V3C25: The Investigation

The member of the Mirror Plane Aberrations was all too keen to share with her quite a number of details, most of which were unlikely to be accurate, although others did line up with her understanding of the Great Aberrant’s situation.

Frankly, she couldn’t be sure that the story about the curse wasn’t true, as the behaviour of the Great Aberrant would immediately be explained by it. While one was under the effect of a curse, it would be only natural for that person to behave in irrational, emotion-driven ways without any foresight and logic, but in the times that the curse was weakened, he could also act as a proper leader and ensure that the Mirror Plane Aberrations did not fall apart.

Then again, perhaps there was a different explanation for all of this, like the leader ruling purely through his power and divine-like abilities, convincing the weak to join him with the promise of cultivation techniques and whatever else, at which point he could act however he wanted without any repercussions.

There were many answers to her questions, most of which were sensible, some of which were less so, but they would not be obtained through idle thought, so she instead paid close attention to his many explanations and fantastical tales in the hopes of weeding out the lies from the truths eventually. He was able to continue for a long time, half-way through which Min Lian had returned from her errands and was made to stand outside so that she didn’t disturb this strange attempt at recruitment, and only decided to leave once he had said so much that any other person would need a decade to process it.

By the looks of it, his tactic was to instil curiosity within her and to inspire her to work with them, slowly sharing more and more of whatever the Mirror Plane Aberrations believed to be the truth of the matter, until a point that she was a loyal helper to them.

‘Naturally, I would never allow such a thing to occur, but he has accidentally told me about several of his techniques. If I can replicate the mirror layer and enhance it with my own understanding about illusions, spawned by my possession of the Third Eye, amongst other things, then I will be nigh unstoppable in front of those that cannot deal with the illusion. Since I, too, had partially fallen into it, then perhaps even the Greats would be vulnerable to it,’ she thought, although she was well aware that she shouldn’t invest too much hope into success if she didn’t want to genuinely be lured into the Mirror Plane Aberration’s trap.

The one thing he left her was a request for a basic pill, presumably to confirm her ability in the specific field that she was needed in, and a series of random questions so that ‘they would be able to cooperate more effectively’. From random inquiries about her favourite colours to veiled attempts to learn her sexual preferences, there were more than thirty of them, and she was told to drop them off near the house where she first found the man with the spot on his neck once she completed them.

This, she found easier to explain. ‘They have the power of illusions and, likely, some influence. They probably want to find some people to create relationships with me and keep me tied to them. Simple stuff, really.’

Since certain things could easily be discovered with a little observation, she did not lie on most of the questions. For example, she had no reason to lie about her preferences in bed when it would be immediately obvious to anyone that she never paid attention to men in the romantic sense, and that she would occasionally steal glances at the more attractive ladies around her. Other questions were different and significantly more important in nature, so she bent the truth a little, changing the most significant aspects of her answers while keeping them as something that she could easily and consistently emulate.

The key to mind control, and general persuasion, was to understand the other party’s desires and wants, so she would naturally not provide them in their exact state.

“Master, I hate to be constantly questioning your orders and pursuits like this, and I would accept any punishment you deem to render upon me, but are you certain that it is a good idea to join these madmen, even in jest?”

“Have you been learning from Yi Shi Ming?”

“Master, please.”

“It is an idea that is likely to earn be quite a few benefits, if nothing else. Depending on the exact outcome, I might either have to abandon this district, or I will become known as a hero within it. This depends on a variety of factors, ones that I know too little about to do more than guess at the outcome with Endless Calculation, but I know what I’m doing. I can negate any of their negative effects, I already compulsively put up obstruction arrays whenever I talk about things that shouldn’t be mentioned in public, and I have far higher goals than whatever it is this lots wants to do,” she answered, “Essentially, this is very unlikely to go wrong, and the worst outcome won’t matter too much.”

“Then, I shall follow your lead, Master. Still, preparing to leave ahead of time would be wise,” Min Lian decided to agree with her plan, but cautioned her, nonetheless.

Wei Yi did not require her warnings, as she had taken that possibility into account, but she did not stop the assassin from offering her opinions. At some point, eventually, she would overlook something of great importance, and if everyone she was in contact with had just learnt to trust everything she did unconditionally by that point, she would suffer a great failure just through being unable to deal with any words that challenge the wisdom of her actions.

Furthermore, Min Lian had never done anything that was in any way malicious to her, nor had she ever attempted to disobey her orders after being certain that the instructions were sensible and something that she did need to obey, so regardless of whatever formed the initial mistaken compulsion for the assassin to follow her orders, she had remained loyal the entire time.

‘I can certainly see why so many of these assassin organisations functioned the way they did. Even ordinary people could perfectly control the actions of others so long as they entered the right position, so it allowed those with greater minds to control those with greater strength. It is also almost certain that, based on the common majority of women in the role of the assassin and the majority of men in the role of the leader and strategist, that they took advantage of this in other ways…’ she glanced at the assassin while she completed filling out the questions from the Mirror Plane Aberrations, ‘Anyway, those with lower strength did not need to worry about loyalty and could focus on advancing their agenda, whatever it was, with the certainty that they would have the forces to succeed.’

Once the questions were complete, she moved onto creating the pill that they wanted, which was a basic metal-type pill without any special properties other than enhancing one’s spiritual energy by a small degree.

Judging by the fact that the Great Aberrant used his spiritual will to speak with his followers, it was likely intended to bolster his abilities and support his mind, so she made sure not to do too well. She excluded any of her empowering planar energy, didn’t abuse the Antithesis method, and limited the quality of the final outcome to one that could have been produced by any other ordinary master alchemist. She would have done less, but some trust did have to be earned with the Aberrations.

With both of those tasks done, she did not immediately go to deliver the pill and answered questions, but instead sat around, sent Min Lian to sell some of the other pills that she had made, and generally spent her time on other things. Her reason for this was that it would appear strange if she immediately went along with the instructions of a strange man preaching about someone that everyone else considered to be villainous, so she would pretend that she did not follow their instructions immediately, instead considering it in detail and then acting only once she deemed their story to have sufficient plausibility.

Thus, once enough time had passed, she headed over to the store once more and purchased a few of the ingredients that the pill would require, before requesting to speak with the local manager.

Once inside his office, she released a vast quantity of her killing will to seal the entirety of the room, then looked towards him with a serious expression. “Listen, you remember the Mirror Plane Aberrations, correct? I believe I have a method to figure out where they are based, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and eventually a way to deal with them.”

“Oh?” Chu Huazhi’s eyebrow rose as he thought that he understood the reason behind the barriers, “They have been quite a nuisance to the district so far, so if we are able to find them and ask Chen Jushu and the rest of the district’s forces to end them, it would be a great contribution.”

“Indeed. Due to this, I have decided to attempt to join their forces.”

“… Come again?”

“You shouldn’t really need me to repeat myself, as you seem to have a lot of sense. I am going to join them and learn as much as possible about them before my eventual ‘betrayal’.”

“If you put it that way, it does make more sense than what I had initially assumed… Wait, are you telling me that there is a point of contact with the Mirror Plane Aberrations in this very district? You’ve found one?”

“Well, I will technically become a point of contact, but as for the current one, yes, there is a small group of those loyal to the Mirror Plane Aberrations in the Ning District. However, if I give them away now, you will likely look at them in a different manner, causing suspicion from them to fall on me. I would rather avoid this, so, for now, all I will say is that they do not appear to be particularly important for the district itself. I doubt that they will be able to harm anything without the aid of the Great Aberrant himself.”

“Well, so far, you have acted in a reasonable manner, and since you’re telling me this, I suppose that it may be possible,” he muttered, “However, I think that more people should know.”

“While I agree, we should have as few people involved as possible. Anyone that is spoken to should be incredibly trustworthy, and it should not be done right away and without reason, as that would draw unnecessary attention to my actions. So long as there is a reason for me to speak with them outside of this, then it can be done,” Wei Yi agreed.

“I have been speaking with Chen Jushu quite a bit these past few days. I will simply ask her to question you about what happened, and then you can share anything you’ve learned by then with her,” he suggested, writing down some notes on a nearby piece of paper, “I would also advise checking in with someone that is knowledgeable on the mind and illusions, to ensure that you do not fall prey to them. If your abilities fell into their hands, it-”

“Not a chance. If you do know someone like that, feel free to recommend them, but I will not require their services, even if I may benefit from them,” she said, entirely truthfully. Her mind was set since her first kill in the prison realm, so changing it may very well be impossible even for the ninth realm.

Chu Huazhi blatantly disapproved of this, but he saw that she was very certain and determined about this, so he let it go, saying only, “You must be very careful in these kinds of situations.”

“Yes, I know. Hence the arrays all around you. Don’t tell me you don’t realise that I was able to block your entry to your assistant with these, to the extent that you couldn’t detect a single thing inside of the room? Please don’t make this exchange any more difficult than it has to be, or else I might just turn to the Mirror Plane Aberrations in reality as well as in their heads.”

“I understand your abilities in refinement, and, apparently, in arrays, but no person can be perfect.”

Perfection – an unattainable goal, for it would require surpassing the heavens themselves. To be perfect meant to be without flaws, but what didn’t have flaws? Any metal had its limitations, any pills could only fulfil a certain set of roles in certain conditions, all arrays required specific environments and configurations to function at their best, and even then, nothing could be said to do even its role without flaws. Everything could be broken, overcome, mitigated, bypassed and otherwise ignored.

Some thought that in order to attain true perfection, one would need to rise to the peak of cultivation and then forge a new path, to overcome the heaven’s will and throw aside the limitations of planar energy, but even the most optimistic people never thought that such a thing was possible. Planar energy was the source of everything within the Continents, and without it, life as they knew it would crumble in an instant, with so many dying of old age as their additional years of life finally caught up to them, while the rest would perish without the ability to provide food, water and energy for themselves without the assistance of planar energy.

The meaning of his words was that Wei Yi could be excellent at refining, at arrays, even at blacksmithing or talismans, but it was impossible for her to also be immune to mental influence and to be perfectly convincing in front of all of the Mirror Plane Aberrations.

“No, perhaps not. Even the Master of Yi City had flaws, but that does not mean that a person cannot be good at multiple things. Have you never wondered where I appeared from?”

“You have experience with infiltration?”

“That’s one way to put it,” she answered, ‘I’ve lied about my abilities to almost everyone I knew before the prison realm, and still hide them even now. If I tended to reveal things that I shouldn’t, or if I was easily susceptible to mental influence, I would not have been able to get away with things like that for so long.’

“Hah… I don’t even know why I’m trying to stop you,” he sighed, “Well, it may be because you are rather talented, so the moment that they get you on their side, they will… Ahem. When they are uncovered, by us or by you, I doubt anyone will intentionally avoid striking you unless you immediately declare your allegiance to the Ning District. I or anyone else that that learns about your plan will not hesitate to strike you down if you do not blatantly turn on them.”

“I have no allegiance to the Ning District, even now. I side with Yi City, and Yi City alone.”

“An unusual position, but one I can respect. Yi City could do with people that support the entirety of it. Perhaps one day, it can reach a tenth of its former glory,” he sighed again, lowering his head.

There was a moment of silence, during which neither of them spoke at all.

“Do you want to make them suspicious, woman? What are you still doing here?” Chu Huazhi suddenly said, smashing his fist on the desk and staring at her with some degree of anger in his eyes, “Get out and follow that plan of yours already!”

‘I suspect that this is his kind nature clashing with whatever else is going on in that head of his. Either way, there’s no reason for me to argue, not after getting what could be called his approval, so I might as well leave,’ she did not attempt to continue arguing with him and instead nodded, turned around and proceeded out of the Chu Alchemical Store, putting on a thoughtful expression once she left the office and dispelled the arrays. She would not reveal the conversation that they had within the office to anyone, but she wanted the Mirror Plane Aberrations to assume that she had some kind of lengthy discussion that prompted her to consider their argument with more trust than before, slightly nudging her towards them.

A little after that, perhaps a day or two later, she would be questioned by Chen Jushu, at which point she could make it seem that the routine questioning had revealed some detail that stuck out to her, after which point she would create the pill and submit it to the Aberrations. Such a progression seemed natural, so she decided that it was her best bet to emulate being convinced in a sensible manner.

The only issue would be the fact that identical arrays would block all observation of her during her interactions with both the local manager of the Chu Alchemical Store and one of the stronger combatants in the district, which, if thought about for longer than a moment, would seem extremely suspicious, especially if those arrays only ever appeared during her visits and lengthy discussions in sealed rooms, but she had a few ways to get around that, even if the Mirror Plane Aberrations did realise this.

Beside claiming that some legendary array master had created them for the Ning District some time ago, and that they were activated due to sheer luck during those conversations, there were quite a few other excuses she could present them with, all with pointers towards organisations that were so old that only the Kong Prison Realm had managed to remember them through the greater priority that they put on individual books and stories.

They would need to investigate for a really, really long time to get to the bottom of those kinds of lies, and when they did, it would be unlikely for her to have any reason to continue tricking them.

Things happened roughly as she expected, with her being greeted two days later, on the tenth of the third months, by Chen Jushu herself, who was dressed in a casual dress that did not befit a warrior such as her in the slightest, with only a small dagger hidden away on her person.

‘She wouldn’t be trying to take me out on a date, would she? Clothing like this doesn’t suit an investigation or interrogation in the slightest,’ Wei Yi remarked within her mind as she opened the door.

“Good morning, Wei Yi. I have a few things to discuss with you, but since you acted reasonably and respected our family during the appearance of the mirror plane, I wish to spend the time in a more pleasant manner. Would you mind going for a short walk with me? I know of a few places where you can get some mildly respectable refreshments in advance of our potentially lengthy talk, and I would love to show them to you,” she smiled, holding out her hand in an inviting manner.

‘A date it is, but for the purpose of business. Fair enough, especially with that ring on her finger,’ she thought, glancing at one of the few ornaments on the woman’s body before raising her head to look her in the eyes and pretending that she had simply been admiring the item of jewellery as she accepted her hand, “I don’t see why not. Having spent most of my time at work, I’m not too familiar with the more interesting sights of this district, so I would appreciate someone to guide me. As for whatever you wish to discuss, I’ll gladly cooperate.”

When their skin touched, Chen Jushu couldn’t help but remark, “You seem to take good care of your skin…”

“I am an alchemist, and I have some understanding of the body, so I will naturally ensure that I am always at my best,” she replied, grasping the combat cultivator’s hand a little more tightly than necessary, “If you wish, I could provide you with a few items for free.”

“No, there is no need for that. I will be more than happy to pay for anything you create.”

Wei Yi wasn’t going to intentionally decrease her profits, so she didn’t argue and instead appreciated the sensation of the other woman’s hand as she was led from her residence and towards one of the more prestigious and expensive areas of the district, where the cheapest items were valued in silver coins and the most expensive, although they were just fancy food and drink, cost planar shards.

For a moment, she wondered whether she would get to experience such unnecessary luxury, but it turned out that even someone in the fifth realm did not have that much money to spare during, or, rather, prior to an interrogation, so she was instead brought to a small stall that still looked significantly better than any she had visited before, with silver and golden ornamentation that sold some drink within cups that were framed in gold.

‘Although it looks similar to immortal gold, its value is far lesser, allowing this small business to not be too concerned about theft or anything else of the sort. In the worst case, two customers will immediately give them enough to make another one of these.’

“The authamite wine served here is of an incredibly high quality. You absolutely must try it,” Chen Jushu said, throwing two gold coins to the vendor before passing one cup over to Wei Yi by gripping the cup from the top, with fingers on the outside and inside of the cup, which she did not do when taking a cup for her own consumption. Nevertheless, Wei Yi accepted it without complaint, taking a slow, careful sip while she actually analysed the structure of the liquid in order to estimate the taste of the wine.

Since she had too little experience with this type of food prior to her loss of the sense of taste, this proved incredibly difficult, so she instead attempted a different method, saying to her, “Interesting. I’m sure that someone like you must have tried quite a variety of wines by now, so what made you show me this particular one?”

“Well, the taste of this one in particular is very sweet, contrary to the usual sourness of the authamite. Is it not to your liking?” Chen Jushu answered with a question of her own.

None of the reactions from the people around her, the vendor included, suggested that anything about her description was inaccurate, but Wei Yi remained cautious and said, “No, don’t worry about such a thing. I don’t often go out for personal entertainment, so I am open to all kinds of new experiences.”

“How diplomatic,” Chen Jushu smiled, “This vendor is also partnered with the restaurant over there, so why don’t we sit down and have a nice chat before getting onto the serious matters at hand? Their menu is very extensive, and I wouldn’t mind paying for anything.”

‘If only I hadn’t yet been sent to the prison realm… I’d at the very least get a chance to enjoy the food, regardless of her actions,’ Wei Yi scanned the place with her spiritual perception and confirmed that the place did serve a variety of items made from, as far as she could tell, fantastic ingredients, but unless a certain someone added a lot of poison or other malicious substances to them, all she would be able to tell was that something was present within her mouth, at which point there were a number of things she would rather have there than food… which shall be omitted due to lack of relevancy.

Even if she wanted to reject the offer, however, it was clear that the combat cultivator was very intent on taking her along a very particular route, so all she did was hesitate before accepting.

“Excellent! I’ll recommend a few items to you, if you don’t mind. Please enjoy!”

Not a single one of the food items that she ended up trying was actually able to stimulate her sense of taste, nor any of the drinks that she was effectively made to taste, all the while Chen Jushu grasped her hand tightly, not giving her a single opportunity to flee – not that she needed to, since it was her intention to be questioned from the beginning.

For that reason, when she was finally pulled into an isolated chamber that was then sealed behind them, she was more than pleased.

“So, Wei Yi, do you know what it is that I want to talk to you about?”

“Judging by everything you’ve been putting in my food and drinks, this’ll be an in-depth interrogation.”

“Oh?” Chen Jushu didn’t seem perturbed in the slightest, “Pray tell, what exactly have I put into your meals today, and when?”

“A basic mixture that will encourage a certain level of truthfulness, simple mindedness, and general submissiveness to questioning. To be more specific, you have added a total of thirty-seven doses into my food, although I was honestly quite surprised that you didn’t add it to the cake. Out of all the things to reasonably touch in excess, the slice of cake which you so carefully fed to me should have given you plenty of opportunity,“ she replied, that moment being one of the more pleasant ones, “Still, I’m not sure that feeding that many doses to one person is reasonable.”

“Trust me, I have a lot of experience in the matter. I’d never go too far.”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t. Excuse me for a moment,” Wei Yi turned to the side, reached behind her back and took out an ornate golden glass from seemingly nowhere, into which she spat out a literal mouthful of viscous black fluid. She grimaced slightly as she put it on the table, “Very unpleasant to behold, like a pit of tar.”

That was when her expression finally changed, “So, you seem to be very well prepared. Did someone tell you that I’d be coming for you?”

“Based on the timing, I assume that it was the old man in the store. Did you not find it interesting in the slightest that he had suddenly suggested that you ought to confirm my actions on the day of the mirror plane appearance out of nowhere?” Wei Yi asked.

“That was why he wanted me to speak to you, huh…” her expression changed again, but she still clicked her fingers and activated a series of arrays around them, isolating the room even further.

Before she could do anything else, Wei Yi’s spiritual perception stretched out and encompassed the entirety of the room, reading every single array and inscription that made up the isolation effect and arrived at a conclusion within only a few moments of her mental time. It was decent, being able to distort sight, smell and touch to the point of entirely removing any traces of their presence at the moment, but due to the way in which it was constructed, it did not block sound when the insides were perceived by spiritual perception, so it was not impossible for someone to listen in on their conversation even with it established.

‘While establishing an array for me is great, the weakness is not. In that case…’ she frowned for a moment, then leaned forward and looked deeply into the combat cultivator’s eyes, “So, what exactly did you want to ask me about?”

At the same time, she manipulated her planar energy – in the shape of wood energy, as to not attract suspicion – to form into words before her, saying, ‘You can focus on two things at once, I hope. Don’t make any remarks about this, or else they may be heard. Before you ask, this is on the topic of the Mirror Plane Aberrations as well, and far more important than the events of the previous day.’

To her credit, Chen Jushu only paused for a moment, then continued with a question that wouldn’t be out of place in such an interrogation while responding with her own planar energy, although she had to shape it with her finger, ‘What exactly is going on? I’ll humour you, but not for long.’

‘Too bad. I might have a method of learning about the exact leadership, location, values, tactics and techniques of the Mirror Plane Aberrations, but it may be a bit unconventional.’

‘A promising start. Continue.’

‘I have made contact with a member of the Aberrations – or, more precisely, they came up to me – and I suspect that they wish to invite me into their cult. I have value to them due to my ability to discover the Great Aberrant himself, and I do intend to truly join their organisation for now,’ she said, ‘I will infiltrate it, gain information, and will attempt to uncover the Great Aberrant and make him available to other forces.’

‘You have found one of their number? We will end them right away.’

‘Terrible idea. You kill that person now, and they will notice, put more effort into hiding, and not speak to me anymore, removing any potential of finding them with ease and giving them so much more of an opportunity to take over the district successfully.’

‘Do you really think so?’ she paused in both conversations at once, ‘Alright, I may allow this.’