The spiritual qi fluctuation was very subtle, so minuscule that if it were not for Wei Chen's heightened sensitivity due to cultivating The Samsara Sovereign's Scripture, anyone else would have missed it completely.

This spiritual qi was unfamiliar to him, and the sound of sheets and papers moving on the other side of the wall was completely silent. Wei Chen focused his hearing, but he could not catch anything from the other room. He could not even hear Mo Xingyao's heartbeat. It was as if the other side had suddenly become a vacuum.

Wei Chen did not wait. He quickly rushed toward Mo Xingyao's room, separated from his own by just a wall. He leapt out of his window and positioned himself on a tree branch outside her window to get a better view of the situation.

Inside the room, Wei Chen saw Mo Xingyao sleeping soundly, but instead of feeling relieved, he felt anxious. It was impossible for him to miss her heartbeat when he focused on his senses.

Wei Chen circulated his spiritual qi and prepared to rush in.

With one step of The Shadowless Reaper Step movement technique, Wei Chen vanished from the branch, traceless and silent. His body reappeared soundlessly on the balcony near the window.

This time, the scene had changed. The room showed clear signs of fighting, with broken glass, damaged furniture, and sword marks on the floor and walls.

Inside the room were three men in black clothing, their faces hidden behind cowls. The strongest among them was a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator, while the other two were at the Core Formation Realm.

Mo Xingyao was panting with her back against the wall, trying her best to knock on it to send a signal toward Wei Chen's room.

"There is no use doing that, Mo Xingyao. The soundproof array we used guarantees that not even a trace of noise can get through. There is no way you can call your guard over," the leader of the men in black said as if stating a simple fact.

Mo Xingyao's eyes were filled with uncertainty. She did not know what else to do. She had already tried destroying the wall, but these three had come prepared. They used another array to reinforce it, preventing her from escaping to call for help.

"Give up and come with us, Mo Xingyao. Otherwise, we will have no choice but to injure you and take you along," the leader said, still speaking calmly.

At first, Mo Xingyao panicked, but then her eyes slowly calmed. She let out a smirk, as if she were not the one in danger.

"Huh?" The leader quickly turned around, but it was already too late. Two of his men were already knocked out, while a dark claw filled with death energy clutched his throat.

The leader felt a cold yet extremely corrosive energy infiltrate his body, spreading toward his dantian. He tried to resist, but this kind of qi was like the natural nemesis of his own.

No. It was the nemesis of all living beings' spiritual qi. Its nature was unstoppable and inevitable, just like death itself.

Of course, it was Wei Chen who had launched the sneak attack. He was using the death energy from the Underworld Bone Claw to lock down the leader's dantian, preventing him from making any movement or noise.

Wei Chen then looked tiredly at Mo Xingyao, who was smugly walking toward the leader as if he were a mischievous child.

"Could you please refrain from doing anything that alerts your enemies when I am sneaking up on them? That is a very rookie mistake, you know?" Wei Chen admonished her.

Of course he remembered scenes in manga and manhwa where someone gets behind an enemy just to act cool by saying something like "Where are you looking at?" or "That was just an illusion," or "I'm right here, you idiot."

Most of the time, if the ones who said those lines were not the protagonist, and nine times out of ten they'll get their ass handed immediately afterward. And in this world, Wei Chen was sure as hell that he defintely was not a Heaven's Chosen.

"Come on, don't be like that. Aren't you fine? Look, you captured this guy easily," Mo Xingyao said as she looked at the leader of the black-clothed men.

"Sigh… can you please make my job a little easier?" Wei Chen sighed tiredly before increasing his death energy to completely lock down the leader's dantian, leaving him unable to exert any strength.

Seeing that the leader could not do anything, Mo Xingyao walked over and pulled the cowl off his face.

"I wonder who he is. A Nascent Soul Realm cultivator in this city should have some reputation."

As she pulled the cowl off, the old face of a fierce-looking man was revealed, covered in scars and wrinkles. The only clear feature was the network of scars covering his face.

"Huh? You… scar face… aren't you a vice leader of the Red Wind Mercenary Group!? Who hired you!?" Mo Xingyao demanded.

The fierce man only smirked and said nothing. He had done his homework. All of the facilities under the Thousand Treasure Pavilion here were ruined along with the branch.

Even if her interrogators were skilled, without tools, what could they do? Cultivators in this line of work knew how to close off their sense of pain.

Even if the interrogators destroyed their dantian and forced them into mortality, they would die instantly because they had already spent more than a hundred years of a mortal's lifespan cultivating up to Nascent Soul.

At most, they would just die. The best the Pavilion could do would be to find special tools designed to interrogate cultivators. Otherwise, they could forget about getting information.

But by the time those tools arrived, it would already be morning. By then, the leader of his mercenary group would come to pay for their release.

And who would dare refuse his leader? The man was already at the peak of the Soul Transformation Realm!

Seeing the smugness on her attacker, Mo Xingyao gritted her teeth. She knew all the special interrogation tools used for cultivators had been lost in the fire.

"Ahem…" Wei Chen cleared his throat, and both Mo Xingyao and Scar Face looked at him.

"If you do not mind, would you like me to give it a try?" he asked.

Mo Xingyao unconsciously nodded.

…

After about five minutes of preparation, Wei Chen dragged the three back to his room and used the array plate that the intruders brought to reinforce his room and prevent all sound from leaking out.

Other than unlocking their dantian, Wei Chen released the three and prepared three seats for them to sit on.

"Hmph. How nice of you, why do you not prepare tea for us as well?" the leader asked smugly, earning laughter from his men.

"No, I will not torture you with my tea. I am terrible at boiling it," Wei Chen answered with a smile before continuing as he sat down.

"Since you praised me for being nice, I am feeling generous. I will let you choose one of the three options we are going to go through next," Wei Chen said, then continued.

"First, you tell me who hired you and all the juicy secrets you know without bullshitting me. If you do that, I will let you walk away alive and free."

What Wei Chen said earned another round of mocking laughter. "You really are nice, aren't you? You will let us go free? Hahaha," the leader said mockingly.

Wei Chen's smile remained. "Yes, I am that nice. Now let us continue with options two and three."

"The second option…" Wei Chen paused. His face grew somber, letting the three feel the weight of the choice, then he said, "If you refuse to tell me… I will kill you… socially."

His voice was deep and held no kindness, but the three still laughed.

"Kill us socially? What are you going to do? Tell others that we are murderers and not kind or something? We are mercenaries, do you think we care about that kind of reputation?" one of the mercenaries said mockingly as he laughed, the leader laughing with him.

He had been wondering what kind of torture this guy would use, but it turned out to be nothing more than some idealistic righteous nonsense. Other than this guy's strength, there was nothing about him to be afraid of.

Wei Chen kept smiling as he continued.

"The third option…" He paused again, but this time the three did not take him seriously at all.

"I literally kill all of you. Then… I ask your souls directly."

The words Wei Chen spoke made the three freeze, their faces darkening.

"You… you know the soul searching technique?" the leader asked, his face turning pale. There was no more mockery in his eyes.

"Do you not know that anyone who uses soul searching will be punished by heaven? It is an extreme offense against the cycle of reincarnation. Your heavenly tribulation will be many times stronger than others when you break through!" the leader warned Wei Chen, hoping the young man in front of him would reconsider.

This was something all cultivators feared. The forbidden technique, soul searching, was dreaded by everyone. If someone was subjected to it, their soul would suffer grave injury. In the worst case, their soul would be extinguished and would never enter the cycle of reincarnation.

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