Clairvoyance Eye’ couldn’t see through this room earlier,” he said.

I nodded and observed the door, noticing it was similar to the lab door, with an indentation for an eyeball and a numeric keypad beside it.