Interrogation

Bai Yun rolled the stranger down to the storm drain and then covered him up with the cover of the storm drain. Bai Yun looked through the stranger and checked him with his perception in order to make sure that there was nothing that he missed on his body or any booby traps.

Once he was well hidden Bai Yun stood up and left the place quickly. He needed an out of way place to interrogate the stranger. But he had no idea of such a place nearby. And he couldn't carry the stranger far without risking exposure. Thankfully they were in a sparsely populated part of the city.

So afterwards Bai Yun spend the next hour searching for places. He found a warehouse a few kilometers away that was far away from any people. This distance was nothing to the perception of a slightly strong cultivator, but in Yellow city it was considered rude to keep a persons perception active, and thus it was generally avoided.

Once he found a place, Bai Yun quickly bound the warehouse with some material to make it more soundproof. After which he returned to the location where he had hidden the stranger and slowly picked him up.

Bai Yun quickly started to move towards the warehouse. When they were well hidden in the shadows, or no one was around to see them, Bai Yun would pick up the stranger and quickly run using his qi. Otherwise, he would grip him over the shoulder, and move as if the two of them were drunk. In order to remove any doubts, Bai Yun animated the stranger using his soul tendrils, to make it look as if he was awake.

Bai Yun ran into a few people on the way, but none of them spared him a second look. Bai Yun was able to quickly leave them behind and reach the warehouse after a few minutes.

Once he reached the warehouse, Bai Yun tied up the stranger in chains he found around the warehouse. Then he ripped of his shirt and put his hand over the stranger's dantian. He slowly sunk his qi int the stranger's dantian and sealed it up using a sealing technique he had learning in his past life. But considering the difference in their cultivation, it took Bai Yun several times of sealing and recovering his energy before he succeeded in sealing the strangers dantian.

Once he was finished, Bai Yun used the antidote of the knockout pill to wake up the stranger.

Bai Yun stood there watching as he stranger began to twitch. A few moments later, the stranger slowly woke up.

"Uh." He said groggily.

The stranger seemed to want to get up, but for a moment he was unable to do anything. He shook his head, before he realized that he was tied up. For a moment panic seemed to set into his eyes and he started to look around. A second later his eyes had found Bai Yun and he stared at him.

"Let me go." He screamed. He started to struggle free of the chains. But after a moment he realized that his qi was blocked and he could not use it. A look of terror appeared in his eyes and then he started to scream for help. Bai Yun simply stood back and let him scream as much as he wanted. After a while the stranger stopped screaming after he realized that no one coming, and that Bai Yun was unconcerned with him.

"Who-who are you?" He asked in fear.

Bai Yu smiled when he heard the stranger. He walked towards him and squatted down to keep his eyes in the same level as that of the stranger.

"Hi." Bai Yun smiled at the stranger.

"H-hi" The stranger replied while shaking. He was completely terrified. He was only twelve years old and had never seen something like this before. He knew that he was in deep trouble and had no idea what was happening. And the most important thing was that the person in front of him was smiling like a warm summers eve. He could not see even the slightest killing intent or hostility on his face.

"Relax. I have never tortured someone before." Bai Yun said.

"Uh-uh." The stranger nodded, relaxing a bit.

"But I have seen my seniors torture people before." Bai Yun continued while smiling. The strangers face turned pale upon hearing this. "I was hoping to experiment on someone and increase my skill. Would you help me with it?"

The stranger was pretty much shaking in terror by now. "N-No." He somehow managed to sputter.

Bai Yun's smiling face disappeared in an instant. There was no longer any emotion in his eyes. The only thing the stranger could see in his eyes was his own reflection and nothing else.

"Are you telling me you won't help me?" Bai Yun asked the stranger.

"I will." He replied.

"So will you let me practice on you?" Bai Yun said, the smile that will pacify every broken heart once again appearing on his face.

"No. No. Please. I'll tell you anything" The stranger started to beg.

"So are you going to cooperate or do I need to torture you?" Bai Yun asked one last time.

"I'll cooperate." By now the stranger was tripping over himself in order to tell Bai Yun whatever he wanted.

"Too bad." Bai Yun said with a smile. He had prepared many methods to break down the stranger from hi memories. But it seemed all of it was unnecessary. Then he started to ask him about the stones.

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Three hours later Bai Yun finished his interrogation. By now it was nearing dawn.

He had interrogated the stranger multiple times, making sure that there was no inconsistency in the story. He realized that the was not some veteran, but only a kid who got way too in over his head.

Once he was done he fed the stranger another knockout pill.

Bai Yun was troubled by the information that he got from the stranger.

According to the stranger he was simply asked to replace the stones in the hell put and nothing else. He would take the stones to a building and then he would get a new set of stones. The new stones he got would be placed when he went to collect the stones that had been charging for a month. Also he would get some cultivation resources every time he delivered the stones.

He would simply deliver the stones and then leave. He had no idea what they were used for. During a meeting to drop the items, he would arrive at the prearranged location at the prearranged time, and then give them the storage ring with the stones he had picked up from the hill pit. Then he would get a storage ring with new stones and resources. The same person would collect the stones from him every time, and then tell him the date and time of the next meeting. The location also differed every time.

He had only been doing this for six months now. He had met the collector a total of six times. A couple of times he was the only person to meet up with the collector. Sometimes he would meet up with other people. He had seen a few other people but had never talked to them. He had been instructed by the collector not to do so.

The collector was also the person who recruited him into the job. He had never met anyone else. So he knew no one else. And as for the recruitment, he had simply received an anonymous letter asking him to meet up at a specific place at a specific time. When he met the collector, he simply told him what he needed to do and that he would be given cultivation resources every time he delivered the goods. After a mild death threat as a stick and offering up a cultivation technique much better than the clan's common technique as a stick, he was easily swayed.

At first Bai Yun was confused as to why he would easily accept the collectors offer. After all what he did was technically treason. But after thinking about it for a while, Bai Yun understood the problem easily. The stranger was not a valued member of the Bai clan. He was only a simple ordinary member of the clan, and did not have access to important resources. Even with his father's desire for him to be extremely independent and not giving him any resources, he still had access to much better resources than the stranger. For a naive young kid like the stranger, the offer that the collector put forth was irresistible. He would easily latch on to any and every chance to improve himself. In the cultivation world, no matter how fair the methods try to be, strength was the most important factor. There was no way he would have much loyalty to the clan.

But there were many points about this situation that confused Bai Yun. The first and foremost was that there were no soul seal on the stranger.

Soul seals were placed on people in order to protect secrets. Once a person's cultivation became high enough, it was possible to search a persons soul to gain information. In order to make sure that no such incident happened, such confidential information was usually kept under soul locks. A soul lock would seal up a piece of information and would prevent any soul searches. And most soul locks would also have a seal that made sure that the person who had the information did not divulge it to any unauthorized person. A soul lock could easily be deployed by any soul step qi or soul cultivator. A body cultivator would have to reach the dao step before he could use a soul lock though.

Of course a soul lock was not almighty. A person with a much higher cultivation or attainments in the soul path than the person who set the soul lock could definitely undo the seal. Also most people would not prefer to have soul locks on their souls, because it could have detrimental effects on a persons soul and talents if not done perfectly.

But the issue here was that a soul lock was not even attempted. Bai Yun had attempted to kidnap the stranger because he was confident of his attainments in the soul path and thought that he could undo it.

But the lack of the soul lock was very confusing. Based on the fact that the collector had a steady stream of hell air as well as the high quality cultivation technique and resources he had given, and the fact that they could identify a person who would easily accept their proposal, the faction behind the collector was quite strong. There was no way they would not be able to put a soul lock on a measly qi cultivation realm brat, with or without hi consent. And the various steps they had taken to prevent identification only added to the confusion.

It was due to this that Bai Yun was able to easily get all the information from stranger. It was incredibly unusual.

Not only that, the amount of hellfire that they had gotten their hands on were truly abysmal. No matter how Bai Yun thought about it, he could not come up with a reason for such a small amount of hellfire. Anything that could be achieved with that amount of hellfire could easily be achieved with many other items. It was simply not worth it to collect that much hellfire for such a huge amount of work.

Once he was done organizing his thoughts, he was ready to leave.

For a while he considered killing the stranger and disposing of him. But as he stood there, a weird feeling overtook him. For a second he felt an intense blood lust washing over him. He slowly took out his sword and pointed it at the stranger's neck. But he wasn't sure if he should go through with it. The kid wasn't evil, just an idiot. But after a moment he held back and turned around. As he did so conflicting feelings of relief and disappointment washed over him at the same time.

Bai Yun took one last look at the stranger. He then left him there and left the warehouse to pickup the recording jades. It was time to return to the clan and report on the matter.