Tyran Special Insecticide

"Don't... don't do anything rash..."

"I... do you want to know anything else...?"

Vanessa could not enter Qin Mo's mind, so she had no idea what she could say to calm him down.

Qin Mo showed no reaction. His hand grew scorching hot, and the blazing air warped the space around it.

"The Gene Stealer... Patriarch... its Psychic Power... I interfered with it..."

After Vanessa hastily came up with that sentence, Qin Mo released her and let her collapse to the floor.

"You interfered with that Gene Stealer Patriarch's Psychic Power? Who exactly are you?" Qin Mo looked as though he had heard a joke.

That was a Gene Stealer Patriarch.

But the fact that Qin Mo did not continue attacking proved that he did want to hear the details.

Vanessa sat on the floor and coughed for a while. Once she caught her breath, she explained, "You and your guards carried out a decapitation strike together. I was hiding nearby at the time. I used Psychic Power to interfere with the Patriarch, preventing it from launching a psychic attack against you."

Vanessa then began recounting the battlefield in detail, even describing exactly how Qin Mo had fought, hoping to prove that she truly had interfered with the Patriarch's Psychic Power.

Hearing all those details that even he himself could not have described, Qin Mo was deeply surprised. Still, he suspected that Vanessa had merely witnessed the battlefield through Psychic Power.

After all, psychic vision existed.

Some Psykers could even foresee the future.

Qin Mo pointed outside the fortress. "There are ten tanks parked outside right now. Crush them, and I'll believe you."

"I can't." Vanessa shook her head. "My Psychic Power is not a tool. I can't use it whenever I want."

"Fine. Let's say you helped me that day. But you're a Psyker. Have you been certified by the Imperium? Do you know how dangerous you are? You're at least Zeta-class. I'm afraid you'll lose control." Qin Mo openly displayed his hostility toward Vanessa as a Psyker.

Although Qin Mo himself had suffered terribly after being mistaken for a Psyker, that did not make him sympathetic toward Psykers.

Psykers were walking bombs.

If they merely struggled to control their Psychic Power, that would be one thing. Destroying a few buildings and killing a few people was still manageable. The real issue was that Psykers could become gateways through which the Chaos Gods of the Warp invaded the material universe.

If Vanessa opened a gateway, then Hive Terra and the entire Tyran System could prepare to be slaughtered by daemons.

"I can help you fight the rebels," Vanessa said.

"No. I'd rather you stay put. I'm afraid you'll lose control on the battlefield." Qin Mo quickly shook his head.

"Then try to kill me with your power." Vanessa suddenly no longer feared death. She grabbed Qin Mo's hand and placed it against her own throat. "Suppose you're facing a bomb. Would you choose to violently damage it and gamble that it won't explode when damaged, or would you delay and live a little longer?"

Qin Mo pondered it carefully, caught in a dilemma.

Perhaps he would fail to kill Vanessa in a single blow, causing her to lose control under extreme danger.

The best solution would still be to send Vanessa aboard a Black Ship and let the Imperium's professionals handle her. But where was he supposed to find a Black Ship now?

After careful consideration, Qin Mo answered, "I would put the bomb inside a Stasis Field, then study it and find a better way to defuse it. That way, when I encountered bombs in the future, I could easily dismantle them."

Vanessa froze for a moment at that answer.

Then Qin Mo turned around and walked out of the room. He ordered the guards outside, "Put psychic suppression devices on her. Put on as many as we have in storage."

"Are we really doing this, Legion Commander?" A guard hesitantly glanced at Vanessa, trying to persuade Qin Mo to change his mind.

"Until I find a way to defuse the bomb, yes. We have to." Qin Mo nodded.

"Alright." The guard nodded, then turned to Vanessa. "The Legion Commander is always right... and this is for your safety too, ma'am."

Qin Mo did indeed intend to create a psychic shielding device by studying Vanessa, but he could not do so for the moment.

Perhaps because the power of the C'tan had nothing whatsoever to do with the Warp, research into Psychic Power always cost Qin Mo more time and effort. His current psychic suppression technology was merely a more powerful version of the psychic collars used in the Tyran System.

Since one important matter could not be finished in the short term, Qin Mo could only complete what he could quickly finish first: continuing his research into weapons against Gene Stealers.

This weapon had already produced results.

It was a liquid weapon. It could be used by spraying it anywhere Gene Stealers might be hiding. Any Gene Stealer contaminated by the liquid would begin to dissolve, eventually turning into a puddle of water after one or two weeks.

The dissolution could also spread from one Gene Stealer to another.

Moreover, Qin Mo had distorted the weapon's laws, turning the chance of spread—which had originally been affected by various factors—into an absolute law that would spread through their population regardless of any factors.

Suppose a Gene Stealer born in Hive Terra was sent to the other end of the galaxy for some reason. That individual would be extremely far from its kind, but so long as its kind began dissolving, it too would start dissolving after some time, even at the other end of the galaxy.

This was the weapon called "Tyran Special Insecticide."

Its only flaw was that Qin Mo had to manufacture it himself.

Qin Mo immediately began producing a prototype, starting with the dissolving liquid and then the equipment that would contain and spray it.

"I read from Grot's mind that you were making a weapon against Gene Stealers."

"And then you made this thing—a weapon that sprays a liquid capable of killing Gene Stealers onto them... why not just build a flamethrower?"

Vanessa appeared behind Qin Mo at some point. Looking at what he was researching, she raised her question.

The Psy-Suppressor was working on her. Otherwise, Qin Mo would have felt uncomfortable the moment she approached.

"Do you know who you're discussing weapons with?" Qin Mo turned and asked.

"I'm discussing it with someone making a liquid flamethrower. Guess who that person is." Vanessa looked calm, though there was also some helplessness in her expression.

"Fire and poison cause collateral damage. It's hard to guarantee they won't hurt your own people. But the weapon I'm making has no collateral damage. It can precisely kill every enemy who deserves to die." Qin Mo defended himself.

In Qin Mo's view, Vanessa simply did not understand the weapon's exact nature. She had mistaken the thing used to activate it for the weapon itself.

The means of spraying the "insecticide" was not the important part. What mattered was that once it was sprayed, it could harmlessly neutralize Gene Stealers.

"I really don't understand how that differs from building a flamethrower... You might as well let me find a way to help you with Psychic Power."

"Help me with Psychic Power? Don't force me to violently dismantle you, bomb."

Qin Mo got up and led Vanessa out of the cave. Then, in the corridor, he said to her, "See that guard over there? Go tell her you're a prisoner, not a guest, then go where you're supposed to be."