Chapter 1460: Modifying Memories, Erasing Traces

It is too quiet!

So quiet that it doesn't look at all like a prisoner held by an enemy in a strange place, but rather like a domesticated, docile pet, staying in its own cramped cage, living a monotonous, quiet life!

Without even needing to trace the memories, Xia Duo still clearly remembers the other party shouting that line almost passionately three days ago—"We are not the slaves of the Elf!"

But the Youwa of now has none of that previous fortitude; one must know that he currently has no Restriction Spell on him, and this prison is merely a low-level, ordinary prison.

It doesn't even forbid Spellcasting, only restricting Teleportation Spell using the Ether Plane as a medium; if Youwa understood Teleportation Spell using the Astral Plane as a medium, it would be entirely possible to escape the prison.

But now, the other party is sitting very quietly by the stone bed inside the prison, eyes fixed on the direction of the exit, yet even though Xia Duo is blocking the direct line of his sight, the other party's expression and demeanor have not changed in the slightest.

Just like a vegetable that has lost its Wisdom.

Across the bars of the prison made of slender Force Field pillars, Xia Duo softly called out the other party's name—

"Youwa?"

The next moment, Youwa's gaze focused on Xia Duo, as if his consciousness had returned to him, but the very first sentence he spoke shocked Xia Duo—

"Who are you? How do you know my name is Youwa?"

Hearing the other party say such a thing, Xia Duo was truly quite shocked; he had indeed used a mind spell on Youwa three days ago, but it did not involve memories, and even if there were some sequelae, it shouldn't lead to amnesia!

Furthermore, even if it were amnesia, could it be selective amnesia?

Xia Duo had heard of such symptoms on Earth, but it was limited to just hearing about them; in reality, he had never seen it before!

In fact, he hadn't even seen anyone with amnesia; reality isn't a soap opera, how could amnesia be so easy.

Thus, he asked the other party again: "Do you know your name is Youwa? How do you know?"

"Of course I know my name is Youwa; I had this name before I was born," Youwa replied.

"Then do you remember the Green Vine Tribe?"

"Green Vine Tribe? What kind of place is that?"

Mentioning this name that he should have been very familiar with, Youwa appeared quite confused; likewise, this also made Xia Duo feel very confused.

This didn't look like it was faked at all; even if it were faked, there would be no need to fake it like this.

After thinking for a moment, Xia Duo did not ask the other party further, but directly cast a spell to check the other party's memories; this was actually a variant version of the Mind Link spell.

Although Xia Duo had not practiced it before, he was still familiar with the process.

After an inspection, he was surprised to find that the other party's memories had indeed gone wrong—

There was absolutely no trace of the Green Vine Tribe, and in its place was another strange tribe with very blurred details.

Although memories themselves are also blurred, there is still a big difference between one blur and another; at least in a person's life, all memories have a certain convergence, which is caused by the human consciousness automatically processing the information received by the senses.

As long as a person has not suddenly been stimulated or had their temperament change drastically, their overall memories should be consistent; this is a conclusion Xia Duo reached based on his own experience in tracing memories.

Although this is only an empirical conclusion, Xia Duo believes that most intelligent beings should conform to this rule.

And in Youwa's memories, the part that should have been the Green Vine Tribe but was now replaced showed a "burr-like" feeling that was clearly different from consistency.

Or rather—traces of artificial interference.

Xia Duo is considered proficient in mind spells, but his mind spells mainly come from the Projection Plane: Arcane Empire and the Judgment Spell among the Empire Remnants.

He does not have much experience in weaving memories or Huanyuan memories, especially Huanyuan memories; at his current level, he cannot perform such delicate operations.

Of course, he knows the Principles of Huanyuan memories; it is nothing more than peeling back the layers through other memories already judged to be true, finding the contradictions, anomalies, and incongruities, and then restoring them bit by bit.

However, all of Youwa's memories regarding the Green Vine Tribe had been tampered with; perhaps there were inconsistent parts, but the original, complete memory system regarding the concept of the "Green Vine Tribe" had been completely erased.

To restore it is almost equivalent to recreating this part of the memory.

That is to say, it is almost impossible for Youwa to return to his original state.

Unless he had previously saved a memory backup, or some great being had traced his entire state at a certain moment in the past for him.

But thinking about it, that is unlikely; the preservation of memory backups involves the consciousness's process of processing sensory information, and it is not just some information, but more similar to the Personality model defined by Xia Duo.

Even Xia Duo cannot save memories outside of his own body and consciousness right now! Let alone Youwa.

And tracing a person's entire state in the past is even harder; basically, tracing what happened in a certain area over a period of time in the past is already the limit of what a Scrying spell can do, and it is also very unstable.

Memory is not a concrete object, but a very private personal attribute, and it is very difficult to leave traces in the real world.

Wanting to trace it is basically unlikely.

There is a saying on Earth—"Destruction is often easier than creation."

Modifying memories is very simple; as long as there are no special requirements, it is like a child's doodle, easily done, but Huanyuan memories is a delicate job! (Order is not easy~)

……

Xia Duo had thought about restoring Youwa's memories, but that was limited to just thinking; for quite a long time, he would not have the time to deal with this.

"It seems I can only think of another way!"

It is not that Xia Duo must get to the bottom of it, but that this matter is suspicious; since he already knows about it, he must give himself a plausible reason, otherwise it will always feel like a thorn stuck in his heart, very uncomfortable.

……

After pondering for a moment, Xia Duo left the Tower of Time and came to the Code Plaza outside again; hiding his figure, he randomly found a member of the Grey Eagle Tribe and cast a memory retrieval spell on them.

The result shocked him again; this Grey Eagle tribesman's memories also showed traces of artificial interference, only it was not as thorough as Youwa's.

The Green Vine Tribe in this Grey Eagle tribesman's memory was merely an obscure little tribe in the western part of the Langas Plain.

There was nothing more, and even the memory of the Green Vine Tribe uniting with several other large tribes to issue a call for a hunt against the Grey Eagle Tribe not long ago had disappeared.

This situation shocked Xia Duo deeply; it was the first time he had encountered such a situation.

Next, he found more than ten other Grey Eagle tribesmen and checked their memories one by one; the result was as expected, the memories of these dozen people all had problems.

They were all related to the Green Vine Tribe; it seemed an unknown spell had erased the existence of the Green Vine Tribe.

Even the Green Vine Tribe that existed in other people's memories had been erased!

"Is it really the Moonshadow Family? What exactly are they doing?"

Thinking that he might have also encountered this unknown spell capable of modifying memories, and it just didn't take effect for some reason, a chill suddenly rose in Xia Duo's heart.

Originally, he had wanted to find an Elf from the Moonshadow Family to ask, but now he wouldn't even mention it.