"Do you think it would be easy?! Do you think if you just guess it, it will be the truth?!" the bandit said in defense, to hide his panic.
'How did he guess it?! It is one of my best kept secret!' the man in front of him merely smiled, though it is not a kind one.
"Guess, no, I can tell. Your Inner Realm, your Noble Tower, despite it being destroyed, it have some connection to the Law of Life, or Law of Nature, does two tend to be the same, besides Law of Yin-Yang.
So, you must find a heritage of a Dual Cultivator that used the plant, and use it to rise up. Good for you," his expression turned darker, "except the Art in question is despicable," a powerful aura slammed into his Soul, making him scream in pain.
"You use to bully those weaker than you," the man slowly walked towards him. "Now you are weaker than me, so I am going to beat you up,"
His Soul began to flicker once more as another Soul Wave slammed into the bandit, his scream of agony filling the Inner Realm.
-x-
Ryker looked at the weakened Soul. He had been holding back, as he can easily destroy the Soul in 20 seconds. However, he did want to do it just yet, mainly of two reasons.
The first one is that doing so will cause the memory that retain the knowledge of the way to make the aphrodisiac to be lose, making curing the two guards from near impossible, to straight impossible.
The second is more twisted. Killing him is not enough. Ryker wished to torment the man in front of him, making him pay as he ripped his Soul apart.
"P-please, I will give you the recipe. Just end it," the man pleaded. His previous arrogant demeanor is no more, replaced by the terrified visage.
"You should have done so earlier. Then you might die quicker," his cold tone cause the bandit to regret it. If he just do so, he will not be forced under such humiliation.
If he could turn back time, he would have focus on escaping. He would not even attack the two as the one behind them is much more terrifying than he could imagine.
Ryker watched the bandit's Soul whimper. Normally, even a Half-Noble expert with Soul at the Materialization Realm would not be able to defeat the Soul of a Noble expert.
However, it is just normally. Through the book, once someone manage to reach the Materialization Realm, the growth of their Soul would be greater when they reach the Noble Realm.
There is another way to improve Soul strength to. Similar to qi, Soul also have low, intermediate, high grade. Some are born with high-grade, in the form of special constitution. For most people, the only way to have high-grade Soul is by practicing high-grade Soul Art.
His Soul Art, Celestial Soul Art is no doubt top-tier, allowing him to defeat even the Soul of Noble expert. Then again, his Soul is not too strong. If he faced against a Noble expert who focused on the Soul, then the result of the battle will change.
"I-if, you don't let me live, then I will blow up my Soul!" the Soul Avatar threaten. Though, he did not know it yet, but it is an empty threat.
"Do you think you can blow up your Soul?" the question send shiver down the Soul Avatar. He perform a handset, trying to ignite and destroy his Soul. However, nothing happened.
"Wha-" "Do you think I am stupid enough to let you do as you please? Right now, you in my mercy, and I have ways to not just stop you from blowing up your Soul, but also to get the information I need," Ryker said with contempt as the hand of his Soul Avatar turned into claws, descending towards the fearful man.
He tried to move out of the way, but chains appeared, stopping him from doing so. He could only scream as the claw pierced the head of his Soul Avatar, immense pain erupting as it happened.
Ryker let out a smile as he used a Technique to gain intels. It can be considered inhumane but Ryker had not consider bandits as deserving of mercy, unless if they are forced to it under certain circumstances. The world are not just black and white, and that is something his parents taught him.
The Technique is called Devouring Memory. It allow him to extract the memory and put.it inside his mind. The only weakness it is the difficulty of targeting one particular memory. It also will cause immense pain to the target, but Ryker consider it to be a pleasant feature, if used against despicable enemies.
Though, it does take while, especially when the target in question live for a long time. With how Noble experts could live up to more than 300 hundred years, and that is the shortest lifespan unless they met an untimely end.
So, he need to sift through few hundreds worth of memory to find the recipe of the aphrodisiac. Oh, and any information of the would be attack on the caravans too.
-x-
The warden looked warily. A Genesis Sea expert had just contend with a Noble expert in battle of Soul. The only reason he did not stop him is because it is done suddenly and took him by surprise.
He hope the young man is okay, or else his head will roll. His thought was broken when Ryker opened his eyes and told him, "Give me the information slip,"
An information slip is a slip made out of carrying materials, but with only one purpose, to store information, as it is in the name. The was to use it is by having the cultivator to use his Soul and pour the information inside the slip. Saving time to write the information. It can also be used multiple time, with the downside is that the information can be easily accessed, so the confidential information would be send with other methods.
The young man took the two slips and use his Soul on both of them. He then hand him both, "The one on the right is about the recipe. Give it to the President of Craftsman Alliance. The one on the left is about the plan of attack. Give it to the Crown Prince,"
The warden nodded as he left, before looking back, "What abo-" "Burn him down," he said with venom.
"There is nothing else to learn from him. Besides, he might as well be a corpse right now," a use of Soul Sense tell the warden all he need to know, that the bandits has his Soul torn to shreds, making him a living corpse.