Tomb raider: You're going to extract my alien bloodline?

Chapter 46 Bronze Gate

After walking for an unknown amount of time, the view suddenly opened up ahead. Qin Yuan took a step forward, and his feet were on a hard, flat stone ground.

Before them stood a massive, almost towering bronze object.

The Heavenly Palace on the Clouds, with its bronze gate.

Although I already knew of its existence from the original work and system data, the shock of witnessing it in person still far exceeded any imagination.

It stands silently in the center of the enormous hollow inside the mountain, as if it has been there since time immemorial. Looking up, one's neck almost breaks, yet it is still difficult to see its top, which is hidden in the endless darkness above.

The colossal gate possessed a bronze hue that seemed to have endured countless ages, not the warm, green patina of museum pieces, but a matte texture as if it had absorbed all light and sound. It was covered with incomprehensible, enormous patterns and reliefs, their outlines only blurred due to the distance and lighting. The massive doorway was tightly sealed, so perfectly that even the thinnest blade would likely be unable to penetrate it.

Qin Yuan stood there, as insignificant as a speck of dust. His blood surged slightly through his chest. The system interface flickered silently in the corner of his vision, the energy reading rapidly increasing.

This is the entrance to the ultimate destination, the secret guarded by the Zhang family for generations, the power the Wang family tries to control, the truth that Wu Xie and his friends are risking their lives to pursue, and the ultimate goal of their system mission.

"High concentration of 'ultimate' body energy radiation detected. Target coordinates confirmed." The system's cold electronic voice rang in my mind.

Qin Yuan took a deep breath, the icy air piercing his lungs and making him even more alert. He hadn't forgotten that this door wasn't without danger. The human-faced birds perched above, and the monkeys that lived in their mouths, were the first line of defense for the bronze door.

He looked up at the deep darkness above the door, glancing past the massive chains connecting the stone platforms. He could vaguely make out some huge, grotesque silhouettes hanging upside down, motionless, as if they were one with the rock. But the heat emanating from them was unmistakable under the system's scan.

"Quite a quantity..." Qin Yuan mentally calculated, then glanced at a specially made metal box in the system space. Inside were nearly a hundred vials of alien serum generated and stored by the system every day during this period. He hadn't expected it to be time to use them so soon.

A plan quickly took shape in his mind.

Following Chen Pi Asi and the original route, Wu Xie and his companions would likely need another two to three days to reach this location. The Xenomorphs, however, only require a few hours from serum injection to hatching and reaching maturity. Unfortunately, mature Xenomorphs have a lifespan of only three days. But if the timing is carefully managed, allowing the larvae to remain dormant until the third day, the balance of power will shift, and Wu Xie and his group will likely avoid a dire situation.

Looking at these human-faced birds, and using them as initial hosts, I wonder if some interesting variants can be spawned.

Qin Yuan's eyes turned slightly cold. He needed some reliable helpers, not for a direct attack on the Bronze Gate, but to create chaos at crucial moments and thwart any potential interference. After all, judging from the current situation, he had already encountered many dangers not mentioned in the book, not to mention the unknown situation behind the Bronze Gate. He had to have some backup plans.

Using the shadows cast by the rocks and the thermal images provided by the system, Qin Yuan evaded the watchful eyes of the guardian birds and silently approached an area densely covered with inverted stalactites at the lower edge of the bronze gate. Directly above this area, six or seven relatively small, seemingly human-faced birds were perched, appearing to be on the edge of the colony.

Qin Yuan stared at his prey above, his fingertips extending into sharp, black blades, while his pupils contracted slightly, like a weightless shadow climbing up the rock wall.

The next half day was the sowing time. Whenever Qin Yuan locked onto a sleeping human-faced bird, he would sneak up and inject a vial of alien serum into the vicinity of its chest cavity.

Strangely enough, perhaps the system had been tampered with, adding a strong anesthetic to the needle site, because not a single human-faced bird was awakened by the needle. The entire process was silent, and even the neighbors nearby were not disturbed.

Unfortunately, Qin Yuan overestimated himself. Of the nearly one hundred vials of serum in his space, he hadn't even used half of them, let alone finished them. He had to stop his alien breeding plan after using just a third of them.

It wasn't that he didn't want to continue, but the remaining human-faced birds were too concentrated, and he wasn't confident he could inject them without disturbing those around him.

But that's enough: thirty-two vials of serum, thirty-two chosen hosts.

After completing the sowing, Qin Yuan retreated to a secluded rocky hollow, away from the front of the bronze gate and close to the entrance he had come from, and ordered the embryos to go into hibernation, to awaken in two days. This way, by the time Wu Xie and the others arrived, they would be almost fully developed.

With the arrangements complete, Qin Yuan once again turned his gaze to the colossal bronze gate, which resembled a divine miracle. Now, it was time to truly confront it.

According to the book, opening this door requires the Ghost Seal as a specific token, but he neither has it nor needs it.

What he possesses is the key itself, the highest-level anti-cheat program left behind by the ultimate civilization.

Qin Yuan walked towards the massive bronze gate and stopped about ten meters away from it. At this distance, he could more clearly feel the energy radiation emanating from the gate, making his blood boil slightly.

"System," he murmured to himself, "find a way to open the door."

[Command confirmed, activating key... Connecting process...]

The system interface changed drastically in Qin Yuan's vision, with countless complex data streams and meaningless symbols cascading down like a waterfall. He could feel that the system, aided by the power within his body, resonated in a special way, transforming into an invisible "identification code" that was slowly projected onto the cold, bronze giant door.

A moment of silence.

Suddenly, the deep humming sound emanating from the bronze gate intensified significantly. Several of the huge, indistinct patterns on the gate began to slowly flow with a dim, dark green light, all pointing towards the center of the crack in the gate.

[Access verified, connection established, 'Ultimate' external maintenance channel open... Warning: High-intensity bio-energy reaction and defensive automated system detected within the portal. Please strictly follow system instructions after entry to avoid triggering the full-scale defense mechanism.]

"Click...creak..."

A heavy, bone-crushing sound came from deep within the crack in the door. The once perfectly sealed bronze door, right before Qin Yuan's eyes, slowly slid open a crack from the inside out, accompanied by a cloud of dust.

It was just a crack, yet it was several meters wide. What flowed out of it was no longer the void of darkness, but a pale, cold, faint light that seemed to have condensed countless moments of time. It was also mixed with an indescribable, strange aura, as if the decay and rebirth of countless lives had coexisted.

Behind the gate lies the core of the Heavenly Palace on the Clouds, a sacred place that those seeking immortality flock to, and also the location of the system's objective.

Qin Yuan glanced back one last time at the empty space behind him, where his most loyal subordinates lay buried.

Then, without further hesitation, he took out a Tang sword that he had ordered online and sharpened himself, and stepped into the dim light alone.

His figure was quickly swallowed up by the light behind the door.

The heavy bronze door closed again after he had fully entered, leaving only darkness and silence outside.