Bai Yunfei could 'see' a picture in the mind of Qiu Bailu. There was a room where Qiu Bailu and a vulgar-looking man was sitting together. The other man was treating Qiu Bailu extremely courteously as he handed him a space ring. Then the two began to talk.
Unfortunately, this was only a 'picture' of the events and so there was no sound.
Several seconds later, the pictures began to skip as Qiu Bailu started to look for people and gather up a group….
The scenery changed around again as Qiu Bailu led his group out from the Capital. Soon, they were on the same road as three women and was prepared to kidnap them when a small bird the colors of the rainbow defeated them all….
These images were a lot clearer to see for Bai Yunfei compared to before. Then the images began to flicker and grow unsteady like a television receiving static. Blurring together and skipping from image to image, the scenery started to grow hazy, the people a mosaic, and everything unclear before hopping to the next image. In just a matter of seconds, plenty of recollections and images had gone by.
The more Bai Yunfei looked through the images, the more they started to look like they were beginning to crumble apart.
"Ahh!!!!"
There was a cry of agony. Qiu Bailu's remaining eye was starting to bulge out from his eye socket and his body was trembling non-stop as if shocked. Blood was even spilling out from his nose!
"Stop!!"
With a slight grunt from Bai Yunfei, Qiu Bailu's screams came to a stop. His body slowly went back to normal before he crumpled back down to the ground and his eye unfocused in its gaze.
The strange light in Bai Yunfei's eyes disappeared as well. He took two stumbling steps backwards and shook his head. Both his hands pressed against his temples to massage it, and his face looked slightly fatigued as well. But in his eyes, the unmistakable light of joy could be seen along with a smile.
"It worked! It actually worked!!"
Bai Yunfei cried out in jubilation. Closing his eyes to exhale and calm himself down, Bai Yunfei let his arms drop from his head. He looked at the Charm Bracelet on his left wrist with a pleased smile.
"The mental link effect has so many applications—just in this application alone makes this effect far better than even any other +12 additional effect so far." Bai Yunfei gingerly touched the crystalline bracelet. "This is the only spirit-related attack I have so far, and its effects are drastically different than any other additional effect my other equipment has….if it affects the 'soul', just how flexible is the soul? How unfortunate I can't test it, if only another soul-related effect would appear….perhaps in the future I can upgrade the Charm Bracelet to +12? I wonder what kind of effects it'll have…."
Thinking to himself for a moment, Bai Yunfei turned his gaze back towards Qiu Bailu. With a wave of his right hand, a wave of elemental fire mixed with his soulforce entered Qiu Bailu's body and began to clear up the blockages in his acupoints, allowing him to move once more.
The strange thing was that Qiu Bailu didn't move as soon as his acupoints were cleared up. He remained on the ground still to stare lazily at wherever his head was pointed towards.
Bai Yunfei touched at his Charm Bracelet again. When he sensed something, Bai Yunfei spoke, "Stand up."
He repeated this command verbally, and then with his mind. Then the 'impossible' happened—Qiu Bailu 'rose' to his feet!
Even though there was a bullet wound straight through one of Qiu Bailu's thighs, it didn't seem to bother him when he stood up and stared at Bai Yunfei.
A flash of light flickered across Bai Yunfei's eyes. Happy, he looked at the wound on Qiu Bailu's thigh and 'commanded', "Heal."
There was a flash of red light from Qiu Bailu's body as his soulforce began to heal the bloody wound on his thigh.
Qiu Bailu's person was still…..just like a statue that would only listen to commands!
And the one 'controlling' him was Bai Yunfei!!
……
This was a 'derivative' ability of the +10 additional effect of the Charm Bracelet!
From his studies in the applications of the Charm Bracelet, Bai Yunfei was already capable of two derivative abilities from the mental link effect. One was the ability to detect lies, and the other was the ability to unleash a pseudo soul attack. Feeling extremely interested in this study, Bai Yunfei continued to do his research to see what else could be done with it.
Last time in Baishan City, Bai Yunfei could remember when he first used the mental link effect to launch that pseudo soul attack during the battle. There was another instance shortly afterwards where when Bai Yunfei was filled with murderous intent, he had used thought with all every single fiber in his body to have everyone there 'kill themselves'.
In the end, several of the early-stage Soul Exalts slit their own throats.
While this wasn't an example of controlling the 'mind', it was still in the end….'control'!!
By borrowing the ability of the mental link effect, Bai Yunfei was able to inject his own thoughts into them and affect their bodily movements!
That ability felt similar to a type of 'Mesmerization', or perhaps it was….Hypnosis.
He guessed that by using the mental link effect to enter someone's mind, he could use a great deal of mental energy to force the other mind to submit. And when he exploded with anger that one time, he was able to fully subjugate the mind and through a method almost like 'magic', he was able to know what the other was thinking and redirect their thoughts enough to a point where it could be considered 'manipulation'!
Bai Yunfei was never able to confirm his suspicions since this type of ability to control would do a great deal of harm to the person afflicted. Without any other real way to investigate his findings, Bai Yunfei was left unable to do anything until today where Bai Yunfei was able to 'properly' experiment.
With Qiu Bailu as his test subject, Bai Yunfei whittled away at his rationality and allowed fear to grip at his mind. Then connecting to his mind with the mental link effect, Bai Yunfei invaded his mindspace and flipped through it!!
The surprising thing to him was how fluidly everything went!
He managed to invade Qiu Bailu's mind and take away some rather important information from it.
However, there was also a very serious effect Bai Yunfei didn't expect to have. With how vicious he was in his invasion, Bai Yunfei somehow managed to not only subjugate Qiu Bailu's mind, but….destroyed it!
The Qiu Bailu right now had no rationality in him right now. As far as people was concerned, he was already 'dead'!! His mind wasn't there, he was just a braindead husk!
The end result was a bit similar to when Bai Yunfei was studying the slave seal and ended up with that soulless class three little snake.
The movements Qiu Bailu was doing was only because of the commands Bai Yunfei was giving him.
In short, the method of controlling was similar between the Charm Bracelet and the Beast Taming Ring. But in this case, the Charm Bracelet controlled people rather than soulbeasts!
Even now, Bai Yunfei found it very hard to believe at what he was capable of doing now.
As the wound on Qiu Bailu's body healed, Bai Yunfei looked at him with a pensive stare. The Charm Bracelet was still shining with a soft glow, and after a while, Bai Yunfei decided to cut the connection between him and Qiu Bailu.
After he cut off the connection, Bai Yunfei tried to send another order for Qiu Bailu to heal himself.
Once the connection was cut, Bai Yunfei paid attention to what was going on in Qiu Bailu's body. He could see that Qiu Bailu's body was still sending soulforce to heal the wound, but the more time went by, the less soulforce was being used. But even more importantly….was his life!
Bai Yunfei could sense that the lifeforce of Qiu Bailu was waning with each passing second. At this rate, he'd probably die within an hour or so!
Surprised, Bai Yunfei hurriedly re-established the mental link between him and Qiu Bailu. Entering Qiu Bailu's mindspace, Bai Yunfei saw his soulforce started to circulate like normal again, and his lifeforce had ceased to wane.
"I see now. In this case, this ability is a little less useful than I thought…." Bai Yunfei muttered. "But still, it's still a nice desperation move. I can also try to adapt its usage, it's worth a shot researching a little more…."
……
As he was thinking about how to use this new ability of the Charm Bracelet, a streak of lighty was flying in his direction.
Xiao Qi had returned.
"Yunfei, I brought Xinyun and the others back home." Xiao Qi reported as he dropped down to Bai Yunfei's side. "What are you doing? What's wrong with that guy?"
Deep in thought, Bai Yunfei nodded his head to him, "I'm trying to see how to use this new mental link effect. Let's go to another place for now."
"Another place?"
"The south parts of the city. Let's see just who hired these people."
"Eh…." Xiao Qi looked down at the remaining people there, "And what about these people?"
Commanding Qiu Bailu back to his feet, Bai Yunfei stared at the people Xiao Qi was looking at.
"Kill them!" He spoke mercilessly.
Never did Bai Yunfei even think about sparing these people.
This time, these people had truly infuriated him.
It had been trouble after trouble that greeted him since he came to the Capital. He had been patient and merciful even when they came to kill him, but now that this was happening, Bai Yunfei would no longer bear it.
This was because they were now trying to use Tang Xinyun to get to him.
Bai Yunfei wouldn't allow anyone to hurt her. If anyone tried, they'd be eliminated!!
No matter who it was, they'd die!
……
With the night rapidly approaching, Bai Yunfei took Qiu Bailu and Xiao Qi back to the Capital to get to the southern parts of the Capital.
They found the Desert Wolves hideout after a decent amount of time and immediately found the boss.
Even Qiu Bailu was more than enough to deal with the likes of a mid-stage Soul Ancestor. It took no time for Bai Yunfei to interrogate the man and then end his life.
After that, Bai Yunfei followed the clues left behind by the Desert Wolves to another place in the Capital.
The outskirts of the western part in the Capital.