The Interrogator slowly turned its head, and in that instant, it seemed to see something utterly terrifying.

The next moment, its head exploded into powder, and its body completely collapsed.

‘...What the hell?’

Watching this scene, Lin Ye carefully sensed the room once more.

Because he hadn’t acted, nor had he sensed anything inside that could cause such an outcome.

“...Haha, this is what happens when you anger a deity!”

Catherine said with a dry laugh.

Truth be told, she was so scared she was about to piss herself.

Because whether it was the so-called deity in front of her or the cultists outside, either could kill her with a flick of their wrist, and she was caught right between them now.

“Uh, I didn’t mean to kill it. That wasn’t me just now.”

Lin Ye offered Catherine some reassurance.

“Huh?”

This only made Catherine more terrified—was there something else in this room?

Lin Ye still hadn’t figured out exactly what had happened, but he knew that Catherine was about to die.

Those high-level spiritual energy users outside wouldn’t just let a highly aggressive deity stay here, and taking out Catherine was the easiest solution.

Originally, Lin Ye hadn’t planned to go this far; he intended to use the Parasitism Network to slowly cover this cult base. But the Interrogator suddenly getting its head blown off interrupted his plans.

“My main body still needs some time to break free. Before that, there’s only so much I can do. You just have to hold on until then to escape.”

Lin Ye sat down across from Catherine. The Interrogator’s collapsed corpse reassembled beside him, forming a small dinosaur body.

“Uh, what should I do?”

Catherine had no idea what to do at a time like this, so she could only turn to Lin Ye for help.

“You can hide in a corner of the room, and I’ll try my best to buy you time. Or you can run outside, and I’ll block those cultists for you.”

Lin Ye couldn’t say which option had a better chance of survival, since this was his first time directly engaging these cultists.

“...I want to go outside.”

Catherine didn’t want to stay in the room and wait to die. She’d once hoped for things, but they’d all ended in disappointment, so she wasn’t going to sit in an interrogation room, waiting for someone to save her.

“Then run. Little Guardian will guide you ahead. As long as this host body doesn’t die, no one can get through this area.”

Truth be told, Catherine had already done her job well as far as Lin Ye was concerned. While she was distracting the cultists, Lin Ye had quietly accomplished many things behind the scenes. So as a node in the mental defense system, she was already useless.

But Lin Ye wasn’t some heartless boss who treated employees as expendable resources. He’d do his best to clean up the aftermath.

Catherine glanced at the one-way window, then suddenly sprang up and rushed toward the door.

Lin Ye shifted his mental energy into the alienated body. The mental defense system and Parasitism Network were already expanding, and the power he could use had grown a bit stronger.

The door swung open automatically. Several high-level spiritual energy users in protective suits stood outside, blocking Catherine’s escape route.

Red Flash—Quick Cut!

Lin Ye instantly appeared behind those high-level spiritual energy users. Every cultist blocking Catherine’s path was split into two halves.

Quick Cut—this was a technique Lin Ye had recently developed. It might sound simple, but it was actually an ambush technique formed by merging the Spiritual Energy Mental Energy Mixed Protective Field, the Severing Rune, and the power of the Instinctive State Rule Fragment.

Red Flash for the charge, the mixed force field to scatter the spiritual energy shields while suppressing the enemy’s instinct to fight back, and finally severing the vital spots.

Caught off guard, a first-time opponent could easily be one-shot by this move.

Just like these cultists.

Catherine chased after the figure of the young girl that only existed in her field of vision, running toward the area covered by the Parasitism Network. Lin Ye stayed behind, looking at the cultists charging toward him.

“What the hell are you?”

The lead cultist stopped in its tracks. It didn’t sense the power of any evil god from the dinosaur body.

“I’m a deity, obviously. What else would I be?”

Lin Ye didn’t rush to attack. As time passed, his chances of victory would gradually increase.

“Stop bullshitting. You don’t have divine power at all.”

The cultists didn’t come closer to Lin Ye. Instead, they busily set up various defensive measures around him. Clearly, they were deeply wary of his earlier attack.

“Divine power? Are you talking about rule power? Or some kind of higher-level force? If it’s a power above rule power, then I really don’t have divine power. But I truly am a deity—I have no reason to lie to you.”

Lin Ye replied casually.

“Divine power is a force even more dangerous than rule power. If you don’t even know what divine power is, then there’s no point in us talking.”

All the surrounding cultists aimed their standard-issue spiritual energy weapons—similar to firearms—at Lin Ye.

“Can these weapons help you use divine power?”

Lin Ye stared curiously at the energy weapons in the cultists’ hands. From his perception, their internal structure and energy were no different from ordinary spiritual energy weapons.

“I know you’re stalling for time. It seems that woman means more to you than I thought. Too bad—we’ve already caught her. If you don’t want anything to happen to her, you know what I’m saying, right?”

The lead cultist suddenly flashed an excited grin.

“When I play games, I like to go all out. For example, if I can clear the entire map, I will; if I can finish with full health, I’ll try to. If I don’t clean the map or lose a single HP, it feels a bit off to me... She’s on that level for me. You’re reading too much into it.”

Lin Ye continued his conversation with the cultists. He quite liked how they thought they were being clever—it had a certain bizarrely soothing effect.

“Is that so? Then let’s kill her.”

A cultist dragged Catherine over. As an ordinary person, she ultimately couldn’t escape.

The cultist cleanly snapped Catherine’s neck, then made a provocative gesture at Lin Ye.

“Attack!”

All the cultists simultaneously fired different types of divine power at Lin Ye. A dense array of spiritual energy shields pressed forward, trapping him inside.

Breaking through the surrounding spiritual energy barriers would take some time—and he had no time left.

A torrent of divine power struck Lin Ye, bypassing his defenses, reducing him to a pile of rotten flesh.

“Haha! You stupid piece of trash, calling yourself a deity! Go to hell, scum!”

The lead cultist strode quickly over to the pile of flesh, then cast several layers of mental and spiritual energy barriers on it to prevent the flesh from regenerating.