[Little Monster and Old Monster]

Braving the howling wind and torrential rain, Wei Shu arrived at the end of Rain Valley.

Here stood a Rain Shelter Pavilion of an exceptionally strange design. Among the countless buildings of the Heaven Realm, Wei Shu had never seen a structure like it: open on all four sides, with only four pillars supporting an octagonal pavilion. Inside, an old man seemed to be sitting there, drinking alone.

Only after drawing much closer did he realize something was wrong.

The old man was not sitting, but half-sitting and half-standing. Below his legs, his body had turned into twisted stone, leaving him unable to either stand or sit. From afar, he merely looked seated. In truth, this posture of neither sitting nor standing was the most exhausting of all. If this old man had maintained it for a long time, it was likely more unbearable than death itself.

Before the old man with petrified legs sat a wine jug and a cup.

Within anyone's reach.

Yet the jug and cup happened to lie beyond the old man's reach. Even when he strained his entire body, his fingers could not touch either of them in the slightest.

Unable to sit, unable to stand, with fine wine right before his eyes, yet unable to take the jug and pour himself a drink, unable to take the cup and drink...

This punishment did not seem like much on the surface, but on reflection, it was simply the cruelest punishment in the world. Wei Shu shuddered involuntarily. If someone made him like that, he might as well kill himself. Of course, he understood that the supreme expert who had punished the old man so would never give him a chance to commit suicide. Under such circumstances, he was truly worse off than dead. A painful