Chapter 161: The List
No matter how frightened Zhou Ziyu was, after they left he couldn't help but let out a long sigh of relief.
His nerves had been stretched so tightly just now that he hadn't had a single moment to relax.
At last, he could rest for a while.
As for whether tomorrow would be the day he died...
That was tomorrow's problem.
Worrying now wouldn't change anything.
However...
Once he had calmed down, he immediately began racking his brain, trying to figure out how he could stay alive tomorrow.
As a Mental Power User, he had practically no ability to resist.
Use the mental power he had always been so proud of?
After witnessing the strength of someone like Nan Yu, who had truly reached this level through his own talent and hard work, Zhou Ziyu no longer had any confidence in competing with him.
The gap between them genuinely existed.
It wasn't something that could be bridged overnight.
Still...
One thing puzzled him greatly.
Nan Yu was actually this powerful.
He had always thought the rumors outside were merely exaggerated stories.
Most of Nan Yu's achievements had probably just been due to good luck.
For example, the competition against the allied nation's Mental Power User at the Royal Military Academy of the Capital Star.
In Zhou Ziyu's opinion, that had been child's play.
He had been somewhat impressed, but only somewhat.
At that time, he had definitely been stronger than Nan Yu.
Yet now...
Nan Yu had actually surpassed him.
So...
Had the mission issued by the organization really been true?
Did Nan Yu truly possess the Nianshen Grass?
If he could take both Nan Yu and the Nianshen Grass back to the organization...
He slowly shook his head.
That was basically impossible.
He was already nothing more than meat on the chopping block, waiting to be butchered.
How could he still entertain fantasies like that?
Taking a deep breath, Zhou Ziyu forced himself to calm down.
What he needed to think about now wasn't anything else.
It was how to survive.
He was one of the organization's upper-ranking members.
If these people really managed to extract every secret he knew...
Then, no matter how valuable a Mental Power User he was...
The organization would hunt him to the ends of the universe.
He didn't want that.
Rather than being hunted down by the organization...
He would rather die here.
At least death would be a release.
He needed to think of a perfect solution.
One that would allow him to escape safely...
Without arousing the organization's suspicion.
If he couldn't...
He was finished.
The news that he had been exposed and captured had almost certainly already been reported by the organization's sleeper agents hidden within the base.
By now...
The organization undoubtedly knew.
So...
What exactly should he do?
He exhausted every possible idea.
Not a single solution came to mind.
He remained awake the entire night.
Only when he heard people moving around outside the next morning did he realize dawn had arrived.
Morning.
Which meant...
Those five people were coming again.
What was he supposed to do?
Why had he chosen those five back then?
If he'd simply picked five people who were easiest to control...
Controlled them...
Then left them alone...
Wouldn't none of this have happened?
If that had been the case...
Even while he was imprisoned here...
Those controlled subordinates could still secretly create chaos.
They might even have managed to rescue him.
But now...
There seemed to be no chance at—
Hm?
Suddenly...
He remembered something.
Before targeting those five...
He had tested his method on someone else first.
That person...
Who was it?
He couldn't remember.
Back then, he'd simply grabbed someone at random to use as a test subject.
Afterward, that person had become utterly devoted to him.
Just one or two rounds of mental domination had completely rewritten his perception.
He regarded Zhou Ziyu as the person he loved most in the entire world.
The very meaning of his existence.
If it was him...
Perhaps he could rescue him.
That person had only been approached privately.
There were no medical treatment records whatsoever.
Which meant no one at this military base knew the two of them had ever come into contact.
Right!
After completing the experiment, Zhou Ziyu had found the test subject rather annoying.
So he had planted a suggestion into his mind.
Live your life as usual.
When I need you...
I'll come find you.
Unfortunately...
Zhou Ziyu couldn't even remember where that man was now.
He couldn't even remember his name.
The choice had truly been that casual.
He had never paid any further attention to him.
It wasn't strange that he couldn't remember.
The problem was...
How could he contact him now?
To issue orders...
He needed to either see him personally...
Or establish eye contact and verbal communication.
But now...
He couldn't sense the portion of his own mental power connected to that person at all.
That meant...
The man was very far away.
Earlier, when Zhou Ziyu had just been captured, he could still sense the fragments of his mental power inside those five people.
This...
Was troublesome.
Closing his eyes, Zhou Ziyu remained curled up in the corner, concentrating for a long time.
Still...
Nothing.
No response whatsoever.
What was going on?
Had that man died on the front lines during a mission?
If that was the case...
Then all his hopes had come to nothing.
However...
His disappointment lasted only an hour before everything suddenly changed.
He felt it.
The last remaining person under his control.
He really felt it.
And...
That person was getting closer.
Was he coming to rescue him?
If that was really the case...
Then he was unbelievably lucky.
While sensing the approaching mental power, Zhou Ziyu continuously sent out silent commands.
Hurry.
Come rescue me.
But...
Whether something had gone wrong...
Or for some other reason...
Just as the man approached within a certain distance...
He suddenly changed direction and headed somewhere else.
Zhou Ziyu froze.
What happened?
Had the suggestion stopped working?
Impossible.
Back when he'd first become Zhou Ziyu's test subject, he'd practically worshipped him as a god.
Zhou Ziyu himself had become the meaning of his life.
There was no way he'd suddenly turn around and leave.
Unless...
The military base had also discovered that he was under Zhou Ziyu's control.
Right...
The place where Zhou Ziyu was imprisoned was highly classified.
Ordinary people couldn't possibly know its location.
Perhaps while Zhou Ziyu had been issuing his mental commands...
He had unintentionally disrupted the man's covert approach.
As the man hurried over...
His abnormal behavior had been noticed.
Then he'd been taken away.
Covering his face, Zhou Ziyu felt utterly miserable.
Had he ruined everything because he'd acted too hastily?
Did that mean...
He truly had no hope of escaping now?
...
Meanwhile, inside the office, Nan Yu and Yu Lanfeng suddenly heard hurried knocking.
The door opened.
Lin Changyu stood outside.
"Marshal! Doctor Nan!"
Yu Lanfeng looked over.
"What's got you so flustered?"
Lin Changyu answered immediately.
"The medical department just received a severely wounded patient."
"His Mental Contamination has already exceeded S-rank."
"We have no way to treat him."
"Could Doctor Nan please come take a look?"
Nan Yu immediately stood.
"Lead the way."
"I'll go have a look."
Yu Lanfeng wasn't at ease, so he followed as well.
On the way, Nan Yu asked,
"Tell me the details."
Lin Changyu explained,
"He's critically injured and on the verge of death."
"If treated immediately, he can still be saved."
"But his Mental Contamination has already exceeded the S-rank threshold."
"Nobody here can treat him."
"I heard that if it's you..."
"It definitely won't be a problem."
Nan Yu shook his head.
"Don't be so certain."
"I'll have to examine him first."
"I'm not capable of curing every S-rank Mental Contamination."
"Let's hurry."
Upon arriving at the treatment room...
Nan Yu saw a man strapped to a hospital bed.
His eyes were blood-red.
His entire body was soaked in blood.
He struggled violently without stopping.
Fresh blood continued pouring from his wounds.
The injuries clearly required immediate treatment.
Compared to Han Lu's condition...
This man's injuries were even worse.
Nan Yu stepped forward immediately.
He first examined the man's Mental Sea.
The Mental Contamination had indeed reached S-rank.
But...
That wasn't all.
Inside...
He discovered an extremely familiar mental signature.
It belonged to...
Zhou Ziyu.
Nan Yu's expression changed.
What was going on?
Did Zhou Ziyu have another person under his control besides those five soldiers?
Moreover...
Nan Yu was certain this man had never appeared among the patients Zhou Ziyu had previously treated in the medical department.
Which meant...
Zhou Ziyu had found him privately.
Even those five knew nothing about him.
"Who is he?"
Lin Changyu paused briefly.
"He's Han Lu's close friend."
"They entered the legion together after passing the entrance assessment."
"So they were assigned to the same unit."
"He was seriously injured before and spent quite some time recovering."
"He only returned to combat recently."
"And now..."
"He's come back even more severely wounded."
Far more seriously wounded than last time.
From Lin Changyu's explanation, Nan Yu immediately pieced together what had happened.
Any soldier capable of passing the legion's entrance assessment was unquestionably outstanding.
Someone like that couldn't possibly have been secretly subdued by Zhou Ziyu without anyone noticing.
Therefore...
There was only one possibility.
Zhou Ziyu had targeted him while he was still recovering from his previous injuries.
Everyone knew that when Mental Power Users dispersed Mental Contamination...
They usually relied on rough but immediately effective methods.
As a result, an Ability User's Mental Sea inevitably suffered some damage.
If Zhou Ziyu had encountered him during that vulnerable recovery period...
His damaged Mental Sea really could have allowed Zhou Ziyu to turn him into a puppet.
Now things had become troublesome.
Inside his Mental Sea...
There was both Zhou Ziyu's mental power...
And S-rank Mental Contamination.
If only one of those existed...
Nan Yu could deal with it easily.
But together...
Things became far more difficult.
Seeing Nan Yu's troubled expression, both Yu Lanfeng and Lin Changyu were surprised.
Ordinarily...
This kind of treatment should have been easy for Nan Yu.
Yu Lanfeng asked,
"What's wrong?"
"Is there another complication?"
Nan Yu didn't think it needed to be hidden.
"There is."
"His Mental Sea contains Zhou Ziyu's mental power."
Which meant...
This man was currently under Zhou Ziyu's control.
Yu Lanfeng's eyes widened slightly.
Lin Changyu exclaimed,
"What?!"
Nan Yu nodded.
"I'm certain."
"This room is relatively close to where Zhou Ziyu is being held."
"So he's probably being influenced."
"Move him somewhere farther away."
"The farther the better."
"Once the distance increases, Zhou Ziyu's influence will weaken considerably."
"Then I can remove the Mental Contamination first."
"After that..."
"I'll deal with Zhou Ziyu's mental power."
"Make a decision quickly."
Lin Changyu didn't hesitate for even a second.
He immediately gave the order.
The patient was transferred to the military base's most remote location—
The place farthest from Zhou Ziyu's detention area.
One of the empty rooms there was used temporarily.
After examining the Mental Sea again, Nan Yu nodded.
"Good."
"No problem now."
"Let's begin."
Simply dispersing the Mental Contamination was easy for Nan Yu.
Although the patient would inevitably suffer some damage to his mental power...
Nan Yu still crushed and removed every trace of contamination within thirty minutes.
As for Zhou Ziyu's mental power...
That wasn't a problem for the moment.
As long as Nan Yu remained here...
He would never allow it to take advantage of the situation and merge even more deeply into the Mental Sea.
Just as promised...
Exactly thirty minutes later...
Everyone watched with their own eyes as the patient's terrifying, twisted appearance gradually calmed.
The moment Nan Yu withdrew his hands...
Medical staff rushed in.
They immediately began surgery and emergency treatment.
Because Nan Yu had bought them so much time...
The operation was highly successful.
However...
Due to the condition of his Mental Sea...
He continued recovering in that remote temporary ward.
After finishing the treatment, Nan Yu rested briefly.
Once the surgery was complete...
He returned to examine the patient's Mental Sea again.
He discovered that Zhou Ziyu's mental power was continuously fluctuating.
He didn't know exactly what it meant.
But he had a strong intuition.
Zhou Ziyu knew this person's existence.
He could even sense the approximate location and distance of the fragment of mental power he had implanted.
Apparently...
He had realized that the only person capable of rescuing him was nearby.
Those constant fluctuations were most likely desperate cries for help aimed at the unconscious soldier.
If the man had been fully healthy...
He probably really would have rushed over to rescue Zhou Ziyu.
Even though...
He certainly would have been stopped.
Nan Yu inhaled deeply.
"Actually..."
"We need to remove the mental power immediately."
"We can't delay any longer."
"Zhou Ziyu implanted it during his previous recovery period, before his Mental Sea had fully healed."
"So..."
"It has rooted itself much more deeply than it did in those previous five cases."
"My recommendation..."
"Is to begin immediately."
Lin Changyu was decisive.
"Can we do it now?"
Nan Yu nodded.
"Yes."
"Prepare a mental power containment device."
"Bring it to me."
"I'll begin right away."
"This time there's less mental power than in the previous five cases..."
"But it's rooted much more deeply."
"It'll probably take around ten hours."
"During that time..."
"I don't want anyone disturbing me."
Lin Changyu nodded.
"No problem."
"Leave it to me."
Yu Lanfeng silently glanced at Lin Changyu.
Yet Lin Changyu didn't notice at all.
He immediately hurried off to make preparations.
Not long afterward...
Han Lu quietly arrived after hearing the news.
"General..."
"I came to see—"
Before he could finish...
Lin Changyu immediately barked,
"Nonsense!"
"Do you remember your current status?"
"You're still suspected of being an accomplice to treason!"
"Your suspicions haven't been cleared!"
"How can you be wandering around freely?"
Only then did Han Lu remember.
His suspicions really hadn't been completely cleared.
Earlier...
He had only heard that his friend was here.
He'd rushed over immediately...
Without thinking about anything else.
Opening his mouth, he lowered his head.
"I understand."
"I was wrong."
"I'll go back now."
"I'm sorry, Marshal."
"I acted on my own."
"It has nothing to do with the General."
"I—"
Yu Lanfeng interrupted calmly.
"Come in."
Han Lu froze.
Had the Marshal just...
Told him to come in?
Lin Changyu reacted first.
Grabbing Han Lu's arm, he pulled him inside.
"Look."
"The surgery went well."
"Now he just needs to recover."
"It's just that..."
"There is Zhou Ziyu's mental power inside his Mental Sea."
"So he still needs Doctor Nan's treatment."
"Don't worry."
"Doctor Nan has already cured five soldiers who were controlled by Zhou Ziyu."
"This time will be no different."
Only after seeing his friend lying peacefully in bed...
Watching the stable numbers displayed on the monitoring equipment...
Did Han Lu finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Then he bowed deeply to Nan Yu.
"Thank you very much, Doctor Nan."
Nan Yu waved dismissively.
"It's nothing."
"This is my job."
"If you're worried..."
"You can stay here and wait."
"But this treatment will take considerably longer."
Hearing that he was actually allowed to remain...
Han Lu immediately looked excitedly toward Yu Lanfeng.
Yu Lanfeng had no objections.
After all...
Han Lu couldn't possibly do anything suspicious under his watch.
Since even the Marshal approved...
Lin Changyu naturally had nothing to object to.
Besides...
He genuinely cared about Han Lu.
Nan Yu then drove everyone out of the room before beginning treatment.
Earlier...
He had estimated ten hours.
That had actually been the optimistic estimate.
If anything unexpected happened...
It could easily stretch to eleven...
Or even twelve hours.
Still...
Nan Yu didn't think he would be that unlucky.
Not long afterward...
The treatment officially began.
Instead of immediately trying to tear away those deeply rooted strands of mental power...
He first conducted an extremely careful examination of the entire Mental Sea.
Fortunately...
Zhou Ziyu's mental power hadn't completely merged with it.
That was excellent news.
It meant the treatment could proceed much faster.
If everything went smoothly...
It might even be finished within eight or nine hours.
Once he had thoroughly mapped every strand...
Nan Yu finally began.
He first wrapped the loose strands drifting around the edges of the Mental Sea—
Those that hadn't yet fused—
And carefully extracted them one by one.
Each strand was sealed inside the special containment device.
That part progressed rapidly.
It was completed in just over an hour.
The real challenge...
Came afterward.
Every remaining strand had already merged halfway—
Or even mostly—
Into the Mental Sea.
Separating them?
Impossible.
Once mental power had fused together...
It could never be cleanly separated.
Therefore...
Nan Yu's only option was to excise every portion of the Mental Sea contaminated by Zhou Ziyu's mental power...
And remove those sections entirely.
Naturally...
That would damage the patient's Mental Sea.
But there was no avoiding it.
Leaving those contaminated portions behind...
Would be far crueler.
After this treatment...
His recovery period would become much longer.
Probably more than half a year.
Still...
It would be worth it.
Nan Yu didn't dwell on it.
He simply followed his own judgment.
No one would willingly tolerate this kind of unnatural influence.
Bit by bit...
Strand by strand...
He carefully cut away each fused section...
Then sealed it inside the containment device.
Three hours later...
Nan Yu paused to assess his progress.
At this pace...
Another five hours would finish everything.
Not bad.
His abilities had improved considerably again.
The entire process remained remarkably smooth.
There had been several moments when Zhou Ziyu's mental power suddenly became agitated.
Fortunately...
The disturbances were brief.
Nan Yu guessed Zhou Ziyu had sensed his implanted mental power gradually disappearing.
Growing anxious...
He unconsciously caused fluctuations from afar.
Nan Yu ignored them completely.
Once the disturbances subsided...
He continued his work.
Five and a half hours later...
The treatment was finally complete.
Earlier...
He had estimated eight or nine hours.
Yet by the time everything truly ended...
It had still taken nearly ten.
His original estimate had been accurate after all.
Taking a deep breath...
Nan Yu forced his exhausted legs toward the door.
Opening it...
He found the same three people still waiting outside.
"It's finished."
"Everything's fine."
Joy instantly erupted in Han Lu's eyes.
But Nan Yu immediately added,
"However..."
"I can't guarantee..."
"That this treatment alone will allow him to recover completely."
Han Lu froze.
"W-Why?"
Nan Yu narrowed his eyes as he looked at the unconscious man.
"I don't think I explained it clearly before."
"Zhou Ziyu implanted his mental power into the patient's Mental Sea during his previous recovery period."
"In other words..."