The Ancestral Legacy Begins in the Wild West

Chapter 175 Underground Monsters and Evil Spirits

"Our ancestors were right." After a while, Zhang Chang'an leaned on the table and slowly sat down.

My legs felt a little weak, and the reason, of course, was that the medicine was really too strong.

Now, half an hour has passed since he took the medicine, and the effects of the medicine have finally worn off.

His brief bursts of sensory stimulation gradually returned to normal, as if someone had slowly turned the volume down. Finally, as he sat in his chair, he felt as if the whole world had become dulled.

All the sounds that had just come in were now completely gone; even the hissing of the nearby phosphate lamps sounded like they were coming through a blanket.

My vision seemed blurry; the wood grain on the tabletop was a blurry mess, and I had to get close to see it clearly.

And this is actually normal, because his senses have never changed.

The pill he just ate is based on the "Confucius Pillow Pill," which originated from Sun Simiao, the "Medicine King" of the Tang Dynasty. It is recorded in his book "Essential Prescriptions Worth a Thousand Pieces of Gold for Emergency Use," and its ingredients are tortoise shell, dragon bone, polygala root, and calamus root—four herbs in total.

Ancient people believed that both turtles and dragons were auspicious creatures, so their spiritual energy could be used to nourish the heart and kidneys and open the mind. The specific medicinal effect was naturally to strengthen the mind and spirit.

However, he made some minor modifications to it. After all, in Paris, he couldn't just get whatever medicinal herbs he wanted.

No matter how abundant the resources are, some things are only produced in the East. Now that Paris is in such a state of chaos and trade has stagnated, he naturally can't get his hands on them.

Then, taking advantage of the instrument here, the form of the pills is transformed into a liquid form that is more suitable for this instrument, and then it is refined.

Thus, it possessed an Eastern foundation and a Western approach, forcibly twisted together, to create the elixir of immortality.

As for the drug that enhances nerve and mental strength, the sensory enhancement just now was merely a side effect.

Just like when he first gained eagle vision, the sheer volume of details sluggished his thinking. Now, the situation is completely reversed. His mental processing ability has improved, allowing him to handle more nuanced details and sensory information.

In other words, his senses haven't actually changed; it's just that his brain is working better.

Now that I've just had a breakthrough, the energy expenditure is too great, and my mind hasn't quite caught up yet, so I'm slightly sluggish and naturally a little slower than before.

After a day or two of rest, once his brain has recovered and adapted, he will be able to experience the enhanced thinking ability.

"Ding-ding-dong—" Zhang Chang'an pondered, then stood up, propped himself up on the table, and began tidying up the laboratory.

These past few days, his daily routine has been much the same as when he first became an assistant: maintaining normal prison life during the day, and honing his skills in the basement at night while assisting with experiments.

Nowadays, his alchemy and inorganic alchemy skills have both reached the good grade, and he has long been making various small attempts or upgrades to his equipment or body.

Only today, when the warden was away on business, did he finally have the chance to do something big for himself.

"Once it's fully digested, the psionicist profession should undergo a transformation." Zhang Chang'an cleaned up the traces he had secretly left behind while refining pills, and pondered at the same time, "The alchemist and alchemist professions have also made progress."

I just don't know—what stage has it reached outside?

René's brother has been gone for a few days now. However, he still has no idea how the outside world will try to contact him.

The guy said he'd "get in touch if there's a chance," but he didn't say anything about how or when to do so. There haven't been any new inmates lately, so he hasn't even been able to see anyone to pass on the message.

However, regardless of what happens outside, his improved strength is always a good thing. If things continue like this, even if there's no movement outside, he should be able to find other ways to maintain long-term contact with the outside world.

He pondered for a moment, then picked up the iron box on the table, pushed open the laboratory door, and walked out.

The corridor was as dry and odorless as ever. The alcoves on both sides were lit by lamps, casting flickering shadows on the vaulted ceiling.

His steps were slower than usual because the sluggishness hadn't completely subsided, and his footsteps felt a little unsteady on the floor.

At the same time, his psychic energy suddenly started moving on its own as soon as he stepped out the door!

It was as if a hand had gently touched his mind, and his attention immediately focused and turned towards the direction behind him.

The laboratory where he worked was located between the main roads of the underground experimental area.

Going further in from here, there was only a dead end. Looking up, he saw that the end of the corridor was pitch black. There was no light from the kerosene lamps; it was just a pure and thick darkness.

Of course, even if he didn't immediately notice the problem, Zhang Chang'an didn't dare to be negligent.

His psychic powers had just activated on their own, and this thing, without interference from anyone else whose mental strength far surpassed his, was more precise than any other sense.

Therefore, Zhang Chang'an decisively turned around and slowly took a few steps into the darkness.

His laboratory is located deep within the underground laboratory, in other words, in a relatively peripheral area.

But precisely because of this, he travels back and forth between this place and other laboratories, and has already traversed most of this underground experimental area.

He had long harbored doubts about the structure of this place.

"Where did this underground area come from? My laboratory is already on the outer edge, so why is the corridor extending further in?"

Could it be that they're considering future expansion? These people with alchemy skills certainly don't lack construction capabilities, and these wealthy nobles don't seem like the type to plan ahead for something like this.

To put it another way, something about this place is definitely off.

The area around Zhang Chang'an's usual laboratory was a brick-and-stone structure, but out of curiosity, he had explored the various side passages and depths long ago.

In those places, the walls of the passageways, even the top and bottom, are mostly made of rammed earth. Just by looking at their condition, you can tell they've stood there for who knows how many years.

To put it bluntly, this place is very likely to have been transformed from some ancient underground structure from the very beginning.

"So—what is this thing that can trigger my telepathic abilities here?"

He muttered something under his breath and continued walking inside. In the darkness, he soon saw clearly the rammed earth wall at the end of the corridor.

"Crack—" As soon as he got close, he noticed that the surface soil was trembling slightly, and fine sand was sliding down the wall, accumulating into a small pile on the ground.

The sound also came through at the same time, a rustling sound, like something digging in the soil behind the wall, like fingernails scraping hard soil, dry and astringent, making one's teeth ache.

He frowned. "Isn't this some kind of thing trying to break in? What kind of monster could be so deep underground—?"

The moment the thought crossed his mind, Zhang Chang'an decisively prepared himself, raising his hand to summon his weapon.

Sure enough, just then: "Whoosh!" Before he could react, a large amount of sand suddenly fell from the top of the wall, scattering and splashing onto the ground, creating a cloud of gray mist.

Zhang Chang'an decisively retreated, his footsteps slicing across the ground as he sharply scanned upwards: "What the hell?!"

Above the wall, near the vaulted ceiling, a large hole had appeared at some point.

The large amount of sand that slid down came from there. At that moment, a dark figure suddenly flashed out of the cave.

The creature moved incredibly fast. The moment it burst out of the hole, it slammed its limbs against the wall, leaving four deep furrows in the rammed earth wall.

"Crash—" Gravel and clods of earth burst forth in all directions.

Using the wall as leverage, it ran two steps sideways along the boundary between the stone bricks and rammed earth on the ceiling, its claws scraping across the brick surface with a series of piercing screechs, before pouncing on him.

"Hold-

"6

Zhang Chang'an gritted his teeth and took a half step back, but immediately assumed a fighting stance, and a sharp blade appeared in his hand in an instant.

The Tang-style horizontal sword has mechanical-structure patterns on its hilt, and its blade reflects a cold white light in the darkness.

Bingzi Pepper Forest!