After signing in, Qi Yuan took the elevator down to the ninth floor.
As soon as he stepped out of the elevator, Qi Yuan felt a strong smell of blood. Qi Yuan took a closer look and saw a butcher with a blood-stained machete standing outside the elevator, staring at him.
The butcher in front of him was bald, and there seemed to be a bloody light surging in the depths of his eyes. His upper body was naked, revealing a chest full of black hair and a round belly. There were many dried blood scabs on his body, but it was unknown whether it was his own blood or the blood of the prisoners.
The butcher's lower body was wearing a pair of dark loose trousers that emitted a sour smell mixed with the smell of blood.
The most eye-catching thing was the knife in his hand that was still dripping with blood. It was somewhat similar to a butcher's knife, but the handle was not in the butcher's hand. Instead, it replaced his right hand and was directly embedded in his right wrist.
Qi Yuan felt a heart-palpitating aura from this knife, just like when he was facing the Dance of Death.
This knife was actually a completely activated mutated energy weapon!
A prison guard actually had such a powerful mutated energy weapon!
"You're Qi Yuan!" The butcher tried to squeeze out a smile.
However, coupled with his fierce-looking face, it made his smile appear somewhat sinister.
Qi Yuan nodded.
"I'm Qi Yuan."
The butcher sized up Qi Yuan and finally locked his gaze on the energy heart.
"Qingqing told me that the Dance of Death was completely activated by you. I thought she was lying to me, but now it seems that you really can do it."
Qi Yuan looked inwardly at Blazing Angel. How did you get discovered again?!
Blazing Angel felt wronged. This has nothing to do with me. You're too weak!
Qi Yuan was surprised by the butcher's strength and was also curious about his identity. The Qingqing he mentioned must be Fu Qingqing.
Since he called Fu Qingqing "Qingqing" and Fu Qingqing had told him about the Dance of Death, it proved that the two of them were very close.
However, one of them was Mo Sheng's only student, while the other was a prison guard on the ninth floor. No matter how one looked at it, they shouldn't be related.
"Come with me."
Butcher said as he walked.
"Although the prisoners on this floor are all living creatures of flesh and blood, they are all bloodthirsty monsters. There were once a few researchers who accidentally died in the process of sampling."
"However, you don't have to worry. Since you helped Qing Qing, you are my friend. As long as you don't seek death, I will definitely send you out in one piece!"
What do you mean I'm courting death?
What did he mean by giving it away in one piece?
Qi Yuan didn't know how to respond. He only felt that his words were full of flaws.
After walking through a corridor that was almost a hundred meters long, the two of them quickly stepped into the prison area.
Unlike the twelfth floor's prison that was filled with technology, this floor's prison was filled with hemispherical colored energy shields that were scattered all over the place.
The ground was also not the silver-gray color of the twelfth floor that had a metallic texture. Instead, it was some kind of special rock.
The ground was greenish-black. It was unknown whether it was the original color of the ground or the color that was stained by dried blood.
Qi Yuan looked around and realized that the number of prisoners on this floor seemed to be much more than the twelfth floor. There were more than two hundred of them.
The energy shields that imprisoned the prisoners were translucent. Although they blocked the area from observation, they didn't completely block vision.
Through the energy shields, Qi Yuan could roughly see the appearance of the prisoners inside.
There were humans, Bug Beasts, Polluted Beasts, and some strange life forms that he couldn't identify.
Although the prisoners inside looked weak and powerless, Qi Yuan knew that it was just a facade. The life forms that could be imprisoned here were definitely not as harmless as they looked.
Another thing that surprised Qi Yuan was that the prisoners seemed to be very afraid of the Butcher. Every time the Butcher walked past the prison, many of the prisoners' bodies would tremble uncontrollably as if they were afraid of something.
"Just tell me what you want. I'll cut it off for you!"
The Butcher said as he waved the knife in his hand that was dripping with blood. The Bug Beast next to him was so frightened that it leaned back in fear. Its wounded body accidentally touched the energy shield. The Bug Beast instantly howled in pain. The Bug Beast only had a section of its tail left when it touched the energy shield. Half of its tail immediately turned into black charcoal the moment it touched the energy shield.
Qi Yuan's heart skipped a beat. He recognized this heavily injured insectoid. It was a bloodthirsty Type 4 insectoid, and humans were one of its food sources. They mainly lived in the blue region, and would occasionally enter the grey region to hunt for hunters.
Such a powerful and ferocious Class 4 Bug Beast only touched the energy shield and half of its tail turned into charcoal.
If he accidentally touched the energy shield, with his defensive power, he would probably die instantly.
The Butcher turned his head and looked coldly at the Bug Beast. The Bug Beast's painful howls stopped abruptly. Its small eyes were filled with fear. Its body could not help but tremble, but it did not make any more sounds.
The black-robed woman was very careful every time she took a sample. She did not dare to touch the prisoners at all. The Butcher, on the other hand, could scare the prisoners into trembling.
Judging from the prisoners' reactions, the Butcher was probably the tyrant of this floor!
Qi Yuan passed by a red energy shield. Inside it was a greenish-black Bug Beast of an unknown race.
Its body was curled up into a ball like a large rock. It did not move at all.
Among all the prisoners that passed by, it was the only one that did not react to the Butcher's approach. He did not know if it was dead or alive.
Qi Yuan subconsciously looked at it again. If he did not know that this floor was filled with living creatures of flesh and blood, Qi Yuan would have thought that it was just an unremarkable rock.
Perhaps it felt Qi Yuan's gaze. The greenish-black rock that had been motionless all this time suddenly trembled. Then, cracks appeared on the surface of its body.
The cracks suddenly opened like eyes, revealing pale eyeballs without pupils. Countless pale eyeballs looked at Qi Yuan at the same time. The isolated energy shield rippled like water, as if it was disturbed by something.
Qi Yuan knew that something was wrong. He tried to close his eyes and look away.
The moment their gazes met, Qi Yuan instantly felt his thoughts being invaded. His consciousness became sluggish. He could not complete the action of closing his eyes or looking away.
Qi Yuan's eyes lost focus. He looked at the eyeballs without pupils. The skin on the surface of his body wriggled as if something was trying to crawl out of his body.
Qi Yuan no longer cared about hiding. He tried to call for help, but his sluggish mind made him unable to make any sound. He could not even call for help.
Roar!
The Blazing Angel's angry roar suddenly sounded in his mind. Qi Yuan's almost frozen thoughts became clearer.
When Qi Yuan's thoughts were invaded, the Blazing Angel felt that something was wrong. Although she was at the peak of the fourth step and could resist all kinds of energy invasions, she was helpless against non-energy invasions. She could only try to awaken Qi Yuan's consciousness by roaring continuously.
His Mechanical Intellect had been fully activated, but it was powerless against the gaze of those pale eyeballs. Under the huge difference in strength, the second step of Mechanical Intellect could only slightly slow down the speed of being controlled.
Just when Qi Yuan thought that he was about to be completely controlled, a scarlet red saber light suddenly appeared out of nowhere, practically occupying his entire field of vision.
"Roar!"
A mournful roar and a cold snort sounded at the same time. Then, Qi Yuan finally felt his stagnant thoughts slowly recover.
Qi Yuan finally regained his senses from the mind invasion. The first thing he saw was Butcher's big, fierce-looking face staring at him from a close distance.
Qi Yuan almost jumped in fright.
"You actually survived!" Butcher clicked his tongue in wonder as he looked at Qi Yuan, seemingly surprised.
Qi Yuan ignored the Butcher's question. Suppressing the shock in his heart, he asked with lingering fear, "What is this thing?"
"I don't know what it is either, but I usually call it the Eye Devil. Its strength should be at the sixth step." The Butcher said.
Sixth step!
A peak existence that crushed him by three major ranks!
The Eye Devil within the energy shield had already closed all of its eyes, turning back into a greenish-black stone. It looked the same as before, without any changes.
However, Qi Yuan could vaguely see that on the surface of its stone-like skin, there was a faint crack that almost split it in half.
Was that the Butcher's attack?
It didn't even close its energy shield, so how did the Butcher's attack hit it?
Qi Yuan was silent for a few seconds, then raised his right hand and looked at it. There were many cracks on his arm, similar to when the Eye Devil opened its eyes. Some of the cracks were already open, and he could even see the pale eyeballs inside.
Using the area detection, Qi Yuan could clearly feel that there were many such cracks on his body. If the Butcher's rescue had been a few seconds later, when all of these eyes opened, his consciousness would have been completely wiped out.
"This Eye Demon is a monster from the black zone. It has been imprisoned here for four years. In these four years, it only opened its eyes to Mo Sheng once. After that, it was beaten half to death. After that, it became obedient. I didn't expect it to attack you!"
Butcher rubbed his hands, clearly apologetic for his carelessness. He had just said that he would send Qi Yuan out in one piece, but in the blink of an eye, Qi Yuan was ambushed by Eye Demon and almost lost his life. This made him feel somewhat embarrassed.
"Um …" The Butcher hesitated, then said, "I will help you make an energy weapon. Can you not tell Qing Qing about this?"
Qi Yuan looked at the Butcher with surprise. The Butcher was able to make the Eye Devil shut down with one strike, which meant he was very strong. He didn't expect the Butcher to care so much about Fu Qingqing, who had come to God's Sanctuary from the wild.
Qi Yuan was curious about the relationship between the two, but since the Butcher didn't say anything, Qi Yuan didn't want to ask. He just nodded.
"Don't worry, I will keep this a secret.
As for the energy weapon, I won't need it for now. I'm only tier 3, so I can't use it. "
Although freeloading was a virtue, freeloading with a stranger who was much stronger than himself wasn't a smart choice.
The Butcher smiled with satisfaction. He patted his thick chest, which was covered with black hair, and said, "You can resist Eye Devil.
"Since you can resist the Eye Devil's corrosion, you shouldn't have any problems advancing to Tier 4. Once you reach Tier 4, you can come look for me again. There are enough prisoners here. Kill a few more and you'll be able to get a Mutated Energy Weapon!"
Qi Yuan smiled and didn't say anything. The process of making an energy weapon wasn't complicated. The reason it was difficult was because it required a lot of flesh and blood, as well as all sorts of rare materials. The success rate of making an energy weapon was also low.
When one's luck was bad, one could fail multiple times in a row. Even if one was a powerhouse with a rich family background, it was possible for them to be emptied.
Although there were many flesh and blood creatures in the prison, there weren't any rare materials. So even if the Butcher wanted to make an energy weapon, it wouldn't be easy.
The Butcher glanced at the half-opened eyes on Qi Yuan's hand and hesitated.
"Those are the remnants of the energy left behind by the Eye Devil. It might be a little troublesome, but that little guy should be able to clean it up for you."
Qi Yuan nodded. He knew that the little guy he was talking about was the Blazing Angel.
However, Qi Yuan didn't use the Blazing Angel. Instead, he tried activating [Steel Regeneration] and found that it could also clean up the eyes on his body, but at a slower speed.
After all, it was the remnant energy left behind by a tier 6 creature. The fact that the tier 2 [Steel Regeneration] could heal it was already powerful enough.
Slowly, Qi Yuan arrived at the checkpoint. However, the prisoners in front of him made things difficult for Qi Yuan.
The prisoners in front of him were of normal size. Most of them were even smaller. There were very few monsters with large bodies.
However, the monster in front of him that overlapped with the checkpoint was a big tree.
Although there were obvious signs of cutting at the top of its branches, making it less than three meters tall, its branches stretched out like willow branches and occupied a large space with a diameter of nearly twenty meters.
This was the largest prisoner Qi Yuan had seen since entering the ninth floor. There was no energy barrier around it, only a few arm-thick black metal rods that pierced through the entire tree trunk.
The dark red willow branches danced gently. The palm-sized leaves were scattered around, looking withered. However, there wasn't a single leaf in the surroundings.
Qi Yuan asked since he didn't understand.
"What's this thing?"
"You can call it the Tree of Annihilation or Annihilation Flesh," the Butcher said.
"It looks like a plant, but its body doesn't have the structure of a plant. It strengthens itself by devouring flesh and blood. There's a strange existence between flesh and energy flowing in its body. It has a very strong annihilation power."
"Its strength is barely at the peak of tier 4."
Peak of tier 4!
After pondering for a moment, Qi Yuan asked, "I want to take a sample from it personally. Is there a way to make it quieter?"
The Butcher thought for a moment and nodded.
Then, Qi Yuan saw the Butcher holding the machete in his hand and casually walking to the side of the Tree of Annihilation. Then, he stabbed the machete into its trunk.
Qi Yuan felt his heart twitch. Even if the machete didn't stab him, he vaguely felt the same way.
After the Butcher's machete was inserted, the Tree of Annihilation trembled violently. The dark red willow branches danced as if it wanted to retaliate. However, as the Butcher forcefully stirred the machete, all the dancing willow branches drooped down weakly. Not a single one dared to land on the Butcher's body.
"Okay, you can take a sample!" the Butcher said.
Qi Yuan's mouth fell open. He couldn't say a word for a long time.