Chapter 113: The Trap and Suppressed Memories

Having spent more than a full day underground, An decided it was time to keep moving. Watching through the Qi flows how the creatures were still raging on the surface, even after all this time, he decided to keep carving his way forward, deep underground.

Making his way through the depths, he started noticing the concentration of demonic energy around him steadily dropping. 'Could this be because of those bats?'

Stopping suddenly, he started searching above himself for the nearest creature, wanting to analyze it again.

'Hm... No, I don't see anything suggesting these things are absorbing only the demonic portion of the Qi, or filtering it out somehow...' Realizing that wasn't the cause, he kept moving. 'So this shift in the Qi has to come from something else entirely. Strange.'

Only a few minutes into digging his tunnel, he noticed a surge of Qi suddenly appear at the very edge of his observation range.

Turning his head toward the source of that energy, he frowned. 'That's definitely not a creature, and definitely not a plant, not something like the Ginseng or the tree-woman either... Hm, I can't read any Qi off this object at all.'

'Hm, judging by the density and purity of this Qi, it's clearly above second rank, or Foundation Establishment level, maybe higher... What could this actually be?'

Changing course, he started drifting slowly toward the source of this strange energy. 'I hope I'm not making a mistake here... But judging by the type of energy, it's definitely something between a spirit plant and a mineral. Just please, please don't let it be sentient!'

Drifting closer and closer, he suddenly felt a deep, unfamiliar craving take root inside him, a feeling of greed.

The closer he got to the source, the stronger that craving tore at him from within, until he frowned. 'Craving? Greed? Wait!!'

Whooosh!

Before he could stop himself, he barely registered a burst of Qi shooting out from the source at tremendous speed, flying straight at him.

"Ah!" Unable to react in time, that stream of energy shot straight through his dantian, right into his inner world.

Frozen instantly, he lost every bit of control over his own body.

Against his own will, An opened his eyes inside his inner world, finding himself right in front of a clump of energy, and inside it, a small statuette.

Trying to move, he realized every attempt to use his spiritual body had failed too.

"Hooo~ plenty of room in here, aren't we..." A melodic woman's voice suddenly drifted out of the statuette.

Before the words had even finished echoing, the statuette began glowing and growing in size.

Reaching nearly three meters tall, the statuette started coming to life, shedding its stone shell.

Freeing herself from the last scrap of stone skin, a woman wrapped head to toe in a thin veil slowly shook her head. "Aah~" She let loose a mane of pure white, wavy hair, longer than her own height.

"How interesting. Hmm~" Opening a pair of pink eyes, she ran a hand through her locks and looked around. "For a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and only just broken through, too. You know, your inner world's quite impressive... Hmm, definitely built using some kind of soul-cultivation technique. Ah! Even better for me!"

Looking around a while longer, she finally settled her gaze on An's eyes, her burning pink irises staring straight into his soul, laying bare every one of his hidden secrets like an open book.

….

'Damn it! Idiot! How could I fall for this! Damn mind-affecting techniques! Damn illusions!' Had An still had control over his body, even his spiritual form would have been shaking with fear right now. Looking into her eyes, he felt himself unravel completely, and worse, he felt something inside him begging him, urging him, to open his mouth and say something.

Every ounce of calm his two Daos usually gave him failed to keep up with the situation.

'No! I have to stay silent! This feeling, the one I felt earlier, right before I stupidly flew straight into her trap under her technique's influence, it's the exact same feeling now! I have to stay silent! Keep my mouth shut!'

'That's my only real shot... isn't it? Please?' Focusing hard, An managed to pull himself back together and wrestle control back from the panic. He poured most of his remaining mental reserves into keeping his mouth shut, fighting against this artificial temptation.

….

Hovering close by, staring into his green eyes, the woman could see and feel his internal struggle. "Ah! How fascinating! With cultivation this low, with no experience or understanding of mind-clouding techniques at all, you're still fighting back! Hahaha! How adorable~"

"Hmm, judging by the state of your world, you're clearly descended from someone assimilated into the Lower World, oh~" Suddenly realizing something, she drifted closer to An, reached out, gently took hold of his chin, tilted his head up, and brought her face right up against his, staring intently into his eyes.

"My master never had much patience for those who just gave up after being exiled to the lower worlds... She always used to say that if you don't scrub that kind of filth out from under your nails, it just keeps breeding and spreading everywhere."

Still gazing into his eyes, she let out a faint, audible sigh.

"Eeh, my brothers and sisters, most of them, anyway, always sided with my master's view. But not me! I've always found myself fascinated, mesmerized even, by the bond between the exiled and the primates of the lower worlds. Their broken will, their fight over scraps, their shattered dreams, their hopes that never came true across generations of assimilated primates!"

Letting go of An's face, she spread her arms wide and exclaimed, "Ah! And the way you all experience love! Their love, the sacrifices they make for the ones they love! Their feelings, carrying on across thousands of years... Feelings of hopelessness, knowing full well that neither they nor their heirs will ever escape this place! Ahaha!"

Her expression suddenly dimmed, her bright smile turning faintly sorrowful. "In my world... everything's already planned out before we're even born. No one cares about love. Only ties, connections... no romance, no sacrifice for love, just cold calculation. Family and clan needs always come first. Ah! Where has that fading will of yours gone!"

….

'The more nonsense she rambles on about, the more I want to open my mouth and say something! Ha! Please! Hold on!' Completely paralyzed, listening to this strange rambling as she jumped from one topic to another, he did everything he could to keep his mouth shut.

He even tried cutting off his own hearing, but every time he tried to focus on that, it felt like being jabbed with needles, his concentration snapping right back to her words, his mind being forced to lock in on them, convincing him that whatever she was saying was the single most important, most fascinating thing he'd ever heard or ever would hear.

….

"Oh, your mind's stronger than I expected. Genuinely impressive... though it is a shame." Nearly pressing against him now, she cupped his face in one hand and used her thumb to pry his mouth open, holding it there. "I really didn't want to use this technique. It can damage the physical body, you know. But you're not leaving me much choice... Ah, if you'd just opened up to me, it never would've come to this..."

With her finger in his mouth, An lost it, staring at her with wide eyes. 'Wh-what is this? Don't-!' Suddenly he began falling into an abyss, everything around him going dark, only those two glowing pink eyes above him, watching closely.

"Let's see how long you can keep me out, little lesser primate." Her gaze turned cold as she stared straight through An's slightly trembling spiritual body.

….

Finding himself in total darkness, An started looking around. 'Wh-where am I? What's happening?' He tried scanning everything around him, tried reading the Qi, but every attempt came up empty, he couldn't pull anything from the flows around him.

"Did you get the kids ready?"

Suddenly hearing a woman's voice, he flinched. Spinning around sharply, he saw white silhouettes, like curls of smoke.

'Th-this... No.' Recognizing the voice, An started shaking.

"Yep, they're all set, already sitting in the car waiting for their mom!" A man's voice answered, one that sounded like An's own, just a little rougher.

"No way, already in the car? How'd you manage to get them ready that fast? Huh, I didn't know you'd learned hypnosis!" The female silhouette and the male one drew close and intertwined.

"It's all about persuasion, you know... I didn't earn that 'World's Best Dad' frame for nothing!" Holding her in his arms, the male silhouette tilted his chin up slightly and puffed out his chest.

"Pfft! Haha! Sure, sure, let me guess, you promised them a giant ice cream again if they behaved?" Laughing, the woman wrapped her arms around the man's neck.

"Ha? How'd you know that? Which one of them ratted me out?" Pretending to be annoyed, though his voice stayed soft, he pulled her closer.

Brring! Brring!

A phone suddenly rang.

"Ah! I'm going to be so late because of you!" Trying to pull free of his arms, she found he was still holding on.

"Didn't forget something, did you?" Still not letting go, he lifted her slightly, and they melted into a kiss.

"I really am going to be late now!" Breaking the kiss first, she kicked her legs, wanting him to set her down.

'N-no... don't let go... please. Don't let her go.' Off to the side, head bowed, eyes shut, An couldn't bring himself to watch, the same thought looping endlessly in his mind. 'Don't let her go...'

"Alright, alright, fine! Oh, and hey! Don't tell them I know they ratted me out! I've got something planned for them this evening!" Setting her down, the man leaned against something and watched as the woman put on her shoes.

Reaching the door, she turned, blew a few kisses, and opened it. "Bye! See you tonight!"

"See you tonight!" Watching her silhouette walk away, both figures began to dissolve.

The moment the silhouettes faded completely, An dropped to his knees, staring down at nothing, his eyes empty.

….

"Hm, just as I suspected. Too much time's passed since I gave up my physical body." Nearly touching noses with An, she kept staring straight into his eyes.

"Besides, his spiritual and physical bodies are both far too strong. Even using the Opening of the Soul's Gate technique, I can't get full access to his consciousness. Ah! How frustrating! A few hundred years ago, I would've erased his consciousness without the slightest trouble!" Stepping back slightly from the paralyzed An, she considered how best to proceed.

"The Opening of the Soul's Gate technique uses a cultivator's strongest memories to weaken their soul and pry open their consciousness. Whether it's anger, grief, guilt..." Still peering into his eyes from a distance, her delicate nose scrunched up more and more, small wrinkles gathering around her eyes.

"Without full visual immersion, I can't weaken his soul enough to actually seize control... I need to come up with something else, and fast, while he's still lost inside himself and hasn't found his way back!" Closing her eyes, she started running through every possible option for erasing his consciousness without damaging either his spiritual shell or his physical body, she needed him intact to take control cleanly.

"Eh, looks like I don't have much of a choice, I'll have to weaken his inner world directly, damage the very structure of his soul..." Letting out a deep sigh, she drifted right up against An again and, touching his forehead, sent a tiny particle of her own Qi into him, whispering something as she did.

….

Still inside, still kneeling in the darkness, An felt a crushing weight tearing him apart from within, and lifted his head.

Seeing two enormous pink eyes staring straight at him, anger and fury began boiling up inside him, overtaking and drowning out every bit of despair, every bit of weakness.

'I... I! I hate illusions! I hate mind games!' Rising from his knees, the tears at the corners of his eyes dried instantly, turning to ash. Every inch he rose, the sheer effort of standing tore at his skull, building unbearable pressure, birthing an overwhelming urge to give up, but rage and fury drowned every trace of weakness beneath them, refusing to let it surface, even his usual calm surrendering fully to the emotions flooding through him, shoved far into the background.

Rising higher and higher, straightening his legs, everything around him began to crack and crumble, fractures spreading around those two pink eyes.

Light began pouring through those cracks, faintly illuminating the black abyss.

'You bitch! You think I'll let you shatter my soul, my inner world!' Wrestling his mind back under control, he started picking up faint signals describing exactly what was happening.

'Think! I need to figure something out!' Closing his eyes, he focused, searching for some way to fight back. 'My Qi isn't responding, neither of my bodies are responding! She's stripped away my control!'

Realizing exactly what situation he was in, An, buried beneath layers of fury, couldn't feel anything else at all.

But in the next instant, realizing that surrendering to these emotions could only hurt him, he closed his eyes for a moment and opened them again, this time, along with the fury, a trace of rational thought had crept back in. He managed to calm himself partially, refusing to let the emotions take total control.

'What if-?' Suddenly thinking of the Cycle Symbol, he tried reaching out to it, checking whether it was still under his control. 'Yes! Yes!' Realizing his CycleSymbol, holding both of his Daos, still answered to his commands, he started working out what to do next.

'I can't damage my own inner world, that would basically be the end of me... I can't use my Daos for a direct attack either, that'd be idiotic...' Running through every option available to him, an idea suddenly struck him.

'What if I use my aspects, and release the stored energy inside the Cycle Symbol outward? That wouldn't hurt my inner world directly, the only risk is it could badly weaken my mind for an indeterminate amount of time, from the strain and imbalance...'

Lifting his head, watching those eyes grow bigger and brighter, 'This is my only shot!'

Closing his eyes, he began working the CycleSymbol, spinning it up to its absolute limit.