So this is Soul Scour! Mm, I learned all about it. At first, I was going to ask the nice cultivator who taught me, but Mrs. Feathers said he’d try to trick me, so she told me the details instead. For someone who doesn’t have the technique, she’s very knowledgeable about it. Well, she’s a phoenix who can talk. She’s a genius—almost as smart as Ilya. And now that I’ve learned this technique, it’s time to practice it! Durandal always stressed the importance of practice, but usually, I ignore him, but this time, I won’t. Apparently, if I use it all willy-nilly without experience, there’s a high chance of me destroying someone’s soul, and I don’t want that to happen when I use it on Durandal. Luckily, there’s someone right here that I can practice on!

“You’re the best, Mr. Cultivator.” After teaching me Soul Scour, he’s also going to help me perfect it. Mm, I tied him up and gagged him too. Eh? No, no, this isn’t to stop his screams or anything. I just didn’t want him to give me any hints! Soul Scour lets me read someone’s memories. What if he just says them out loud? I’d think I’d succeeded when I actually didn’t! Now, let’s see. The first step is to grab his head with my fingers, a little similar to a bird grabbing a ball. Then, I tilt his head back until I can stare into his eyes. And then I shoot my consciousness at him through my gaze! …How do I do that? Um…, let’s see…, there’s my sea of consciousness. Ooh, I can manipulate the soup, err, sea. Ah! I get it. I take a portion of this soup and send it towards my eyes, which is … up? Mm, let’s move it up. Alright! I think it’s working. Ooh, is this my brain? Err, let’s not explore it too much. Manipulate the soup through my eyes and … fire! “Soul Scour!”

Hmm? Where am I? I’m … the blob of soup I shot into the man’s eyes? I…, I think I am. This is so weird. Ah! There’s a bunch of bubbles floating around, and all of them have images inside. Are these this person’s memories? I’ll touch one and see what happens…. Ooh! A bunch of information flooded my head just now! Err, do I even have a head at the moment? Whatever. Thankfully, it doesn’t hurt. Phew. This Secret Phoenix Rebirth Technique is really, really useful. I’ll have to show Mrs. Feathers my appreciation later. What information did I learn just now…? This person was slaughtering people as part of his cultivation technique. It feels like … I was there slaughtering those people myself! This is a little creepy. Mm, let’s scrub those memories away and forget about them. How can I do that? Easy! The little memory bubble is inside of my body which is made of soup. With the help of Mrs. Feathers’ technique, I’ll burn the bubble away! Ah. Uh, I didn’t expect the fire to be that big…. I burned a lot of bubbles away. Mm, well, better here than in Durandal!

Anyways, burning away a large set of bubbles revealed even more bubbles underneath! They’re darker and not as vivid as the first set. Some of them are completely black too. Mm, let’s touch one of those. There’s … nothing in here. Huh. That’s odd. I’ll burn this away too; it must not be very important. I’m doing him a favor, clearing up more space for more memories, mhm. Let’s see…, these dimmer bubbles aren’t very good either. The memories are faded, and a lot of the words are missing. It’s like trying to think back to some time and not being able to recall everything. There’s huge blotches of missing spaces. I guess I’ll clean up these bubbles for him too.

Woah! After getting rid of all these dim bubbles, a few super-bright ones appeared! The images inside the bubbles aren’t recognizable either…. I’ll touch it! Mm, what’s this? Slaughtering the Heavens Cultivation Technique? Slaughter your way to immortality! Absorb the lifeforce of your fallen foes! Only the one true king can ascend! P.S. If a woman cultivates this technique, she’ll explode. …This is that sexist technique! I’ll burn it! Actually…, maybe if I give it to Ilya, she’ll figure out a way to modify it and make it usable for me. Okay, I’ll keep it, bury it nice and deep into my soupy body. There we go, nice and safe. Perfect. Now, what are these other bubbles? They must be secret techniques as well, right? I’ll touch this one!

…

…

…

That was pretty depressing. It was a memory of before the man was a cultivator. He used to be a regular carpenter, but one day, a cultivator descended from the sky and killed his wife! Ever since then, he swore to get stronger all for the sake of revenge. Ah, it’s such a sad memory. I bet he’d be a lot happier if I burned it away for him. Mm, he definitely would. Since he taught me this technique and helped me practice it, I should repay the favor. And to ashes you go, sad memories! Alright, I think that’s enough practice. Now, I’ll return the way I came and see how the nice cultivator’s doing. Let’s see…, ah, that’s the way out. A green light floating around usually lets me out of places like this. And … I was right! I’m staring into the nice cultivator’s eyes again. If I had to judge my usage of that technique, I’d give it a ten out of ten, mhm. I found my way in and out without a problem! “Alright, how do you feel, Mr. Cultivator?”

…

“Mr. Cultivator?” Ah, am I holding his head too hard? I’ll let go.

Thump.

“Um? Are you okay?”

Someone cleared their throat, and I turned to see Mrs. Feathers hop over to the cultivator who had fallen onto the ground once I stopped supporting him. He must’ve been super tired from having that technique used on him. Mrs. Feathers poked him a couple of times before flipping him onto his back. She leaned over and lifted one of his eyelids with her talon. “Uh, Boss…, I think he turned into an idiot.”

“…Is he happier at least?”

“Probably…?”

Mm, that’s good then. Ilya once told me ignorance is bliss, and that’s why I’m happy all the time! It seems like she was right. …Wait a minute.