novelJun Xiaomo, the Daughter-in-Law
| ← Ch.147 | Ch.149 → |
Translator: Minotauruz
When he saw the formation array congealed from demonic energy appear overhead, Situ Cang nearly went mad.
Using demonic energy to congeal a formation array?! How strong is this person?! It must be said that congealing a formation array using spiritual energy or demonic energy was something that could only be done by a person at the Coalescence stage of cultivation.
Within moments, even the luxury of thought was thoroughly stripped away from Situ Cang as his torment began. His body started to feel as though it were immolating. Every inch of his skin repeatedly split open, before fusing together again. Within the blink of an eye, he had turned into a bloody, gory mess.
In the past, Situ Cang had used the same formation array to deal with some of the misbehaving or ill-disciplined people under him. Yet he would never have thought that there would be a day when this same formation array would be used on himself.
One incense of time passed... two incense of time passed... three incense of time passed... Yet Situ Cang was still alive. This is because the formation array performed both the functions of destroying and healing. A person would not be able to die even if he wanted to. He could only continue to experience the immense, excruciating pain delivered by this brutal formation array.
It was truly as the old man had said – this was a life worse than death.
Then, the old man opened his eyes again, and waved his sleeves. Instantly, the formation array that had congealed over Situ Cang's head changed. It was still congealed by his demonic energy, and there were still complex inscriptions and patterns all over the formation array, but the formation diagram was now slightly different than before.
Within moments, Situ Cang, under the effects of this transformed formation array, began to shiver and chatter his teeth. The blood percolating on his body had immediately begun to coagulate and harden.
After burning Situ Cang with scorching temperatures, the old man had drastically changed things up to allow Situ Cang to experience the chill of freezing temperatures.
Situ Cang's lackeys and the Dawn Sect disciples were hardly in a better shape – especially Ke Xinwen. Ke Xinwen's attempt to draw flak away from himself had aroused the old man's suspicions, and he therefore treated Ke Xinwen with an extra measure of "care and concern".
If one could say that Situ Cang's level of torment was a hundred percent, then the level of torment experienced by Ke Xinwen's would be eighty percent of that, while the rest would be at fifty percent.
Of course, even fifty percent of Situ Cang's pain were still incredibly unbearable.
At this very moment, each and every one of the Dawn Sect disciples regretted taking up this task decreed by the Inferno Kingdom. The prospects of obtaining a national treasure were only becoming increasingly distant, while the prospect of losing their lives here were becoming more and more certain.
Several disciples secretly blamed Qin Lingyu in their hearts for accepting the Inferno Kingdom's task to begin with.
If they had not accepted the this task, there was a good chance that they might already have completed their Sect's task be on their way back by now.
But what these people had forgotten was the fact that even though it was Qin Lingyu who had accepted this task to begin with, they could have bid farewell to Situ Cang at any time later on and washed their hands off this matter.
Instead, it was of their own volition that they had time and again accepted Situ Cang's offer and chased after Ye Xiuwen and Jun Xiaomo fervently. Could they really blame anyone else? Should they not blame the greed and avarice in their hearts instead?
In fact, there was something that everyone had completely overlooked. This was the fact that formation arrays congealed by demonic energies were imbued with a certain corrosive effect that accompanied the use of demonic energy. At this moment, this corrosive effect was attacking their bodies in places they could not see – their meridians and Dantian were slowly being ebbed away by the effects of the demonic energy's incursion and shriveling up as a result.
Just as their level of despair and despondence hit their limits, the little packrat in Shao Sirong's palm suddenly began to squeak in anguish. Its body convulsed furiously as though it were writhing in pain from something.
"What happened, Little Chi?! Don't scare your mother like that..." Shao Sirong anxiously called out.
Chi Hongyi was no longer staring at his son with that stern and serious face. He quickly made his way to Shao Sirong's side and observed the little packrat's condition.
"The refinement technique... That refinement technique earlier has partially succeeded!"
Chi Hongyi turned around ferociously as he stared menacingly at Situ Cang as he struggled in the heart of the formation array.
At this moment, there was no longer a single part of Situ Cang's body that was in good condition. Quite apart from the condition of his skin and flesh, even his meridians and Dantian had been irreversibly damaged.
"Hahahaha... cough cough... Surprise, surprise. I've already left a part of my soul in the little packrat's body. Even though this Sovereign's refinement process had been interrupted by you, I've still succeeded in part... hahaha..."
Succeeding in part meant that Situ Cang would still have no way to control the little packrat. However, he could nevertheless still "share" his pain with the little packrat.
This was one of the other purposes of the refinement technique. The refined spirit or demonic beasts would be forced to share the pain and injuries sustained by its owner. In moments of crises, the owner could even make the refined spirit or demonic beasts die on his behalf.
These methods were incredibly cruel and dreadful. Therefore, there were several spiritual cultivators who denounced such practices without qualification. But Situ Cang could hardly care less about the thoughts of others. All practices were permissible to him as long as they benefitted him personally.
Truth be told, Situ Cang's practices made him much more of a stereotypical demonic cultivator that everyone dreaded than the Chi Clan combined. Situ Cang barely possessed any compassion and kindness for others at all.
The old man was evidently caught in a pickle given the present situation. If he carried on with his torment, the little packrat could very possibly die instead of Situ Cang.
"Grandfather!" The little packrat's father anxiously took two steps forward, intending to apprise the old man with the new development.
"Alright, you don't have to say anything else. I've heard everything." The old man spoke placidly.
To the old man, maintaining the formation array while probing about at his surroundings with his divine sense was hardly difficult at all.
In fact, he had already discovered this condition in his great grandson earlier. But he chose to carry on with his formation arrays. The first reason was because he was extremely confident in his control of the output of his formation array. He knew that Situ Cang was not going to die as a result of his torment, and there was no way his great grandson's life would be in any danger. The second reason was that he felt that his great grandson ought to experience a little bit more hardship. This torment could even serve as a form of punishment against him, so that he would learn to keep his willfulness in check and not wreak havoc or cause such unnecessary trouble in future.
Shortly afterwards, as soon as the old man felt that the torment was just about enough, he began to recall the flow of demonic energy that was being used to sustain his formation array. Everyone who had been tormented earlier sensed that the oppressive powers of the formation array had finally been lifted off their bodies, and they all involuntarily let out a sigh of relief.
There were no thoughts of vengeance or other similar notions in their minds. To them, survival was already the greatest gift that they could receive right now.
However, Situ Cang was the exception to the norm. Despite the fact that his life was hanging by a thread right now, he still laughed heartily, "Hahahahaha... I knew that you couldn't kill me!"
He had refined countless spirit beasts in his lifetime. If the old man were to maintain his formation array, he could simply have one of these spirit beasts die in his stead, feign his own death, and escape from this old man with his life intact.
Situ Cang knew that where there was life, there was hope. As long as he could survive this present crisis, it was only a matter of time when he served that cold dish of revenge on these perpetrators!
Chi Hongyi and Shao Sirong glared hatefully at Situ Cang. They found this person no better than a madman.
The old man's eyes darkened, and his expressions grew sullen. Then, he waved his hand and gave Situ Cang a tight slap from a distance. Situ Cang was instantly silenced, and he spurted a mouthful of fresh blood.
The little packrat in Shao Sirong's palm quivered again. It was obvious that it had experienced the same kind of pain as well.
"Little Chi..." Shao Sirong stroked the little packrat's body as her heart wrung in pain.
"Grandfather, can Little Chi's body still recover from this?" Chi Hongyi's heart grew worried for his son as well.
"There's no problem. A mere refinement technique can't befuddle this old man here." The old man's eyes remained unfazed by it all. His stoicism rubbed off slightly on Chi Hongyi and Shao Sirong as well, inspiring confidence in them and appeasing the roiling emotions in their hearts.
The old man strolled over towards where Situ Cang lay gasping for breath as he cautioned with a peremptory voice, "Don't you dare think for a moment that you've escaped this crisis just because I'm not killing you now. Even if I don't kill you right now, I know countless ways of making your life worse than death itself."
Situ Cang coughed as he stared straight back at the old man's eyes. He spat out a fresh spittoon of blood but remained taciturn.
Then, Situ Cang discreetly retrieved several talismans and held them in his hand where the old man could not see.
At least, this was what Situ Cang thought. In reality, the old man had immediately discovered it when Situ Cang had retrieved the talismans from his Interspatial Ring. However, the old man did not stop him. The old man simply passed him by and walked to where the rest of Situ Cang's lackeys and the Dawn Sect disciples were at.
"Even though I'm not killing your master today, this doesn't mean I'm letting the rest of you off the hook. Since you are willing to render aid to a tyrant for your own selfish gains, then there is no reason to keep existences like your ilk around. You can blame this on the fact that you've followed the wrong master."
As he finished saying this, the old man waved his sleeves, and the tens of lackeys behind Situ Cang immediately exploded, turning into a cloud of blood and gore. They did not even have the opportunity to plead for mercy before they were written off.
What... what kind of power is this?! This is too fearsome!
Ever since the old man had made his appearance, the disciples had found themselves wallowing in the mires of their despair and despondence. Every time they found themselves hitting a new low, the old man would flaunt his display of terrifying power in the next moment and send their hearts spiraling to greater depths of misery.
The old man had dealt with Situ Cang's lackeys first because they were located closest to Situ Cang while the Dawn Sect disciples were located slightly further away.
But the fact that they were unaffected by the old man's devastating wave of attack did not meant that they felt relieved in their hearts. In fact, several disciples stared at the old man with ever increasing dread as the old man slowly made his way over. Their pupils constricted, just like how their heart was wrenching in anxiety right now.
The old man was only a few steps away, yet these steps felt like years to the disciples.
Every step that the old man took made them feel that much closer to death's door. There was nothing more dreadful and despondent than counting down to one's own demise.
The old man's face was expressionless. Yet to the eyes of the Dawn Sect disciples, the old man's face could only be described to be terrifying, like an avatar of wrath.
Thus, by the time the old man made his way before them, several disciples among them had already wet their pants – including Ke Xinwen.
Qin Lingyu had not wet his pants, but his heart was nevertheless constricted with fear. He knew that even if his master He Zhang were present, there would be nothing much his master could do to save him.
This was the first time he had been reduced to such a sorry state.
But the smell of involuntary bodily discharge from the other disciples acted as a stimulant to his tense and constricted mind. He perked up slightly, clenched his fists and adjusted his emotions. Then, he mustered his strength and made one final attempt to address the old man, "Senior, we're not Situ Cang's lackeys. We're disciples from Dawn Sect who had coincidentally passed by the Inferno Kingdom and accepted Situ Cang's request to aid him in the capture of the Inferno Kingdom's first prince. We have never done anything to hurt your great grandson. We hope you can spare us our lives."
"Oh? But I don't see you capturing any so-called first prince. I've only seen you bullying my son!" Before the old man could respond, Shao Sirong interjected immediately in anger.
"This... we were truly helpless about this situation. The Grand Vizier had labelled this little packrat as something that was inextricably linked to the first prince, therefore..."
Qin Lingyu truly lived up to his name as He Zhang's disciple. In the face of such a life-threatening crisis, he was actually able to rise to the occasion and display his incredible persuasiveness. He presented his version of the facts laced with clever omissions and crafty lies. But because bulk of it was real, even the old man did not notice any traces of his lies.
The old man closed his eyes and remained expressionless as he contemplated what to do about these Dawn Sect disciples in front of his eyes right now.
Qin Lingyu clenched his fists and waited for the old man's decision with bated breath.
Just then, the little packrat began to squeak furiously – Squeak squeak squeak, squeak squeak squeak! Shao Sirong furrowed her brows as she gently stroked her son's head and asked, "Little Chi, what are you trying to say?"
Forgive her. She truly couldn't understand the little packrat's lingo.
However, it was the old man who opened his eyes curiously as he turned his attention to the little packrat with a curious question, "Great granddaughter-in-law?!"
"Ha--?" Shao Sirong was stunned for a moment before she clarified, "Grandfather, is Little Chi saying that... he has a fiancée?"
After all, the old man's great granddaughter-in-law would be none other than her own daughter-in-law.
It can't be, can it? Has Little Chi already found himself a fiancée during these travels? But which lady would fall in love with him given his appearances right now? It couldn't be another female packrat, could it?
Shao Sirong's thoughts began to stray in a peculiar direction...
All this while, the little packrat continued to squeak incessantly as it reported its own version of events. Even though Shao Sirong was unable to understand its lingo, the old man, curiously, could.
"So that's how it is..." The old man waved his hands, signaling to the little packrat that he had heard enough. Then, he turned back to Qin Lingyu and the others as he remarked, "Ah, you have indeed never bullied my great grandson. However, you have bullied my great granddaughter-in-law. That's the same thing. Especially you..." The old man stared straight at Qin Lingyu's eyes, "I hear that you're the one who has been especially vile towards my great granddaughter-in-law."
Some distance away, the little packrat squeaked twice affirmatively, as though he were confirming the old man's allegations.
Qin Lingyu's body stiffened. He had never expected such a strange turn of events.
| ← Ch. 147 | Ch. 149 → |