What was the best way to persuade someone?
As far as Pan Long knew, the most reliable way was probably a shared ideal. Next came shared interests, then shared hobbies... Beyond that, there were no particularly dependable methods. Authority, money, beauty, violence—even outright brainwashing through hypnosis—none of them were all that reliable.
That was when the person you wanted to persuade was decent.
If the target was an Evil Fiend or some other heretic, persuasion became much easier. Plenty of people knew effective ways to deal with them.
Pan Long did too.
His fifteenth-rank Edge Aspect was proof enough.
In his experience, when he wanted to persuade an Evil Fiend, he generally only had to beat them senseless first. After that, he could say whatever he liked.
If one beating was not enough, he could use Healing Technique to patch them up and beat them again. Repeat as necessary.
With that method, there were basically no Evil Fiends he could not persuade.
If he was unlucky enough to meet one of those rare oddities who refused to listen no matter what—fine. He could cut them down with one stroke and find someone else to persuade.
A three-legged toad was hard to find. People with two legs... cult leaders might not be quite so easy to find either, but if he looked seriously, he could surely turn up a few.
Interestingly, the Suppression Bureau had quite a lot of intelligence on cults.
Pan Long could not help being startled by the thick stack of files.
"If I'm not mistaken, isn't the Suppression Bureau's main job to wipe out cults?" he asked. "With this many of them... why haven't you gone and wiped them out?"
Douglas sighed. "The Suppression Bureau is made up of people. People have emotions, desires, interests, and personal