Breaking Through the Maze, Closing In on the Enemy's Nest, Displaying Power

Moonlight pierced the clouds, falling on the electronic red marks at the back of Bo Yu's neck, the dark red hue resonating with the titanium alloy door to the maze entrance.

Bo Yu carried Tang Yao to the cliff, and the blue light

Bo Yu followed the trail to the bronze door, only to find tha

At that moment, the bronze door shifted, and glowing codes crawled up the camera lens. Bo Yu tore the codes apart and saw the familiar light dust, realizing that he had to break through nine levels o

As Sima used the iris scan to unlock it, dozens of glowing codes suddenly slithered out of the bronze door's patterns, wrapping around the camera lens

"Three minutes," Bo Yu said, tearing through the writhing data streams. His fingertip brushed against the fluorescent powder left on the doorframe—identical to the glowing dust left on the beach the night Tang Yao disappeared. "We must break through the nine layers of traps before midnight."

The underground passage suddenly lit with ghostly blue wall lamps, and hundreds of bronze beast heads suddenly emerged from the concrete walls.

Dr. Shangguan froze for a moment, his scalpel hand halting midair. From the mouths of the beast heads, purple mist with a fishy scent began to spray.

"Hold your breath!" Bo Yu shouted, tearing off his jacket to cover his nose and mouth. His wolf eyes glowed amber as he darted through the mist. "The seventh tile in the northeast corner!"

A mocking laugh rang through the ventilation ducts, followed by the sudden collapse of the entire ceiling.

Bo Yu spun, grabbing Duanmu and rolling him into the corner of the wall. Concrete debris scraped against his back, and the totem on his shoulder blades suddenly grew hot.

Sima threw a grappling hook to catch a falling steel plate, the sound of metal colliding subtly synchronized with Morse code.

"They are cultivating a live maze," Dr. Shangguan said, using his scalpel to pry up a tile, revealing glowing blood vessel-like conduits beneath. "These mechanisms are connected to a biological lab…"

Before he could finish, eighteen beams of laser shot from the beast heads' eyes.

Bo Yu's combat boots crushed three tiles, and his wolf claws tore into the blood vessel pipes with a sharp thrust.

The entire maze suddenly trembled, a sound like a baby's cry filling the air. The beast heads all turned to the northwest, spraying not poisonous mist but a torrential blood rain.

"Follow the blood!" Bo Yu wiped the blood from his lashes. His pupils had already turned into vertical slits.

When he severed the seventh biological conduit, hidden traps suddenly sprang from the shadows. The sharp-toothed animal traps were studded with diamonds that matched Tang Yao's earring.

In the surveillance room, Military Advisor Ouyang toyed with the butterfly hairpin he had taken from Tang Yao's hair, the LCD screens reflecting the multiple iris patterns in his glasses. "Did you really think the Star Map was the key to breaking the maze?" He pressed a button on the control console, and all the bronze beast heads melted away. The steel walls began leaking a toxic, nerve-paralyzing slime. "It's time for our little wolf cub to experience the real live maze."

At that moment, Bo Yu crouched in front of the second trap door. The strand of hair Tang Yao had secretly placed in his palm before being taken away began to grow faint blue tendrils as he touched the lock.

As the hair's tip pierced the lock, the entire passage's lighting switched to dark red, and a sound resembling a wolf's howl echoed from a distance.

"It's not the Star Map," Bo Yu whispered, drawing a broken totem on the lock with his bloodied fingertip. "It's the twenty-eight bloody sacrificial paths…" When the last blood mark closed, the red marks on the back of his neck suddenly erupted in quantum entanglement, and the mechanical gears behind the door began to engage with a rhythmic grinding.

Bo Yu crushed the third blood-soaked tile under his boots and suddenly caught the scent of faint rose perfume in the air.

It reminded him of the lip print Tang Yao had left on the edge of his coffee cup three days ago, the same sharp yet dangerous fragrance.

"Stop!" He suddenly grabbed Duanmu, nearly stepping on a sensor line. The wolf tooth necklace on the young reporter's neck glinted in the ghostly blue light. "Do you see those breathing lights? Every seven seconds, they trigger a sonic attack."

Dr. Shangguan used his scalpel to scrape away the flesh-colored moss growing on the walls and uncovered a miniature bone conduction device embedded inside. "No wonder Xiao Wang's eardrums started bleeding earlier. Bo Yu, how did you notice this?"

"Tang Yao taught me how to listen for heartbeats," Bo Yu's fingertip traced the damp wall as the melting slime from the beast heads began to form new fingerprint locks. "These mechanisms… are mimicking human blood circulation rhythms."

A mechanical female voice suddenly cut through the air, freezing everyone in place. Eighteen laser beams descended from the ceiling, weaving a portrait of Tang Yao's profile on the floor.

Bo Yu's pupils instantly contracted into slits, the red marks on his neck resonating with the laser grid, projecting a dynamic image of the twenty-eight star constellations in midair.

"Follow the position of Tianxuan!" He threw his jacket toward the northeast corner surveillance camera. As the fabric burned under the laser, the group narrowly passed through the closing laser grid.

Duanmu's side pocket suddenly popped out a can of anti-wolf spray, which he expertly used to disable an infrared alarm.

Dr. Shangguan ran while marking the wall with his scalpel. "Bo Yu, these markings… seem to be guiding us?"

"It's Sima's signal," Bo Yu suddenly leapt up, kicking a mechanical hunting dog out of the way. The blue poison on its teeth eroded the wall, leaving Morse code behind. "He said… the lab is breeding a live maze."

As the seventh hydraulic door slammed shut behind them, the group entered a cavernous space filled with stalactites.

Bo Yu suddenly pressed his throbbing temple—the air was thick with the scent of Tang Yao's shampoo, mixed with the rusty tang of blood.

"Careful!" Duanmu suddenly threw his camera into the air. At the flash of the camera, twenty poisoned darts clinked and embedded themselves into the stone wall.

Bo Yu rolled behind a stalactite, noticing blood droplets on its surface. They were forming the pattern of the Big Dipper.

Master Murong stepped out from the shadows. The gold-threaded embroidery on his black Tang suit seemed to writhe like cursed insects. "Little wolf cub, is your girlfriend's blood particularly sweet?" He swung his nine-section whip, shattering three stone pillars. The debris revealed buzzing nano-robots.

Bo Yu's blocking arm went numb from the impact, and he suddenly realized the bells tied to Murong's whip were mimicking Tang Yao's laughter.

The furious wolf howl shattered the ceiling's stalactites, and Bo Yu surged forward, his combat boots leaving blood prints that formed a dragon-trapping formation on the floor.

"Is this all you've got?" Murong laughed wildly, throwing a pair of twin hooked axes, but Bo Yu intentionally exposed his right shoulder.

Just as the cold weapons were about to pierce his flesh, the young man bit down on the axe's blade with his wolf teeth, twisting it to stab into Murong's foot.

The sharp pain caused Murong to stagger back, stepping right onto his own poison thorns.

Seizing the opportunity, Bo Yu spun and kicked him into a pool of corrosive liquid bubbling with green foam. "Your heartbeat was 0.7 seconds slower than the mechanism—that's your fatal flaw!"

In the surveillance room, Military Advisor Ouyang crushed his coffee cup.

He watched as Bo Yu's wolf claws tore through the final biological membrane barrier, suddenly breaking into an eerie grin. "Activate the 'Mirror Maze,' it's time for our werewolf to meet an old friend."

As the team reached the core area, the holographic projection from Sima made Bo Yu's pupils quake.

The screen showed Tang Yao imprisoned in a glass chamber surrounded by blue roses, and the electronic tattoo on her neck was entangled in quantum resonance with the red marks on Bo Yu's neck.

"Bo Yu…" Dr. Shangguan suddenly picked up a chip that had fallen from Murong's body. "This chip has Tang Yao's DNA sequence on it!"

Bo Yu's wolf claws carved deep scratches in the alloy wall. He suddenly remembered the illusions projected on his retina during the poison fog zone. It turned out Tang Yao had used lip language to tell him a specific geographic coordinate before she was moved.

"Duanmu, check this coordinate!" He wrapped the bloodstained hair around the locator, and the light blue tendrils suddenly grew into a navigation arrow. "Dr. Shangguan, prepare the antidote. The upcoming battle… may involve facing another version of me."

A familiar wolf howl echoed from the depths of the maze, carrying the scent of blood and electronics.

The red marks on the back of Bo Yu's neck started to burn. He looked ahead to the cloning chamber at the end of the passage, the glass casing reflecting nine pairs of red glowing eyes—themselves.