Chapter 159: Evidence
Sitting across from Yu Lanfeng was Zhou Ziyu. Nan Yu had also come this time, but he was not inside. He was outside, watching the footage transmitted by the surveillance system.
Nan Yu looked at Zhou Ziyu. Perhaps he knew that escaping again was impossible, so he had resigned himself to his fate. At present, he even looked somewhat self-destructive.
Yu Lanfeng said, “The person from before was caught by us. He is now being charged with treason. The verdict concerning him will be issued in a few days. Do you want to know what it is?”
He was referring to the person who had tried to rescue Zhou Ziyu but failed to get him out.
Even though that man could not exactly be said to have had limitless prospects, being able to work in Yu Lanfeng’s legion meant he had still been doing quite well.
But now Zhou Ziyu had completely ruined him.
Who knew whether he regretted it now? Still, no matter how much he regretted it, there was no medicine for regret in this world.
Had he not happened to be discovered, he really might have succeeded in taking Zhou Ziyu away.
Fortunately...
After hearing Yu Lanfeng’s words, Zhou Ziyu did not answer him. Instead, he began flirting.
“It would be wonderful if Marshal Yu liked me that much too. That person is called Nan Yu, right? What is so good about him? What makes him worth liking so much? If you liked me, I would definitely stand on your side.”
Yu Lanfeng said, “What do you have that can compare to him?”
Zhou Ziyu paused before saying, “My mental power is actually about the same as his. Do you truly not want a Mental Power User like me? I can swear that as long as you say I belong to you from now on, I will only obey you for the rest of my life.”
The people watching the surveillance feed outside very, very tactfully moved a step farther away from Nan Yu.
The expression on Nan Yu’s face made them feel genuinely apprehensive.
However, the relationship between Nan Yu and Yu Lanfeng had never been made public. Even after Zhou Ziyu said something like this, only a small number of people would think in that direction.
Most believed he was simply jealous that Nan Yu had earned their Marshal’s appreciation.
Of course, that was entirely understandable.
Many people already knew that Nan Yu could separate mental power that did not belong to a soldier from that soldier’s Mental Sea.
His mental power was extremely powerful. Was it not only natural for their Marshal to place great importance on him?
More importantly, Nan Yu was a genuine citizen of the Empire, born and raised within it. He could be trusted one hundred percent.
Unlike Zhou Ziyu.
Although Zhou Ziyu’s mental power intensity could be compared somewhat to Nan Yu’s, everything else about him reeked of suspicion.
To them, the most important thing was identity.
Once there was a problem with someone’s identity—for example, if they were not a citizen of the Empire—then no matter how outstanding that person was, it would all be meaningless.
Nan Yu understood this as well.
That was why Ye Xing and Zhang Wei were still being hidden within the legion in secret, in an extremely concealed location.
Only a very small number of people whom Yu Lanfeng trusted completely took turns watching over them.
Of course, this was merely symbolic. It was not as though they were genuinely monitoring their every move.
However...
If that trust were repaid with betrayal and escape, Yu Lanfeng would no longer treat them politely afterward.
Nan Yu took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
Zhou Ziyu had already been confirmed as a spy.
He was undoubtedly saying these things merely to anger Nan Yu or sow discord between them.
Or perhaps...
He was trying to use his powerful mental power to bewitch Yu Lanfeng.
But...
Nan Yu’s lips twitched.
Trying to bewitch Yu Lanfeng?
That truly was wishful thinking.
Yu Lanfeng had always been with Nan Yu. Every day, the mental power he encountered belonged to Nan Yu.
Whenever Nan Yu had time, he would also purify Yu Lanfeng’s Mental Contamination.
In other words, apart from Nan Yu’s mental power, Yu Lanfeng would completely reject any other mental power.
Anyone who attempted to use mental power in front of him without permission would inevitably arouse his disgust.
And sure enough, Yu Lanfeng’s expression had just become even colder.
“What are you doing? Do you think this will work?”
When Zhou Ziyu saw that Yu Lanfeng was completely unmoved and had unexpectedly become serious, even faintly revealing killing intent toward him, he finally withdrew his previous attitude.
Although he knew he definitely would not be killed right now, having such killing intent surrounding him constantly would gradually become unbearable.
It was better to behave.
Yu Lanfeng said, “Answer my question.”
Zhou Ziyu smiled.
“What happens to him has nothing to do with me. He did everything voluntarily. If he had not come to me himself and said, ‘Come, I’ll take you away,’ I would never even have known there was someone secretly in love with me.”
“But it felt rather good.”
“After all, he truly liked me enough to abandon everything. I found it quite interesting. I had never met anyone like that before.”
Yu Lanfeng slowly nodded.
“When you treated Han Lu before, did you ever spend time alone with him? Did you tamper with him?”
Zhou Ziyu denied it completely.
“No. I guarantee it. I swear. I did nothing!”
“At that time, Han Lu and I merely passed each other. I have already said this many times. No matter how many more times you ask, my answer will remain the same.”
“Because that is the truth.”
Yu Lanfeng said, “Before that, we discovered that you had privately purified Han Lu’s Mental Contamination.”
“Why?”
“Why did he not go to the medical department, but instead went to your quarters to find you?”
“I investigated the relationship between the two of you. You had no personal friendship whatsoever.”
“There was no reason for him to seek you out privately.”
“Explain.”
“Ah, that did happen once.”
“In fact, Han Lu was following those men... the five who liked me. They happened to pass by my quarters, so they came inside.”
“After seeing all five of them receiving purification from me, he thought it would be convenient to have it done there too, instead of going all the way to the medical department.”
It had indeed been convenient.
Han Lu’s condition was not particularly severe at the time. He merely felt slightly uncomfortable, and a Mental Power User only needed to perform a small amount of purification.
Perhaps Han Lu had not thought much about it.
After being persuaded by the other five men, he allowed Zhou Ziyu to purify his Mental Contamination there.
However, there was one very strange point.
Why had Han Lu not mentioned such an important matter?
Had he simply never taken it seriously?
Or had he genuinely forgotten?
And had that forgetting been forced upon him?
Lin Changyu stood not far behind Nan Yu.
When he saw this, he also found it strange.
Han Lu had never told him about this either.
That did not mean Han Lu had been unwilling to say it.
It meant that he probably truly no longer possessed the memory.
Lin Changyu immediately contacted Han Lu and asked him about it.
When Han Lu heard the question, he replied, “Did that happen? I have absolutely no impression of it!”
“Are you sure this really occurred? Ask carefully and confirm it again.”
“As far as I remember, every single time I had my Mental Contamination purified, it was done in the medical department.”
“There is no way I would have accepted a private purification merely because several people persuaded me.”
Lin Changyu frowned deeply.
“Think about it carefully. I’ll verify it again on my side.”
Yu Lanfeng received the message sent by Lin Changyu and opened it directly.
It stated that Han Lu had no memory of the incident whatsoever.
Yu Lanfeng believed Han Lu was telling the truth.
Han Lu had no reason to conceal this.
In that case, either Han Lu had lost his memory, or there was a problem with their investigation.
Furthermore, Zhou Ziyu had cooperated with the mistaken investigation by giving such an explanation.
But why would Zhou Ziyu do that?
Was he stalling for time?
Yu Lanfeng asked again, “What did you and Han Lu say to each other that night? What did you do?”
Zhou Ziyu looked extremely helpless and could only repeat himself.
“I already told you. We merely passed each other. We did not communicate.”
“At most, I glanced at him.”
“I did nothing.”
“No matter what happened, it had nothing to do with me.”
“How long are you planning to keep me imprisoned?”
Yu Lanfeng then flipped through the documents in his hand.
“We found the five men.”
“Two of them have completely recovered.”
“The remaining three are still undergoing treatment.”
Zhou Ziyu instantly fell silent.
Yu Lanfeng continued, “You should know very clearly what condition they were in.”
“In the evidence repository, there are currently two devices containing foreign mental power extracted from their Mental Seas.”
“We only need to compare that mental power with the mental power of a certain Mental Power User to determine exactly who tampered with them and controlled them.”
Yu Lanfeng’s voice was completely calm and without fluctuation.
It sounded as though he were reading aloud from a textbook.
However, Zhou Ziyu, who sat across from him, felt as though his entire body had been thrown into icy water.
It felt as if he would freeze to death in the next moment.
They truly had discovered it.
He had sensed before that something was wrong with the mental power he had placed inside those men.
Although the distance made the connection intermittent, he could still sense it, so he had not been too worried.
But...
Two days ago, he had abruptly lost all sensation from two of them.
At the time, he had wondered whether the people at the base had discovered something.
But then he had thought that was unlikely.
What he had done was extremely well concealed.
Besides, those men merely liked him. Surely no one would thoroughly investigate all of them merely because of that?
Reality had slapped him fiercely across the face.
The five men were now completely under the other side’s control.
“What are you talking about? I can’t understand any of it.”
“If you want to test the mental power, then go ahead and test it.”
“It has nothing to do with me.”
He did not know whether he could truly make it unrelated to him.
However, as long as he completely severed his connection with that mental power, the mental power seemed to undergo gradual changes after a certain amount of time.
He simply did not know exactly how long that period was.
Of course, this was a mutation unique to his mental power. It was different from that of other Mental Power Users.
The fact that he could so easily influence those men’s feelings toward him was itself extremely powerful.
Even he had not known his mental power possessed such an ability before trying it.
When he first began controlling them, his ability to sense them was inconsistent.
Sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not.
He had been extremely worried that he would be discovered.
But as time passed, he began to find it entertaining.
So he deliberately influenced their thoughts, making them personally cook for him, sew small items, and do similar things.
In truth, it had merely been an experiment.
He wanted to see whether those five men would eventually obey every command he gave them.
Would they even obey if he ordered them to die?
If they truly could...
Then once his identity was exposed and he needed to escape, he could order those five men to hold back anyone who tried to stop him.
As long as they delayed the pursuit long enough, he would have time to wait for the organization’s rescue.
He simply had not expected to be discovered so quickly.
Yu Lanfeng said, “When we captured you, we performed a full examination.”
“We discovered that although your mental power is indeed powerful, your potential and innate capacity—meaning your physical condition, the tolerance of your Mental Sea, and other such factors—are vastly inferior to your current achievements.”
“Therefore, we have reason to suspect that your present mental power intensity and rank were raised through drugs.”
When Yu Lanfeng mentioned this, Zhou Ziyu’s gaze involuntarily locked onto him.
His eyes widened as he stared fixedly at Yu Lanfeng.
His expression seemed to be asking: How do you know?
Yu Lanfeng clearly had no intention of telling him more.
He simply allowed Zhou Ziyu to stare before asking, “If that is true, traces will remain detectable no matter how much time has passed.”
“I am taking you for an examination now.”
“Come with me.”
Yu Lanfeng stood and prepared to leave.
But Zhou Ziyu remained seated in the chair.
Or rather, he was so nervous that he could no longer control his hands and feet.
He was unable to stand.
Nan Yu took a deep breath.
He stood first and walked toward Yu Lanfeng.
When he reached the door of the interrogation room, he slowly opened it.
“I came to get you.”
Yu Lanfeng quickly walked to his side.
“We’re almost finished here.”
Nan Yu said, “It will be faster with me here.”
After speaking, he looked at Zhou Ziyu, who was still sitting in the chair behind them.
“You two, bring him over.”
“We need to examine him directly and compare his mental power with the mental power inside the devices.”
“Additionally, if he truly used drugs to raise his mental power...”
“To reach a level close to mine, he must have taken a great deal of medication.”
“Perhaps examining his blood will produce unexpected discoveries.”
After all, someone like Zhou Ziyu was a nearly perfect experimental subject.
The organization would certainly not have simply ignored him.
The fact that he had been permitted to infiltrate this legion alone as a spy already proved that his status within the organization could not have been low.
Who would have thought that an experimental subject could become a minor leader within the organization?
Under Yu Lanfeng’s command, Zhou Ziyu was soon bound and transported to the research laboratory.
That was right.
The research laboratory, not the medical department.
Since Yu Lanfeng had personally given the order, even if the researchers accidentally killed Zhou Ziyu, they would not be blamed.
The test results were soon released.
The mental power Nan Yu had extracted from the two men’s minds truly belonged to Zhou Ziyu.
He could no longer deny it.
This made the evidence against him even more complete.
However, to truly punish him severely, they still needed to find information connecting him to the organization.
Without that, Zhou Ziyu might merely be placed under Imperial control rather than receiving the death penalty or another punishment that would eliminate the threat permanently.
Of course, killing him directly here would also present no problem.
They could place his body aboard a starship and later claim that they had encountered an attack during a strategic transfer.
They could say that he had failed to receive rescue in time and had been killed.
That might even earn them sympathy and further deepen the Empire’s hatred and disgust toward the organization.
This would be beneficial to the Empire’s current situation.
Both Nan Yu and Yu Lanfeng would be pleased to see it happen.
Furthermore, it would prevent the fact that an organizational spy had infiltrated their legion from spreading.
Otherwise, it would deal an enormous blow to the legion’s reputation.
Yu Lanfeng had previously planned to bring Zhou Ziyu back to the Empire in secret.
He had never intended to make the matter public.
After all, to a certain extent, everyone was selfish.
Within the limited time available, he would uncover every spy in the legion.
He would kill every last one.
If some of them became desperate and lashed out, he would show them no mercy.
Nan Yu stood beside Yu Lanfeng and looked at Zhou Ziyu, who had lowered his head and was thinking about something.
Just as Nan Yu was about to speak, Zhou Ziyu suddenly said, “I know the names of every person the organization has planted throughout your entire legion.”
“Do you want the list?”
As soon as he said this, Yu Lanfeng, Nan Yu, and Lin Changyu, who stood behind them, all looked at him.
Fortunately, the examination personnel had already left the room.
No one else heard what he said.
Otherwise, the situation would have become extremely difficult to explain.
Lin Changyu asked, “What do you mean?”
Zhou Ziyu replied, “Exactly what I said.”
“I know the full list of every mole they planted throughout your legion.”
“Not merely within this military base.”
“I mean the entire legion.”
“I am asking whether you want it.”
“If you do, say so.”
“As long as you agree to my condition, I will give it to you.”
“If you do not want to agree, then there is nothing I can do.”
“In that case, I will not know what I just said.”
“So think about it carefully.”
Lin Changyu looked at Yu Lanfeng.
He did not know whether Yu Lanfeng would compromise.
After all, Zhou Ziyu truly was a ticking time bomb.
If he remained within the legion, no one knew when he might explode.
The losses at that time could be more devastating than ever before.
However, the condition Zhou Ziyu offered made it impossible for them not to agree.
But perhaps there was another method.
Yu Lanfeng looked at Zhou Ziyu.
Although Zhou Ziyu was somewhat afraid of him, this concerned his own future and whether he would regain his freedom.
At such a critical moment, he could not casually lose his nerve.
He forced himself to meet Yu Lanfeng’s gaze.
However, after only a minute, he could no longer endure it and looked away.
“In any case, I know the list.”
“Think carefully.”
“If you agree to my condition, I will tell you.”
“If you refuse, then forget it.”
“After all, you currently have no decisive evidence proving that I am connected to the thing you suspect.”
Nan Yu looked toward Yu Lanfeng.
Yu Lanfeng stared deeply at Zhou Ziyu.
“You’re lying.”
Those three calm words surprised not only Nan Yu and Lin Changyu, but also Zhou Ziyu himself.
Zhou Ziyu looked at him with an expression that seemed to ask: What are you talking about?
“What do you mean?”
“Are you saying you do not want the list?”
“If you do not want it, that is fine.”
“I simply will not tell you.”
Yu Lanfeng said, “I said you are lying.”
“You do not possess such a list.”
“You are merely stalling for time.”
“Or perhaps you are trying to create more favorable conditions for the people coming to rescue you.”
Yu Lanfeng paused.
He looked down at Zhou Ziyu from above.
“Do you think your petty trick will succeed?”
Yu Lanfeng’s expression was so serious that even Nan Yu and Lin Changyu believed what he said.
His tone was extremely certain, as though he already possessed conclusive evidence.
But in Zhou Ziyu’s eyes, they were merely acting.
And their acting was rather good.
Every single one of them looked completely convincing.
Zhou Ziyu did not believe they were not tempted.
But then Yu Lanfeng ordered that he be imprisoned again to await transportation to the Capital Star for trial.
Only then did Zhou Ziyu realize that Yu Lanfeng had not been acting.
He genuinely believed Zhou Ziyu was lying.
What was he supposed to do now?
He truly knew!
He truly knew the list!
It was real!
He was not lying!
Enraged, Zhou Ziyu stood abruptly and pointed at Yu Lanfeng while cursing furiously.
“What gives you the right to say I am lying?”
“Everything I said is true!”
“I do know!”
“If you do not investigate your legion properly, their people will soon infiltrate the management level!”
“I know this is difficult for you to accept, but facts are facts!”
“I hope you can accept them!”
Yu Lanfeng stared directly at him.
The gaze startled Zhou Ziyu so badly that he stepped backward and fell into the chair again.
“Wh-What are you doing?”
That gaze was truly frightening.
Yu Lanfeng said, “Since you know the list, answer this.”
“Was Han Lu one of your people?”
“Did you tamper with his Mental Sea that night and temporarily control him?”
Zhou Ziyu’s instincts told him that he could not reveal this so easily.
However, if he refused to answer, he seemed to have no other way to prove he was telling the truth.
He might as well say it.
After all, he was not exposing anyone currently hidden in the legion.
He was merely eliminating one person from suspicion.
It was not a serious matter.
“No.”
“As for that night, I did tamper with his Mental Sea.”
Nan Yu asked, “He is a powerful Ability User. How did you manage it?”
Zhou Ziyu replied, “I already said that he once came to me privately to have his Mental Contamination purified.”
“That was when I tampered with him.”
“So when we passed each other that night, I merely caused his mind to become dazed for a short while.”
“I used that brief period to arrange everything.”