Qiu Tu really put some muscle into it, so after just two hits, the girl was crying out in pain.
She seemed to be genuinely angry, as she turned around to glare at Qiu Tu with tears in her eyes, her little canine teeth tightly biting her lips, and she bellowed, "You're done for! Really, you're done for!"
"I'm going to have my dad kill your whole family! All of them!"
"And scatter your ashes to the wind!"
Qiu Tu couldn't help but laugh angrily at her words. He slapped her shapely buttocks hard again and countered, "Well, that's a coincidence, because I'm a man with no attachments. My parents and relatives are all dead!"
"So don't mess with me. If you really piss me off, I'll rape you before I kill you, and then just run away!"
"I don't care who your dad is, even if he's the lord of heaven, can he bring you back to life?"
Hearing Qiu Tu's words, Shen Lingshuang was stunned.
She realized she was completely out of options with this tall investigator before her. Neither soft approach nor hard tactic worked.
Usually, mentioning her father's name was enough to have everyone showing the utmost respect, but this man didn't care at all.
He was like someone not of this world, totally oblivious to what the title of Deputy Speaker of the Supreme Sanctuary Council truly implied…
Was she really going to take a fall here today?
As Shen Lingshuang's mind raced, Qiu Tu remained silent, and the room quieted down for a moment.
After a while, seeing that Shen Lingshuang had indeed calmed down, Qiu Tu quietly clenched his hand that had turned red from slapping, and taunted, "What, got scared? Bring it on!"
Hearing Qiu Tu's taunt, Shen Lingshuang snapped back to reality.
With tearful eyes and a look of feigned sorrow, she pleaded at Qiu Tu, "Investigator brother, I was wrong~ Please don't be angry, and don't hit or scold me anymore. Whatever you ask, I promise to tell the whole truth…"
After saying this, she puckered her lips pitifully, batting her large eyes at Qiu Tu.
Qiu Tu wasn't fooled by Shen Lingshuang's pretense of submission.
He still firmly pinned Shen Lingshuang to the chair, then placed a paper and pen on her back, and said coldly, "Alright, I'll ask, you answer."
"If I'm not satisfied, the punishment won't be as simple as before."
Embarrassed and annoyed at being put in such a humiliating position to answer questions by force, Shen Lingshuang's inner feelings were a mix of shame and anger. But given the circumstances, she had no choice but to comply.
Consequently, Qiu Tu soon extracted much valuable intelligence from her, such as...
'After the Cataclysm Awakening, each person takes a different Cataclysm path?'
'There are six paths in total: Destruction, Life, Mystery, Immortality, Order, and Chaos?'
'The abilities or traits each person acquires after their Cataclysm Awakening align with their respective Cataclysm path?'
'For instance, a Cataclysmic on the path of Life has the simple trait of being prolific in childbirth? Hence, she gave birth to 10 babies at a time, totaling 107 children in five years?'
'For instance, a Cataclysmic on the path of Destruction has the ability to devour everything? Soil, gravel, buildings, all consumable by biting directly?'
Truth be told, as he listened to Shen Lingshuang's reports that sounded like utter fantasy, Qiu Tu felt like he was turning into Yan Chen from the previous night.
He felt she was lying, yet everything was logically consistent.
He felt she was telling the truth, but it was all too magical...
Qiu Tu was finally beginning to understand the loathsomeness of a "liar."
He gave a suspicious glance at Shen Lingshuang, who lay prone on the chair, but in the end, he decided to provisionally trust her this one time.
So, Qiu Tu first helped her up from the chair, then dragged the table back over that he had moved earlier, and finally handed her a pair of new chopsticks, "Eat."
Shen Lingshuang didn't take the chopsticks. She rubbed her arm that had been painfully tugged and her swollen buttocks while looking up with reddened eyes and pouting, "I don't want to eat, it's all cold~"
Qiu Tu: .....
This girl really has a lot of demands!
Taking a deep breath to suppress the nameless anger in his heart, Qiu Tu stood up and went outside to call a servant from the Qin Family, arranging to have the dishes reheated. As for himself, he lit up a cigarette and stood frowning alone in the courtyard.
The moonlight, obscured by sparse dark clouds, left only a dim glow that draped over the quiet courtyard in a cold blue veil.
The cigarette butt in his hand flickered on and off, like a lonely firefly, while Qiu Tu's thoughts were immersed in the method for making the Cataclysmic Potion he had just obtained from Shen Lingshuang.
According to Shen Lingshuang, the recipe for the Cataclysmic Potion was actually not complex; one merely needed to follow the "Star, Moon, King, and Minister" ratio to concoct the potion.
Star, Moon, King, and Minister are nicknames for the roles different ingredients play in the formula for Secret Medicines.
Moon Medicine and Star Medicine refer to the two main ingredients in Secret Medicines.
In the Cataclysmic Potion, Moon Medicine is the primary Cataclysm Material, such as the Aurora Stone; Star Medicine, on the other hand, is an assistant medicine that activates the effects of the primary Cataclysm Materials, generally common medicinal ingredients.
King Medicine and Assistant Medicine refer to two types of auxiliary medicines in Secret Medicines.
Assistant Medicine is used to moderate the effects of the primary medicine, usually also common medicinal ingredients, and the required Assistant Medicine varies according to the effects of the primary medicine, which could be one or several types.
As for King Medicine, it is the agent that binds the Secret Medicine together to ensure its stable effect, so a neutral and harmonious liquid Cataclysm Material is needed.
Speaking of neutral and harmonious liquid Cataclysm Materials, Shen Lingshuang also provided a few examples. Commonly used ones include Glow-worm Blood, Tears of Moon Color, Ancient Tree Sap, etc.....
"Tears of Moon Color...."
Muttering the name of this material, Qiu Tu looked towards the Treasure Chest in the upper left corner, the one he received after surviving the last crisis.
Inside the chest was a bottle of treasure-blue liquid, none other than Tears of Moonlight...
"Tears of Moonlight: One of the commonly used Cataclysm Materials. Just gather the other Cataclysm Materials to make items like the 'Cataclysmic Potion,' 'Key of Different Dimension,' 'Nat's Manuscript,' and other Cataclysm Props."
Qiu Tu wasn't surprised that the Treasure Chest just happened to contain Tears of Moonlight. After all, under the introduction of "Crisis Intuition," it was already noted that "rewards relate to the crisis."
Since the two Treasure Chests were obtained from consecutive crises, it was reasonable for the rewards to be a match.
But now, Qiu Tu's dilemma was...with only this one set of materials for making the Cataclysmic Potion, should he really hand them over to Shen Lingshuang, who seemed so unreliable?
Moreover, given his current relationship with her, would she really put her heart into making it for him?
After staring blankly at the sky for a while, Qiu Tu suddenly threw his cigarette to the ground and stamped it out ferociously, 'Damn it! There isn't anyone else anyway, I have to try it out to be at peace!'
At the same time, just as Qiu Tu made up his mind, suddenly, there was a flicker before his eyes.
The next second, a series of prompts appeared in his line of sight.
"Under your firm repression, Shen Lingshuang has developed a strange emotion towards you."
"If you entrust her with making the Cataclysmic Potion, her kind heart will lead her to scoff verbally, but she won't deliberately spoil it—she might at most spit in the Potion after she has made it."
"But the arrangement of the Cataclysmic Potion doesn't just require adherence to the Four Essentials of Secret Medicines, but also the crucial fifth and sixth elements: auspicious time and favorable location."
"Following the Four Essentials of Secret Medicines is only enough for successful concoction of the Cataclysmic Potion, but the fifth and sixth elements are what determine the effect this Potion will have..."
"You wouldn't want to know what effect a Cataclysmic Potion concocted near Xinjie City in the last three days would have upon consumption...."
With the end of the prompts, a three-day countdown hourglass slowly appeared beside the first hourglass.
Now, looking at the new countdown hourglass in the upper left corner of his vision, Qiu Tu couldn't help but blink.
Wait a second, wasn't the information revealed by this Crisis Intuition a bit too much?
Let me think this through....