Chapter 65: 52

Chapter 52 - The villain is online! I’m dead!

The author has something to say: A friendly reminder that the following storyline will be a little cruel, but all the suffering is for the sake of future sweetness, so hang on.

T/N: Content Warning for depictions of torture.

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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The attendant that had come to the door last time had already withdrawn, and there was no one to directly report to.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?”

“I’m afraid of wasting Master’s time.” Ye Jun steadily replied, “After all, we have so many of Henglian’s people under arrest that our torturers are really in short supply.”

The Second Young Master hummed coldly and gave his assent, Ye Jun dragged me up and pinched my life gate acupoint2 . It was only then that I knew the discomfort from the energy transfer technique that was used to transfer my inner power was nothing compared to the tremendous pain from being forced to empty out my inner breath.

I was covered in cold sweat from head to toe, and my throat had been hoarse for such a long time that I was unable to make a sound. I absent-mindedly remembered, since this was Zhongli Court, it was probably the same medicine.


At that time..... when Zhongli Zixi emptied out Ye Tan’s inner breath, was he actually suffering like this? How on earth did he manage to quietly endure, and still be able to smile towards the Second Young Master.....

A-Tan..... A-Tan.....

Fortunately, he wasn’t here. I only hoped he would stay in seclusion forever, so he never had to find this.


In the end, I wasn’t able to lose consciousness, and I clearly felt the entire, incomparable torture of having my bones stripped bare.

Ye Jun released his hand, and reported: “Young Master, it is done.”

All the veins in my body were in indistinguishable pain, and my suffering did not diminish in the slightest. Hearing this, the Second Young Master grabbed me by the roots of my hair and forced me to lift my head, asking: “Speak, where do you come from, who taught you, and who are you receiving orders from?”

Sincerely, I immediately informed him of the truth: “I’m a local, I don’t have a teacher, no one is ordering me.”

The Second Young Master squeezed out a cold snort from his nose: “I would have been unable to tell that someone as weak as you would still be so unyielding.”

.....I was done for, even I wouldn’t believe that kind of answer.

What could I do, I was also very desperate.

“No matter, I have plenty of time to spend with you.” The Second Young Master slightly narrowed his silver eyes, and spoke as he got up, “Now that Henglian has been completely wiped out, I was worried I would have nothing to do. If you don’t give me a bit of a challenge, I really won’t have any fun.”

The Second Young Master left the study, and leaned his head to the side, “Bring him out, don’t make my floors dirty.”

Ye Jun dragged me by the neck into the courtyard, the ground was covered in rock fragments, which became covered in traces of blood as my body weight was dragged through them. The Second Young Master stood in front of a patch of green bamboo, and said towards Ye Jun: “Sword.”

Listening to his words, Ye Jun untied his sword and offered it with both hands, the Second Young Master unsheathed it and cut off a small section of the bamboo, slowly carving at it as it became as thick as a finger.

A servant sensed his intentions and grabbed a zanzhi3 , placing my ten fingers into the wooden columns and pulling the strings tight, fastening them in place.

The Second Young Master half squatted in front of me, he held that piece of bamboo that had been cut as thin as a cicada’s wing, and gently placed it between the fingernail and the nail bed of my index finger, giving an evil smile as he asked: “I’ll ask you again..... Where are you from? Who are you working for?”

I saw his intentions and shivered in fear, extremely terrified.

The Second Young Master thinly pursed his lips and, with a forceful stab, ruthlessly thrust the sliver of bamboo into my fingertip.

I was frimly stomped onto the ground by the servant, and the fingers of both my hands were tightly fastened to the zanzhi, still violently throbbing in pain. The tiniest movement caused the bamboo stick penetrating my finger to twist by a hair’s breath, piercing through my finger bones and penetrating past my finger joint, breaking the skin and making blood pour out. The Second Young Master did not care, tearing it to the side, and ripping off my entire fingernail along with the flesh underneath it.


The Second Young Master didn’t receive a satisfactory answer, so he peeled of my other fingernails one by one.

Since the fingers were connected to the heart, the pain made me faint from time to time, afterwards I couldn’t clearly tell whether I was conscious or not. The interrogation and the coercion drifted far away into the horizon, and I was totally lacking the strength to pay attention to it.

My consciousness was vague as someone dragged me into a dungeon, and what followed was endless torture.

Chains penetrated my flesh as I was fastened onto a rack, and I was inflicted the most severe torture while being administered the best medicine. Every time I was tortured to the brink of death, I would be let down and carefully treated, the cycle repeated over and over again and I didn’t know when it would end.


Both my hands were tied, so I couldn’t go into the Modifier Tool. I could only endure the hardships.

A hundred thousand ‘fuck’s of pain rolled through my mind.

Ye Jun often came to keep a close watch on me. One day, he saw me and sighed: “What did you go to Yang Lake for? I originally wanted to let you go, why did you insist on delivering yourself to our door?”

I struggled to ask: “Henglian..... wiped out.... what does that mean?”

From Yang Qingzhou’s letter, it sounded like the war was going smoothly, even if they weren’t able to capture Zhongli Court, the Second Young master should not have had it so easy.

Ye Jun muttered to himself: “The situation has already been determined, there’s no harm in telling you. The so-called eliminated Qingcheng, Renzong Temple, Jinguan Court, and Changluo Hall, were actually not harmed in the slightest, it was only a pretence, we burned our homes down and went into hiding, waiting for Henglian to get into the boiling pot. Not only that, the entire Zonglian..... was a chess piece that the Second Young Master spent ten years winning over and laying out.”

I sighed in my heart, Henglian’s loss wasn’t unjust: “Yang Qingzhou..... they..... what.....”

Ye Jun said: “More or less the same situation as you.”

I spoke a few words, already at my limit, putting together the last of my strength to beg him: “Can you..... please..... kill me.....”


The only thing I wanted now was to die.

Once I was able to break away from this endless torture, the next time I reloaded my file, I would first stab the Second Young Master and get it over with.


Ye Jun shook his head: “If you were to die, what would Yaksha do?”

I was stunned.

The Second Young Master already believed Ye Tan had died in One Sword Tomb, why would Ye Jun not think so?

Ye Jun was really as smart as Ye Tan had said, he saw through my doubts at a glance, and smiled: “These days, I have also been following you. I know you are different from the Second Young Master. You would never be able to let Yaksha throw away his life in vain and return with peace of mind to live a purposeless life.” Ye Jun spoke, and he stroked his chin as he pondered, “Although I still don’t understand, with Yaksha’s stupidly loyal temperament, how you managed to convince him to act separately from you.”

I was already in too much pain to answer, so I didn’t speak. Ye Jun slightly knitted his brows, stroking a small porcelain bottle in his hands: “This is a panacea that can both stop the pain and protect the heart..... it’s a pity that I am bound by my position, I couldn’t give it to Yaksha then, and I also can’t give it to you now.”

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He bowed his head in low spirits for a while, then spoke again: “I work for the Second Young Master, I can’t help you do anything. But I still hope..... that you are able to press on, escape, and be reunited with him one day.” Ye Jun clenched his teeth, resolutely saying, “By all means, don’t die, don’t leave Yaksha alone again..... Consider this as my request for you.”


After he finished speaking, he didn’t stay much longer, hurriedly leaving.

My thoughts of suicide unexpectedly really did fade away as a result of this.

That’s right, I can’t give up without carefully considering things.

If I hadn’t been overconfident in my powers of creation and destruction without having to do anything, I wouldn’t have been reduced to the situation I was in now.

What’s more, this past that I’ve lived along the way..... I’m not willing to part with it and let it go to waste.


I had been hanging on the torture rack for a few days, and my sense of pain had already become numb. I didn’t know what day it was, and I also didn’t know if I was sleeping or if I was awake. One night, when the moonlight shone brightly, there was suddenly another person inside the cell.

He was covered from head to toe in rich, gloomy black clothes, occasionally adorned with blood-like scarlet accents, and his face was covered by a strange fox mask.

He stood at the door of the cell, leisurely strolling up the steps of the platform, I didn’t see him move, and I also wasn’t able to sense any sleeping drugs, but I saw as the guards in the cell threw aside their helmets and their armour, and fell to the ground one after the other.

He slowly came to stand still in front of me, faintly looking at me. He was taller than me by half a head, so I had to seriously strain myself to lift my head and look at him.


His aura felt both familiar and unfamiliar, and my heart moved.


“Zhongli Zixi gave you some tiger-wolf medicine, the medicine’s properties are tyrannical and violent, so even if you escape, you won’t live more than three years.” He extended a pale wrist from his wide sleeves, holding a jade-white pill in his fingertips, prying open my mouth and forcing it inside, “Swallow it, it will allow you to live like a normal person during your last years.”

I recognised his voice when he opened his mouth, and I felt the blood in my body begin to burn: “A.... A-Tan?”

He was hidden behind the fox mask, so I didn’t know what his expression looked like, but it was clearly a reunion after a long separation. However, I didn’t feel any happiness, and could only frantically say: “Quick, run away..... be careful, the Second Young Master..... don’t..... care about me.....”

He laughed grimly: “Of course it’s not my turn to take care of you, your precious shadow guards are coming to save you right away.”


I was very confused when I heard this, my shadow guard, wasn’t that you?

I already didn’t have the strength to ask him. The lock on the prison door was quietly pried open, and a figure in the Nightrunner’s outfit nimbly sneaked inside, taking a few steps and leaping up in front of me, crying out in alarm: “Boss! I found you! Wow, why are you so hurt.....”

It was Ye Xiao.

I turned my head to look at the man wearing the fox mask again, but he had disappeared at some point.

There were no other exits inside the cell, how on earth did he leave?


Ye Xiao’s lock-picking skills were top-notch, he effortlessly opened the manacles on my hands and feet, and I slid down into his arms. Ye Xiao touched a few major acupoints around my body, and the pain decreased a lot, I raised my voice and said “A, A-Tan..... he.....”

Ye Xiao curled his lip: “Forget it, Boss. The boss hasn’t come out of seclusion, so there was no way for him to come heroically rescue the beauty, you’ll just have to put up with this and make do.”

I shook my head: “Just now..... I saw.... him.....”

“Fine fine fine okay okay okay, we’ll go back and see, okay?” Ye Xiao half-heartedly spoke as though he was coaxing a small child, and sneakily carried me out of the cell door. Outside, the bright moon hung high in the sky, and it was absolutely silent. Ye Xiao had just barely stepped foot on the ground, when his movements suddenly stopped.

“Oh crap, Boss.” He said.

The shadows in the surrounding trees suddenly moved, they were actually hidden guards lying in ambush.


The Second Young Master’s breezy voice could be heard from a distance: “You are truly very restless, I’m a little angry.”


The white moon hung in the middle of the sky, and a thousand rivers of cold snow came out of nowhere, the bleak northern wind creating a desolate atmosphere.

The high wall was about ten zhang4 away from us, and our situation was not hopeful at all. Ye Xiao clenched his teeth and abruptly set off, speeding along towards the wall of the courtyard, wanting to break through with force.

The Second Young Master lightly waved his hand, and countless dark arrows filled our surroundings, swiftly spreading across the sky and covering the ground like a shower of rain, with the great power of thunder.

Ye Xiao was forced to retreat several feet by the rain of arrows, he was unable to dodge while carrying me, and could only try to protect me. As we were in imminent peril, a figure leapt out in front of his body, covering most of him.

Ye Xiao angrily said: “Ye Lan what are you doing out here!!”

Regardless of how fast his hands were, Ye Lan wasn’t able to knock down everything, and his body became covered in deep and shallow wounds left behind by a large number of feather blades, blood flowed down, hidden in the dim light of night, and was almost invisible.

He gave a shout, blankly turning his head and saying: “Ah.... I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking just now..... I just came out.”


The Second Young Master’s defence was laid out so tightly, I was afraid he’d long since prepared, and we wouldn’t be able to leave today.

I made an effort to speak: “Second Young Master.... you.... let them go. I’ll tell you anything..... you want.”

I was thinking of how to delay some time by making up some nonsense, in any case I wouldn’t be in a worse mess than the one I was in now.

The Second Young Master sneered: “Where did you get the confidence to discuss terms with me?”


Ye Xiao knew this battle couldn’t be avoided, and spoke in a low voice: “Ye Lan, you’re faster than me, take Boss and leave first, I’ll hold them up.”

I knew Ye Xiao was thinking that either he died, or they did. I hadn’t even opened my mouth when Ye Lan blankly asked: “What?”

Ye Xiao frowned: “Don’t play dumb with me at this critical moment.”

Ye Lan thought about it, and shook his head: “I won’t leave.”

Ye Xiao furiously said: “What I say goes, don’t say so much rubbish.”

“It’s not like this, it wasn’t like this before.....” Ye Lan repeatedly shook his head, muddled chaos rising in his eyes, “Before, you cried and begged me to save you, I tried my best, I really tried my best..... I couldn’t defeat them, couldn’t to save you.....”

“.....Fuck, this fool, he’s ill again.” Ye Xiao clenched his teeth and freed a hand to firmly slap him on the head, “Wake up, wake up, shameful, hurry up and take Master out of here.”

Ye Lan’s expression cleared up a bit, resolutely refusing: “I won’t. I want to protect you, not him.”

Ye Xiao spoke in a depressed tone: “You don’t understand, he is our Master, we must protect him even if it risks our lives.”

Ye Lan resolutely said: “I understand, my own life is not important, if I die protecting Master that’s fine.... but you must live.” He lowered his voice, and spoke to himself, “I have worked very hard, this time, I definitely won’t let anything happen to you.”


The Second Young Master detachedly watched the show, having seen enough, he softly gave an order and the hidden guards in the surroundings didn’t give the two of them an opportunity to argue, encircling them with their blades.

I struggled to free myself from Ye Xiao, shouting: “Zhongli Zixi has things to ask me, he won’t take my life, you two escape on your own. Don’t worry for now.”

In any case, I was already used to the torture, as long as I held on for a while, I would always be able to remedy it later.

I didn’t necessarily have to escape today.

The Second Young Master seemed amused: “Oh? You want to try and see whether I dare kill you or not?” He pulled up a short bow, lightly loosened his finger, and sent an arrow speeding out.

My reaction speed wasn’t as good as before, and I was prepared to accept it, but who would have thought that Ye Xiao would rush over, holding me in his arms and pressing me against the ground, as the arrow pierced his shoulder through his clothes, dying the spot red in an instant.

“Gui Mao!” Ye Lan’s reaction was also quick, and he advanced towards Ye Xiao.

I jumped in fright, wanting to check on Ye Xiao’s injury, but Ye Lan abruptly carried him on his back, separating the two of us, so I fell down and was unable to crawl back up.

Ye Xiao yelled hoarsely: “.....We, we won’t resist! Don’t hurt my Boss!”

A guard stepped up beside him to tie him up, but Ye Lan blocked him with the front of his body, relentlessly beating him back.

The Second Young Master aimed his bow at me again, watching Ye Lan attentively with an amused expression.


If it continued like this, Ye Xiao and Ye Lan would die in vain here. I never loathed my own weakness as much as I did now, A-Tan was not here, how many times would other people have to come to save me like this?


“Go..... go save Master.....” Ye Xiao was barely able to crawl out of Ye Lan’s arms, his voice was so low it was almost inaudible, “I’m already compromised.... you still have energy left, you can at least take him by yourself.....” The arrowhead had been specially crafted to penetrate the flesh and gouge into the bone, causing him to lose feeling on half of his body in an instant.

Hearing this, I naturally wanted to shout at him to stop, but who would have thought that Ye Lan would suddenly change the topic, taking the lead and asking: “As long as Boss dies, you won’t need to protect him?”


My heart thumped.

No one had time to react, Ye Lan had already jumped up, his two calm, crystal clear eyes landed on me and suddenly widened as he gazed at me, tranquil, without a single trace of hesitation.

My chest felt the bone-chilling coldness of a weapon.

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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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