“Are there any restrictions on how many questions we can ask? How long does the pill last and how much will the subject reveal?”

The proud look on Pang Xie’s face faded somewhat and then he coughed to clear his throat, “It’s not an interrogation pill like you think, but don’t worry it’s still very effective! I like to call it the Storytime Elixir. You dissolve the pill in a warm drink and whoever consumes it is overcome with the desire to tell a story of their past.”

Seriously?

“So, it’s not a truth serum or a lie detector, nor is it hypnosis or mind reading?”

Sage asked carefully to be sure he was hearing things correctly, and Pang Xie answered in the negative to his question. He repeated what he’d said before and with more detail this time. It quite literally compelled a person to tell a story of their past. They would tell the true story, or at least the true story as they remembered it. The downside being that they had no control over what story was told.

“There’s no way to control what story he tells? That sounds like it will take…”

“A very long time.”

Hearing this explanation, Sage was no longer so interested in observing the new interrogation technique. How long would it take to get a person thousands of years old to tell all the stories of their past?

“Do they ever repeat their stories?”

“They do, but only rarely. They seem to fall into a sort of trance where they wish to impart all of their past experiences upon the listener. So, they only repeat stories when they’re connected to the story they want to tell to better set the scene, but otherwise they wish to make the listener hear everything.”

“So, we can’t even have someone take turns listening?”

Pang Xie shook his head and then shrugged his shoulders, “It is definitely not a quick method, but it’s pretty thorough. How else can you strip all the memories from his head?”

Sage just nodded and then met with one of the Dragoon’s overseeing Jinxi Po’s imprisonment, “Use only a single person as the listener. Have them put all of the conversations on a Memory Sphere and send them over to me.”

He congratulated the Pang husband and wife once again for their invention and then left with Ling and Jiao. After walking for a few minutes, Jiao couldn’t help herself, “So, you’re going to have to listen to all of that as well, aren’t you?”

He could only nod and hang his head. Ling covered her mouth to hide her laughter. Sage led them to another activity, specifically to try and forget about the amount of time he’d have to waste in the future. Well, at least I’m not the poor sap who has to visit everyday just to get one or two stories.

The next few years were spent in marital bliss. Two bellies began to grow and he was thankful everyday that he’d decided to start his family on the Inner World instead of on the outside. He was already so apprehensive about their safety, and they were on an isolated world where he was nearly a god, with the few hundred most powerful lifeforms guarding around him. How anxious would he be if they were in Lionheart Town at this moment? On the outside world, his true body was constantly building Formation Arrays and turning his cave abode into a fortress.

With only a few months left, he finally received the Memory Spheres from Jinxi Po’s sessions. Thousands of years worth of stories. Hmm, perhaps we can filter these and start a radio show.

It quite suddenly turned into a method of entertainment. Ling, Jiao, and himself would listen to Jinxi Po’s stories. Quite often they would be disgusted with what the old fossil had done, but the vile and vicious acts were far more rare than the stories of triumph over adversity and adventuring into the unknown. The stories he told were all things that he had remembered as interesting or informative, the sorts of things you’d want to pass down to your ancestors. It wasn’t just a record of his daily tasks, like what he ate for meals or the many hundreds upon hundreds of years spent in solitary meditation or practice.

A few days in, they stumbled upon a story that made their eyes widen.

“When I was a young man, there was no Chong Clan. At that time they were known as ‘The Five Deadly Venoms’, and my Jinxi Clan was only a minor clan with some relations. I remember my grandfather telling me about the Zhu Clan leaving the Five Deadly Venoms because of an ill-fated love triangle. With the Zhu Clan gone, the Xiyi Clan stepped up, replacing the spider with the lizard. Soon after, the Lang Clan worked alongside the Zhu Clan to fight in a great war. In that war, the Five Deadly Venoms were their subordinates and gained great merits facing off against a terrible threat to the world.”

“I came of age at that time and I stepped onto my first battlefield. A black hole formed in the sky, large enough to blot out the sun and armies of demons spilled from it. The terrible experience of those days is another story altogether, but in the end I was one of the lucky survivors and the power of my arrows was enough to receive attention for the Jinxi from the Five Deadly Venoms. After that terrifying war, the Zhu Clan left and the Five Deadly Venoms became the official subordinates of the Lang. They were brash and fearless, facing off against some of the strongest demons and fighting against them to the death, buying time for others to succeed.”

“The Lang Clan was well respected at first, but a few hundred years later the lack of conflict made their weaknesses obvious. In war, someone without fear that could stand up to those many times stronger than them are looked up to as heroes. Yet, in peace people like this are just troublemakers without any sense. They upset the royal family on many occasions and also picked fights with anyone who they perceived as antagonizing them. The greatest heroes of the war had already become Saints and left. That was when I saw my chance.”

“I approached the Great Viper, the head of the She Clan, and we hatched a plan. Along with the newly promoted Xiyi, we convinced the Wu as well as most of the other lower clans to join us in gaining freedom from the Lang once more. I kidnapped one of the Wa’s most valuable young talents and left evidence that would lead them to suspect the Xie. With Toad and Scorpion at each other’s throats, the rest of the Five Deadly Venoms turned upon the Mantis and we took control of them with one surprise night raid. Then I chopped the necks of their strongest cultivators and took their children captive. The Lang were always fearless so I needed to control their offspring or they’d all charge to their death in opposition to us.”

“When it was all over, the Great Viper was disgusted with what I’d done to the Lang Clan and also the plan I’d used to pit the Toad and Scorpion against each other. The She Clan had only wished to gain independence for the Five Deadly Venoms from the Lang Clan’s leadership. Those fools were too caught up in worshiping the old heroes of that war to realize the times had changed. They left with some of the lower clans and my Jinxi stepped in to form the Chong Clan. The Wa and Xie expended too much of their own strength warring with each other to stop me and before they realized what happened it was too late. In the end, they chose to accept the changes, in return for some concessions.”

“They negotiated the formation of the formal branch clans and the rights of the branch clans as well as forming the Clan Council and its votes. I had thought it would be easy to control the silly little council in the future, but I always wish that I had denied that silly demand and started to war upon them. They were at their weakest then, while my forces were at their height. I never imagined that the council would turn into a political battlefield and the other clans would turn against me so quickly.”