Blood-Colored Eyes

Yuan Bin continued questioning.

"You have little talent, yet you reached the Qi Refining Fourth Layer in just one month. That woman definitely left you a great deal of resources. Where are the rest?"

"I used them up." Jiang Ping An gritted his teeth, burying his fury and hatred deep inside.

Smack~

Another whip landed on Jiang Ping An, making his body shudder violently.

Previously, protected by a Protective Amulet, he had scarcely suffered any injuries in battle. Yet not long ago, he had been slashed by a blade.

So this was how much it hurt to be beaten.

"I have heard about you. I know you possess a Storage Artifact. Speak—where did you hide the remaining resources?"

"I... used them up." The pain nearly made Jiang Ping An pass out. He would never reveal the Treasure Accumulation Basin.

"Courting death!"

Yuan Bin flipped the whip around and viciously drove its handle into Jiang Ping An's right eye.

"Aah~"

His shrill scream echoed through the cave, sending chills down one's spine.

The Bandits standing outside snickered.

"What an idiot. He actually dared defy the Great Captain."

"He is just a fool. He got cocky just because he had a little ability. The Great Captain is a legendary Qi Refining Eighth Layer cultivator."

"How long do you think this brat can hold out?"

"He will not last. He will soon tell the truth."

Jiang Ping An fainted from the pain, but another whip struck him and jolted him awake.

When he opened his eyes again, he discovered that his right eye could no longer see anything.

His right eye had been gouged out.

Just like the corpses on the ground, Yuan Bin seemed to have an unusual fondness for blinding people.

"I will give you one final chance. Tell me where the remaining resources are, and I can grant you a quick death. Otherwise, I will make you wish you were dead!"

Yuan Bin issued his final ultimatum.

Jiang Ping An's sole remaining eye stared straight at him. He wanted to carve this face firmly into his memory.

If he survived, he would absolutely kill him.

For himself, and for the villagers.

When Yuan Bin saw that Jiang Ping An remained silent, his expression darkened.

"You have great perseverance, well suited for cultivation. But you are stubborn beyond redemption. Your immortal path has reached its end."

He crouched down and dug a blood-colored eye from the body of a dried corpse.

At the sight of that Blood-Colored Eye, the Bandits at the entrance suddenly changed expression and hurriedly retreated several steps.

It was as though they had seen something immensely terrifying.

Yuan Bin's expression turned sinister and savage.

"I stole this eye from a sect. Because of it, I fell from Foundation Establishment to the Qi Refining Eighth Layer."

"Some say this eye belonged to an immortal; others say it belonged to a demon."

"But whether immortal or demon, many people wanted to transplant this eye into themselves in exchange for immense power."

"Yet in the end, they all broke down, suffering unimaginable agony before death."

"Later, the sect used it to interrogate prisoners. Its interrogation success rate reached ninety percent. The remaining ten percent failed because they could not endure it and simply died."

"In the entire history of its use, only one person succeeded. But that person was killed by me."

Yuan Bin pressed the blood-colored eyeball heavily against Jiang Ping An's right eye socket.

"Since you refuse to speak, then suffer."

With that, Yuan Bin turned and walked out.

At the entrance, he said to the Bandits outside, "Keep a close watch on him. If he begs for mercy, come inform me."

"Yes, Great Captain."

The Bandits at the entrance replied respectfully.

After seeing Yuan Bin off, several Bandits looked at Jiang Ping An with glee at his misfortune.

"What an idiot. He had to force the Great Captain to use this move."

"Ever since the Great Captain got that eye, no one has been able to withstand its assault."

"Speaking of which, why does this eye make people suffer so much?"

One Bandit asked in confusion.

"I heard the Great Captain say that this eye makes people constantly relive their most painful experiences, over and over in Reincarnation. Each cycle deepens the pain once more, until they cannot bear it and collapse."

"If someone has no painful memories, it repeats the pain their body has suffered and inflicts it upon them anew, making it worse and worse."

"Hiss~"

The Bandit who had asked the question sucked in a sharp breath.

That eye was far too terrifying!

Almost everyone had a past they could not bear to face, yet under the effect of this eye, they would have to experience it all over again—and it would be amplified.

Who could endure that?

At last, they understood why the expressions on those corpses had been so twisted.

As the Bandits spoke, Jiang Ping An's body began to tremble.

The scene he least wished to remember surfaced in his mind.

In the fields, his mother stood beneath the scorching sun, pulling a rope with her slender shoulders. Behind her was a plow cart. She dragged it forward slowly, her bent knees trembling.

After plowing for so long, her shoulders had been rubbed raw and bloody, soaking through her hemp clothes.

"Mother! Stop! Stop!"

Jiang Ping An shouted anxiously, because he knew the suffocating scene was about to unfold.

But his mother could not hear him and continued working the field with all her strength.

Thud~

His mother collapsed in the farmland, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"No~~"

Jiang Ping An screamed, his heart torn apart.

Seeing his mother fall once again was like having an awl driven viciously into his heart. He could not breathe.

The younger Jiang Ping An saw this scene, threw down the seeds in his hands, and charged madly toward his mother.

"Mother! Mother! What is wrong?"

"Ping An... I am sorry... Mother cannot stay with you anymore... Live on... Ping An, live on..."

"Mother!!"

Two trails of bloody tears slid down from the corners of Jiang Ping An's eyes as his body convulsed.

The scene shifted. His mother's corpse vanished, and his father's broken body appeared before him.

To pay the taxes, his father had gone hunting in the mountains, only to be gnawed apart by wild beasts until little remained but a mangled body.

Yet even so, his father still clutched two pheasants he had caught against his chest.

His body was hunched over. He would rather be eaten himself than let the pheasants he had hunted with such hardship be devoured by a tiger.

Because he needed to sell those pheasants for money. He needed them to nourish his son.

"Father~"

Jiang Ping An choked out a mournful cry.

The scene shifted again, and his mother's slender body once more pulled the plow cart...

The most painful scenes repeated again and again.

In reality, at the entrance to the prison, the Bandits burst into laughter as they watched Jiang Ping An weep bitterly.

"He cannot hold on anymore. He is about to break!"

"This is only the beginning. The pain he has experienced will keep cycling, yet he will never be able to change anything. That is what truly hurts."

"Haha, this Blood-Colored Eye is really interesting."

At the same time, in Flat Water County.

Xu Tao, who was holding two women in his arms, heard the report from his subordinate and smashed the table with a single slap.

"What did you say? My son is dead? Impossible! My son was about to become a squad captain, comparable to the Fifth Level of Qi Refining. How could my son possibly die?"

The subordinate reporting the news knelt on the ground, trembling so hard he did not dare breathe.

Xu Tao's eyes blazed crimson with Baleful Intent. "He dared kill my son? I will slaughter that brat's entire family! I will massacre his whole village!!"

He had only this one son. He had given his son every good thing, waiting for him to inherit his position.

But now, he had received news that his son was dead!

His son had a flying demonic beast and talismans that could save his life. How could he have died at the hands of a fourteen-year-old boy?

Xu Tao refused to accept this reality. He wanted revenge on that boy. He wanted to kill everyone connected to him!

"Gen... General, that brat's family died long ago, and his village was slaughtered by Bandits. He has no relatives..."

The subordinate reporting the news reminded him quietly.

Xu Tao froze, then kicked his subordinate's head apart with one blow.

"Pass down the order! Send two thousand soldiers and two squad captains to Eagle's Sigh Mountain Range. No matter what, bring that brat back to me! I will kill him myself!"

"General, but the border..."

Someone still wanted to say something, but upon seeing Xu Tao's scarlet eyes, he ultimately swallowed the words.