Chapter – 164 - Mental Energy Traps Inside Another's Mind

At night Rihanna had Artreya stay back in her room to guard her unconscious form, and slipped off to where Zenoba and his group were staying, in her spiritual form. It was quite a distance from Maobei Inn, and though Little Purple' energy allowed her to remain invisible even to higher level cultivators, Rihanna still remained cautious, trying to evade as many people as possible.

She was a little worried because Little Purple had not returned ever since he sensed the thing he wanted moving out of the Mission Hall. She wondered if the people who bought that thing had already moved out of the city. It would become difficult to retrieve it in that case.

Signing inwardly, Rihanna followed the energy of Little Purple and reached a Inn much smaller than Maobei Inn. It was near the northern gate, and spread out over a very compact area. As such there was not many cottage complexes. It didn't take her long to trace the energy to a group of cottage complexes near the end of the inn's periphery.

Keeping distance, Rihanna spread out her sensory perception. She wasn't sure how strong Zenoba was, and if he could grasp her sensory perception, so she was simply probing the area.

The cottage to the far left was entirely being used by Zenoba, and not finding any other aura within the cottage, she shifted her attention to the other two cottages.

One of the cottages was being rented by Su Maihiya and her friends. The other had a strong aura of Wen Haoli and another two cultivators. The highest level came from the man she had seen earlier. He was a cultivator at Fifth-Stage Foundation-Laying Level. And this guy was in the middle cottage, where Wen Haoli was also staying.

Rihanna felt around Zenoba's cottage for a while longer, making sure that he was not going to come out, then her made her way first to Su Maihiya's cottage. She could make out the aura's of seven people inside that cottage, most of whom were in first or second stage of Foundation-Laying Level.

Su Maihiya herself had reached First-Stage of Foundation-Laying Level. Rihanna was surprised and gave her a few extra glances. This was indeed a remarkable feat to achieve. She had risen from Sixth-Stage Spirit-Sensing Level to First-Stage Foundation-Laying Level in the past one and half years! Was she born with such a great potential, or did she have some hidden techniques or tools which helped her climb stages this fast?

Maybe because she herself did not have any spiritual root, but Rihanna could not really sense the quality of another cultivator's spiritual root. She could vaguely see the color of the spiritual root, and sense the aura and energies, but only for cultivators who were probably weaker than her. But whenever she tried to probe into their spiritual roots, a thin and translucent barrier stopped her senses.

Currently five of the seven had gathered around a table in the hall. They were lounging around, on the couches placed about the small room, seemingly having a late night discussion about their coming mission.

"Will we be waiting till we reach the borders of Madsa-Tamu and Abarone-Tengai? That will be a very long journey!"

"I don't think Master will want to waste so much time on such an easy mission. We will probably ambush them near the Sadasun Point. That is the nearest point in Hanging Forest from our Sect. Once he has bagged his gain, he can easily take a detour to dump the girl in the Sect and then return back to the mission."

"I still don't understand why we need so many people for this mission! There is only one man in Sprouting Stage, and he is much weaker than Master. The other one is in Mid-Stage Foundation-Laying Level. Even Ganombi is stronger than him. And the girl herself is a commoner. Why do we need so many Foundation-Laying Level cultivators for one commoner girl!"

"It's all your doing! Last time you came back all panicked. Moreover, you somehow got so many of those disciples killed and badly injured. They are still in coma after more than a year!"

"Don't point your fingers at me! That girl has some kind of a tool which can harm cultivators even in Foundation-Laying Level. I have already said this before, so don't make me keep on repeating it. Stay alert. That girl is not as easy as she looks. If something happens to you because of your overconfidence, then I am not responsible!"

"Fine. Let's not fight anymore. No matter if she is easy or difficult, since Master has brought all of us on this trip, then he is expecting us to complete this mission cleanly. So stay alert, and don't let the girl escape through any means."

As Rihanna listened to the discussion, she realized that she could not allow these hidden dangers to remain too vigilant against her. Thinking for a bit, she slowly released her spiritual energy, wrapped up in the energy of Little Purple. Slowly, wisps of her own energy floated through the air, invisible to the senses of others, and seeped in to the minds of the five people.

Looking around, she sensed out the whereabouts of the other two, and also sent the same invisible energy towards them. Soon, all seven inside this cottage were infected by her invisible spiritual energy. Hidden by the purple energy, they settled down deep within the minds of the seven people, ready to be activated at a moment's signal.

As silently as she had come, Rihanna made her way outside, then again entered the middle cottage.

Unlike the first cottage, these three people were all in their separate spaces. Rihanna went over to Wen Haoli's and the other fellow's room, inserting her spiritual energy within their brains, before making her way towards where Ganombi was residing.

She peeped in though the door, watching the man lying on his bed. He was not that young, seemingly closer to Uncle He's age. He was still awake, and Rihanna could sense a lot of thoughts flitting through his mind. Making her way it through the closed doors, she stood in a corner, reading the various thoughts and memories going though his inner consciousness.

As he lay thinking, he slowly fell asleep.

This was a good opportunity to get to know the man whom all of these people called Master.

His thoughts were not clear and uniform, so Rihanna had to stay in hiding for a long while, trying to piece the various strands of memories together to form a coherent understanding. After a while she managed to draw a basic understanding of the man.

Zenoba was very self-obsessed and also suspicious of everyone else. And for this reason he didn't keep his disciples close to him. He almost always stayed alone. Neither did he allow others to touch his food and drinks. Rihanna couldn't help wondering if this fellow had gone through some form of betrayal before, or if he was naturally cautious.

He was obsessed with cultivation, and was also very stingy. Once he had set his eyes on something which could help him with his cultivation, he wouldn't let it go. Apparently this had led to some strange and dangerous situations before, and all of his disciples of knew of these incidents were not really in favor of his uncontrolled behavior.

Other than Mental Ability, he had wind and wood power.

Amongst all the ten disciples currently following him, the only one who was a bit closer to him was Ganombi. Zenoba often called him when he had to inform all the disciples of his decisions.

Rihanna didn't waste any more time, slowly releasing a stream of her energy into Ganombi's mind. Since he was already asleep, it was easier for her to enter his mind. However, she didn't try to explore his memories as she was not too sure of her own control. She didn't want to accidentally turn him into a brain-dead man, and alert Zenoba.

The stream of her energy was covered in a thick layer of purple energy. It circled through his brain, slowly settling inside the acupoints of his head. Ganombi was neither loyal, nor did he believe in the way Zenoba acted without restraint. Her spirit power would keep massaging these emotions within his mind, subconsciously creating a vortex of negative emotions. And using this chaos in his mental state, she would find the right time to pass on the poison she had already created to him.

This energy inside his mind would also enable her to control him for a short amount of time. She only needed to keep an eye and figure out the correct timing.

After making her way out of the cottage complex, Rihanna stopped to climb up a large tree at the periphery of the inn. Making herself comfortable between two broad branches, she started pondering upon all that she had dug out of Ganombi's mind.

There were going to be some difficulties in this mission. Zenoba was at a higher stage than Uncle Yaoi. If Uncle He and Uncle Ranaba had been here, it would not be a problem.

But more importantly, Rihanna didn't plan for Uncle Yaoi to enter the fight. Yes.....she had a certain amount of certainty that she and Artreya were capable enough of handling this task. Especially since she was not going to go head-first. She was planning on breaking them down before taking them down with one move.

'I have found it!'

Rihanna was still deep in her thoughts when the sudden exclamation made her jump. Still, it took her a couple of seconds to realize that the sound was inside her mind.

'Little Purple?.....You're finally back! And....you found it?'

'Hmmm...it is not far from here. If you want, we could make a quick trip to that place. At least you'll know what that 'Thing' looks like.'

Rihanna raised an eyebrow. Indeed, she was very interested in knowing exactly what that 'Thing' was! She turned to look at the cottage complex for a few seconds, then nodded.

'Sure. Let's make a trip to the place before we return. My work here is done anyway.'

Under the dim light of the three moons, invisible to all eyes, the faintest wisp of energy jumped down from the top of a large tree, then ran away, blending into the darkness of night.