Limitless Cultivation System: From Trash to Immortal

Chapter 155: Interrogation [II]

"If I had been deciding which side to sell myself to, Elder Mu, I would not have come back."

Han Ying’s answer came immediately.

Xuan felt the tension in the room sharpen rather than ease. Quick answers could sound rehearsed. Slow answers could sound guilty. There was no safe path here.

Mu remained where he stood, close enough that Han Ying could see the fine lines around his eyes.

"That is not an answer."

Mu’s voice was not loud. For a moment, Han Ying said nothing. The silence stretched between them, filled only by the faint crackle of the lamp and the distant scratch of the scribe’s brush.

When he finally spoke, his eyes had dropped somewhere past Mu’s shoulder.

"It is the truth, Elder Mu."

The words hung there, thin and insufficient. A faint smile touched Mu’s mouth, though there was no warmth in it.

"The truth," he said, almost to himself, "is rarely as useful as people think."

Han Ying felt his throat tighten.

He remembered cold stone cells. Men dragged out and never brought back. Names erased from records as if they had never existed. Blood Fang did not forgive betrayal. It barely forgave failure.

"I know what happens to people who betray the sect," he said quietly.

Mu waited.

Han Ying let out a slow breath. "I also know what happens to the people who buy them."

For the first time, he looked directly at Mu.

"No one trusts a traitor. Not really. They use him until he’s empty, then they get rid of him before he becomes someone else’s problem."

The scribe continued writing.

Mu’s expression did not change.

The room settled into another silence.

Then Mu asked, almost casually, "So why did it take you so long to come back?"

Han Ying’s fingers curled slightly at his sides.

There it was. The question Mu actually cared about.

"I was wounded."

Mu glanced at him, taking in the healing cuts, the stiffness he still carried.

"You’ve been wounded before."

Han Ying looked away.

For a heartbeat, he seemed tired rather than defensive.

"There is a difference between surviving a battle and surviving after one." Han Ying felt the weight of the room pressing in from every direction. "I knew people were looking for me," he said. "I didn’t know who found my trail first." Only then did his jaw tighten. "And I wasn’t willing to gamble on being wrong."

Xuan could feel Mira searching through memories, trying to find the balance between honesty and survival.

[ Do you think this answer will be enough to satisfy Mu? ]

’We’ll see. Let’s hope so.’

Mira let out a mental sigh.

[ This sack of bones is smarter than most of the people we’ve run into. Far too cautious. ]

Han Ying drew a breath.

"When the mines fell, I didn’t know how much Skyedge had learned. I didn’t know whether they had captured records, intercepted messages, or turned someone inside our network. Every person I contacted could have exposed more than my location."

Mu folded his hands behind his back.

Han Ying kept his gaze lowered, but his voice remained steady. "I did what I believed would protect the sect."

Elder Mu’s eyes hardened. "Protect the sect? Two mines were lost, our agents vanished, and you disappeared for days. Tell me, Han Ying, what exactly did your caution protect?"

Han Ying clenched his jaw. "If I had used the hidden routes and Skyedge was watching them, Blood Fang would have lost far more than two mines."

Mu took a step forward. "And if you had reported sooner, we might have acted before the situation worsened."

"I know." A flicker of frustration crossed Han Ying’s face. "But I had to choose between a risk I understood and one I didn’t. I chose the path that seemed less dangerous."

Silence settled between them, thick enough to feel like another presence in the room.

Neither man looked away. Elder Mu remained where he stood, his gaze fixed on Han Ying, while Han Ying forced himself to hold that stare despite the pressure building in his chest.

Then the sharp sound of approaching footsteps echoed through the chamber.

They were slow and measured, each step arriving with deliberate patience. The sound came from somewhere beyond the rear wall, hidden behind layers of stone and secrecy.

Every guard straightened at once.

The scribe lowered his eyes immediately, his brush hovering above the page without moving.

Even Elder Mu shifted half a step aside, a subtle gesture that somehow carried more weight than any open display of respect.

Xuan noticed it at once.

[ Well. That’s not ominous at all. ]

The footsteps continued, unhurried and steady, stone striking stone with a rhythm that seemed to fill every corner of the chamber.

Someone was moving through a hidden passage behind the room.

The figure never appeared directly. Instead, only the faint movement of a shadow crossed the dark silk screen at the rear of the chamber, hinting at a presence concealed beyond it.

A chair scraped softly from behind the screen, and the sound was enough to make the room grow even quieter.

Then silence.

Whoever had arrived sat down behind the screen. The entire room seemed to settle around it.

Mira went quiet. [ Ah. ]

’You felt that too?’

[ Everyone in the room felt that. ]

Mu waited a beat before turning his attention back to Han Ying.

"Continue."

Han Ying answered without hesitation.

"I chose the slower route because I believed the enemy was watching the obvious channels. By the time I escaped, Skyedge already knew too much about our movements. If I had used a relay shrine or one of the hidden routes and they were compromised, I could have exposed far more than my own position."

Mu folded his hands behind his back and regarded him in silence.

"So your decision was based on suspicion."

"On observation," Han Ying corrected carefully. "I saw how quickly they reacted at the mines. I saw how accurately they moved. Maybe I was wrong, but I judged that risking a wider breach would be worse than arriving late."

The elder’s expression remained unreadable.

"That judgment cost Blood Fang valuable time."

"It may have," Han Ying admitted. "But if those routes had truly been compromised, using them could have cost far more."

The answer lingered in the chamber. Even the scribe slowed his brush, listening.

For several moments, nobody spoke.

Then a voice drifted from behind the screen.

"Elder Mu," the voice said mildly, "don’t you think he is repeating the same answers too often?"

The room went still. Han Ying’s pulse stumbled. Mu did not answer.

The voice continued. "It almost sounds as though he does not wish to give us the answers sitting in his mouth. Or perhaps someone else is speaking for him."

The words landed like knives.

Han Ying felt cold sweat gather beneath his robes.

Behind the screen, the unseen figure let the silence stretch.

"Or maybe," the voice said softly, "someone is controlling him."

Xuan’s blood ran cold.

Mira went completely silent.

Mu finally spoke.

"You believe that is the case?"

"I believe possibilities should not be ignored."

The voice sounded amused now.

Dangerously amused.

"After all, Elder Mu... I think we may have some curious cats listening to us."

Xuan felt his heart slam against his ribs.

For one terrifying instant, it felt as though the figure behind the screen was staring directly at him despite the impossible distance between them.

Mira reacted first.

[ Xuan. ]

Her voice was tight.

Far tighter than he had ever heard it.

[ Don’t move. Don’t think. Don’t react. ]

’Did they find us?’

That frightened him more than anything.

The silence stretched.

Then Mira finally spoke.

[ The probability is very high that the person behind that screen has already noticed the centipede. ]

Xuan’s hands clenched.

Inside Blood Fang, Han Ying remained perfectly still. As if any movement might expose something.

Mira’s voice dropped lower.

[ Maybe not with certainty. Maybe not enough to know who is looking through it. But enough to know something is there. ]

Behind the screen, the unseen figure chuckled softly.

"And you know what happens to curious cats?" The smile in that voice somehow became audible.

Then silence swallowed the room.

And Xuan suddenly realized he could no longer tell whether the danger was aimed at Han Ying...

Or at him.