"You're wrong. We're not cockroaches. We... we're wildfire, the subterranean fire smoldering deep within Crystal Veins buried underground."
Under Meng Chao's pressure, Gu Shao Yu's bones crackled. Blood continuously seeped from his seven orifices and pores. His face was deathly pale, yet his smile grew ever more radiant, his words brimming with the thrill of having his wish fulfilled. "Even if you, tyrant and butcher, wield the Death Scythe and kill however many of us you like, don't dream of using endless blood to douse this ever-living subterranean fire!"
"Shao Yu, you have disappointed me too deeply!"
Gu Shao Yu's smile finally caused a tiny spark to burst from Meng Chao's fury.
With a crack, Gu Shao Yu's joints shattered, and all four limbs bent unnaturally in the opposite direction.
Pain made him convulse, his body curling up like a boiled shrimp.
Yet he clamped his lips tightly between his teeth and did not let out a single scream.
Meng Chao snorted coldly. A ripple spread through the air, condensing into a Giant Spirit Palm that clutched Gu Shao Yu by the throat and dragged him before Meng Chao.
"Do you even know what you are doing?"
Meng Chao glared at his prized disciple and right-hand man with the look of one furious at iron for failing to become steel, gritting his teeth as he asked.
"O-of course I know."
A gurgling sound came from Gu Shao Yu's throat, like both the groan of a drowning man and the wild laughter of an avenger. "I'm doing what you, tyrant, have done countless times before.
"Back then, didn't you, tyrant, use these very same methods against our Nine Great Cultivation Families, and against anyone in or beyond Dragon City who refused to obey you and tried to challenge you?
"Poisoning, assassination,