Anjum Khan sent Xia Lei the documents half an hour later. One glance through it had Xia Lei glue his ass back to his seat.
Might Biotechnology Corporation had a secret research project titled ‘Reincarnation’.
Reincarnation was an aspect of Buddhism. When people die, their souls would exist in six realms, which were the higher realms of gods, humans and demi-gods and the lower realms of the animals, hungry ghosts and hell beings. It was their concept of the afterlife.
Reincarnation was a beautiful concept, it gave hope and taught its followers to do good. However, the sad truth was that nothing lives on after one’s death. There was no guarantee of life after death. A majority of people understood that, but Nahar was obviously not among them. The man was such a firm believer of the Buddhist Reincarnation concept that he even turned it into a scientific research project. Other than that, this project wasn’t a recent one, it had already started right after the success of Nahar’s business. It already had fifteen years of history!
The experiment required human subjects. In its earlier phase, Nahar used to experiment on children from the lower caste. The Indian police had investigated him after his shady experiment was exposed but the case was flimsy and had no sufficient evidence. From his journals about the experiment, Nahar had repeated it many times since then by replacing his living subjects with freshly dead corpses.
The two female bodies shown on screen by Anjum Khan were undoubtedly materials to Nahar’s Reincarnation Project. Before that, Xia Lei was perplexed as to why there were female corpses in the laboratory. But it suddenly made sense. He now understood the purpose of this project. Nahar was aiming to revive the dead through technology and forgo the six realms of reincarnation to remain on Earth.
Xia Lei found out through Anjum Khan’s document that though this project had run its course for about fifteen years with immense funds and effort from Nahar, the man had never managed to get a single successful case.
“Trees wither and people will grow old then die. It has always been Nature’s law and the rhythm of life. How could a measly human fight against that? Even our planet and the universe will meet its total destruction someday. Jeez, the man has strong foundations in biology yet he’s trying to use technology to raise the dead? What a joke.” Xia Lei couldn’t help but shake his head as he read the last line.
Flipping to the very end of the document, a picture came to sight. Xia Lei’s heart went still. He couldn’t believe his own eyes.
The picture on the screen had Gu Kewen in it!
Her skin was pale, eyes shut in serenity. The corner of her lips even had that faint smile she had when she died. It looked as if she had merely fallen asleep. Her body was still clad in the blood-stained winter battle attire from their last encounter. Those murky stains reminded Xia Lei that she was no longer in this world anymore.
After a few minutes, Xia Lei finally snapped back to reality. He muttered to himself, “How… Why is she involved in Might Biotech’s Reincarnation Project?”
After the battle in West province Dawang, Chinese authorities hadn’t disposed of the bodies immediately to wait for diplomatic involvement. The Americans and Indians had vehemently declined the claims that these were their men. With that, the bodies were left on the snowy mountain for a while but Xia Lei didn’t ask about what happened later on. With a turn of events, a picture of Gu Kewen’s body had made its appearance in the Reincarnation Project of an Indian biotechnology firm.
Since Nahar’s folder contained Gu Kewen’s picture, Xia Lei didn’t need to investigate on how her body was taken care of. No matter what had happened during that time, nothing will change the fact that Gu Kewen’s body was already in the hands of Might Biotech!
Abruptly, Xia Lei thought of that gigantic glass container. He thought of that woman soaked within its blood-red fluid. Could she be Gu Kewen?
Ning Jing, the voice in Ning Jing’s head that could command her death at will. Gu Kewen. Reincarnation Project. Ten million USD…
Xia Lei’s mind was filled to the brim by these thoughts. He felt as if there was an invisible connection between all of them but he just couldn’t find it yet.
“If Gu Kewen was in the container, could Nahar be aiming to revive her through this project? How is he going to achieve that despite not having a successful case in fifteen years? Could the ten million USD Ning Jing requested be funding this project? If that was true, why would Ning Jing ask me for that sum of money to revive Gu Kewen? They never knew each other!” Multiple hypotheses formed in his mind, but each one of them was quickly destroyed.
Inexplicably, another familiar face appeared in Xia Lei’s mind.
Zhu Xuanyue.
It probably wasn’t the first time Ning Jing was ‘possessed’. The last time would be when Ning Jing started to draw odd drawings under the influence of her ‘possession’. That was how he made it to the underground maze and awakened Zhu Xuanyue. The other time would be when Ning Jing got ‘possessed’ again and escaped the sanatorium to India after asking Xia Lei for ten million USD. She then got to Nahar and was already in the laboratory where Gu Kewen’s body was held.
Suddenly it all made sense, everything that had happened must have something to do with Zhu Xuanyue!
“She said she would be back. Don’t tell me… She’s trying to take over Gu Kewen’s body this time? She made Ning Jing send money over to get Nahar’s help? She’s so powerful but why didn’t she choose to control Nahar instead? What the hell is going on?!” Xia Lei’s brain was about to explode. His urge to book the next flight to India was uncontrollably strong.
Flipping past Gu Kewen’s picture, a purchase record soon appeared.
Written on the record was a piece of medical automation equipment bought for the Reincarnation Project. The automation had a high-level Artificial Intelligence baked into it and was able to execute minute work like brain surgery and nerve repair. The robot was probably one of the world’s most expensive automation and was sold in the market for five million USD.
As soon as Xia Lei read the line of words underneath the robot, he was stunned.
The medical robot was provided to Might Biotechn by the V Science Corporation under the Hattori clan!
Xia Lei was about to come to a conclusion but Hattori's involvement contributed more complexity to the case.
What came after the purchase record had nothing to do with the project.
But the information provided allowed Xia Lei to understand Nahar’s current situation.
Nahar was the founder of Might Biotechnology Corporation but he wasn’t the sole shareholder of the establishment. All his profits were thrown into the Reincarnation Project while the other shareholders had soon managed to figure a way to gain full control of Might Biotech. Nahar’s biggest problem now was not the desperate need to achieve some sort of scientific accomplishment but that he was about to get chased out of the corporation’s board of directors! There was no way he could afford such expensive automation from V Science Corp.
Xia Lei suddenly thought of Anjum Khan’s description of Nahar. Anjum Kahn’s first impression of Nahar was that he didn’t seem like a billionaire. The man had seemed more like a deranged neurotic university lecturer or researcher. If he was really filthy rich, it wouldn’t make sense for Nahar to drive himself to meet Ning Jing.
The sum Ning Jing took from him was to pay off Nahar’s debt to V Science Corp. Half of it would be used to repair Gu Kewen’s damaged nerve and the rest would fund the remaining experiment!
After Xia Lei was done going through the information, he pondered for a while in silence before picking up his satellite phone.
“It’s me.” Xia Lei’s tone was tense. “Gather everyone and head to New Delhi. Bring along our weapons. Yelena, you should contact Anjum Kahn immediately. He will arrange transport for you.”
“What is this about?” Yelena’s voice rang through the phone.
“I’m not sure but we must get to New Delhi.” Xia Lei couldn’t help but recall memories of that Japanese assassin. He had an inexplicable feeling that he might be reunited with the assassin he let slip last time in New Delhi.
“Alright, I’ll contact the others immediately. We’ll move soon.” Yelena continued, “Boss, are you coming with us?”
“Of course, but I’ll delay my arrival by a day. You guys head over first to prepare everything.”
“You should pick someone to escort you over. I’m not entirely certain you should come alone,” said Yelena.
Xia Lei gave it a thought. “Then I’ll have Tsukino Kyoko escort me to New Delhi.”
“Got it, I’ll reach out to the others now.” Yelena hung up.
Xia Lei then dialled for Anjum Khan.
“Boss, have you gone through the folder?” Anjum Khan continued, “What did you get from it?”
Xia Lei ordered in a low voice, “Leave Might Biotech immediately. Leave only your men there.”
“What’s going on?” Anjum Khan was perplexed.
“The Hattori clan is involved in this. They are extremely dangerous people you don’t want to mess with. You must leave now. Your strength alone is not strong enough to go against them. You’ll be in grave danger if they discover you.”
“Boss, aren’t you a little too paranoid?” Anjum Khan laughed. “This is India. This is my turf. Would a measly Japanese clan dare to do anything to me here?”
“This clan was the one who faced Bureau 101’s special force head-on in Dawang. They were the ones after me and Tang Yuyan. If I wasn’t lucky enough, I would’ve been long dead. China is my turf and I had support from Bureau 101, that didn’t do anything to stop them from attacking me. They had also hired fifty of the Indian Mountain Division to join their attack back then! That’s what I’m trying to tell you, do you understand now? Retreat! This is an order!” Xia Lei’s voice was progressively getting louder.
“Alright, I got it. I’ll retreat immediately.”
“Be careful.” Xia Lei hung up the phone after that.
The skies were dark and there were only a few hours before dawn. The Chinese Zodiac Battle Team had already started their mission but Xia Lei was stuck here for another day. He had to utilize the day to take care of everything and make appropriate arrangements. He also had his own personal mission of learning how to hack.
It was utter nonsense for one to become a hacker within a day, even for a professional hacker. But that wasn’t the case for Xia Lei. This bold thought wasn’t merely a daydream, it was more dependent on how willing he was to do it.
With an IQ of nine hundred and ninety-eight, impeccable memory and a brain that worked faster than a computer, he could do anything so long as he understood the foundations of the topic!
He sat in front of the office desk, opened up his browser and entered ‘Hacking for beginners’ into the Baidu search engine. A heap of information immediately appeared and Xia Lei soon started to put his super brain to work.