The corridors inside the Giant Gorge were cold white, narrow, and long. The metal walls reflected the overhead lights, with a sealed bulkhead door every twenty meters.
A patrol had just passed around the corner when the shadows at the end of the corridor suddenly rippled like water.
Then Qin Feng stepped out of the shadows, with Tara close behind.
"My king, what are we doing here?"
Tara's voice was low, his two thick arms hanging naturally at his sides.
Even with his imposing presence restrained, his demonic face still seemed to lower the corridor's temperature by a few degrees.
Qin Feng did not answer immediately.
He glanced at the alloy door at the end of the corridor, marked "Black Great Wall Project Command · Authorized personnel only," and the corners of his mouth slowly curled upward.
"Tara, can you control someone? Or rather, can you hypnotize him and read his memories?"
Tara paused, his golden pupils narrowing slightly, as though he were thinking.
"A way to control people?"
He shook his head, his voice rough and hoarse. "Sorry, my king. I really don't know how to do that."
"But if it's examining someone else's memories, I could give it a try."
Qin Feng's eyes lit up, and he turned to face him. "Oh? How?"
"As long as his mental strength isn't greater than mine, I can force my way into his consciousness and read his memory fragments directly."
"But if I do that, he'll suffer terribly."
"Forcing entry on a mental level is equivalent to tearing an opening straight into his soul. At best, he'll suffer mental derangement and memory loss. In severe cases, he could even become an idiot!"
"Oh, that's no problem."
Qin Feng waved a hand, looking rather unconcerned.
As long as he could get the authorization key for the Deno Three System, what did it matter to him whether Du Kao became an idiot?
Inside the command center, Du Kao had just ended his communication with Ryze.
He stood at the main console with his back to the roomful of operators, gripping the edge so hard his knuckles turned white.
The holographic star chart on the screen continued to rotate quietly. Blue points represented monitoring nodes in Dragon Country's major cities, while red points marked traces left by the Taotie Fleet at the edge of the solar system.
But his attention was no longer on those red points at all.
"How is it going?"
He turned toward Lian Feng, his voice carrying an anxiety he could not conceal. "Have you found those two?"
Lian Feng's hands hovered over the light keys, her fingertips trembling slightly.
The Deno Three System was running at maximum power. Dense streams of data rushed like waterfalls through the windows before her, each search algorithm's results appearing and vanishing in rapid succession.
She was about to say she had not found them when her gaze abruptly froze.
A patch on the curved metal wall diagonally behind the main console was the wrong color.
It should have been a smooth titanium-alloy panel, but now it looked as though someone had splashed ink over it. A deep black seeped out of the wall, forming a human silhouette.
Lian Feng's pupils contracted sharply. She pointed behind Du Kao, her voice trembling.
"G-General, b-behind you..."
Du Kao frowned. "What's behind me?"
He turned around.
Then he saw a smiling face.
The face was very young, yet the curve of its lips held a composure that sent chills down one's spine.
Qin Feng looked past Du Kao's shoulder, sweeping his gaze over the engineers throughout the room as though counting heads.
The surrounding operators rose to their feet, the harsh scraping of chairs being pushed back ringing out one after another.
Someone reacted, quietly reaching toward a concealed compartment beneath the console.
An emergency alarm button was hidden there. Pressing it would put the entire Giant Gorge on level-three combat readiness.
Qin Feng caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and chuckled.
"Don't move."
His voice was not loud, and even carried a casual languor.
"Otherwise, I can't guarantee what they'll do to you."
The instant he finished speaking, every shadow in the room began to seethe.
Pairs of scarlet eyes lit up in the shadows.
Then lean, agile figures emerged from them.
The Shadowkhan Ninja Soldiers swiftly spread throughout the command room, positioning themselves to block every control terminal with precision.
The entire command center was completely under their control within five seconds.
Du Kao's face was ashen, but he was, after all, a general who had weathered countless storms. It took him only two breaths to suppress his initial shock.
He slowly straightened and raised his chin slightly, striving to maintain the dignity and composure of a military commander.
"My friend,"
"Arriving uninvited is hardly gentlemanly conduct. Since you managed to find the Giant Gorge, you must know what this place is. Why not give us your name, and we can sit down..."
"Stop right there."
Qin Feng raised his right hand in a crisp, decisive gesture for silence.
"I have no interest in making friends with you. Besides, weren't you looking for me? Now that I'm here, what do you have in mind?"
Du Kao was at a loss for words.
Countless thoughts churned through his mind.
Take hostages, call for reinforcements, activate the ship's internal defenses?
But the young man before him had blocked every option.
The dark-red warrior stood half a step behind Qin Feng, his golden slit pupils fixed firmly on Du Kao. His whole body radiated a dangerous presence that made Du Kao's spine tingle.
Third Generation Divine Body.
Du Kao silently weighed those words, and his clenched fists slowly relaxed.
"Why must you humiliate me like this?"
His voice sank, carrying a weary air of resignation. "Tell me, then. What exactly did you come here for?"
"What for?"
Qin Feng tilted his head, the curve of his lips deepening.
He turned his face slightly and gave Tara a look.
Tara understood.
His burly, dark-red figure stepped forward, and his enormous dark-red palm pressed directly onto the top of Du Kao's head.
"Aaaah!!!"
Du Kao let out an inhuman scream.
His body suddenly went rigid. Veins bulged from his neck all the way to his temples, and his eyes rolled back.
An invisible torrent of mental force brutally tore through his mental defenses, like a red-hot iron spike plunging deep into his mind and churning through every fragment of memory.
"General!"
Lian Feng cried out involuntarily.
She wanted to rush over, but a Shadowkhan Ninja Soldier behind her silently held a short blade across the front of her neck, barely an inch away.
The cold touch of the blade made her whole body stiffen.
She gritted her teeth and looked at Qin Feng.
"Sir, please stop!"
"Doing this will only sour relations between us. We have the Super God Academy behind us! However powerful your subordinate may be, he cannot possibly challenge the Super God Academy's authority. You're playing with fire!"
Qin Feng turned his head to look at her, a glimmer of interest in his eyes.
"You certainly have a sharp tongue, Miss Lian Feng."
He clapped his hands, the motion light and casual.
"Don't worry. I won't take his life. I just want a few things he knows. A little gift, that's all. I'm sure he can handle it."
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