The Trembling World

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"Good job! Come with me, De Cheng. Let\'s go take a walk to our laboratory. In addition, we will escort Lin Shi Ya\'s father and the other mind-controlled puppets to the laboratory. Maybe Jin Yuan will have a way to help dispel the parasites living on their souls. The idea situation would be if they revive their consciousness and we can get some intel from them," Liu Gan explained.

"Okay, I will arrange for that to happen," Wang De Cheng nodded and stood up from his seat.

Wang De Cheng was off to handle this matter with the uniformed soldiers, while Liu Gan called for Cai Hao Chen.

"Hao Chen, there is a very important matter that I need you to personally handle…" Liu Gan whispered the task into his ear.

"Okay, my lord, I will do as asked. Please be assured that I will do it properly!" Cai Hao Chen promised.

"Presently, we have a lot of villagers that the enemy has abducted. They might become hostages. We lack information on them. We don\'t even know where their base is, nor do we know their tactics. They are in the shadow, while we are in the light. We came back too late, so we can only passively wait for them to make the first move," Liu Gan frowned.

"Is our opponent strong?" Cai Hao Chen asked.

"Yes, this upcoming battle will be a fierce fight. Presently, our situation isn\'t too optimistic. That is why I need you to do that task for me. Our success depends on you carrying out that task," Liu Gan stated grimly.

"I understand!" Cai Hao Chen nodded several times.

"This matter is only between us two. No one else needs to know. Inside the Village, there might be spies in the mix. Even if only a small portion of them have betrayed us, that is enough to ruin our plan. So make sure your actions are of the utmost secrecy." Liu Gan reminded Cai Hao Chen.

***

After returning to the village, Liu Gan could easily tell that Cao Yi was just a clown. He was ust a pawn for some organization. Nothing important would be conveyed to a pawn like him.

The enemy organization was very powerful. They had knowledge of advanced soul technology at their disposal. To request so many villagers at once, must mean that they were planning something for some time. Liu Gan\'s actions today had disrupted their plans temporarily. In the end, Cao Yi was a disposable pawn, so losing him wasn\'t a huge hindrance to the organization\'s plan.

With a pawn at level 14, and all the other uniformed puppets at level 12, meant that the organization leader would be above level 15. The strangest request was that they had demanded the battalions killing off the zombies. That was the first clue, revealing the secret behind the organization\'s plan.

Liu Gan had to make an all-out effort if he wanted to break through this situation. He had a few things has to worry about. First, he had to stop the enemy organization\'s plan. Then, he had to rescue Zhang Sheng Li and other villagers. Also, he had to find out the reason for their actions. Their purpose as an organization on this island would be an obstacle to the Village\'s prosperity.

Originally Liu Gan thought that he could relax for a little while after beating the dungeon instance. He even had time to ponder whether or not to use the Spatial Transfer Gate.

He set the issue with Spatial Transfer Gate to the back of his mind, until he had free time.

***

Safely escorting Lin Feng and other prisoners to the laboratory, Liu Gan ordered a comprehensive examination on their bodies. It didn\'t take long for the lab results to come back positive for their souls being abnormal. The diagnosis indicated their bodies were housing another parasitic energy, but it was still undetermined if the energy was hostile in nature. The best course of action was to avoid contact.

Jiang Jin Yuan and Gao Sun examined Wang De Cheng closely. Once they were able to confirm that Wang De Cheng hadn\'t been infected by that parasitic energy, they had to get checked themselves. It was a simple precaution to ease everyone else\'s mind when working together.

There was too little information to determine what technology or skill was used to control souls like puppets. As the saying went, better safe than sorry.

"The energies stationed in their bodies are very peculiar. It seems that the puppet master can control their bodies through the energy as a medium. Once the energy has fused with the existing soul, it isn\'t easy to split it. We would need large quantity of test subjects to experiment o" Jiang Jin Yuan explained to Liu Gan.

"As long as you protect that person, then you can use the rest as test subjects," Liu Gan pointed at Lin Feng. Liu Gan was very impressed with Lin Feng\'s willpower. Lin Feng had entered the game willingly, knowing that dying was very likely, just to search for his daughter.

"Alright, I will do my best to save him," Jiang Jin Yuan nodded.

"Oh! Also, find out as much as you can about the parasitic energy. It is possible that Sheng Li and the others have been turned into puppets. Once I rescue them, I would need you to reverse the process with their souls!" Liu Gan finished grimly.

"Relax, Lord Liu ! I will pause every project at hand and get all our personnel on this project! We will find you the solution!" Jiang Jin Yuan promised Liu Gan.

For the past these two months, the scientists had obtained and analyzed data related to souls. However, the situation with the uniformed puppets, was a completely different research topic. With the advanced equipment at his disposal and his brilliant mind, Jiang Jin Yuan believed that he could tackle the problems head-on.

***

"I warn you to release me. When my Teacher comes, he will kill you all!" Cao Yi refused to submit to the torturer and kept up with the threats, even through the pain of being beaten.

"Who is your Teacher? Where is he? What level is he? Tell me now so I can feel scared! Idiot!" Wang De Cheng kept on with the verbal abuse. It was all mind games now.

It wasn\'t in Wang De Cheng\'s personality to be vulgar, but against villains like Cao Yi, it was hard to contain his anger.

"You better release me, otherwise you will regret later on!" Cao Yi continued to maintain his earlier attitude. Even now, he would let loose any more information.

"With his type of IQ, it is hard to get anything useful from him. We might be asking him for an answer he might not even know," Wang De Cheng helplessly replied back to Liu Gan.

"Then continue on with the torture. If you can\'t find any more answers, then no need to continue with the farce. Just kill him when you see fit." Liu Gan pretended that he had lost interest.