They explained the situation to Sam.
"Who is that person's boss? Do you know him by any chance?" Sam asked Markan.
"I don't know him personally. But I know that he has some status under the current leader. So, we wanted to wait and capture him."
"Then, why don't we use Kiran like always. We will capture this guy and replace him with Kiran and we would be able to capture him too. We could save some time in the process."
Everyone looked at Kiran who has a sulky expression. It is clear that he doesn't want to be used as this infiltration piece. He knew that he is good at it and if Sam is not wrong, the other teammates must have already asked him once or twice, but he must have refused both times and they didn't bother to pursue more.
Sam looked at him with a meaningful gaze and he said.
"Boss, don't look at me like that. I will go" He relented immediately.
"Why did it take so long for us to convince you, but you still refused, but Sam can immediately make you agree?" Sia asked as she looked at Kiran weirdly.
"It is because Boss is not a numbskull like you guys. You cannot plan as well as the boss. If it is him, I can be sure that I would be safe, even if I have to meet the enemy boss. But with you guys, I wouldn't be able to feel safe even if I have to infiltrate into a little kid's bedroom."
Everyone looked at him with a sharp gaze, but Kiran is looking at Sam with a flattering smile.
Sam sneered a bit and threw a jar of wine to him which Kiran caught and stored away in glee.
After that, the team made a move.
By evening they already captured their target and brought him back.
He was tied up to a chair and Sam placed his hand on that guy's head to use the observation ability and this time, it only covered the head of this person.
Sam then looked at Night Ghost who is suppressing this guy and nodded for which he slit the captive's throat.
Sam then used the memory extraction on the captive before sitting on the ground cross-legged while going through the memories.
Sam looked through each memory and each image carefully and his frown only got deeper and deeper.
He opened his eyes and he transferred the memories to Markan to get his opinion and when Markan looked through them he also frowned.
"Did you notice anything weird in this?" Markan asked as soon as he opened his eyes. Sam nodded and said.
"These memories are not… I don't know how to put it, but I think they are not concrete. They are not solid enough. It is like the memories are faint and are mere illusions for these guys. Did you notice anything?"
"Yes. There are no personal memories for this person."
"Personal memories?"
"Yes. The training of the Black Ghosts is actually pretty tough, but the thing is, the training regiment and process didn't change for hundreds of years. If they are assigned to one division within the organization in their childhood, they would go through the same training process.
This person has the memories of all the training and all the possible interactions with the trainers and examiners and even some elders. But other than that, there are no personal memories.
Every trainee will get to go outside once in a while, to get used to the vanity. That is also a part of the training. They would be given access to all kinds of vain things, alcohol, status, women, and all kinds of addictive things.
They would be attached to something and the trainer will kill that attachment while it was still a bud. It is impossible to know what that attachment is because that trainer reports directly to the Grand Elders.
This is what we call personal time and every memory we make in that time period is called Personal memory. Most of the time, the personal memories are kept completely secret from the normal trainers and even the examiners. It is almost impossible to get that information from anywhere else other than the person themselves."
Sam fell into deep thought before he explained what he observed.
"First thing's first. I don't think this guy is the same person."
Everyone was surprised.
"What do you mean?"
"He is not the original person, he is a duplicate. I noticed the same type of muscle structural changes in your face. The captive's face has definitely changed. Which means that the original is dead and this duplicate was created with that face."
Everyone was stunned and dumbfounded. But Sam continued.
"Did you notice anything else missing?"
Markan thought for a moment and said.
"The final ceremonial days. After the candidate completes the training, they would be given access to the estate of the Grand Elders in which they would meditate in front of the stone tablets that contain the wills of the ancestors to get their blessing.
I don't see that in him."
Sam nodded and stayed silent for a while.
He then turned to Kiran and transferred the memories to him and said.
"Get ready to infiltrate. This time, it would be easy. You don't have to portray any emotions, you just have to be robotic with your actions and responses."
Kiran nodded and started his preparations.
Sam turned to Markan and said.
"I don't know what the significance of the lost memories within him, but from the looks of it, they managed to erase that cult-like respect towards the organization and changed it to the obedience towards your rival, the current leader.
So, they are more inclined to work for and lie for the current leader. That is why they are operating these separate rackets.
But we have to know the answers to some other questions. How many people like this are there in the organization and how do they manage to do this? Do they have any external help or if this entire ploy is something that came from external sources? We need to find answers to these questions.
Before we can explore in that direction, let Kiran have a try and see if we can capture the boss that might arrive in a few days and see if there are any clues that we can get.
If he is a normal person and not a duplicate like these guys we might know what happened.
Meanwhile, I will look at these bodies and see if we can find anything else."
With that, Kiran was sent into the place of the captive by that evening, while spent his time on the research for the next few days.
A few days passed just like that and in these few days, Sam checked each and every inch of the dead bodies. He even went as far as dissecting the body and checking different organs without the extra protection of the bones and skin, even though he has the observation ability.
After so much effort, he finally managed to find some traces. A trace of the curse was placed on both of them.
Sam doesn't know which curse it is and they don't have a soul to see the potency of the curse and what kind of purpose it serves.
But at least, this is a start.
Meanwhile, on Kiran's side, the infiltration succeeded and the boss they are waiting for finally arrived.
Even though he is called the boss, he does not actually have that high of status, he had the same cultivation level as Kiran and he just kicked that guy's ass and brought him here.
This time, Sam didn't kill him immediately and searched for the curse, but he couldn't find any, he also used the observation skill on his face which didn't show any signs of that weird facial surgery.
"It seems like we caught an original this time."
Sam said as he looked at Markan.
Markan was surprised and he looked at this guy carefully.
"You were a shortlisted candidate for successor position in childhood right?"
The captive was stunned when he heard that question.
"How did you know? Who are you guys? If you know who I am, then you should also know what I am capable of."
"Boring threats. Just shut up already."
Kiran said from the side as he enjoyed his hard-earned wine.
Markan channeled his energy into his palm and a hexagram made of six elemental energies formed there.
"You… You… How is that possible? You shouldn't be here. You shouldn't be alive. No… No… This cannot be possible."
As he stuttered and spoke, he suddenly started chanting something.
Sam had a bad feeling and tried to stop him, but he was still too late.
The body exploded and died right there.
Sam hurriedly performed the memory extraction, but he wasn't able to find anything.
"His soul dissipated. This self-destruction is quite powerful."
He muttered in disappointment.
