Otherworldly Affairs Office

After listening to Gu Shenghui's words, Yu Zhongmin also understood the crux of the matter and shook his head regretfully: "If that's the case, I refuse to take the risk. We don't know when Divine Desire will launch a surprise attack. To ensure complete annihilation of the enemy, we would need at least double or even triple the number of ambushers. Secretly mobilizing troops to deal with lower-level supernatural abilities is manageable, but for higher-level abilities, using three times the personnel would almost account for two-thirds of the Investigation Bureau's middle-level staff. If all are stationed here, what happens if something goes wrong elsewhere? We won't even have time to react!"

Prison Director Li nodded in agreement: "Not only that, but while confronting the enemy, we also need to retain the strength to suppress imprisoned inmates. If the inmates are suddenly rescued, the enemy's strength will quickly increase. So, I agree with Director Yu's viewpoint that we should cut off the source to avoid losing more than we gain."

Gu Shenghui, seeing the difficult expressions on everyone's faces, realized that the ambush plan would be hard to pass. He sighed and lowered his head, knowing that he couldn't blame Yu Zhongmin for being cautious. The risk was indeed too great, and if anything went wrong, the domestic power structure would be rewritten. Missing this opportunity to cripple Divine Desire made him unwilling.

"Can I ask two questions?"

At this moment, Pei Yan, sitting quietly in the corner of the office, timidly broke the tense atmosphere of the meeting room. Everyone turned to look, and seeing Pei Yan, Prison Director Li, who had a favorable impression of this young man for eliminating potential risks, smiled and spread his hands, indicating, "Since your director agreed to let you stay and participate in the meeting, feel free to ask whatever you want."

"Isn't the biggest risk of this operation that someone might come to rescue the prisoners? These people are heinous criminals; wouldn't it be better to just execute them? Then even if we fail, the other side won't gain anything." Pei Yan voiced the question that had been on his mind after listening to the meeting.

Hearing Pei Yan's question, everyone was taken aback, then burst into laughter. After the laughter subsided, Yao Xuefang gave Pei Yan a somewhat embarrassed look and explained, "It's not as simple as you think. If it were that easy, we would have executed them upon capture. Although these criminals are heinous, they still hold tremendous research value for the country. It's really not feasible to kill them unless absolutely necessary, and forcibly relocating them would be as dangerous as a direct prison break by the enemy."

"The second question: the biggest problem with this action is the fear of alerting the enemy. If we move those devices, the opponent won't take the bait. If we don't, they'll imprison the Space Transmission Array during a surprise attack, catching us off guard, right?"

Looking at Pei Yan, who was standing there seriously asking this, Director Wei picked up a teacup from the table and replied grumpily, "Didn't we just discuss this? Do you have a solution?"

"Ah, yes! I can replicate their nano equipment and subtly replace it." Pei Yan replied calmly, noticing Director Wei's impatience as he drank his tea.

"Pfft! Cough, cough, cough!" Director Wei choked on the tea he was drinking, startled by Pei Yan's words.

Gu Shenghui, on the other hand, immediately brightened up, slammed the table, and sternly asked Pei Yan, "Pei Yan, this is no time for jokes!"

Pei Yan didn't waste words and simply extended his arm, allowing a flickering blue light to jump between his fingertips. A thin mist appeared in mid-air, circling down in front of Yao Xuefang.

Seeing this, everyone gathered around, focusing their attention. The once clean conference table now seemed covered with a thin layer of sand. Upon closer inspection, countless tiny nanomechanical insects could be seen crawling across the tabletop.

After a while, with the assistance of Qi Youting being called back, Yao Xuefang reexamined the nanomechanical insects released by Pei Yan. As the examination progressed, her excitement grew more apparent. Noticing this, both Gu Shenghui and Mei Simiao couldn't help but get excited as well.

After Qi Youting was invited out of the meeting room, Gu Shenghui hurried forward to ask, "Xiaoyao, how does the inspection look?"

Yao Xuefang shook her head at first, then nodded, staring at the nanobots on the table, pondering for a while before saying, "Identical, yet not entirely so!"

"Oh come on, Miss Yao! Stop with the suspense already. What's going on?" cried Yu Zhongmin anxiously, hearing this seemingly trivial response.

Yao Xuefang didn't show him the same respect as she did to Gu Shenghui. After rolling her eyes at him, she said in a deep voice, "From the structural and array schematic perspective, they are almost indistinguishable. But the original was inscribed with the array using Secret Technique from the Daoist Realm, and mixed with spirit mineral dyes as initial activation energy, while Pei Yan's nanomechanical insect lacks the spirit mineral dye, operating naturally from his own core."

"Can there be a functional difference between the two? Can people detect it?" Director Wei, holding his breath and crouching by the table to closely watch the tiny insects, asked quietly, afraid to even breathe too hard for fear of blowing these small creatures away.

"Unless observed up close and in detail, it's difficult to detect any difference between the two. These two types of nano devices can perform the same function!"

Upon hearing the definitive answer from Yao Xuefang, Elder Lin, who had been silently pondering and not participating in the intense discussion like the others, looked at Pei Yan and pointedly asked another key question: "Xiaopei, I once heard Engineer Li say that the technological equipment you create can self-destruct after forty-eight hours if they leave your body. Does this still hold true? How long can these nanomechanical insects operate away from your body?"

Faced with Elder Lin's question, Pei Yan stood in place and communicated with his internal system for a moment before answering, "As long as my current equipment isn't forcibly dismantled, it can exist for up to two weeks. The lifespan of these tiny nanomechanical insects is even longer. As long as I leave enough of my core essence attached, they can be maintained for two months without issue. After two months, I can gradually replace them with new mechanical insects."

Prison Director Li leaned forward to ask, "Will there be any issues if you replace the original nanomechanical insects inside the Divine Desire people's bodies with your own? Will they notice?"

Pei Yan thought for a moment, pursing his lips before saying, "There should be no problem. I have checked their signal transmission frequencies. Every three minutes, they send out a signal. If I intercept the spatial interval right after a signal is sent from the Divine Desire nanomechanical insects, cut off their signal, and replace them with mine, sending out signals at the same frequency, the other side shouldn't notice."

After hearing Pei Yan's plan, Elder Lin first nodded in satisfaction and said with a smile, "It seems having you stay for this meeting was indeed the right choice." Then Elder Lin's eyes flashed severely as he scanned the room, his tone turning cold, "Since we have gained the upper hand, let's start making some preparations!"