Exchanging one life for ten years of loyalty was already a pretty good deal. After all, whether he'd be released then would still depend on their respective strength.
Clearly, Zhong Can thought the same way. He agreed without hesitation. He was confident that with his strength after breaking through and his rate of improvement, there'd be no way to control him ten years later.
"Fine. But how do you plan to make sure I won't attack you after I'm released? You won't just take my word for it, will you?"
"Simple. I just need a little insurance." Wang Yiyang remained calm. "Besides, I've found a way to take martial arts further. Follow me, and you'll see the hope of making even greater progress."
At those words, Zhong Can snapped his head up inside the glass room. His eyes gleamed like bright gemstones as he stared intently at Wang Yiyang outside.
"You're sure?"
"I have no reason to lie to you."
"Then what do I need to do?" Zhong Can lowered his head, his tone quickly becoming animated.
Before, his voice had been flat and emotionless. Now, a hint of extra vigor had crept into it.
Wang Yiyang considered for a moment.
"Have a chip implanted, and then get some sleep." He waved a hand.
The two people behind him immediately stepped forward. They opened a vent at the top of the glass room and pumped in a powerful anesthetic gas.
Canister after canister of anesthetic gas poured into the glass room like smoke.
Zhong Can calmly closed his eyes and sat cross-legged on the floor. Before long, his head slumped to one side and he drifted into a light sleep.
The anesthetic was enough to knock out two elephants, so it was more than enough for one Grand Justice martial artist.
Wang Yiyang waited. He didn't open the glass room right away, but stayed outside.
Fifteen minutes later, the anesthetic had fully taken effect, and the gas was quickly extracted.
"Get me a marker. Red."
"Yes."
A red marker was soon handed to Wang Yiyang.
He slowly approached and began drawing on the transparent glass of the room.
The Tasdak Symbol Hypnosis he'd mastered mainly used sounds and symbols to guide and hypnotize others.
Its effectiveness depended on the target's willpower and attention.
The more alert they were, the more relaxed they were, the easier it was to hypnotize them.
Only people who were extremely self-absorbed, calm in mind, and prone to letting their thoughts wander were difficult to hypnotize.
In other words, the hardest people to hypnotize were paranoid egomaniacs and mentally ill people lost in their own fantasies.
Tasdak Symbol Hypnosis had two methods: spoken words and sounds, and handwritten symbols.
The symbols had no fixed form. They only needed to catch someone's attention.
That was why Wang Yiyang had chosen a red marker.
A moment later,
he had covered the glass room with a dense mass of strange symbols.
Each one looked like a rune made from splattered blood, twisted and bizarre. A single glance was enough to make it impossible to look away.
Soon, all five bodyguards in the basement, including Jian, were drawn to the scarlet symbols.
Their movements slowed, growing more and more sluggish, while their gazes seemed glued to the symbols on the glass.
What suggestion should I plant next? Wang Yiyang narrowed his eyes.
Tasdak Symbol Hypnosis was just one of Finn's quick hypnosis techniques. It was useful, but also limited.
Its greatest effect was planting a small program in someone's consciousness, one that didn't conflict with their own survival.
Once the hypnotized person sensed a specific trigger, the program would execute.
For instance, it could make someone do something, perform a simple action, or suddenly develop a strange thought.
Of course, in a one-on-one situation, it could accomplish much more. It could trap someone in an illusion based on their own past memories, just like what had happened in the bar.
But now it was one against many, so the effect wouldn't be as strong.
Wang Yiyang thought it over.
"When I ask whether you're loyal to me, repeat this to yourself ten times: 'I am loyal to Boss Wang Yiyang.'"
His voice slowly echoed through the basement.
Fortunately, the space wasn't large, so everyone could hear him.
"Now, answer me. Are you loyal to me?"
"I am loyal to Boss Wang Yiyang." "I am loyal to Boss Wang Yiyang." ...
Everyone repeated the phrase over and over, their eyes vacant.
It seemed useless, but with enough repetition, it would become a form of self-suggestion.
There was a saying: tell a lie often enough, and it becomes the truth.
The same effect applied to hypnotic suggestions directed at oneself. Combined with the boost from Tasdak Symbol Hypnosis, it would be even stronger.
Everyone chanted the phrase together like lunatics, repeating it ten times.
It looked a little ridiculous, but Wang Yiyang knew that with enough repetition, the suggestion would gradually take hold. These people would become utterly loyal to him, without a trace of disloyalty.
Once everyone had finished chanting, Wang Yiyang wiped his hand across the glass, disrupting the pattern of scarlet symbols.
Everyone in the basement shuddered slightly and came to their senses. They resumed what they'd been doing, seeming to have completely forgotten what had just happened.
Zhong Can was soon carried out. The surgeon, already waiting, hurried over, disinfected the area, covered it with a sterile drape, and began implanting the chip.
The chip was implanted near Zhong Can's heart.
It was only about the size of a fingernail, but could instantly release enough electricity to paralyze his entire body. In a critical situation, it could also detonate.
The explosion was powerful enough to destroy high-strength blast-resistant concrete of the same volume as Zhong Can.
The implantation was a minor procedure and took only five minutes.
Afterward, Zhong Can was placed outside and given an injection to counteract the anesthetic, then left to wake up.
At the same time, Wang Yiyang dismissed all his subordinates and began drawing all kinds of blood-red symbols across the surrounding walls.
He wanted to try hypnotizing Zhong Can!
North District, Ease Inn.
The clock on the wall ticked softly as its hands pointed to 3:15.
Late at night, the only person on duty in the inn's reception area was the proprietress, playing a mobile game.
Her hair was still wrapped in spiky strips of dyeing paper, and her plump figure was squeezed into a pale yellow dress. From a distance, she looked like a fat durian that had split open.
Hiss.
The inn's door suddenly swung open without a sound.
Figures dressed in black, carrying silenced submachine guns and belts of ammunition, and wearing bulletproof vests, swiftly flooded into the inn.
Several of them exchanged hand signals. One stepped forward and struck the proprietress, who was bent over her game, with a knife hand, knocking her unconscious.
The rest streamed into the inn's corridor.
Half of them covered the elevator while the others hurried upstairs.
Soon, they quietly reached the room where Kong Ping and Gu Fu were staying. It was the kind of extremely cheap inn that didn't even require ID.
The door was easy to get through. It already had a narrow gap.
One of the men in black deftly took out a thin needle and carefully slid it through the gap. Then he took out a yellow, bubble-shaped pouch, attached it to the end of the needle, and squeezed hard.
Before long, an invisible gas seeped into the room.
The man in black waited quietly until all the gas had been released.
Then he raised his wrist to check his watch and calculated how long it would take.
Two minutes later, one man reached for the doorknob while another lightly swiped a tool over the electronic lock.
Click.
The lock opened.
The door slowly swung inward. In the darkness behind it, a red-haired boy smiled at the intruders.
"Hello."
Gu Fu raised a hand in greeting.
Boom!
Kong Ping, at his side, turned into a red blur and charged out, slamming into the two men in black at the entrance.
Their bodies were struck as if by cannon fire. They flew backward into the wall, splattering blood everywhere.
Kong Ping calmly stood up and lowered his right arm.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Every man in black on both sides of the corridor opened fire on him.
Dense streams of submachine-gun bullets formed two slanted webs, completely enveloping Kong Ping and Gu Fu.
But the two simply raised their hands. A thin protective light shield appeared in front of them, and every bullet lodged perfectly in its surface.
"You take the left. I'll take the right." Kong Ping walked forward at an unhurried pace, then suddenly leaped into the air and thrust out his right hand.
Sss!
The front half of his right arm abruptly detached. His entire arm broke apart in midair, transforming into more than ten miniature metal devices.
Each device precisely targeted a man in black on the right and shot toward them, trailing a colorless flame.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
A barrage of impacts erupted all at once.
Every man in black on that side was struck by the metal devices. Not one survived.
The devices lifted from the corpses' heads, returned automatically to Kong Ping, reassembled into an arm, and fitted back into place.
He turned around with a calm expression.
Gu Fu had just withdrawn his hand with a smile and flashed him an OK sign.
"There are more outside. Take one alive," Gu Fu reminded him.
Kong Ping nodded and strode toward the stairwell.
As he reached a corner, he abruptly raised a hand to shield the left side of his face.
Boom!
A violent explosion erupted to his left, and blazing red flames instantly engulfed him.
At the same time, a hail of bullets shot up from downstairs, spraying wildly into the flames.
When the fire died down, Kong Ping slowly descended the stairs and emerged from the smoke.
Every bullet had stopped in midair, a meter in front of him.
A red glow slowly lit up in his left eye.
Sss!
In an instant, more than ten transparent spikes burst into existence in front of him and shot toward all the men in black on the first floor.
Each spike was about the length of a palm, clear as condensed water, with a sharp tip.
They spun at high speed through the air, carrying immense penetrating force.
The men in black had no time to react. Every one of them was pierced through the forehead by a spike and collapsed to the ground.
The inn's lobby was left in ruins, riddled with bullet holes and covered in blood.
"Impressive. Your Reaper Suit is much more advanced than mine, Kong Ping. You can use Force Field Spikes already?"
Gu Fu came up from behind him, his right arm slowly changing from metallic back to flesh.
Kong Ping didn't reply. He looked toward a corner.
"Come out."
Behind a liquor cabinet in the corner, a man in black slowly stood up, trembling all over.
"D-don't kill me! I'll tell you everything!" His voice broke with fear.
"Who sent you?" Kong Ping asked calmly.
"We're... we're from the Security Department!" the man in black stammered. "It was Wang Yiyang! Minister Wang! He sent us to kill you! Don't kill me! I've told you everything!"
He suddenly began to shout.
"He's not lying," Gu Fu said quietly from behind.
Kong Ping fell silent.
Creak.
The inn's battered front door, riddled with bullet holes, slowly swung open.
A tall, slender figure stepped into the lobby, bathed in moonlight.
"Nice to meet you."
The newcomer removed the round hat concealing his face.
"I'm Wang Yiyang."
Before you continue