Way of the Knights

Chapter 623 - A Lead

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"Whew...you guys sure cave in much faster than I was expecting." Raven smiled 'sweetly' as he looked at the people in front of him. "Oh well, that's for that. Not that you all can understand me right now anyways..."

Raven turned around and ignored the five people strapped in a chair he specifically tinkered for them. If one looked closely, the five people were obviously drooling, some even had white froth coming off of the corners of their mouth. Their eyes only shown its whites and they were mumbling something unintelligible. 

These people were non-other than the ones that had infiltrated the sect and were caught by the Sect Master and the rest using Raven's Evil Tracking Rune. 

Raven specifically told the others that he'll be handling these people. But he didn't say he'll handle them with care though...

Of course, the goal of him taking the heretics is to gather intel. If there was a roundabout way to do this, then he would've preferred to ask them nicely but he knew that's no going to work so he didn't even bother. 

Additionally, looking at the captives, it was obvious that they won't reveal anything. If it weren't for the seals placed to them, they would've already killed themselves in order for their enemies to not get anything out of them. Well, unfortunately for them, Raven was one step ahead so they were left at his mercy. 

Raven didn't waste time, he directly used a high-level of Soul Search on them. When he did so, he noticed that there are some barriers and curses placed on their souls. Most of them were there to end their lives once they thought about caving in and revealing important intel. 

At first, Raven wanted to break down these barriers but he didn't since he thought of a good idea. Instead of breaking down the barriers and curses placed on their soul, he just outright ignored them. Using these kinds of soul barriers and curses against Raven was useless since he knew them all by heart and thus, also knew how to render them useless. 

There were a few additional traps laid in their memories, which were probably things that even these people themselves didn't know were there. This would've work on anyone but not to him, so just like the ones he encountered previously, he ignored them. 

In the end, Raven managed successfully infiltrate their souls and read their memories without triggering the traps placed in them. He took everything he could find and withdrew silently. But even with him being careful to not trigger the traps, it doesn't mean that the Soul Search was a painless experience for them. 

If it were painless, then they wouldn't act like broken idiots right now. 

"Oh come on you guys, I know you're not dead. Stop acting like one." Raven stated as he stared at his hallucinating captives. "Well, I purposefully left you like that, and I guess I got a little too excited. After all it's been a while since I've interrogated someone like this."

"Anyway, you'll be fine. I still have some uses for you so you won't be dying. Well, that'll depend on me really. Haha." Raven laughed as he left the room with the captives to report what he had seen so far. 

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"...so basically, all of them were from the same Branch. They don't have much knowledge as to how truly big their organization is but they are definitely aware that it is strong. From the memories I've seen, they've met at least 10 Empyrean Ranked Experts so for and all of them were Branch Heads. As for the Upper Echelons, they met them but they haven't seen their faces nor had any clue about their identity."

Raven was currently explaining his discoveries in front of the Sect Master as well as the other members of the sect. 

"Their organization hides themselves under the name of 'Spirit Stone Hall' located at the Crimson Cloud Great World. Well, this is just one of the branches of the Exiles. As for other branches, they only heard rumors about it. Someone said that there is a branch at the Azure Sun Great World, but we already visited that place and while we probably missed them, it's very unlikely for them to remain there."

"There is also another one a Void Expanse Great World and at the Berserker's Mountain, however like I said, these were only rumors. Nevertheless, it is a lead." Raven finished his explanation with a nod to the Sect Master. 

"You heard him people." The Grand Elder said, "Does anyone have a plan?" 

There was a period of silence in the hall as the Grand Elder asked this question. The intel that Raven managed to gather was priceless. In fact, this is probably the first time in their history that they managed to obtain a lead that might lead allow them to finally get rid of the Exiles once and for all. 

"I'd say we go out there and raid these locations..." Logan commented, "But I know that doing that will alert their forces into hiding once more. If that happens then we will surely lose this lead and it will be significantly harder to located them in the future so just ignore me." 

"Then why say something in the first place." Henry snorted causing Logan to glare at him. 

"Alright you, don't start now." Charles placed himself in between Henry and Logan to prevent them raising a ruckus. "But I do agree with your deduction Logan. What we need to do is to make sure that we take advantage of this lead and never lose it. There should be a way for us to keep them in the dark but the question is, what?" 

Silence surrounded them once more, seeing this the Grand Elder groaned and said: "Come on, people. Let your voices be heard, whatever ideas you have, feel free to tell them. I'd rather have us brainstorming rather than being silent."

"How about we sent a agent of our own?" One of the Elders proposed. 

"That's not a bad idea but how exactly are going to approach them? You can be thinking of having them go there to look for someone shady and ask: 'Hey, do you know where most of the shady people gathers here, cause I wanna join them'. That's not going to work." 

"Yeah, additionally, we can't be sure that they're not paying attention to us as well. Since they could escape our detection for many years now, it should be obvious that they have their own security measures."

And just like this, the meeting hall was filled with numerous debates and contradictions. It wasn't like everyone was trying to contradict the plans of someone, they were just pointing out the obvious flaws on the plan. 

So far though, no one had been able to propose a good plan. Almost every proposal that starts great will ultimately ends up in a confrontation which will cause them to lose their lead and won't allow them to get rid of the Exiles. 

Nevertheless, the discussion continued. Even the War Gods themselves pitched in once or twice and some of them had a good plan but ultimately it just all ended up the same. 

The Sect Master and the Grand Elder watched this scene but didn't do anything to stop it. Just like what the Grand Elder said, he preferred the meeting to be filled with discussion and brainstorming rather than overall silence. 

Of course, this doesn't mean that they weren't thinking of plans too. They too understand the value of the lead Raven brought to them. They can't afford to be careless about it since none of them knows if they'll be able to have this kind of lead in the future once more. 

The meeting went for a long time. Most of the people were aware of how long it has been going on and could agree that the meeting had never been so lively before. Everyone was pitching ideas no matter who they were, but ultimately there was one person who had been silent for a while now. 

Henry, Logan, Theo, Charles, the Sect Master and Grand Elder had been waiting for Raven to say something but from the looks of it, he was completely satisfied with just allowing the others to pitch in their ideas. 

They even caught him smirking to himself every once in a while and would notice that every time he did so, it would ne when the current idea being discussed was going quite well. 

Despite that, seeing how he's currently carrying himself. They knew - no, they were sure that he probably had a good idea, and since this is Raven they're talking about, then his idea must be perfected already, after all he wouldn't settle down for anything less. 

This is why most of them were just waiting for him to speak. But just like what was mentioned, it seems that Raven was satisfied to let others discuss ideas on their own. 

In the end, the Sect Master concluded the meeting. Telling them to give this matter a thought. When everyone was gone, they saw Raven smiling at them and knew what it meant. 

"Okay, they're gone now." Henry said, "So? Out with it. What do you have in mind?" 

"I'm going to set them free." Raven declared.

"Huh!?"