CH 52
Chapter 52 - The villain is online! I’m dead!
———
After spending another leisurely and carefree month, Yang Qingzhou’s letters suddenly stopped. Previously, he had mentioned that Zhongli Court was like rats leaving a sinking ship, with their forces spent, and every branch already eliminated. The Zongheng Double Alliance1 was preparing to encircle and annihilate Zhongli Court, and at last it was time for the final stage. I guessed that the war might possibly come to an end soon, so I went to the island to find Yang Su and ask about the situation.
Ye Xiao had been paralysed for the past two days, and couldn’t even get up and crawl, so Ye Lan remained by his side, taking care of him. Recently, no one remained of the hidden guards that were following us, sure enough, the war was in a dire situation and they couldn’t attend to my insignificant corner. I confidently went to the island on the heart of the lake, and it was very thrilling and exciting to get on the boat by myself.
It would be nice if A-Tan was by my side.
The attendant that had come to the door last time had already withdrawn, and there was no one to directly report to. I knocked on the door but no one answered, so I listened for a moment, and felt like the quiet on the island was a little bit strange.
Mist seemed to be rising from the heart of the lake, saturating the island with dense water vapour.
The lacquer door was closed, but it wasn’t locked, so I pushed it open and went inside. I had taken a few steps and was looking around when I smelled a strange perfume, but I didn’t have time to identify it before my sight suddenly went black.
I didn’t know how long I had lost consciousness for as I gradually came back to my senses. After my awareness returned I could feel myself shivering, cold all over. Winter had left the slab floor ice-cold, and I had already lost all feeling on my arms and legs as I was stuck to the bone-chilling floor, I didn’t even have the strength to lift my head.
“Can’t be tortured? What a joke.” A voice objected as someone calmly flipped through the pages of a book.
“Young Master, this person’s constitution is too poor, he would die within half a day.” Someone to the side respectfully answered him.
“He can’t die, I still have things to ask him.” The person got up and strolled in front of me, roughly clamping down on my lower jaw and stuffing a pill inside my mouth, then pressing me back against the floor. I could already feel a sharp pain from the pill sliding through my oesophagus.
He covered the inner side of my wrist and felt my pulse, saying: “His cultivation is indeed pretty good, there is danger concealed within.” He stopped after this brief statement, and indifferently said, “Destroy it.”
As the pill reached my stomach, I felt my organs burning as though they had been set on fire, and the bone-piercing ice-cold I had felt just then instantly turned into a scorching furnace. I arched my body, unable to bear the pain, but was immediately suppressed.
“How?” The person lowered his voice, holding my chin between his fingers and forcing me to face him, and smiled dully, “My Zhongli Court has the best medicine to preserve life, it is said that if you give it to a dead person, they’ll be able to crawl upon a horse and go to into battle. I treat my guests generously, do you like it?”
My eyes burned, and my sight was fuzzy, so I wasn’t able to clearly make out the person. I forced myself to suppress the acute pain in my organs for a short time so I could see clearly. His appearance seemed familiar, he had somewhat a hint of the Eldest Young Master Zhongli Zixu, but his pupils were suffused with a sickly silver colour, and there was a teardrop mole in the outer corner of his left eye. His face was clearly that of a young man of about twenty, but his hair was a mixture of blotchy ash-coloured and white strands, like an old man in his twilight years, giving him a strange, sinister appearance.
This person seemed so vicious an cruel it made me tremble.
Second Young Master?
How did I fall into his hands?
My endurance had always been bad, and I couldn’t stop myself from moaning in pain. Fortunately, the Second Young Master didn’t really need me to answer, so he loosened his hand and threw me back down on the ground: “Did you leave Yaksha behind in order to save this broken, sick body of yours? .....Hmph, you almost had me fooled, thinking he had the genuine luck of coming a cross a sincere person.”
Then I heard him gnashing his teeth as he said: “You brought Yaksha with you to go to One Sword Tomb, but you came back alone. Didn’t you also sacrifice Yaksha’s life? What’s the difference between you and me?”
I couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was saying. Rather than interrogating me, it seemed like he was talking to himself.
I was delirious from the pain, but I still cursed him silently: The one who harmed Yaksha the most was you, how can you still look like you want to get justice for Yaksha.
Someone came up beside me holding a bowl with a boiling decoction, pried open my jaw, and forcefully poured it down. For a short time after, all I could feel was an endless stabbing pain in my meridians, my inner breath was like an uncontrollable storm, disorderly crashing in every direction, feeling like a giant wave of crushed stones, and it felt as though someone had taken a knife to my skin and was splitting it open until it bled, then getting rid of all the arteries and veins in my whole body, peeling them off one by one. The original burning pain had doubled, and I could only see bursts of black in front of my eyes.
I was already in extreme pain, but I didn’t faint, instead I began to feel everything with increasing clarity, probably due to the efficacy of that nuisance life-saving medicine. I really wished I could just hit my head and die and be done with it.
A clear, cold voice said: “The medicine has taken effect, let me disperse his cultivation.”
The Second Young Master gave a grim laugh: “Why, Ye Jun, do you feel sorry for him?”
1 The Zonglian and Henglian alliance. Top.
2 The life gate, or 命門 mingmen, is located in the back along the spine at the same height as the navel. Said to be the root of vitality and the gateway to life. Top.
3 Chinese instrument of torture made up of small sticks tied by string. A person’s fingers are placed between the sticks and, when the strings are pulled, the fingers are slowly crushed. Top.
4 A zhang is about 3.5 metres. Top.
———
After spending another leisurely and carefree month, Yang Qingzhou’s letters suddenly stopped. Previously, he had mentioned that Zhongli Court was like rats leaving a sinking ship, with their forces spent, and every branch already eliminated. The Zongheng Double Alliance1 was preparing to encircle and annihilate Zhongli Court, and at last it was time for the final stage. I guessed that the war might possibly come to an end soon, so I went to the island to find Yang Su and ask about the situation.
Ye Xiao had been paralysed for the past two days, and couldn’t even get up and crawl, so Ye Lan remained by his side, taking care of him. Recently, no one remained of the hidden guards that were following us, sure enough, the war was in a dire situation and they couldn’t attend to my insignificant corner. I confidently went to the island on the heart of the lake, and it was very thrilling and exciting to get on the boat by myself.
It would be nice if A-Tan was by my side.
The attendant that had come to the door last time had already withdrawn, and there was no one to directly report to. I knocked on the door but no one answered, so I listened for a moment, and felt like the quiet on the island was a little bit strange.
Mist seemed to be rising from the heart of the lake, saturating the island with dense water vapour.
The lacquer door was closed, but it wasn’t locked, so I pushed it open and went inside. I had taken a few steps and was looking around when I smelled a strange perfume, but I didn’t have time to identify it before my sight suddenly went black.
I didn’t know how long I had lost consciousness for as I gradually came back to my senses. After my awareness returned I could feel myself shivering, cold all over. Winter had left the slab floor ice-cold, and I had already lost all feeling on my arms and legs as I was stuck to the bone-chilling floor, I didn’t even have the strength to lift my head.
“Can’t be tortured? What a joke.” A voice objected as someone calmly flipped through the pages of a book.
“Young Master, this person’s constitution is too poor, he would die within half a day.” Someone to the side respectfully answered him.
“He can’t die, I still have things to ask him.” The person got up and strolled in front of me, roughly clamping down on my lower jaw and stuffing a pill inside my mouth, then pressing me back against the floor. I could already feel a sharp pain from the pill sliding through my oesophagus.
He covered the inner side of my wrist and felt my pulse, saying: “His cultivation is indeed pretty good, there is danger concealed within.” He stopped after this brief statement, and indifferently said, “Destroy it.”
As the pill reached my stomach, I felt my organs burning as though they had been set on fire, and the bone-piercing ice-cold I had felt just then instantly turned into a scorching furnace. I arched my body, unable to bear the pain, but was immediately suppressed.
“How?” The person lowered his voice, holding my chin between his fingers and forcing me to face him, and smiled dully, “My Zhongli Court has the best medicine to preserve life, it is said that if you give it to a dead person, they’ll be able to crawl upon a horse and go to into battle. I treat my guests generously, do you like it?”
My eyes burned, and my sight was fuzzy, so I wasn’t able to clearly make out the person. I forced myself to suppress the acute pain in my organs for a short time so I could see clearly. His appearance seemed familiar, he had somewhat a hint of the Eldest Young Master Zhongli Zixu, but his pupils were suffused with a sickly silver colour, and there was a teardrop mole in the outer corner of his left eye. His face was clearly that of a young man of about twenty, but his hair was a mixture of blotchy ash-coloured and white strands, like an old man in his twilight years, giving him a strange, sinister appearance.
This person seemed so vicious an cruel it made me tremble.
Second Young Master?
How did I fall into his hands?
My endurance had always been bad, and I couldn’t stop myself from moaning in pain. Fortunately, the Second Young Master didn’t really need me to answer, so he loosened his hand and threw me back down on the ground: “Did you leave Yaksha behind in order to save this broken, sick body of yours? .....Hmph, you almost had me fooled, thinking he had the genuine luck of coming a cross a sincere person.”
Then I heard him gnashing his teeth as he said: “You brought Yaksha with you to go to One Sword Tomb, but you came back alone. Didn’t you also sacrifice Yaksha’s life? What’s the difference between you and me?”
I couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was saying. Rather than interrogating me, it seemed like he was talking to himself.
I was delirious from the pain, but I still cursed him silently: The one who harmed Yaksha the most was you, how can you still look like you want to get justice for Yaksha.
Someone came up beside me holding a bowl with a boiling decoction, pried open my jaw, and forcefully poured it down. For a short time after, all I could feel was an endless stabbing pain in my meridians, my inner breath was like an uncontrollable storm, disorderly crashing in every direction, feeling like a giant wave of crushed stones, and it felt as though someone had taken a knife to my skin and was splitting it open until it bled, then getting rid of all the arteries and veins in my whole body, peeling them off one by one. The original burning pain had doubled, and I could only see bursts of black in front of my eyes.
I was already in extreme pain, but I didn’t faint, instead I began to feel everything with increasing clarity, probably due to the efficacy of that nuisance life-saving medicine. I really wished I could just hit my head and die and be done with it.
A clear, cold voice said: “The medicine has taken effect, let me disperse his cultivation.”
The Second Young Master gave a grim laugh: “Why, Ye Jun, do you feel sorry for him?”
1 The Zonglian and Henglian alliance. Top.
2 The life gate, or 命門 mingmen, is located in the back along the spine at the same height as the navel. Said to be the root of vitality and the gateway to life. Top.
3 Chinese instrument of torture made up of small sticks tied by string. A person’s fingers are placed between the sticks and, when the strings are pulled, the fingers are slowly crushed. Top.
4 A zhang is about 3.5 metres. Top.
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