Chapter 137: If I Were Pride, What Do You Think Would Happen?

His tone was calm and gentle, carrying no hint of a threat. Instead, he sounded as if he were joking with an old friend. "Sir, aren't you afraid I really am Pride?"

An inexplicable chill washed over the male enforcer at those words.

"If I really were Pride, what do you think would happen? You just spoke disrespectfully to someone suspected of being a Gold powerhouse. You might think that because this is the Law Enforcement Bureau and there's a Gold powerhouse presiding here, you can catch Pride. But before you manage that, wouldn't it be perfectly reasonable for him to casually kill a few insignificant people?"

"You... you..." The enforcer stammered, his throat seeming to constrict. He couldn't utter another word, or perhaps he simply didn't dare to.

He was truly terrified. If Su Mu really was Pride, he would undoubtedly be a dead man. He didn't believe for a second that someone who dared to murder nobles would hesitate to kill inside the Law Enforcement Bureau.

"Heh." Su Mu let out a soft chuckle. "Don't be afraid, sir. I was just making a joke. After all, I'm nothing more than a Bronze Tier 2 transcendent. How could I possibly be Pride?"

"That wasn't a funny joke at all," Mu Lingxi said coldly.

Su Mu shrugged, his expression completely at ease. "It seems I don't have much talent for humor."

"Su Mu, what is your Bronze Law?"

"Great Force Bombardment Punch."

"And the other one?"

Su Mu didn't answer her directly. Instead, he suddenly asked, "Don't you think it's too dark in here?"

Mu Lingxi frowned. She was just about to speak when a sharp click echoed through the room. The lights in the interrogation room suddenly flicked on.

She whipped her head around to glare at the staff member guarding the door. "What are you doing!"

The staff member scratched his head in bewilderment. "I... I just thought it was a bit dark."

Realizing what had happened, Mu Lingxi snapped her gaze back to Su Mu, her eyes sharp as swords. "This was your doing?"

Su Mu nodded. "Bronze Law Sequence 44, Mind Capturing and Thought Guiding. In layman's terms, you could just call it hypnosis."

This was a real Bronze Law, and the one that most closely resembled his actual hypnotic abilities. He had never planned to hide his capacity for hypnosis, as it would be far too easy to uncover anyway.

Mu Lingxi's gaze remained sharp. "Your actions can already be considered a provocation against the Law Enforcement Bureau."

"Actions speak louder than words, don't they?"

Su Mu's words carried a double meaning, and no one could be sure of his true intent. Was he simply using action to demonstrate his hypnosis, or was he telling Mu Lingxi to drop the pointless threats and just resort to force?

Suddenly, Mu Lingxi let out a soft laugh. "Mr. Su, you are very arrogant. In that respect, you are much like Pride, the Head of the Seven Deadly Sins. The only difference is that his arrogance is far more overt. He brazenly crashed a banquet and slaughtered people. Despite clearly possessing the strength to instantly kill Murong Zhuo, he chose to toy with him first. You, on the other hand, are restrained. You appear gentle, treating everyone as equals, but the truth is that you look down on everyone. Even here, in a Law Enforcement Bureau overseen by a Gold powerhouse, you still dare to act as you please. Even Murong Yun, a noble and a Silver 2 transcendent, couldn't help but feel anxious and tense when he was brought in here. Yet you, a mere Bronze Tier 2 from the Lower District, haven't shown a single ounce of panic from beginning to end. I am truly curious as to why that is. Perhaps... you really are Pride?"

Su Mu smiled faintly, offering an answer that caught Mu Lingxi completely off guard. "Because I am a nightmare apostle."

Mu Lingxi froze. A nightmare apostle? Right, he was a nightmare apostle—the kind of person who had to face the deadly perils of the Nightmare World at a moment's notice.

People like that were usually either completely hysterical or deeply paranoid and unhinged. Very few of them could be considered normal.

It was rare for any sane person to retain their mind when faced with the clear, constant threat of impending death.

It was a perfectly logical explanation, yet something still felt off to her. She could sense the underlying madness of a nightmare apostle in Su Mu, but at the same time, he didn't quite act like one.

In the end, however, she didn't press the matter any further and simply let him go.

After Su Mu left, the enforcer who had been threatened earlier scowled. "Captain Mu, we're just letting him walk away? With an attitude like that, he might actually be Pride!"

Mu Lingxi shot him a sidelong glance. "Do you honestly think we'd still be breathing if he were Pride?" she said mildly. "Lord Sikong Zhen went to the Mithril Mine; he isn't even in the Law Enforcement Bureau right now. Even if he really were Pride, would you dare try to arrest him?"

The enforcer's face stiffened, and he clamped his mouth shut in resentful silence.

"Besides, based on standard logic, it shouldn't be him," she continued. "Pride has the strength to instantly kill a Silver Stage 3 transcendent and is suspected to be a Gold powerhouse. Su Mu is just a nightmare apostle from the Lower District. I've looked into his file; he hasn't been a nightmare apostle for very long at all. Reaching Bronze Tier 2 in such a short time already marks him as a genius."

The enforcer looked up, his tone a bit hurried. "Well, if he's only Bronze Tier 2, then arresting him wouldn't be—"

Mu Lingxi fixed the man with a razor-sharp glare. His heart gave a jolt, and he swallowed the rest of his words.

"He isn't Pride, so on what grounds would we arrest him? Just because he made a joke at your expense? We are enforcers, not some street gang!"

"Yes, Captain Mu. I understand." The enforcer lowered his head in apparent shame. It was entirely feigned, of course. There were few truly magnanimous people in this world, and no one actually bowed their head to admit fault just because of a reprimand—unless the person doing the reprimanding was their superior. When facing your boss, you had to swallow your pride and admit you were wrong. Inwardly, he was cursing her. 'If it's Pride, you don't dare arrest him. If it's not Pride, you can't arrest him. Then what the fuck are you even doing here?'

"Did his polygraph light up?"

"No. It didn't trigger a single time during the entire session."

Mu Lingxi narrowed her eyes. "A polygraph only checks for lies by monitoring the heartbeat. Certain criminals with formidable mental fortitude won't trigger the machine even when they lie. Given that Pride can brazenly murder nobles of the Empire, his psychological resilience must be far beyond that of an ordinary person."

The subordinate fiddling with the polygraph nearby shot her a confused look.

"I know what you're thinking. You're wondering why I insisted on hooking him up to the polygraph when I knew it wouldn't work on him." A cold, confident smile touched the corners of Mu Lingxi's lips.

"This was a reverse lie-detector test. On average, a person lies at least twenty-five times a day, primarily for three reasons: to show off, to please others, or to protect themselves. A lot of lies are simply told subconsciously. Take Murong Yun, for example. Even though he was a victim, his statement was still riddled with lies heavily filtered through his own subjective bias."

"So you're saying that lying is normal, and that telling nothing but the truth is what's actually abnormal?"

Mu Lingxi shook her head. "You could look at it that way, but the polygraph is still only a reference point. There are plenty of people in this world with immense psychological fortitude, especially among transcendents. My real goal was actually to make them lower their guard."

"Lower their guard?" The subordinate's eyes widened. "Do you have another move planned?"

Mu Lingxi didn't answer his question. Instead, she stared at the subordinate with a look of deep amusement. "Xiao Li, you've asked a few too many questions today."