Chapter 220

After giving a slight bow towards the Clearing Bureau Director, the Taurus Director left her seat and slowly walked towards the massive cage at the center of the conference hall.

And as she approached, the regular icosahedron prison formed by thirty brilliant golden light pillars gradually opened, revealing the true form of the monstrous creature inside.

“Hsssh…”

With a strange hissing sound that echoed through everyone’s souls, the grotesque demon resembling a giant soft-bodied octopus quickly “spread out,” instantly covering nearly a quarter of the conference hall.

Following this, a mouth similar in shape to a nautilus’ aperture slowly opened, and hundreds of long tongues covered with purplish-red tumors emerged like clusters of tangled sea snakes, lunging towards everyone around.

“Behave yourself!”

With a shout, the Taurus Director crossed her ten fingers and forcefully pressed down on the sprawling brain-eating demon.

A profoundly resonant boom was heard, and the enormous demon, nearly thirty meters in size, collapsed in the middle of the conference hall as if weighed down by something incredibly heavy, emitting cries of pain.

The technique used was called ‘Forked Divine Suppression,’ a secret art developed by the Taurus lineage specifically for suppressing imprisoned True Gods.

Watching her casually press down and effortlessly subdue a divine-rank brain-eating demon, the Clearing Bureau Director couldn’t help but narrow her eyes slightly, revealing a hint of admiration.

The secret arts developed by the first Taurus were truly formidable. Once a True God’s powers were sealed, no matter how strong their physical strength, they could be easily subdued with just a gesture.

The only drawback was that the threshold was somewhat high, so apart from this generation’s Taurus, no one else had managed to master it…

Unfortunately.

Looking at the Taurus Director who, after releasing the brain-eating demon’s tongues, covered her face again and voluntarily stepped forward to accept its licking, the Clearing Bureau Director couldn’t help but shake her head slightly.

If it was merely about creating abnormalities privately, there might still be some room for maneuver, but concerning the safety of the Watchtower Palace, regardless of how talented this generation’s Taurus was, if the retrieved memories were problematic, then…

Hmm? Seemingly noticing something amiss, the Clearing Bureau Director couldn’t help but frown slightly.

When the brain-eating demon “spread out,” to prevent the four people who had been teleported over from being crushed, she directly moved the main platform back a bit and protected them behind her.

But these people didn’t stay quietly behind her; instead, they peeked around curiously. Among them, the cleaner named Leon even stealthily reached out and touched the divine-rank brain-eating demon’s butt.

…

“Zziiit…”

[Encountered… Materialistic… Information]

[Name: The Ruminating Feeder of Memories (Memory, Corruption)]

[Appearance: Approximately thirty meters in size, resembling a soft-bodied giant squid, identical to an ordinary adult divine-rank brain-eating demon]

[Ability: Memory Extraction]

[Cost: None]

[Record: Nine hundred years ago, this divine-rank demon descended upon Sai Ao of the Thousand Sails Sea Kingdom through an accidentally opened Abyssal Rift, causing unimaginable casualties. The Sai Ao Kingdom’s unanchored ship No. 0137 was almost completely destroyed by it.

After rampaging through Sai Ao for three months and devouring the memories of nearly a hundred thousand people, this divine-rank brain-eating demon was finally captured jointly by the Pisces Division and the Aquarius Division of the Clearing Bureau and handed over to the current Taurus Director for modification, having its…

After a series of treatments, the demon’s powers were stripped away, along with its emotions and intelligence, leaving only its instinct to consume memories. It was kept as a special anomalous item for memory extraction in the underground headquarters of the Clearing Bureau until now.]

[Assessment: An extremely powerful anomalous item, its tentacle-like tongues, existing between flesh and spirit, can easily invade the brains of any intelligent beings, extracting their memories by licking their brain grooves. Due to its high position, even True Gods cannot resist its extraction…]

[Taint Value: 59.9]

This thing… is really disgusting… and deadly! After secretly touching the divine-rank brain-eating demon’s butt and obtaining information about it through [Materialism], Leon felt a chill run down his back.

Regardless of whether his “transmigration” memories would be extracted, just the thought of its slimy tongues entering his brain and licking around was enough to make anyone want to die.

Looking at those clusters of tongues digging into the Taurus Director’s head, using their purplish-red tumors to continuously scrape something out, Leon couldn’t help but shiver violently.

If the Taurus Director wasn’t bluffing and actually had a way to get away with it, then the ones whose brains would be sucked and licked would be him and the Director! And judging by the Taurus Director’s bulging veins and convulsions, the experience of having one’s memories read must be quite unpleasant…

No way! Absolutely not! He had to think of a way to ensure she couldn’t pull it off!

…

Glancing at the “Corruption” tag in the name [Ruminating Feeder of Memories] and recalling [I Am the Devil], which could forcibly manipulate “Corruption” anomalies, Leon clenched his fists tightly and extended his sinful right hand again, preparing to give the Taurus Director a double insurance.

However, at that moment, a somewhat cold voice came from ahead.

“Stop.”

Seeing Leon, who not only touched the brain-eating demon’s butt once but was also preparing to do it again, the Clearing Bureau Director couldn’t help but furrow her brows and asked:

“…”

Good grief, after this thing spread out like a cut-open giant squid, how did you even tell which part was the head and which was the butt? Unable to resist mentally criticizing, facing the scrutinizing gaze of the Clearing Bureau Director, Leon had no choice but to retract his right hand and awkwardly smiled while “truthfully” answering:

“My ability is to obtain partial information about anomalous items through touch. After hearing the Taurus Director’s words, I was worried she might try to trick us during the memory extraction, so I wanted to check if there were any loopholes in this thing…”

Find loopholes in this thing? With you? Unaware of Leon’s real intention to exploit the loophole himself, after staring into Leon’s eyes and somehow confirming the truthfulness of his statement, the Clearing Bureau Director turned her head back and warned indifferently:

“Don’t bother. This thing, at its peak, was almost as powerful as Olivia. Now, although its powers have been removed, its position is still close to that of a True God. You, a Level 3 Cleaner, can’t possibly affect it.”

“This… I’ve already found out some things.”

To earn another chance to touch the brain-eating demon’s butt and use [I Am the Devil] to trip up the Taurus Director, Leon had to strive to showcase his value and began explaining:

“This thing is called [Ruminating Feeder of Memories]. Its predecessor was a divine-rank brain-eating demon that descended upon the Thousand Sails Sea Kingdom. It was eventually caught by the joint efforts of the Pisces Division and the Aquarius Division.

Nine hundred years ago, that generation’s Taurus Director wiped away its emotions and memories, removing its organs used for digesting memories and replacing them with a [Dream-memory Furnace].

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The memories it swallows aren’t digested but are processed through the [Dream-memory Furnace], leaving behind replicated dreams before spitting the memories back…”

…

When Leon started his explanation, the Clearing Bureau Director wasn’t particularly impressed and even glanced toward the Red-haired Director, clearly dissatisfied with her unauthorized disclosure of important information.

But as Leon continued, especially when he began describing how the divine-rank brain-eating demon was handled nine hundred years ago by that generation’s Taurus Director, the Clearing Bureau Director’s expression gradually changed.

If it was something recorded in the bureau, it wouldn’t matter, but much of the information this kid revealed wasn’t documented anywhere, and even she, as the director, only vaguely knew about it. Olivia certainly wouldn’t know either.

So… he just touched it once and learned all this?

Staring at Leon in shock and sensing his aura, the Clearing Bureau Director’s eyes flashed with realization.

Judging by his level of taint, he was only at the average level of a Level 3 Cleaner, yet he could safely and forcibly obtain intelligence on divine-rank anomalous items!

No wonder both Olivia and the Taurus Director wanted to protect him. This kid was truly a treasure! She guessed correctly; this director was indeed a practicalist! Noticing the hint of growing enthusiasm in the Clearing Bureau Director’s eyes, Leon immediately stopped his explanation and didn’t reveal everything.

And the Clearing Bureau Director, who was already hooked, couldn’t help but ask:

“Why did you stop? What about the rest?”

Leon hesitated and said,

“The rest… my power is a bit weak, and I’m also afraid of contamination, so I just lightly touched it earlier, and you stopped me before I could try again…”

“Then continue!”

Glancing at the direction of the Taurus Director and confirming that the memory extraction was proceeding normally without interference, the Clearing Bureau Director decided immediately:

“Touch it as much as you want! See how much information you can extract! Besides, don’t worry about contamination. I’ll be here to protect you, ensuring nothing goes wrong!”

Alright! This is your permission to touch it! If anything happens to the Taurus Director because of this, you can’t blame me!

Biting his cheek to suppress the urge to grin, Leon nodded vigorously, activated [I Am the Devil], and extended his sinful right hand toward the brain-eating demon’s butt, cautiously reminding: “You’d better hold me back if necessary…”

“You can count on me, go ahead!”

…

Phew… Finally, it’s over…

As wave after wave of memories flowed back into his mind through the sticky purplish-red tongues, the Taurus Director gradually regained consciousness and wobbled to her feet.

Carefully checking her prepared backup plans and confirming that there would be no leaks, the Taurus Director, whose brain was almost boiling from the licking, looked up at the Clearing Bureau Director with a smile exclusive to victors.

Success! All the years of preparation have paid off; this time, it’s absolutely foolproof! “Sorry… There seems to be a small issue. The previous reading doesn’t count.”

“???”

Receiving the Taurus Director’s stunned look, the Clearing Bureau Director explained awkwardly: “This thing has existed for over nine hundred years. Although the core Dream-memory Furnace hasn’t broken, it’s been severely eroded by the brain-eating demon’s stomach acid, resulting in incomplete memory extraction.

I checked the dreams spat out by the Dream-memory Furnace and found that only a small portion of your memories were copied, insufficient to prove your innocence. So… could you please try again?”

(End of Chapter)