It wasn't until half an hour later that Cha Wu finally finished meeting all the Superhumans who had questions to ask.

Among them, the meeting with Chen Ye was the longest.

The meeting with Chu Che, on the other hand, was the shortest.

Throughout the entire process, a figure was always hidden in the darkness.

But no one, including the Pathfinder Sequence members, noticed that there was someone there.

That person was Ma Qing.

Cha Wu wasn't too surprised by Ma Qing's strange behavior.

After all, this Pharmacist Sequence member often engaged in very odd actions.

This wasn't the first time either.

Finally, after seeing the last person.

Ma Qing emerged from the darkness.

Cha Wu asked somewhat helplessly, "Were you looking for someone? Or do you just enjoy peeping?"

Ma Qing remained silent for a few seconds before speaking, "I forgot to say goodbye to you!"

Cha Wu also fell silent for a few seconds, then said, "Goodbye?"

Ma Qing: "Goodbye!"

Ma Qing slowly retreated back into the darkness.

A pill as black as ink appeared in his hand.

With a light pinch, the pill turned into liquid and quickly covered his entire body. In the next instant, Ma Qing's figure had vanished from the darkness.

Seeing this technique from Ma Qing that could be called god-tier, Cha Wu still couldn't help but marvel.

Who said Pharmacists had no offensive power?

Even though this wasn't the first time he'd seen this method, he still found it astonishing.

Also, this really was a strange old man.

"Hmph!"

A muffled grunt, like distant thunder, sounded in Cha Wu's ear.

Cha Wu's expression remained unchanged, as if he had long guessed who it was.

A man like a bloody flame stood there with a dark face.

The ferocious tail behind him appeared listless.

"You and Ma Qing are really something. Are you two planning to live like this for a lifetime? Never meeting each other?"

The newcomer was none other than Oasis City's Deputy City Lord, Ding Shen.

Ding Shen, his face dark, strode in without saying a word.

By now, the people queuing outside waiting to ask questions had all left. The entire newly built house contained only Cha Wu.

Ding Shen couldn't find a chair, so he simply stood right in the middle of the room, staring at Cha Wu with a pair of blood-red eyes.

"I, Ding, have never stooped to dealing with sneaky, underhanded people."

"I came today to ask you, with so many Pseudo-humans in the city... have you truly never noticed?"

Cha Wu wore a worried expression: "Since you know about Pseudo-humans, you should know their characteristics."

"If I had known about the existence of these things earlier, do you think the person standing before you would really be me?"

"You..."

Ding Shen scrutinized Cha Wu for a good while, making the old man feel chilled to the bone before finally relaxing his vigilance.

"Pseudo-humans aren't one of those you made deals with?"

Cha Wu asked.

Ding Shen's face darkened like ink: "No, the Pseudo-humans came from elsewhere."

"Then did your 'friends' tell you about them?"

Cha Wu's words carried a hint of mockery.

Ding Shen shot the old man an annoyed glare and didn't speak.

Cha Wu also fell silent.

After a long pause.

Ding Shen spoke again: "Ten hours... can he really succeed?"

Cha Wu sighed: "I don't know. If he can't succeed after ten hours, then... prepare yourself. We should leave."

Hearing the word "leave," Ding Shen's expression instantly twisted into something fierce and grotesque: "Leave? Have you forgotten why we established Oasis in the first place?"

"Have you forgotten what we sacrificed to make Oasis what it is today?"

"If even Oasis can't hold out, what hope is left for humanity?"

Ding Shen spoke each sentence with great force.

By the time he uttered the last word, veins were bulging all over Ding Shen's head.

Cha Wu seemed to have anticipated Ding Shen's reaction long ago and simply remained silent.

"Do you think I don't know about the things you two old-timers have been scheming?"

"That guy Ma Qing wanted to use Anomalies to refine medicine, attempting to create some damn 'new humans.' I even captured Anomalies back then for his experiments."

"But look at the situation now..."

"..."

Back when Oasis was being established, Anomalies attacked the city.

Ding Shen made a contract with the Anomalies, agreeing to provide them with sacrifices at fixed intervals.

This was how they temporarily preserved Oasis.

Ma Qing, as an important figure in Oasis, proposed a completely new concept.

Superhumans were simply no match for Anomalies in terms of power.

Even with the Sequence Serums Ma Qing created, the number of humans who could awaken was still a minority.

There was even a portion of humans who used the Sequence Serums and ended up becoming new Anomalies themselves.

Thus, Ma Qing proposed a brand new theory.

The power of Anomalies and Supernatural Power were both forms of energy.

Why couldn't humans harness the power of Anomalies?

So Ma Qing began researching how to create an Anomaly power that humans could control.

During the period just after Oasis City had stabilized.

Ding Shen was the one who ventured outside the city the most.

He even captured quite a few Anomalies and brought them back to hand over to Ma Qing.

But Ma Qing never made any significant progress.

This continued until some abnormal situations began appearing in Oasis City.

To quote the "Tangled Crowd": "Outsiders have appeared in Oasis City."

Ding Shen felt that Ma Qing seemed to have changed somewhat, that he was no longer the Ma Qing he once knew.

Because of this, the two had a huge argument...

Now, Oasis City is in imminent danger.

Ma Qing convinced Cha Wu to activate the still-imperfect formation.

All to buy a few hours.

But, the same question remains.

Ding Shen no longer trusts Ma Qing. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Yet, with Oasis City in such dire straits, he has no choice but to believe.

Without Ma Qing, without Cha Wu, Oasis City wouldn't even have this little bit of time.

Perhaps, Oasis would already have become a new uninhabited forbidden zone.

...

In a certain basement within Oasis City.

A mass of black, unknown substance slowly grew larger.

Finally, it transformed into a humanoid shape.

Looking at the blood-stained white lab coat on the person and the weary expression on his face.

This person was none other than Oasis City's Deputy City Lord, Ma Qing, who had just been speaking with Cha Wu.

This basement was one Ma Qing had built himself back then.

Even Zhou Jueshen, an Architect Sequence Superhuman, had offered to help but was refused by him.

Exhausted, Ma Qing walked step by step toward the interior of the basement.

With each step he took, the lights inside the room brightened a little.

In the very center of the basement stood a lamp stand.

On the lamp stand was a black pill that was faintly wriggling.

The pill seemed to sense the presence of a living person.

As Ma Qing approached, the pill began emitting a gentle, dim yellow light.

This pill had no name, or perhaps Ma Qing couldn't be bothered to name it.

It was a byproduct from a previous time he was refining pills.

Whenever it detected the presence of a living person, this pill would glow like a light bulb, emitting a warm light.

Apart from illumination, no other issues with this pill had been discovered so far.

As the room filled with warm light.

The terrifying, withered human skin shadows covering the walls were gradually illuminated by this light.

Even behind Ma Qing, a withered human skin shadow had appeared at some unknown time.

But Ma Qing seemed completely unaware of this situation, or perhaps he simply didn't care.

If Ding Shen and other Superhumans were here.

They might be shocked speechless.

Because, these withered, shriveled human skin shadows bore a striking resemblance to the Pseudo-humans.

And the human skin shadow that had been following Ma Qing all along was the true form of a Pseudo-human.

A very unpleasant, very strained voice suddenly rang out.

"Who would have thought that the Pseudo-humans, which make people pale at the mere mention of them, were actually created by Doctor Ma's own hands."

"How ironic!"

"Humans, truly are complex creatures!"