Xu Chuyao returned to the dormitory early in the morning not to dawdle, but to strategize on her phone.
“No one found out about the unfinished building district incident. If anyone asks what you’ve been up to lately, just say you’re helping me investigate the insider’s information. The evidence against Wen Fang is something you uncovered. As for the crystal experiments, we had a little accident here, so we’re pausing for a while. I’ll inform you as soon as there’s any progress. Three Defense? Yes, I’m Three Defense now. No need to announce it publicly just a small achievement. There’ll be more in the future. I’m hanging up now.”
Thunder Girl’s roommate was on the lower bunk across the room, making a call. Mi Xiaolu didn’t want to listen, nor was she interested.
If I had known, I should have gone out and met her.
“Blade Crossing Wu.”
After hanging up, Xu Chuyao’s attention shifted back to her roommate.
“Did you know I went to Twin Star Town yesterday? It’s very different from Center City. The trees on the ground can stand up and walk, and they can even fight people.”
Mi Xiaolu pursed her lips and said, “How could I not know?”
Xu Chuyao chuckled a few times.
“All right, no more stories today. I’m just teasing you. I feel like I have a strong connection with Twin Star Town.”
It was a place Yuan Juye never mentioned, but the first clown-like member of his team came from there, and the first Three-Stage Spirit Power User from the Supreme Society was also from there.
Twin Star Town was very small and ordinary, and usually, no one paid attention to it.
“Did you just storm over there and capture the town warden?” Mi Xiaolu asked curiously. “No one stopped you?”
“They only tried a few tricks.”
Xu Chuyao smiled knowingly and pulled a metal badge from her pocket to show her roommate. Three golden stars shone brightly on it.
“The more stars, the higher the rank. Gold stars outrank silver. There’s no one in all of Twin Star Town with a bigger badge than mine. They’re practically throwing a welcome party for me.”
Mi Xiaolu saw the badge for the first time. “So that’s how they rank officials.”
“Exactly, otherwise, it would have been chaotic a long time ago.”
For example, Xu Chuyao’s own position—whether as the special crisis response advisor in the past or the current head of the Special Handling Department—was temporarily assigned by Minister Long for convenience under the Security Department headquarters.
By comparison, Wen Fang, the town warden of that small town, held two silver stars, while the Security Department supervisor in Center City, Zelin, had three golden stars.
“So, Mi Xiaolu, don’t be so upset,” Xu Chuyao said seriously. “When I get a full gold-star badge, you won’t have to worry about hearing things you shouldn’t.”
For some reason, Mi Xiaolu felt deeply touched.
“Thank you so much.”
After saying goodbye to her roommate, Xu Chuyao lay down and curled up under her favorite little blanket, ready to sleep.
Tomorrow is the interrogation of Wen Fang, so better get some rest.
Zzzz
Valhalla Research Institute
Self-official Wolf was monitoring communications and already knew what Xu Chuyao was experimenting with.
In Lab No. 1, there was something that replaced the souls of humans with Four Forbidden energies, turning them into monsters covered in crystals. The newly recruited Gouya was an ordinary person subjected to mental suggestion and tasked with exploring the “Soul Prison” of the Four Forbidden spirits.
Beyond that, not much was known.
He thought that after his intervention yesterday, there would be some downtime, but to his surprise, Goli came to find him immediately.
“There’s a problem with your setup.”
Arriving at Lab No. 1, Bal Tian saw a figure made entirely of crystals standing inside. Bits of crystal dust were falling off him in chunks.
“That’s one of the people you mentally suggested yesterday,” Goli sneered. “The mental suggestion lasted only half a day. Now it’s lost effect.”
During brief exploration, every hour or so, a person would transform, and their emotional wave patterns were monitored. Thanks to experimental data from the Morgan family, they could roughly correlate waveforms to emotional states.
At first, the emotional feedback was positive—eager and hopeful.
Between four to six hours, some disturbance appeared in the waveforms, suggesting contact with others.
Around eight hours, doubt and resistance began to emerge, but the reasons were unclear.
After ten hours, the emotions stabilized and stopped changing.
“It’s worth noting that during the last incident, they didn’t exhibit this kind of fear. Their waveforms were steady, like sinking calmly underwater,” Goli explained. “After the Freiden incident, they suddenly developed fear and resistance.”
The fact that Self-official Wolf could perform mental suggestion indicated he had some psychological research experience, granting him more insight into the mechanisms.
After understanding the X Crystal and the Freiden Free City incident, Bal Tian commented, “So it’s because of what happened in Freiden Free City.”
It seemed obvious.
But Goli simply lowered his chest and listened quietly as the Lab supervisor Lu En came over and explained:
“Indeed, since the Freiden Free City incident, they developed these two emotions. But recently, the emotions intensified suddenly. You know, the waveform isn’t a linear change; after a certain period, it suddenly spikes, as if they encountered something unexpected.”
Self-official Wolf scratched his head, unable to figure it out either.
Goli looked at him, then at the crystal figure, before making his next arrangement:
“Continue the experiment, expand the sample size. Half a day is short; we need more personnel.”
Xu Chuyao got up, washed her face, and put on a neat little suit. The lead investigator Yu Jing was already teaching.
“Xiaolu, I’m going to the office. I’m taking leave from class.”
Still lying in bed, Mi Xiaolu didn’t even raise her head. “Got it. But do you really need to take leave?”
She usually didn’t and never went anyway.
The sun wasn’t very bright today; the sky was overcast and drizzling. When Xu Chuyao left the dorm, she even borrowed an umbrella from Aunt Qian, the dorm supervisor. By the time he reached the office building, others had already arrived, including Wen Fang, who was being escorted by Yu Jing.
Principal Lü prepared a large conference room for the interrogation, but only two people would actually sit inside—the lead investigator Yu Jing and the interrogated Wen Fang. The rest of the investigation team and related personnel participated via video.
“We’re just outside the door,” Yu Jing said to her students. “If anything happens, we’ll come get you immediately.”
“Got it. Don’t worry, Teacher,” Xu Chuyao said, extending a small hand and snapping her fingers. Bright sparks danced at her fingertips. “If she tries anything, I won’t let it slide.”
“…It’s forbidden to use elemental spirit power during interrogation,” Yu Jing warned.
Yu Jing knew Mi Xiaolu had reached Third Rank, and while she liked to play with it, it could easily damage public property, especially with thunder attributes. One misstep could knock out the entire building’s electrical system.
There was no other way. Since the Academy’s establishment, it had never considered how to manage Three Defense students properly.
Ten minutes later, Xu Chuyao sat down in the conference room as various small screens on the wall’s projector lit up.
Dujun nodded toward the female prisoner on the screen. “Begin.”
There was no gavel, no formal procedures, lacking some ceremonial feel. Xu Chuyao cleared his throat and asked the woman tied to the chair:
“Wen Fang, town warden of Twin Star Town, when did you join the Supreme Society?”
The woman slowly lifted her head. After two days in custody, her complexion was naturally poor, and there was slight paralysis at the corners of her mouth.
“How did you find out about me? Who betrayed me?”
She didn’t answer Xu Chuyao’s question but instead asked her own. Given the time in detention, she focused on the first question. The second was the only other possibility.
Lead investigator Yu Jing whispered to Xu Chuyao: “Because you’re too close to me, I choose my investigation targets based on proximity.”
“What did you say?” Wen Fang’s face turned ugly. “I’m asking how you investigated me!”
She felt the big-breasted woman was underestimating her intelligence.
“I already told you, but if you don’t want to cooperate,” Xu Chuyao tilted his head, “I was just trying to lay out your student days and present versus past, and how a campus bully ruined your career dreams.”
Wen Fang’s expression changed from anger to disbelief.
In truth, Yu Jing hadn’t answered her question directly but hit a sore spot that made Wen Fang unwilling to continue.
“Enough,” Suimu muttered softly, “Xiao Chu, get to the point.”
Hearing that, Xu Chuyao’s heart skipped a beat. Minister Long was still taciturn and wouldn’t easily disrupt his rhythm. But since he said that, it meant the topic wasn’t suitable to continue—perhaps implying one possibility:
The campus bully was here too?
He glanced at several screens around the room, male and female, but couldn’t identify anyone.
Better to focus on the interrogation.
“When did you join the Supreme Society?”
“A year ago.”
Publicly executed black history made Wen Fang look despondent and spiritless. She obediently answered questions.
“At first, when I was transferred to Twin Star Town, I was disheartened. One day I suddenly received a letter from an organization calling itself the Supreme Society. They reached out to me, promising to help me solve my problems and rise smoothly.”
Very willingly, Xu Chuyao answered before being asked.
“What is your mission in the Supreme Society?”
“My current mission is to lay low and wait for new orders.”
“Do you know others in the group? How do you normally contact them?”
“I know Dansili, Lazer, and You Yun Daoren. We don’t contact regularly. If something happens, I have to send a letter via a specified method to a designated location and wait for the response. There might be a courier, but after I was arrested, my channel was shut down.”
These names sounded fake and were basically useless.
“Besides, I have a radio for contact, but they can only contact me unilaterally.”
Xu Chuyao knew Minister Long mentioned that after the arrest, the Security Department found a retro-style radio at Twin Star Town, which had already self-destructed.
The same went for Professor Swina, so they had experience with this.
There wasn’t much more information here. As a mid-level figure in the Supreme Society, Wen Fang didn’t know as much as Swina did. They weren’t the same person, but with Swina in the lead, this interrogation strangely felt like a rehash.
After a few more questions, Xu Chuyao couldn’t help but understand why he was chosen as lead investigator.
When the interrogation ended, Minister Long announced the result: Wen Fang would be temporarily held by Shengling Academy, and someone would come to collect her in three days.
The small screens one by one went dark.
“Xiaolu, wait a moment,” Minister Long called the girl. “I want to introduce you to someone.”
Xu Chuyao glanced at a screen that hadn’t shut off yet, seeing a woman about Wen Fang’s age but much more refined in temperament.
Though Minister Long didn’t formally introduce her, Yu Jing had already noticed. This was the same woman who used to be a campus bully back when Wen Fang was there.