"Don't think I don't know what you're thinking," Zhao Yuan said coldly after handing out the paper and pens. "You want to write less, or just scribble nonsense, right?"
At having their thoughts laid bare, the expressions of Master Tie and the other thugs shifted.
Zhao Yuan reached into his pocket. Using the movement as cover, he retrieved several Golden Needles from his Storage Ring Space. Before they could react, he jabbed the needles into the men holding the pens and paper.
An intense, biting itch erupted from where the Golden Needles were embedded. It shot along their meridians, rapidly spreading through their entire bodies. They felt as if they'd been dropped into an anthill, with millions of ants crawling all over them, gnawing at their flesh, causing unbearable torment!
This itching sensation was simply more agonizing than pain.
"Hahaha, it itches! It's so itchy!"
"It's biting and itching, itching and biting! It's unbearable! I can't take it anymore, hahahaha..."
"Just stab me, will you? Give me a quick death! I'm begging you, please stop torturing me like this!"
The thugs were laughing and crying, screaming and thrashing about. They tried to pull out the needles, but Zhao Yuan had inserted them just out of their reach. When they tried to help each other, the coal miners standing guard would immediately step in and separate them, preventing them from succeeding.
The sight drained the color from the faces of the thugs who hadn't yet been given paper and pens.
They were ruthless men themselves and had used no shortage of cruel tortures on the coal miners in the past. But now it was clear their methods were child's play compared to Zhao Yuan's. 'He drove them to the brink of madness with a single tiny Golden Needle. It's horrifying!'
Little did they know, this technique of Zhao Yuan's was an interrogation method learned from the teachings of Wu Peng. Even the most tight-lipped person couldn't endure it for long, let alone these thugs.
The biting, itching torment inflicted on Master Tie and the others lasted for about thirty seconds. Then, as suddenly as it had come, the intense sensation vanished, receding like the tide.
Master Tie and the others felt as if they had been brought back from Hell. They all collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath.
Those thirty seconds had completely drained them of their strength.
"So, how was that? Felt good, didn't it?" Zhao Yuan asked.
Master Tie and the others just kept their heads down, panting. No one said a word, but inwardly they were all cursing through gritted teeth: 'Good? If you think it's so good, why don't you try sticking one in yourself?'
Zhao Yuan sneered. "Why the silence? Don't think I don't know you're all cursing me in your heads, wishing I would stick a needle in myself."
That one sentence nearly scared the souls out of Master Tie and his men. They frantically shook their heads. "No, no, we would never think that!"
Inwardly, however, they were utterly bewildered. 'How does this kid know what we're thinking? Does he have a Mind Reading Technique? Or did one of us accidentally say it out loud?'
Hearing this, the faces of Master Tie and his men turned green.
'That last wave of agonizing itching already made us wish we were dead, and he's going to increase the intensity and duration? Motherfucker, do you have to be so ruthless?'
Zhao Yuan was very satisfied with their reactions. He nodded and said, "If you want me to remove the Golden Needles, you'll have to use the five-minute interval to write down the crimes you and the Ji Family Brothers have committed. The more detailed, the better. If there's evidence or witnesses, write that down too. The first person to finish a complete and accurate confession gets their Golden Needles removed first. As for the last person to finish... sorry, but that Golden Needle will be staying in your body forever!"
He pulled out his phone and glanced at the time. "The second wave of itching will hit in three minutes. You'd better get a move on."
Master Tie and the others looked at one another, completely at a loss.
Suddenly, one of them couldn't take the pressure anymore. With a loud cry, he grabbed his pen and paper and sprawled on the ground, writing furiously.
With one person taking the lead, the others, not wanting to be left behind, all threw themselves to the ground and started writing about their own crimes and those of the Ji Family Brothers.
The second wave of torturous itching soon arrived, and just as promised, it was longer and more intense than the first.
The moment the itching subsided, Master Tie scrambled to his feet, panting. "I'm done! I've written it all down!"
"Good." Zhao Yuan nodded. Without even looking at what he had written, he took the paper and, true to his word, removed the Golden Needle from Master Tie's body.
Seeing this, the other thugs scrambled over each other to get up and "hand in their homework." Zhao Yuan kept his promise, removing their Golden Needles one by one.
Finally, only one thug was left. He stood frozen, his face ashen, and then burst into tears with a loud WAIL.
Zhao Yuan handed him the confessions from Master Tie and the others. "Alright, that's enough. A grown man crying, have you no shame? I'll give you an opportunity. Take a look at the testimony they've written. If you can find any mistakes or omissions in their confessions, you can take someone's place and earn the right to have your Golden Needle removed!"
At Zhao Yuan's words, the faces of Master Tie and the others changed dramatically. But the last thug, faced with the prospect of more agonizing torture, didn't hesitate to sell out his comrades. He snatched one of the confessions and pointed out several mistakes and omissions.
"Niu the Second, you motherfucker! You dare betray me!?" the thug he sold out roared in a rage.
A flicker of shame crossed Niu the Second's face, but he quickly composed himself. 'This is no time for brotherhood or taking the blame,' he thought. 'When you have to sell out a teammate, you do it!'
"Well done." Zhao Yuan removed the Golden Needle from Niu the Second's body, only to jab it back into the thug who owned the faulty confession. He then repeated his trick, forcing that thug to rewrite his own confession before outing the others who had concealed or fabricated their crimes.
Using this method, Zhao Yuan turned the thugs against each other, and in the end, he obtained a collection of incredibly detailed and truthful confessions.