At that moment, two large ships slowly sailed into the Dawn Base.
A beautiful woman from West Asia with a high-bridged nose stepped off one of the large ships.
"Lady Hailan, you’re finally here!" the Dawn Base’s interim leader greeted her respectfully.
Hailan’s expression was frosty. She gave a slight nod and asked, "Are the test subjects ready?"
"Yes, my lady. They are all prepared," the leader replied in a reverent voice. "We’re just awaiting your grace!"
"Take me there," Hailan said flatly.
The leader immediately led Hailan to one of the large ships, where personnel from the Dawn Base were being held captive.
Hailan looked at the captives and spoke. "Cooperate with our experiment and you’ll be rewarded with five hundred milliliters of purified water. Otherwise, you die."
A nearby translator conveyed Hailan’s meaning to all the captives.
This reward wasn’t a sign of humane policy from the Xi’an Base. Rather, they needed to obtain normal data. A dehydrated person’s physical condition is abnormal, which would introduce errors into the test results.
At the same time, Hailan wanted to know what the test subjects were feeling. Only with their cooperation could they describe their sensations.
The captives had no choice. Not cooperating meant death. They had survived this long—who wouldn’t want to keep on living?
The members of the Dawn Base could only nod in agreement.
"Excellent," Hailan said with a slight nod. Then, she ordered the leader beside her, "Separate them according to their physical constitution, then give them water."
"Yes, ma’am!" The leader nodded and immediately ordered his soldiers to bring over the water.
Hailan, meanwhile, returned to the research vessel to begin her pre-experiment preparations.
After drinking the water, the captives waited for nearly two more hours before being separated and led away.
The first batch to be tested consisted of those with weaker constitutions.
If even those with weak constitutions could succeed, the probability of success for the stronger ones would be even higher. And if they failed, these weaker individuals were slated to be eliminated anyway.
The captives began screaming in agony the moment they were injected with the Evolution Potion.
Yet the researchers under Hailan’s command listened to the bloodcurdling screams with perfectly calm expressions. They had heard too many screams and had become completely immune.
"Monitor their physical conditions at all times. Based on previous experiments, if they can survive for twenty-four to thirty-six hours, they should complete the evolution," Hailan said in a low, serious voice. "Keep a close watch on the subjects who complete the process. If there are any anomalies, terminate them immediately."
"Yes, ma’am!" the researchers replied in unison.
Hailan turned and left the laboratory, the agonized screams continuing behind her.
At lunchtime, Lu Jiamei and the others gathered in the dining hall next to the base office. The only one missing was Qin Haonan, who was away on a mission.
"Leader, did the Aircraft Carrier Base agree to send their supply ships over?"
Earlier that morning, Xin Wan had gone to prepare lunch right after making her suggestion, so she hadn’t yet had a chance to ask Ren Yuanyang about the outcome of his discussion with the Aircraft Carrier Base.
Ren Yuanyang nodded slightly. "They agreed. They even agreed that we could give them the semi-finished goods directly and let them handle the processing themselves."
"That’s wonderful," Xin Wan said with a smile. "Even though our base has more people now, our manpower is still limited. The Aircraft Carrier Base has abundant human resources; we can’t let that go to waste!"
Lu Jiamei agreed. "That’s right. We can hand over everything that needs processing to the Aircraft Carrier Base and just take the finished products from them!"
"Hmm, it’s worth considering," Ren Yuanyang replied. "But our base must also learn how to do the processing. We can’t become completely dependent on outsiders, or we’ll be at their mercy."
Lu Jiamei paused for a moment, then nodded. "You’re right."
"We can discuss the details of processing later," Ren Yuanyang continued. "It only becomes a meaningful conversation after the Aircraft Carrier Base takes down the Dawn Base."
If the Aircraft Carrier Base couldn’t capture the Dawn Base, the distance between their base and the carrier would be too great. Transporting raw materials for processing and then bringing the finished products back would be far too time-consuming.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Leader, our stockpiles are basically full. Should we continue production?" Xin Wan asked.
"Let’s have them rest for half a day, then. This afternoon and tonight, the Banyan Forest should be able to expand by a considerable area. We’ll resume production tomorrow," Ren Yuanyang replied after a moment of thought.
"Alright, I’ll go inform Si Youqin and her team," Xin Wan said with a nod.
"Leader," Lu Jiamei began with a frown, "those Evolver captives are tying up too much of our manpower. Should we use poison to control them, like we did with Yu Ren? That would free up some of our people."
Ren Yuanyang looked conflicted. He had considered using poison from the start, but there were too many people in James’s group. What if they had a death wish and tried to take the Peach Blossom Base down with them? He himself wasn’t afraid—even if they all attacked at once, it would be difficult for them to hurt him—but the others were vulnerable.
"It would put all of you in too much danger to do that now." Ren Yuanyang shook his head. "Let’s wait. If they behave well, we can consider it."
Lu Jiamei nodded.
Hua Lingfang spoke up. "After being held for two days, they should understand that as long as they’re obedient, they can live a better life here. Once they’ve had a taste of a good life, they shouldn’t be so eager to die."
"Theoretically, yes. But we can’t rule out the possibility of a few psychos in the mix," Ren Yuanyang replied with a sigh.
"Then let them manage themselves," Hua Lingfang suggested. "If a problem arises, implement collective punishment. But if they identify and solve problems on their own beforehand, we give them a reward."

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