Under the ruins of Basong's estate, Guan Tong looked at the four unconscious people before him, thinking about the questions he would ask during the interrogation.
Uenoshi stood to the side. Even though the battle had been over for a while, she was still somewhat shocked by the outcome.
She wasn't surprised that the Shadow could defeat the Action Team sent by the Divine Child. After all, his title of "World's Number One Ascendant" wasn't earned for nothing; it was fought for through repeated battle achievements.
What surprised her was that the Shadow had won far too easily. These official Ascendants from Sakura Prayer Country were practically like toys he could manipulate at will in front of him.
How did such a massive gap come to be?
Uenoshi was a little curious in her heart.
She didn't know that the fundamental reason Guan Tong could win so easily was that he had stored a massive amount of Mind Power.
And the key point was that this Mind Power could be converted into combat strength.
If either of these two conditions was not met, he might still have won, but it would have been absolutely impossible to be this effortless.
For one thing, without the support of a large reserve of Mind Power, he simply couldn't have deployed the Shadow Domain, giving himself a huge environmental advantage right from the start of the battle.
"I need to interrogate these people separately," Guan Tong said, breaking the silence. "You'll be responsible for questioning your two team members first."
Uenoshi nodded and asked, "After questioning, should we let them go back?"
Guan Tong looked at her in surprise. "What? Of course not. Did you forget they came here to kill us?"
"..."
"For people who want to kill me and have already taken action to do so, I will absolutely not show mercy."
After saying this, Guan Tong took the Action Team's Commander and the woman with the Profiling ability, Suzuki, to another room.
He took a bucket of water from his Storage Ring and splashed it on the two of them.
Stimulated by the cold water, they immediately shivered several times and regained consciousness.
Once they realized their situation, their faces instantly turned deathly pale.
The Commander looked around. Seeing that besides himself, only Suzuki was among the captives, he asked fearfully, "Th-the others?"
"Dead," Guan Tong said. "You two are still alive because I have questions to ask you."
The Commander was stunned for a few seconds, then stiffened his neck, closed his eyes, adopting an uncooperative attitude.
Guan Tong wasn't in a hurry to apply pressure. He looked at the other woman. "What about you?"
"I, I..."
Suzuki looked at the person before her, whose features were shrouded in shadow. She had never imagined the outcome would be like this.
Even now, she was still somewhat dazed. She had just been temporarily transferred to headquarters to work on a case. How, after this and that, had she ended up in such a situation?
"You don't intend to speak either?"
Faced with Guan Tong's question, Suzuki shook her head. "I don't know what to say... Do you have any questions?"
"Suzuki!" The Commander beside her opened his eyes and angrily scolded, "You absolutely must not betray Sakura Prayer, betray the Divine Child—"
Thud!
Before he could finish his sentence, Guan Tong kicked him flying. He slammed heavily against the wall, his head lolled to the side, and he was knocked unconscious again.
Suzuki was startled badly. Guan Tong said, "My questions can wait. First, tell me about the situation with your team."
"..."
Suzuki's expression was conflicted, seeming unsure whether she should cooperate with Guan Tong. She also didn't know if speaking would mean betraying the Divine Child.
But if she didn't speak...
She admitted she was very afraid right now.
Although she had joined the Peace Officer Department and become a Peace Officer after gaining the [Profiling] ability, her usual work was clerical. She had hardly ever been on field assignments or dealt with some of the most vicious criminals.
Now, facing the Shadow, even though the latter hadn't uttered any threats and was just standing there, she felt immense pressure.
Especially since now, whenever she closed her eyes, she could recall the scene in the forest. The image of the Action Team members being impaled by sharp shadow spikes and shadow spears had already become her nightmare.
"I... I'll talk."
Fear overcame loyalty.
She told him everything: how she was originally working on a case at the Antu Peace Officer Department, then went to headquarters with her superior, Yoshino, to give reports; how she was kept at headquarters to join the Special Investigation Team because of her ability; how she used the power of the spores to profile and produce the drawing that confirmed the Shadow's identity... and so on.
Guan Tong listened silently.
The explosion case Suzuki was investigating earlier at the Antu City Peace Officer Department, and the administrative building infiltration case she went to headquarters to investigate, were both related to him.
And she had achieved results. That [Profiling] ability had actually managed to reconstruct part of the scene. However, she said herself that she originally had no leads, but after accepting the spores, her train of thought suddenly became clear.
Spores again.
Guan Tong thought to himself that he had been ignoring the existence of these things for the past few days, not wanting to develop any sense of dependency.
Perhaps if he maintained this state, he could pass this rule steadily and safely.
But now, after hearing what Suzuki said, he realized that these spores could indeed be quite useful in certain situations. They weren't just icing on the cake; sometimes they could turn the tide.
"I've told you everything I know... I haven't hidden anything."
After finishing, Suzuki lowered her head, not daring to look at Guan Tong's shadow-obscured face.
Her brain still throbbed with pain intermittently, a result of the severe backlash she suffered when she tried to perform on-site profiling on him back in the forest.
Guan Tong didn't say anything. He left her alone for the moment and went to revive the Action Team Commander.
"Give it up! I won't say anything!" The Commander, upon regaining consciousness, still refused to yield.
Dealing with this kind of person, Guan Tong wouldn't be polite.
He took out the Corpse Whistle, blew it once, and three living dead immediately crawled out from the ground.
Seeing their blood-red eyes, the Commander's heart sank with a thud.
"It seems you recognize them," Guan Tong said. "That's right, these are the living dead that appeared during the [Night of the Living Dead] rule."
"You, what do you want to do?!"
"What do you think?"
Guan Tong directed the three living dead to surround the Commander.
"If you don't talk, I'll let them eat you alive."
"!!!"
The Commander had actually prepared himself to be tortured. He thought that since the Shadow wasn't a professional, his methods of torture would be nothing more than things like beatings, which he could completely withstand.
He never, ever expected that the Shadow would actually produce several living dead... Being bitten to death by these zombie-like creatures, the pain and fear were simply unimaginable.
Suzuki, sitting on the ground not far away, was also trembling all over. Even though the three living dead weren't surrounding her, she was terrified to the extreme.
"Made up your mind?" Guan Tong asked.
"..."
The Commander was now in an intense internal struggle. Looking at the three living dead staring at him with their mouths agape, his mental defenses were rapidly crumbling.
In ancient times, many warriors preferred to die on the battlefield rather than be captured. The reason was fear of being tortured after capture.
And right now...
The Commander clearly remembered what happened after that so-called reward rule, [Night of the Living Dead], was announced. He had personally seen many people being bitten into unrecognizable shapes by the living dead.
That miserable sight was truly something he couldn't bear to recall.
"It seems you've made your decision." Guan Tong gave the order. "Go."
The three living dead immediately let out roars and pounced on the Commander.
This caused the latter's spirit to completely collapse. He screamed, "I'll talk, I'll talk! Get them away from me!"
Guan Tong directed the living dead to back away and asked expressionlessly, "From now on, you answer whatever I ask."
...
When Moon Fate and the Faceless One regained consciousness, the first thing they saw was Uenoshi standing before them.
Although they weren't bound, with no Mind Power at the moment, resistance or escape was impossible.
Thinking of the situation in the forest, they immediately changed their original attitude.
"Team Leader, I'm willing to continue being your subordinate," Moon Fate said first. "If you want to deal with the Divine Child, I will also help."
The Faceless One also said, "Me too."
"..."
"I know the Team Leader might despise this, but this is the law of the jungle. If we had known the Shadow was that powerful, we would never have chosen to be your enemies."
"We hope the Team Leader will give us a chance, considering our past relationship."
Uenoshi thought to herself that whether she gave them a chance or not was meaningless, because the Shadow was the decision-maker in this matter.
However, she could first get a clear picture of the situation by asking some questions.
"I need to ask you some things."
"Team Leader, please ask. We will tell you everything we know."
Ten minutes later.
Guan Tong personally interrogated Moon Fate and the Faceless One again, then went outside with Uenoshi to compare the information they had obtained.
The intelligence he needed was mostly related to the Divine Child. This included the location of his residence, his guard situation, and so on.
Among the four, only the Action Team Commander, as the Divine Child's trusted subordinate, knew some details. As for Moon Fate and the Faceless One, apart from revealing that the Divine Child had promised them they would atone for their crimes by capturing Uenoshi, they didn't have much valuable information.
And Suzuki, besides having met the Divine Child once and receiving a verbal encouragement from him, knew even less.
"They begged me for mercy," Uenoshi said. "Said they were willing to follow your orders."
Guan Tong said, "I said it before. They came here to kill us and took action to do so. That is intolerable. Besides, I wouldn't trust such two-faced people as subordinates."
"...Forget about those three, but I think that Suzuki doesn't deserve death."
Hearing this, Guan Tong looked at Uenoshi and said, "If you want to let her go, fine. But her fate after returning might not be much better than death."
Uenoshi nodded silently.
She also knew that if everyone else died and only Suzuki returned alone, she would undoubtedly face strict interrogation.
"As long as she's alive, there's hope," she still insisted on her opinion.
Guan Tong was somewhat surprised. "That doesn't sound like something you would say."
"..."
"Never mind. I've already obtained some intelligence on the Divine Child. This person must die. I plan to eliminate him before this rule ends."
Uenoshi asked, "Aren't you concerned about the consequences?"
"Was he concerned about the consequences when he sent people to kill me? What's strange is, when people of high status and power bully others, people think it's only natural. But when the bullied want to fight back, people bring up talk about consequences, about not being able to afford to provoke them, to dissuade them... Times have changed, Uenoshi."
"...I understand. I will help you fight as agreed."
Hearing this, Guan Tong looked at her for a while, and a vague idea surfaced in his mind.
This idea had been brewing for a long time and was related to the large amount of Ascension Coins he had accumulated. Not using these Ascension Coins was actually a different kind of waste.
Just like in peaceful times, when merchants and tycoons had tens or hundreds of billions lying in banks earning interest, not participating in circulation in society, over time it would only lead to an economic winter of inflation at the top and deflation at the bottom.
What Guan Tong wanted to do was to let his stagnant Ascension Coins flow, helping more Ascendants strengthen themselves.
"Perhaps, this is an opportunity."
"An opportunity?"
"Yes. I'm still considering it. I'll tell you later."
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