Torturing Liu Xi

"Die."

Ye Xiu spat out the word, his fingers forming a sword shape as he slashed through the air.

A crimson streak of fire flashed and vanished.

The maid's scream stopped instantly; her head was severed on the spot, rolling onto the floor as blood sprayed all over Liu Xi's face and head.

Drenched in the warm blood, Liu Xi was completely stunned.

Ye Xiu made no effort to conceal his aura, and Liu Xi quickly realized that Ye Xiu was actually a nine-star Da Dou Shi!

Ye Xiu turned his gaze toward him and walked closer step by step; the sound of his footsteps in the deathly silent bedroom was as clear as a funeral bell tolling in Liu Xi's heart.

"Master Liu Xi," Ye Xiu's voice was terrifyingly calm, "have you found it convenient to use my blood for alchemy these past few days?"

Liu Xi looked at Ye Xiu in terror, "It... it has nothing to do with me! It was Jialie Bi! He was the one who made me do it! Ye Xiu, what do you want to do to me... you must know, my master is a third-grade Alchemist..."

"Your master?" Ye Xiu sneered, having reached the bedside, "When he arrives, I will send him down to keep you company."

Before the words had even faded, Ye Xiu struck like lightning!

"Ah--!!!"

A shrill, inhuman scream erupted instantly!

Ye Xiu's fingers, sharp as blades, flashed with a cold light, and Liu Xi's four limbs were severed at the roots!

The high temperature of the crimson Dou Qi instantly cauterized the wounds, preventing a massive spray of blood, but the pain that reached deep into his soul made Liu Xi nearly faint.

Ye Xiu remained expressionless. He crouched beside Liu Xi, ripped the Storage Ring from his finger, and used his soul power to brutally shatter the weak imprint upon it. After a brief search, he pulled out several jade bottles.

He pried open Liu Xi's jaw and poured an entire bottle of pungent hemostatic powder into his mouth, then picked out another ointment for external use, smearing it haphazardly over the stumps of his limbs.

The medicine took effect quickly, stopping the bleeding, but the pain did not diminish in the slightest; instead, the irritation from the powder made it even more agonizing.

Like a fish thrown onto the shore, Liu Xi could only twitch on the bed with his remaining torso, his eyes filled with pleading, yet he could no longer utter a complete sentence.

"Want to die? It's not that easy." Ye Xiu's voice sounded as if it came from the netherworld, "You drained so much of my blood and made me experience days of agony worse than death. To let you die just like that would be far too merciful."

He turned and walked out of the courtyard, returning a moment later carrying a wooden bucket he had found in some corner, which emitted a foul stench and was filled with murky, putrid excrement.

At the same time, he condensed Dou Qi at his fingertips and easily corroded a small hole in the ceiling beam.

Ye Xiu dragged the dying Liu Xi directly beneath the beam, laying him face up, aligned with the small hole.

Then, he lifted the bucket and used his Dou Qi to control the contents, condensing a single drop of the foul, murky liquid through the hole in the beam.

"Drip."

The first drop landed precisely on the center of Liu Xi's forehead, and the stench spread instantly.

Liu Xi's body shuddered violently, the fear in his eyes reaching its peak.

"Drip... drip..."

Ye Xiu adjusted the speed and rhythm, letting the liquid fall one drop after another, steadily and continuously onto Liu Xi's face...

Liu Xi tried to turn his head to avoid it, but with only his torso remaining, he was unable to do so and was forced to endure this endless torture.

The nauseating stench filled his nasal cavity, eventually invading his mouth and nose; the mental devastation was far more despairing than the physical pain!

"Ah... kill me... please, kill me..." Liu Xi's mental defenses began to crumble, and he let out a muffled, incoherent wail.

Ye Xiu watched coldly, then took another black pill from Liu Xi's Storage Ring.

This pill was not a particularly potent poison, but it could sustain a person through extreme pain and organ failure until a specific moment.

He pried open Liu Xi's filth-covered mouth, shoved the black pill inside, and used his Dou Qi to force him to swallow it.

"This is your own poison. You surely know its effects; it will allow you to clearly feel your life slipping away, bit by bit, as your internal organs slowly fail."

Ye Xiu leaned down and whispered into Liu Xi's ear, his voice like the murmurs of a demon:

"Enjoy your final few hours. When the first ray of sunlight shines into this room tomorrow, that will be the moment your soul scatters. In this long night, with only the stench for company, wait slowly for death... Master Liu."

Having said this, Ye Xiu stopped looking at Liu Xi, who was twitching on the bed under the dual torture of the dripping filth and mental agony, as if he had merely disposed of a bag of dirty trash.

Ye Xiu turned and quickly left the Jialie Family, his figure vanishing into the night outside.

Behind him, in the city mansion, faint flickers of fire began to rise, reddening a patch of the sky...

He looked up at the sky; there was still quite a long time until dawn.

Enough time for many people in Wutan City to have a good dream.

"Have you heard? The Jialie family... something happened!"

"It's more than just 'something'! I have a distant cousin who works at the City Lord's Mansion; they say he was called in before dawn. He came back saying the scene in the Jialie family's meeting hall was horrific. Inside... oh, don't even ask, it was all..."

"All what? Just say it!"

"All corpses! Everyone is dead! The Jialie Patriarch, the elders, and quite a few stewards... not a single one escaped! They say they were all wiped out in a single night!"

"My heavens! Who did it? Such a massive undertaking? Could it be the Xiao Clan?"

"Shh! Keep your voice down! Although the Xiao Clan and the Jialie Family are at odds, the Xiao Clan leader isn't the type to be this ruthless and exterminate an entire bloodline... Besides, I heard there were burn marks at the scene, and the residual Dou Qi was incredibly overbearing—it doesn't match the style of the Xiao Clan's Dou Qi."

"Could it be that the Jialie Family offended some powerhouse from outside? Haven't they been riding high lately thanks to that Alchemist, Liu Xi?"

"Liu Xi? Heh, don't even mention him! That Alchemist's fate was even more miserable. He was found dead in his Alchemy Room, and his appearance... it's impossible to describe. Rumor has it he didn't even have his hands and feet left, and he suffered terribly before he died."

"Hiss—that's just too brutal! Who on earth could be such a sacred terror?"

In teahouses, taverns, and marketplaces all across Wutan City, almost everyone was whispering and discussing this earth-shattering murder case.

Although the Jialie Family was not the sole hegemon of Wutan City, they were one of the three great families with deep foundations, and their patriarch, Jialie Bi, was a five-star Da Dou Shi.

For such a formidable family to have their upper echelons slaughtered in a single night was a shock that far exceeded ordinary vendettas in the martial world.

For a time, all sorts of wild speculations ran rampant among the common folk.

Some said the Jialie Family had provoked the revenge of a reclusive master through their extortion and greed;

Others claimed they had an internal falling out with the sect backing Liu Xi;

Some even imagined that a passing Dou Ling powerhouse had been offended by some trivial matter and had wiped out the Jialie Family's leadership on a whim...