On the high interrogation platform, a female zerg was suspended on a copper cross, his hands and feet tightly bound with special iron chains, rendering him completely unable to move.
His golden eyes had already grown dim, and the long, messy strands of hair by his ears were stained with blood and matted together.
Even so, the sharpness and murderous intent leaking from his fierce brows and eyes were still enough to chill anyone who looked at him.
Half an hour ago, a fierce battle had taken place here. With just a moment of inattentiveness, several interrogators who had stepped forward to administer the mental turbulence stabilizer were subdued and sprawled in disarray across the ground, lacking even the slightest strength to resist.
This was a military zerg who frequently ventured into the most dangerous contamination zones of the interstellar space, serving as the sharpest and handiest military blade for the nobles of the Imperial Capital.
The shoulder insignia of an imperial lieutenant general still remained on his standard-issue white shirt, though at this moment, that shirt had been stained cherry-pink by seeping blood, exuding a decadent and alluring beauty.
Carrying away their unconscious comrades, the sole remaining interrogator took advantage of the military zerg’s exhaustion to shove the remaining injection straight into his tense body.
Seeing the female zerg visibly go limp, the interrogator also let out a sigh of relief.
He picked up the steel whip once again, lashing out with harsh and stern words:
Chapter 2
“How dare you steal the energy stone! Don’t even look at what kind of trash you are!”
The steel whip in his hand was gloomy, cold, and piercing.
Whip after whip fell, striking the military zerg’s body, but it no longer had any effect.
He was like a dying fish, devoid of even the slightest strength to flick his tail.
Yet, merely at the instant he lifted his gaze to look over, the interrogator felt as though he caught a glimpse of the phantom of a wasteland wolf king within those golden vertical pupils, causing his heart to tighten involuntarily.
Absolute suppression by a 3S-level mental power entity!
Oh no, was this the power of the energy stone he had stolen? It was said that on garbage stars, the more powerful the mutant beasts, the more powerful the energy stones they guarded. How could someone this powerful, risking his all to bring it back, end up with just that pitiful little scrap of an energy stone fragment?!
Interrogate him! He must be thoroughly interrogated!
The interrogator felt his legs turn to jelly and his fingers tremble at the murderous intent revealed in those golden pupils, yet his long whip lashed down tremblingly, as if the more wounds this stubborn military zerg suffered, the more able he would be to report back to his superiors.
The person before him gradually lost all sound once again.
After resorting to all sorts of methods, beads of fine sweat had already broken out across the interrogator’s forehead, but this stubborn military zerg gritted his teeth firmly, blood streaming down the corner of his mouth, without spitting out a single word of confession.
The interrogator, Libur, was so exhausted that he sat down on a nearby chair.
He had completely surrendered to this hard nut to crack, but the recording stone was still rolling! If he couldn’t give his superiors an explanation, he would surely lose his life over this!
When immortals fight, the little demons suffer; he was merely a humble interrogator, so how could he possibly manage the affairs of big shots?
Beep, beep.
Libur’s hearing was always quite good, and hearing the sound of the password lock ringing, he couldn’t help feeling a bit puzzled.
He hurriedly got up. Who could possibly be coming at a time like this?
The heavy door of the interrogation room swung open, and the eager, flattering voice of his superior echoed from outside.
“My Lord, My Lord, please do stay your steps! The interrogation room is too filthy; don’t let it soil your boots in vain!” That honey-dripping, obsequious voice made his head spin.
Could his usually stern and scholarly superior have such a disgraceful moment of lost composure?
However, that dissuading voice had no effect whatsoever.
“Knowing it’s dirty, why haven’t you cleaned it up properly yet?”
A clean, crisp youth’s voice carried three parts disdain and four parts arrogance, accompanied by the urgent and relentless sound of pattering footsteps like rolling thunder.
He didn’t spare even a single glance at Libur, who was hurriedly hiding his long whip and shrinking his body, walking straight up to a spot just five centimeters away from the military zerg before stopping.
A pair of silk long boots trimmed with gold edging and studded with gems stopped right in front of this pitiful prisoner.
Alpha lifted his eyes with difficulty, gazing into a pair of soft, sweet, cherry-pink eyes.
His pupils trembled, and he obediently lowered his eyelids.
His jaw was pinched hard, and the owner of the porcelain-white hands scrutinized his appearance as if appraising merchandise.
After a long moment, the youth released his grip, pulled out a silk handkerchief, and casually wiped the bloodstains off his hands.
He hooked the corner of his lips, his expression wicked and feral: “So this is the hard nut you guys caught? His looks are barely satisfactory. Clean him up and have him carried to my estate today!”
The youth’s words carried an undeniable arrogance and sense of entitlement. Dropping this instruction, he turned and left.
Even the silk handkerchief casually discarded by this young Lord was a product of the Royal Weaving Workshop.
A luxury item that others would pay thousands of gold for lingered at his fingertips for merely a fleeting moment before being discarded without hesitation.
Libur bent his waist and retreated into a corner, watching in utter bewilderment as his superior nodded and bowed, following closely behind the youth to respectfully escort him out.
Only after the youth had departed did his superior finally manage to straighten his back.
“Whose noble descendant is that?” The interrogator Libur stepped forward cautiously, asking with a trembling voice.
He sniffed the air; a sweet fragrance of the young lord’s pheromones seemed to linger still, just like berries ready to ripen on a branch deep in the forest, rich and aromatic enough to make anyone’s heart yearn for them.
“Noel Mujer, have you never heard of him?” The inspector sat down and took a sip of water.
“Is that the Lord with special hobbies?” Libur was so frightened that he swallowed right back down the slight romantic fancy he’d just harbored; that Lord had over a dozen female zerg lives on his hands!
Such a fierce and terrifying male zerg was not someone he dared to provoke!
Seeing his superior constantly wiping away sweat, the interrogator stepped forward hesitatingly: “Then since Lord Noel specifically named to take this female zerg away, what should we do?”
Three gleaming imperial gold coins were neatly arranged on the desk.
For a criminal zerg like this, according to the law, the redemption fee indeed required only three gold coins.
Yet, do not underestimate these three gold coins. If it were a zerg coming from inferior garbage stars or polluted stars, a single silver coin could buy a long string of them. Even for a female zerg with a military rank, due to their sheer numbers, their market value was no more than a few dozen silver coins.
However, for a lieutenant general, being bought away for a mere three gold coins was practically the ultimate insult.
“Still couldn’t pry an answer out of that female zerg?” Lyon looked at his subordinate, who had shrunk into a ball of a zerg, and knew that with this useless, cowardly appearance of his, nothing had been interrogated out of him.
Seeing that Alpha had already passed out and was covered in injuries, Lyon had originally intended to step in personally and use some harsh tortures to force a confession, but now there was no need.
Presumably, Lord Noel definitely would not want to see a dead zerg.
Lyon couldn’t help shivering slightly, waved his hand, and said: “Clean things up and send him straight to the Duke’s estate!”
This female zerg was rolled up into a bundle and carried into the Duke’s estate.
The Duke’s estate firmly occupied the central position in the imperial capital, where every inch of land was worth a fortune.
Passing through gardens filled with exotic plants exuding rich fragrances, stepping across evergreen lawns, the female zerg—who had been injected with a full two doses of dizziness serum—was carried into an exquisitely luxurious room.
The male zerg half-reclined on a high soft-silk cloud chair, draped halfway in a black-and-gold brocade cloud-patterned long cloak, with his long legs resting on the lounge chair. His exposed toes were as smooth, warm, and delicate as top-tier jade.
Four or five sub-females serving as attendants moved carefully in and out of the room. Among them, the one with the most exquisite appearance knelt on the floor, peeling grapes for him.
A small pile had already been peeled onto a wide celadon leaf-shaped plate, every single grape flawless and brimming with juice.
Plucking one and lifting it to his lips, the male zerg slanted his eyes, casting a seductive, watery gaze.
“He’s here?”
The sweet pheromones in the air grew even more intense.
Lyon held his breath: “Yes, Lord Noel. However, after all, this is a criminal zerg…”
“Criminal zergs are much more fun.”
Thick vines instantly burst forth from the male zerg’s toes. Amid the gasps and startled stumbles of the sub-females, that battered and bruised female zerg was fiercely bound and hoisted high up through the intricate crystal chandelier.
The female zerg’s body was instantly pierced by the sharp thorns of the vines. Even a face that hadn’t shown a trace of weakness during torture turned pale and painful.
He fragilely lifted his head, exposing his slightly quivering Adam’s apple.
Blood dripped onto the floor drop by drop, gradually pooling into a crimson puddle that reflected Lyon’s terrified expression, which he couldn’t completely hide even with his head lowered.
Lyon hadn’t had time to react at all when Noel struck.
This—was this the destructive power of an S-class male zerg?
As—as expected, he was completely different from that trash outside!
Most of the male zergs in the imperial capital of Atlant were C-class; some with thin bloodlines and weak fertility might even drop to D-class.
A male zerg’s status was not only tied to his ancestors’ achievements but also directly correlated with his mental power rank.
The stronger the mental power rank, the purer the male zerg’s bloodline, the stronger his reproductive capability, and the higher the resources and status he could command.
Lord Noel, the Empire’s sole S-class male zerg, was viewed by the old fogies of the Male Zerg Protection Association as the pride of the empire. Even the current King Zerg of Atlant had intended to let Noel choose a favored female zerg for marriage from among his dozens of outstanding sons.
Unfortunately, Duke Noel did not agree to take a wife. Instead, because of his increasingly capricious, gloomy, and tyrannical nature—coupled with rumors that he enjoyed torturing female zergs to death—the King Zerg had recently become much less keen on having Lord Noel become a member of the royal family.
But this had no impact on Duke Noel whatsoever.
His ten elder brothers were all stationed away at the border contamination zones.
Although it was a hardship post, the harvests were plentiful, and all ten female zergs remained unmarried, doting on this only younger male brother to no end. Thus, an endless stream of energy stones and precious artifacts were continuously shipped into the Duke’s estate.
As for wealth and luxury, it probably rivaled even the imperial palace itself.
“Yes, yes.” Lyon used a handkerchief to wipe the sweat beads from his brow, gesturing for the zerg attendants to carry away the stretcher: “Then I won’t disturb Lord Noel’s leisure.”
Noel raised a hand, dismissing the sub-females who had been used as props for show. With a thought, the vines gently delivered the female zerg hanging from the crystal chandelier down to the male zerg’s feet.
The female zerg lying on the ground coughed twice, collapsing powerlessly at his feet.
The bloody filth that covered his face in the interrogation room had been washed clean, revealing a handsome, chiseled face as if carved by a knife.
His brows and eyes appeared extremely fierce and sharp.
He was still wearing the same tattered combat uniform from the cell; through the tattered cloth fragments, smooth muscular lines were visible.
Unfortunately, these muscles were crisscrossed with new and old scars, which looked startling to behold.
His wrists were firmly locked by the military’s special cuffs, and ancient silver energy stones flashed with a soft, glowing radiance.
This was the method of the Interrogation Department; after all, criminal female zergs possessed powerful mental energy, and these cuffs could restrict the use of mental power, even reducing a 3S-class warrior into a pitiful weakling who could be manipulated at will.
This was a military zerg hailing from an inferior garbage star. In this era where nobles reigned supreme, being able to crawl from the countless, innumerable female zergs all the way to the position of Lieutenant General was enough to demonstrate his excellence.
Though battered and bruised, and currently in a semi-conscious state, anyone looking at him would undoubtedly imagine what kind of explosive power this physique would unleash at its peak.
If he hadn’t fished this poor little zerg out of the interrogation room, the fellow would probably be wishing for death right now, unable to die and unable to live.
Noel knew all too well the filthy methods those people used.
That pair of gorgeous, gilt-like pupils were soul-stirring, though at the moment they could only be mostly blocked by his slightly drooping eyelids.
“Wake up.” Noel curved the corners of his lips, patting this poor wretch’s head: “I know you can still hold on.”
Seeing this fellow unmoved and still acting stubbornly, Noel couldn’t help wanting to tease him: “Well, let me guess why you went to prison. Did you steal an energy stone from some big shot? Or did you beat up some minor noble’s beloved little sub-female concubine?”
He couldn’t help guessing with a hint of mischievous amusement: “Hmph, it wouldn’t be that you secretly sneaked into someone else’s estate to watch someone bathe, and enraged some delicate young Lord, would it?”
Alpha’s golden pupils flickered slightly, but the subtle struggle showed how displeased he was with these ungrounded, absurd speculations.
He coughed lightly, coughing up a mouthful of blood.
Those golden eyes lingered on Noel’s face for a fleeting second before his fan-like eyelashes once again veiled his wounded expression.
Noel was stunned by the look.
Surely not—was he actually fumed unconscious by him?