V2C61: Searching for the Culprit, Part 3

Their next destination was something that resembled a library in appearance and function, and even though those of the Virtuous Realm had decided to use it somewhat differently, it still contained books and knowledge for Wei Yi to casually absorb. Several arrays worked passively around all sources of information, likely to prevent this very thing, but they functioned poorly against someone who could sense all of their inner workings and bypass them with spiritual will that was clearer than air, at times.

As a result, before they even got to their target, she had already gained a vast quantity of spiritual will techniques that she couldn’t wait to put to good use.

“The next one is Chao Zhi, who is simultaneously one of the least and most likely suspects due to his behaviour. You’ll likely see what I mean when you speak to him,” Ding Ju Rong said as he brought her through the library, “Unless you are certain about him, try not to aggravate any tensions between us, as he might become an ally in the future.”

“Noted. I wouldn’t have done something like that anyway, but…” she shrugged.

“There’s a certain device that we’ve created after a lot of work here, one that ought to be able to improve any techniques you’ve cultivated. We haven’t tested it with anyone outside of the Virtuous Side, so if you wish, you could participate in our experimentation.”

‘Yeah, that sounds like it has never gone wrong before for anyone… Still, I only cultivate a few techniques, but all of them possess immense power. If I can bring one of them to Full Success or beyond…’ Wei Yi considered, ultimately concluding that she would be able to deal with any difficulties that might arise and, as a result, there would be no good reason for her not to attempt it, “Alright, I’ll try it out. Would I be permitted to view the inner workings of it first, or is this something that’s out of your reach?”

“It is not up to me, and even if it were, I have only seen a part of it myself. So long as you can reach it with your spiritual perception, there should be no problem.”

Before there was a chance to acknowledge his words, he stopped and quietly nodded towards an elderly man in front of them, who currently stood near one of the shelves and stared closely at it, although it was difficult to tell exactly what he was looking at, or what he was searching for. He was quite still, with only his jaw and thick white beard moving up and down with every breath.

This was Chao Zhi, who, according to Ding Ju Rong’s brief description, was a brilliant inventor, researcher and someone that was just as important to the field of creating new techniques as Fu Zan was to the clothing of the prison realm. He was roughly one hundred and forty years old, outliving the conflict between the Nobility and Continental factions, but he had been a supporter of the former from an early point in time and fervently argued for it, even when he remained calm and mostly neutral on other topics.

It wasn’t clear exactly what drove him to this, and there were few who had any chance of matching him in raw power in order to probe his mind, not to mention competing with him in ability and technique. He, much like many in the upper echelons of Sanctuary, was in the fourth realm of spiritual will cultivation, Weapon Condensation, the name of which was slowly becoming less valid with the creation of the spiritual concentration blades, but he was at the very peak of it, nearing the realm of Balanced Being and striding towards it every day. In combination with his tendencies to keep his every thought to himself – apart from his support of the Nobility faction, of course – with a memory that far surpassed common men, it was very difficult to understand exactly what his reasoning for a number of activities was.

Naturally, something like that was not enough for Wei Yi to be dissuaded from trying. So far, her spiritual will threads had not failed to pierce the mind of others in the same realm, and it was possible that due to their power, those in higher stages and realms would be even more likely to miss her energy while they watched out for more powerful opponents to contend with.

To ensure that he would not consider her a particularly strange person, she approached him directly with the air of curiosity, one that she typically did not need to fake in the Yi District.

“Excuse me, am I disrupting your studies?“ she asked.

Chao Zhi finished the page that he was reading and turned towards her slowly, staring at the crimson on her robes for a little while before speaking, “You’re one of the people from the other side of the prison realm? What do you need?”

“It has been quite a long time since I’ve seen a library like this. Would you be able to guide me to some material that I could study?”

“Oh, you wish to learn? Certainly. I assume that you only have basic knowledge of spiritual will cultivation, if any, so I can show you where a few free books can be found on the topic of spiritual will, cultivation and the like. Are you capable of practising the pure energy of this side, or have your meridians been steeped in killing intent?” he asked many questions, one right after the other, “If you only wish the theoretical knowledge, I would need to bring you to a different part of the building…”

“I am capable of utilising spiritual will!” Wei Yi admitted with a trace of pride within her voice as she raised a hand and displayed an incredibly thin cloud of spiritual will that could easily be seen as being in the first realm.

Her intentional display of weakness not only achieved the desired effect in lowering his wariness, but it also appeared to grant him some respect for her, as his eyes lit up slightly, “To achieve that in such an inhospitable place is truly impressive. I have great respect for you! If it was not against the rules, it would be my honour to present the Knowledge Cultivation Room to you so that you can solidify your existing knowledge and refine it to the peak, at which point everyone on both sides could learn from you, but alas… Let me show you some of the best free tomes, although I suggest that you consult the other ones as well. My opinion is not necessarily accurate, you see…”

Just as per his description, he insisted on not forcing his opinion onto her and showed her a variety of tomes and books, going through the confirmed accuracies in each one while mentioning some of the faults in them as well. Even when they came across a book that she knew that he had written, he did not mention it and spoke about it just as plainly as the other ones.

While this talk naturally pulled him away from the thoughts about his faction and the reason for joining them, she did not rush him, listening patiently while settling her spiritual thread in his mind and processing what she could from the library and the flashing recollections in his head.

“I will certainly study the texts that you’ve recommended,” she said once he had completed his initial recommendations, “If it is does not inconvenience you further, could I ask you a few more questions? I have been struggling to understand the situation within Sanctuary and the Virtuous Side so far, and the fact that everyone I speak to instantly dismisses me with the word ‘savage’ certainly hasn’t helped in the least…”

She looked down, permitting blood to rush to her cheeks to make her appear to blush in embarrassment, as if she was a simple, meek woman.

“You’ve not been in this prison realm for long, have you? I apologise for such treatment, but many here believe that everyone who ends up on your side was deserving of their punishment, whereas those that were placed in the Virtuous Side are here for different reasons.”

“Oh… Then, what about you?”

“I don’t entirely share this sentiment, but I do think that the Great Families have the right idea. They are the right ones to lead the Planar Continents forth, and when we can return, they will let us do so.”

Those words made it difficult not to break character, but Wei Yi knew better than to let something this simple get a rise out of her, especially when this discussion caused memories more relevant to her begin to pour out from the depths of the old man’s mind. For now, she threw away the frustration and instead looked into his eyes with the saddest expression she could muster.

“B-But, they destroyed my home, burning half of the district in the process!”

“They-”

Before he could get a single word out of his mouth, Wei Yi saw a powerful memory flare up within his mind, overwhelming any response that he could have possibly provided her on his own.

‘- the candle that must light the way -’

“- are the rightful masters of the Continents!” he declared at the same time as the memory forced itself into his focus.

‘This… something about that memory isn’t right. It is too prominent to possibly be the result of some simple trauma,’ she understood almost immediately, relying mostly on her existing familiarity with her own mental stresses, ‘That means that he has either met with the Greats themselves, or someone who forced themselves upon his mind and twisted it with an influence that is too powerful for the common mind to handle. I can only presume that he had previously cultivated some kind of mental technique and avoided being scarred at all times, but the experience still had its toll…’

A spark of absolute hatred lit up once more within her Augur’s Library, but she suppressed it before it could affect her current performance. Regardless of who was responsible for the effect on his mind, it was bound to lead her to the answer about the founding of the Nobility faction.

“Do you even know what you’re saying?” she continued her distraught act, “They killed so many people!”

“I-”

‘- a wind to guide the rains -’

“- we must follow the directions of the Great Families! Those that go against them are traitors to the world-”

‘- have the blessings of the heavens -’

“Their will is heaven’s will!”

His shouting attracted a small audience, but that sound was nothing compared to the fainter, yet more distinct sound of breaking glass. A bright wave of crimson burst out from Wei Yi’s body, forming a dense aura around her, as if she was engulfed in raging flame. Raw dawn light ignited within her eyes, as if they had transformed into miniature flaming suns.

Although her outburst was caused almost entirely by the words that he spouted, the biggest reason she let herself go was the fact that she had found the thing that she had been looking for.

Within the man’s mind was one brief glimpse of the past, and although it was incredibly brief and far too faint to grasp more than a single thing about it, that one thing was the name of the person that had further intensified the effects of those memory scars upon him.

Wei Yi raised her head and shouted the name that came from his mind, “CHANG FANG HE!”

Amplified by both of the forms of Lion’s Roar, her voice burst out of the library while shaking every part of it, striking the buildings around it and expanding outwards, seemingly without anything being able to stop it. The wave of sound shook the enormous spires of Sanctuary, and even shifted the air around the city, creating a series of circular patterns centred on the library near the eastern side of the city.

There was no possibility of ignoring such a call, making it entirely obvious that the one being called would arrive in time.

“What are you doing?” Chao Zhi questioned, before her glare suddenly returned to him.

“I saw your memories, old man. You were lied to, and your previous trauma has been greatened for his personal gains. The premise of the Nobility faction is a lie! Chang Fang He’s words are all lies! Even the mental influence that the Greats have forced upon you is an enormous lie!”

She was making a number of assumptions, prime amongst which were that Chao Zhi’s memories were all accurate, and that the terrifying mental pressure originated from her greatest foes.

If she was wrong, her later argument could easily be undermined and disbelieved by those she was intending to speak with – perhaps even by Ding Ju Rong, who was currently standing far away from her with his mouth agape and his mind absolutely stunned by the extreme madness that appeared to be surrounding her actions – but based on his reaction, she seemed to have guessed exactly what the circumstances of his past were. He took a step back, nearly bumping into the bookshelf behind him, and took a moment to understand exactly what her words implied.

“Your spiritual will-”

‘- ruler to guide them -’

“Ah! You-”

“You saw the outside, didn’t you? You’ve seen the Continents, and you upset the Greats. They probably wanted to teach you a lesson for messing with them. Chang Fang He took advantage of this and amplified that lesson, causing you to be unable to think a single stray thought! Am I right?”

The slowly growing crowd did not require his verbal answer, for it was obvious how much he was currently struggling from this line of questioning.

“Nobility Faction! Continental Faction! You are allies! You are separated only-”

“Savage! Stop filling the people’s minds with lies!” a voice interjected, coming from a man that suddenly swooped in beside Chao Zhi, his hair short and brown while his eyes seemed to glimmer with wisdom beyond his age. His robes were white and simple, making his allegiance clear, but what spoke the most about his identity was the dense spiritual will infused into his very body, stable yet fresh, placing him into the first stage of the Balanced Being realm.

This was clearly Chang Fang He, and although his expression was mostly calm, his spiritual will proved that his mind was anything but.

“Oh, this again? Savage, you say? You toyed with this man’s mind to bring him into your service, lied to the entire population of the Virtuous Side, and are now trying to brand those that speak against you as liars!” Wei Yi exclaimed, turning to the crowd, “Which one of us is more savage?”

“People! She is trying to divide us with her hateful words! Do not-”

“Shut your fucking mouth, liar!”

She didn’t understand the approach that he was intending to take in this conversation, but she did not let him go through with it, instead throwing out a wall of spiritual will that she morphed into a large image with one of the techniques that she had found within the library. Within it, she recreated the image within Chao Zhi’s mind, where the horrors of his past overlapped with the words of Chang Fang He, who was clearly observing the discomfort being experienced and yet continued, repeating his words again and again.

It barely had the chance to stabilise before Chang Fang He tried to destroy it with a blast of his own spiritual will, but Wei Yi had already stabilised it with her anchor.

As a result, that dense and concentrated blast only made the image waver, only adding more validity to it as it slowly began to move with Wei Yi finding more and more within Chao Zhi’s mental domain, even while he desperately tried to focus on getting her out while also recovering from his terror and panic.

“- they are the rightful leaders-”

“- the kings that will direct the common people -”

The two voices, one belonging to a younger Chao Zhi while the other belonged to some unknown member of a Great Family, overlapped with one another, echoing in the ears of the crowd. Alongside them, they witnessed the current pained expression on his face, seeing a conflict beneath the surface.

For a moment, Chang Fang He was distracted by this image, and in that moment, Wei Yi threw out a dozen spiritual threads that she wove into a single dense rope, plunging it into the back of Chao Zhi’s head while he and the rest of the people were distracted, obscuring it with a thin fog of loose spiritual will that blended in with the air of the right of the prison realm and hid it from the sight of all but the most observant.

Within his head, she witnessed a small, weak man being surrounded on all sides by towering figures cloaked in darkness and shadow, only their eyes glimmering above him. They were all wrapped in the same strange illusory energy that she had previously witnessed on the members of the Greats, and all of them chanted at the same time, their voices blending with one another until they became completely incoherent. Nevertheless, they were understood by the old man, who was visibly shaken with every word that was spoken to him.

‘You again! FUCK OFF!’ she exploded with killing intent, guiding it to burst out and scorch every such figure in sight while she rushed to Chao Zhi’s side.

The figures, while they were strong even as figments of memory, could not match up to a living will that did not fear them, not to mention one foreign to the mental landscape in which they held the most power.

As such, when she came to his side within his mind, they had been pushed back to the edges of the mental landscape, bleak and empty as it was without the guidance of superior mental techniques designed for the organisation and expansion of the mind. They desperately tried to crawl back to their previous places, but while they were being held back, Wei Yi forcefully raised him from the ground.

‘Chao Zhi! I can delay these spectres! If what you care about is the world, the people and your freedom, speak up! Let them know the truth! Share your memories with them!’

“I… I would just be sending them to die! The Greats are too powerful-”

‘They are not! They are mortal, just the same as any of us! They can die! They can be killed! They can be wounded by those with inferior cultivation!’ she did not allow him to fall into this trap on his own, and instead projected her own memory into his mind, one that would never fade even if she had never cultivated the Gilded and Augur’s Libraries, ‘They are human! They bleed! They are not immune to harm, just like any other!’

His eyes widened as he took in everything within the memory that she had allowed him to experience, “How is… your cultivation is weaker, but…”

‘They are not gods! They are not the heavens! They can fall! We can free the world from their grasp, we can rebuild Yi City as the united prison realm, we can prevent their plague from ever returning to this world! Just speak up!’ she repeated, ‘We do not need them!’

Before she could say much else, her spiritual threads were severed by Chang Fang He, although the dense protective killing intent remained in place within his mind. The brown-haired man stretched his hands out as a vast quantity of spiritual will flooded into each one, forming the hilts of blades just as his hands grabbed them.

Both were shortswords, without a proper guard, although one was white while the other was grey – it was nigh impossible to generate black spiritual will naturally. Their shape was odd, almost impractically wide and thicker than most swords, but they radiated confident power.

“The people will not listen to some random savage like you!” he exclaimed, lowering his body as he prepared to charge towards her.

It was then, however, that Chao Zhi’s back suddenly straightened, and his voice overpowered all sound.

“The Great Families are mortal! They have no right to our obedience!”