676: Chapter 676 will be added tomorrow.

Seeing this scene, Liam's psychological defenses finally collapsed completely.

He clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles turning white, as his mind roared frantically.

Damn it! Did that spineless Lu Dongni really confess everything?!

He knew this supervision director all too well.

Lu Dongni looked majestic on the outside, appearing quite dignified in his high position, but in reality, he was extremely timid and had weak willpower. The only reason he was able to sit in the position of supervision director was entirely because they needed an obedient, easily controlled Puppet with no opinions of his own.

After so many years of cooperation, Liam knew better than anyone that someone like Lu Dongni simply couldn't withstand the interrogation pressure of the Inspection Team.

Once intimidated, coerced, or presented with evidence, he would 100% surrender immediately and implicate everyone else to save himself.

At this moment, looking at Sa Deli's meaningful gaze, Liam was already 100% certain.

Lu Dongni had defected.

He had confessed everything.

Including himself, including the Speaker, including all the secrets of the entire corruption clique...

A bone-chilling cold instantly rushed from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, completely engulfing him.

When the member of the Inspection Team who had come to report bowed and exited the interrogation room, and the door gently closed, Sa Deli finally raised his eyes slowly and looked back at Liam, whose face had long since turned pale.

His expression no longer held the casualness of their previous small talk; it was replaced by a cold and indifferent attitude, and his tone became exceptionally stiff.

"Mm... Liam, stay here honestly for now and await further processing."

After saying this, Sa Deli didn't give Liam any chance to explain, ask questions, or even react. He stood up, straightened his uniform, turned around, and walked out of the interrogation room.

Thud...

With a soft sound, the door was gently pulled shut, locking Liam alone in the enclosed and oppressive space.

Watching Sa Deli's back as he left without hesitation, and reflecting on that cold tone that addressed him by name, Liam's heart instantly sank to the bottom. The last sliver of hope completely vanished.

He understood these unspoken rules of officialdom all too well.

When they first entered, Sa Deli had politely called him "comrade Liam." That was protocol, respect, and superficial courtesy.

But now, he had directly dropped the word "comrade" and even omitted his surname, coldly calling him just "Liam."

What did this mean?

It meant the other party no longer treated him as a normal official.

It meant the Inspection Team already possessed sufficient evidence.

It meant Lu Dongni really had spilled all the secrets!

In Liam's eyes, this series of seemingly casual actions by Sa Deli was ironclad proof.

"Wait! Head Sa! Let me explain! It's not like that!"

Liam finally panicked. He bolted up from his chair, urgently wanting to chase after him to explain, but the door was already firmly closed, isolating all his sounds within the small room.

At this moment, with no outsiders present, Liam could no longer maintain his steady and calm official mask. His composure snapped instantly.

He stumbled back a step, leaning against the cold wall. His face was as pale as paper, and his eyes were filled with despair, anger, and deep regret.

"It's over... it's completely over this time..."

"That spineless traitor Lu Dongni! He actually sold us all out!"

"To get a reduced sentence, to present a token of loyalty, he didn't hesitate to push me, the Speaker, and everyone who worked together out to take the fall... What a cruel heart! What a poisonous scheme!"

Liam clenched his fists so hard his nails almost dug into his palms. His heart was filled with both hatred and regret as his emotions spiraled out of control.

He had calculated everything—the toughness of the Inspection Team, the danger of the evidence, the risk of sacrificing pawns to save the king—but the one thing he hadn't accounted for...

...was that their own people would collapse so quickly and so completely.

At this moment, he was fully convinced that his career, his life, and his future had been dragged into an inescapable abyss by that cowardly supervision director.

Little did he know that from beginning to end, he had simply fallen into a psychological trap carefully laid by Li Yang.

...

After Sa Deli left Liam's interrogation room, he walked with steady steps straight to the room where Li Yang and Lu Dongni were.

He pushed the door open gently, first nodding slightly to Li Yang, then deliberately letting his gaze sweep over Lu Dongni, whose face was already pale, before speaking in a calm but weighty tone.

"Team Leader Li, Liam has already confessed almost everything. Here is the full record of the process."

These words were like a heavy hammer, smashing ruthlessly against Lu Dongni's tense heart.

He snapped his head up, his eyes staring fixedly at Sa Deli. His heart pounded frantically, and even his breathing became rapid.

Before he could react, Sa Deli had already raised his wrist and activated a holographic projection device.

A clear and bright light screen unfolded in mid-air, projecting a real-time image directly before their eyes.

On the screen was Liam, who had just been left alone in the interrogation room.

Sa Deli timed it perfectly, neither playing the full video nor cutting it off, but letting the light screen intermittently show Liam's state.

Liam on camera was pale-faced and in a state of utter panic. One moment he was slumped in his seat, the next he was pacing anxiously. His face was written with regret, fear, and despair. That look of being on the verge of collapse simply couldn't be faked.

More importantly, Sa Deli deliberately provided only the image without the sound, leaving all the room for imagination to Lu Dongni himself.

Lu Dongni stared unblinkingly at the light screen, his pupils constantly contracting, and his limbs gradually grew cold.

When the Inspection Team mentioned Xu Da's confession earlier, he could still force himself to be comforted.

That was just verbal intimidation, an interrogation tactic, a scam without physical evidence.

But now it was different. The person on the light screen was Liam, the Secretary of the Disciplinary Committee, a core figure on the same front and firmly tied to the same boat as him.

He was seeing Liam's panic, regret, despair, and collapse with his own eyes.

The expression, the demeanor, the body language—it was all as real as it could be.

In an instant, the last sliver of hope, the last bit of persistence, and the last ounce of resistance in Lu Dongni's heart completely evaporated.

He was almost 100% certain.

Liam couldn't hold out anymore; he had confessed completely and given up all of them.

Lu Dongni, who had originally wanted to grit his teeth and hold out to the end, now felt his whole body go soft, and his vision darkened in waves.

He knew that his boat had completely sunk.

There was another crucial reason why Lu Dongni fell into complete despair after seeing the footage on the light screen.

With the Empire's current level of technology, forging an image, tampering with a record, or synthesizing a testimony was as easy as turning over a hand.

To fundamentally prevent the Inspection Team and judicial institutions from abusing false evidence and framing officials, the Supreme Law of the Empire had long since established explicit regulations.

In any investigation, interrogation, or judicial case, if forged, tampered, or synthesized physical evidence, images, or witness testimony appeared, the entire case would be immediately voided, all charges would be invalidated, and the relevant personnel would be held severely accountable.

Even to break a suspect's psychological defenses, the use of forged objective evidence was strictly prohibited. This was a red line that even the Central Inspection Team absolutely dared not touch.

However, verbal rhetoric, interrogation strategies, and psychological guidance were not included in this restriction.

This was why, when the Inspection Team only claimed that "Xu Da has already confessed," Lu Dongni could still hold onto hope.

Because those were just words, without any real images or physical evidence. He could completely assume the Inspection Team was deliberately bluffing and trying to trick him.

But the video Sa Deli was playing now was completely different.

This was a real-time, unedited, and unaltered image—a solid objective record that fully complied with Imperial law, with no suspicion of forgery whatsoever.

The only thing Sa Deli did was turn off the audio and play only fragments of the footage, so Lu Dongni could only see Liam's panicked, regretful, and desperate expressions but couldn't hear what he was actually saying.

Everything else was left to Lu Dongni's own imagination, suspicion, and self-intimidation.

Aside from a few verbal lies used for testing, everything the Inspection Team presented was genuine and accurate.

It was Lu Dongni himself who concluded Liam had defected and confessed, scaring himself to death and giving up his own resistance.

All of this was entirely within the framework allowed by Imperial law. Even if Lu Dongni realized it later, he wouldn't be able to find a single fault, let alone overturn the case because of it.

Because of this, Lu Dongni's final psychological dam collapsed.

He no longer had any reason to resist, nor any excuse to deceive himself.

He believed that in the face of the real images and the cruel reality, his group had already fallen into the inescapable net laid by the Inspection Team, with no way left to run.