Xi Ju Hai’s brows furrowed tightly. They had already assumed that the other side would use Yun Bei Fen as bait for Mei Chao Bing since he cared about him so much. So far, she had thought that as long as they protected Elder Baili’s little disciple well, they had nothing to fear though. After all, they first had to get their hands on him before being able to kidnap him. Now, it seemed like the other side had already planned for that as well.
She pondered for a moment and then shook her head to get rid of any extraneous thoughts. “What exactly do you know? How does this work? How do they get the abilities in the first place?”
Mu Qing sighed and pulled her to sit down. “I swear I didn’t know about this originally. Actually, it’s related to the Lin family as well. The reason they … or … we, I suppose, are able to take in any type of energy is that our constitution allows us to ignore whatever requirements there usually are. Then, our bodies can strip the energy of whatever isn’t able to be used directly and reform that into something our body can cope with.”
Xi Ju Hai nodded. If you paid close enough attention to such a process, there was likely a lot to learn about the energies you tried it on. Most likely, Feng Bai Xiao had managed to find a breakthrough point from that while doing tests with his older disciples.
“After experimenting with how it worked for all of us and where the differences and similarities lay, it seems like Master figured out some ideas as to how abilities come about and why they turn out the way they do.
“I’m not entirely sure how many insights he really had but one thing I know for certain is that there is apparently a certain kind of energy involved in using abilities. It is the same for everyone who has once but it can be used differently depending on your own qualifications and the techniques you learn. The practices of our Teng Yong Sect, for example, boost focus-related abilities like that of the Black Warrior.”
Xi Ju Hai nodded. “I see.” Although she didn’t entirely see how he had used that to copy the abilities. Had he taught relevant disciples those techniques? But that seemed rather far-fetched of an idea.
Mu Qing sighed. “Well, knowing this, you should also know that the techniques don’t just influence those who have abilities. It also influences those who don’t. For example, this results in the spiritual energy we cultivate being slightly different between sects and there is even a trace of that seeping into the body.
“Now, what my Master apparently realized was that you could extract that trace and use it for those with the potential to develop an ability. It is … a lot faster than painstakingly teaching them the techniques and having them work on those for years. It’s also a horrifying practice.”
Xi Ju Hai furrowed her brows. “He killed disciples of the sects to obtain that trace.” She didn’t need to ask. It was obvious that this was what had happened.
“Yes. He … set it up in a way that made it look like that wasn’t what had happened. For example, disciples going missing during missions, some of those investigating what was going on in the border region, and sometimes even during exchanges between the righteous sects.
“There were never many at once even though he needs a lot from what I have figured out. He was just very careful about it. He grabbed one or at most two unless it was an opportunity to cover up more. Then, if he couldn’t directly use them, he’d just imprison them first until he did. Over time, there were enough to experiment with them.”
Mu Qing lowered his head and clenched his hands into fists. In fact, he had only found out about this recently when some of the disciples from the Teng Yong Sect had been killed and captured as well. At that time, Qu Yijun had laughed at him when he dared to speak out against it and taunted him with what had happened behind closed doors before that.
He … had never realized. He had known his Master wasn’t a good person and he had known that there had to be a tragedy at the end of his machinations but … he had somehow believed that it couldn’t be this bad. Despite everything, he had wanted to believe that even his Master had a bottom line that would not be crossed.
Clearly, he had been wrong though. His Master didn’t care about the life or death of those disciples. He wouldn’t mind torturing them to death either if he could just obtain enough benefits from that. He had no bottom line, no sense of right or wrong. To him, as long as it was worth it for his plan, he’d do it. He was that kind of man.
Mu Qing sighed and tried not to think too much. He couldn’t change his Master and he couldn’t change how long he had been complicit in what he was doing. He could only admit to all of it now and hope that Xi Ju Hai was right in how there had to be a chance to change the fate awaiting them.
“Well, I do know he managed to grab enough disciples of the Li Ren Sect to do this. In fact, since it is a physical quality, I believe he had the most success with that. When it comes to the other abilities, it seems he hit a snag. At the very least, I heard nothing about healing abilities or whatever the Blue Butterfly is able to do. I do know that Master was always most careful about not showing his hands and feet in front of the Teng Yong Sect as well so the visions aren’t part of what he can do either. I suppose that is at least a small consolation.”
Xi Ju Hai’s brows furrowed tightly. They had already assumed that the other side would use Yun Bei Fen as bait for Mei Chao Bing since he cared about him so much. So far, she had thought that as long as they protected Elder Baili’s little disciple well, they had nothing to fear though. After all, they first had to get their hands on him before being able to kidnap him. Now, it seemed like the other side had already planned for that as well.
She pondered for a moment and then shook her head to get rid of any extraneous thoughts. “What exactly do you know? How does this work? How do they get the abilities in the first place?”
Mu Qing sighed and pulled her to sit down. “I swear I didn’t know about this originally. Actually, it’s related to the Lin family as well. The reason they … or … we, I suppose, are able to take in any type of energy is that our constitution allows us to ignore whatever requirements there usually are. Then, our bodies can strip the energy of whatever isn’t able to be used directly and reform that into something our body can cope with.”
Xi Ju Hai nodded. If you paid close enough attention to such a process, there was likely a lot to learn about the energies you tried it on. Most likely, Feng Bai Xiao had managed to find a breakthrough point from that while doing tests with his older disciples.
“After experimenting with how it worked for all of us and where the differences and similarities lay, it seems like Master figured out some ideas as to how abilities come about and why they turn out the way they do.
“I’m not entirely sure how many insights he really had but one thing I know for certain is that there is apparently a certain kind of energy involved in using abilities. It is the same for everyone who has once but it can be used differently depending on your own qualifications and the techniques you learn. The practices of our Teng Yong Sect, for example, boost focus-related abilities like that of the Black Warrior.”
Xi Ju Hai nodded. “I see.” Although she didn’t entirely see how he had used that to copy the abilities. Had he taught relevant disciples those techniques? But that seemed rather far-fetched of an idea.
Mu Qing sighed. “Well, knowing this, you should also know that the techniques don’t just influence those who have abilities. It also influences those who don’t. For example, this results in the spiritual energy we cultivate being slightly different between sects and there is even a trace of that seeping into the body.
“Now, what my Master apparently realized was that you could extract that trace and use it for those with the potential to develop an ability. It is … a lot faster than painstakingly teaching them the techniques and having them work on those for years. It’s also a horrifying practice.”
Xi Ju Hai furrowed her brows. “He killed disciples of the sects to obtain that trace.” She didn’t need to ask. It was obvious that this was what had happened.
“Yes. He … set it up in a way that made it look like that wasn’t what had happened. For example, disciples going missing during missions, some of those investigating what was going on in the border region, and sometimes even during exchanges between the righteous sects.
“There were never many at once even though he needs a lot from what I have figured out. He was just very careful about it. He grabbed one or at most two unless it was an opportunity to cover up more. Then, if he couldn’t directly use them, he’d just imprison them first until he did. Over time, there were enough to experiment with them.”
Mu Qing lowered his head and clenched his hands into fists. In fact, he had only found out about this recently when some of the disciples from the Teng Yong Sect had been killed and captured as well. At that time, Qu Yijun had laughed at him when he dared to speak out against it and taunted him with what had happened behind closed doors before that.
He … had never realized. He had known his Master wasn’t a good person and he had known that there had to be a tragedy at the end of his machinations but … he had somehow believed that it couldn’t be this bad. Despite everything, he had wanted to believe that even his Master had a bottom line that would not be crossed.
Clearly, he had been wrong though. His Master didn’t care about the life or death of those disciples. He wouldn’t mind torturing them to death either if he could just obtain enough benefits from that. He had no bottom line, no sense of right or wrong. To him, as long as it was worth it for his plan, he’d do it. He was that kind of man.
Mu Qing sighed and tried not to think too much. He couldn’t change his Master and he couldn’t change how long he had been complicit in what he was doing. He could only admit to all of it now and hope that Xi Ju Hai was right in how there had to be a chance to change the fate awaiting them.
“Well, I do know he managed to grab enough disciples of the Li Ren Sect to do this. In fact, since it is a physical quality, I believe he had the most success with that. When it comes to the other abilities, it seems he hit a snag. At the very least, I heard nothing about healing abilities or whatever the Blue Butterfly is able to do. I do know that Master was always most careful about not showing his hands and feet in front of the Teng Yong Sect as well so the visions aren’t part of what he can do either. I suppose that is at least a small consolation.”
