Two invisible forces intertwined and passed by.
Wang Jixuan felt dizzy and suddenly extremely tired.
"Hmph!"
Zheng Shiduo let out a muffled grunt and stumbled backward.
Ling Tong, who had been quietly observing, suddenly took action!
She grabbed Wang Jixuan with her right arm and pulled him back, while her left arm swung out with a punch, sending a fiery energy from her fist straight to Zheng Shiduo's neck.
Zheng Shiduo clutched his neck and fell to his knees.
"Cough! Cough cough... Damn... all familiar faces... was it really necessary to hit so hard... I was just trying to help him sleep..."
Zheng Shiduo's face turned a deep purple.
Her punch had opened up, releasing a stunning energy that knocked Zheng Shiduo unconscious, his hair standing on end, his face darkened, but he was clearly not in danger of death.
On Wang Jixuan's side, it felt like he had fallen into a warm embrace.
Although the burning mechanical arm was still hard, the other parts seemed... pretty much like a normal woman...
A glimmer of golden light appeared before Wang Jixuan's eyes. He silently recited a spell and contemplated the mysteries of the world, and that feeling of tiredness quickly faded away.
Was that technique just now from Zheng Shiduo?
He felt his eyelids getting heavy, and the drowsiness kept coming. He could hear Zhou Zhengde and the others shouting nearby.
"What’s going on! Mu Liang is injured!"
"Team Leader Mu!"
"These psychics are really unreliable!"
Ling Tong said, "Team Leader Mu is fine... Zheng Shiduo released a mild mental interference. He was trying to stop me from investigating, intending to protect his friend, Professor Zhuang, so I purposely showed a flaw to lure him into acting."
As she spoke, Ling Tong tied her long hair into a high ponytail and removed a transparent patch hidden in her hair.
With a slight effort from her left mechanical arm, she lifted Wang Jixuan up and used her right mechanical arm to grab a nearby metal box.
Ling Tong quietly ordered, "I've called for the armored vehicle from the Clean-Up Team. Please tie up Zheng Shiduo. We might be able to get some unfavorable testimony against Professor Zhuang from him."
Zhou Zhengde looked at Wang Jixuan in Ling Tong's mechanical arm.
He actually wanted to carry his comrade.
But seeing how effortlessly Ling Tong handled it, Zhou Zhengde didn't say anything and turned to deal with Zheng Shiduo.
It wasn't that Zhou was scared; it was just a bit of necessary respect for the battle princess.
...
After coming to this world, it was the first time Wang Jixuan felt such a sense of safety.
He took the chance to rest for a while, about ten minutes, and then felt himself being gently placed on a hard seat in a vehicle as it started moving slowly.
After about two minutes, he heard voices around him.
At this point, Wang Jixuan was no longer feeling very tired.
Zheng Shiduo coughed a few times, cursing loudly, "Ling Tong! Do you really want to kill me? I was just trying to help you sleep!"
"This is the only reason you can still talk here," Ling Tong replied, her voice still light. "I've reported your violations to the command center. You will be interrogated when you return."
"Let them interrogate me! Worst case, they lock me up! I’ll just take it as a vacation!"
Zhou Zhengde sighed, "Can I ask you a few questions, Captain Zheng?"
"No! Only a dog would cooperate with you!"
Zheng Shiduo was being stubborn.
Zhou Zhengde earnestly said, "Then I’ll just send a message to my elders at home, saying you tried to use mental shock to turn me into an idiot."
Zheng Shiduo replied, "Can you repeat that question?"
"Can I ask you a few questions?"
"Of course! I'm happy to share the secrets of psychics with everyone."
Zheng Shiduo winked at Zhou Zhengde.
Zhou Zhengde frowned and asked, "What exactly is the material? Just ordinary humans?"
Zheng Shiduo sighed, "Not just anyone can become material. There are three important indices involved.
"The three indices are: Mental Activity Index, Anti-Dark Index, and a somewhat mystical Individual Will.
"Only human individuals that meet the baseline for all three indices are called materials.
"Materials are sent to the psychic homes in each fortress, where there is a set of equipment. Going in and out, there's a twenty percent chance of survival, and eighty percent will die in various ways.
"Those who survive have a fifteen percent chance of mastering psychic abilities.
"In other words, out of a hundred materials, ideally, three to four psychics can be born, and many of those are E-level or even lack combat power.
"To produce a C-level psychic, you need to sacrifice an average of five hundred materials."
Zhou Zhengde fell silent.
Wang Jixuan secretly shook his head.
The Thirteen Institutes were indeed a dark organization, even worse than a demonic cult.
Even a demonic cult wouldn’t have such high losses when forging blood magic soldiers.
Zheng Shiduo sighed, "As for me, I’m quite special. I started as a glorious soldier, severely injured and on the brink of death when I received psychic infusion, and then I... took off!"
He continued to grumble, "Basically, the psychics that the military can directly command have experiences similar to mine.
"But there’s a complicated system involved.
"Twisted, redundant, and inefficient."
Zhou Zhengde said, "I found out before that every psychic is restricted by the local commander, who must be an ordinary human. Why is that?"
"Exactly. We call them direct controlled individuals.
"I have two direct controlled individuals: the command center of the war zone and Professor Zhuang."
Zheng Shiduo shrugged slightly, "The system set up by the Thirteen Institutes is very complicated and deliberately shrouded in secrecy, with many scandals.
"At the fortress level, the local commander, controlling forty low-level psychics, can act like a tyrant.
"But at the war zone and comprehensive war zone levels, the psychic commanders become loyal dogs for the military, their balls tightly squeezed.
"Quite a strange ecological structure, right?
"The reason is simple: too many people control the lives of psychics."
Zhou Zhengde asked, "Why does every fortress need to have forty psychics?"
Ling Tong quickly explained, "Forty psychics are the standard for a fortress. Their role is to prevent shape-shifting blade beasts from entering the fortress and causing trouble. They do have some significance."
Wang Jixuan, pretending to be asleep, thought for a moment.
Shape-shifting blade beasts... shapeshifting monsters?
A shapeshifting monster must be at least comparable to a Golden Core cultivator, right?
Can these low-level psychics, who don’t even have much energy, really fight against shape-shifting blade beasts?
Are shape-shifting blade beasts not very strong? Or are they different from the monsters he understands?
Wang Daolong tried to think hard.
Zheng Shiduo complained, "Alright, let me give you a little education. I hope this can earn me a bit of goodwill from you.
"All of this information has been deliberately hidden and is not visible to those below a certain rank.
"It all stems from the psychic capital riot over sixty years ago.
"A few SS-level psychics in the psychic capital tried to establish a psychic government for all humanity, consolidating all resources to gain more power. To achieve their ambition, they instigated a little-known human civil strife—the Psychic Capital Rebellion."
Wang Jixuan: ...
Wow!
The people here were almost wiped out by blade beasts, yet they still had the energy for internal power struggles?
Zheng Shiduo spoke passionately, "These SS-level psychics failed.
"But their power was too great, and no one knows exactly what happened. The military ultimately chose to negotiate with them.
"I speculate it was because many psychics chose to stand with the Joint Defense Army. Under the pressure of the Joint Defense Army and the three major space fortresses, these SS-level psychics had to bow their heads. They were then imprisoned in the center of the psychic capital, the old headquarters of the Thirteen Institutes.
"I also heard they live with the largest nuclear bomb in human history. If they leave that building, boom! They and the psychic capital would be blown to smithereens.
"The psychic system was then modified by the military, resulting in the first distortion.
"Through negotiations, it was stipulated that the command work of the psychic organization must be carried out by ordinary human researchers, war zone commanders, or fortress governors.
"From the moment each psychic is born, a self-destruct chip is implanted in their neck. This chip sends signals to several servers at regular intervals.
"After decades of open and covert struggles between the military and the Thirteen Institutes, the situation has become extremely complicated, and the distortions have intensified.
"The old folks who suppressed the Psychic Capital Rebellion are almost all dead, but those SS-level psychics are still alive and kicking, constantly trying to regain control over all psychics.
"Kong Nu is just a small pawn for them."
Zhou Zhengde frowned, "My grandfather is still very healthy! He was one of the suppressors back then!"
"That kind of big shot who turned themselves into machines can't be counted! They are not replicable!"
Zheng Shiduo sighed and continued to complain, "Since the permission for infusion at fortress points was opened, the fortress-level commanders can directly send materials and newly cultivated psychics to the headquarters of the psychic capital.
"Like this Kong Nu.
"Kong Nu's direct superior is Professor Zhuang. Old Zhuang's daily job is to check the local commanders of each fortress and assist the war zone in psychic scheduling.
"In reality, Professor Zhuang can only directly command a few hundred psychics, all frontline psychics. He works diligently next to your grandfather and really has nothing to do with Kong Nu.
"The lives of these psychics in Fortress 76 are controlled by a three-level control system: the direct controller Kong Nu, the superior controller Professor Zhuang, and the highest controller, the psychic capital.
"But Professor Zhuang is on the front lines; how could he manage things here?"
Everyone pondered.
Zheng Shiduo spoke sincerely, "Young Master Zhou, if possible, I hope you can explain to the Commander-in-Chief on behalf of Professor Zhuang.
"Old Zhuang is not just my supervisor; he’s also my life mentor. He is truly innocent. Most of his time is spent researching how to optimize infusion and reduce material deaths. Old Zhuang is not on the same side as someone like Kong Nu, who is trying to squeeze into the psychic capital.
"Old Zhuang is part of the anti-psychic state faction, opposing the establishment of a national regime by psychics. He is also a big shot in the field of psychic infusion."
Zhou Zhengde shrugged, "I will continue to investigate these matters."
Wang Jixuan opened his eyes, calmly moving his head away from Ling Tong's mechanical arm and sitting up straight.
Zheng Shiduo looked as if he had seen a ghost.
"You, an E-level psychic, why are you awake now? Is my sleep spell no good anymore?"
"I'm not a psychic," Wang Jixuan stared at Zheng Shiduo's chest, "Team Zhou, can you hand me his pendant?"
Zhou Zhengde yanked Zheng Shiduo's pendant off and handed it to Wang Jixuan.
Wang Jixuan held it in his hand, feeling a slight thrill of energy.
This item was similar to a spirit stone, much simpler than a monster's core, with a purity of energy between a spirit stone and a monster core, and the outer metal had the effect of suppressing energy fluctuations.
The key point was that it could definitely be used to set up formations!
"What are you doing! That’s a life keepsake!"
Zheng Shiduo glared and was about to stand up.
Ling Tong, who had been pointing her right mechanical palm at Zheng Shiduo, slightly frowned and raised her arm.
Zheng Shiduo immediately sat back down obediently, looking aggrieved, "Be gentle, don’t break it. It’s my lucky charm."
"Just a bit curious," Wang Jixuan smiled and asked, "What is this?"
"A crystal from a blade beast, also called a crystal core."
Ling Tong said softly, "The rule on the front lines is that the first blade beast you kill yourself allows you to obtain its crystal core. This one is the lowest-level blade beast crystal core.
"Other crystal cores are collected and managed by the military, provided to the Thirteen Institutes.
"This is also an important way for the military to influence the Thirteen Institutes."
Zheng Shiduo muttered, "Can you guess what energy psychics are infused with? Hehehe."
Wang Jixuan discreetly tossed the item back to Zheng Shiduo.
It didn’t have much energy left.
Wang Jixuan asked, "Is this just an ordinary blade beast crystal core?"
"Yes," Ling Tong observed Wang Jixuan's eyes, "Are you interested in this?"
"Just think it’s quite meaningful as a keepsake."
Wang Jixuan squinted and smiled, "Where are we going now?"
"To gather evidence, three locations."
Ling Tong briefly explained, "In the materials submitted by the Clean-Up Team, the command center found three locations underground of the Black Fire Gang with serious violations: a cloning laboratory, a blade beast organ cultivation room, and... a human and blade beast gene fusion experiment site."
Zheng Shiduo was taken aback, "Blade... blade beast organ cultivation?"
"Yes."
Ling Tong said calmly, "The paper published by Professor Zhuang twelve years ago is the only relevant theoretical document.
"Additionally, early investigators noticed that in the area bordering the Black Fire Gang's territory, the Wanlijin Gang had a large amount of soil formulated using blade beast blood and flesh. This soil is produced in batches every year, and the source of the blade beast blood and flesh is unknown, suspected to be the defective products from the blade beast organ cultivation experiments.
"This is my real second mission."
She added, "But a Kong Nu isn’t worth me spending so much energy."
Zheng Shiduo looked conflicted, "No, my Old Zhuang really is Kong Nu's superior? What the heck! The old man didn’t say it like that to me."
Wang Jixuan asked, "Major Ling Tong, can I go to the city to keep an eye on Kong Nu?"
"Why?"
"To ensure we can eliminate Kong Nu and prevent future troubles."
Ling Tong asked, "Are you distrustful of the military, or do you think the military's air defense missiles can't shoot down a plane that has already been locked on?"
Wang Jixuan was silent for a few seconds, then calmly said, "I just can’t trust human nature."
Ling Tong pondered for a moment and made a decision, turning to Zhou Zhengde: "Can Captain Zhou's investigation be done later? I must prioritize the command center's mission. Team Leader Mu is just an E-level psychic and needs you to accompany him to the city."
"Alright! I’ll go up with Mu Liang! I know the city best! That’s my territory!"
Zhou Zhengde took a gentle breath, "We have incredible chemistry. As long as we work together, it will definitely be greater than the sum of its parts!
"Hahaha! Maybe we can directly eliminate Kong Nu!"
Wang Jixuan: ...
He actually wanted to act alone.
(End of Chapter)