Lin Xiaohe’s consciousness felt like it was wrapped inside an insect sac. She could clearly hear the voices from the outside world, but she couldn’t respond.
Because she still had one final hurdle to overcome—Little Black.
Although she didn’t understand why Little Black had also become a part of her body, that was simply how it was.
The noisy questioning came from outside.
“Are you a member of the rebels?”
“Yes!”
Oh, for the love of—!
You shameless coward, impersonating me and ruining my hard-earned reputation!
Anger surged within her. Lin Xiaohe struggled with all her might and painfully crawled out of the insect sac.
What greeted her eyes was a pool bubbling with golden-yellow liquid.
All around were fleshy-feeling pipes, spraying out corrosive solutions.
Lin Xiaohe’s sudden emergence from the insect sac angered the pipes.
The pipes waved their nozzles, trying to grab her again and stuff her back into the sac.
Controlling the body of the little black beetle, Lin Xiaohe dodged and weaved. When she couldn’t avoid them, she turned around and bit the pipes that tried to bind her.
She didn’t know where the end was. She just kept charging forward. Behind her were countless enraged pipes, chasing her relentlessly.
When she finally neared the exit, Lin Xiaohe saw busy, thick red pipes spraying out sticky, colorful, semi-solid blobs of goo.
Lin Xiaohe couldn’t help but swallow. Among all those blobs of goo, her eyes instantly locked onto a bright golden one!
In a flash, Lin Xiaohe gulped down that blob of goo and then dashed toward the white light of the exit.
After swallowing the goo, Lin Xiaohe felt an indescribable comfort.
Every tiny corner of her body and her psychic energy felt like it had been coated in lubricant, incredibly smooth.
At the same time, her consciousness felt like it was constantly rising, rising into space, rising into the territory of the Zerg.
She felt a hunger from the depths of her soul. Everything was edible. Nothing was a match for the Zerg. Any creature or civilization that stood in her way would become part of her menu!
This was an extreme coldness and a primal desire to feed!
The “Number One Strong in the Universe” stele shone brightly. It stood like an immovable mountain, unshaken even under the raging, tsunami-like waves of brutal psychic energy.
Like a great baleen whale, Lin Xiaohe swallowed all the psychic energy coming from the Zerg!
Since you’ve all come, none of you leave! Since you dared to enter my psychic sea, let me just devour you!
In the courtroom, the air seemed to freeze solid in an instant.
Those inorganic eyes, looking at everyone as if they were ants, heavily struck everyone’s hearts.
Even the viewers watching the live stream unconsciously slowed their breathing, afraid of attracting Lin Xiaohe’s attention.
Lin Xiaohe blinked slowly. The action added a touch of humanity to her.
The abundant psychic energy was too powerful. Swallowing it all at once left her feeling dazed, like she had a sugar crash.
Cassian asked softly, uncertainly: “Lin Xiaohe? Is that you?”
Lin Xiaohe didn’t answer. Instead, she stared coldly at the court’s designated medical evaluation team, standing ten paces away from her.
What a coincidence. I remember you.
Aren’t you the members of the Ministry of Security’s medical team?
So much for a third-party evaluation, huh? This is it?!
The head of the medical team, under her gaze, had his teeth chattering and his whole body trembling. He was clearly terrified to his core.
The white-haired old man looked very composed on the surface, but half of his scalp had gone numb.
He blustered, “Lin Xiaohe, since you’ve already confessed to all charges, submit to the law quickly! Don’t try any tricks. This is the Federal First Court, not a place for your tantrums!”
Lin Xiaohe pinched the mutated stardust creature attached to her throat between her fingers and said emotionlessly, “I’m guilty?”
Chang Haonan, who was very close to Lin Xiaohe, saw the mutated stardust creature in her hand and exclaimed in shock, “It’s a mutated echo bug! Su Shuang, so it was you guys who tampered with her! That wasn’t Lin Xiaohe’s confession at all just now! You used an echo bug to control her!”
The black-robed man sitting in the last row of the courtroom opened his mouth and hissed silently twice.
But the mutated stardust echo bug between Lin Xiaohe’s fingers remained as still as death, not daring to move an inch.
An anxious look appeared on the black-robed man’s face, and he increased the frequency of his summoning.
Lin Xiaohe’s gaze swept over to him. The black-robed man froze completely on the spot.
At that moment, it was as if he had been locked onto by some natural predator. Every cell in his body screamed sharp alarms, but this suppression from the biological chain rendered him speechless.
Chang Haonan was furious. “Excellent! So that’s how you earned your title as the Federation’s number one lawyer! Can’t win through normal means, so you start playing dirty!”
Su Shuang sneered, “You’re the one who can’t take the heat! You say it’s an echo bug, so it’s an echo bug? Lin Xiaohe confessed her guilt in front of the entire Federation just now. If she wants to take it back now, she needs to come up with a better excuse than that. Are you trying to fool us into acting like three-year-olds?”
Chang Haonan and Su Shuang started yelling at each other, and their argument eventually turned physical.
“Order!” The Chief Justice struck his gavel.
The entire courtroom fell silent once more.
Lin Xiaohe met the Chief Justice’s gaze and asked softly, “Am I guilty?”
The Chief Justice looked back at Lin Xiaohe without flinching. “There’s no evidence proving you’re innocent. But there is evidence that Chu Huaizhi’s coma is related to you.”
According to Federal legal procedures, the final verdict also required consideration of the jury’s opinion.
Lin Xiaohe looked at the jury and asked softly, “Am I guilty?”
The white-haired old man in the jury shot to his feet, his voice filled with pained indignation. “Of course you’re guilty! Marshal Chu has sacrificed too much for the Federation. His subordinates are still fighting fiercely on the Federation’s most difficult battlefields. If we cannot secure justice for Marshal Chu, won’t that chill everyone’s hearts?”
Hearing this, Kailyn Reno’s eyelashes fluttered slightly.
This old man was warning the jury. Marshal Chu’s power was merely on a distant battlefield, not dead.
The Federation and the military had to give those people an explanation for Marshal Chu’s coma.
Among the Federal Government, the military, and Lin Xiaohe, did they really need to choose who would be the scapegoat?
Kailyn Reno closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and cast her vote.
“The jury’s final verdict: Lin Xiaohe is a member of the rebels, guilty of the intentional murder of Chu Huaizhi!”
Chang Haonan felt a wave of powerlessness.
He slumped to the ground in despair, his eyes squeezed shut in pain. This wasn’t a victory for the law; it was a victory for power!
Lin Xiaohe sighed softly. “I’m guilty? Alright then. I guess I’m guilty.”
Her fingers pinched together, and the stardust mutated echo bug instantly burst into a cloud of blood mist.
The black-robed man let out a heart-wrenching scream, then, like a burst balloon, fell utterly silent.
The sudden, drastic change caught everyone off guard.
Lin Xiaohe’s eyes turned bloodshot again. That invisible pressure once more enveloped the entire courtroom.
“Wha—what are you trying to do?!” The white-haired old man’s neck was tightly gripped by Lin Xiaohe’s hand. The icy cold touch sent goosebumps all over his body.
Lin Xiaohe grinned slightly, her bloodshot eyes filled with murderous intent. Her tone was relaxed and casual: “Committing a crime.”
She added, with an innocent air, “Committing a crime out in the open. Everyone watch closely. I killed this old bastard.”
