Chapter 2191- Shadow

UNedited chatper - Rubble

“You... you....”

Long Wangchu’s pupils contracted sharply as he slowly backed away, his legs trembling.

No matter how dull or foolish he might be, he now knew with utter terror that the Divine Son Yuan before him was no longer a noble and gentle benefactor, but a malevolent fiend baring its terrifying fangs at him.

At that moment, a chill gripped his entire body, and his frame grew unbearably heavy all of a sudden. He instinctively tried to turn his head, but the immense force bearing down on him prevented his neck from turning even a fraction, as if it had been completely nailed in place.

He would have fled, but his legs were enduring even more pressure—so much so that his knees slammed heavily against the ground.

BOOM!!

A massive Qilin claw crashed down from the endless, gloomy sky and pressed heavily upon Long Wangchu. At the same time, the eyes of an abyssified Qilin slowly opened, casting an eerie, dark glow across the space.

Long Wangchu let out a terrified scream. His limbs had been crushed into the ground, and his body felt as though it were bearing the weight of a towering mountain. Not only was breaking free impossible, but even moving a single finger was a luxury. He could not muster even a wisp of profound energy.

Given the Abyssal Qilin God’s immense power, it didn’t matter that Long Wangchu was only at the eighth level of the Divine Master Realm. Even if he were at the eighth level of the Divine Extinction Realm, there was still no chance he would be able to escape under such crushing force.

In fact, had Yun Che not been forcing it to withhold its strength to an incredible degree, Long Wangchu’s body would have already been crushed into dark, lifeless debris even if it were a hundred times tougher than it was now.

A dark nightmare engulfed his dragon soul. Long Wangchu, who had lived his entire life surrounded by the flattery and favor of his entire race, experienced true fear for the first time... even though he had been on the verge of embracing a magnificent dream just a few breaths ago.

He saw Yun Che approaching step by step through his trembling, nearly bursting pupils. The young man’s footsteps were light and slow, yet every step caused his heart to lurch violently. Like a startled nightmare, the terror within his soul was swelling wildly as Yun Che drew nearer.

Finally, Yun Che stopped. He slowly crouched down and lowered his gaze to look at Long Wangchu, who lay crushed on the ground like a worm.

“Di... Divine Son Yuan....”

Long Wangchu’s lips trembled uncontrollably, his voice so shaky it was barely audible: “This must... must be... the ‘Falling Dream’ of your Dreamweaver Kingdom of God...”

“It... it... it’s a dream... a test... for my dragon soul...”

Amidst utter absurdity and terror, he seemingly convinced himself to cling to the lifeline he had woven himself with all his might. His trembling lips forced a hideous grin: “I... I can hold on. “After all... I am... the heir of the dragon race....”

Yun Che stared at him impassively, not a single glimmer of light in his eyes. As his hatred and rage reached their peak, for a moment, he could not even think of a cruel enough method to exact revenge or vent his fury.

He slowly raised his hand—all five fingers spasming slightly as they curled—and dropped it sharply.

“WAAAAAH—”

His five fingers pierced Long Wangchu’s flesh like cruel, blunt blades, driving themselves into his dragon bones.

Dragon blood spattered everywhere, accompanied by a heart-wrenching scream, yet not a single flicker of emotion crossed Yun Che’s face, much less a moment’s satisfaction.

Thud!

Yun Che lifted his hand, sending splatters of flesh and bone flying. Amid the piercing screams ringing in his ears, he stared at the dragon’s blood staining his palm—every drop of it so vile, so filthy.

“I, Yun Che, am the favored of the Ancestral God and the bearer of the legacy of a Creation God and the Devil Emperor. In just twenty years, I have overturned the world’s order and become the monarch of the universe.”

He murmured these words softly; each syllable carried a unique pride that no one else could ever replicate. Yet, as they passed his lips, they sounded so dark and sorrowful:

“My Shenxi... the only daughter of the Primordial Azure Dragon, the sole disciple of the Creation Goddess of Life, the miracle and divine pearl of the Era of Gods...”

“Our daughter—every drop of her blood is so incredibly noble... Heh... Hehe... Hahahaha....”

He burst into laughter, a laugh that was endlessly hoarse, endlessly heart-wrenching, and laced with bitter, mocking sorrow... Mocking himself, and mocking fate.

“To think she... for a wretched, worthless creature like you... to have... to have....”

“ Divine Son... Yuan... gurgle... you...”

Long Wangchu couldn’t understand what Yun Che was saying; he was struggling desperately to speak... yet he didn’t know that this terrifying nightmare was merely the tiniest beginning.

The Devil Flame of Eternal Calamity ignited in Yun Che’s palm, instantly incinerating the filthy dragon’s blood. His burning hand then slammed down sharply.

“UWAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!”

The piercing screams nearly tore through the gloomy sky, so sharp it was as if millions of red-hot iron needles were simultaneously piercing out from Long Wangchu’s throat, each one coated in dragon’s blood charred black by the Devil Flame of Eternal Calamity.

The soul-scorching agony of the Devil Flame of Eternal Calamity was something even a Half-God could scarcely endure, let alone the weak-willed Long Wangchu. His screams were like the desperate wails of a ghost from the depths of purgatory, echoing far and wide across this world shrouded in thick, abyssal dust—yet, strangely, they failed to stir a single roar from the abyssal beasts.

It was as if this place were a cruel hell created solely for him.

Flesh and dragon bones turned charred black beneath the black flames, then rapidly dissolved into complete nothingness, Long Wangchu’s screams only grew more piercing with each pass; his features were twisted like those of a ghoul, and his bloodshot eyes on the verge of bursting. Every joint in his body was convulsing violently, and every inch of his skin was quivering and rippling, as if countless maggots were writhing madly within.

Beneath the vanishing flesh and dragon bones, his internal organs gradually came into view... But just then, Yun Che flipped his palm, and the pitch-black devilish flames transformed into pure white holy light, enveloping Long Wangchu in a rich aura of life.

The screams finally began to subside little by little. Long Wangchu gasped for breath, but for every breath he drew, large amounts of blood and foam choked up from his torn throat.

“Ah... glug... um...”

He emitted a series of hoarse, strange sounds. It was a long time before he finally regained the ability to speak: “Spare... me... don’t... don’t kill me... ugh... gurgle...”

“Kill you?”

Yun Che smiled faintly, as if he had regained the gentle, elegant demeanor of the Divine Son: “What are you talking about, Brother Wangchu? How could I possibly kill you? I’m the one person in this world who least wants you to die.”

These words gave Long Wangchu, who was plunged into the abyss of pain and fear, a new lifeline. In his opinion, his conjecture had been confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt: “So... this really is a dream... a test....”

He strained every ounce of his will to believe it was all just a dream, yet his fear showed not the slightest retreat. He screamed, “No... I don’t want this anymore. Dragon marrow, dragon soul... I don’t want any of it... I beg you, Divine Son Yuan, let me go... let me go!”

The curve of Yun Che’s lips slanted slightly further. He looked down on Long Wangchu like he wasn’t the young heir of the dragon race, but rather at a wretched beast that deserved to be torn to pieces in a thousand ways.

“Why the rush, Brother Wangchu? You’ve lived so long in the light. Naturally, you should spend just as long in the darkness, seeking death.”

He tapped his finger lightly.

Crack!!

A thunderous explosion erupted from Long Wangchu’s body, shattering his dragon spine in an instant. The brutal force then surged across his entire body like a merciless torrent, pulverizing every one of his dragon bones to dust and ripping every inch of his dragon tendons apart amidst countless overlapping thunderous blasts.

“UUUUUUWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

The agonized screams, which had barely ceased for a few breaths, once again tore through the pitch-black sky, even more piercing and shattering than before.

Yun Che narrowed his eyes, watching and listening...

He wanted to know how many years ago the wretched beast beneath his hand had first demanded blood essence from Yun Xi, and how often it had done so since, but he could never bring himself to ask.

He, who had walked the edge of death countless times and possessed a will so resilient it astonished even the Chief Priest, was actually terrified of that answer.

Long Wangchu had been reduced to a living pool of mud after his dragon bones were shattered, and tendons were torn asunder. Sweat poured from his body like a waterfall, steaming in the air, while his dragon blood flowed inversely and grew increasingly viscous, emitting a nauseating stench.

Despite this, his five senses remained perfect intact, allowing him to feel every layer of the hellish torture weighing upon him ten thousand times over, and to hear the devilish, ghoulish whispers ringing in his ears.

“You filthy wretch... Even if every drop of your clan’s filthy blood were drained dry, it wouldn’t equal a single hair on my daughter’s head... Yet you dare... you dare....”

“He... hehe...”

He laughed, a laugh that cut to the bone, filled with scorn: “I had sworn to overturn everything in this world, yet I spared the dragon race because I once... felt profound gratitude toward them. I had foolishly believed they treated my daughter well, offering her shelter and a safe haven.”

“To repay such kindness, if they truly demanded my dragon marrow and dragon soul as repayment, I really would have given them my dragon marrow and dragon soul as repayment without a moment’s hesitation!”

“But why... why are you so foolish... so foolish!”

Long Wangchu’s head, slumped on the ground, strained to focus his gaze on Yun Che’s face.

His expression, his voice, his hatred... none of it seemed fake, nor like a dream....

“You... what are you... gurgle...”

His voice no longer sounded as though it were coming from his throat. Rather, it felt like it was being painfully squeezed out from the depths of his torn chest; from every fragment of his soul that had been ground to dust by fear.

“We... the dragon race... have never... wronged... nor do we know... your daughter....”

“It must be... a misunderstanding... uwaaaah... spare... my life... we... the dragon race... will give you... anything....”

“Hm? Anything?” Yun Che raised his five fingers, smiling coldly: “How rare—to think my thoughts and those of a wretch like you should coincide.”

“......?” The bloodshot veins in Long Wangchu’s pupils froze momentarily.

“How could I possibly spurn the generosity of the young master of the dragon race? I will take everything the dragons possess... including every scrap of dragon bone and every drop of dragon blood.”

The smile never left his face, and his voice was as calm as the wind, as if he was depicting the most mundane of scenes: “Then, I will turn the bodies of your entire race into stinking stepping stones beneath my feet, and stain every drop of your dragon blood with sin that can never be washed away... I will wipe your entire race from existence, then nail you and them to the most infamous corner of the Abyss’s history to stink for eternity!”

“Ugh... ugh...” Long Wangchu’s head convulsed like a dying reptile. He had never heard such a terrifying voice; received such a vicious curse. Every fiber of his being was writhing in fear; the sheer terror overshadowing even the physical pain and leaving him unable to utter a single coherent syllable.

A small jade stone appeared in Yun Che’s hand.

It was no larger than a thumb, pitch-black and lightless. It was clearly a real object, but it strangely possessed no presence whatsoever.

A True God could be standing here right here and now, and they still would be utterly unable to detect its existence unless they were looking directly at it.

He touched the pitch-black jade stone to the convulsing Long Wangchu and waited for a brief moment. The next instant, a faint black glow flared up from the jade before vanishing in the blink of an eye.

He withdrew the jade and touched it to himself... At that moment, Long Wangchu’s eyes suddenly widened in shock, and he temporarily forgot to struggle.

His remaining spiritual perception was telling him that Yun Che was emanating the most familiar aura in the world to him; a draconic aura he could never mistake for anything else...

His own!

As he put away the Ni Yuan STone, the cruel smile on Yun Che’s face faded away little by little. It resembled a thin layer of ice floating on the water’s surface silently swallowed by the dark currents surging up from the depths.

“You’ve probably heard that I underwent the punishment of devouring rage on the Pure Land three months ago. I must admit that it was an excruciatingly painful ordeal. That said, I hadn’t come away from it without some insight.”

His voice was dark and quiet as a faint, mysterious glow appeared on his palm. “At the very least, I’ve come to understand how the torture is administered.”

“It’s actually quite simple. It uses the power of the Rage God to tear apart every thread of life and every strand of soul of the victim, then mend it, then tear it apart again... So long as the power remains, not even a single hair can escape the torment.”

“Every tear and every mend, every single instant of this punishment, is a kind of pain that those who have never experienced it could never possibly imagine.”

He slowly lowered his palm, his spread fingers growing larger and larger in Long Wangchu’s pupils: “Unfortunately for you, I also possess the power of the Rage God.”

“......!!” Long Wangchu’s shattered, tattered body began trembling uncontrollably... No matter how ignorant he was, he could not be ignorant of the most brutal torture in the entire Abyss.

The punishment hadn’t even begun yet, and his body had already turned a ghastly pallor, as if completely drained of blood.

“There’s no need to be afraid,” Yun Che consoled him “mercifully”, “As brutal as this punishment is, it never kills. Although, I’ve heard that the vast majority of the sinners who endured this punishment chose to take their own lives to escape the agony... Tsk, tsk, the Pure Land is pretty cruel, isn’t it?”

“But Brother Wangchu, you have absolutely nothing to worry about, for I am far more merciful than the Pure Land. I absolutely... absolutely will not give you the chance to take your own life.”

Though his bones were shattered and his muscles were torn, Long Wangchu’s body trembled more violently than ever before as his soul, consumed by endless terror, desperately tore and raged against his flesh to escape.

“ I will ensure that you live on, at least until... the day you and your father are reunited!”

With that, a withered yellow beam of profound energy shot out of Yun Che’s palm. It transformed into countless needles of light—each one as fine as a strand of hair—that plunged into Long Wangchu’s broken body. They surged instantly through his limbs and bones, penetrating every inch of his flesh, hair, blood, bones, meridians, bone marrow, soul....

Long Wangchu’s body stiffened in an instant. Then, a soul-shredding scream erupted from his ruptured throat.

Extreme pain, extreme itchiness, soul-scorching heat, bone-chilling cold....

Every conceivable and inconceivable form of extreme torture erupted in Long Wangchu’s body with frenzied intensity, causing his veins to burst one by one. Beneath the Qilin’s claw, his body convulsed wildly and unnaturally as if a million hands were haphazardly tearing it to countless pieces.

“UUUUUUUUUUWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

This was just the first instant of his howl, yet it was so harrowing it would have struck fear into the hearts of the vilest ghosts and made even the devils of the night wail in terror.

Deep within Yun Che’s soul sea, Li Suo let out a faint sigh.

Yun Che had never been one to bully the weak, much less torment them.

But at this moment, even if it meant losing his dignity, even if it meant soiling his hands, he must use the most brutal method to personally torture the young heir of the dragon race, who in his eyes was nothing more than a worthless piece of trash.

“UGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH—AAAAAAAAAAAAAA—AAAAAAAAAAAAAA—UAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH—”

The unceasing screams no longer resembled the voices of either human or dragon; they were the very embodiment of pain taken to its extreme.

Yun Che slowly rose to his feet. He narrowed his eyes at the pitiful mass of mangled flesh and listened to its blood-curdling screams, yet not a shred of pity or compassion stirred within him.

“Savor it, Young Dragon Lord,” he said indifferently. “You should thank your father. If not for him, a wretch like you would never be worthy of receiving the punishment by devouring rage.”

“UUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—”

He convulsed wildly, screamed frantically, tears and blood streaming endlessly down his eyes. He could not utter a single word... not even a plea for mercy, not even a wish to end his own life.

“Hah!”

A soft chuckle echoed from the gloomy silence behind him, easily drowned out by the soul-shredding screams.

It sounded like a fleeting, mocking laugh.

Yun Che’s figure shot forth like a bolt of lightning; thick abyssal dust incapable of hindering his spiritual perception or movement in the slightest... In an instant, he was five kilometers away and gripping the throat of an abyssal ghost with clenched fingers.

“Gak... heh...”

The abyssal ghost’s eyes flashed with an eerie light, and a strange sound—it sounded like a cold laugh—escaped from its crushed windpipe.

It appeared to be a profound practitioner who had recently been transformed into an abyssal ghost. The remnants of his profound robes had not yet been completely devoured.

Yun Che swung his arm and flung the abyssal ghost far, far away. Then, he exhaled softly.

Just moments ago, his soul had been filled with such rage and hatred that he actually allowed an abyssal ghost to come within five kilometers of him.

Out of caution, he did not immediately withdraw the spiritual perception he had projected outward. Instead, he focused on scanning the surrounding space. A few breaths later, he finally withdrew his perception and turned to return to where the Abyssal Qilin God was.

But the very instant he turned around, a shadowy figure slipped out from behind a section of black wood ten paces away from him and walked away, their back facing toward him.

Ten steps...

And Yun Che had not noticed a thing.

She was so close, and walking away at a leisurely pace....

Yet Yun Che did not turn around at all.

It was as if... that the shadowy figure was bereft of aura or soul.