On the first level of the Imprisonment Court, in Interrogation Room Three, Dan Lei obediently waited while Hanya finished setting up for the questioning. Then, without waiting for her to ask, he deliberately blurted out an answer, tossing over the Light Cone called [Ghost King's Malice] and saying,
"This is the evidence. Light Cones are crystallized memories, after all."
Hanya picked up the Light Cone and carefully examined it to determine whether it was genuine. Then, with a serious expression, she said,
"The technique for creating Light Cones is a closely guarded secret of the Flowing Light Memory Court. How did you learn it?"
For this question, Dan Lei gave a half-truth.
"I think people across the universe may have been fooled by the Flowing Light Memory Court. I don't know any technique for creating Light Cones. This thing formed on its own.
"My guess is that there's no such thing as a technique for creating Light Cones. They're just a byproduct of Memokeepers fishing up memories."
Using the formation in the room, Hanya could tell that he was telling the truth. She had a nagging feeling that something was wrong, but couldn't find a point to challenge. After all, the Xianzhou had no idea how Light Cones were made.
And Dan Lei really wasn't lying. His claim that Light Cones were a byproduct of Memokeepers fishing up memories was just a guess, and he had made that clear.
His claims that he knew no technique for creating Light Cones and that [Ghost King's Malice] had formed on its own were both entirely true.
So Hanya asked him solemnly,
"What is sealed inside this Light Cone? Judging by its effects, did you obtain the memories of an Abundance Monstrosity?"
Dan Lei shook his head and said,
"I didn't obtain this monster's memories. I learned a story..."
Then Dan Lei told Hanya the story of the Demon Slayer Corps and the demons.
Hanya spent every day using dream divination to judge the sins of those who had fallen to mara. All the things she sensed were painful, and she had also witnessed the battle in which the living planet [World-Devouring Rahu] devoured the Xianzhou Cangcheng.
So Hanya felt little about Dan Lei's tale of a battle between Abundance Monstrosities and the natives of a remote planet—at least, that was what she assumed it was.
But from the strength of [Ghost King's Malice], Hanya could tell that the monstrosity must have been formidable in life. For these natives, who had never even left their planet, to defeat it was certainly worth praise.
What's more, Hanya could sense that Dan Lei's breathing had already become different. It seemed he had learned the Breathing Technique that the natives had developed to fight the Abundance Monstrosities, following the records in the memories.
To be fair, Dan Lei fishing up a memory from the Sea of Memories—one that might have come from some distant planet—wasn't a big deal in itself. The Ten Lords' Commission wouldn't care, and neither would the Earthly Balance Department.
It was like someone going to the shore of the Alchemy Commission and scooping up a ladle of water. That wasn't illegal.
What was illegal about fishing up memories on Luofu was using that method to pry into Luofu's secrets.
It was much like taking a ship out to the waters of Scale Abyss Realm and trying to fish up Sustainer Eggs from the seabed.
The Chizuru Clan would fight the person doing the fishing to the death.
The Luofu wasn't completely ignorant of memory-fishing techniques, either. The dream divination technique Hanya used had a similar effect.
However, the technique subjected Hanya to a flood of karmic information from countless mara-struck, leaving her indifferent to everything in the world.
But Dan Lei was a Pathstrider who had been glimpsed by [Fuli]. From the looks of things, he seemed immune to the Erosion of memories.
The most important issue, though, wasn't whether Dan Lei would suffer enough Erosion to have to shed his scales and reincarnate. It was that no one could guarantee that the next time he fished up a memory from the Sea of Memories, he wouldn't randomly pull out a secret of the Luofu.
That was the main reason why the ability to fish up memories was considered dangerous and had to be reported.
Just as Dan Lei had expected, Hanya couldn't pass judgment on his ability to fish up memories.
Forbidding Dan Lei from fishing up memories would cut off his path forward on the Memory Destiny, which would violate the regulations.
It was like someone who could paint banknotes so skillfully that they passed through a counterfeit detector. Until he actually made fake money, no one could arrest him for it.
But Hanya couldn't just complete Dan Lei's registration and let him go, either. If he fished up some earth-shattering secret in the future, she wouldn't be able to take responsibility.
So even though Hanya was the judge in charge of questioning among the Ten Lords' Commission's Custody, Shackling, Punishment, and Interrogation divisions, she still had to report the matter.
And so Dan Lei could only wait for the outcome inside the Ten Lords' Commission.
Fortunately, Dan Lei wasn't a criminal and didn't need to be watched. He was even allowed to wander around the first level.
So Dan Lei went straight to the Imprisonment Court's chief clerk, Dan Bi, to read.
Actually, with Dan Lei's current status, he wasn't qualified to wander around Dan Bi's workplace.
After all, the Imprisonment Court's archive was a confidential area where information on every prisoner was recorded.
But Dan Lei was popular at the Imprisonment Court. Dan Bi was also Chizuru, and as chief clerk, she knew too many secrets to ever leave the Imprisonment Court.
So when Dan Lei first started working at the Imprisonment Court, she had even gone out of her way to remind the young Dan Lei to curb his curiosity.
For the lower-ranking ghost guards, the less they knew about the Imprisonment Court's secrets, the easier it would be for them to leave in the future.
And when she had time, Dan Bi would give her junior plenty of non-confidential books to broaden his horizons. She had also given Dan Lei the publicly available Cloud Chant Technique cultivation method used within the Chizuru Clan.
So Dan Lei became a regular visitor to the archives.
Dan Lei also returned the kindness to this senior of his clan, often visiting her and bringing along little toys that didn't break any rules.
When Dan Lei had voluntarily "turned himself in" this time, reporting that he possessed a dangerous ability, Dan Bi had told him that if the Ten Lords and the general planned to keep him in the Ten Lords' Commission as a judge-in-training, he could ask the Dragon Master Council for help.
The ability to unearth memories was something the Dragon Master Council had always coveted. They would definitely get Dan Lei out.
Although it would be difficult for Dan Lei to break free of the Dragon Master Council afterward, that would still be better than spending his whole life in the Imprisonment Court.
Dan Lei took Dan Bi's words to heart.
Honestly, it wasn't impossible that the Ten Lords and the general would arrange for Dan Lei to serve as a judge-in-training in the Ten Lords' Commission. He could fish up memories, and he knew everyone at the Imprisonment Court well. He was practically the perfect successor to Hanya, the judge in charge of "interrogation."
Besides, Hanya would definitely recommend him. She was already exhausted. If not for Xueyi, the one remaining tie keeping her here, she would have wanted to leave this world long ago.
If someone she knew inside and out, like Dan Lei, could take over her position, she would support him with both hands and feet.
But Dan Lei wanted freedom. He didn't want to be a judge.
The Ten Lords' Commission's judges might be very well compensated, but for Dan Lei, becoming a judge was a fallback option. Unless he someday felt he'd reached his limit and couldn't make his way through the Star Rail Universe, he would much rather sneak away than stay here.
Just as Dan Lei was thinking about how he would argue with Hanya later and convince her that he couldn't take over her position, a knock came from the door, followed by a hesitant voice from the entrance to the archives.
"E-excuse me, is Mr. Dan Lei here? Miss Hanya asked me to pass on a message. The Shogun is here, and she wants Mr. Dan Lei to return to Interrogation Room Three as soon as possible."
From the third character story for Hanya and the third character story for Xueyi, it could be inferred that the battle that killed Xueyi's original body was the battle in which the Xianzhou Cangcheng was devoured by the living planet [World-Devouring Rahu].
Xueyi's story said that Teng Xiao summoned the Divine Lord and killed Xushu once.
But there was a slight contradiction between that text and other sources.
The living planet [World-Devouring Rahu] devoured Cangcheng in Star Calendar 6300.
Meanwhile, Jingliu's companion mission clearly stated that Teng Xiao was still alive during the Xushu Rebellion on Luofu, and that he had sent Dan Feng to the front lines.
By then, it was already Star Calendar 7379.
In other words, even if Teng Xiao had only just become general when Cangcheng was attacked, he would still have been general for over a thousand years.
That contradicted the line in Jing Yuan's second character story: "Few Cloud Cavalry Generals have lasted a hundred years after taking office."
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