Lucia’s practicing her Soul Scour on one of the sky-realm experts Mrs. Feathers caught for her. I just hope she doesn’t suffer any backlash. The person she’s using it on doesn’t seem spiritually gifted, but the strength of Lucia’s consciousness…, I don’t have too high expectations for it. She might be learning the Secret Phoenix Rebirth Technique that Mrs. Feathers taught her, but how long has she been practicing it for? Less than a year? It’s impossible to achieve any kind of significant proficiency in any technique in that amount of time. However…, she’s Lucia, and it wouldn’t be the first time she’s shown extremely abnormal growth.

“Ah.” Lucia let out a short sound. I couldn’t tell if it was a yelp or a yawn or a moan; it might’ve been a mixture of all three. She blinked a few times and shook her head before letting go of the man she was holding. With a thud, he dropped to the ground, unmoving. “How is he, Mrs. Feathers?”

Mrs. Feathers hopped over from the couch she was lying on and poked the fallen man. The other four sky-realm experts were huddled together, watching each and every one of Lucia’s actions without a sound: Their gags wouldn’t let them make any noise. Mrs. Feathers poked the fallen man again. “I don’t know what to tell you, Boss. He’s still alive and drooling, so it seems like he turned into an idiot too.”

Lucia scratched her head and furrowed her brow. “How come he turned into an idiot too? All I did was burn away his bad memories to make him happier. Hmm….”

Wait? She what? “Burned his memories? What do you mean by that, Lucia?”

“Well….” Lucia fully stretched out her first word before continuing. “When I use Soul Scour on someone, I see a bunch of bubbles. And inside of those bubbles, there’s all kinds of images. And when I touch the bubbles, I get to see what’s inside the images, but from inside of them. Do you know what I mean?”

“From their point of view?”

“Mhm! Like that.” Lucia nodded. “And sometimes, those memories are really sad and depressing, so I burn them away with the help of the flames in my sea of consciousness. Once they’re done burning, I completely forget all the sad and depressing things I witnessed. Mm, and that’s what I mean by burning away his bad memories.”

“Are you daft!? That’s not Soul Scour! That’s Memory Erasure!”

“Ah?” Lucia’s head turned towards the captive that just spoke. Wasn’t he gagged just a moment ago? How did he speak? “Memory Erasure? What’s that? Wait, no, no, don’t tell me. I’ll Soul Scour you to find out!” The man tried to say something, but Lucia teleported over and grabbed him, placing her hand on his head. “Soul Scour!”

And, once again, she and the man become motionless. The other three captives tried to distance themselves from the two by wriggling, but they didn’t get very far since they were completely tied up, their bodies looking like worms. Their gazes landed on me, and it seemed like they were begging for help despite not being able to say anything. Unfortunately for them, I didn’t care. I already know what happens when someone’s provoked and escapes with enmity in their hearts. The Righteous Buddha Sect and the Rainbow Phoenix Sect taught me a very painful lesson when they hunted and chased my fellow sect members. When the first sky-realm expert was rendered into an idiot by Lucia, the fates of the other four were already decided. None of them could be allowed to leave and report this to their backers. Unless that backer happens to be Sister Ilya, which I’m still not completely sure about.

A minute later, Lucia’s tail twitched. Then she sneezed and let go of her victim’s head. With a thud, he also fell to the ground, a puddle of drool forming on the floorboards not much later. No, it’s more appropriate to say the puddle was forming during the time his soul was being scoured. Regardless, I’m glad Lucia failed at not turning her victim into an idiot. “How was it, Lucia?”

“I didn’t burn all the bad memories this time. I only burned two separate, mostly unimportant memories, but he still turned into an idiot!” Lucia furrowed her brow. Then she turned to Mrs. Feathers. “He did turn into an idiot, right?”

Mrs. Feathers poked the second sky-realm victim. “He sure did, Boss.”

Lucia sighed.

I wasn’t really asking her about whether or not he turned into an idiot. “I meant the Memory Erasure. Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Oh! Yeah,” Lucia said and bobbed her head up and down. “It was in between his childhood memories and his adulthood memories. He didn’t have any experience with it though, so I only learned basic information like…, uh….” She scratched her ear. “What was it again? Mm. Sometime to do with…, err…, I’ll remember it later, I’m sure.”

Lucia might be able to Soul Scour and dig through people’s memories, but it doesn’t mean anything if she forgets them right away…. It’s similar to when I asked her to read me a passage of a good deed request to prove that she could. She read it, …but didn’t absorb its contents at all. She might as well have not read it in the first place. Only a bit of time was lost in that case. In this case, a sky-realm expert’s been rendered braindead. “Hey, Lucia?”

“Mm? What’s up?”

“Why don’t you teach Mrs. Feathers Soul Scour and have her dig through Durandal’s memories for you instead?” That’d make the most sense, right? Since Lucia can’t—in a sense—read, she has me telling her the requests.

“Hmm….” Lucia’s eyes narrowed, and she stared at Mrs. Feathers. Mrs. Feathers seemed to shrink under Lucia’s gaze. “Hmmmm…. That’s not a bad idea, but nope! Then she’ll know Durandal’s deepest darkest secrets, and I want those to be exclusive to me!”

“…You could always Soul Scour Mrs. Feathers afterwards to make her forget.”

“Fuck!” Mrs. Feathers glared at me, and I was nearly crushed by the pressure radiating off of a quasi-immortal. “What did I ever do to you!? You want to drag me to my death!? I’ll be sure to take you with me even if I turn into an imbecile!”

“I’m sorry! Please forgive me!” …Sometimes I forget how strong Mrs. Feathers is. She’s treated so poorly by Lucia that she seems weak—when in reality, she’s an existence I can’t afford to offend. Only a fool would provoke a phoenix.