Forceful memory retrieval was a highly invasive variation of a much gentler technique. Normal memory retrieval was a much simpler ordeal, merely requiring two parties: the one offering up their memories, and the one receiving them. When performing the technique, the one receiving the memories would typically grasp the head of the target and would be invited into the latter’s consciousness.
The target and the performer would work in tandem, venturing through the target’s mind to seek out and view the sought-after memories. Although mildly stressful and uncomfortable for the one having their psyche exposed, it was an altogether tolerable and, importantly, voluntary experience. It was usually employed to impart particularly sensitive, private, or important information between individuals with close relationships. Commonly, it would be a master sharing forbidden or powerful techniques to a core disciple, or an ailing elder sharing valuable life experience to a successor.
Forceful memory retrieval had no such positive associations. It was employed for only one of two purposes, and sometimes both at the same time: torture and information extraction. In theory, forceful memory retrieval also only required the same two parties. Of course, the performer would in this case be an attacker assaulting the mind of the target, but the dynamic would remain similar. The attacker would be barging their way into the target’s consciousness in order to forcibly extract the desired memories from the defender.
Naturally, such an aggressive invasion of someone’s mind is not a pleasant experience and entails a great deal of mental anguish and suffering for the defender. However, unless the target surrenders their mind to the assailant and allows them free reign, they are still more than capable of willfully counterattacking and damaging the invader’s own mind. Coupled with the homeground advantage the target possesses, the willpower and mental strength of both parties come into play. Someone with strong mental fortitude or grasp over mental techniques may be able to completely rout the attacker. As a result, when performed in practice, it is often two attackers who work in conjunction with one another to extract the memories.
The addition of formations and spiritual herbs are all to heighten the performers’ advantage. Formations are able to mitigate the target’s homeground advantage, and the spiritual herbs are ingested by the aggressors to increase their mental strength. A secure environment is simply to prevent unwanted outside forces from interfering with the process. With all these elements working in conjunction, and assuming that the parties are of relatively equal mental strength, the attackers are nearly assured in their success.
However, this calculation is predicated on the assumption that everyone is playing in the same field. What if one of the parties, say, the defender, has monstrously powerful mental capabilities, on par with a millenia-old Demon Lord? And, what if the attackers had absolutely no idea about their target’s abilities, operating under the mistaken belief that a bound and defenseless cripple, stripped of all cultivation, and who had never even learned a single real mental technique, was incapable of mounting any real defense?
That would be a truly curious and unforeseen situation.
---
“What are you doing?” Yan Tie asked, looking at Zu Nan scurry about in the room, grabbing this and that.
Right now, they were located in the deep basement of the Medicine Hall, in one of the secured and sealed operating rooms. Yan Tie was seated beside Wang Xie, who was haplessly tied to the ground in the center of a formation meant to restrict him further. Up until this point, he had still not regained consciousness, probably due to his spiritual flow being completely restricted by the Sect Leader beforehand.
All the necessary formations were already in place. One was meant to bolster the Elders’ mental strength, one to defend against the mental backlash from Wang Xie, and the last was simply the one intended to restrict him. Both Elders had already eaten the Spiritual Sense Ginseng, a rather valuable herb that heightened one’s spiritual and mental abilities alike. There was nothing else to do but to perform the technique and split the ex-disciple’s brain open.
“I’m double-checking the formations. I don’t want any complications.”
“You’re not double-checking, you’re quadruple-checking. Hurry up and get over here. In the very worst case, it just takes a bit longer to delve into his mind.”
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Zu Nan looked at him. For all his flippancy, he was extremely cautious when it came to taking action.
“Fine. Just give me a moment.”
Taking that time to fiddle with one section of a formation, the Medicine Hall Elder finally took his seat opposite Yan Tie, at the left side of Wang Xie’s head. Clearly steeling his nerves, Zu Nan slowly inhaled and exhaled.
“I’m ready now.”
“Finally. Do you remember the technique?”
Zu Nan looked incredulous, “Do you think I am stupid?”
“No, not stupid exactly. But sometimes it would be nice for you to have a sense of urgency.”
Laughing, Zu Nan quipped back, “Sometimes it would be nice of you to be less uptight. But I suppose that is expecting far too much from the Punishment Hall Elder. All decorum and duties.”
“It’s better to be on task all the time, rather than none of the time.”
The Medicine Hall Elder sneered, not deigning to respond to the comment directly.
“Whatever, let’s just get this done with.”
Yan Tie roughly grabbed Wang Xie’s head, lifting it onto a rock in order to place his palms against the right side of his skull. Zu Nan did the same on the left. In a synchronized motion, both Elders began circulating their spiritual energy into their hands and minds. They closed their eyes. Without much fanfare, they simultaneously activated the technique and delved into the mind of the being occupying the body of Wang Xie.
Almost immediately, the formation meant to defend against the ex-disciple’s counterattacks disintegrated, unable to bear the load of the massive surge of mental energy. The Elders’ bodies seized up, and blood furiously began to bleed out from their seven orifices. Although they both had their eyes closed, their pupils contracted and veins bulged across their body, in an obvious sign of their intense struggle. Tears, as well as blood, flowed out from their spasming, clenched-shut eyes. Mucous drained out from their nostrils.
They began screaming wordlessly, incoherently. In an excursion gone, terribly, terribly wrong, it was now the turn of the aggressors to suffer torture. Now, their muscles began trembling as well, as if trying to fight off some unseen offense. Saliva leaked out of the corners of their mouths, and foam materialized on their lips as their bodies continued to scream, strain, and spasm. All of their skin was perspiring now, their pores induced to sweat out the incredible pain they were suffering.
It was highly unusual for a cultivator to excrete either solid or liquid waste from their bowels or bladder, because of their abnormal physical states that had ascended beyond the need for such disposal, but there was one specific case where excretion occurred involuntarily to some cultivators: extreme fear. The floor was soiled now, stained with the admixture of hot red blood, runny mucus, dark yellow piss, and, most disgustingly, forcibly excreted human feces.
It would be extremely accurate to say that this was the experience of pure agony. To both Elders, this would perhaps be the most hellishly painful experience either had been involved in.
Despite being rooted to the floor, both of their forms violently shook, and attempted to dislodge their hands from being stuck to Wang Xie’s head. Although it was clear that they were both trying to separate themselves from the prone form between them, their hands remained stubbornly attached to the side of his head. Their arms were rebelling against them. Even in unfavorable situations where the defender was able to repel the attacks, it was highly unusual for them to mount a counterassault into the invaders’ own minds. Even rarer still, were they able to hijack control of the bodies of their aggressors. In the worst case, the attackers could simply cancel contact with the target, ceasing the technique of their own volition.
Such a situation could only come about if the defender were able to catch the attackers so swiftly off-guard and overpower them so instantaneously that any kind of resistance came too slowly or too meekly. In this case, it was both. To the extremely refined and powerful mind of Demon Lord Asura, both the psyches of Elder Yan Tie and Elder Zu Nan were inexperienced greenhorns with no hope of resisting him.
In the instant they had made contact with his mental space, Asura had already bridged the gap between their bodies and seized control of their arms, began dominating both minds, and snapped the defensive formation without missing a beat. In a single breath of time, Elder Yan Tie and Elder Zu Nan of the Great Eastern Sea Sect had lost their free will, having been ruthlessly enslaved by Great Demon Lord Asura. What had just transpired could not even be called a struggle, but the final spasms of a bug being crushed by the enormous foot of a monster.
Another moment passed, and both Elders, still bleeding profusely from their orifices and finally freed from their positions, stood up and began disassembling the formations in the room. Having done that, they then began freeing Wang X—no, Asura, from his bindings. Taking the hood off of Wang Xie’s body once more revealed not the disheveled and beaten countenance of a disgraced disciple, but the gleaming, calculative eyes of a malevolent and demonic being far more interested in planar conquest than petty familial revenge.
The body that was named Wang Xie let loose a hoarse laugh.
“What a funny way to be freed.”