Pain.
A piercing pain.
The pain of flesh being cut.
The pain of bones being scraped.
It was as if a steel fork had pierced through his heart, with a crisp clang.
It was as if a sharp blade had sliced his flesh into thin pieces one by one, then arranged them on a plate to await someone's tasting.
It was as if a rusty iron knife were scraping against his bones with a grating clack, clack, clack, like a starving wolf gnawing on bones with loud crunches.
This pain was not merely physical. It was spiritual as well.
If the soul were a tiny figure, then that Dragon Nail was a pair of scissors.
Snip, snip, snip.
With every cut, it chopped that little figure into pieces, blood gurgling from the wounds.
From within outward, or from without inward.
The pain was so overwhelming that it became impossible to tell where it came from or where it was going. Everywhere and every corner he could feel was in pain, burning.
This was a pain life could not endure, a pain the flesh could not withstand.
Li Mu Yang's body trembled.
It was not only his body that shook. Even his soul did the same.
"Ah!" Li Mu Yang cried out.
It had nothing to do with cowardice, nor with strength of will. It was merely the body's natural reaction.
Li Mu Yang had never known that such pain could exist in this world. Compared to it, all the hardships he had suffered as a child, and the Dragon-Trapping Formation he had endured in Futuo City, were utterly insignificant.
He wanted to faint. He wanted to die immediately.
But, damnably, he remained conscious.
More conscious than he had ever been.
He could clearly feel a nail that seemed to have