Chapter 2762: Brain Experiments

Tang Ka was trying to say something else, but Li Yao had penetrated into the deepest parts of his soul and merged with his brain, so he couldn't make a sound.

Tang Ka raised his eyes and saw that over ten gun-wielding Purgers had surrounded them, their guns pointed directly at their heads.

He could feel every small twitch in his body.  All of his cells were burnt to the point of exploding, his skin was so sensitive it could feel the wind currents a few hundred meters away, and his brain was coming up with over twenty combat plans at once.  This reassured him that "Old Yao" hadn't abandoned him and was giving him his full attention.

A few dozen more shuttles flew overhead, their mystic rays scanning him and the class monitor thoroughly.  He felt like his every blood vessel and nerve was under close observation.

"Old Yao" quickly flowed like mist into the deepest parts of his body, hiding from the scans.

The Purgers' helmets beeped, most likely sending them the "all clear" signal.  Not a moment later, over ten cold "iron coffins" continued moving towards them.

Chu Zhiyun growled and dashed towards the "iron coffins" recklessly.

She was worthy of being called the most outstanding student in the current year of the Holy Light Academy.  Without a crystal suit, bare-handed, she knocked over three crystal-suit-wearing Purgers in the time it took for rabbit to emerge and a falcon to dive and snatched away their weapons.

Unfortunately, the Purgers' weapons had fingerprint and blood identification systems.  They would only fire for their true owner, and in the hands of anyone else would release fierce electric arcs.  They electrocuted Chu Zhiyun until she was twitching uncontrollably, her hair standing up and black blood flowing from her eyes, her nose and her ears!

Chu Zhiyun was locked in a cage of electric arcs, but she didn't give up hope of escape.  She gritted her teeth and took three wobbly steps forwards.  At this moment, her silhouette looked like Liao Meng's had in the morning.  In the end, the outcome was the same.  With a thud, she landed on the ground, her limbs twitching.

"Class monitor..."

Tang Ka couldn't hold back his tears.

He felt every muscle in his body tightening like a screw with the impulse to attack.

"Don't be restless.  Let's wait and see."

Li Yao's tinny voice drifted out of his soul.  "From the looks of it, the real target is your class monitor.  They won't bother too much with guarding a nameless pawn like you.  This is our chance - a chance to figure it all out!"

Indeed, the Purgers turned Chu Zhiyun into shibari.  Every part of her body that could be shackled was restrained with superstrong alloy shackles that were engraved with lightning bolts.  In between the shackles were powerful electromagnetic forces, guaranteeing that her hands and feet were locked firmly together.

As for Tang Ka, his hands were simply cuffed behind his back, but his ability to walk was not hindered at all.

It appeared that these Purgers really didn't think that much of a teenage boy like Tang Ka, treating him as a "bonus" for hunting down Chi Zhiyun.

Tang Ka acted like a timid and spineless person, "scared" into forgetting to resist and vigorously shedding tears: "What's going on, what exactly is going on?  I don't know anything, let me go, I, I don't know anything!"

The iron-masked Purgers naturally turned a deaf ear to his struggling and crying and escorted him and the class monitor onto a shuttle.

Little Tiantian was taken away and brought on board a different shuttle.

Tang Ka's eyes almost burst, but Li Yao calmed him - to them, Tiantian was only a piece of "equipment".  Nothing would happen to her for the time being, and Li Yao had his ways to rescue her later.

This way, the two "escapees" were captured together and brought in a shuttle to the floating fortress.

In midair, Tang Ka with effort brought his head to the window and looked down.  In the city, he could see burning fires and smoke, with faint signs of people escaping and resisting.  Just a moment later, hundreds of flying shuttles took off one after another, flying together with them to the floating fortress.

It seemed that "Old Yao" was correct. The "ultimate test" was over and the "Children of Holy Light" would all be tied up and kidnapped to the floating fortress, without exception.

"Who... are we?" Tang Ka silently thought.

The closer they got to the floating fortress, the more they could see the majestic size of the steel city.  It was like a man-made celestial body that had swallowed the sky.  Even the shuttle bay entrance was like a wild beast opening its mouth, swallowing dozens of flying shuttles in one bite.

Tang Ka and Chi Zhiyun were swept together with a few dozen of their ignorant classmates, under the escort of a squad of Purgers, through the long and narrow corridors.

A moment later, the hatch in front of them opened.  Inside was a room that was as spacious as a palace and a valley.  The clear pipe they walked through was like a suspension bridge over a canyon, and on the cliffs on either side there were many clear prison cells like enormous honeycombs!

Not just the eliminated students in this round of the "ultimate test", but all the previous years of failed students were imprisoned here!

Some students had blank looks on their faces, sitting upright on their metal cots, eyes unfocused, confusedly watching things that didn't exist in the air, like fossils that had been dead for millions of years.

Some students anxiously paced back and forth, occasionally pounding on the transparent cell walls in front of them until blood ran down the walls and their hands were smashed into bloody meat before they were content to sit down again, mouths murmuring incessantly, like wild beasts wearing human skin.

Some students were wearing huge helmets covered with colourful indicator lights and many crystal wires leading into the wall.  The helmets seemed to be transmitting powerful current and spiritual waves, causing them unspeakable suffering and making them give out shrieks like a dying person.  However, their hands and feet were shackled or even their joints directly shattered, preventing them from ending their own lives.

Some students were shut in tiny sleeping pods, surrounded with light green or pink liquid, seeming to be immersed in various nightmares or fantasies, sometimes twitching or struggling or laughing at whatever they were seeing and experiencing in their dreams.

The creepiest part was the few dozen cells at the bottom of the "cliff".

These cells didn't have any people in them, but were filled with delicate instruments and a maze of pipes.  The pipes were carrying various suspicious chemicals in an endless flow, finally collecting in many round glass jars.

They thought the jars were empty, but upon squinting, they realised that every jar contained a floating brain.

Some of the brains were even still connected to a spinal cord, looking fresh and intact.

Some other brains had many parts surgically removed, leaving behind only the core brain tissue, looking like a deformed apple.  Those seemed to have had been here for many years.

All of the brains without exception were connected into thousands of crystal wires, giving them stimulation.  In response, the brains were twitching slightly and reacting.

These brains were alive!

Or rather, the owners of these brains, on some level, were still alive!

"What, what does this mean?"

"Could it be that someday we will become like these fellow students?  After experiencing various brutal experiments, even our bodies will be removed to leave just a brain in a jar for further research?  At that point - are we even alive?"

"We are the "Children of Light"!  We are the most faithful believers in the gods and the Ultimate Benevolence Masters and the blood of glory and holiness flows in our veins.  Why must they treat us this way?"

All of the "Children of Light"'s indifferent facades were breaking.  They openly expressed their horror and despair, and some of them started to sob softly.

Tang Ka and Chu Zhiyun, staring hard, looked at more of the cells to gather more useful knowledge.

They were finally through the horrifying transparent pipe, entering a room whose floor, walls, and ceiling were all cream-coloured and occasionally glowing with holy light.

The seemingly gentle pure white light was actually a form of poison that could erode the heart.  It soaked into every one of the "Children of Light"'s skin and pores, eroding their spirits and their nerves, giving them the feeling of being seen through.

The "Children of Light" looked at each other in dismay, shivered, and wanted to cry.

Some of them were grinding their teeth, ready to fight like a cornered beast but not knowing how to start.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

In this crowd of frightened and disoriented teenagers, the cream-coloured holy light rays condensed into three hazy figures.

The three people were all different in height, weight and sex, but all of them had an identical fake smile, making it hard to tell the difference between them.  They could only be identified by the colour of their uniforms.

The one in white was the dean of the Holy Light Academy, Xia Yuren.

The one in black, wearing a blood-stained battle emblem on his chest, was the commander of this squad of Purgers, Qiu Yuanjia.

In between them, the unidentified middle-aged woman with seemingly the highest status, wearing grey, was Tiantian's mother, Xu Xiulan!