39: Chapter 39 Are you sure you can do it?

Su Yun frowned.

"Thirty-seven times?"

He stared at Su Chen, his tone carrying an off-putting implication.

"As a perfectly fine leader of the Salvation Society, how did you get interrogated thirty-seven times?"

Su Chen's expression did not change.

He walked to the window, turning his back to Su Yun.

"The details are not important."

Su Chen's voice was very flat, as if he were speaking about an old matter long past its expiration date.

"You only need to know one thing. Even if I am captured, I will not reveal any information about you. Psionic interrogation, mental intrusion, memory extraction—none of it is useful."

He turned around and pointed to his temple.

"Inside here is a cognitive lock I set myself. Once forced reading is triggered, the lock will automatically detonate, directly burning that part of my memory to ashes. The cost is that I will be in a coma for three days, but no one can extract a single word from my brain."

Su Yun looked at him.

This certainty did not seem like bragging.

Thirty-seven interrogations, zero times speaking.

This level of stress resistance, placed in the evaluation system of any intelligence agency, would be considered a top-tier anti-interrogation sample.

Su Chen did not continue to explain.

He would not tell Su Yun that those thirty-seven interrogations happened four years ago.

At that time, he was not yet Bai Cang; he was just a young man carrying hundreds of thousands in startup capital, naively thinking he could go to Neon to do business reselling Psionic Materials.

As a result, just three days after getting off the plane, he was targeted by Neon's Shadow Affairs Ministry.

The Shadow Affairs Ministry.

Neon's official government-affiliated Psionic intelligence agency.

On the surface, it was responsible for monitoring Strange Tales anomalies within the territory, but in reality, it did all sorts of shady business: turning foreign Awakened, infiltrating other countries' intelligence networks, and training underground spies.

They had their eyes on Su Chen's Daxia nationality and clean family background.

They tried the soft approach.

Money, women, status—the conditions offered became more outrageous each time.

Su Chen did not agree.

Then came the hard approach.

Thirty-seven times.

Electric shocks, waterboarding, Psionic resonance tearing at nerve endings, high-frequency sound waves bombarding him continuously for seventy-two hours without a break.

By the thirty-seventh time, Su Chen was hanging upside down from the ceiling of the interrogation room.

Four of his teeth had been knocked out, and the fingernail of his left pinky had been pulled out entirely.

The interrogator stood below, holding up a mirror to make him look at his own face.

"You are no longer human," the interrogator said in stiff Chinese. "Agree to us, and everything will end."

Su Chen looked at that bloody, mangled face in the mirror.

Then he laughed.

At that very moment, his Psionic power Awakened.

Water element, A-class Peak.

The blood of everyone in the interrogation room boiled at the same second.

Come to think of it, he really had to thank the Shadow Affairs Ministry for their hospitality.

If not for them, there would be no Bai Cang today.

Su Chen came back to his senses, pushing these images back into the depths of his memory.

He looked at Su Yun in the chair opposite him, the corners of his mouth returning to a gentle curve.

"Anyway, you don't need to worry about this."

Su Yun nodded, not pressing further.

If his older brother didn't want to talk about something, asking wouldn't get any answers.

"Then let's talk about business." Su Yun leaned back in the chair. "How is the specific plan arranged?"

Su Chen walked to the desk, his index finger tapping three spots on the tabletop.

"The three Sanctuary Spiritual Vein anchors are located underground in the Eastern Industrial Zone, inside the dam of the Northern Reservoir, and in the base of the harbor lighthouse, respectively."

"We only need to destroy one."

Su Yun looked at the three points he had marked, his train of thought catching up.

"Your people go to feign attacks on the other two anchors, attracting the Investigation Bureau to split their forces. The two of us go to the third one, for real?"

Su Chen shook his head.

"They are all A-class. Too weak."

His finger stopped on the tabletop, his voice pausing for a beat.

"Besides, the Investigation Bureau knows I am in Linhai."

Su Chen thought of Su Yao.

Although her position in the Investigation Bureau was not high, she had certainly reported his intelligence in Linhai.

If Bai Cang did not appear personally to disrupt the situation, those people from the Firmament would only assume the feigned attack was a diversionary tactic, and would instead increase their investigation efforts on the true target.

"I have to go myself."

Su Chen raised his head.

"If they don't see me, they will guess the intention of luring the tiger away from the mountain. Therefore, I will lead people to attract fire head-on, pinning all the attention of the Firmament and the Abyssal Eye onto me."

He looked at Su Yun, his gaze steady.

"The mission to sever the anchor is left to you."

Su Yun was silent for two seconds.

"Alright."

Crisp and clean, without any unnecessary chatter.

Su Chen nodded in satisfaction, then as if remembering something, changed the subject.

"By the way. Did you see that woman from the Sanctuary yesterday?"

"Yeah."

"What do you think of her?"

Su Yun thought for a moment. "She's quite good-looking."

Su Chen's mouth twitched.

"...I'm asking how strong she is."

Su Yun recalled the scene of Saintess Lin Xinglan attacking.

Piercing Night Owl's Black Flame defense with a single finger from ten thousand meters in the air—that kind of pure, extreme Psionic output didn't look at all like she was dealing with an S-class Monster Hunter; it was more like an adult teaching an unruly child a lesson.

"She counts as one of the very strong ones among S-class."

Su Yun gave an objective evaluation.

Then he added a sentence.

"At least stronger than you."

Su Chen's smile froze on his face.

The wall clock in the living room ticked twice.

"...Your evaluation is a bit too direct."

Su Chen cleared his throat, trying to regain a bit of face, "My ability system is different from hers, you can't just compare them horizontally like that..."

"Older brother, I'm just stating facts."

Su Chen shut his mouth.

After three seconds of silence, he whispered,

"If only I had obtained the black day yesterday."

Su Yun was drinking water and nearly choked.

The black day?

That s-class sequencing weapon was currently in the form of a blade-shaped tattoo, quietly resting above his heart, transmitting signals of fanatical loyalty to him twenty-four hours a day without pause.

Older brother, the thing you want is stuck on your own younger brother's chest.

"It is indeed a pity." Su Yun kept a straight face.

Su Chen sighed and didn't dwell on this topic anymore.

Su Yun pulled the attention back to the right track.

"Then what about the Firmament?" Su Yun looked at Su Chen. "Since you want to draw him out head-on, you have an idea of his strength, right?"

Su Chen's expression became serious.

"Executive Jiang Xu. S-class Awakened, his ability is Absolute Gravity, manipulating gravity fields and gravitational collapse."

Su Chen held up two fingers.

"But that's not the most troublesome part. He is also an S-class Psionic Martial Artist. Dual Cultivation Physique, no blind spots in melee or ranged combat."

The third finger went up.

"And, he has an s-class sequencing weapon in his hand, the Spear of the Firmament."

Su Chen paused for a beat, his voice dropping lower.

"If we fight head-on, I am not his match."

The room was silent for a full five seconds.

Su Yun sat in the chair, his expression without any fluctuation.

But his brain had already started running at high speed.

Wait a second.

Let's replay this.

Saintess Lin Xinglan, stronger than older brother.

Firmament's Executive Jiang Xu, older brother can't beat him either.

Abyssal Eye, investigation ability is unsolvable.

Then older brother, what are you using to lure the tiger away from the mountain?

Your face?

Su Yun raised his head, looking at Su Chen opposite him who was seriously formulating a battle plan, an unprecedented sense of absurdity rising in his heart.

Older brother.

You can't beat anyone.

You are running to attract the fire of two S-class head-on.

This isn't called luring the tiger away from the mountain.

This is called walking into a trap.

Su Yun took a deep breath, trying hard to keep his tone in a normal range.

"Older brother."

"Yeah?"

"Saintess Lin Xinglan is stronger than you, and the Firmament is also stronger than you."

"Correct."

"And you are going to drag them out head-on by yourself."

"That's right."

"Are you sure you can come back alive?"

Su Chen's movements paused for an instant.

Then he revealed an extremely confident smile.

"Little Yun, not being able to beat them head-on doesn't mean I can't hold them off."

Su Chen walked to the wardrobe, pulled open the bottom-most secret compartment, and took out a silver-white mask from inside.

The lines of the mask were cold and smooth, and a distorted rune was engraved on the center of the forehead.

He pressed the mask onto his face, his voice coming from behind the mask, carrying a bit of metallic coldness.

"Bai Cang appearing in Linhai, this news itself is enough to drive everyone crazy. The Firmament's mission is to hunt Strange Tales, not to catch me. But they cannot ignore a target in the top five of the global wanted list."

Su Chen took off the mask, returning to his gentle smile.

"I just need to run, and let him chase me."

"Besides, don't forget, I am now an S-class Water-type Awakened. Whether it's the Northern Reservoir dam or the harbor lighthouse, they are all my home turf. If I want to run, no one can stop me!"