Ding ding ding… Xiaobai flashes in, releasing a new chapter skill (●‘◡’●)
Shangguan Liqian’s brow furrowed even tighter at the woman’s words. “What exactly is going on here? And who are you?”
“I am Ling Yin, one of the island’s Inspectors.”
Since she had decided to cooperate with them, the woman in plain clothes did not hide her identity. After a brief introduction, she let out a long sigh and began to explain the island’s situation in detail.
It turned out that since the Island of Forgotten Sorrows had retreated from the world three thousand years ago, the inhabitants had split into several factions.
The most powerful among them were the Radicals, led by the Shang family. They were numerous and ambitious, seeking to break ancient traditions and lead the islanders to dominate the world.
Next were the Conservatives, led by the Mo family. They were experts in mechanics and calculations, specializing in creating various contraptions to protect the island. Their primary goal was to maintain their isolation from the outside world.
Finally, there was the Li family, to which Ling Yin belonged. They were skilled in controlling beasts through sound. Their numbers were small, and they maintained a neutral stance, primarily responsible for maintaining order on the island.
For the past few centuries, the Radicals and Conservatives had been in constant conflict. Caught in the middle, the Li family was generally disliked by both sides but managed to maintain a level of independence.
The reason they had reached the point of seeking help from outsiders was that they had inadvertently discovered the island’s dark secrets.
Roughly two hundred years ago, members of the Shang family began bringing large numbers of young children and infants back to the island from the outside world every year. At first, the other families assumed the Shangs were simply scouting for talented disciples. Although they were displeased that the Shang family ignored the island’s commandments by bringing outsiders onto the island so flagrantly, the Shang family was powerful and overbearing. After several failed attempts by the Mo and Li families to dissuade them, the matter was eventually dropped.
However, they soon discovered that only a tiny fraction of the children brought by the Shangs ever appeared on the island or were sent back out. The vast majority simply vanished.
While the islanders, led by the Mo and Li families, were suspicious, they didn’t pay it much mind until someone accidentally stumbled into the back mountains. In a heavily guarded valley, they discovered a mass grave filled with the corpses of young children. Only then did they realize the gravity of the situation.
The children and infants brought from the outside were being kept like livestock. The Shang family was extracting blood and spinal marrow from these infants to perform various inhuman experiments. The blood of these “experimental subjects” was refined into a potion that could drastically increase one’s internal power and delay aging, extending a person’s lifespan to over a hundred and twenty years.
The Radicals, led by the Shang family, intended to use this potion to cultivate a massive army of masters and then leave the island to conquer the world.
As for the Conservatives of the Mo family, while they initially refused to leave the island, they were eventually swayed by the Shang family’s bribes. They became beneficiaries of these potions themselves, choosing to aid the villains and ignore the ongoing atrocities.
Only a few members of the Li family, led by Ling Yin’s master, retained their conscience. They believed this practice violated the laws of heaven and firmly opposed the senseless slaughter. Consequently, they became the most marginalized group on the island, possessing almost no political power.
Watching the entire Island of Forgotten Sorrows become a cesspool of corruption under the control of those who had lost their humanity, they had no choice but to lay low and wait for an opportunity.
Among the families supporting the Li family, there were many talented juniors like Ling Yin. Some would rather die than cooperate, and they were currently being held in the island’s torture chambers, suffering daily. Others, like Ling Yin, feigned loyalty to the Shang family. On the surface, they worked for the Shangs, but in reality, they were secretly protecting their companions while waiting for a turning point.
As for the human-beast hybrids Ling Yin had been controlling earlier, they were part of another island conspiracy.
They used wealth and treasures as bait to lure a continuous stream of martial artists to their deaths on the island. Those of weaker strength became food for the venomous snakes. Those with more skill who made it past the Snow Mountain would fall under the gaze of the Inspectors and eventually become experimental subjects in the research base.
If an experiment was successful, they were transformed into “Human Weapons” or “Poison-men.” Even the failures were not wasted. Those monsters would “sew” the failed subjects together with wild beasts to create the human-beast hybrids, which were then handed over to the Li family disciples who had surrendered to the Shangs.
They planned to use these monsters—creatures that had lost their human forms but retained human intellect—as the vanguard when they eventually set out to conquer the world. The Human Weapons and Poison-men would serve as mobile heavy weaponry on the battlefield. The leaders themselves would stay safely behind the lines, controlling everything and waiting to enjoy the riches once the world was unified.
Driven by such delusions, the experimental base continued to expand until those in power turned their claws toward their own people.
In order to produce even more exceptional descendants, they began forcing islanders with blood relations to mate, hoping to give birth to “God-children” of extraordinary talent. These God-children would be “refined” multiple times and taught vast amounts of knowledge, eventually becoming absolute geniuses in specific fields.
However, such unions more often resulted in the deformed children seen in the small town near the island. Viewed as “trash” discarded by the island, they were ruthlessly exiled. Many lacked the ability to care for themselves and could only hope that their blood relatives would occasionally provide them with meager supplies to survive in the outside world.
Learning these secrets so suddenly, the expressions on Shangguan Liqian and Luo Wushuang’s faces turned grim. They knew the Island of Forgotten Sorrows wasn’t as peaceful as it appeared, but they never imagined it hid such darkness.
Infant experimentation, turning martial arts masters into biological weapons, and even “sewing” humans to beasts—every single one of these acts was an atrocity worthy of hell. And now, they heard of siblings, fathers and daughters, and mothers and sons being forced together…
It completely upended their understanding of the world. It seemed the island was far filthier than they had imagined.
Thinking of the rumors about people who had left the island with massive fortunes, Shangguan Liqian couldn’t help but ask, “Has no one ever successfully raided the island? Would they not reveal these atrocities and warn others who might be blinded by greed?”
Ling Yin sighed and shook her head with a bitter smile. “Those who left were either controlled by the Shang family using poison, or they were simply islanders in disguise.”
Shangguan Liqian frowned. So that’s how it is.
She had wondered why the town near the island was so eerie yet no word of it ever reached the outside world. It was all being controlled.
Luo Wushuang asked her own question. “Those people released into the outside world… they aren’t just there to lure people to the island, are they?”
Ling Yin nodded slightly. “They serve as the island’s spies in various countries. They monitor the movements of different nations and help supply the island with a steady stream of ‘fresh blood’.”
As she spoke, Ling Yin could not hide her fury. This “fresh blood” referred to innocent children from the outside world. Nowadays, the islanders rarely went out to scout for children themselves because their agents did it for them. These agents were even more heartless than the islanders. They secretly kidnapped, stole, and trafficked infants, and even abducted pregnant women.
The latest experiments at the research base involved cultivating various human organs from embryos within pregnant women to satisfy the medical needs of the island’s elite. This experiment was far more depraved than the previous marrow and blood extractions.
This was precisely why the Li family was so desperate to find partners.
By now, Shangguan Liqian and Luo Wushuang were fairly certain Ling Yin was telling the truth. However, they still had many doubts. Without clearing those up, they didn’t dare to recklessly cooperate with someone they had only just met.
