In the vast underground space, Yuan Gang hung suspended, not daring to make a sound for fear of alerting the guards. All he could do was let out soft whimpers.
Jade silkworms descended from the cave ceiling on hanging threads, slowly crawling upside down onto the cocoon. They lined up vertically along Yuan Gang's back and began to gnaw through the thick cocoon with a rustling sound.
Once he felt it was about enough, and that the jade silkworms had begun working on their own, Yuan Gang shut his mouth. He had been tortured until his hair hung loose and wild, barely looking human.
Hua Meiru came almost every day, tormenting him each time.
He refused to sit and wait for death. He tried summoning the jade silkworms and discovered that it worked.
Time passed bit by bit. Guards occasionally walked by and glanced in his direction.
At first, the guards would come over and circle around to inspect him. Later, knowing he could not escape and unwilling to keep pacing back and forth, they simply moved on whenever they saw that he was still there.
Yuan Gang had seized precisely this loophole and acted in secret.
There was no way to tell the passage of time inside the cave. No one knew how long had passed as Yuan Gang repeatedly braced his arms and stretched the cocoon apart.
When every remaining strand at his back had been bitten through by the jade silkworms, his arms could already force the entire rear of the cocoon open. He could have broken free of its restraints, yet he instead drew himself back in and became motionless.
There were guards at the exit, and this was the Peerless Sacred Land. He did not believe he could escape.
He slowly closed his eyes and