The undead have descended upon the world? I possess a sword that can cleave the heavens once more!

While Wu You was fast asleep, in Donghua City, the capital of Dongling Kingdom, at the Dongling Research Institute.

Although it was already past 2 a.m., many of the buildings in the Dongling Research Institute were still brightly lit.

In an office in a research building, a researcher wearing a white lab coat, with dark circles under his eyes and a look of exhaustion walked in.

His white coat was wrinkled, and his hair was messy.

He wore a silver nameplate on his right chest that read: Level 3 Researcher – Tang Ao

He plopped down in his workstation, sinking into the back of the chair, and let out a long sigh.

"Ugh, this shift is so long."

"I'm so exhausted."

"If this continues, I feel like all the hair I have left will fall out."

"Looks like I'll have to find a chance to start a course on hair regrowth when I have some free time."

As he said this, he couldn't help but reach out and touch his slightly thinning and somewhat messy hair, his expression showing a hint of worry.

And at that moment, a soft sound—

Click—

The office door opened again.

A researcher, also wearing a white lab coat but with noticeably neater clothes and hair, walked in. He also had a silver nameplate hanging on his right chest: Level 3 Researcher – Chi Yuan

As soon as the researcher named Chi Yuan entered the office, he turned his gaze toward Tang Ao's workstation.

"Old Tang, it's time to get down to business!"

Upon hearing his words, Tang Ao's expression brightened, and the weariness in his eyes faded considerably.

He immediately stood up: "Let's go, let's go!"

"While Lab 3 is still standing!"

Then, he took out a palm-sized brown wooden box from his drawer.

Upon seeing the wooden box, Chi Yuan's eyes lit up: "Let's go!"

Then the two walked through several corridors and turned several corners.

Finally, they stopped in front of a laboratory with a silver door marked with the Roman numeral "Ⅲ".

The two men took turns looking at the small scanner next to the door. The red light swept across their irises, and the door lock made a low "click".

After unlocking the lab door with their irises, the two walked into Lab Number Three with excited expressions.

Laboratory No. 3 contains many strangely shaped instruments.

Some instruments resemble a microscope magnified many times, some are like a black box encased in a metal shell, with no idea what programs are running inside, and some look like a control panel with densely packed buttons and indicator lights, as if it were taken from a science fiction movie.

The instruments sat quietly under the soft laboratory lights, some emitting low-frequency hums, others flashing green or red indicator lights.

After scanning the iris again and closing the door to Lab 3, the two continued walking inside.

Then, the two stopped in front of an instrument that had several transparent glass boxes and a large black chassis.

The instrument was very large, taking up nearly one-fifth of the laboratory area. Its black casing was covered with densely packed ventilation holes, from which one could feel a warm airflow slowly being expelled.

The instrument is labeled with the words "High-precision instrument track node analysis and prediction instrument" in small print.

Then the two began to divide the work and cooperate.

Chi Yuan started pressing the button on the black chassis to start the instrument.

Tang Ao opened the wooden box, carefully took out the small sword with flowing cloud patterns from the red velvet lining, and placed it in a transparent glass box next to the machine case.

The next moment, the lid of the glass box was closed.

With a click, the sealing ring completely isolated the space inside and outside the box.

The instrument started up, emitting a buzzing sound.

Then, sets of data and prediction charts began to flash on the screens in front of the two people.

The data was densely packed, with each number constantly updating; the prediction graphs were in color, with different colors representing different energy densities and node distributions.

Chi Yuan glanced at the screen, then turned to Tang Ao beside him: "Let's begin, Lao Tang."

"Today it's the same as always. You're in charge of screening nodes related to the energy cycle, and I'll be in charge of screening nodes related to energy compression."

Tang Ao nodded, picked up a tablet from the side, imported the instrument data into it, and then began processing the data with his head down.

His eyes were fixed on the screen, his pupils reflecting the jumping numbers and changing graphics, his brows slightly furrowed.

At the same time, his fingers were rapidly swiping across the tablet, filtering out unnecessary, repetitive, or inaccurate nodes, leaving only those that were regular and potentially valuable.

Seeing that Tang Ao immediately got into work mode, Chi Yuan also picked up a tablet and quickly got into work mode as well.

Time passed, and when the two looked up again, their eyes were filled with deep exhaustion.

They exchanged a glance, and Chi Yuan spoke first, his voice a little hoarse: "Let's call it a day."

"If I keep going like this, I'm afraid I'll be late for work tomorrow."

Upon hearing this, Tang Ao touched his sparse hair, the movement sounding somewhat mechanical amidst his exhaustion, as if he were checking if his hair was still there.

His lips twitched slightly, as if he wanted to say something, but in the end he just nodded: "Let's continue tomorrow."

The two then tidied up the equipment: turning off the power, organizing the data, and putting the tablet back on the charging dock.

Then Tang Ao carefully took the pure white sword with cloud patterns out of the glass box and put it back into the wooden box.

Watching Tang Ao close the wooden box, Chi Yuan said with some reluctance, "It would be great if there were a few more small swords like these."

"This way, we can generate more data at the same time."

"Furthermore, we can try to trigger it, assess its specific power, and record the energy flow path when it is triggered."

"This will be very beneficial for subsequent integration."

At this point, he sighed, "I really want to meet the person who created this thing."

"It would be great if I could talk to him."

Tang Ao nodded upon hearing this, shifting his gaze from the wooden box to the sky outside the laboratory window, which was beginning to lighten.

"Yes, every pause in the energy on this small sword could be a node, and every flow is incredibly precise."

His tone was filled with awe: "It would be too much work for just the two of us to fully analyze and replicate the rituals here."

"But if we could communicate with the creator of this little sword, the progress would definitely be much faster."

As he said this, Tang Ao seemed to remember something, and his brows furrowed slightly.

The vertical line between his brows, etched from years of staying up late, deepened even more: "Hiss, why didn't I just ask?"

Then he opened the mobile device on his wrist, clicked on the contacts, scrolled to a name, and sent a message.

But clearly, the other party is resting at this time.

After waiting a few more minutes, the two could only look at each other helplessly.

Then Chi Yuan spoke first: "Go back and rest first. We still need to continue developing the trace detection system for that drilling instrument tomorrow."

Tang Ao nodded.

The two walked out of Laboratory No. 3 together and returned to the office as the sky gradually brightened outside the corridor.

They have to go back to work at 8 a.m. tomorrow, and it's already past 4 a.m., so they've decided to rest in the office.

Otherwise, I'll have to rush over from the dorm tomorrow morning, which will waste a lot of time.

Clearly, they were unwilling to waste this time.

This is the life of a researcher at the Dongling Research Institute—simple and unpretentious.