Torture

The sound of crackling electricity rang out. A blinding bolt of lightning shot from the red-robed old man's eyes and struck Yin Xuege. Yin Xuege let out a miserable howl, every strand of his hair standing straight up as dazzling sparks sprayed from his body. He flew backward in a sorry heap like an abandoned scarecrow.

An overwhelming force of thunder and lightning rampaged through Yin Xuege's body. Yet this power was not violent; it even carried a gentle, silky smoothness, like water nourishing his flesh. It seeped through him like flowing water, bringing him excruciating pain and destroying his body's ability to move normally, but it caused no further injury!

At the very least, Yin Xuege could still breathe and think, and his nerves remained intact.

"Dark Juvenile, the reason I held back was because I wanted to preserve your despicable life so you could experience the suffering to come!"

The red-robed old man gripped his staff tightly. A fist-sized silver-blue gem at its tip sprayed out rings of blinding electrical arcs. He glared angrily at Yin Xuege and ground out each word through clenched teeth. "Leitning was my most outstanding student. I was preparing to send him to the exchange conference among the human city-states, so he could seize even more resources for Great Berlin City-State!"

He exhaled forcefully and said coldly, "But you killed him! Good. You killed Leitning and strangled all my efforts over the past fifteen years! Every resource invested in Leitning has gone to waste as well! Good, very good! Everything you have done will receive its due reward!"

Yin Xuege lay on the ground as electric currents coursed through his body, leaving him completely unable to move. But that did not stop him from laughing loudly and mocking the red-robed old man for choosing the wrong person. "That only proves your judgment in choosing students isn't very good! When I killed him, I barely had to exert any effort!"

Provoked by Yin Xuege's arrogant words, the red-robed old man's face turned purple with rage. He clenched his staff and snarled viciously at Yin Xuege for a while before finally nodding with difficulty and swinging his arm hard.

"Dark Juvenile, I will remember your provocation and insolence! You should remember me as well—the Human Alliance's Third Thunder Emperor, Jolus. When I destroy the nest of your evil family and hang every one of your clansmen on crosses to be scorched into ash beneath the sun, I will let you admire that wonderful scene!"

A wave of exhilaration surged through Yin Xuege's heart. Destroy Yin Clan's nest and hang every clansman to death? That had been Yin Xuege's beautiful dream ever since he had become old enough to understand the world! Thus, he continued provoking Jolus without hesitation. "You're only the Third Thunder Emperor? So there are two even more powerful people above you? No wonder your student was so easy to kill!"

With difficulty, he raised his head and swept Jolus a disdainful glance. Then Yin Xuege threw back his head and laughed. "If the teacher is no good, of course the student will be a good-for-nothing!"

"Damnable bastard!" Jolus's eyes reddened from Yin Xuege's provocative words and brazen stare. At that moment, he even looked somewhat like a Blood Demon. Furiously, Jolus flung his hands about. The entire deep, winding tunnel was wrapped in dazzling lightning, while countless prisoners in the cells on either side unleashed a storm of furious curses.

Every prisoner locked up there was blasted until their hair and faces were scorched. They crowded around the ventilation windows and cursed every female relative of Jolus with the vilest, most obscene words. The entire tunnel was instantly seized by foul language. Jolus, already blazing with rage, grew so furious that veins bulged across his forehead. He could barely suppress the urge to kill every prisoner there.

The air beside him twisted slightly, and a handsome, incomparably striking blond man in a black robe appeared out of thin air. He placed one hand on Jolus's arm, from which countless bolts of lightning were bursting, and firmly shook his head.

"Don't act rashly, Jolus, my old friend. They will be punished in the end, and humanity remains the master of this land. Don't forget our proper business. A Juvenile who isn't afraid of sunlight—isn't it obvious that there is some plot behind this?"

"Allen, you... you're right!" Jolus forcibly suppressed his anger and stamped his foot heavily.

A group of fully armed Blood Prison Guards rushed forward. Working together in a flurry, they seized Yin Xuege, who lay paralyzed and unable to move, and dragged him toward the end of the tunnel. Led by Jolus and Allen, they passed through one heavy door after another and finally arrived before a massive metal archway.

The archway stood more than three meters tall. Its black surface was carved with scenes of the legendary Deities and Demons battling one another. The sculptor was clearly a master. The scenes were so lifelike that at least a thousand vivid figures appeared on the modestly sized gate. Among them, Yin Xuege immediately spotted the figure of a Blood Demon with a pair of wings on his back.

That Blood Demon, his entire body wrapped in flames, had a spear thrust through his chest and was falling from a bank of clouds. He pointed toward a Deity atop the clouds whose body was shrouded in light, while countless streams of blood poured from him.

Yin Xuege had seen this story before among the statues on the walls of Children's Hall. It was the final Twilight War fought by the Deities and Demons as they sank into decline, countless years ago, before the legendary Era of Dharma Decline descended!

That battle plunged the cultivation worlds of both East and West into chaos. Large numbers of Eastern cultivators appeared in the Twilight War. Some joined forces with the Deities, while others joined the Demons. After a great battle between both sides, all the Gods and Devils vanished without a trace. Only the gravely wounded Blood Demon, whose strength had ranked among the foremost of the Gods and Devils, struggled back to the Blood Demon Temple. He left all the dozens of drops of Blood Demon Saint Blood remaining in his heart to the descendants he had spawned.

Yin Clan's ancestor, Yin Tianjue, led a group of Yin Clan elders in a surprise attack on the Blood Demon Temple at that time and seized all the Blood Demon Saint Blood. Yin Clan established itself as a lineage from that point onward.

Black-robed Allen noticed Yin Xuege's gaze. He gently tapped the Blood Demon falling from the clouds on the gate, then smiled and nodded at Yin Xuege. "Particularly interested in this carving? Black-haired, black-eyed Blood Demon Juvenile, you're a member of Yin Clan, aren't you?"

Yin Xuege's heart contracted slightly, but he said nothing.

Allen studied Yin Xuege with a smile for a while, then nodded. "What a troublesome little fellow. If you were a Juvenile from another family, a little intimidation and torture would make you confess everything. But a Juvenile of Yin Clan... although you're just as treacherous and sinister as the Juveniles of other families, you also come from the East!"

Spreading his hands helplessly, Allen sighed. "I hate this so-called backbone of you Easterners. Of the prisoners from Yin Clan we captured in the past, very few ever opened their mouths to give testimony. I hope you don't have such hard bones. I truly hope so!"

The black gate opened, and a chill mixed with a thick stench of blood rushed out.

Jolus, wearing a ferocious grin, and Allen, smiling amiably, entered first. The guards dragged Yin Xuege inside after them.

It was a spacious hall—or more precisely, a torture chamber. The chamber stretched for dozens of meters, and all kinds of strange torture instruments had been densely arranged throughout it. Several furnaces had even been set up, along with a small steelmaking crucible. A pot of molten steel boiled within, occasionally splashing viscous droplets of red-hot iron.

Yin Xuege's body abruptly stiffened as he stared at the steelmaking crucible, unable to imagine what kind of torture it represented!

Throwing a person into molten steel? No matter how powerful a Blood Demon was, no one could withstand such heat, could they? Even though Yin Xuege, for some unknown reason, was not afraid of the Blood Demon's natural enemy—sunlight—this was molten steel! Yin Xuege looked at his tender body and felt that he would melt within it in less than a second.

All his attention had been drawn to that pot of molten steel, so Yin Xuege failed to notice the other bizarre torture instruments in the chamber.

Two guards savagely dragged Yin Xuege before a cross and fastened his hands and feet tightly to it. Special metal cords bound his limbs at the joints. Pale golden characters and talismanic symbols surged across the cross, just like the golden writing on the cell door. They radiated a mighty, awe-inspiring divine power that instinctively repulsed Yin Xuege.

Enveloped by that imposing divine aura, all the strength drained from Yin Xuege's body.

Jolus and Allen slowly walked to a row of seats at one side of the chamber and sat down. A middle-aged woman already occupied one of the high-backed chairs. She wore a brilliantly colored red dress, its hue like flames. The red-dressed beauty still possessed her graceful charm, though a few crow's-feet had appeared at the corners of her eyes. Holding a cup of water, she watched Yin Xuege with a tranquil gaze.

"So this is the Juvenile?" The beautiful woman shook her head and raised the cup for a sip. "Fennice, this is the Sunwalker?"

Yin Xuege raised his head. Standing beside the beautiful woman was none other than Fennice, who had cruelly tortured him with flames. Wearing a sweet smile, Fennice approached the beautiful woman and whispered something into her ear. The woman shook her head indifferently and nodded toward Jolus and Allen.

Jolus's expression was gloomy as he said coldly, "Fire Queen Fainlan, this is the boy. A Sunwalker. Don't you find that strange?"

Fainlan studied Yin Xuege curiously. Allen spoke slowly from beside her. "A Sunwalker. Even we know how important a Sunwalker is to a Blood Demon family! He has the potential to become the legendary Blood Demon Emperor, or even a Blood Demon Deity! Yin Clan sent a Sunwalker into Great Berlin City-State. What are they trying to do?"

Fainlan narrowed her eyes. The crow's-feet at their corners vanished without a trace, and her smile became even sweeter.

"It's also possible that they learned something. For example, that person we captured a few days ago, together with Milan City-State, in the underground nest beneath that abandoned cemetery? Anything is possible, isn't it, my friends?"

Fainlan smiled sweetly, but her next order was anything but sweet or lovely.

She waved a hand, then pointed at Yin Xuege with a smile. "Break the bones on one side of his body. Let our little fellow regain consciousness first and learn what kind of place this is!"

Two burly men wearing black leather trousers and black leather masks over their faces slowly approached Yin Xuege. Their upper bodies were bare. They stuffed a filthy towel into Yin Xuege's mouth, then fastened dozens of special crocodile-jaw clamps, each set with tiny crystals, onto the vital points where the nerves and blood vessels converged along the right side of his body.

The crocodile-mouthed clamps sank deep into Yin Xuege's flesh. Their crystals glimmered faintly as wisps of sharp lightning pierced his body, increasing the sensitivity of his nerves at least a hundredfold.

"Kid, bear with it. Don't die from the pain!" one masked brute snarled as he raised a strangely shaped mallet with a ram's-horn handle.

"Relax. I think this kid can endure far more than the others!" The other masked brute's laughter sounded like a night bird. His "cuckoo-cuckoo-cuckoo" made Yin Xuege's back turn cold. He raised an iron rod covered in countless one-inch-long steel spikes, aimed it at Yin Xuege's right ankle, and brought it crashing down.

The steel spikes pierced through the bone and into the marrow. The iron rod shattered Yin Xuege's bones, mangling the nerves and blood vessels around his ankle. The lightning released by the crocodile-jaw clamps amplified his pain by more than a hundred times. Yin Xuege felt an unbearable agony surge from his right foot. His body convulsed violently, and then a great quantity of blood sprayed from all seven apertures at once.

His internal organs seemed to twist and explode. Such agony sent Yin Xuege's mind into a daze. A single strike had nearly taken half his life! If he had not just broken through to the point only one step short of becoming a Moon Warrior, causing his physical functions to strengthen several times over, this blow would already have knocked him unconscious.

But that was precisely what made it deadly. Yin Xuege's body had grown stronger, and so had his endurance. The blow failed to render him senseless, leaving him no choice but to passively endure every bit of the pain.

Cold, viscous sweat kept seeping out, forming a layer of gray sludge across Yin Xuege's skin. His body convulsed violently, twitching and jerking like a fish that had leaped onto the shore. He opened his mouth to scream, but the foul-smelling towel blocked it.

He wanted to draw a breath to ease the scalding agony inside his body, but another executioner shoved a wad of burning tinder beneath his nose. The tinder gave off pungent black smoke. Instead of fresh air, Yin Xuege inhaled the choking fumes. His lungs convulsed violently. He wanted to cough but could not make a sound, and his body writhed fiercely as everything before his eyes turned scarlet.

"Fennice, my dear child!" Fire Queen Fainlan gazed with a smile at Yin Xuege, who struggled and convulsed in excruciating pain. She spoke unhurriedly. "When dealing with these dark creatures, there is no need for pity or hesitation. Torture them with the cruelest methods. Perhaps it will yield an unexpected harvest!"

Fennice stood beside Fainlan with a serene, delicate smile, watching with great pleasure as Yin Xuege teetered on the edge of collapse.

"My friends, think about it. Why would a precious Sunwalker, a Sunwalker rarely seen even once in a thousand years, appear in our territory? What scheme does Yin Clan have against us? What sort of mission is this poor little fellow carrying?"

Allen tapped the armrest lightly with his finger and said pensively, "Most importantly, if we hadn't received a confidential report, seized this little fellow at that tavern, and found those potions and soft sword that only Blood Demons possess on him, could we still have captured him after he blended into Great Berlin City-State?"

Jolus's expression was dark and sinister as he glared venomously at Yin Xuege, his teeth grinding with a crisp crack.

"He has none of that distinctive gloomy aura of a Blood Demon, nor does he smell of blood. He even smells sunnier and healthier than most human children! And he isn't afraid of the sun! If he had infiltrated humanity, perhaps one day we would have discovered his extraordinary talent, taken him as a student, and let him protect the safety of Great Berlin City-State?"

Jolus gave a few cold laughs and smashed the armrest of his chair into pieces with one palm.

"A conspiracy. This is a conspiracy aimed at our Great Berlin City-State!"

Green light shimmered within Yin Xuege's heart, and his shattered ankle bone rapidly healed. As he teetered on the edge of collapse, he heard Allen's words—they had received a confidential report and only then captured Yin Xuege at Old Jack's tavern!

They received a confidential report!

They received a confidential report!

Without that report, they could not have suddenly attacked Old Jack's tavern, and they would never have captured Yin Xuege!

If Yin Xuege had not possessed the so-called Sunwalker constitution, then according to the Human Alliance's usual methods, once they failed to torture any valuable information out of him, they would have thrown him directly into the sunlight and burned him to ash! That would have ended everything once and for all, erasing every trace that Yin Xuege had ever existed.

Those two Yin Clan warriors! In Yin Xuege's muddled mind, he suddenly recalled Yin 9937 and Yin 9938, who had escorted him all the way into the city-state! Where had they gone? Had they not been captured? Or had they already been reduced to ashes?

As his body convulsed violently, the executioner's ram's-horn mallet suddenly slammed into Yin Xuege's knee. The strike nearly severed his entire lower leg. Yin Xuege convulsed wildly from the pain, his body thrashing madly against the cross, and another great quantity of blood sprayed from his seven apertures.

Jolus watched Yin Xuege with delight and clapped his hands in satisfaction. "Beautifully done, children! Keep it up! Let this damned vampire know that they should never come within a single step of our city-state!"

The boundless agony made life worse than death for Yin Xuege. At that moment, he wished he could simply die.

His bloodshot eyes fixed fiercely on Fainlan and the others, then on everyone around them. He engraved all their smiling faces in his heart and remembered them forever.

At that moment, a man in black hurried into the torture chamber. He approached the three Grand Arbiters and bowed.

"Esteemed Grand Arbiters, several guests from the East have arrived. They say they must see you as soon as possible."

Before the man in black could finish speaking, a streak of azure light flashed behind him. An old man with white hair and beard, carrying an unmistakable air of transcendence, suddenly appeared out of thin air.

"Fainlan, your threshold is becoming harder and harder to cross!"