Chapter 1719: Progressive Tactics |
"The third one... I made it up!"
As the soul shrieked and told the truth at last, the burning sensation eating away at him instantly vanished. He stood up while trembling with lingering fear. Had he still been alive, he would have been drenched in cold sweat.
He glared at Fang Chen with a mixture of suspicion and terror and shouted, "What did you do to me?!"
Fang Chen said monotonously, "I'm asking you, if you know exactly who the person you are looking for is?"
Yu Feng and the others were startled. They hadn't expected him to be so fixated on this point. Why was he so desperate to know the identity of their target?
The soul collapsed to his knees again. "I... I can't say..."
The agonising pain returned, even more violently than before.
"Daoist Yu, it seems you weren't entirely honest just now," stated Fang Chen as he gazed at Yu Feng with a faint smile.
Yu Feng's face turned ashen, but he didn’t say anything.
The expressions of the souls turned ugly. They had found the right person, missed him, chased a decoy, and ultimately ended up killed and brought here for interrogation by the very man they sought. For core disciples of their stature to suffer such a farcical defeat, even in death, they would be a laughingstock for centuries.
Yu Feng's expression remained gloomy. He stayed silent,
The soul writhing on the ground looked up at Fang Chen in agony and hollered, "You know who we're looking for! Don't you?!"
Fang Chen smiled but said nothing.
Finally, the soul snarled in desperation. "The person we are looking for is named Zhang Shaoming! A suspected Heavenly Dao Reincarnator!"
As the words left his mouth, he gasped in relief. The pain receded like a tide. He sprawled on the ground in relief.
Yu Feng chided him furiously, "How dare you reveal our sect’s secrets to an outsider!"
"If you're so brave, why don't you endure the pain I just felt?" sneered the soul back, unafraid of Yu Feng's rebuke.
Fang Chen questioned, "A suspected Heavenly Dao Reincarnator? And what do you want with him?"
"So you truly did know." Yu Feng sighed. "An ordinary person hearing about a reincarnator in the Mortal Realm would never be this calm. We were wrong from the start. I'm just curious... how did you deceive my Broken Dao Divine Eyes?"
"Don't change the subject. Answer the question," countered Fang Chen.
He realised his "progressive" interrogation was working perfectly. If he had used brute force from the start, these people might have chosen to dissipate their souls like Wang Zhanqi. But by keeping a glimmer of hope alive, he prevented them from committing to total annihilation.
"What else would we do? Naturally, we want him to awaken his Heavenly Dao memories to help us win this war," answered Yu Feng coldly. "There's no need to hide it. We don't just want the Taicang Realm. We want ownership of all Nine Realms."
Fang Chen laughed. "Your mouth is too big for your stomach. A mere awakened demon like you thinking you can control the Nine Realms? In all the aeons, through all the great powers that have graced the stage, have you ever seen one truly rule all nine? Such a feat hasn't existed since the Three Realm Upheaval."
Yu Feng's eyes flickered. He was now certain Fang Chen didn't know the full truth behind the scenes. To them, this was an advantage.
"You know the history of the Three Realms? Then do you know that a True Demon once set foot in the Mortal Realm and swept through the Three Realms?" said Yu Feng proudly. "We are followers of the True Demon. When the demonic calamity arrived, we chose to serve."
He stared at Fang Chen fixedly. "You are no minor character. You must see the state of the Nine Realms—chaos, infighting, and the constant depletion of limited resources. If the immortal crystals run out one day, there will be no more immortals. Is that what you want?"
"And your point is?" pressed Fang Chen.
Yu Feng said passionately, "I invite you to join us! Only by unifying the Nine Realms can we end the chaos. We can pool our strength to explore the vast Qingming and find a way out for our generation and those to come. Only then can we stop the End of Transcendant!"
"Stop the End of Transcendant... you've thought that far ahead?" Fang Chen sighed softly.
Sensing a breakthrough, Yu Feng leaned in. "Precisely. The vision of the True Demon is beyond common comprehension. Our gaze is fixed far beyond the Nine Realms."
"How about this then?" Fang Chen's eyes brightened. "Why don't you all defect to the Enlightenment God Palace? We'll lead the unification, pool the resources, and explore Qingming together! What do you think? Is it a deal?"
Yu Feng fell silent for a long moment before dissing, "Enlightenment God Palace has wolfish ambitions."
Fang Chen nodded. "The feeling is mutual. By the way, how did you know Zhang Shaoming would be on Mingwang Star? I clearly remember hiding him elsewhere and only brought an old servant and a pet here to check the situation. Was your intel wrong or was it something else?"
"Hidden elsewhere? Impossible." Yu Feng's eyes flashed with contempt. "We're already dead. Do you really think you can trick us into spreading false information?"
"So," Fang Chen nodded slowly, "you do have a specific method to confirm that Zhang Shaoming is on Mingwang Star. I'm quite satisfied with that answer."
After a long silence, Yu Feng spat out, "Cunning rogue!"
"Since we've talked this much, tell me about this method. I need to know how to counter it. Otherwise, if I take my people into your territory, I'll be walking into a trap. Tell me this, and you can leave right now."
"If I told you that you couldn't counter it, you'd realise it's a power beyond your reach and make a decision accordingly," said Yu Feng flatly. "The same tricks won't work twice on me. The best response is to answer no more questions. I'm not leaving. Do what you will with my soul."
