Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 676: Chapter 453 Statue Plan (5,000-Word Chapter)_3

Even Xu Xin and Ji Chaoyang, who had long been in contact with the underground world and had various speculations, fell into silence, their minds rapidly integrating previous information.

”...So, the statue creatures are also part of this plan,” Xu Xin said.

”That’s right,” Chang Yin nodded.

”After decades of effort, they gained nothing, but they didn’t want to give up such powerful beast samples. So... they decided to take a different approach. They set their sights on me, and... the statue creatures.”

Chang Yin’s words became slightly heavy.

”They discovered me a long time ago and found that I had the ability to petrify living things while keeping them alive. Then they deceived our family, tricking us into this underground world to fulfill their plan.”

”A plan? What plan?” Wang Lei asked, his face full of confusion and bewilderment.

To someone like him, who had never heard of the underground world before this event, the amount of information was simply too overwhelming to digest for the moment.

”If the blood-marked mutant beasts can’t be controlled, then simply petrify them and control them after petrification. Because their Spiritual Power will be greatly weakened once petrified,” Chang Yin explained.

He opened his hand, glanced at his palm, then clenched his fist, looking at Xu Xin: ”Do you know why, when you first met us, we were unconscious and unable to act?”

”...Needed to recover Spiritual Power?” Xu Xin guessed, gently patting Keke’s head, who was asleep on his lap.

”Exactly,” Chang Yin nodded, ”If we don’t fall into long-term hibernation and continuously wake up, our Spiritual Power is very weak.”

”Then are you now...” Xu Xin’s brow furrowed slightly.

”My Spiritual Power now is much weaker than before,” Chang Yin said somewhat wearily, ”If this continues, perhaps they could completely control me.”

Is that really the case...

No wonder, no wonder he always gave Xu Xin a somewhat fatigued feeling.

Turns out his Spiritual Power has greatly weakened.

”This is the plan they carried out based on my ability.”

Chang Yin looked at the people around him: ”The underground prison you explored today is actually my... laboratory. Technically, I’m the warden there, but...”

He gave a slight bitter smile, ”However, there’s no real power at all, just like how I had to sneakily bring you out from there.”

”Then... did you just help them with the experiments?” Zhao Xiaochuan asked in surprise, ”Didn’t you resist?”

”Resist? Ha...” A sound of rocks grinding came from Chang Yin’s mouth, obviously gritting his teeth, ”If it were just me, I wouldn’t care, but they imprisoned Xue Lan and Xiaohong, threatening me with their lives, what else could I do?”

The people around were silent.

Xu Xin fell into slight contemplation.

Chang Yin had told him before that he used to be a human of this world, an indigenous resident.

Only later, after the first batch of survivors entered his dungeon, did he have some unpleasant encounters with them, which led to his current state.

As for details, he didn’t elaborate back then. However, Xu Xin still remembered his extremely hateful expression at the time.

So... how did their family become statues?

His petrification wasn’t due to the Blood Pattern Race?

On the contrary, his ability was coveted by the Blood Pattern Race?

In other words, petrification is another power, aside from the beast bloodline and blood-marked mutation?

Where did it come from?

And, the stone altar in the Hilly Resource Zone with mutant creature statues...

Is it related to Chang Yin’s stone statue ability?

Who is the deity worshipped at the altar?

This situation seems rather chaotic.

Xu Xin opened his mouth, finally sighing: ”I didn’t expect you to be such an important role in the Blood Pattern Race’s plan.”

Chang Yin took a moment to calm down, then shook his head with a bitter smile: ”Not that important. Perhaps the part of the plan I’m responsible for is just a small and dispensable effort to keep trying, because... this plan’s pilot, so far, seems to be only here.”

He pointed in the direction of the prison, then smiled somewhat helplessly: ”But, you guys are really lucky to have landed at this spot.”

”The underground prison where we conduct experiments was connected to the supply device above through vines, for energy extraction. But then your activities above suddenly changed the terrain, raising the device to ground level.”

He shook his head: ”At that time, this prison almost couldn’t suppress the giant beast below.”

”Wait, what’s up with the layers of statues in the Transmission Array?” Wen Guixin asked, ”You just mentioned you can control those statues at night, right?”

”Those statues atop the snowy mountain are actually the first batch of petrified experimental creatures,” Chang Yin explained.

”At first, they didn’t let me handle the giant beast, but instead petrified ordinary creatures, low-grade, mid-grade, and high-grade normal mutant creatures. Maybe they wanted to see if petrification weakened or enhanced the creatures’ power.”

”As for why the first batch of specimens went to the surface, I don’t know either. They were taken away by a group of furry blood-marked monkeys after being petrified.”

Chang Yin showed evident discontent towards the furry creatures, his tone a bit heavier when mentioning blood-marked monkeys.

However, afterwards, his stone lips curved slightly: ”But they probably didn’t expect me to make some tweaks to the statues secretly.”