Chapter 356 - A Burning Reflection and a Silent Prisoner

Chapter 356: Chapter 356 - A Burning Reflection and a Silent Prisoner

The prisoner’s mouth tightened as he recovered enough breath to speak.

His gaze moved over Su Bai’s face again, then shifted toward Ning Shuang as though searching for something he could still use against them.

The chains gave a faint rattle when he tried to straighten.

Su Bai remained crouched in front of him, waiting with a patience that seemed to make the man’s expression worse.

"I do not know you," the prisoner said. "Whatever grievance you think you have, you have found the wrong person."

Su Bai watched him for a moment before standing. A small mirror appeared in his hand, its surface catching the faint light beneath the trees.

He examined it briefly, remembering the last time it had proved useful during an investigation.

Su Bai turned the mirror toward the prisoner and held it where the man could clearly see his own reflection.

The prisoner glanced at it before he could stop himself.

Bruises distorted the borrowed face, blood had dried near his mouth, and the skin beneath his eyes looked almost gray. His hands clenched against the binding chains as humiliation sharpened his anger.

The brat was deliberately showing him what that wretched girl had reduced him to.

"You think this is amusing?"

Su Bai adjusted the mirror slightly.

"Are you certain you do not recognize me?"

"Boy, I have never met you. Release me before—"

The mirror flashed.

Light struck the prisoner’s face, and the rest of his threat broke into a scream. His body jerked hard enough to pull the chains tight across his chest.

For a moment, Su Bai felt the presence inside him recoil. Its strained hold on the flesh trembled beneath the punishment. The man tried to raise his hands toward his head and managed only to scrape the bindings against the tree.

Ning Shuang stepped closer.

"Brother Su, what happened?"

Su Bai tilted the mirror away before answering.

"It burns the soul when someone lies while looking into it."

The prisoner’s scream collapsed into ragged breathing. His head shook slightly, and the muscles along his jaw continued twitching after the light had faded.

Ning Shuang looked from the mirror to Su Bai’s calm expression. A faint chill passed through her despite the satisfaction of seeing the captive’s confidence disappear.

Su Bai crouched again once the man could focus.

"Shall we begin with who you are?"

The prisoner stared at him with bloodshot eyes. Anger remained, but his gaze kept returning to the mirror. His lips parted once before pressing together again.

This time, he offered neither a denial nor a threat.

Su Bai waited.

The man eventually lowered his eyes.

Silence gave the mirror nothing to punish.

Su Bai had expected resistance, although watching it take this particular form reminded him of the reward he had once obtained at the Righteous Inspection Bureau.

Another Reality-Binding Confession Elixir would have been useful for controlling what the prisoner could say. The portion he had received had long since been consumed during his own experiments.

He put the idle thought aside and tried another question.

"What happened after you left Radiant Sky Sect?"

The prisoner’s expression barely changed.

"How did you find this body?"

His fingers tightened.

Su Bai observed that small movement before continuing.

"Were you told where the receiving formation would be?"

The man closed his eyes.

Ning Shuang watched him for a while, then moved beside the tree. She caught his shoulder and directed a thin current of cold Qi into the circulation she had already disrupted during his capture.

His back stiffened against the bark. The breath leaving his mouth became uneven as the cold spread through the injured body.

"Brother Su asked you a question," she said.

The prisoner’s jaw worked.

No answer followed.

She increased the pressure slowly, watching the effort he made to contain his reaction. A dark stain spread through the cloth beneath one of the chains as he struggled.

He finally made a sound, but it remained a broken breath dragged through clenched teeth.

Ning Shuang stopped before the body failed and looked toward Su Bai.

"He is frightened," she said quietly. "He is also determined to remain silent."

Su Bai studied the captive’s face.

The man had survived long enough to reach Void-Shattering. His pride had made him careless around Ning Shuang, but that did not mean pain would make him surrender everything he knew.

Now that he understood the mirror, even his anger had become restrained. Su Bai would have to find something the prisoner had not yet learned to conceal.

He shifted the mirror until the man could see its edge.

"We found the formations on the others."

A slight tension passed through the prisoner’s neck.

"The body you occupy has one as well. Its circulation gathers inward around the spiritual presence settled inside it."

Su Bai let the words rest between them.

"Your original formation carried you away. These appear to give you somewhere to arrive."

The prisoner’s eyes opened.

For a brief moment, the surprise in them was too clear to miss. His gaze moved toward the unconscious men before returning to Su Bai. Then he seemed to remember the mirror and forced his expression still.

Ning Shuang had already noticed.

Su Bai continued without claiming more than he knew.

"You entered a body belonging to another sect. Those disciples were sent to a visiting formation master before this happened. Someone arranged access to them."

The prisoner’s breathing slowed deliberately.

"Was the arrangement made between your sects?"

No reply came.

"Or were both factions following instructions from someone else?"

The man looked down.

Su Bai watched the silence settle more deeply over him. The first question had brought surprise. The second had brought caution.

Neither reaction could explain the entire arrangement, but together they gave him a direction worth pursuing. He moved to the matter Ning Shuang had described most recently.

"The formation master is mysterious. He kept his appearance concealed."

The prisoner’s gaze remained lowered.

"Was he a demonic cultivator?"

His expression did not change.

"A righteous cultivator working with your factions?"

The man swallowed.

Su Bai paused before asking the next question.

"Or someone from outside the Human Realm?"

The prisoner went pale.

It happened quickly enough that Ning Shuang’s attention sharpened at once.

The anger directed toward Su Bai faltered beneath something colder and more immediate. His eyes closed again, and this time the stillness of his face looked deliberate. He seemed to be holding himself inside it.

"Outside this realm?" Ning Shuang repeated.

Su Bai did not look away from the prisoner.

The response gave him no name and no proof of an origin. A man involved in forbidden trade between human factions might fear the suggestion of other realms for reasons Su Bai did not understand.

Still, it was the first question that had made the prisoner retreat so completely from his own temper. Su Bai allowed a little time to pass before testing the possibilities.

He asked about the Deva and Asura Realms, watching for the smallest change. When neither produced a useful response, he brought up the beings of the Animal, Preta, and Naraka Realms.

The prisoner kept his eyes closed throughout. By then, he had learned what Su Bai was doing and was devoting his remaining control to denying him another glimpse.

Ning Shuang watched with equal care.

Nothing she could identify gave them a reliable answer.

Su Bai sighed.

"The artifacts your people carried were made by different hands, yet some of their underlying principles resembled one another. Now those same factions have methods prepared inside living bodies."

The man remained still.

"Who is teaching you?"

A faint movement passed through his throat.

"Who decides which disciples become vessels?"

The chains creaked beneath his hands.

Su Bai leaned closer.

"Who are you so afraid of?"

The prisoner opened his eyes at last.

For several breaths, he stared at Su Bai without speaking. The violent indignation from earlier had almost disappeared.

What remained looked older and far more exhausted, with an apprehension that the pain had only brought into sharper focus.

Su Bai waited, but the man’s gaze dropped toward the mirror and stopped there.

"If you will answer nothing," Su Bai said, "there is little reason to let you recover."

The prisoner’s mouth curved.

It was an ugly attempt at a smile.

"Then kill me."

Ning Shuang’s gaze shifted toward Su Bai.

The man lifted his head as far as the chains allowed.

"Dying in your hands would be better than what follows if I speak."

The mirror remained still.

Su Bai studied his expression. The man had finally answered while looking directly into the reflection, and the punishment had not come.

Whatever he believed awaited him had frightened him more thoroughly than the prospect of death here. That fear belonged to something Su Bai had yet to identify.

"What do you believe will happen?"

The prisoner’s smile trembled.

"You do not understand."

"Then explain it."

The man’s eyes hardened again.

"I would rather die."

Su Bai waited a little longer, watching for the familiar bluster to return. It never did.

Beside him, Ning Shuang’s expression had grown grave, her attention fixed on the prisoner’s face. The clearing felt quieter than it had before the interrogation began.

At last, Su Bai reached for the mirror.