Li Yao asked Long Yangjun and Li Jialing to step aside. As he took a deep breath, his eyes immediately spread out like crimson pools of blood.
Focusing his spiritual energy on the tip of his finger, he stabbed one of the unconscious soldiers softly by using the finger as a needle, waking up the guy.
“Look at my eyes.”
Li Yao first mumbled with a voice as gentle as a feather, before he repeated it in a high-pitched cry, “Look at my eyes!”
The soldier shuddered, and his eyes that just became clear fell into confusion again, as if his entire soul had been absorbed into Li Yao’s eyes.
“Now, you are lying on a fluffy and fragrant land. The sky is blue, the clouds are white, and the sun is shining warmly. You feel extremely comfortable…”
Weird brilliance beamed out of Li Yao’s eyes, and his hands drew glamorous patterns like unpredictable flowers.
The anti-epidemic soldier was completely hypnotized by Li Yao. As Li Yao talked, the look of corresponding feelings popped up on his face.
When Li Yao spoke of the blue sky and the white clouds, his face was full of relief and ease. When Li Yao described beautiful girls, there was nothing but greediness there. When Li Yao talked about carrions and skeletons, it was replaced by disgust and fear.
“What is Brother Yao doing?”
Li Jialing asked Long Yangjun in a low voice.
“He has deeply hypnotized the target to test if the target still has the normal abilities to feel and think logically.”
Long Yangjun explained, “If his feelings had been completely wiped out, like the people of the Covenant Alliance, he would not react so obviously to the illusions that Li Yao constructed. At the very least, his face would be showing a blank expression.
“Also, Li Yao is now asking him questions that can only be answered with a strong sense of logic, and he can answer them without any hesitation. It is evident enough that his feelings, thinking ability, and memories are not entirely destroyed. Wuying Qi only disrupted and modified a tiny area inside his brain.
“It does make sense. Those Imperial Guards are loyal to Wuying Qi and ready to die for him in the first place. Therefore, there is no need to brainwash them deeply.”
Li Jialing pondered for a moment. “But there’s still no telling what tricks Wuying Qi has played on their brains.”
Long Yangjun smiled and said softly, “You will know it soon enough.”
At this moment, Li Yao had finished the basic test on the anti-epidemic soldier. Thinking for a moment, he snapped next to the guy’s ear to let him regain consciousness.
The light in the eyes of the anti-epidemic soldier was clear and bright again.
Based on his companions and the dead bodies lying next to him, he immediately realized what was going on. He struggled to lunge at Li Yao. Although he was blocked, he still cursed relentlessly and fearlessly that Li Yao and his lot must be the false Immortal Cultivators from the four families, and that they were the traitors, garbage, and worms of the Imperium of True Human Beings and even the civilization of mankind!
Judging from his rather quick deduction and his fluent profanities, he undoubtedly possessed complete thinking abilities and abundant feelings.
“You traitors and worms!”
The anti-epidemic soldier cursed aloud, “I will not say a word! Just kill me! But even if you do, you will not stop the arrival of the new Imperium and the most glorious future of mankind! Hehehehe, the future is already here! Mankind will reach the unreachable lands and achieve an eternal enterprise under the command of His Majesty! Nothing can stop it! Nobody!”
Li Yao wiped the saliva that the guy had spurted out and said coldly, “‘The most glorious future of mankind’; well said. Do you know that the future must be traded with the sacrifice of the entire capital planet? A hundred billion people live on the capital planet and the space towns around. Do you know that you will push those people into the abyss of death by doing what you are doing?”
The anti-epidemic soldier was stunned for a moment, but then he howled like a rabid dog with frenzy beaming out of his eyes, “Even the sacrifice of a hundred billion people is just a price that has to be paid. They are the fuel to propel the civilization of mankind; the sacrificial offerings for the future before mankind embarks on a brand-new quest!”
“Judging from your accent, you are a native of the capital planet, aren’t you?”
Li Yao continued, “Your family—your parents, your wives and your children—all live on the capital planet, don’t they? The four families’ ace fleets have blocked the entire Empyreal Terminus Sector. Therefore, your family doesn’t stand any chance to escape.
“Then, the destruction of the capital planet means that your family will die. You will be murdering your own family—your parents, your wife, and your lovely children. Have you realized that? Do you not care about your family at all?”
The anti-epidemic soldier’s curse came to an abrupt halt. His eyeballs were frozen like glass balls, but they began to shiver again a moment later.
“Think about your family whom you love deeply. Do you still remember how they look?”
Li Yao went on and said, “Do you realize that what you are doing is directly and strongly related to your family’s death? Are you really determined to murder your family in person, or have you never considered the question, or is it that you have considered the question but a recurring voice in your head told you to drop it?”
“I…”
The anti-epidemic soldier stammered, “I… I won’t… That’s not His Majesty’s plan… They will be fine… Ahh… Ahhhhhhh… My head! My head hurts! My head!”
A hundred tiny bleeding points immediately appeared in the eyes of the anti-epidemic soldier. He rolled on the ground holding his head and cried. Very soon, he was foaming and cramping, with dozens of veins as thick as earthworms surfacing on his head. Even his helmet was squeaking when it was struck by the abnormal skull.
“Not good!”
Long Yangjun’s face changed greatly. “The temperature of his head is rising. All the cerebral vessels are bordering on an explosion. It seems that your question hit the tricks that Wuying Qi placed inside his head precisely. He is now in a predicament. Do something! Or his brain will explode!”
Li Yao took action quickly and knocked the soldier’s carotid artery and pneumogastric nerve, temporarily cutting off the blood supply to the brain and the brain nerves’ control over the body. The soldier was cast into a coma again, and his situation did not worsen anymore.
While the lack of blood and oxygen for a long time would result in brain necrosis, there wouldn’t be a problem if it was only half a minute.
Using the half minute, Li Yao took out an ice ring that he used to cool his own brain and put it on the target. He then smeared certain balms that could repair damaged brain cells on the guy’s temples. After that, he massaged the soldier’s neck and reestablished the brain and oxygen supply for the soldier, allowing him to fall back into a peaceful sleep.
“It seems that Wuying Qi hasn’t interfered with the thinking, feelings, and memories of the Imperial Soldiers on a large scale.”
Li Yao said, “He only implanted an unwavering idea in their head, which was that what they were doing was for the future of the Imperium and mankind, and that it was absolutely justified. Whoever dies for the cause will be ‘sacrifices’ that have to be made.”
Li Jialing frowned deeply, “Is implantation of ideas really possible?”
“Of course it is. Not just the simple and violent ‘hard brainwashing’, even education can implant certain ideas in the head of the recipients after decades. Almost everybody believes that their cause is justified. I do, you do, and so do the scumbags of the four families. Is it really something to be surprised at?”
Li Yao said, “What Wuying did was merely to focus the essence of decades of education into special waves and brand them on certain tissues inside the brains of the Imperial Guards, resulting in the qualitative, pathological changes in the tissues. That’s about how it works.
“Materials affect the mind, but the mind can affect materials too. When the Meditation Healers and the brain surgeons studied the mysteries of the brains and the soul, they began by studying the depressed patients. Most of the patients suffered the disease because of certain mutations inside their brains. However, after they suffered the disease, their mental conditions got worse and worse, which further expanded the pathological region. It was a classic vicious cycle. In the end, even though the pathological area was completely removed through minimally invasive procedures, it was still impossible to cure the disease. Once the patients were triggered by something, new pathological tissues may show up.
“It’s exactly the case for the Imperial Guards. In only several days or weeks, they accepted the education that should have been imposed over a period of decades. It’s like a scorching stamp that was pressed deep into their brains and their souls, turning them into the heartless people they are right now.”
Li Jialing was silent for a long time.
Looking at the Imperial Guard who was still cramping slightly although he was deep asleep, all the three of them felt more or less pitiful.
“A very bold idea just occurred to me.”
Li Jialing said, “Since Wuying Qi is in possession of such advanced brainwashing technologies that he could brainwash his Imperial Guards completely, is that the so-called secret weapon that he talked about? That is to say, he is planning to do the same and brainwash the four families’ ace fleets so that the most elite warriors of the Imperium of True Human Beings will all surrender to him. In such a way, the sharpest blades of the four families will change their side on the battlefield and be grasped by Wuying Qi’s hands. If Lei Chenghu also vanquishes the Seven Seas Space Zone and the local warlords there, he will win the war!
“Yes, yes, yes. If that is the case, Wuying Qi’s weird arrangements all the time and his seemingly unreasonable plan, including the inexplicable confidence of his victory, will all make sense. He is going to win the war in one battle by transforming the ace fleets of the four families into his accomplices!”
Li Yao and Long Yangjun looked at each other, both noticing the horror in their eyes.
The more they thought about it, the more they found Li Jialing’s speculation sensible.
However, it was terribly difficult to implement a massive brainwashing, to the extent that it was only theoretically possible. How could it be carried out in reality?
