Chapter 67: Interrogation
Halcyon Wing Streak didn’t know how or when he had been returned to the jail cell.
He lay motionless in a corner of the cell, staring sorrowfully at the sky. No matter how Moonless Face tried to get him to talk, it was pointless.
Upon seeing this, Moonless Face roughly guessed what had happened. Even though he felt incredibly sorrowful in his heart, he could only sigh helplessly when faced with the situation.
Su Chen and the others silently watched this take place.
This allowed Su Chen to better understand the relationship between master and disciple.
To Halcyon Wing Streak, however, this was only the beginning.
The next morning, Halcyon Wing Streak was brought into the room yet again.
Su Chen was still the one sitting there.
“Have a seat,” he said.
Halcyon Wing Streak stared at Su Chen with intense hatred, completely motionless.
“Oh? You still have energy to hate me?” Su Chen chuckled.
Halcyon Wing Streak remained silent.
“Since that’s the case, how about we have another go?”
Su Chen stood and left, and the four men walked in yet again.
What?
Halcyon Wing Streak was stunned.
What was more frightening than being raped once?
Being raped twice!
Halcyon Wing Streak was totally stunned at how cruel Su Chen was being at the slightest display of uncooperativity.
Yesterday’s scene repeated itself once again.
He was stripped, then Su Chen cast him into an illusion realm. After he underwent the experience, Su Chen tossed him back into the jail cell so that he could stew in his suffering longer.
On the third day, when Halcyon Wing Streak was brought back into the room, he was much more obedient.
Before Su Chen even told him to sit down, he sat down on his own.
However, Su Chen still shook his head. “I didn’t tell you to sit yet. It seems like you still aren’t that good at taking orders, but you will learn.”
As he spoke, he left the room again.
Halcyon Wing Streak felt like he was going to go crazy.
That bastard was just trying to come up with ways to torment him!
The three-fold assault to his consciousness had basically eradicated all of Halcyon Wing Streak’s pride and will. Because this torment was on a consciousness level, Halcyon Wing Streak was never going to be able to fully get used to it. In other words, even if it were to happen to him a hundred more times, he would still have a hard time acclimating.
The next time Su Chen brought him out, he did not dare contradict Su Chen even the slightest bit.
Halcyon Wing Streak was brought back into Su Chen’s small room.
Su Chen said, “Sit.”
Halcyon Wing Streak obediently sat down.
Su Chen said, “Tell me about your Arcana Techniques.”
Halcyon Wing Streak was prepared to talk about matters related to his clan and hadn’t expected Su Chen to ask him about his Arcana Techniques. After a moment of surprise, he asked, “What do you want to know?”
“What kinds of Arcana techniques do you know?”
There was always some information that was impossible to gather, so he needed to get that information straight from Halcyon Wing Streak’s mouth.
Halcyon Wing Streak paused momentarily.
He knew that he didn’t have much time to hesitate, so he replied after but a moment of thought.
Just as he was about to speak, Su Chen said, “Before you say anything, I need to remind you of one thing. I have special methods that allow me to determine whether you are lying or not. Don’t try to deceive me, because you will pay a price. Telling me the truth and answering the questions I ask you will only benefit you, and it will also save me time. Of course, you can choose to not believe me and give it a try. But believe me, I will know.”
Halcyon Wing Streak stared at Su Chen for a long time before finally nodding and obediently describing all of the Arcana Techniques that he had mastered.
As a Fifth-Ring Arcana Master, Halcyon Wing Streak had mastered a decent number of Arcana Techniques. All told, he knew how to use roughly a hundred Arcana Techniques, but in practice he only really used t en or so. Su Chen had no choice, however, but to master all of them. Thankfully, the consciousness crystal allowed Su Chen to quickly memorize the Arcana Techniques. After all, the consciousness technique was peerless in tasks of memorization and calculation, making it so that Su Chen had an innate advantage when it came to mastering Arcana Techniques.
Su Chen had Halcyon Wing Streak write down all of the Arcana Techniques he had used.
Halcyon Wing Streak could tell that the opponent wanted to learn the Arcana Techniques he knew, but that wasn’t a problem in his eyes. The Arcana Techniques he had mastered weren’t particularly precious or rare, and even if they were, they were not worth suffering such torment to protect.
As such, he obediently wrote out all of the Arcana Techniques he knew.
In his mind, Su Chen was merely trying to test him. He didn’t know that Su Chen really wanted to learn all of the Arcana Techniques that he had mastered.
Once he had finished that task, Su Chen continued to give him orders. “Write down the names of all of your clan members and the members of your religious organization.”
Even though the Zhu Clan had gathered some information for him, the information from Halcyon Wing Streak himself would be more complete and accurate. Su Chen wanted to dig out everything that Halcyon Wing Streak knew.
This time, Halcyon Wing Streak finally felt that something wasn’t right.
When faced with his hesitation, Su Chen didn’t say anything. He stood up and motioned as if to leave.
Halcyon Wing Streak immediately realized what was going to happen and yelled anxiously. “I’ll write, I’ll write!”
Su Chen sat back down.
After going through this series of frightening experiences, Halcyon Wing Streak learned one more thing - not only did he need to obey, but he also needed to obey without hesitation.
This was naturally because Su Chen didn’t want to give him any time to think.
Halcyon Wing Streak wasn’t an idiot. If Su Chen gave him enough time, he would quickly realize what the root of the problem was. As such, Su Chen demanded that Halcyon Wing Streak follow his orders as soon as he gave them, turning Halcyon Wing Streak’s fear into the necessary motivation for him to act immediately.
Only when he had learned to give up on thinking and instinctively followed Su Chen’s commands would Su Chen ask him stranger questions.
Such as:
“Apart from the members of your clan and your religious organization, what friends do you have?”
“What mischievous acts did you perform when you were a child?”
“What occurrences left a deep impression on you?”
“Who do you have a hard time forgetting?”
“Who have you liked?”
“Who has liked you?”
“Who annoys you?”
“Who have you annoyed?”
“Have you ever done something that let someone down? How about vice versa?”
“What ambitions have you had? Have you ever wanted to become the leader of your clan? Or one of the bishops of the Mother Goddess Sect?”
“What is your view on the current political situation of your country? What does your master think about those things? What do you think about him? What does he think about you?”
“Do you control anyone’s secrets? Does anyone control your secrets?”
The questions came in an unending deluge, assaulting Halcyon Wing Streak from every direction.
Halcyon Wing Streak had no time to think, so he could only answer obediently.
Even so, he gradually began to realize something.
He stared at Su Chen in fright.
As if he was looking at a monster.
“You…… you want to replace me?”
Even though disguise techniques were not particularly common, they weren’t so rare as to be completely unheard of. If Halcyon Wing Streak was still unable to figure out what was happening, he was truly an idiot.
“Well, perhaps.”
This was the first time that Su Chen had answered one of his questions.
At this point, there was no meaning in continuing to try and hide it.
“You will not succeed! We have special screening techniques that won’t allow any foreigners to easily sneak in!” Halcyon Wing Streak said seriously.
“That’s why I’m making my preparations now. We will succeed,” Su Chen chuckled, offering Halcyon Wing Streak a rare explanation.
Halcyon Wing Streak stared at Su Chen in shock for a long time before he said, “Since you have admitted to it, you are going to kill me now, right?”
“No, I won’t kill you.” Unexpectedly, Su Chen shook his head. “Even though you have completely answered all of my questions up until this point, no one knows what gaps still exist in my knowledge. I might have forgotten to ask a question, or you forgot to provide a complete answer. No one knows which is the case. I can tell whether or not you are lying, but it would only be normal for you to have forgotten something. That’s why I won’t kill you. I will keep you alive; otherwise, I won’t even have an opportunity to find out the answer in the future. And just as you said, the Harpies are cautious. No one can sneak in easily, which is why I must keep you alive.”
“Keep me alive? Are you planning on……” Halcyon Wing Streak stared intently at him.
“Yes, I will bring you back to the Harpies alive. Well, more specifically, you will be the one bringing me back to the Harpies,” Su Chen chuckled.
He stood and said, “Fine. Now that you have answered my questions, you will follow my instructions to the letter if you want to stay alive.”
He placed his hand on Halcyon Wing Streak’s head.
“What are you trying to do?” Halcyon Wing Streak yelled, panicked.
“I’m wiping out your memories of today. I managed to research this technique recently, so I’m not too familiar with how to use it quite yet. If you don’t want to die, you will need to cooperate with me. If I can’t wipe out your memories, I can only wipe you out.”
Halcyon Wing Streak felt incredibly stifled, but there was nothing he could do.
No wonder Su Chen had answered his suspicions so readily. He had this technique prepared in advance.
“Don’t worry, it’ll only be today’s memories,” Su Chen continued to say.
Selectively wiping out a person’s memories was not an easy feat. The target’s resistance was the biggest hindrance to successfully accomplishing this.
Halcyon Wing Streak could only agree to cooperate with him.
Halcyon Wing Streak might have instinctively resisted Su Chen wanting to erase all of his memories, but there would likely be very little resistance towards wiping out a day’s memories. Given that there was an opportunity for him to survive and even return home, his instinctive defenses would be lowered to their lowest point. Halcyon Wing Streak would be able to easily direct Su Chen, at the same time lowering his own defenses and giving Su Chen an easy path through his mind.
Unfortunately, Su Chen couldn’t yet fully grasp Halcyon Wing Streak’s memories, but even so, Su Chen had quite a good understanding of the profound secrets of the consciousness.
As he was interrogating his opponent, he also performed a consciousness experiment at the same time.
How wonderful!
When Su Chen placed his hand on Halcyon Wing Streak’s forehead, Halcyon Wing Streak suddenly felt a sense of familiarity.
He seemed to have thought of something and stared at Su Chen in shock.
He asked, “If I forget my memories from today, then will you interrogate me another time?”
“That’s right.” Su Chen smiled slightly.
“Is this the special technique you mentioned that would help you determine if I was lying or not?”
Halcyon Wing Streak could not possibly remember the lies he had told in the past if his memories were wiped, which gave Su Chen a good way of determining whether or not he was lying.
If there were any answers that didn’t line up in his second interrogation, Su Chen would immediately know.
No wonder Su Chen had been so confident that he would know when Halcyon Wing Streak was lying.
When he heard Halcyon Wing Streak’s question, Su Chen laughed.
“How do you think I knew today that you weren’t lying?”
Halcyon Wing Streak was taken aback.
Could it be…...
“This is your twelfth time being interrogated. But I can promise you that it won’t be the last.” Su Chen’s voice echoed through Halcyon Wing Streak’s ears like the voice of a demon.