Once their eyes met, Cruz was helpless to Shui's charm. He could have done this from the start, but he didn't want to treat him roughly if he wasn't involved in the heinous acts happening in the city. He was almost sure that he was involved before he even saw him, but since he was a friend of his mother's he wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.
After Cruz's eyes turned dull, Shui approached him and placed his hand on his temple so that he could get a better look into his memory. Even though Cruz was in the Earth Realm, he would still be helpless before Shui, or at least he should have been.
"What?"
When Shui tried to access Cruz's memories, something he had done many times before, he was confused by the firm force pushing him back. Shui was sure that this wasn't Cruz's own power, which meant that it had to be from an external source. With a bit of searching, Shui discovered a intricately designed necklace that was hidden under his clothes.
'I should have expected him to have made preparations against this sort of thing considering the amount of money that should be at his disposal.'
If Shui was impatient he would have quickly removed the necklace, but as he still had control over his thoughts despite the anger that was still present within him, Shui managed to notice something critical about the necklace.
'I can't be the one to remove it.'
The necklace was set up so that only the owner could remove it or it would shine brightly to alert allies. It was a decent measure to stop someone from stealing it, but it wasn't enough to prevent Shui from getting the information he wanted. If he couldn't access Cruz's memory from the outside, then he simply needed to make him show it to him.
Shui took out a clear crystal that was inscribed with 'Store' and 'Memory'. This crystal was the remains of a high-quality spirit gem after it had been emptied of its energy. It didn't have many popular uses after being drained of energy, but it could serve as an excellent container for ethereal items so Shui had experimented with this property of its in his spare time.
His determination in terms of cultivation could not be questioned, but Shui was curious by nature so there were many occasions where he would take some time to research things that interested him.
"Copy your memory to this."
Without the ability to have second thoughts, Cruz took the crystal and placed it on his forehead. He was recording his entire life experience into the crystal, but it only took about five minutes for him to finish. This had nothing to do with Cruz's mental ability but rather the ability of the crystal to absorb his memories like a sponge.
After Cruz returned the crystal, Shui used his spiritual sense to scan its contents. He quickly skimmed through his sap story of a childhood where he had to fight to raise his position in the family, but paused when he noticed a familiar face.
'Mom...'
He had thought that they were exaggerating when he was younger, but his mother looked the same in Cruz' memory. He took his time going through this portion of his memory, and so he was able to notice something strange. Suiri had said that Cruz was a friend, but in the memory they didn't seem close at all. It was just Cruz pursuing her while she rejected his advances. Shui was suspicious but he kept going through the memory since there was no time to waste. However, he narrowed his eyes when he arrived at the time when Cruz came to visit Suiri.
It was an irritating scene but not something that should have caused his blood to boil, however, he quickly recalled that his mother's condition suddenly got worse after this incident.
'Why didn't I notice it before?! His arrival was the only thing special that happened before Mom passed away. I should have realized that someone might have aggravated her which would explain why her condition worsened. In which case, it's his fault. If only he hadn't visited her...'
Shui believed that he had accepted his mother's death, but this new piece of information brought back all of the pain he felt for not being able to keep her alive. As his grip around the crystal tightened, Shui's instability caused a dangerous amount of malice to leak from his body. The killing intent from a predator was enough to make common people freeze in fear, so what leaked from Shui was on the level of being fatal.
Anyone who wasn't in the Soul Realm clutched their chests in agony as if a hand had grabbed their hearts. It would only take a couple more seconds, a couple more seconds would be enough for deaths to start occurring, but before it turned to that the red spirit pinched his ear.
"Ah," Shui uttered despite not actually being in pain.
"Restrain yourself."
Once he was awakened from his dangerous mindset, Shui quickly withdrew his overflowing emotions with a guilty expression.
"...Thanks. I'm sorry I woke you up."
"Yes, you should be. What did you see?"
"...He was the one who pushed my mother to her death."
"I see, then, it's fine if you want revenge, but don't forget where you are. Unless you're okay with killing so many innocents just because you lost control?"
"No, it won't happen again."
"I hope so. I'm going back to sleep, don't bother me again."
Despite her rough tone, Shui knew that the red spirit had interfered for his sake so he thanked her in his heart. When he looked at the dull-eyed Cruz he could still feel his hate rising, but he could now suppress it. With contempt in his heart, Shui went through the rest of Cruz's memory and sighed.
As it related to the whereabouts of his big sisters, he had a good clue so his primary objective was completed, but in the Valet merchant family Emily didn't have a very high position even after she became the disciple of Nikolai so all he found out was that the two of them had left the five city region a couple years ago. Additionally, from Cruz's memory he also found out that this morning, Jacob had been imprisoned as a suspect in his father's murder.
'So he really did it. I suppose I should go free him later.'
Ready to save his big sisters and bring judgement on the invaders, Shui stood up and looked at Cruz. He thought about just killing him but then shook his head.
"Rather than a swift death, I'll have you watch as everything you worked hard for burns before your eyes."
Shui left through the door and at the same time as it closed, Cruz awoke from his trance.
"Huh? What was I...?"
He remembered entering this room to see Shui, but everything other than that was a blur. Cruz spent a few minutes trying to figure out what happened to him, but sooner than he could a servant came to remind him of an important meeting and he had to put it aside.
After meeting with Cruz, Shui was ready to fix the mess that Cyrus had become. He didn't need to become a hero that would be recorded in history, or rewarded with countless jewels, he only wanted to return Cyrus to a place that his loved ones could live in peace.
"Big sis Ali, big sis Ria, please be safe."