Chapter 1211 Welcome Message
"Fine, I'll speak….Please, make it stop," said the spy, his eyes devoid of hope. By now, he only wanted one thing — relief brought by sweet death. Sadly, he knew this devil would never grant him his wish unless he spoke. Luckily, speaking is another way to fulfill his desire.
"Good," Wang Wei nodded. "I'm going to ask you a question, and I want you to answer it exactly as I asked. Understand?" The spy barely nodded. 'Let's see. I need to be subtle to prevent triggering the restriction, which will most likely result in his self-explosion,' Wang Wei thought. After compiling a plan, he summoned the Baxian Turtle Shell to boost his divination capabilities. His eyes turned all gray as he channeled the power of fate.
[Will he explode if I ask him what organization he works for?] [Yes]
[What about the name of a useless or abandoned base?] [Yes]
[A mission with no relevance to his employer?] [Yes]
[What if I ask him about his code name?] [Maybe]
'Maybe?' Wang Wei thought as he focused. 'This bastard will actively use a triggering word to commit suicide? I need to watch out for that.' He continued his divination for a few seconds before asking the first question.
"Tell me all the places you've been to before arriving at our base. No need to be specific; just state the overall area, city, continent, or area."
Such a strange question momentarily disoriented the spy, but he answered. "Right before teleporting to the base, I was in Sunset City." Wang Wei nodded while observing this man intensely. Sunset City was one of the places where the Fate Shadow Guards recruited new members.
"Before that, I was on the Black Earth Continent. There is a secr–"
"Silence," Wang Wei cut him off. "Do you want to experience it a fourth time?"
The spy's body trembled as he shut his mouth. He hesitated for a moment, but he saw Wang Wei's eyes; he told the latter of the last two places he was in before arriving here.
'If I follow his trajectory, he came from one of Taoism's territories. Is he from a faction under the Seven Cauldron? Or directly from Supreme Unity's core power?' Wang Wei was deep in thought before asking the second question.
"Recount verbatim how a typical conversation with your subordinate usually goes. No need to mention any classified information or phrase." The spy was again puzzled, but he followed orders. It was odd to reenact a conversation, but whatever prevented him from suffering.
'So, his status was that of a Vice-Commander,' Wang Wei analyzed from the retelling. 'And there are more than one."
"How many Empyreans have you met in your life?"
"What…I don't know."
"Quickly."
"About 125."
"Of these 125, how many did you attempt and succeed to kill?"
"I've killed 34, failed six times."
"How many did you have a friendly spar with? Who won? And why did you lose?" Wang Wei continued, and after hearing this answer, Wang Wei thought. 'I can confirm 20 other Vice-Commanders — all Empyreans. Now, let's check if Dao Rulers and Immortal Sovereigns are in that position.'
He asked more questions about the other paths, about people the spy respected dearly without any specifics and many more.
'About 33 Vice-Commanders and 5 Commanders, with a few that are likely Everlasting,' Wang Wei thought. 'Let's see if I can deduce their organizational structure from him.' Wang Wei opened his mouth to ask something but stopped himself before uttering a single word. He looked in the distance:
'Already here? They are faster than I anticipated.' He glanced at the spy, and without hesitation, he chopped his head and extinguished his soul. Wang Wei disappeared, leaving the headless body on the ground. A group of five individuals dressed in all-white appeared.
"That body shape — it's Vice Commander Ershi," said one of the spies. Their leader, the only one whose clothes contained stripes of black — 24 to be exact — calmly observed everything.
"I can't believe he died so horribly."
"Wasn't his mission to investigate news about the [Destined One]? I can't believe that was his end."
"The people from the Star-Gazing Pavillion should have done a better job warning of the mission's difficulty. Vice-Commander Ershi is an upper Middle-Moon Commander; losing him is a great loss."
Their leader frowned as he looked at the body. He suddenly felt something was wrong but could not pinpoint what exactly. "Quiet," he ordered, stopping this nonsensical chatter. "Someone go verify if his Dao Imprint still exists."
"Yes, Vice Commander Ersi. I'll get to —"
Bang
Chains suddenly manifested out of nowhere, capturing everyone but the leader. A shield appeared around him, blocking Wang Wei's attack. "It's you," Ersi declared after seeing Wang Wei's true face. He also understood what his intuition was warning him. His men are originally better trained than this and should not be discussing the organization's news so openly — even if they were in a safe space among colleagues. So, it's obvious someone used a Spiritual Influence Technique on them to influence them to talk and reveal more information.
"So, you know me," Wang Wei said. The leader was correct, as he had gathered significant information from their conversation. 'Number 24? He should be a lower Upper Moon. If the person with the number 24 has the same cultivation as me, the strongest — number 33 — should be a peak Empyrean.'
Wang Wei's gaze then shifted to this man's shield. It was not Ersi's strength that saved him, but a potent talisman.
"I pity you," Ersi suddenly declared after calming down. "Do you know the fate of anyone who goes against our [Supreme Ruler]? Believe me when I–"
Wang Wei did not listen to him as he clenched his hand, releasing a power that broke apart the shield. Ersi's face contorted as he mobilized his Five Element Dao. Sadly for him, Wang Wei sealed him with a thought. A ruthless light flashed in Vice-Commander Ersi's eyes, and it followed a small sword that left his head and immediately released a brilliant golden light that wiped out all energy/Qi in the surroundings.
Ersi immediately knew something was wrong when he realized he was alive despite his severe injuries. His suicidal endeavors should have taken his life as well. He looked at the perfectly intact Wang Wei. "What kind of monster are you?" He knew the destined one should have just ascended, so he could not fathom how he was already this strong.
"You'll know soon," Wang Wei replied before using his technique: [Fate Puppet]. His fingers released gray strings attached to Ersi's body. He did not touch his soul but isolated it while controlling the body.
'Let's send a welcoming message,' Wang Wei thought. He found the karmic link between Ersi and his Dao Imprint in the Grand Dao Source, leaving his True Will on it to remove at the correct time. His next step was finding Ershi's Dao Imprint, which took a little time since he died. Luckily, he died before activating his [Motion], so Wang Wei was able to find him after using Karma Dao, Divination, and the [Zoning] of his Dao Will.
After properly killing Ershi, he checked the souls of the regular members with no success. 'I'll need to do something about these restrictions. However, I'm surprised Supreme Unity left Seven Cauldron in charge of making these restrictions instead of himself. Did it think it was beneath him? He probably thought such secrets were beneath him to protect personally.'
Wang Wei could see that only a few things would warrant the Taoist Tyrant to place a restriction personally, and it should probably be something he genuinely wanted to hide from Maitreya.
Wang Wei activated the restrictions and watched how these regular members exploded. He then disappeared, and immediately following his departure, the only survivor — Ersi — began to fly away desperately, his aura decreasing with each passing moment. A few minutes later, another group found him in the Source Qi Space.
"Hurry…Important News…Destined One is…" Ersi muttered before passing out. The group was shocked and quickly fed him a healing pill. However, he did not wake up, so they returned to their base, hoping to wake him up to get the information he had acquired.
Boom!
Ersi's body exploded the moment they teleported to their base. The explosion was intense since he was an Empyrean, after all. However, the damage it created was zero. The people carrying his body were severely injured, but no one died. The reason is that the Paragon Formation in their base immediately activated and isolated the blast. In fact, Wang Wei expected this outcome. That's why Ersi exploded instantly after arriving; he knew there would be a formation to detect that he was controlled.
Regardless, he did not care since his purpose was to send a message and confirm that these people were part of Seven Cauldron's forces, which he did after sensing the blast's location.
Once that was done, he removed Ersi's Dao Imprint before returning to his base.