Because Asakura did not understand Gu, and none of the witches by his side had magic similar to [Insects], he naturally had no way of knowing what kind of effects these insects, which looked a bit like roundworms, actually had.
However, according to Asakura's guess, even if they couldn't achieve the level of complete control over the host, they could at least influence the host's thinking to some extent, making them completely unable to resist the instructions of the Church of Happy Peace of Mind.
This would explain why this strange religion could spread so quickly.
Now the only thing that needed to be determined was whether this man in front of him was the mother body of the insects, or simply a poor soul being used.
"How dare you..." The middle-aged man saw Asakura pour the red wine on the floor, letting those semi-transparent roundworms struggle and die in the shadows on the carpet while looking indifferent, and he became beyond furious.
Asakura seemed to realize something- he pointed his finger toward the ground, and those insects spontaneously ignited.
The expression on the middle-aged man's face visibly contorted, and even his breathing began to grow heavy.
It was not ordinary anger or fear, but an expression one only has when mixed with physiological pain.
Asakura watched the other's expression with great interest.
Could it be that the nature of these insects is similar to a substitute, where damage taken is fed back to the original body?
Looking at it this way, the possibility of the other party being the mastermind behind everything had greatly increased.
"Forget the meaningless tough talk..." Asakura walked slowly toward the man, "Don't you plan to say something useful? Or perhaps I can show some great mercy and let you suffer a bit less."
The middle-aged man suddenly erupted, using strength far beyond that of an ordinary person to lift the large marble TV cabinet beside him high, smashing it toward Asakura.
But Asakura just extended a finger and gave a light swipe- the marble TV cabinet, weighing several hundred pounds, seemed to hit an invisible barrier, emitting a dull thud before bouncing back. Finally, it became deeply embedded in the mahogany wardrobe nearby, and instantly all sorts of strange adult-themed outfits and BD discs used to enhance intimacy spilled all over the floor, a complete mess.
Even if Asakura was only distracted for a split second by the TV cabinet, the middle-aged man had already seized this fleeting opportunity.
He snatched an European-style classical candle holder used for decoration from a long table nearby, knocked off the scented candles on top, and grabbed the girl who had been stunned and unable to flee because everything had exceeded the scope of her worldview. He pressed the sharp part of the candle holder against the girl's fair, white neck.
"Checkmate, I win this time!" He let out a laugh as unpleasant as a night owl's, speaking triumphantly.
Asakura walked forward a step, unconcerned.
"Enough, don't come any closer!" The man shouted harshly at Asakura: "If you take one more step, she's dead for sure!"
Asakura took another step forward.
"Do you think I'm joking!" Blue veins popped out on the middle-aged man's forehead: "I really will do it, and then her death will be on your hands!"
Asakura continued to walk forward.
This time, even the girl couldn't hold it together anymore.
Although she had thought about shouting things like 'Don't worry about me' when she was first captured as a hostage, intending to put her own life and death aside so the other party wouldn't be restrained by her, the boy's performance—completely disregarding her life and safety—was still a significant departure from the 'Prince Charming coming to rescue me' fantasy she had at the start.
"You guys seem to have misunderstood something..." Asakura watched the expressions of the two breaking down, smiling leisurely as he said, "I never said I was on the side of justice. Rather than trying to use a moral kidnapping to threaten us immoral Azkaban graduates, you're being a bit too ridiculous."
Although he wasn't sure what kind of ghost-thing Azkaban was, the middle-aged man still realized he was being severely mocked.
Damn it, he's actually not one of those pedantic warriors of justice?
For the first time, an irrepressible panic arose in the man's psyche.
It seemed that the hostage tactic was completely useless against the other party.
However, before giving up completely, he had to make one last struggle and attempt: What if the other party was just posturing, and didn't really not care about the hostage's safety as he said?
So, he ruthlessly stabbed the candle holder toward the girl's neck.
The girl closed her eyes in despair.
After a piercing sound that sounded like a sharp object scraping across a blackboard.
There was no change to the girl's seemingly tender neck, but the sharp tip of the candle holder in the man's hand had bent as if it had struck a block of iron.
The man and the girl were both stunned.
"It's Hard Qigong..." Asakura sighed with a serious face toward the girl: "I can't believe you know Hard Qigong!"
No, I don't know that kind of thing at all!
The girl looked like she was on the verge of tears, but she didn't know where to start her rebuttal.
The middle-aged man, however, was even more certain that everything was the work of the boy in front of him who was still wearing a weird smile.
From the very beginning, the other party had been playing with him in the palm of his hand.
Cold sweat broke out on the middle-aged man's forehead, he steeled his heart, and commanded the girl: "Go, kill him!"
The girl looked blank, showing an expression of 'Huh? Me?'.
Seeing her indifferent to his command, the middle-aged man's face distorted: "Don't tell me you didn't even touch a drop of wine at the banquet?"
"... I felt uneasy and had no appetite." The girl said in a small voice, like a startled little bird.
"Pwahahaha..." Asakura couldn't help but find the situation incredibly hilarious and mocked the middle-aged man: "Turns out everything you did today was completely useless, you're just like a clown."
The middle-aged man's psychological defenses shattered completely. He opened his thick, fat palm and reached toward the girl's mouth- several semi-transparent roundworm-like creatures burst out from the center of his palm, frightening the girl out of her wits.
"Alright, I'm about done playing."
Asakura snapped his fingers, and a ball of flame erupted out of thin air on the man's chest, burning so much that the other party subconsciously let go of the girl and fell to the floor, rolling around in an attempt to extinguish the fire.
He stepped forward quickly and pulled the girl behind him before standing in front of the middle-aged man.
"What did you do... I feel like I've lost something important..."
"Don't worry about it, I just burned away your memory of your bank card PIN..." At this moment, the smile had vanished from Asakura's face, and he looked at the other party with an expression as if he were staring at non-recyclable trash on the side of the road: "If you don't want to continue suffering physically, you'd better honestly hand over all your secrets."
"Bah." The middle-aged man flared up with sudden ferocity and spat at Asakura's feet.
Asakura didn't mind, simply saying nonchalantly.
"The next thing to burn will be your balls."
"I'll tell everything."
The middle-aged man retracted his ferocity, revealing an expression that begged for a settlement.