Liejan took us to a suspicious underground research institute somewhere.

The place is set up on the outskirts of the capital, and from the outside it looks like an ordinary biotechnology research institute, and after entering, it has to go through a lot of vetting before it can be allowed to use a secret elevator to enter the underground part. Even if you reveal your identity, you can't enter directly, and you can't let it go until the auditors confirm it with the headquarters. However, it seems that because there was a point in advance, Lieku still brought us down smoothly. Soon we landed more than thirty meters underground.

He led us down the white hallway, occasionally encountering a warlock dressed as a white researcher. This overly clean space makes you feel like you can't relax, like you have turned into a fish and accidentally swam into the completely sterilized and unadulterated distilled water, but you can't breathe the slightest oxygen.

"What is this place to study?" Bluebird asked curiously.

"What ...... this?"

Lieq seemed to be thinking about how to explain it to his students, and by this time, we had reached a room. The wall between the room and the corridor is made of transparent glass, allowing a direct view of the scene inside.

There was a man locked up in the room, and when we approached, the man threw himself right on the glass wall and slapped it on the wall without reason. The eyes of me and the bluebird immediately moved there. At this glance, we were both stunned.

This person, I don't know if it's appropriate to say that he is a "human", he looks like a zombie in a horror movie. He wore a blue shirt and trousers that looked like prison uniforms, his bare face, neck, and hands were highly decomposed, and bits and pieces of body tissue splattered in disgust as he slammed the glass walls.

I tried to scan it with my own sense. From a physiological point of view, this person is already dead, his blood is basically all dry, his heart is not beating at all, his brain tissue has long been sparse, and even the muscle tissue is rotten to the point of automatic peeling, and I don't know why he can still be so "alive". To say that this is a horror movie is acceptable, the zombies in the movie don't need to think about so much science, but the zombie in front of you is obviously realistic.

In addition, what is even more incredible is that I actually have a feeling of contradiction that is diametrically opposed to reason. The zombie was dead, but it seemed to be alive, and it was still sending out signals of extreme pain like the most terrible screams.

"That's what this underground lab is working on." "Those researchers call it 'immortal.'" ”

"What's going on?" The blue bird asked solemnly, "Is he cursed by the devil?" I feel like he's ...... He is alive, a living corpse...... His soul is still in this corpse? ”

It stands to reason that if a person's body dies, it loses its binding force on the spirit. Spirits will run out to the outside world. Regardless of whether it is unable to withstand the external environment and disintegrates automatically or is transformed into a ghost by luck, the dead body can no longer serve as a shelter for the spirit. And the situation at hand clearly does not conform to this common sense.

"If it's just a curse by a demon, it's better to say, no matter how powerful the demonic curse is, we can solve it, but this guy is very different." "As you can see, his spirit is trapped in a corrupt flesh and has lost his normal ability to think. However, he was also conscious, and he could vividly feel the extreme pain coming from his physical body, from which he could not be relieved for a second. It's possible to say it's a curse, but it's something we've never been exposed to, something completely alien. I prefer to call it 'pollution'. ”

......To be on the safe side, I first asked, "Is this person a criminal?" ”

"No, he's probably just an unlucky guy." He said.

"In that case, there should be no reason for him to have to endure such pain." I said, "If the spirit is trapped in the body, then just destroying the body itself can free his spirit from suffering, right?" ”

"Like a headshot?" Blue Bird guessed based on the other party's zombie-like appearance.

"The undead are not zombies in horror movies, it's not enough to just hit the head, it's better to destroy the whole body. In addition, if an ordinary physical attack is used, even if it is a physical corpse, it is impossible to stop its activities, let alone liberate its spirit, and it will only increase the suffering of the undead. The destruction of the physical body with spiritual power is necessary to liberate the souls of the undead. He said.

"So why didn't it do it?" Blue Bird frowned and looked at the immortal, "After all, what exactly is 'pollution', why is he polluted, and why is he being locked up here?" ”

"I'll tell you later, come along first." The column is missing and moves to another place.

We followed, and he suddenly asked in a thoughtless voice, "Do you believe that there is a true immortal body in this world?" ”

"What do you mean by 'real'?" I'm still remembering the undead.

"For example, do you think you are immortal now?" He asked.

"Now I won't die as long as my head is not destroyed, but if I want to say that I am immortal, I can only be regarded as half at most." I say.

"And what about you in the past?" He then asked, "In the past, you didn't even have the weakness of your head, and even if your spirit body was destroyed, you could quickly regenerate, is it considered a real immortal body?" ”

"It depends on what 'real' is." I said, "Even if I used to be hard to kill, I might have starved to death by starvation and thirst, or if I had wiped out my body to the last cell, and had done the same level of annihilation on my spirits, then I would have died." ”

And the blue bird seemed to hear his teacher's voice, "In other words, this underground research institute is actually a place to study the 'true immortal body'?" ”

"That's right." Column shortcomings headers.

"The Security Service is actually developing immortal technology in such a place? And is it the use of ordinary people who are 'polluted'? Bluebird said unacceptably.

"If that were the case, I'd have wiped this institute out of the world long ago." Column said as he led us down another hallway.

There were glass-walled rooms too, and this time, instead of moving corpses, the room was locked up in a twisted spiritual wave, visually like a jellyfish-like white translucent substance twisting and struggling there. I immediately recognized that it was a mass of spirits, and like the undead before me, it was in a state of extreme pain.

"This is also immortal. However, compared to the average undead, this undead is subject to a higher level of pollution. "For ordinary immortals, they only need to liberate their spirits, but even their spirits are polluted by the level of immortals in front of them. And even with the use of spiritual power, it is impossible to kill it, and even if it is broken into fragments so small that they are almost impossible to observe, those fragments are still alive and carry full consciousness in an inexplicable form. ”

"The consciousness that runs on this spirit should be different from the consciousness that runs on the brain of a creature before its death, right?" Bluebird asked.

Lie Que shook his head, "'Pollution' can even imprison even the consciousness that once operated on the brains of living beings, and bind to spirits. It is impossible to liberate oneself from 'pollution' by the death of the biological brain. ”

"Isn't that a characteristic of 'apparition'?" The bluebird was stunned.

I thought about it first, and then asked Lie Que: "An immortal person of this pollution level will not die whether he destroys the physical body or the spirit body. Except that it doesn't regenerate in high speed, it seems to be similar to me in the past. You said you were going to take me over to see something very important to me, is that what you mean? ”

"No, that's not all." "Also, it's not like an immortal with this level of pollution is absolutely immortal. There are scientists at the headquarters who are able to refine the power of the true spirit in the laboratory with the most advanced technology and equipment, and after testing, the power of the true spirit can destroy it. ”

"Since it can be destroyed, it shouldn't be considered a 'real immortal'." I said, "After all, does that kind of immortality really exist?" ”

"I know what you're trying to say. As long as there is life, there will be death, and if there is birth, there will be destruction. As the saying goes, where there is artificiality, there must be life and death. There is no such thing as a life in this world that does not have the concept of death. At this point, he added meaningfully, "From the point of view of common sense, it is so." ”

And then...... I'm going to show you the beings who deviate from common sense. With that, he led us on the move again.

We came to a new hallway and looked into the new room. But this time, we didn't see anything. The room across the glass wall was empty, with neither bodies nor spirits.

Still, I sensed signs of extreme pain from across the glass walls. Something must have been screaming there day and night, even giving me the illusion that my eardrum was swollen.

"This is the 'third stage', which is the final stage of immortality." Suddenly, an old man dressed as a researcher appeared behind us.

"He's the director of this institute, and he's the most powerful person here." Column Missing Introduction.

"You can call me 'Doctor.'" The doctor looked at me and the blue bird, and then focused his gaze on me, "You are the demon Li Duo?" ”

"Hello." I responded.

"You've probably seen the undead in Stage 1 and Stage 2 before, and the undead in Stage 3 are completely different from the first two. The undead at this stage cannot even be killed by the power of the true spirit, or rather, the power of the true spirit can destroy their physical and spirit bodies, but it is still alive for some reason, and it continues to exist in a twisted form that some existing theory cannot explain, like a never-ending echo. "We've also tried to create a miniature alien space with a temporal flow anomaly and enclose it inside to see if it will disintegrate naturally, but it hasn't decayed in the slightest. After countless tests, we have come to the conclusion that it is impossible for this thing to disintegrate naturally, at least on the known time scale. ”

"That is, immortality?" I shuddered, "In such a form?" ”

"That's right. All of the undead in this institute are actually Stage 3, and they all have literal immortality. However, their bodies will still decay and decay, and they will fall into a spiral of pain and despair, and eventually become such a twisted form, but they will not die in any way. He went on to say, "Moreover, the higher the stage of 'pollution' of the undead, the deeper the 'pollution' is in essence. Stages 1 and 2 are the contamination of the flesh and the spirits, respectively, which can be captured by the power of perception, but because of the transparent walls of this particular material, you were not aware of them before. The 'pollution' of Stage 3 penetrates into areas that even existing theories cannot describe, so even awareness cannot be captured. ”

He added, "For example, right now, I can't detect the smell of 'pollution' from you, so you must be an immortal in Stage 3." ”

"Wait." I immediately said, "You say I'm immortal? Or Phase Three? ”

The doctor turned to look at Leq, "Haven't you told him yet?" ”

"Not yet." The latter had a gloomy face.

"Wait......" Bluebird panicked, "what the hell is going on?" ”

"All the undead here are victims of the White Pony's experiments." Lie Que said in a deep voice, "Seven years ago, Bai Ju conducted an evil experiment centered on the Kraken in a small town on the outskirts of Shangshen City, which eventually caused all the inhabitants of the town to be transformed into the undead of Stage 1. The undead were all disposed of and buried by the Security Service shortly after. However, this year, some time after Hakuma snatched the Kraken's severed hand from the Liucheng Security Bureau, the law enforcement warlock unit at HQ who tracked him discovered the Stage 2 and even Stage 3 undead from his laboratory set up in the wild. ”

"This, what does this have to do with Li Duo?" Bluebird asked.

"The source of 'pollution' is the Kraken." "No matter how strong Li Duo's super-speed regeneration is, once he dies, no regeneration will work, but even if he is destroyed at the same time, he can still be reborn even if he is destroyed at the same time, isn't this the evidence of being contaminated by the Kraken?" ”

"But the Kraken is dead, and her power has left Li Duo's body." Blue Bird hurriedly said.

"You've walked over the ground. will leave footprints. It doesn't just because you're gone, and your footprints are gone. 'Pollution' is also a truth. "So far, we've gone to great lengths to strip the immortal of the 'pollution' and nothing to gain, which shows that it's not something that just disappears." ”

"But......" Bluebird was still thinking, and suddenly, she froze.

She must have remembered something. Because I remembered it too.

In the past, I died with my old bones and threw myself into the lake before I died. I was supposed to die in the lake, but I survived thanks to the help of the blue bird.

Past conversations exploded in my mind like lightning.

- By the time I fished you out of the lake, your body was completely inactive.

- But my spirit is not separated from the flesh?

- Yes, you are in a bizarre state of suspended animation, as if the body has become a cage from which the spirit cannot be liberated......

I...... Is it really an immortal?