The space around was pitch black and filled with a sinister and terrifying feeling.
Jia Yan shook his now sturdy six long legs, each filled with strength. Each one was as thick as a chopstick, no longer slender at the ends but covered with a layer of armor formed by clusters, protecting the vulnerable areas.
With a slight movement, the long legs seemed capable of tearing the air apart, creating a powerful gust.
A strength even Jia Yan himself couldn't estimate!
His originally slender and weak body now seemed to be covered in armor, thick and solid. The clusters of armor repeated and stacked on the surface due to numerous severe impacts, causing his physiology to instinctively lean towards defense during mutation.
The eleven sections of his abdomen seemed to have grown muscles, with tissues stacking up, making his previously weak belly now sturdy and robust.
The powerful muscles after the third mutation contracted in the abdomen. Jia Yan could feel that with a little force, the stinger at the end of his abdomen could make a sound piercing through the air, fatally stabbing the enemy.
As for that stinger, it was continuing to mutate towards perfection!
Its length reached two centimeters. With this additional length, Jia Yan's total length now reached fifteen centimeters.
The surface of the stinger, previously bitten by bats, had completely healed. Now it presented a streamlined shape, transforming from the previous somewhat unsightly segmented structure into a smoothly formed line.
Because of this smooth and streamlined form, Jia Yan could definitely pierce through even harder objects. In other words, his attack method became more intimidating due to the existence of this stinger!
Due to being interrupted by the explosion shockwave during mutation, Jia Yan's body now mainly focused on defense.
Although he possessed strength, his attacks, such as mouthparts and stingers, were not yet long enough to be considered extremely deadly weapons due to the limitation of his body size.
However, the lost attack power, due to the emphasis on toughness and condensation during mutation, gave him an incredible defensive capability!
The cell tissues seemed to condense into double the muscle tissue!
And there was the thick outer shell armor!
Jia Yan, who had always been a weak mosquito, now felt an unprecedented sense of security and confidence from these defenses!
Even in this unknown dark space, Jia Yan felt much less worried and scared!
He had indeed become powerful!
After observing his own body, Jia Yan looked up and glanced at the passage where he had fallen from.
But when he looked up, all he saw was darkness, impossible to see clearly.
"That pipe in the boiler should connect to some gap on the surface, and then I fell down along the gap, eventually ending up here..."
Jia Yan analyzed.
The most important part of the Northeast Wild Tiger Factory was the metal boiler in the second workshop.
So what was unique about the boiler?
There might be some other things added inside, but no matter how you looked at it, the most important thing should be this passage leading underground that you've kept secret from me, right?
"What secrets are here... that allow the Northeast Wild Tiger to produce the purple-red potion, and even the liquid produced by the boiler is stronger than the purple-red potion!"
Jia Yan surveyed his surroundings.
This was a dimly lit spacious cave, but some faint algae grew on the top of the cave, emitting light, giving the space a little brightness...
Jia Yan didn't recognize this type of algae!
He even felt that the oxygen content in the air here far exceeded that outside. This pure oxygen made him feel stronger even when moving.
There were too many strange things.
Fortunately, the huge fire-red centipede that had flashed before Jia Yan had given him some resistance. Now, seeing something else strange wouldn't make him feel so alarmed.
"Let's see if I can fly."
Jia Yan looked somewhat worriedly at his wings, which had also mutated and become broader.
What he called the organ comparable to human strength was actually the two wing muscles on the sides of his chest. Jia Yan certainly couldn't be sure that this part's strength had reached the level of a human, but at least that's how his wings felt to him.
Now, to fly, Jia Yan was a little worried. If the strength of his wings hadn't increased much, he wouldn't be able to fly now.
Don't be fooled by his current small size; his muscle tissue and condensed shell had increased his weight by at least five times! And with such a heavy body, it was impossible for him to fly with his previous wings.
Pat!
He flapped his wings, and Jia Yan found that the sound produced by his wings was much crisper than before.
Pat pat pat pat...
He controlled his wings and began to flap vigorously!
The flapping frequency exceeded two hundred times per second!
Humming...
The flapping frequency exceeded five hundred times per second!
Whining...
His enormous and heavy body slowly lifted off the ground!
A huge weight was lifted off Jia Yan's heart.
He could feel that the muscles controlling the flapping of his wings were not too strained yet. So he estimated that his maximum flapping frequency should be able to reach about 700 times, an improvement over before. And because his body tissues had undergone some subtle changes to adapt to aerodynamics, his top speed was definitely faster than before!
As for how fast his maximum speed was, he would have to wait for the opportunity to try and test it.
Jia Yan flapped his wings and flew towards the top.
Sure enough, there was a huge cavity about two meters in diameter above the cave!
This was obviously a naturally formed opening, probably created by underground water flow over a long period.
It was filled with large and small protruding rocks, which were the reasons for Jia Yan's body being bruised when he fell!
So, as long as he flew up through this passage, he could return to the factory!
Jia Yan flew a distance and then stopped in mid-air.
This cave was really strange. The main secret source of the Northeast Wild Tiger Factory was probably obtained from this underground cave!
Even the three buildings built by Japan on the ground were probably for this cave!
Moreover, Jia Yan had just seen that huge centipede; it really didn't seem like a natural creature!
This indicated that there might be something unusual here.
"If I don't explore now, I may not have the chance in the future. Although that huge fire-red centipede was indeed very dangerous, I can fly now, so it's not a big threat to me!"
After hesitating for a moment, Jia Yan controlled his body to turn around in the passage and returned from where he came!
He decided to explore the mysterious cave below.
Meanwhile, more than a kilometer away from the ground, the three buildings of the factory stood lonely in the vast forest.
The once bustling place was now somewhat quiet.
The roar of machines in the factory workshops had stopped, but in the two workshops, there were constant shouts and curses from the workers!
The workers were all confined within the factory by the Northeast Wild Tiger!
With the most important boiler damaged, other machines in the second workshop were also damaged to varying degrees. Combined with a series of mutations and gunshots, the workers in the factory were like frightened birds. They all demanded to resign and return home.
Northeast Wild Tiger and others couldn't suppress them and had to grit their teeth and detain all these workers!
"Boss, what are you going
to do next?"
Standing in front of his desk was a young man wearing glasses.
This fallen college student, recruited from a job fair, didn't intend to abandon his boss at this moment. This made the Northeast Wild Tiger very gratified!
"In the coming days, it should be the most difficult time since the establishment of the factory!"
"Just in case, I will call Senior Yinquan back. Let him deal with the teams sent by some not-so-friendly characters. Fortunately, I just had a phone call with a big shot, and he promised that the authorities and officials on the surface would not take any action against me temporarily, as long as I could deal with those secretly sent teams. He will soon arrange an excellent official identity for me."
The Northeast Wild Tiger pinched the bridge of his nose wearily, as if all the inexhaustible energy had been exhausted at this moment.
"That's good. As for the passage in the boiler, I don't know if you can explain it to me now? I have suspected for a long time that most of the potion formulas we produce are not very effective substances. Now it seems that the most important thing should be the boiler that you've always kept secret from me, right?"
The man with glasses asked somewhat puzzled.
The Northeast Wild Tiger looked deeply into his eyes before nodding, "That's right. This passage, according to the records of my great-grandfather, directly connects to the very deep underground. Decades ago, there were a total of more than one hundred people from eight or nine Japanese exploration teams who went down, but only two people returned. My great-grandfather didn't know the specifics of what was down there, only that after that, the formulas in my hands were matched by Japanese medical personnel. And that boiler was installed in the second workshop on the second floor that year. I didn't expect that, after so many years, it would explode."
The Northeast Wild Tiger sighed.
"So that's it. But I don't know what's underground! It's incredible that more than one hundred Japanese people went there and never returned, and that they could use that passage to create these purple-red potions. It's really unbelievable!" After being stunned for a while, the man with glasses said incredulously.
The two chatted for a while longer, and then the man with glasses bid farewell and left.
After his figure disappeared as he opened the door, the Northeast Wild Tiger's icy voice sounded.
"You won't betray me too, will you?"
The man with glasses's hand on the office door lock trembled slightly, but soon he showed a smiling expression.
"You've shown me your favor; naturally, I won't betray you!" With that, he closed the door and left...
"That's good!"
Behind the closed door, the Northeast Wild Tiger's expression was somewhat indiscernible in the dim light, giving off a cold and eerie feeling.