Chapter 53 : 53 Bai Qilan
"The supplies are in the nanny's room on the first floor to the left, if you want the supplies, you can take them..."
"I ask, you answer, and if you cooperate, we won't hurt you."
Su Han interrupted the woman in white, as the Four-armed Corpse brought two other corpses to stand beside him, his tall stature, strong arms, and the Black Armor clinging to his skin caused a flicker of unusual light in the woman's eyes.
She nodded and said, "I understand."
"Name, identity, and profession."
Su Han made no excessive movements, and the actions of the Four-armed Corpse were merely limited to controlling the fish-scale corpses, without further assaulting the two envoys, which made them slightly relax.
"Bai Qilan, Vice President of Bai Yujing Biotechnologies Group, PhD in Biology, in charge of R&D."
Su Han paused for a moment and involuntarily frowned. He was familiar with Bai Yujing Biotechnologies - a major group in South City, leading in biopharmaceuticals and R&D. Many of his excellent classmates had joined this company during campus recruitment.
But the woman in front of him was only about twenty-six or twenty-seven years old and already a vice president, which seemed somewhat unusual.
"What is your relationship with Bai Yujing?"
"Family business," Bai Qilan did not avoid this question. "I think there was a misunderstanding just now. How about we talk after you release us? If the supplies here aren't enough, I can provide the location of some Bai Yujing medical supply warehouses."
In the post-apocalyptic world, food, medicine, and weapons are the most critical resources.
Of course, now that everyone could contract with Envoys, weapons might lose their status, but the former two would not easily fall from grace.
This was a significant bargaining chip.
However, Su Han was unmoved and continued to ask, "And you?"
He pointed at the woman in black, his expression unchanged, unreadable.
"Ye Kailing, Zhongnan Security Company, Level One Security Officer, Miss Bai's bodyguard."
Ye Kailing's reply was concise, her voice clear and direct, her gaze steadily fixed on Su Han, showing no signs of fear.
Su Han waved his hand, and the two fish-scale corpses controlled by the Four-armed Corpse fell to the ground with a muffled thud.
They struggled to stand up, but neither Bai Qilan nor Ye Kailing made any attempt to control them to act out of line.
Su Han said, "The control just now was to avoid accidents, don't misunderstand."
Bai Qilan nodded, and although Su Han was quite rude, she understood the rationale behind the action, whether it was Su Han or herself, opting to act first.
It wasn't to kill, but to protect their own safety.
The Great Orbs had descended more than ten days ago, and nobody knew what the order had turned into or what the survivors were like over those days.
Knocking, asking, and slowly extending goodwill might sometimes expose one's vulnerabilities to others.
Control, ensure safety, and then deal with it — that was the most direct approach.
It could be said to be a kind of forest law of the dark.
Under the cover of fog, every survivor had become a hidden island.
Su Han released the two corpses, showing his goodwill, and then he stared at Bai Qilan, his gaze intense, "The Half-Fish Monster in the lake was caught by you, right? I want to know about the connection between your corpses and it."
"Half-Fish Monster?" Bai Qilan paused for a moment, surprised as she looked at Su Han, then said, "Good name, it fits their abnormal development stage well."
Abnormal development stage?
Su Han stared at Bai Qilan, the woman seeming to have a substantial understanding of the Half-Fish Monster: "Continue."
"I injected extracts of blood and spinal fluid from the Fish-Head Monster, which you refer to as the Half-Fish Monster, into the body of an Angel Envoy to experiment, and induced a certain degree of mutation, advancing it to First-level Intermediate,"
Bai Qilan seemed to have no intention of hiding anything; confidence shone in her eyes, as she knew that this information would safeguard her more effectively than her identity and the medicinal store could.
Su Han's eyes narrowed as he questioned, "You've discovered a method for evolving an Angel Envoy?"
Bai Qilan shook her head, "Not at all, it was merely a fluke; I made use of their uniqueness, and a slight change occurred."
She looked toward Su Han and asked softly, "Can we sit down in the living room and talk this over properly? I feel that you didn't come here for supplies."
Bai Qilan wanted to take control of the conversation; she acutely felt that Su Han and his group were not particularly desperate for supplies, and even the two women were not the focus of much attention.
This oversight, in a way, was good news; the opposition valued efficacy more.
Su Han nodded, "Lead the way."
Bai Qilan's actions, as well as her identity, warranted his display of goodwill.
The group moved to the living room; without tea, they sat facing each other, with the corpses standing on either side, though the atmosphere was not as tense as at the beginning.
"The things mentioned earlier, are all part of your research?"
"Not really research, it's more observation and summarization," she replied slowly.
Bai Qilan continued, "The advent of that eyeball changed many things. Most of my biological knowledge is now useless. I've had to try and reobserve and summarize the laws... then survive. Sister Kailing and I were fortunate to neither turn into monsters, and we also discovered the Half-Fish Monster."
"What did you discover?"
Su Han suddenly became curious and couldn't help but feel an urgency brewing within him, eager to find out how much Bai Qilan knew about those monsters.
Although he could merge and become stronger, the origin of the Angel Envoys and monsters still should be identified.
Only with understanding could safety and reliability be enhanced.
"The cells of the monsters are unusually active, with an unknown factor causing continuous mutation or, one might say, evolution."
"What factor?"
Bai Qilan paused, then shook her head, "I don't know. I'm just a PhD, not a top scholar like Bai Qiuwen. Besides, my home lacks the equipment to find out more, managing to induce change in the corpses was already a fluke. Though, if I had to guess, I suspect it to be some form of energy, unleashed by that red light erupting from the eyeball creature, injecting a different energy into our world."
"Biological evolution could not occur so rapidly, nor could an ecosystem's formation and refinement, but take the Half-Fish Monster, do you know what it originally was?"
Bai Qilan paused again, and said earnestly, "It was a carp, placed in Yunling Lake by the property managers, but in a short time, it transformed into this form; it's merely one stage of evolution. That lake now houses various fish monsters, including a commanding monster larger than the others, forming a breeding community."
How long does it take for humans to evolve from monkeys to the terrifying form of upright apes?
Tens to hundreds of millions of years.
Yet, the carp in Yunling Lake evolved into these fish monsters, possessing great abilities and instinctual intelligence, within how long?
A mere few days.
Isn't that terrifying?
Bai Qilan calmed down slightly before continuing, "I experimented utilizing their highly mutable cells, which is what caused the Angel Envoy's transformation, but that's as far as it could go, simple extraction of energy isn't enough to continue the experimentation."
"Wait a minute, beautiful, you said the lake holds not only this, this Half-Fish Monster, but also numerous others and a monster boss?"
Zhu Xiong's eyes widened as he looked at Bai Qilan, his expression somewhat painful.
"Yes,"
Bai Qilan nodded firmly, "While fetching water, we accidentally encountered them. Fortunately, they didn't notice the two of us. I am certain they exist in at least three forms: the Half-Fish Monster, a humanoid fish monster with limbs, and the leader, not smaller than his envoys."