Dual Cultivation God Returns

Chapter 722 'Interrogation'

Chapter 722  'Interrogation'

"Alright, it seems your current situation is progressing well. To your merit, you've done even better than I anticipated", Wu Long nodded after hearing the status report from Old Yen.

"..., then, should I start making preparations for the Thousand Eyes Palace?", the latter carefully inquired after a bit of time passed in silence.

Wu Long chuckled, since Old Yen read the purpose of this meeting quite accurately. But it was also reasonable that he noticed.

If it was just for a status report, that could've been done over communication talismans. And there were other factors as well.

Originally, Old Yen would have had more time to build a solid foothold for himself and strengthen his position before any more tasks were added to his workload, but as with many plans, not everything went according to expectations.

The incident at the plateau, being unanticipated, had to be dealt with on-the-spot measures. And, however good they were, such makeshift solutions were prone to flaws that brought consequences.

Old Yen was correct in guessing that he was called out to assess whether he could handle additional work that came as a result of those consequences at this point in time, or if adjustments had to be made to the overall plans. And he was also correct in predicting what specific task Wu Long required to be done.

"Mm, that was the idea. Our schedule was pushed up so I was going to instruct you to proceed with that ahead of time", Wu Long nodded.

"B-Boss, I can-...", Old Yen's face flinched as he heard the past tense in Wu Long's wording.

"I know, don't panic. Didn't I just say you did better than I expected?", Wu Long raised his hand in a gesture to stop him, "It's not that I doubt you will be able to handle it. It's the Obsidian Moon Palace, their presence could complicate things a bit"

"I-I see", Old Yen lowered his face with a slightly embarrassed expression, since he got a little bit ahead of himself. After all, when Wu Long gave that praise, he became certain that he would be given the order to act right away, so in his mind he was already making plans to do so.

"Hmm, I suppose we can still proceed… but instead of making any preparations yourself, just bring in information on a suitable location and first prospective clients, Madam Liang will have to act on that information herself if we decide to proceed", Wu Long then made a call, since there was no harm in at least laying down the groundwork just in case.

And then, turning to Fen Baihu, "You wanted to try out your Bewitching, didn't you?"

Celestial Fox raised her eyebrows at that question, "Do you want to see if this fellow has enough resistance? With all due consideration, I wouldn't put that much hope into it"

"Old Yen might be well protected mentally, but I know the strength of your Bewitching ability" Wu Long shook his head, calming down Old Yen who slightly paled under the eyes of this Mythical Beast, "What I need is to question that fellow from the Ember Palm Pavilion that we captured before, think you can do it?"

"Hah, that? Of course, in my current state that guy's no longer any problem", Fen Baihu's lips widened into a confident grin as a small cloud of mysterious mist started climbing from the ground not far away from her.

"Didn't you already learn all of the information that man possessed?", Hong Yue spoke up for the first time.

"Haha, not really. Sure, we made him disoriented and tricked him into spilling a lot of information with the help of Madam Liang and Zhao Biren, but that was just general information about the region. Later, Fen Baihu couldn't really bewitch him since her condition was worse than now, so all she did was place him in a dream, and let him lead us to any clues to the information we wanted on his own", Wu Long shrugged his shoulders.

Fen Baihu nodded with a slightly disgruntled look, still considering it a humiliation that she was not able to do anything but that at the time, "We couldn't really guide him since he would've started doubting his reality and thus the dream would have been broken, and putting him into such a dream for the second time would have been tricky, not to mention the chances of him breaking that second dream would have been too high"

"While we did gain a lot of information, it was really him who determined what we saw. He has been living in a reality constructed by his own mind for quite some time now, but there was nothing that indicated the presence of the Obsidian Moon Palace in all that time. I guess their existence doesn't come up much in his daily life", Wu Long nodded.

"I see…", Hong Yue nodded, understanding why there were gaps in what they learned from the man.

The mist started dissipating and in its place a man was standing in a light daze.

Fen Baihu's eyes glowed again, and the atmosphere in the surroundings slightly changed.

The man whose eyes were looking but not seeing what was in front of them, slightly shook, and a pink glow the same as Fen Baihu's eyes appeared in his pupils, as if shining from within the eye.

"Answer any questions asked", Fen Baihu spoke with a smile, confirming she succeeded.

"Yes, Mistress… anything for you", the man replied in a kind of trance.

She then turned to Wu Long and nodded to him, to which he replied with a nod as well, and then turning to the man asked, "Is this the territory of the Obsidian Moon Palace or is it now disputed with the Palace of Secrets?"

"...", however, the man just stood silently.

"Umm, it seems I still have limitations", Fen Baihu then tilted her head as she could see that the response was sluggish. Rather, it appeared the man was at a loss, since he started opening and closing his mouth, and making incoherent noises.

"Hmm, perhaps…", Wu Long narrowed his eyes, seeing that reaction, "Tell him to ignore the last question"

"Ignore the last question, and answer any questions asked from now on", Fen Baihu followed his words without much resistance, seeing as he had some kind of realization about what was happening. She, on the other hand, never experienced this sort of behavior from those she bewitched, but then again her powers were never limited half-way like this, she either had an ability, or she didn't.

"Is the Soft Meadow Continent the territory of the Obsidian Moon Palace?", Wu Long asked slightly changing the question.

"...No…"

"Why did he answer you this time?", Fen Baihu raised her eyebrow.

"...uh…aa-…uo…", the man started once more opening and closing his mouth and making noises.

And seeing that he was trying to answer her question, she flared up with frustration, "Shut up"

"Haha, relax, your power works. He's just slow", Wu Long smiled, confirming his guess.

"Slow?"

The man started showing signs of reacting again, but this time his mouth remained closed and no sounds came out.

"Mm, he can't process complex questions and commands is my guess. Or rather, he doesn't have a 'mind' of his own. Unlike when your power of bewitching made them simply an obedient version of the person, it being incomplete made him more of a puppet, and a very slow one at that. If the question is too vague, or if there is a piece of information required to answer the question, he doesn't have the intelligence to ask for clarification, instead he still tries to answer something, even if it's just noises. But even if it is a question he knows the answer to, there might be a limit to what he can answer, though that is uncertain. And he took your command too directly in meaning, so he's answering literally any questions asked if he hears them. Though now he can't because you told him to shut up, the two commands standing in opposition so he's like that" Wu Long explained.

As he was speaking Fen Baihu lowered her head, and her fists clenched, as the fur on her tails stood up. Her whole body was slightly shaking as well.

The surroundings slightly shook in response as well.

Old Yen gulped and took a few steps back with a rapidly paling face, while Hong Yue instantly became alert, tensing up once more.

"H-How humiliating… I can't even properly bewitch just one human…", she said through gritted teeth in a low voice. The face of the one who injured her and put her in this position flashed in her mind once again.

"I get your frustration and anger. But it's going to be better. Just a bit ago you couldn't do even this. After some time, you will regain this ability to full extent, and regain others as well. Besides, this is enough to do the job, so don't worry about this one time so much. We just have to ask simple and straightforward questions with specifics", Wu Long spoke in a soothing manner, as she gradually relaxed and then sighed.

"Fine… I guess we'll have to work with this…", she dejectedly nodded and resumed working together with Wu Long to get information out of this man.

What they learned after long and quite frustrating interrogation, was that the Palace of Secrets and the Obsidian Moon Palace were currently in a minor conflict in this Stellar Region, and thus the whole territory was disputed between the two. However, since his thought pattern was so limited, apart from this they were only able to learn that there was a Palace of Secrets branch in the Iron Claw City. Not getting anything out of him for some time, she sent him away into her Dream Realm again.

"Fuu~... well that was annoying", Fen Baihu heavily sighed.

To his amusement, Wu Long could see agreement with that sentiment in Hong Yue's eyes even as she remained silent. It seemed that just simply watching this 'interrogation' from the side was frustrating as well.

"But... thanks to you we still got valuable information", he said with a smile toward Fen Baihu, and then turning to Old Yen, "Now that we're certain that they're here and that there's a dispute, there are more choices at our disposal"