Lin Ye quickly reached the lowest level of the elevator shaft, but the elevator doors here were not damaged, and they were locked shut.

"It seems pretty sturdy..."

Lin Ye tried to break the elevator door using a compressed spiritual energy piercing attack, but after the strike landed, not a single mark remained on the door.

He then tried several other methods, like carving runes on the elevator door, attacking the surrounding walls, even striking the floor of the layer above, but all of them failed.

This space was like a vault that had been completely sealed and could only be opened with a password; every violent method had no effect.

"What now?"

Lin Ye's body trembled slightly, and as time passed, double vision appeared before his eyes and his sense of balance faltered.

For Lin Ye, there were few problems he couldn't solve; as long as he could still think, he could find a solution.

But some things couldn't be solved by thought alone; they required the ability to carry out the solution.

Clearly, the lowest level of the elevator shaft was the most important area of this laboratory, so there were only two ways to open the elevator doors: obtain permission to enter, or use methods beyond the designers' intent to force the doors open.

The problem now was that Lin Ye no longer had time. More than half his body had already been converted into black matter, and the transformed parts had completely lost control.

"This is... troublesome."

Lin Ye assumed the Red Flash—Extreme Slash stance. He wasn't sure whether he could still employ the move in this condition. He had detached from the Parasitism Network, and without that network's support he had never used this technique.

But this was his last resort. With over half his body occupied by the black substance, if he could integrate that black matter into Extreme Slash, there might be a chance to destroy the elevator door.

Just as Lin Ye prepared to act, Little Guardian's figure suddenly appeared in his field of vision, though his view was fuzzy and he could only see a distorted silhouette.

"How did you get out? You must be feeling bad in this state too, right?"

Lin Ye kept wobbling, using dynamic balance to try to stabilize himself.

"...Here."

Little Guardian spoke for the first time. She walked to Lin Ye, raised her hands, and put the Human Face she held onto Lin Ye's face.

"What is this?"

Lin Ye felt an extra layer on his face and quickly realized what it was.

Little Guardian supported Lin Ye's arm and helped him approach the elevator door. When he moved to a certain spot, the elevator door that had resisted all his methods opened by itself.

"One of those Human Faces? How did you know this face could open the elevator door?"

With Little Guardian's assistance, Lin Ye entered the corridor beyond the door and the lights turned on automatically. This area seemed to be the main part of the laboratory, far larger than the experimental rooms above.

"Previously... those Human Faces were all within my... mental defense system's range. I recorded... the spirit fragments of those faces and found this one."

Little Guardian still appeared uncomfortable speaking, pausing after a few words.

"Thanks. Do you know where I should go now?"

Lin Ye moved his feet with difficulty; the conversion was accelerating and his time was limited.

"The specimen storage room... should store... Subject No. 10's... tissue structure."

Unlike the earlier young girl, Little Guardian acted like another Lin Ye, even thinking in a similar way.

"Can you take me there?"

Lin Ye's consciousness was already starting to blur, but Little Guardian could forcibly control his brain and lead him where he needed to go.

"Yes."

Little Guardian led Lin Ye quickly down the corridor. Lin Ye had abandoned attempts at physical balance and instead followed her in a more primal way.

Guided by Little Guardian, Lin Ye soon located the specimen storage room. By scanning the face, he smoothly rolled inside.

The specimen storage room was filled with various biological samples. Little Guardian quickly found a transparent container storing Subject No. 10's tissue structure.

Inside the container rested a finger that still had biological activity. Lin Ye opened the container and directly alienated that finger onto the xenomorph body.

"So how is this finger supposed to be used? Can it directly control this black matter?"

Lin Ye gripped the finger and spoke to focus his attention; without doing so he could no longer think clearly.

After attaching the finger, Lin Ye gradually felt the black matter flowing inside his body. He tried to influence its direction, but the black matter was completely unaffected by mental energy and spiritual energy, so his attempts failed.

"Mental energy and spiritual energy both fail. What can I do? Wait! The finger can sense the black matter. These black substances are transforming my flesh, which means the flesh can form some kind of connection with them!"

Lin Ye alienated the xenomorph body according to the finger's tissue structure, and under the influence of the Flesh and Blood Rule Fragment, the alienation completed quickly.

During the alienation process, Lin Ye kept watching the differences between the finger and the xenomorph body while monitoring the black matter's changes on the xenomorph body.

This allowed him to discover a very special flesh structure. After this structure appeared, he could sense the black matter's transformation speed slow down a bit.

"So this tissue structure can stop the black matter from converting flesh, and may even trigger some change in the black matter?"

As that tissue structure spread through his body, Lin Ye's condition gradually returned to normal. Given the experimental incident caused by Subject No. 10, he did not attempt to forcibly control the black matter using that tissue; he kept things as stable as possible.

Five minutes later, Lin Ye pulled himself up from the floor. The black matter still remained in his body, but the conversion speed had slowed dramatically, and he could now use that tissue structure to regulate where the black matter was stored.

"That was dangerous."

Lin Ye looked around. Little Guardian had already vanished. Various experimental samples surrounded him.

Next to those samples were records of the experiments. The specimen storage room housed thousands of samples related to these experiments.

The most important experimental specimens were all related to special experimental subjects; these special subjects were biological individuals capable of forming certain connections with the black matter.

Lin Ye began examining the experimental records for these special subjects and alienated their samples onto the xenomorph body.

He intended to study the tissue structures that allowed these special subjects to link with the black matter, so he could master the black matter.

Once he could control the black matter, this Black Sea would be his territory.