The entire pipe was filled with a faint musty smell, with falling rocks and old metal railings blocking the way from time to time, and faint traces of crystal dust on the walls.
"How can there be traces of crystallization here too?" Mu Li asked, puzzled.
Liu Feng shook his head and said, "I'm not sure either. This used to be a ventilation duct, so there shouldn't be any crystal dust appearing."
As the three were wondering, suddenly, a vine attacked them.
But before it reached them, it was blocked by a translucent psychic barrier.
"What is that?" Xu Aili exclaimed.
A pair of scarlet eyes suddenly appeared in the pipe. At the same time, several vines moved in parallel, launching a fierce attack on the three.
But in front of Gardevoir's barrier, no matter how hard those vines tried, they couldn't budge it an inch.
"Look at those vines..." Xu Aili shouted. Mu Li looked over and saw that the vines were different from ordinary ones; the purplish-black vines even had some crystal dust distributed on them.
The owner of the vines also appeared before them.
It was a Tangela, but his body was already covered with crystal dust of various sizes, and he seemed to have lost his mind, only knowing how to attack relentlessly.
"He's lost his mind. Let's get out of here quickly." Mu Li didn't want to continue harming the opponent. Led by Gardevoir, they quickly walked deeper into the pipe.
As they walked, the three discovered that the crystallized Pokémon were not just that Tangela, but also Zubat swarms, Magnemite, and so on.
To avoid harming these Pokémon again, the three simply stopped their attacks and quickly moved forward.
"Oh, I wonder if these Pokémon can return to normal," Xu Aili sighed.
"They will," Mu Li nodded, "Suicune will definitely be able to heal them."
The three walked for about ten minutes. Finally, a faint light appeared ahead, and the humming sound of machinery running gradually grew louder.
"We're here."
At the end of the ventilation duct, through the gaps in the grates under their feet, the three could see the huge space below.
"I didn't expect it to go so smoothly," Liu Feng said. "This is Bohai Company's core laboratory."
In the center of the experimental area was a huge deep well, extending deep underground.
The wellhead was surrounded by complex metal structures, and countless thick pipes extended from the wellhead, some of which were clearly ruptured, with fluorescent green, viscous liquid gurgling out and flowing into the collection tank below.
Evidently, the collection tank was already overwhelmed, and the overflowing liquid was flowing along the ground's channels into the depths.
A massive and chaotic energy fluctuation emanated from within the deep well, all originating from a large cluster of deep purple ore veins at the center of the deep well.
The well walls were also covered with strange crystal clusters that shimmered with various colors of light.
"That's... Tera Energy!" Mu Li recognized that unique energy system at a glance.
"That's right, that's it. This is a highly concentrated Tera Energy ore vein they excavated from abroad! They want to directly extract and utilize this energy!" Liu Feng pointed to the deep well and said excitedly, "This ore vein is extremely unstable. After coming into contact with the deep underground water in the Yunmeng Marsh area, an uncontrollable mutation occurred, producing 'crystal dust' as a terrifying byproduct!"
At this time, many technical personnel in protective suits were busy in the experimental area.
Security forces were mainly concentrated at the entrance.
Near the deep well, several automated defense robots equipped with laser cannons stood, along with several Electrode and Magnezone.
Gardevoir waved her hand, and a Hypnosis wave spread out from her, causing all the staff and Pokémon to fall to the ground. The only ones still active were the few defense robots.
However, before they could make any move, their internal energy cores were directly crushed by a powerful psychic force.
"So strong!" Liu Feng had not felt Mu Li's strength while they were rushing earlier, but now, he finally saw it clearly.
These defense robots were purchased by the company at a high price. Ordinary Gym Level Pokémon might not be able to defeat them, and even against Heavenly King Level Pokémon, they could still contend.
But in Mu Li's hands, they didn't even have a chance to move.
"What are you still standing around for? Hurry up and collect evidence!" Mu Li saw that Liu Feng and Xu Aili hadn't reacted and quickly reminded them.
The destruction of the defense robots directly triggered the company's alarm system. The laboratory's door opened, and several more defense robots rushed in.
"You do your thing, don't mind these," Mu Li said calmly, casually slicing the few defense robots that rushed into the laboratory in half.
The entire Bohai Company began to blare with piercing alarms.
Wang Xing, the base manager, who was in his office, frowned and called the monitoring room: "What's going on?"
A series of hurried breaths came from the other end: "It's bad, General Manager Wang. Something happened in the laboratory. Someone has invaded the laboratory."
Wang Xing frowned, hung up the phone, opened his office door, and walked towards the central laboratory.
"How much longer?" To prevent outsiders from entering, Mu Li directly locked the entire laboratory door.
"There's a lot of data, it'll probably take another ten minutes," Liu Feng explained.
Xu Aili, on the other hand, was taking photos and videos everywhere, recording everything happening around them: "This company's combat power is really impressive, no wonder my predecessors couldn't get in."
"When you do too many bad things, how can you not worry about being discovered?" Mu Li scoffed, "This company has big ambitions. They've even managed to get their hands on cutting-edge evolution technology like Terastallization. With this strength, it would be much better to cooperate with the higher-ups..."
"These people are all for money..." Liu Feng sighed, "But I used to be one of them too..."
Mu Li walked up to the cluster of deep purple original Tera ore veins and murmured, "Such a large cluster of ore veins could produce so much Terastallized equipment. What a waste."
With that, Mu Li's shadow spread out, and Haze erupted, engulfing the entire deep well.
When the Haze dissipated, the cluster of Tera ore veins inside had disappeared.
That mass of Tera ore veins seemed to be the foundation for the operation of all systems. Once it disappeared, all the equipment in the entire laboratory system stopped functioning.
"Alright! Data replication complete!" Liu Feng said happily, handing the replicated data to Mu Li.
Mu Li casually tossed it into his shadow and smiled, "Mission accomplished, let's..."
Before he could finish, the laboratory's iron door was directly blasted open.
After the dust settled, Wang Xing's figure appeared at the laboratory entrance.
"General Manager Wang..." Liu Feng subconsciously called out.
"It's you, Liu Feng..." Wang Xing said with some surprise, "I didn't expect it to be you. If I had known, I shouldn't have let you leave back then..."
"Hey, hey, hey... who are you? So arrogant?" Mu Li interrupted impatiently, "Who do you think you are? What? You want to kill us to silence us? Please look at what kind of society this is, okay?"
Liu Feng quickly tugged at Mu Li's clothes and whispered, "His name is Wang Xing. He's a Pokémon Trainer specially hired to manage this company. It's said that he has a Champion Level Pokémon..."
Wang Xing seemed to have heard Liu Feng's words and sneered, "It's too late to regret it now."