Chapter 75 Burn it (23,000+ words)
A black paper boat remained at the cave entrance, and paper figures continuously disembarked from the boat, transforming into a battle formation of puppets that surged into the cave.
Yu Sui collapsed to his knees in pain. For the first time, Xue Mushi felt the empathy of death from the destroyer of the world. In addition, he was slashed by the puppet of the battle formation, and his forward figure staggered.
Neither of them spoke.
In their minds, the boy far away in the Kingdom of Dan was screaming in despair, "Why are you doing this to me!"
"Why!"
"What did I do wrong? I did everything I asked! I told you everything I knew, what more do you want from me!?"
Amid his frantic screams, an androgynous voice asked, "What did you say?"
"Why am I the only one suffering like this? Why am I the only one? This is not fair! Why only me!" The boy was only nineteen years old. His first half of life was carefree, but the second half was filled with darkness. He cried and laughed, his broken screams becoming ferocious. "I've told you everything! I've told you everything I know! They all know! You can't escape either! Why am I the only one? Why am I the only one who has to become like this!"
The boy, lying prone at the end of the alley, was barely clinging to life, no longer able to move.
The Legalist sage's execution technique, Lingchi (death by a thousand cuts), was attacking him, but he stubbornly resisted it. His eyes were bloodshot, and through the bloodshot, he looked ahead, searching for the place he wanted to return to from under the feet of the crowd, but he could not go back.
The boy was on the verge of death, but hatred made him seem full of life.
People kept a safe distance from him, their gazes filled with wariness and murderous intent.
The hot-tempered man who spoke first now spoke with a hint of mockery: "So unwilling? Then unleash your strange fire and burn me."
He said fiercely, "Since you're going to die anyway, burn me."
The androgynous voice said, "To perish together is not out of the question."
Yu Sui, who had knelt down because of the pain she felt, moved her fingers. Lightning snakes flashed, barely repelling the approaching puppet soldiers who were raising their swords, but soon new ones surged in.
"And there are two mute people too. Their silence is taken as consent," the irritable man said harshly. "We all agree, so go ahead and burn it!"
Yu Sui, who leaned against the stone wall and dodged the puppet's sword, felt a tremor in his heart as he heard it. He knew that there were two other destroyers listening.
Does this mean that even without conscious communication, one's existence can still be confirmed?
The boy broke down, crying, "I don't want to kill them! I don't want to destroy the world! I absolutely don't want to!"
"Fool! You think you can destroy the world with your own strange fire? What's the point of having five people? You can't kill everyone, you'll only kill yourself." The irritable man seemed to be unable to bear him any longer, both in pain and anger. "If you really hate and are unwilling to accept this, then be decisive and burn them, so that everyone else won't suffer the same fate as you."
After saying that, he cursed, "I've truly committed the Legalist school's form of slow slicing!"
"Tell me who from the Legalist school used the slow slicing technique on you! Even if I die, I'll kill a Legalist saint first to avenge this grudge!"
The irritable man was cursing and swearing.
Yu Sui, inside the Fish Scale Cave, was sent flying by the sword energy. She was in so much pain that she was covered in sweat. The Legalist Judgment Heavenly Secret Technique of Lingchi (death by a thousand cuts) caused the Five Elements Qi to travel through her body, peeling away her skin and bones. The wounds were invisible, but the pain still descended upon her.
Being eliminated now is not an option either.
Being teleported outside the academy is even more dangerous.
Yu Sui fell to the ground, using her last bit of strength to roll away and dodge the fatal sword. The long sword caught her skirt and ripped off a large section of it. At the same time as the fabric was being torn, a flash of golden lightning appeared in the cave.
Along with the golden thunder came thunder snakes created by Mei Liangyu's Bagua Life Technique. These thunder snakes were imbued with the death talismans of the Ghost Daoist school, which drained the five elements' energy from the puppet army formation surrounding Yu Sui.
Yu Sui's Heavenly Fire had already extinguished. With the help of the golden lightning, Mei Liangyu saw Yu Sui on the ground, covered in sweat from the pain, and frowned. Just as the next batch of puppet soldiers came wielding swords, Shunying stepped forward and scooped Yu Sui up.
The Zhou Tian fire reignited, illuminating the darkness.
The fire in Yu Sui's eyes also reflected Mei Liangyu's calm and composed face.
Mei Liangyu grabbed Yu Sui and tried to rush deeper into the cave to temporarily distance himself from the puppet army behind them, but Yu Sui stopped him. She crashed into Mei Liangyu's arms, her fingers gripping his clothes tightly, her knuckles turning white and drawing blood.
Xue Mushi is inside.
If his senior brother saw it, there would be no way to explain it. If the two of them showed pain and weakness without any wounds at the same time, it would be too easy to arouse suspicion.
Senior brother can stop the puppet army formation and prevent them from being eliminated now, but he also cannot make any unnecessary discoveries.
What they felt was not just the slow, agonizing torture, but the boy's entire state at that moment, all the injuries he had suffered, the speed at which his blood was flowing away, the gradual loss of body temperature, and even his breathing felt like being cut by knives.
Lingchi (death by a thousand cuts) was merely the final blow.
Yu Sui even prayed that Xue Mushi wouldn't cry out in pain.
Although she herself could not hold on, tears welled up in her eyes, and when she opened her mouth, she felt thick, sticky blood. She bit her lip, and the overflowing blood smeared onto Mei Liangyu's clothes.
Mei Liangyu, who was suddenly grabbed and stopped by Yu Sui, paused slightly, but reacted quickly. He raised his hand, snatched the puppet's long sword, and counterattacked, cutting it back before saying to Yu Sui, "Go to the back."
Yu Sui trembled as she squeezed out a few words through gritted teeth, her words muffled by pain: "Senior brother...it hurts so much."
Mei Liangyu noticed the black lightning marks on her snow-white shoulders and neck, which were damp with sweat. He assumed she was in pain from the burning lightning, so he frowned slightly and said nothing more, letting her stay there.
Yu Sui could have countless reasons to explain his obstruction at that moment, but he could not let Mei Liangyu see Xue Mushi suffering the same pain later.
pain.
pain!
The pain was so intense that I wanted to destroy everything!
It's not just "anger"; "pain" can also give rise to a destructive urge at certain moments.
The boy screamed in agony, his fingers curled up and pressed into the blood.
None of the ninth-rate saints dared to step forward at this moment, as none of them could guarantee how far they would go before being instantly burned to a charred corpse by the strange fire.
“He should be in a state of death empathy right now,” someone said in a deep voice. “You can postpone your execution by a thousand cuts a little longer.”
The Legalist sage nodded in agreement.
Another Yin-Yang Master asked, "Yu Xian, who else are the World Destroyers? What are their names? Where are they? What are you talking about right now?"
The woman's words invaded the boy's ears from all directions, persuading his consciousness to obey the speaker. The "curse" branded on him responded, and the boy opened his mouth slightly, but said slowly, "I... don't want to die."
The irritable man continued cursing, "Five years ago you were still clueless about the situation, and you still don't understand now? Give me your location so I can see where you died. Don't tell me you're in Taiyi. How stupid would you have to be to believe that old man and go to Taiyi, where there are more than twenty saints, and even sneak around looking for something right under their noses!"
"Didn't he himself go and never return?"
"You still want to break free from the Strange Fire and even use the Heavenly Script? I'm laughing. I can understand that he's old and not clear-headed, but you bunch of young people are making the same stupid mistakes!"
"Since this strange fire can burn everything, and is ineffective against any lowly techniques, and can even destroy the five elements of heaven and earth, what external thing in this world can separate it from you? What kind of pipe dream are you having!"
Clearly, he couldn't bear the pain of being slowly sliced to death; the more pain he endured, the angrier he became, and his curses grew increasingly vicious.
"Are you in Taiyi? Tell me! And the one who's been here for eighteen years, and the one who came after the old man died five years ago, don't think we don't know you're here just because you're not making a sound. If you're stupid enough to go to Taiyi and die, get out of Taiyi now! I don't want to die in any more fancy ways!"
"Me too..." the boy said in despair, "I don't want to die either!"
The hot-tempered man said, "Tell me the name of the Legalist saint here, and I'll avenge you."
However, the boy was already in utter despair.
His finger, which he had struggled to raise, finally touched the ground again, creating a ripple in the blood.
"Burn it."
He thought to himself.
Black flames ignited instantly, engulfing the boy lying in the blood.
The Legalist saint, who had been keeping a close eye on him, caught a glimpse of darkness in his eyes and delivered the final blow to the boy with the Judgment Technique of slow slicing.
Almost simultaneously, the other saints shouted in deep voices, "Retreat!"
They stared in horror at the endless blackness below. The figures guarding this street and alleyway used wind magic to fly into the air. The flames released by the boy before his death were like ripples on the surface of water after a pebble was dropped into it. The black flames also dissipated with the ripples, burning everything in the blink of an eye.
Houses, ground, flowers, trees, all things in heaven and earth, life and death are destroyed.
The thirteenth-level sorcerer who was slow to cast his spell was only touched by a corner of his clothes by the black flames before being dragged into the burning inferno, turning into a charred corpse and falling to the ground. The tragic cries of those who lost their companions echoed in the air, and the black flames spread a thousand miles in an instant, and even those who were arranged to retreat to the outer city were not spared.
The home the boy longed to return to, and his family waiting in the outer city, turned to ashes in that instant.
The saints misjudged the situation and looked grimly at the engulfed outer city. Tens of thousands of people in the entire city, along with the surrounding towns and mountain villages, all perished in the black flames.
Black ash floated, obscuring the bright sunshine of Dan Kingdom.
The once bustling city and picturesque countryside are now nothing but black, flat land.
The boy died, and the black flames disappeared with him.
They were inseparable, sharing life and death.
The surviving sorcerers, having ignited their golden elemental energy, dared not land on the scorched ground. Some stared down at the boy's corpse, while others surveyed the devoured ground. Without exception, their fear of the strange fire deepened.
This mistake resulted in heavy losses for the Dan Kingdom.
People's fear and resentment toward the destroyers also increased.
Mei Liangyu let Yu Sui hold him, and he could tell the extent of her pain just from the strength with which his junior sister hugged him.
The fiercer the attacks of the puppet soldiers, the more they would coordinate in groups of three to five, attacking one after another with perfectly synchronized moves.
As the attack came from all sides, he used one hand to protect the back of Yu Sui's head, and together with his men, they used the Shadow Step to dodge the flashing swords.
A puppet army circled around to his rear. Mei Liangyu glanced at it coldly, then swung his long sword to repel one of them. Black and white chess pieces flew and connected in the cave, and stars also connected in the same way. The summoned Void Constellation General materialized the Frost White Python and charged fiercely towards the outside of the cave.
He actually rarely used the nine-tiered techniques of the Ghost Daoist school.
At this moment, he also activated the triple level of Soul Control and used different Nine Stream Techniques at the same time.
Frost froze the puppet soldiers, while black and white chess pieces spun rapidly, carrying the death talisman of the Ghost Daoist, piercing through the puppets' bodies, drawing away all the five elements' energy, and shattering them.
The frost-white python bit the black paper boat at the cave entrance to pieces and then dispersed.
After Mei Liangyu finished dealing with the puppet soldiers in the stone cave, he turned to look back at the person in his arms and saw Yu Sui suddenly kneel down. He frowned and squatted down to help Yu Sui up, only to find that her eyes were red and tears were streaming down her face.
Yu Sui's eyes were full of tears, and he could only see Mei Liangyu blurryly.
She desperately, desperately, suppressed her destructive rage amidst this excruciating torment.
Zhou Tianhuo continued to burn, clinging to the stone wall. The firelight illuminated her tearful eyes, with sparks dancing within them. Mei Liangyu paused, watching.
For a moment he wondered, could lightning really hurt that much?
But when Mei Liangyu saw Shangyu Sui's gaze, he cursed Wen Yanghui in his heart.
Mei Liangyu seemed somewhat helpless. He reached out and hovered his hand over the lightning mark on Yu Sui's neck, gently guiding her with the warmth of the Five Elements to help disperse some of the burning lightning. He tried to speak to Yu Sui in a gentle tone, "Your sister Yuezhen is already waiting outside. It won't hurt anymore once you get out."
Yu Sui's anger had not been completely suppressed.
She was still immersed in the pain she had just experienced, the pain etched into her soul, reaching the deepest part of her consciousness, remembering the agony of every breath.
On what grounds?
Why me?
Why should I have to go through this?
Yu Sui's fingers, gripping Mei Liangyu's clothes, were almost crushed.
She lowered her eyes gently, tears welling up in her eyes, and said in a nasal voice, "It hurts so much."
Yu Sui said, "I will never forget it in my entire life."
Infants cannot withstand the strain and lose consciousness directly.
Five years ago, in order to spare them too much pain, the old man burned himself to death with the strange fire.
Only today.
The Legalists deliberately delayed the execution of the slow slicing, letting her experience the agony of unbearable pain.
Mei Liangyu had never coaxed anyone before, let alone a little girl like Yu Sui who cried with tears streaming down her face. Just seeing Yu Sui's teary eyes made him feel extremely troubled, more difficult than learning any low-level martial arts.
When the tear overflowed from her eye and left a tear stain on her cheek, it was as if a knife had been used to cut Mei Liangyu, leaving the same mark along his flesh. Although it didn't hurt or itch, it couldn't be ignored.
Mei Liangyu could only use his knowledge of the nine schools of medicine to try to alleviate Yu Sui's pain. He pondered, "After the Dragon Slaying Cave trial is over, I will have Wen Yanghui be struck by golden lightning every day. If the lightning fire breaks, I will reconnect it, so that he will suffer from the burning of lightning fire for the rest of his life."
Yu Sui gently raised her eyes. Perhaps it was because of her senior brother's medical skills, but the pain in her body did indeed lessen. She gradually calmed down and slowly replied, "Okay."
Mei Liangyu was still trying to figure out how to stop her from crying.
Yu Sui wanted to wipe her tears, but found that her hands were sore and weak. Her fingers were clenched so tightly that they hurt when she loosened them. So she lowered her head and wiped her tears on Mei Liangyu's raised sleeve.
Mei Liangyu clicked her tongue softly as she watched the kitten-like movement of arching its face.
As long as you're happy.
"Senior brother, I'm in so much pain I have no strength left," Yu Sui said in a muffled voice. "I'll recover by myself."
Mei Liangyu hummed in agreement, then moved her hand closer to her cheek, adjusting the height to make it easier for her to wipe away her tears.
With tears still clinging to her eyelashes, Yu Sui glanced at Mei Liangyu, said nothing, and then lowered her head to wipe the tears from her face with his sleeve.
[Author's Note]
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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