The reason he had to keep scanning his memory was because he couldn't remember the entirety of Jeremy's life even if he only scanned the past four months.
Remembering the overload of memories his brain went through when he first awakened still sent shivers down his spine.
So everytime he only filtered what he wanted instead of registering each moment of the target's life in his own memory.
Within a few seconds, Eryndor locked onto the timeframe he wanted in Jeremy's memory.
A month ago, Rodrick had gone missing for a period of time.
Since he didn't tell anyone, Jeremy took a guess that Rodrick might have gone for a solo mission.
The Mayor's opposition died one by one a few weeks ago, considering that Rodrick went missing a month ago, there's a high probability that he left the Academy for this task.
But if he didn't personally enter the town how did they die?
Eryndor knew that mages didn't have such a high range in the early stages.
Jeremy was in the Academy the entire time Rodrick was out removing opposition leaders for his older brother.
So he couldn't have mind controlled Jeremy to carry out the task.
If he had a person under him who followed his orders, Rodrick wouldn't have to leave the Academy.
He could've just ordered the person to carry out the task while staying in the Academy.
That left only one option.
Eryndor's heartbeat sped up just thinking about it.
Rodrick might have another person under his mind control.
Eryndor wasn't arrogant enough to think he had considered all the possibilities but the one he thought about had far higher chances of being the correct one.
Just as he thought about it, another question soon popped up.
Why didn't he kill the people himself but mind controlled someone to do it?
Eryndor couldn't make sense of this point.
It was very likely that he was missing more pieces of information.
With a tired sigh, Eryndor fully laid back on his bed and grabbed his phone.
He opened his group chat and sent a message after a minute of thought.
"Does the victim know they have been mind controlled in the past? Will alerting the victim of their situation alert the controller?
"And lastly, can mind controllers modify memories? Like removing, adding, or changing memories?"
It was Paulina again who was the first to respond.
"Just like how someone else can find the problem in the memory of the victim, the victim can also detect the situation themselves if they happen to realise the inconsistencies.
"As for the second question, I am not too well versed in it, but the controller should only be alerted if they are connected to the victim when you alert them, at least as far as I know.
"For your last doubt, there are various types of mind controllers, but ones who can modify the memories fall in the smallest category, it's rare to run into one with that ability.
"Majority of the mind controllers can only tinker a bit with their own memory before sending it to the victim's brain.
"The main part of their ability lies in controlling minds to do their task, having little to do with memories."
There wasn't any reply from the other two group mates but Eryndor was already satisfied with the answer he received.
Maybe those two had already fallen asleep.
His reason for asking this was that if professor Melissa was controlled, it would be a useless endeavor to alert her of the suspicious things happening here.
But knowing that only when connected would Rodrick be alerted, Eryndor put his mind to ease.
He couldn't be controlling professor Melissa when she was sleeping right?
Eryndor temporarily put aside his thoughts and began cultivating after sitting cross legged.
It was late into night, he could do the thinking after going through his daily practice of cultivating.
Closing his eyes, he imagined the circuit of meridians.
A few minutes later when he had imagined a large portion of it, the sensation of Qi in his meridians appeared.
With precise measurement, he controlled a certain amount of Qi which he could handle and began moving it through the circuit of meridians mentioned in the practice technique.
As soon as he completed a round, he could sense that the amount of Qi in his meridians had increased.
He repeated the procedure, this time controlling a larger amount of Qi to move through the circuit.
The amount of Qi one could control to move through the circuit was directly proportional to the amount of Qi they gained after completing one round.
But one had to make sure they were controlling only how much they could handle.
If they mistakenly sent their Qi in a meridian which was not a part of the circuit or lost control of some Qi during moving it through the circuit, the cultivator would suffer serious backlash.
Eryndor only controlled how much he was confident of handling and continued cycling his Qi.
Finally, after a certain point, all the Qi in his meridians began boiling.
Imaginary warmth spread through his body, giving him an almost lifelike illusion of being submerged in warm water.
Suddenly, the sound of a glass breaking rang in his ears as all the warmth disappeared.
Clenching his hands, Eryndor controlled his Qi to form on his fists.
Within a moment, a silver sheen coated his fists, giving Eryndor a sense of power contained in them.
Good, stage two of Qi Gathering realms allows me to manifest my Qi on the surface of my body. Stage one is merely the entry level.
I'll now have more means to protect myself and deal more damage.
Having completed his cultivation session, he laid back down on the bed and opened the group chat again.
After a moment of thought, he asked another question which was bugging him a few minutes ago.
"Is there a situation where one absolutely has to kill someone?"
It was Drakarion who replied this time.
"It's not yet confirmed by the Human Federation but killing is absolutely necessary for these beings to survive.
A feeling of dread welled up inside Eryndor as he had a faint guess as to what it might be, and indeed, Drakarion's next message confirmed it.
"Anomalies."