"So, in summary, although you were corrupted by the Monster Mastermind, you committed no legally actionable crimes for which you could be charged?"
Meng Chao rubbed his chin thoughtfully and drew the conclusion for Lü Siya.
"That's right."
Lü Siya was brimming with confidence. "My conscience is clear. I'm willing to accept any investigation. Unless someone frames me, you won't find a single problem."
"I believe that. With your intelligence, even if you truly crossed the line, you would never leave behind any evidence."
Meng Chao narrowed his eyes and stared deeply at Lü Siya. "However, even if everything you just said was true, all these 'facts' still lead to an entirely different conclusion."
"Is that so?"
Lü Siya's expression did not change; she remained perfectly composed. "What conclusion?"
"As for your break with the Lü family and Qingtian Corporation—yes, it really was for freedom."
Meng Chao paused, then abruptly changed tack. "But whose freedom was it? The freedom of the genuine, purely human, one-hundred-percent Lü Siya—or that of the Monster Mastermind lurking inside her?"
"I don't understand what you mean."
Lü Siya was still smiling. "Wasn't the Monster Mastermind residing within me already completely destroyed, scattered like smoke and ashes? You personally eliminated it less than twenty-four hours ago. Have you forgotten so quickly?"
"No. The Monster Mastermind's life form is utterly different from that of most Carbon-Based Lifeforms—perhaps that colossal biological brain we found in the Monster Civilization Ultimate Nest was merely a puppet it had parasitized. The true Monster Mastermind was very likely something even more microscopic, more inscrutable, and more tenaciously alive than Blood Pattern Flower Spores."
Meng Chao pondered deeply. "There is every possibility that Lü Zhongqi underestimated the Monster Mastermind's terror. He believed he could completely control it, extracted refined components from that colossal