Chapter 349

Chapter 350: Catch the living, question the dead

Irene, nicknamed Rebar, sat on Yu Sheng’s shoulder and watched the enemy she had caught struggle as she said with a sigh: “This guy fights hard. I have to admit, his stamina is great.”

Yu Sheng did not answer. He walked over carefully and studied the strange mask on the black-robed cultivator’s face.

All these sudden attackers wore odd masks. The masks were not exactly the same, but they shared rough, pitted surfaces, like scorched stone made to copy some kind of image. Their colors ranged from deep black to dark red, all dull and unpleasant.

After a short pause, Yu Sheng reached out and took off the man’s mask.

Beneath the mask was the twisted face of an ordinary-looking man, warped by anger and pain.

Yu Sheng stood up and handed the mask to Xuan Che as he asked: “Do you know what this is?”

Xuan Che studied the mask closely, then checked its material with care before answering: “I do not. It is just plain wood, with no special effect. It seems meant to hide the face and serve as some kind of badge.”

As he spoke, he lowered his head again and examined the bound black-robed cultivator.

Looking thoughtful, he murmured: “He does look like a living person, not an entity born from the Otherworld.”

Irene’s eyes widened as she blurted: “Wait, I thought your people sealed the entrance to this Otherworld? We even saw that person keeping watch outside the Door just now… Su Yun, right?”

“Su Yun rarely makes mistakes,” Xuan Che said, his face turning grave, “which makes these people showing up even stranger.”

He took a step forward and stared hard at the nameless enemy: “Who are you? How did you enter this secret realm? Who sent you? For what purpose?”

He asked several questions in a row, but the black-robed cultivator only grunted and turned his face away.

Yu Sheng sighed as he watched, saying with calm helplessness: “Figures. Caught enemies always have to act tough first.”

“We still have to follow procedure,” Xuan Che replied casually. Then he looked to Irene: “Can you loosen some of those threads? We need to take him back for questioning, but your lines are wrapped over his whole body. It will be troublesome to move him like this.”

Irene frowned: “How do we do that? I am afraid to loosen him. I can feel he is ready to self-destruct. If I slacken the spider silk even a little, he might try to kill himself.”

“That is fine,” Xuan Che said, waving it off as he stepped beside the black-robed cultivator. He unhooked a medicine gourd from his belt and shook it twice. Though it had seemed empty, the gourd now rattled with elixirs. He poured out two pale purple pills, pried open the captive’s mouth, and moved to feed him.

Curious, Yu Sheng leaned closer and asked: “What is that? Mind control? A zombie pill?”

“The mind of a cultivator is not so easy to control, especially a death assassin like this,” Xuan Che said with a smile and a shake of his head. “A pill strong enough to seize his will would burn his brain before it worked. These are mild elixirs that suppress spiritual power and lock the heart and mind, so he falls asleep quietly.”

The black-robed cultivator resisted with all his might when he saw the pill approaching, but Xuan Che was no ordinary person. As the leading prodigy of the top medical sect in the Grand Void Youth Form, forcing a stubborn patient to take medicine was not even a real problem to him. He lifted his hand, gathered qi at his fingertip like a blade, and tapped the air as he spoke crisply: “Obey the Doctor’s Orders Point!”

The man’s jaw opened on the spot. No matter how his body struggled, he still swallowed the pill.

Watching, Yu Sheng could not help himself and muttered: “These move names of yours…”

“Last time Irene gave me a reminder that helped me a lot,” Xuan Che said with a pleased smile. “My medical self-defense arts cannot match battle-hardened sect techniques, but they come from a proper sect lineage. Every move should have a name. Of course these names are temporary. I should properly report them to my master later and take his advice.”

Yu Sheng fell silent: “…”

Irene’s face went blank. She did not have sweat glands, but if she did, cold sweat would be running into her shoes by now: “Uh, what if I was joking last time? Please do not take it so seriously!”

“Jokes can still enlighten,” Xuan Che said with complete earnestness.

Seeing the captive still struggling on the ground, he tapped again and said: “Obey the Doctor’s Orders Point!” Then he forced in a few more elixirs, explaining between doses, “This medicine is gentle and does not harm the core. It will not damage the mind. It is perfect for controlling a live captive. Its only flaw is that its effect on experts is a little weak. No matter. I just had my junior brothers and sisters refine over a thousand of them… Obey the Doctor’s Orders Point!”

He tapped again and called out: “Obey the Doctor’s Orders Point!”

And again: “Obey the Doctor’s Orders Point!”

Yu Sheng could only watch as Xuan Che fed the black-robed cultivator who knows how many elixirs. At first the man fought wildly, but soon his resistance weakened. No one knew if the medicine had finally spread through his body or if he had simply given up on life. After a long while, with a face twisted by unwilling shame and fury, he took one last mouthful and finally fell asleep.

Yu Sheng stared, stunned, and even wondered for a moment if the man had passed out from being stuffed. [Did we knock him out or feed him into a coma?]

Xuan Che seemed to have the same worry. When the captive slumped into unconsciousness, he hesitated, then poured out a few Stomach Strengthening Digestion Pills and shoved them into the man’s mouth, helping him refine them with spiritual power. Irene, determined to add chaos, grumbled at the side: “You could at least give him some water. He almost choked.”

Xuan Che thought it over, nodded, and poured half a pot of water into the already unconscious black-robed cultivator. Yu Sheng tried to stop him, but it was too late.

At last, Irene withdrew her spider silk. The black-robed cultivator, belly rounded, lay on the ground sleeping like a corpse. His pose was not peaceful, but at least he could not run or kill himself now. Watching this, Yu Sheng hesitated, then could not hold back: “Xuan Che.”

Bowing slightly, Xuan Che said with respect: “Mr. Yu, please give your orders.”

Yu Sheng sighed and said with a straight face: “You should become a coroner in the future.”

“Ah?” Xuan Che blinked, confused.

Ignoring his expression, Yu Sheng casually opened a Door.

On the other side stood the Grand Hall of the Parted Clouds Palace. Several cultivators there stared in shock toward them.

Yu Sheng had already recorded many new coordinates inside the Parted Clouds Palace, so the Door no longer had to open into Xuan Che’s alchemy furnace.

Yu Sheng pointed at the portal as he said: “Take the prisoner over first and tell them what happened. Then come back. We need to investigate here. The entrance to the Otherworld is sealed, yet these people appeared out of nowhere. That is very suspicious.”

“Understood,” Xuan Che answered. He waved a hand and lifted the black-robed cultivator into the air, then carried the prisoner through the Door and headed to the Parted Clouds Palace to report to Immortal Yuan Ling.

Yu Sheng waited by the Door. Before long, Xuan Che returned and spoke quickly: “Master was startled. This is the first time anyone exploring the Otherworld has been ambushed, and even by other cultivators. He has placed the man in the prison and will question him personally. He told me to come back, investigate carefully, and follow your lead.”

Yu Sheng nodded, shut the Door, and walked to the other black-robed bodies lying in the yellow sand.

“I already searched them,” Xuan Che said at once. “They were very careful. None of them carried items that could show their identity. Even their artifacts and weapons were either privately made or had their marks erased.”

“I figured,” Yu Sheng said, waving a hand. “If they dared sneak into the Otherworld to assassinate people from Thousand Peak Spirit Mountain, they would have that level of professionalism. But I am not looking for tokens.”

Xuan Che paused: “Then what?”

“I want their confessions after death,” Yu Sheng said with a small smile. “We only caught one alive. If he does not give us anything useful, I have to question the dead while the bodies are still fresh.”

He crouched and touched a patch of blood.

All color faded from his sight. The black, white, and gray tones of the world of the dead descended at once. The desert fell silent. A hazy fog rose on the far horizon. The figures of Xuan Che and the others, closest to him, froze in place in that gray world.

Yu Sheng was used to this scene. He clapped his hands and was about to rouse the dead when a faint sound nearby interrupted him.

Out of the corner of his eye, a glowing figure moved.

He looked up and saw a girl in bright armor, with golden hair like a waterfall and a holy sword in hand. She looked around with curiosity, amazed by the change in the world.

She stood exactly where Luna, the Artificial Saintess, had been a moment earlier.

Yu Sheng froze for a second, then the shock faded. Thinking of what he had “seen” before through the link of blood, he understood.

He called out to the confused knight: “Luna, I am here.”

The blonde girl snapped out of it, spotted the only other figure in color who could move, and hurried over as she asked: “Yu Sheng! Where is this? What happened?”

Yu Sheng raised an eyebrow at how clear her speech was now, then smiled: “This is the world on the other side of death.”