"Half?" Jiang Lijin frowned.
The elevator doors slid open. The layout of the underground space was exactly the same as the one upstairs.
Enormous bulletproof glass walls were embedded in the fully enclosed metal structure, looking cold, hard, and oppressive.
Jiang Lijin saw Baal at a glance. He was sitting on a single bed inside the glass wall, bare-chested, with spots of blood seeping through the bandages wrapped around his shoulders and chest.
The giant black python occupied almost half of the room. Although it was slithering around restlessly and flicking its tongue, it was not frantically smashing against the walls like the one upstairs.
It seemed to still have its reason; it was just suffering.
Gary stopped a dozen paces away, resting his hands on his knees and panting heavily.
"The one upstairs is indeed fake," Gary explained between gasps. "But that spiritual energy was forcibly stripped by the Commander-in-Chief from his own spiritual domain. It is not mine."
Jiang Lijin also felt a tightness in her chest, though she fared better than Gary.
Gary wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "How about you go in and ask the Commander-in-Chief yourself?"
Seeing this scene, the heart that had been in Jiang Lijin's throat finally settled back into her chest.
At least Baal had not gone completely mad, and Gary was not a traitor.
She stepped forward and pushed open the heavy isolation door.
Hearing the noise, Baal abruptly raised his head. The moment his bloodshot golden eyes recognized the visitor, his pupils contracted into vertical slits.
He had actually anticipated that his desperate medical officers might go to Jiang Lijin for help. But he never expected that she would actually come.
This was the Sirius system, the most dangerous combat zone on the front lines.
She just stood there calmly under the cold white lights, without a trace of fear in her eyes.
At this moment, Baal's throat tightened. The previous purification had left him with an uncontrollable craving for this female. And now, as she descended from the sky during his most wretched and dangerous moment, this craving completely bypassed the defenses of his reason, evolving into an almost devout submission.
Jiang Lijin felt entirely uncomfortable under his stare.
That gaze was too blunt, too scorching, much like a wolf that had been starving for half a month seeing meat. Just as she was about to ask what exactly was going on, her gaze shifted and met the giant snake on the floor.
The giant python had slithered to her feet at some point. It reared up half of its body, and those golden slitted eyes, identical to Baal's, were glued to her, showing unhidden yearning.
One man and one snake, two pairs of eyes, with the exact same directness.
Jiang Lijin swallowed the questions that had reached the tip of her tongue. The air pressure in here was simply too low, and she herself was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe. If this dragged on, no one would have a good time.
She decisively reached out her hand. The giant snake reacted even faster than Baal; its massive head lowered docilely, impatiently pressing against her palm.
Jiang Lijin closed her eyes, channeled her spiritual energy, and slowly poured it into the black python's body through her palm.
This purification was far trickier than the last one. Manic energy rampaged within the black python's body. It took her a great deal of effort to gradually strip away and crush the black mist lingering inside it.
An unknown amount of time passed.
Finally, the manic aura inside the giant snake slowly subsided. It let out a low, comfortable hiss, affectionately leaned over to nuzzle Jiang Lijin's face, and then transformed back into that familiar little black snake, skillfully wrapping itself twice around her wrist.
Exhausted, Jiang Lijin casually pulled over a metal chair, sat down, and looked up at Baal, who was leaning against the head of the bed.
His face was flushed, and his breathing was heavy, clearly also trying to calm the newly soothed energy within his body.
Outside the door.
Gary felt the oppressive aura in the air that had been making him breathless vanish in an instant, and his jaw nearly dropped in shock.
This was already the third time today that his understanding had been refreshed by this female.
In the past, when he heard Baal mention her, calling her the lucky star of the galaxy, he just thought it was a case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder for his commander. Now it seemed, how was this a lucky star? This was simply a god descending to the world!
With the combined strength of this couple, they could probably look down upon the entire galaxy!
Gary stroked his chin. If he worked harder and became a 3S-grade as well, would he have a chance to get in line? The moment this thought popped up, he extinguished it himself. Forget it, fighting the Commander-in-Chief for a woman was just asking for an early death.
Inside the isolation room.
Jiang Lijin rubbed her aching wrist. Just now, while sorting out the spiritual energy, she noticed something was wrong.
This riot felt completely different from the last one. That mania did not originate from the depletion or pollution of the spiritual sea itself; rather, it felt like it was forcibly catalyzed by some external force.
"Spit it out," Jiang Lijin's gaze roamed over Baal. "What exactly is going on?"
Just as she finished speaking, the door to the isolation room was pushed open.
Gary swaggered in. The pressure had been too heavy earlier, so he had been hiding behind the bulletproof door like a turtle retracting its head. Now that the alarm was lifted, he ran faster than anyone else.
Baal frowned, shooting a chilling glance at his adjutant.
Gary ignored his commander's murderous glare, pulled up a chair, and sat down not far from the two of them with a brazen attitude.
Baal withdrew his gaze, looked back at Jiang Lijin, and his tone darkened.
"It was not Zerg pollution. Someone set me up."
Jiang Lijin raised an eyebrow, signaling him to continue.
"Although I am not sure exactly how they did it, it must be an inside job. However, that person miscalculated my condition. They probably did not know that you had given me a deep purification before, or perhaps they did not understand how thorough a 3S-grade female's purification could be. So, the dose they used was not enough."
It was precisely because the dose was not enough that Baal had not gone completely mad like the fake snake upstairs, and was still able to retain his sanity.
Gary chimed in from the side, "We ran a simulation. If the culprit was a Zerg spy, their goal would definitely be to destroy the entire frontline base. In that case, they would not need to calculate the dose at all; they would just max it out, making the Commander-in-Chief explode and taking everyone down with him. The Zerg have never cared about their own lives when it comes to the swarm."
"But the culprit deliberately stopped at a critical threshold," Baal picked up the conversation. "This proves that the person who drugged me is in the base, and they do not want to die. The drug's effect causes one's spiritual energy to wildly fluctuate, so even if I had not been purified by you before, I could still barely suppress it for a while. Just like the holographic projection you saw upstairs, the ultimate outcome would be everyone evacuating, and this planet exploding along with me."
After listening, Jiang Lijin crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. "Then you really need to thank me properly."
"I should thank you, but for more than just these two purifications."
Jiang Lijin was baffled. "What do you mean?"
"I suspect the person who set me up is Kieran," Baal's tone turned ice-cold.
Jiang Lijin froze for a moment. The image of that blue-haired man wearing gold-rimmed glasses surfaced in her mind.
"Are you saying that Kieran is in this base right now?"
Baal nodded. Right. This frontline base is my life's work. Most of the officers ranked major general and above were personally trained by me. Recently, the military command promoted a few new major generals and assigned them all here, and Kieran is among them.
He paused for a moment before continuing, You warned me back on the capital star to be on guard against him. So, he is our biggest suspect right now.
So, while you could still suppress your rampage, you forcefully stripped away half of your mental energy and put it in that isolation room upstairs to play crazy... Jiang Lijin sorted out the logic, ...just to bait the hook and catch the mole who drugged you?
This base is too important, Baal's expression grew extremely serious. It is the logistical hub for the entire Sirius Galaxy defense line. If something goes wrong internally and the Zerg find an opening, the supply line for a million frontline troops will be completely severed. I have to dig out this cancer as soon as possible.
Aside from him and Gary, even the highest-ranking officer of the medical department was kept completely in the dark about this charade.
But who could have imagined that those frantically desperate medical officers would go behind his back and directly bring Jiang Lijin over!
The mere thought of it made Baal's temper flare. What if she had been attacked by the Zerg on her way here? What if she had been hurt by the rampaging energy?
Those idiots, he gritted his teeth. When this is all over, I am going to banish that self-righteous medical general to the mines!
Jiang Lijin's mind flashed with the pathetic image of that major general, covered in cold sweat and trembling at the knees, yet still desperately trying to lead her forward.
Enough, she waved her hand. They just saw you were dying and were desperate to save your life. Let it go.
Baal had originally wanted to drop a few more harsh words, but upon hearing her plead for them, the reprimand on the tip of his tongue took a sharp turn.
Alright, he agreed with absolute compliance. Whatever you say.
The sheer speed of this attitude change and how naturally it happened nearly made Gary choke to death on his own saliva right then and there.
He stared wide-eyed, looking at his commander-in-chief, and then at Jiang Lijin.
Was this still the same commander-in-chief whose word was absolute law in the military, whose temper was so explosive he could flip a conference table?
Gary silently turned his head and stared at the ceiling.
Fine, he finally understood. From now on in this base, it was crystal clear who was truly at the top of the food chain.
