Chapter 73 - Interrogatory

In an abandoned building, a man laid powerless as he was being squeezed by the grip of a black snake with golden patterns. His arms were blocked, and blood was coming out of his neck. A sign that he had been bitten and had begun to feel the effect of the poison.

During these months, Ye had once accidentally eaten a paralyzing plant. However, she had discovered to her surprise that she could produce a new type of poison with a paralyzing effect. Upon her discovery, Hei made his little sisters eat all kinds of poisonous plants and observe the changes.

Ye was able to digest any poisonous substance to create a new type of poison in her body. It was like some alchemical reaction, only, instead of using a cauldron, she used her stomach. Xing was unable to do such a thing, but with each new ingredient, the toxicity of her poison increased, far exceeding that of Ye.

So, if it was about killing the enemy, Xing's poison was the ideal. If it was about paralyzing or getting other kinds of effects, Ye's was more appropriate.

Shortly after that, Xing arrived too. Behind her, tied inside a spiderweb, was the carcass of a crow that was being dragged to the ground.

At the sight of the crow, the man's eyes sank, and he gritted his teeth.

"You bastards, you killed him."

Hei, to the man's words, answered coldly.

"It is you who have followed us. Tell me why."

The man, at Hei's question, answered him by spitting in his face. Ye and Xing made a series of angry sounds as Lian prepared to strike. However, Hei raised his hand and motioned them to stop.

"You don’t want to speak? All right. I usually prefer not doing this kind of thing, but I have no other choice. Ye, use the platypus venom, please. "

'Are you sure? The poison is so strong that there is the possibility that he faints as the poison takes its course.’

"It will be fine if you adjust the injection dosage. Xing, first tie him up with your web.”

‘Okay, big brother. As you wish.’ Ye said as she untied her grip on the man and let Xing tie him up with her web.

Then, Ye proceeded to bite her victim's neck by injecting the platypus poison. This type of poison wasn’t lethal, yet it produced a pain so excruciating to render the victim helpless. Furthermore, this pain led to the development of a phenomenon called hyperalgesia. In this state of hyperalgesia, the victim developed an abnormal increase in pain sensitivity that would last for months after the injection.

To prevent his screams from being heard or that he tried to bite his tongue, Hei tore off a piece of his tunic to gag him, and then he let him squirm in pain.

Lian looked at the scene without expression. Even if a living person was being tortured in front of her, she didn't flinch. This vision should have aroused in her old nightmares of when she was locked in the cell. However, she had already overcome her fears in the dream trial. So, now, she could look at it without being disturbed. In any case, she would certainly not condemned Hei. Whatever he decided to do, she would always support him.

Meanwhile, Mi had returned from her reconnaissance lap. She hovered in the air for a few moments, before settling on Hei's shoulder.

"Welcome back, what did you find out?"

Mi emitted a series of sounds. She told Hei that there was another flying-type spirit beast that had fled as soon as the man was captured. Chasing it, she saw that the creature had headed for the Chestnut Forest. But she decided to make a report rather than go inside to avoid possible ambushes.

"Well done, You did well to stop. Surely that bird is another spirit beast of this man. If it disappeared into the forest instead of going to save him, it means that his other companions are in the forest. The problem now is to know how many there are and if they also have their spirit beasts."

He then waited several more minutes before turning to Ye.

"Inject him the opium to make it calm."

Opium. It was a substance derived from a flower known as Opium Poppy. By cutting the immature capsule of the flower, which was nothing but a type of dried fruit, the latex could be extracted after having been dried.

Opium, although it had various effects, including reducing the sensation of pain, was treated with caution by the sects. It was part of a group of substances called drugs called. Such drugs, although they could be used in various ways, were addictive through constant use. Consequently, they were entrusted only to alchemists who knew the danger in dealing with these types of substances.

Hei, although he was young, had shown tremendous talent in alchemy, and was therefore allowed to deal with this type of substance as well. Knowing the dangers, he wouldn't have used them so lightly but only if strictly necessary.

Fortunately, Ye, in addition to being able to digest various plants, was able to regulate the effects to produce a poison that reproduced one specific effect. In this way, she was also able to isolate the harmful effects of such drugs and concentrate on only one type of effect.

However, this didn’t mean that Hei could abuse this feature. Even with Ye's ability, prolonged use over time would create addictive effects. He would certainly not allow himself to be reduced as a slave with a continuous need for drugs. He considered them as objects, that's all.

With the injection by Ye, the body of the captured man relaxed, and his tremors ended. Hei took off his gag but stuck his palm into the man's mouth to prevent that he bit his tongue.

"Now, do you want me to talk?" Hei asked coldly. His eyes focused on those of the prisoner who shivered with fear. How could such a young boy make such an impassive look?

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"Here... I ..." the man tried to speak with difficulty. With Hei's hand in his mouth, his words were indeed difficult to understand.

"Don't worry, talk like that. I understand you anyway,” Hei assured him.

By concentrating sufficiently, it was possible to distinguish a sense in the subdued sound series. The man therefore surrendered and revealed to him that they were a group of mercenaries. Five people in total; each of them was a beast tamer.

They had come to the Forest Kingdom to raise their spirit beasts. From what he knew, his boss had been offered the chance to participate in a great event on behalf of the Bubble Sect, one of the two big sects in the Lake Kingdom, and the number four among the five big sects. However, this was only in case he had proved himself being up to par.

As a result, his boss had announced that they would go to the Forest Kingdom to gain experience. In fact, in addition to eating spirit cores, the fastest way to grow their spirit beasts was to let them eat the corpses of martial artists. The stronger they were, the better.

Moreover, by killing them, they could also acquire their belongings, thus taking two birds with one stone. Lastly, he was told that, if they had gone to the Forest Kingdom, they would have to kill a beast tamer belonging to the Flower Sect, if possible, by the name of Hei.

Upon hearing his name, Hei was taken by surprise.

‘Why did they ask him to kill me? I didn’t fight at the king's celebration. I could understand if they had named Lian, but me?’

As he was thinking, Xing pulled on his robe to call him. Between her legs, there were several objects, including the token engraved with the emblem of the Flower Sect and a strange bag. She had taken advantage of the interrogatory to rummage inside the man's clothes and take his items.

"Good sister, let me see what you've found." He briefly tickled Xing before focusing on the objects on the ground.

"So it was you who killed the Flower Sect members. As for this bag. It's empty, but I don't think you would carry it around without it containing anything."

The man seemed reluctant to respond, but a hiss from Ye was enough to make him speak. Thus, Hei discovered that the bag was a type of unique bag called a spirit beasts bag. They were used by beast tamers and could contain spirit beasts. It was a kind of space ring but focused on transporting spirit beasts.

However, these bags were a rare thing to encounter on Rainbow Island or other islands. It was said to be a product from the Continent that only very few had. But, it happened that the boss of the imprisoned man came from an ancient family of beast tamers and had received two of those spirit beast bags as a family treasure.

To facilitate his work as an explorer and not arouse suspicion, he had been given one of the two bags to hide one of his spirit beasts while the other acted as bait. Therefore, when he found that he had been discovered, he used the bag to call his other spirit beast. He possessed two bird type spirit beasts - an Imperial Raven and a Royal Eagle.

Although they weren't big enough to be used as flying mounts, they were useful for scouting from above. Moreover, their speed and their sharp claws made them difficult to face when they fell from above or to chase them in case they escaped.

'Now, I understand. The event the man mentioned is certainly the Secret Dimension opening. The Bubble Sect must have made such an offer because of these spirit beasts bags. I hadn't thought of it. I thought it would be enough to carry Ye and Xing on my body as usual, but I didn't calculate the possibility that they also needed a token. But with these bags, I can solve the problem. However, this also means that other participants can resort to such expedients and fill their shortage of participants with spirit beasts.’

It was true. If the Bubble Sect had come up with this, there was no way that the other sects and other powers hadn’t thought of this solution. But these spirit beasts bags were very rare and weren’t things to be given so easily. Even if one person were a beast tamer, he wouldn’t receive such a treasure only because of the Secret Dimension opening. He had to be a beast tamer with powerful spirit beasts.

"Okay, one last question. Tell me what stage your companions are and what their spirit beasts are."

The imprisoned man answered the question again. By now, he had already spilled the beans, and it made no sense not to answer. Knowing his boss, if he were to be rescued, he would have been welcomed only with death. Not because he had spilled their secrets, but because he had lost one of his two spirit beast bags.

When he had given it to him, the boss had specifically warned him not to screw up, and if he had lost it, he would have paid with his life as it was a priceless treasure.

“All right, thank you very much for the information. Ye put him to sleep.” Hei said as he sat on the ground to digest the information received and think about how he should act to complete the mission.

Ye, using another function derived from opium, created a sedative poison that rendered the man bound in Xing's webs unconscious. Then, she rested on the ground next to her sister, waiting for their big brother to establish the battle plan.

After half an hour of reflection, Hei finally got up from the ground.

"Okay. I formulated our action plan. Our goal is inside the Chestnut Forest, and I don't think it will move from there. After all, they cannot create chaos in the city, and the only one with spirit beasts that didn’t draw too much attention was captured. It is also unlikely that they will flee because I have one of their leader's spirit beast bags. They also know that we won’t ask the city authorities for help, because, in case of victory, there is no way that the city won’t demand a percentage of the spoils and we need the other spirit beasts bag and the spirit beasts’ spirit cores.

Therefore, considering this, our battle plan will be to go to the Chestnut Forest ourselves. Instead of being prey, we will turn into predators and hunt them in the forest. In such an environment, it isn’t possible that we can lose, right? Ye, Xing?"

‘Sure, we'll show them what it means hunting like a pro.’ The two little spirit beasts answered in a chorus.

"Lian, do what I do and act according to my orders. As long as you do this, it doesn’t matter if you have no experience in fighting into the wilderness. "

Lian answered with a simple nod. In any case, she had already decided to follow Hei’s orders, regardless of whether he was familiar with that type of terrain or hunting.

"At this moment, it is still night, but they will surely have been alerted by the Royal Eagle. However, they would never think of being attacked this very night. It is, therefore, essential to act now and reduce their numbers as much as possible. We will aim at the henchmen, leaving the leader for later. Even if we take them by surprise, we don’t have so much spirit power to be able to face both the leader and the other members of his group, without counting their spirit beasts."

‘Big brother, what about this one? What do we do?’ Ye asked as she waved her tail like a rattle.

"It's a hunt, isn't it? Then we will use him as bait. His eagle will surely come to check, so we will take advantage of that to kill it along with the others who will come alongside."

‘And if the boss appears with the others? Will we face them or leave them alone, allowing them to save their companion?’ Xing asked as she weaved some spiderweb to create a small cape to tie to her back as to cover herself from the cold.

"No, as I said, we can't risk if their boss is there too. But we won't even let them take their partner so quickly. We will inject a strong poison into him. In that way, we would kill him even if they managed to save him. But we have to kill the Royale Eagle to take away their aerial advantage."

Hei signaled them to prepare themselves. Carrying the man on his back and storing the Imperial Raven corpse in his mother’s pocket dimension, he was ready to leave. The destination - Chestnut Forest.

The night was still long, and the hunt was yet to begin.