Li Yao asked Long Yangjun and Li Jialing to step aside. Taking a deep breath, his eyes immediately rippled like crimson pools of blood.
He gathered his spiritual energy on the tip of his finger and turned it into a sharp needle. Then, he stabbed it into one of the unconscious anti-epidemic soldiers and woke him up.
"Look into my eyes."
Li Yao mumbled in a voice as soft as a feather at first. Then, he repeated it in a high-pitched shriek, "Look into my eyes!"
The anti-epidemic soldier shuddered. His eyes that had just been cleared were mired in chaos again, as if his soul had been absorbed into the blood stripes in Li Yao's eyes.
"Right now, you are lying on a very fluffy and fragrant land. The blue sky, the white clouds, and the sun are shining. You feel most comfortable …"
Li Yao's eyes were beaming with eccentric brilliance. His hands were like unpredictable flowers, outlining glamorous patterns in the air.
The anti-epidemic soldier had been completely hypnotized by Li Yao. As Li Yao talked, different expressions popped up on his face.
When Li Yao talked about the blue sky and the white clouds, he looked relaxed and comfortable. When Li Yao talked about beautiful women, he looked greedy. When Li Yao talked about corpses and skeletons, there was disgust and fear on his face.
"What is Brother Yao doing?"
Li Jialing asked Long Yangjun in a low voice.
"He has deeply hypnotized the enemy to see if they still have normal feelings, desires, and logical thinking," Long Yangjun explained.
"If their feelings have been completely erased like the people of the Holy League, it is unlikely that the illusions targeted at Li Yao would show such obvious expressions. At the very least, their expressions would be rather dull.
"Also, Li Yao is asking him questions that can only be answered logically, and he can answer them fluently. It is obvious that their feelings, thinking, and memories have not been completely destroyed. Wuying Qi has only interfered and modified a certain area deep inside their brains.
"It does make sense. Those Imperial Guards were loyal to Wuying Qi in the first place and were willing to die for him. So, there was no need to brainwash them."
Pondering for a moment, Li Jialing said, "I wonder what Wuying Qi did to their brains exactly."
Long Yangjun smiled and said softly, "We'll know very soon."
At this moment, Li Yao had finished the basic test on the anti-epidemic soldier. Thinking for a moment, he snapped his fingers next to the soldier's ear and woke him up.
The light in the soldier's eyes became clear and bright again.
He immediately analyzed the situation from his companions and the corpses lying next to him. He struggled to lunge at Li Yao. Even though he was stopped by Li Yao, he still cursed Li Yao and the rest of them as false Immortal Cultivators from the four families, traitors of the Imperium of True Human Beings, and even the civilization of mankind, and selfish garbage, cockroaches, and maggots!
Judging from his rather clear train of thought and his rather fluent curses, he did indeed possess a complete set of thinking abilities and rich emotions.
"You traitors, lackeys, and maggots!"
The anti-epidemic soldier cursed aloud, "I won't say anything. Just kill me! Even if you kill me, you cannot stop the arrival of the new Imperium and the most glorious future of mankind! Hehehehe. The future is already here. The civilization of mankind will break into the unforeseen territory and create an eternal cause under His Majesty's command! Nobody can stop it! Nobody can stop it! "
Li Yao wiped the saliva that the soldier had spurted out and said coldly, "The most glorious future of mankind, huh? Do you know that the future can only be bought by sacrificing the entire capital planet? Hundreds of billions of people live on the capital planet and the space towns nearby. Do you know that what you are doing is pushing all those people to the abyss of death?"
The anti-epidemic soldier was stunned for a moment, but with flames of madness popping out of his eyes, he howled like a rabid dog, "Even if hundreds of billions of people have to be sacrificed, it is a price that has to be paid. They are the fuel for the civilization of mankind to march forward and the offerings that human beings offer to the future before they embark on a brand-new journey!"
"Judging from your accent, you are a native of the capital planet, aren't you?"
Li Yao continued, "Your family — your parents, your wife, and your children — must be living on the capital planet, right? The ace fleets of the four families have blocked the entire Empyreal Terminus Sector. So, your family has no chance to escape at all.
"Then, the destruction of the capital planet means that your family will die together with you. You will be killing your family in person. Your parents, your wife, and your dear children. Have you realized that? Do you not care about your family at all?"
The anti-epidemic soldier's curses came to an abrupt halt. His eyes were frozen like glass balls, but a moment later, they started shivering again.
"Think about your family that you love dearly. Do you remember what they looked like?"
Li Yao guided him patiently, "Have you realized that what you are doing is directly and strongly related to the death of your family? Are you really going to kill your family in person, or have you never considered the question, or have you considered it before, but a voice that kept echoing inside your head made you ignore the question subconsciously? "
"I …"
The anti-epidemic soldier stammered, "I … I won't … That's not His Majesty's plan … It'll be fine … Ah … Ahhhhhhh … My head hurts so much. My head!"
A hundred tiny bleeding spots appeared in the eyes of the anti-epidemic soldier immediately. He held his head and writhed on the ground. Very soon, he was foaming and cramping. Dozens of veins as thick as worms surfaced on his face. Even the helmet that was stuck to his head was squeaking because of the abnormal skull.
"Not good!"
Long Yangjun's face changed. "His brain is heating up nonstop. All the cerebral vessels are close to exploding. It seems that your question hit the trick that Wuying Qi set in his head and put him in a dilemma. Do something now, or he will be mentally deranged and his brain will explode!"
Li Yao took action quickly and hit the enemy's carotid artery and vagus nerve precisely, temporarily cutting off the supply of blood to the brain and the control of the brain nerves to the body, making the enemy pass out again and keeping the situation under control.
Although the brain would be necrotic if the brain was deprived of oxygen for a long time, it was not a big problem for only half a minute.
During the half minute, Li Yao took out a freezing ring that he used to cool the brain and put it on the enemy. He then applied some ointment to the enemy's temples that could repair the damaged brain cells. Finally, he massaged the enemy's neck and restored the blood and oxygen supply to the brain for the anti-epidemic soldier, making him fall into a peaceful sleep.
"It seems that Wuying Qi did not significantly interfere with the thinking, feelings, and memories of the Imperial Guards."
Li Yao said, "He merely implanted an unwavering belief in their heads, which is that what they are doing is absolutely righteous for the future of the Imperium and all mankind, and whoever dies for the 'righteous cause' is an 'offering' that has to be sacrificed."
Li Jialing frowned hard. "Is it really possible to implant beliefs?"
"Of course it can. Not just the simple and violent 'brainwashing', even decades of education can implant certain beliefs into the heads of the recipients. Almost everybody believes that their cause is righteous. I do, you do, and so do the scumbags of the four families. What's wrong with that?"
Li Yao said, "What Wuying Qi did was simply to condense the essence of decades of education into special waves and imprint it on a certain tissue deep inside the brains of the Imperial Guards, causing organic and pathological changes in the tissue. That's the mechanism.
"Materials can affect the mind, and the mind can distort materials. The Meditation Healers and brain surgeons studied the mysteries of the brain and the soul from the patients with depression at the beginning. Most of the patients with depression had an attack because of the mutation of a certain area deep inside their brains. But after the attack, their mental state deteriorated day by day, and the area of disease expanded. It was a classic 'positive feedback', or rather, a vicious cycle. In the end, even if the area of disease was completely cut off with minimally invasive surgeries, it was still impossible to cure the disease completely.
"It was the same for the brains of the Imperial Guards. After receiving the brainwashing education that should've taken decades of education in only a couple of days or weeks, it was truly like a burning brand that had been deeply imprinted into their brains and even their souls. Then, they became … unrecognizable."
Li Jialing was silent for a long time.
Looking at the Imperial Guard who was still cramping softly despite his deep sleep, the three of them all felt somewhat sympathetic.
"A bold idea suddenly occurred to me."
Li Jialing said, "Since Wuying Qi has grasped such advanced brainwashing technologies that he can fully brainwash his Imperial Guards, is it possible that this is his so-called secret weapon? That is to say, he is doing exactly the same thing and brainwashing the ace fleets of the four families 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 that were loyal to the four families will all change sides on the battlefield and fall into Wuying Qi's hands. If Lei Chenghu can suppress the Seven Seas Space Zone and the warlords at the border, it will be a great victory for him!
"Yes, yes, yes. If that's the case, Wuying Qi's weird arrangements and seemingly unreasonable plans, including his unquestionable belief in victory, will all make sense now. He is trying to finish everything in one battle and transform the ace fleets of the four families into his accomplices!"
Li Yao and Long Yangjun looked at each other and saw the horror in each other's eyes.
The more they thought about it, the more they felt that Li Jialing's speculation did make sense.
However, the implementation of large-scale brainwashing technology was highly demanding. It was only theoretically possible. It was certainly not easy to perform it in reality!
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