"Me?"
"An illusion?"
Chewing over those two words, Zheng Qing was somewhat at a loss.
Of course, suspended in midair as he was, he truly could not touch his head either.
The voice echoing above the altar did not pause for the boy's astonishment. It continued in its mechanical, stiff tone: "—You are very special. I realized that when you entered my laboratory in your first year. But at the time, I had no other intentions. I merely wished to be on good terms with the Under the Moon Council, since you came to my laboratory carrying Councilwoman Su's letter of introduction. Of course, I did not realize that your relationship with Councilwoman Su was so complicated..."
"And then?" Zheng Qing had no choice but to interrupt the professor's slightly wandering explanation.
"Then you went to the Black Prison."
Professor Monteria calmly recounted his own train of thought as though he were speaking of someone else: "—When you emerged from the Black Prison, I realized that you were more important than I had imagined. So we needed you. As it happened, with some additional assistance, our experiments made great progress. We developed an inhibitor that could suppress the symptoms of physical collapse caused by demonic bloodline contamination. Gan Ning learned of my intentions and knew I was still hesitating. So he helped me make up my mind and planted a Spirit Seed in you at that banquet.
His idea was very simple. Once you became our test subject, you would have to cooperate with us to some extent in order to obtain the inhibitor and preserve your life... There might be some unpleasantness at first, but in the end, things would develop toward a mutually beneficial arrangement. That Spirit Seed would greatly enhance your physical strength and affinity for magic