Su Yang walked out of the interrogation room with a pale face.

Compared to Bai Liu, who had been the one under interrogation, he looked far more like the person who had just been questioned. The moment he came out, his knees went weak, and he nearly collapsed to the floor.

The other team members hurried forward to support him.

Su Yang and Bai Liu had been in an interrogation room fitted with one-way glass, so the conversation inside could be heard clearly from outside. Everyone understood what Bai Liu had just implied. Seeing Su Yang come out in such a state, the other team members all revealed looks of pity.

“Captain! Let’s use other heretics to interrogate him! For example, that Devouring Spring. Captain Tang said 0006’s weakness is water!”

“No!” Su Yang, who had been dazed, abruptly came back to his senses. He gripped the team member’s hand tightly to stop him. “There is still no direct evidence proving that Bai Liu is truly a heretic. We can’t use those kinds of things on him.”

“If he’s only an ordinary criminal, then using those things on him would violate regulations. It would be unfair...”

The team member’s face was full of rage he could no longer control. He roared sharply in Su Yang’s ear, “An ordinary criminal who put everyone in this city inside the blast radius of the Dried Rose Leaves?!”

“Captain, I know what you’re trying to uphold. You’ve interrogated Bai Liu personally again and again, and stopped us from using heretic interrogation methods, because you want to treat Bai Liu as a human criminal rather than a heretic, right?”

“But is he worthy of that?!”

Su Yang looked at the team member with a deathly pale face, his eyes clear.

“He is.”

The team member choked on Su Yang’s unwavering words. His eyes reddened, and his chest heaved violently before he continued questioning him.

“Even if your wife, child, and parents may have been used by this beast for an explosion pre-test and tortured to death, you still insist on not using heretic methods to interrogate him?”

“Yes. I insist.” Su Yang did not hesitate for even a second. “If Bai Liu is human, then he should not be treated the way we treat monsters.”

The team member took a deep breath. “Vice-Captain Su, the Second Branch will be here soon to take Bai Liu over. If you can’t pry the information out of Bai Liu before then, the Second Branch won’t let us handle him anymore.”

“They’ll use the Devouring Spring on Bai Liu directly, just like Captain Tang did.”

“I know.” Su Yang waved his hand, leaned against the table, drank a sip of water, then turned and went back inside. “I’ll try again.”

Su Yang once more entered the room where Bai Liu was being interrogated.

He had gone several consecutive days without sleeping well. Together with the devastation caused by the Dried Rose Leaves, Su Yang looked utterly haggard. Yet when facing Bai Liu—a person who had very likely done something monstrous to his wife and daughter—Su Yang still did his best to maintain his composure.

Su Yang sat down across from Bai Liu. Not only did he drink water himself, he also poured a cup for Bai Liu.

“I truly want to help you. If you’re willing to tell me where the explosion points are, I’ll do everything I can to seek leniency for you.”

Bai Liu’s gaze passed lightly over the cup of water, like a dragonfly skimming the surface.

This Captain Su, whom Tang Erda remembered so vividly, was indeed not someone whose emotions were easily shaken. No wonder he had been able to serve as the tactician for Tang Erda’s team. His nature was too steady. He could not be easily moved.

“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you.” Bai Liu immediately changed his tone and sighed with regret. “It’s that I can’t tell you.”

Seeing Bai Liu change his attitude, Su Yang pressed on at once. “Why can’t you? Is someone threatening you or preventing you from saying it? Is someone else behind the explosion? If you’re afraid of retaliation after leaving here, we can arrange—”

Bai Liu interrupted Su Yang’s promise. He withdrew his expression and looked at the man indifferently.

“It’s none of that. I can say it, but you wouldn’t be able to hear it, remember it, or see it. For you, it’s something untouchable.”

“Your captain risked his life precisely so that you...” Bai Liu turned his head and looked toward the dark glass. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

He knew that the people outside were Tang Erda’s team members, watching him with hatred. But Bai Liu did not care. He continued calmly, “—and so that the people behind this glass would never see the truth.”

Bai Liu turned back and looked straight into Su Yang’s light-colored eyes. He studied Su Yang for a long time before looking away and continuing.

“I think it’s foolish. But if that foolishness is the meaning he wants to pursue, and if all of you cannot bear the weight of this foolish protection, then I would probably cut you all off without mercy.”

“However, this time—” Bai Liu looked evenly at Su Yang for a moment, then shifted his gaze away. “—let Captain Tang say goodbye to all of you in his own foolish way.”

Su Yang was stunned. “...What do you mean by that?”

No sooner had he finished speaking than his communicator rang.

“Vice-Captain Su, Captain Tang is here!!”

“Vice-Captain Su, the people from the Second Branch are here too!!”

Su Yang’s expression turned grave. He stood up to leave. Bai Liu met his gaze with eyes as still as water, then answered his question.

“Captain Su, when you stay by your wife and daughter’s side, have you ever felt that your excessively close protection might one day kill them?”

Su Yang froze slightly.

Bai Liu said softly, “Your captain feels the same way.”

After saying this, he turned his head to look at the glass. His gaze was so quiet that not a ripple stirred within it, as if he could see the situation on the other side through the one-way glass.

But Su Yang knew that was impossible. Unless Bai Liu was wearing specially made contact lenses like he was, Bai Liu could not see what was on the other side of the glass.

Amid the urgent summons from outside, Su Yang walked out of the interrogation room in a distracted state. Strangely enough, from this Bai Liu, who now seemed even colder than before, he sensed a kind of mercy—as if Bai Liu had held himself back.

Bai Liu had seemed prepared to do something even crueler to him, but for some reason, he had stopped in the end and handed the right to choose back to Captain Tang.

Su Yang walked out of the interrogation room in a daze and stepped into a confrontation thick with the smell of gunpowder.

Compared with the Third Branch, which remained stationed at headquarters year-round, the Second Branch, which directly contained high-risk heretics in the field, carried a far heavier murderous aura and was more decisive—in other words, more ruthless—when dealing with heretics judged to be harmful.

Because their responsibilities differed, the Second Branch’s overall authority was one level higher than the Third Branch’s. In other words, as the Third Branch member had just said, if the Second Branch wanted to take Bai Liu away and handle him separately, no one could stop them.

But there was one exception in the Third Branch.

Captain Tang Erda.

Tang Erda’s authority had been granted to him by the former Captain of the First Branch. It was the highest authority in the entire headquarters of the Dangerous Heretic Management Bureau.

That meant it was higher than the Second Branch’s authority.

With Tang Erda present, it would not be easy for the Second Branch to take Bai Liu away for separate handling.

But under such an urgent crisis, it would also not be easy for Tang Erda to protect Bai Liu from the ruthless Captain of the Second Branch.

As soon as Su Yang came out, he saw Tang Erda standing in confrontation with the newly arrived Second Branch Captain, his expression cold.

The Captain of the Second Branch was a man who did not look the least bit friendly. His left eye was covered by an eyepatch, and two vicious old scars crossed from his jaw to his collarbone. His uniform jacket hung loosely over his shoulders, and there were still unwashed bloodstains on the swaying sleeves.

The ID card hanging crookedly from the jacket read:

[Second Branch Captain: Cen Buming]

Everyone present knew that Captain Cen’s left eye had been eaten on the spot while he was arresting a heretic, and that his vice-captain at the time had been eaten as well.

To this day, °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° the Second Branch still had no vice-captain. Cen Buming neither appointed one nor promoted anyone to the position, leaving it vacant. He alone served as the core commander of the entire team, and the team followed only his orders. Its cohesion was extraordinarily strong.

“Captain Tang, Heretic 0006 should be handed over to the Second Branch for handling,” Cen Buming said, cutting straight to the point. “The explosion is about to occur. The Third Branch has held this heretic for thirteen minutes and obtained no facts related to the explosion. Originally, after capturing the heretic, you should have immediately moved into the next interrogation phase, but your vice-captain—”

Cen Buming’s remaining eye bulged slightly. It was a settled, muddy yellow, like that of an injured hawk. When he stared at someone, it gave them an intense sense of being targeted prey.

“—Su Yang, has done nothing and delayed until now. This is a serious dereliction of duty.”

Tang Erda took a step forward, blocking Su Yang behind him.

“It was under my instruction. It has not yet been confirmed that Bai Liu is a heretic. We cannot directly conduct that kind of interrogation.”

Cen Buming withdrew his gaze from Su Yang and turned to Tang Erda, giving a mocking smile.

“Captain Tang, if I remember correctly, twenty-five hours ago, you had already used more than three types of heretics to interrogate Heretic 0006.”

“Furthermore, during his escape, this heretic released every heretic in headquarters, resulting in injuries to sixty-seven team members. Seventeen of them were seriously injured and are still lying in the emergency room, being resuscitated with their lives hanging by a thread.”

“At 4:17 the next day, the escaped heretic claimed, for the sake of revenge, that he had placed a timed explosive at the Rose Factory, powerful enough to contaminate the entire city.”

“—And now you’re telling me he isn’t a heretic?”

Cen Buming pulled the jacket off his shoulders and tossed it aside. He took a tan-colored dossier from a team member behind him, opened it in front of Tang Erda, and threw the documents to him.

“Take a look, Captain Tang.”

Tang Erda caught the dossier, and the moment he saw the label, his heart sank.

The number on it was 0006.

The dossier had already been issued. Headquarters had already classified Bai Liu as a heretic.

Tang Erda looked down at the documents with a heavy expression.

[Heretic Containment Item Name]: Bai Liu

[Report]: Captured following a prediction by the Captain of the Third Branch. During the escape process, demonstrated close connections with other heretics...

...Humanoid analog, possessing human-like thought and behavioral capabilities. The first living human heretic captured by the Heretic Management Bureau...

...According to the verbal statement of the Captain of the Third Branch, this heretic not only has the ability to control other heretics, but also harbors great hostility toward humans, enjoys torturing humans, is skilled at misleading and manipulating humans, and possesses extremely powerful mental pollution abilities, capable of polluting living humans into heretics for his own use...

...Has already caused one major mass-casualty incident...

...After testing, this heretic shows strong aversion to aqueous liquids, including but not limited to fresh water, seawater, and similar substances...

[Containment Method]: Containment is not recommended. Destroy immediately upon capture.

[Danger Level]: Unknown. Extremely high; existing classifications are unable to evaluate it.

—

Author’s Note:

Author’s friend: Look at that, 2. Back then, you were the one who wronged Bai Liu, and now you have to be the one to pay it back yourself. What are you even suffering for?