As soon as Elder Nether Scorpion finished speaking, the air in the underground waterway instantly froze.
Toji's eyes turned completely cold at this moment, and the fingers gripping Elder Nether Scorpion's neck slowly tightened, his knuckles turning white from the force.
"Careless?"
His voice was terrifyingly low, as if it came from the depths of hell.
"What an accident!"
Elder Nether Scorpion's throat was being choked, his face turning purple, yet he still managed to force a sinister smile:
"Ha, ha, the law of the jungle is the law of this world. Your parents are just ordinary people without Soul Power; to us Soul Master, they are nothing but ants..."
"Bang!"
Toji Er slammed his head against the wall, and blood instantly seeped from Elder Nether Scorpion's forehead, sliding down his cheeks.
"Laws?" Toji said coldly, "Then today, I'll let you experience firsthand what true 'survival of the fittest' really means."
He released his grip, letting Elder Nether Scorpion slide to the ground, and then stepped on his knee.
"Snap!"
"Aaaaaah--!"
The sound of bones shattering, accompanied by piercing screams, echoed through the sewers.
Toji remained expressionless, bent down, grabbed Elder Nether Scorpion's wrist, and broke his fingers one by one.
This is the first one.
"Click."
"The second one."
"Click."
Elder Nether Scorpion's screams grew weaker and weaker, and fear finally surfaced in his eyes.
"Please... please... spare me..."
"Snap!"
Toji a word, he crushed his shoulder blade.
Elder Nether Scorpion screamed in agony, but then immediately grinned maliciously:
Even if you don't forgive me, you can't change the fact that your entire family was slaughtered by us, and the Xishui Alliance will never let you go!
Toji sneered:
Do I need them to let me go?
As he spoke, he began to manipulate Elder Nether Scorpion's hand again, breaking off his fingers one by one.
"Ten years have passed! Even after such a long time, you can still enjoy the thrill of revenge?!" Elder Nether Scorpion Mingxie roared at Shen'er, forcing Toji to speak.
"With my Martial Soul, I would never have been forced to become Evil Soul Master back then!"
Toji broke all five of his fingers, and he roared with all his might in agony before collapsing to Toji knees, utterly powerless.
Elder Nether Scorpion trembled all over, raising his head to look at Toji:
"Hahaha, do you know what? Back then, it was because of my dark-attribute Venomous Scorpion Martial Soul that I was labeled Evil Soul Master by the Shrek Academy."
"Even though I don't need to sacrifice anyone to improve my cultivation, I'm facing Shrek's pursuit without doing anything."
"Just before I was about to be killed by the Shrek members, I met someone who, like me, was defined as Evil Soul Master Shrek. He saved my life, took me under his wing in the Heaven Dou Empire, and taught me how to absorb the Qi and Blood, nutrients, energy, and Soul Power of living people to improve my Self cultivation."
"Despite how unwilling I was to sacrifice others' lives to improve my cultivation, Shrek's relentless pressure forced me to seize the time to become stronger."
Toji asking or caring, she had already grabbed his second hand.
As his fingers were broken, the excruciating pain caused Elder Nether Scorpion to scream repeatedly, but he remained immersed in past memories, trying to escape his agony:
"Rather than be falsely accused and suppressed as an Evil Soul Master, then I will do as they wish and become a true Evil Soul Master!"
"Is it funny? Young man, if I hadn't been forced into becoming Evil Soul Master by the Shrek Academy members back then, perhaps your family could have avoided being wiped out!"
" The Inspection Corps never let us off the hook, even severely injuring us. We were forced to target your family members to expedite our recovery!"
"Finished fabricating your lies?" Toji snorted, his other five fingers also being broken. "You have the Venomous Scorpion Martial Soul; devouring living corpses won't give you any extra healing."
"What good would it do me to lie to you now? I'm going to be tortured to death by you anyway, so why not vent all the resentment I've been holding in all these years?!" Elder Nether Scorpion howled in pain, but still laughed loudly when he saw Toji.
"You shouldn't have forgotten that back then, there were three Evil Soul Master, including me, acting together. Ten years ago, you killed Three-Ring Soul Elder, and I was Four-Ring Soul Ancestor back then."
"The person who saved me was none other than the Five-Ring Soul King from back then. His Martial Soul was Ghoul. With the help of cultivation techniques and his assistance, as long as we ate the corpses of living people, we could recover our injuries and Soul Power as quickly as possible. It was because of this that we were ultimately able to leave the Heaven Dou Empire alive and join the Xishui Alliance."
Elder Nether Scorpion's words caused Toji to pause slightly.
He stared at the blood-stained Evil Soul Master before him:
"So, what do you want to say before you die?"
Elder Nether Scorpion grinned, revealing a ferocious smile through his blood-stained lips:
"I want to say... do you think revenge is over? Do you think killing me will end your vengeance?"
He was breathing heavily, his eyes flashing with a crazed light:
" The Shrek Inspection Corps that led the hunt for us back then is the real culprit! If they hadn't relentlessly pursued us, we wouldn't have ended up in that village, let alone killed someone to recover from our injuries!"
"You think you hate me? No, what you should really hate is that arrogant Shrek Academy!"
"Don't forget, ten thousand years ago, before Shrek Academy overthrew the Spirit Hall, the concept of Evil Soul Master didn't even exist!"
"It's because of the Shrek Academy that the definition of 'Evil Soul Master' came about; it's a product they created themselves!"
"Anyone who opposes them, anyone who doesn't conform to their ideology, anyone who doesn't agree with them—no matter who you are, anyone with dark attributes—will be suppressed and labeled Evil Soul Master!"
Have you ever heard of Zhang Peng from decades ago?
Elder Nether Scorpion grinned and continued:
"His Martial Soul only needs to absorb the blood of Soul Beast to improve his cultivation; it doesn't harm humans at all, yet Shrek still defines him as Evil Soul Master?"
Toji paused for a moment, then burst out laughing:
"So, you want me to go and take revenge on Shrek?"
Elder Nether Scorpion nodded frantically:
"That's right! They are the real hypocrites! They are the ones who killed your family!"
Toji slowly stood up, looking down at him with a terrifyingly cold gaze:
"Even on your deathbed, you still want to pull this stunt, trying to trick me into avenging Shrek Academy for you?"
Elder Nether Scorpion's expression froze.
"I don't care why you attacked my family. All I know is that it's already happened, and you were the ones who did it."
Toji calmly stepped on his head, forcing him to kowtow and kneel before him.
"If it weren't for your interference, I should have been able to use my Body Martial Soul to find an opportunity to contact the Body Sect and have the Body Sect Master, Du Busi, treat me like his own grandson. That would have made my cultivation path much smoother."
"But you intervened. You disrupted this smooth process and killed my parents, who had given everything they had, even going bankrupt, to help me awaken my Martial Soul and change my life."
"It's not about revenge, but about giving my parents an explanation. You're the first one."
Toji put her feet down, bent down, and squatted in front of him:
"This is a story you started with your own hands, so you will bear the consequences."
"Is everything alright?"