Chapter 140: A True-One Magic Treasure—The Dream-Like Decree!

"Big Brother! I was truly wrong!"

The speed at which the woman knelt was extremely fast.

Li Fei took a step forward, suddenly reached out to grab the other party's throat, and then violently dragged her into the private room.

*Slap! *

Li Fei backhanded the door shut.

The woman's expression finally changed, revealing a look of terror:

"It's all a misunderstanding, you..."

Li Fei did not give her another chance to speak; he grabbed her throat with one hand and lifted her up, leaving her feet dangling off the ground.

Although the woman knew how to use techniques, she only possessed the physique of an ordinary person and was completely unable to break free. She grabbed Li Fei's arm with both hands, and due to suffocation, her neck and face rapidly congested with blood, turning a deep red.

Li Fei pinched the woman with one hand while taking a small medicine bottle from his bosom with the other. He poured out a pill and, amidst the other party's terrified gaze, forcibly fed it to her.

"Cough, cough, cough, cough—"

After Li Fei let go, the woman knelt on the floor, coughing violently.

Li Fei snatched the black wooden plaque from her hand.

The material of the wooden plaque was very strange; it had wooden grain, but its hardness was no less than steel. Two ancient seal characters were imprinted on it, which Li Fei did not recognize.

"What did you feed me?!"

The woman finally recovered and looked up to ask Li Fei.

"Poison."

Li Fei looked down at her from above and said calmly:

"Given your constitution, if you don't have the antidote within half an hour, you will undoubtedly die, and you will be in great pain before you die."

The woman's expression changed drastically, and she hurriedly explained:

"It's all a misunderstanding! I was at my wit's end and in urgent need of money, which is why I took the risk. That technique just now would only have made you faint; it wouldn't have truly harmed you. I just wanted to take back this bag of things; I never thought about harming your life!"

"I said, I already gave you a chance, but you didn't cherish it."

Li Fei sat down expressionlessly. "From now on, you answer whatever I ask. If your answers don't satisfy me, just wait to be poisoned to death."

"I am a disciple of the Nightmare Sect. If you kill me, my sect will absolutely not let you off!"

Seeing that Li Fei was determined, the woman immediately threatened him sternly.

Li Fei looked at her with calm eyes: "Today, I've set my mind on you. Even if you were a True Person's personal disciple, it would be useless. I said it."

"You..."

Looking at Li Fei's calm eyes and feeling the determination within them, the woman realized she had truly kicked an iron plate this time.

A sudden cramp in her abdomen made her groan in pain, and sweat began to bead on her forehead.

"The poison is starting to take effect. You don't have much time left."

Li Fei reminded her 'kindly'.

"Fine, what do you want to ask?"

The woman finally relented.

"Your name, your background."

"My name is Zhao Yi, I come from the Nightmare Sect in Qing Province, and I am the nineteenth-generation successor of the Nightmare Sect!"

Zhao Yi said with difficulty, clutching her stomach.

Qing Province was a province neighboring Feng Province.

"Why would a disciple of a major sect be driven to such desperation that you'd resort to theft?"

Li Fei continued to ask.

"I was eager for quick success and wanted to buy pills for breaking through realms, but I didn't have enough money, which is why I did this."

Zhao Yi said at a rapid pace.

"Why not ask the sect for help?"

"The Nightmare Sect doesn't have the pills I need, and they would only advise me to cultivate step by step."

"Why are you in such a hurry to break through?"

"To take revenge!"

"What revenge?"

"Enemies killed my entire family, but the other party is also in a major power. The Nightmare Sect couldn't help me, so I had to rely on myself."

"What is this wooden plaque?"

"This is a magic treasure of the Nightmare Sect, called the Dream-Like Decree."

"Why run to Feng Province to steal money?"

"After all, it's not honorable; being far from the sect makes it harder to be discovered."

"Good. Tell me in detail where you were born, when you entered the Nightmare Sect, and how you got in."

"... What do you want to do by asking so much?"

"Just tell me."

"... I was born in Pangbei City, Qing Province..."

Zhao Yi began to answer Li Fei's questions one by one.

Li Fei asked her many details, and she answered them fluently.

A few minutes later, the toxicity of the Nether Spring Poison intensified, and Zhao Yi was drenched in sweat from the pain:

"I've answered everything for you. Can you give me the antidote now?!"

"No rush, do it again."

Li Fei said faintly.

Zhao Yi stared at him angrily: "What exactly do you want?"

Li Fei did not answer and continued to ask about some details he had already inquired about.

After interrogating that spy from the Meijia Country last time, he felt it was necessary to learn some interrogation techniques, as he might use them in the future.

Therefore, afterward, he specifically found a few books on interrogation through Li Lei and spent time studying them.

At this moment, he was using an interrogation technique on Zhao Yi: confirming whether the other party was lying by repeatedly asking about certain details.

Moreover, during the second round of questioning, Li Fei also 'mixed up' some of the information Zhao Yi had said earlier, deliberately saying it wrong to lure the other party into making a mistake.

Under the condition of being poisoned and in unbearable pain throughout the body, it is very difficult for a person to concentrate, and the difficulty of weaving lies is high. Coupled with the professional interrogation techniques Li Fei used, unless she was a spy who had undergone very strict training, it was absolutely impossible to lie in this situation!

"In what year did your master, Zheng Gao, give you the Dream-Like Decree?"

"... The forty-first year of Hongguang."

"You just said it was the forty-second year of Hongguang."

"I, I remembered wrong! Give me the antidote quickly!"

"No, you're lying. Your master isn't named Zheng Gao; you just said your martial uncle is named Zheng Gao."

"I, I said it wrong, I'm in too much pain, a slip of the tongue! My, my master is named Fan Guo, and my martial uncle is named Zheng Gao."

"No, I was tricking you. You just said your master was named Zheng Gao."

"... You!"

"You can continue to make things up; I can afford to wait."

Li Fei looked calmly at Zhao Yi, who was already slumped on the floor.

This woman did indeed have some quick wit, and even the lies she made up on the spot could sound plausible, but unfortunately, she had met him, someone who understood caution.

In the end, she still let the cat out of the bag.

"You, you are just a pervert!"

Zhao Yi couldn't help but curse.

"You have less than twenty minutes before you die from the poison."

Li Fei remained unmoved and said calmly.

"You, what exactly do you want?!"

Zhao Yi's voice finally carried a sobbing tone, and her emotions were nearing collapse.

"I want you to tell the truth."

"... I am indeed named Zhao Yi, and what I learned is indeed the technique of the Nightmare Sect, but I am not a member of the Nightmare Sect."

"Where are you from?"

"I am from Datong Fucheng!"

"..."

Next, Li Fei repeatedly questioned Zhao Yi again according to the interrogation techniques he had learned, and only after confirming that the other party was telling the truth did he give her the antidote.

This woman named Zhao Yi was also only seventeen years old this year, an orphan from Datong Fucheng, adopted by an old Daoist priest.

The old Daoist priest had taught Zhao Yi knowledge related to techniques since she was a child, and when she was fifteen, he even found an implant for her, allowing her to officially step onto the path of cultivation.

But not long after, the old Daoist priest died due to *qi* deviation while practicing, and only before he died did he tell Zhao Yi his true identity.

This old Daoist priest was named Zhao Renjie, a traitor of the Nightmare Sect.

Eleven years ago, due to a moment of greed, Zhao Renjie stole the Nightmare Sect's supreme treasure—the Dream-Like Decree.

From then on, he defected from the sect and fled to Feng Province.

Over the years, Zhao Renjie had lived under an assumed name within Datong Fucheng, possessing powerful skills but not daring to show his face, fearing that he would be found by people from the Nightmare Sect.

He thought every moment about using the Dream-Like Decree to break through his realm, so that he could walk openly in the world, but unfortunately, his aptitude was insufficient, and in the end, he failed.

Zhao Yi inherited all his legacy, and relying on her techniques and the Dream-Like Decree, she started the trade of stealing on the train.

As for the reason she stole money, it was about the same as what she said before: to raise money to buy resources needed for cultivation.

Martial arts cultivation is already expensive enough, but cultivating techniques is even more expensive!

Every time one practices a technique, precious materials are consumed, and these materials are money. Besides that, the daily maintenance of the Dream-Like Decree also requires money, which is even more expensive than raising a martial artist.

There might be rogue cultivators in martial arts, but there are almost no rogue cultivators in technique cultivation, because it is simply too difficult to earn the money needed for cultivation by relying on individual strength.

"You said this Dream-Like Decree is the supreme treasure of the Nightmare Sect; is there any explanation for it?"

Li Fei asked, holding the black wooden plaque in his hand.

Although the poison had been neutralized, Zhao Yi still looked at Li Fei with fearful eyes.

Now in her eyes, this guy who looked full of integrity and absolutely like a good person was simply the most terrifying demon!

"This Dream-Like Decree is different from ordinary magic treasures; it is a True-One magic treasure."

Zhao Yi honestly cleared up Li Fei's confusion, not daring to lie again.

Only after technique cultivation reaches the Possession Stage can one refine magic treasures.

Martial artists in the Foundation Establishment Stage constantly incorporate different implants to build the foundation of their martial arts, while Great Mages in the Possession Stage similarly constantly integrate new implants into their magic treasures, thereby strengthening the magic treasure and eventually refining it into their life-bound magic treasure.

Only by gestating a 'True Spirit' can it be called a life-bound magic treasure; this is the origin of the name 'True Spirit Realm'.

Further on, the True Spirit of the magic treasure constantly grows stronger until it transforms from acquired to innate, becoming a magic treasure, and the path of techniques is considered to have stepped from the 'True Spirit Realm' into the 'True-One Realm', and one can be called a True Monarch!

If a True Monarch falls, the life-bound magic treasure they leave behind will fall from innate to acquired, turning back into a magic treasure.

But such magic treasures are naturally more powerful than other magic treasures and are easier to be refined into magic treasures again.

Because this kind of magic treasure was left behind by a True Monarch of the 'True-One Realm', it is called a 'True-One magic treasure'.

Every True-One magic treasure is a supreme treasure of the sect, which can be passed down from generation to generation, preserving the hope for the sect to reappear a True Monarch!

"With such a good thing, Zhao Renjie was still just a Great Mage in the Possession Stage before he died?"

Li Fei asked suspiciously.

If the other party could become a True Person in the True Spirit Realm, relying on the Dream-Like Decree, he would no longer fear the Nightmare Sect and wouldn't have to hide his head and show his tail; in that case, his name would certainly have resounded throughout Feng Province long ago.

Zhao Yi sneered:

"The old man dreamed his whole life of stepping onto the peak of techniques and becoming a True Monarch of the present age, but his aptitude was too poor; even becoming a True Person was a stretch. Although the True-One magic treasure is powerful, wanting to refine it into one's own life-bound magic treasure is more difficult than breaking through normally. The old man's aptitude was poor to begin with, and he chose the most difficult path, so he spent eleven years and still didn't succeed."

Li Fei nodded, understanding.

A True-One magic treasure only has a natural advantage in the step of becoming a magic treasure; before that, using it to break through is actually even more difficult.

"If the old man had died later, I would definitely have broken through to the Divine Transformation Stage long ago, and today, no matter what, I wouldn't have fallen into your hands!"

Zhao Yi suddenly said with a look of resentment.

She only used one year to break through from the Embryo Nourishing Stage all the way to the late stage of the Body Breaking Stage. Afterward, if it weren't for Zhao Renjie's death and her having no one to guide her, it is really possible that she would already be a Mage in the Divine Transformation Stage now. This aptitude is indeed very good; she is qualified to mock Zhao Renjie's poor aptitude.

Li Fei was noncommittal upon hearing this, playing with the Dream-Like Decree in his hand, his mood quite good.

He didn't expect that such a thing of picking up a treasure just by going out would happen to him; he thought only the protagonist in a novel would have such treatment.

"Next, if you want to survive, tell me the Nightmare Sect's cultivation method and how to maintain and use this Dream-Like Decree."

Li Fei said to Zhao Yi in a flat tone.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 141 =====