What was a high-grade life-prolonging serum?

That was the magical cure for one of the most difficult to cure diseases for every form of life: aging!

Humans, like almost every other form of life, were natural products that came with an expiration date. The cost of growing them was substantial, but the cost of maintaining their operation rose exponentially as they continued to exceed their original expiration date.

It was not that difficult for a typical baseline human to live beyond 130 years old by receiving special treatment. While the price was not affordable to ordinary humans, the wealthy could probably secure a modest extension after paying a very significant price.

The real challenge came beyond this initial period. Trying to extend the life of a person who was already operating beyond his original parameters became at least ten times as hard.

Fortunately, a second round of life-prolonging treatment was not out of reach for the wealthiest citizens of a typical second-rate state.

What about after that, though? Though Ves did not comprehend the specifics, Ranya once told him that a third round of treatment was at least ten times more difficult than the preceding one. This pattern continued until not even the Big Two had the technology or resources to extend the life of an ancient geezer who should have died centuries ago!

Though Ves only possessed a very shallow understanding of life-prolonging treatment serum, he had his own unique insights on them after owning a vial once.

At his age, he had plenty of time to spare before he needed to worry about extending his life.

The true value of the serum rested in its incredibly potent universal life-attributed spiritual energy!

This mysterious quality, which Ves suspected to be the key to the efficacy of the serum, was one of the best spiritual ingredients that he had ever come across!

His own life attribute excelled at creating life where there was none. This was what he was working towards, so of course it had to excel in this aspect.

His mother apparently couldn't replicate this capability, but she was much better at draining and converting heterogenous spiritual energy.

Both of them utilized life energy in different applications. They worked better for some purposes and didn't work at all for other purposes.

What was remarkable about the life energy derived from life-prolonging treatment serum was that it was incredibly potent and universal!

It had a gentle, neutral quality that could basically merge with anything without generating any rejection. This turned it into a powerful amplifier that could provide an enormous qualitative and quantitative boost to his spiritual products!

So far, Ves utilized the energy derived from the serum to create some of his best spiritual products. The Superior Mother, Lufa and Sharpie all gained boundless potential due to the all-around improvement granted by the high-quality energy.

Unfortunately, Ves lost the potency of the serum in his possession to his mother before he could do more with what was left. If he knew that his voracious mother would suck his energy without any regard for propriety, he would have used up his universal life energy a long time ago! He could have created a lot more wonders if his vial still retained much of its potency!

This was one of his life-long regrets. He often thought back on the Battle of the Abyss and how much he sacrificed in order to secure victory. He always wanted to travel back in time so that he could beat his younger self on the head for being stupid enough to venture so deep into the Nyxian Gap!

Ves thought this would stay as a dream for a very long time. The cheapest form of life-prolonging treatment serum was no longer inaccessible to him, but the MTA and CFA imposed multiple arduous requirements to those who wished to obtain the high-grade variants!

He gave up on obtaining them through regular channels after he learned how many barriers were in the way.

Yet this time was different.

The news provided by Commander Rivington sent a shudder through his body.

He did not fully appreciate the full value of high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum until he had finally lost it all to his mother. He experienced many frustrating instances in the future where he felt he could have accomplished more if his serum was still intact!

Now that he had the chance to make up for it, Ves did not want to let go of this promising opportunity!

Still, his sense of prudence quickly reasserted itself. Though it normally didn't play a major role in his life, common sense dictated that something as supremely valuable as high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum should never be easy to obtain!

This was especially so if it was stored inside one of the Supreme Sage's mysterious pinnacle labs! These top-end research facilities were incredibly desirable by pretty much every faction in the LRA. Ves doubted that he and his mob could just barge past their biomechs, pass through all of the security measures and pull out a vial or two like he was shopping for groceries!

Though his greed for the serum threatened to overwhelm all of his good sense, Ves was still able to calm his raging emotions.

He did not forget about his current circumstances. Though he managed to gather an expanded mob of Lifers who he managed to convert to the Larkinson Clan, the hundreds of biomechs at his disposal could easily be crushed by any major organized force!

Ves needed to gather more details in order to make a more thorough consideration on whether he should go for it. A single vial of serum was not worth his life!

He turned his attention back to Commander Rivington. "Tell me what gives you the confidence to bring this up with me. If this is just a rumor, you wouldn't have bothered to waste my time."

The former competitive team leader had done a decent job at organizing all of the newly-induced clansmen. Even with the help of the Larkinson Network, it was not easy to get every single Lifer in line, especially when many of them were previously members of gangs, eccentric organizations and fringe groups.

"Well, it's like this, Mr. Larkinson. Do you remember Spiritus Sancti?"

Ves glowered. "Yes, I do. It's the cult that treats biotechnology as a faith rather than a science. Samandra Avikon used to be a part of this organization as well."

Though he had his apprehensions for the weirdos with the purple mechs, Samandra and her cultists had remained well-behaved so far. Aside from their insistence on maintaining their religious beliefs, they got along decently well with other Larkinsons.

The only caveat was that the vast majority of 'Larkinsons' in his airfleet consisted of other former citizens of the Life Research Association. It remained to be seen whether the cultists would be able to adjust to life in his main fleet where the majority of clansmen did not have much affection for biomechs.

"Well, sir, the primary source for this intelligence comes from the former members of Spiritus Sancti."

"What?! Are you sure?!"

"Perhaps it is best to hear from her yourself. I have already taken the liberty of summoning her. She'll be arriving soon enough."

In the meantime, Rivington explained the other clues they gathered about a possible pinnacle lab in the vicinity that may have relations with life-prolonging treatment.

"After an investigation, we have pinned down two possible locations for a pinnacle lab." He said as he projected a map of the greater metropolitan area. "Ruuzon Arena may be one of the most probable possibilities. The extreme defenses, the oversized underground complex and the constant fighting that still goes on in the area are all indicators that there is something of extreme value there. There is no other reason for the opposing factions to fight so hard over a simple arena."

Ves firmly nodded. He agreed with this logic. He didn't need to listen to any rumors to know that there was something fishy going on in that place. Perhaps the instance where its audience platforms turned into killer tree tentacles was not a random terrorist act!

Although the airfleet was currently far away from the arena, they could still perceive the intensive fighting going on to this day through their long-ranged sensors. The Larkinsons also came in touch with witnesses who had fled the city center after falling victim to the copious amount of collateral damage that the fighting forces were producing every day. Practically every tree structure in the surrounding districts had already been trashed from all of the ordnance flying around!

"While I think you are definitely on to something, Ruuzon Arena is not a place where we should return. We almost lost our lives to the chaos in our efforts to get away from that warzone. Even if there are 100 vials of high-grade life-prolonging treatment serum in storage over there, there is no way I'll return!"

The risks were too high. Not even Ves could stomach the extremely high likelihood of getting targeted by powerful hostile forces.

These mech forces and their backers would never allow a random outsider to compete for the treasures of a pinnacle lab!

Commander Rivington looked a little more relieved. "I agree with you. The second possible location should not be as dangerous. You mentioned something about an unreasonably large warehouse depot. I've read through Venerable Tusa's reports on his scouting runs and tasked some of my men to dig up more information."

"Did your investigations yield anything?"

"We didn't manage to get access to solid records and other data, but we did find a few former workers of the warehouse complex. Despite the unusual location of the depot, the containers that pass through this place are always properly accounted for. They are sourced from normal biotech companies and they are shipped to various destinations on the planet, not just nearby biotech facilities. It seems as if the warehouse is merely situated in this poor region in order to take advantage of the low regional taxes and other preferential policies."

"That shouldn't be all if this is everything you've managed to gather." Ves replied while steepling his fingers.

"Correct, sir. One of my investigators thought to look up something different. He tracked the news of visits of prominent old guests to the planet. It is quite rare for centuries-old dignitaries to visit Prosperous Hill VI, so each time they come, the news inevitably mentions their names."

"What did you find?"

"For one, they rarely visit Prosperous Hill IV, which is considered to be a much more elite and high-class environment to entertain important dignitaries. Instead, most of them chose to stay in Prosperous Hill VI for weeks and months at a time. The news makes few to no mentions of their appearances during their stay, but they have to be somewhere. Doesn't this sound as if they are being treated?"

Ves furrowed his brows. "This is not a proven correlation. These important dignitaries could be engaged in many other activities during their stay. They don't need to publicize their entire itineraries."

"Ah, but we have another clue that makes their visits more notable. Those companies that are shipping containers to the warehouse depot? Several of them are owned in part or in full by those ancient dignitaries. It's rare, but there are enough instances for us to conclude that there is definitely something secret taking place!"

Now this was more suspicious! The amount of companies that operated in the LRA and the rest of the star sector was immense. Even the slice of companies that produced resources relevant to the biotech industry numbered into the millions or billions!

Ves became more and more convinced that Rivington was on to something. "This is compelling circumstantial proof, but it's not enough to conclude that the warehouse is tied to a pinnacle lab. Alternate explanations still exist."

"We are aware of that. That is why the testimony from the former members of Spiritus Sancti is important. On their own, their words are not convincing enough, but combined with the intelligence we've gathered, the picture grows stronger."

While Ves normally wasn't inclined to believe the words of a cultist, this time was different. If there was enough supporting evidence, then it might be worthwhile to take this person seriously!