Lin Xiaohe was transferred to Outpost No. 1, located 2,000 meters underground.
The security here was even tighter. There were even weapons specifically designed to target Stardust Mutant Plants.
Xinbao and the others turned into small ornaments and clung tightly to Lin Xiaohe.
This place made them very uncomfortable. The flow of energy inside their bodies felt sluggish, as if they had fallen into a mud pit. Their mental strength was unusually exhausted.
Little Black, on the other hand, wasn’t affected at all.
Doudou turned into an earring and hung from Lin Xiaohe’s right earlobe.
The small cage couldn’t accommodate Little Black, so it simply crawled onto the inside of Lin Xiaohe’s right wrist and lay down obediently.
The entire insect slowly flattened out, eventually looking like a small birthmark. If you didn’t touch it carefully, you couldn’t tell it was a bug at all.
Lin Xiaohe tried to enter the Whale Sea but found she couldn’t.
After three attempts, she stopped trying.
The people from the Security Department had locked her in this outpost. They couldn’t possibly avoid talking to her forever.
She calmed her mind and quietly began to train her mental strength.
As her mental energy gently spread out, that familiar, comfortable, warm feeling – like being back in the womb – returned.
It was a sense of tranquility, a desire to merge with something, to move with the wind, to drift with the current.
Hiss.
A burning heat came from the inside of her wrist.
Lin Xiaohe’s spirits jolted. She unconsciously rubbed her wrist with her left hand.
Little Black, who was burning hot, seemed to be soothed by Lin Xiaohe’s touch and returned to its normal temperature.
“Lin Xiaohe, long time no see.”
The wall directly in front of Lin Xiaohe became transparent. Behind the glass wall sat the white-haired old man from the Security Department.
Lin Xiaohe asked, “How is Marshal Chu?”
“Very bad. After his mental sea collapsed, a master was brought in to construct a protective wall for his mental strength. That’s the only reason he didn’t die from mental energy riots. But the poison you administered has not only caused various imbalances in his body but is also destroying that mental protective wall.”
Lin Xiaohe said, “I didn’t administer any poison.”
The white-haired old man said, “Oh? Then the Rebel Army used your hand to poison Marshal Chu. Xiaohe, it wasn’t easy for you to climb from the Sixth Star Ring to your current height. In hundreds of years, the Federation has only produced someone like you. Why would you want to follow the Rebel Army’s path all the way to the dark end?”
Lin Xiaohe declared firmly, “I don’t know the Rebel Army. I am not one of them.”
A cold glint flashed in the white-haired old man’s eyes. “Lin Xiaohe, confession leads to leniency, resistance leads to severity. I hope you understand that stubbornly fighting back is the path to death!”
Lin Xiaohe wasn’t going to be fooled by him.
Everyone in all of China knew that “confession leads to leniency” means you’ll rot in prison, and “resistance leads to severity” means you get to go home for the New Year.
“I don’t know the Rebel Army. I didn’t administer any poison. Do you have evidence? If not, are you planning to extract a confession by torture?”
The white-haired old man let out a cold laugh of anger. They indeed had no concrete evidence, which was why they came to get a confession from Lin Xiaohe.
He didn’t say another word and waved his hand grandly.
Suddenly, two silver straps shot out from Lin Xiaohe’s chair, firmly binding her to the seat.
At the same time, two mechanical arms descended from the ceiling, revealing extremely thick needles aimed at Lin Xiaohe’s cervical spine. They plunged down!
[Xiaohe!!] Xinbao and the others anxiously tried to activate their skills, but their power vanished like mud sinking into the sea. They couldn’t even revert to their original forms.
Pain shot through Lin Xiaohe’s neck. Then, a stream of cool liquid was injected into her body, flowing from her cervical spine towards her brain and spinal cord.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Lin Xiaohe’s pupils dilated. Her thoughts seemed to freeze solid. The whole world went quiet. She could only hear the violent pounding of her own heart.
A man’s voice seemed to come from very far away: “Lin Xiaohe, how did you poison Chu Huai? Who gave you the little lobsters? How did you communicate? How did you become a Stardust Plant Controller?”
“I…”
The blood vessels on the inside of her wrist bulged slightly, like a small whirlpool, sucking all the cool liquid inside Lin Xiaohe’s body towards it.
Silver liquid swirled on Little Black’s black shell, painting mysterious patterns.
The corner of Lin Xiaohe’s right eye twitched. Her heart was filled with shock and uncertainty.
She had come that close to revealing her secrets!
“I don’t know the Rebel Army, and I didn’t administer any poison. I found Xinbao, and then I became a Stardust Plant Controller.”
The smile at the corners of the white-haired old man’s mouth instantly vanished. His brows were dark and heavy with gloom.
The EEG and P300 wave readings all showed that Lin Xiaohe was not lying.
But this was not the answer they wanted.
The white-haired old man’s eyes were obscure and unfathomable, chillingly cold. “Turn off the monitors.”
“Yes, sir!”
The garrison troops on Satellite No. 3 were pulled out of Outpost No. 1. The outpost was officially taken over by the Security Department.
A deep, terrifying laugh rumbled from the white-haired old man’s throat.
He stared intently at Lin Xiaohe. “Stardust Mutant Plant Controllers are indeed powerful, but the universe is vast and boundless. Guess why the Federation has so few of them?”
He muttered to himself, “Power breeds ambition. Controllers not serving the Federation are heretics. You’ve been to the Secret Prison, haven’t you? The Secret Prison has levels. The lowest level only causes you a little pain to teach you a lesson.”
“Satellite No. 3 is your high-level Secret Prison! In this outpost, the abilities of mutant Stardust plants are completely suppressed! You are nothing more than an ordinary person now.”
The white-haired old man hated Stardust Mutant Plants.
He firmly believed that only technology could lead the Federation and humanity towards a bright future.
Stardust Mutant Plants and Stardust Mutant Beasts were both obstacles on the great path to enlightenment!
Inside the cell, the two mechanical arms descended again. The icy needles plunged into Lin Xiaohe’s body once more.
This time, they injected nanobots. These could directly stimulate the pain nerve center, simulate a near-death experience, and produce sustained, excruciating pain without leaving external injuries.
The white-haired old man said viciously, “Turn the pain up to the highest level!”
Little Black on Lin Xiaohe’s wrist continued to work. It absorbed all the dense swarms of nanobots into its body.
No one noticed that the color of its black shell had lightened slightly.
Seeing Lin Xiaohe’s expression unchanged, the white-haired old man said with a cold smile, “Simulate a vacuum environment.”
Without any protection, a human exposed to a vacuum environment, even someone with a 3S physique, couldn’t last half an hour.
Lin Xiaohe was about to experience the agony of suffocation and boiling body fluids.
Ten minutes. Twenty minutes. Thirty minutes…
Lin Xiaohe’s eyeballs bulged and froze. Her skin cracked as if burned. Her alveoli tore apart in the screaming vacuum. Every nerve ending transmitted intense pain.
One of his subordinates, looking at her miserable state, said fearfully, “Sir, if we keep this up, she’s going to die.”
The white-haired old man’s gaze was like a lurking poisonous snake, flicking its tongue. “Lin Xiaohe, do you confess?”
Lin Xiaohe’s body was on the verge of collapse. If Xinbao and the others hadn’t been sharing the damage, she would have died long ago from her bodily fluids boiling.
She stared at the white-haired old man through the transparent glass window.
At that moment, many thoughts ran through her mind.
She thought of the pioneers of China. She thought of how they endured brutal torture but never bent their spines.
At this moment, she was no longer alone. Behind her stood the more than 3.8 million fallen Chinese soldiers. Behind her stood the 1.4 billion Chinese citizens of an awakened dragon!
Lin Xiaohe raised her hand with difficulty, extended her middle finger, and silently mouthed, “Go to hell!”
The scene fell into dead silence.
No one dared to look up at the white-haired old man’s expression.
Two minutes later, the white-haired old man smiled, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “In that case, let her die.”
Some holes were filled, some new holes were dug.
