novelraw Chapter 7
Chapter 7
It was a long void of silence that followed, yet their eyes were fixated on each other. It seemed as though the only beings in the world were the two of them, not a single thing could pull them out of it.
She was the first to break the ice, as her smile widened and her eyes narrowed.
”When did you find it out? I was quite confident in this play.”
“You overestimate me. I have only realised it just now. Being completely honest, I must say your technique is indeed flawless.”
Qi Chen went on, recounting the events that had brought him to his ultimate conclusion.
”However, there should be absolutely no reason for me to feel positive emotions towards you.”
”To be exact, the correct feeling I think I would have felt was anger instead of mere annoyance towards our previous banter.”
“After all, no matter how well adjusted I was to this absurdity of a situation, feeling positive emotions towards you was off the table.”
”The only flaw of your art was merely because you exaggerated my feelings too much.”
”Perhaps stopping at neutrality, and slowly pumping it upwards to some feelings of goodwill and attraction would work much better.”
”A natural progression curve, that way, I would not have even realised its existence.”
”How should I put it…”
”Right, you were simply too hasty.”
”That was the only reason I felt something was off.”
Her smile only grew wider as her eyes stayed glued to him.
“Go on. I am sure that is not your only reason.”
Her response was essentially a confirmation of his hypothesis, pumping him with the confidence needed to voice out his guess.
“You have said earlier that it is too inefficient to use charm arts on both the body and the soul, thus charm arts are usually directed towards the soul, making it far less effective towards mortals.”
”Your explanation of only targeting the soul instead of the body was because cultivators only focus on the soul.”
“But I assume that it was to intentionally mislead me, causing me to forgo the possibility of you influencing both my body and soul when you were far capable of doing both at the same time, rather it should be what you usually do.”
He paused for a while, shooting a glance at her, begging for confirmation.
“Go on, I know you have more things as for how you could come to this conclusion, after all, those shouldn’t be enough to convince you, should they?”
She avoided any confirmation, yet her vague answer was like an irresistible bait, he could not resist it, more than anything, he wanted to confirm his guess.
“The information the guard shared with me was one of the crucial clues to piece together my first guess.”
“He has previously confirmed my guess that cultivation improves the Soul Qi, while also giving me the crucial clue that not all cultivators are aware of this fact.”
“Those who are in the ability to know of these ‘truths’ should not be a large majority of cultivators.”
“In the mortal world where people hide important facts from each other, and the only time you ever learn of it is by joining huge powers.”
”Cultivators are inevitably still human, and I believe that the knowledge of ‘soul qi’ should be one of those intentionally concealed information.
“This means that there would be a large number of ignorant cultivators who solely focus on the other two qi.”
“For them, they would much more likely focus on the body rather than the soul, meaning your previous words were a flat out lie. If a majority of cultivators still focus on the body, solely influencing the soul is quite illogical.”
“Which leads me to my final conclusion, rather than merely targeting one part of a body, a typical charm art actually targets both.”
“You only targeted my soul in order to instill the false ingrained belief that you would only use charm arts on the soul or the body, but never both.”
“With that, your plan was genuinely flawless. With me falling for the trap, if not for the inexplicable goodwill I felt towards you, I would have never realised it.”
”Is my guess correct?”
He gazed back at her iridescent sky blue eyes, his eyes begging for an answer.
Sensing his anticipation, she clapped like a respectful audience towards a hard working performer.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I knew you were interesting.”
”But well, don’t hate me too much, I only did this so you would not resist too much during the ‘molding’.”
”I know that much, it is not like I could do anything in the first place, you could do anything you wanted, and the fact you chose a rather harmless method…”
”I should be the one thanking you instead.”
Despite his words being appreciative, his voice was filled to the brim with obvious displeasure and barely disguised disgust.
Despite that, a scholar is one foolishly led by the sweet scent of knowledge.
No rocks left unturned.
The general rule of a scholar was to get to the bottom of everything.
”So how do charm arts actually work? I know you said you were not able to share the details of it previously, but since the soul part was a lie, is this too?”
Seeing his amusing reaction, she couldn’t help but let out a laugh.
“Well that part was true.”
”However, since you have given me such an interesting performance, I suppose I can give you some knowledge as some kind of payment.”
The second she agreed, his ears perked up, with his eyes lighting up with a fervent almost obsessive glow.
”Please enlighten me.”
His reaction was all she needed, resuming her standard smile, she continued.
”Charm arts are a rather unique type of cultivation arts.”
”It is not a soul technique nor a mystic technique.”
”Rather it exists as something in between.”
“Soul arts are arts that can only be performed upon reaching Soul Core, and only affects the soul, while mystic techniques are usually physical, with few exceptions.”
“There is a small part where you are wrong, but considering the information you set out with, it was nevertheless a very good guess.”
“No, an exquisite one even.”
“There is no such thing as only affecting the soul or the body, there is no in between switch.”
”It affects the connection between the soul and the body, hijacking that sensation, and outputting the desired results the caster wants.”
”I do not have the option to solely affect the body nor the soul, the part about mortals breaking free easier was a lie.”
”By muddling the connection of the body and soul, we start sending false information towards both sides. With the body transmitting falsified physical experiences and the soul transmuting it into false feelings, it acts as an interceptor in between, making it quite easy to fool both of them.”
He was deep in thought, but the more he listened the clearer it seemed.
His previous guess had several parts he could not understand, but with the explanation she gave, his mind was beginning to clear up as he was edging towards the very moment of ‘Eureka’.
”The weird feeling I had previously…”
”It was not because you only targeted the soul, but rather the work of the charm arts?”
”You catch on quick. Yes, it does not necessarily only produce positive feelings.”
”With a bit of tuning, we can project any desired reaction and feeling, all while making the person feel as if they made the decision themselves.”
”This is how I made you lower your guard, by letting you believe you broke out of the charm arts because I only targeted the soul earlier on, combined with a bit of misleading information, it all falls together, like the final piece of a puzzle.”
”Honestly, charm arts are a rather deceptive title.”
“More accurately, this is emotion manipulation that is practically impossible for one to realise.”
Magical.
Mystical.
Insane.
This was beyond anything he had thought of.
This was no charm arts, rather it is meant to trick even the smartest to underestimate it.
”That is indeed a smart move.”
”By downplaying the effects of ‘charm arts’ to merely projecting positive feelings, you conceal its true effects.”
“Using the ignorance and prejudice people have towards charm arts, you hide its true effects.”
”Using its name as mist to misguide others…”
“Cultivators are truly miraculous individuals.”
“Truly horrifying.”
Seeing his serious expression, her amusement grew further.
That said, he did not notice her change in her expression, he was too absorbed.
He was in a trance, fueled by the drug of knowledge, yet despite all her explanation, it didn’t feel right.
”But there is one thing I don’t get.”
“Go on!”
Her voice dripped with anticipation, after all, for a puzzler, the only joy in their lives came from someone completely understanding and uncovering the mystery they had set.
The joy is euphoric, addictive and dangerous, just like the joy that comes from uncovering mysteries, setting mysteries is just another side of the same coin.
The joy is paramount, if not greater.
“While I might not know you well enough, I certainly believe that someone capable of doing so many mental suggestions and schemes could not possibly leave a loophole as crude as merely ‘rushing it’.”
Taking a deep breath, he asked the sole question left in his mind.
“Was it done on purpose?”
The question that left his mouth was followed by moments of absolute silence, akin to a void.
The incense drifting around the room made it stuffy and the awkward silence made the room unbearable for anyone other than the two.
Two peas in the same pot, each no less insane than the other.
“You got it.”
Her voice was shaking from pure unfiltered joy.
”You got everything!”
”EVERYTHING!”
She stood up, her voice almost crazed, a shocking sight compared to her previous calm and playful demeanor.
Yet Qi Chen was unfazed, not that he wasn’t shocked by her near 180 switch up in her personality, after all he knew that feeling quite well.
Carefully laying out a framework for a mystery, and letting the person uncover the mystery exactly the way you envisioned it was a feeling of joy in its own league.
“Genuinely, you are the best person I ever met, the most fun, most interesting person!”
”This must be what they mean by love!”
Hearing that, Qi Chen felt the need to correct her.
”That is not love, simply joy, rather a joy on par with the ecstasy that what is known as love can bring.”
”How would you know?”
Her reply had him in a chokehold.
Yes, how would he know?
It was not like he had ever loved anyone either.
Her words sent him into a deep sea of thought and self reflection.
Am I wrong?
Could I really be wrong?
What if what she is feeling is love?
What even can be considered love?
Love is after all a type of joy, love is too broad of a term.
A simple casual remark had set him back ten years in his studies.
Yes, what really is love?
He was deep in thought before a voice once again cut him off.
”Your answer is perfect, the exact way I would have solved it, a wonderful 9.8 out of 10.”
”The 0.2 points are to prevent you from being arrogant.”
At that moment she felt as if one of his teachers who always preached about humility, and while he respected them enough to listen, he wasn’t quite sure about her.
”I suppose I should give you a reward.”
”Tell me, what you want, I shall grant you anything you could ever wish for.”
“Anything?”
His response was near immediate, a reward from a higher up of one of the biggest demonic sects was nothing to be scoffed at.
”Don’t tell me you want me?”
Her voice was a perfect mixture of shyness and seductiveness, if it was any normal man, they would have folded.
“No.”
”So cruel~”
Ignoring her callous remarks, he voiced the one thing he wanted.
”I want your charm arts.”