Just three minutes before 3 PM, Taya left her office and walked towards the conference hall.

As she finally reached the conference hall door and opened it, she saw many men in business suits sitting around the large oval table.

??

Upon hearing the door being opened, the person who was sitting at one of the head seats of the table swirled around to look at Taya with a smile.

Taya's brows crinkled upon seeing a familiar face which was a man in his mid-thirties, looking suave and handsome clothed in a stylish yet presentable suit.

He had thick neat eyebrows, and his light brown blonde hair was neatly parted towards the side, giving him a neat look and more shine to his fair face.

His eyes had a feverish ripple upon seeing Taya's beautiful countenance that was as beautiful and bright as the full moon, enrapturing his eyes no matter how many times he had seen her before.

Her proud and cold expression made her seem as elegant and graceful as a swan, and a person who was untouchable by mere mortals, fanning the flames of passion inside him even more.

However, he suppressed his thoughts as he slowly got up and extended his hand for a handshake, "Long time no see, Taya."

Taya's expression remained impassive as she said with folded arms, "Good afternoon, Mr. Fabian. I reckon you had something important to discuss with me? Please make it fast because I have other meetings scheduled."

Fabian smiled, "Don't worry, I will only take ten minutes from your time." He then looked at his men and gestured to them to leave.

The men who accompanied him instantly left the room, leaving Taya and Fabian in the empty conference hall.

"Please take a seat, Taya."

"Fabian, if this is about the same thing as before, then my answer is still a 'No'," Taya firmly said as she sat in one of the seats.

Fabian sat down on the chair next to her and, even after hearing her words, said with a smile, "Please, before you decide on anything, let me explain."

"What is it?" Taya asked impatiently.

Fabian said proudly, "We made a breakthrough in our experiments over the recent years, and even though I wanted to tell you this before, I still decided to wait a bit more to make sure our products were effective according to our expectations."

Taya frowned and scoffed, "Products? Do you mean human guinea pigs? So even after all the warnings I gave you, you still continued to carry on those vile human trials? Don't tell me you are again experimenting using that dangerous essence I shared with you all those years ago by replicating it?"

"You mean the Sacred Essence? I am still amazed how you came up with such a powerful essence and to think that the original sample only had a single drop. If this was not classified, you would have received awards and honors for it," Seeing how Fabian didn't refute and was still looking at her with a slight smile, Taya became infuriated, "How could you be so foolish? Have you still not learned your lesson after causing the Qovid-19 pandemic? A simple strain of the virus which even the immune system of an old person can easily eliminate got mutated and powerful after you introduced a speck of that Sacred Essence to that virus despite my warnings."

"It easily killed millions of people around the world. Don't you ever feel guilty about it or sorry for the people who died without having any idea that they died because of some experiment that went wrong? If it wasn't for the Department of Defense covering your tracks, you and the parties funding you would already have been judged by the whole world. I can't believe how callous the DoD of my country can be. No...it was my mistake to trust you with my research all those years ago...and my fault too for the death of all those people..." Taya said with a sad and disappointed sigh.

Fabian's expression didn't get fazed, and he said with a sigh, "Taya, please don't make me look like a villain or blame yourself. It was just an accident. How could I and the others possibly predict that such a tragedy could occur? We were dealing with something we have never seen before and don't fully understand yet. Trust me. If I knew about this, I would have never gone ahead with it."

Taya glanced away as she shook her head slightly, being skeptical about his words.

"But look on the brighter side. We learned how unimaginably powerful this Sacred Essence could be and the limitless potential it offers. If a simple virus strain could mutate into something that powerful, imagine how it would affect us, humans. Think about it. You and I could change and revolutionize the whole world. People would be singing our names in praise, and we would be able to even achieve the things we wanted for the evolution and betterment of humans," Fabian said in a zealous tone.

"Health-wise, cancer, and HIV would be a thing of the past. And military-wise, we don't have to send too many soldiers to their deaths to protect our country. Instead, with the potential of enhanced soldiers, five enhanced men could do the work of 100 ordinary men or maybe even more. Lots of young soldiers are being enlisted in the army every year, and if the project I am heading becomes a success, then these good men and women can return to their families safe and well," Fabian continued zestfully.

Taya dismissively chuckled and said, "So it's still not successful, and you are still experimenting on humans, right?"

Fabian parted his lips and, after a brief hesitation, said in a stiff tone, "Yes, but we are getting results. Things are already looking promising recently. We just want you on the team just like old times and make this project a success. Remember how passionate we were about our research and how many advancements we made in our field?"

"No, Fabian. I heard enough. Even now, sometimes, I hear the screams of those poor people who underwent those trials in my sleep and how they bitterly suffered for at least an hour before they died. No...I can't be a part of such cruelty anymore, and I will never condone it," Taya sternly said.

Fabian sighed and said as he pressed his forehead, "Look, we are not forcing them. These people voluntarily signed for this, and we even pay their families a huge sum of money as compensation. These people literally have no aim in life, or they are wasted. At least they are doing us a favor by volunteering for these trials. Sometimes we have to make necessary sacrifices for the greater good, especially in medicine. How do you think our advancements in medicine even reached this level? It's all because of continuous experimentation on live subjects, including humans."

"I know. But these people have no idea what they were signing up for, do they? Did they know that they would be feeling their insides tearing apart inside out for over an hour before their body and mind gives away? It is no different than brutal torture. You people won't even give them anesthetics to turn off their pain receptors, thinking that it could influence the results. How ridiculous and inhumane," Taya said with a stiff look.

Fabian rubbed his forehead and finally said with a sigh, "Alright. We will do things your way. Just please come with me and help me do this. We are really close in succeeding, and besides, we need your help to study the mysterious and powerful Star Crystal. After all, you know we were the first ones to find it. Don't you?"

Hearing his words, Taya looked at him with a narrowed gaze.

historical

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A/N: Just to make sure, don't consider this novel to be the typical cultivation novel. It is NOT and I have a different idea. And nor are the characters introduced so far other than the MC centuries or more old. They are people like us with normal mindsets without any kill or be killed mindsets like we read in cultivation novels. So don't expect their thinking(including the antagonists) to be cynical without good reason. Consider the background they are coming from before assuming things. I just see some readers who are probably reading cultivation novels with massacres and killings every day, thereby assuming mindsets of certain characters in this novel. So just wanted to make sure they and everyone think before assuming anything like this. Thus, be patient and wait for proper development since the characters are not going to be two dimensional ones. They(major characters) would have their own origin story, motives that clearly explain their actions unlike the usual cardboard characters or templates we find in certain novels.

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