Chapter 16

With a 'crackling' sound, the old man in the red robe shot a piercing bolt of lightning from his eyes, which struck Yin Xuege. Yin Xuege let out a惨嚎, his hair standing straight up, and his body was covered in glaring sparks, making him look like a discarded scarecrow flying backward in a sorry state.

The overwhelming power of lightning rampaged through Yin Xuege's body. This lightning force was not brutal but had a gentle and smooth sensation, like water. It seeped into Yin Xuege's body like a stream, causing him intense pain and disrupting his normal bodily functions, but it did not cause him more harm!

At least Yin Xuege could still breathe and think, and his nerves remained intact.

"Child of darkness, I spared your despicable life because I want you to experience the pain that follows!"

The old man in the red robe gripped his staff, from the top of which a fist-sized silver-blue gem emitted rings of glaring electric arcs. He glared at Yin Xuege with anger, gritting his teeth and speaking each word clearly: "Leitning was my most accomplished student. I was preparing to send him to the human city-states' exchange meeting to secure more resources for the Great Berlin City-State!"

He exhaled forcefully and said coldly, "But you killed him! Excellent, you killed Leitning, and you have stifled all my efforts over the past fifteen years! All the resources invested in Leitning have been wasted! Excellent, very excellent! Everything you have done will be repaid accordingly!"

Lying on the ground, with the current flowing through his body, Yin Xuege was completely immobilized. However, this did not stop him from laughing loudly, mocking the old man in the red robe: "This only shows that your choice of students is not very good! I didn't expend much effort to kill him!"

The old man in the red robe was so enraged by Yin Xuege's provocative and arrogant words that his face turned purple. He gripped his staff tightly, baring his teeth and glaring at Yin Xuege with intense hatred. After a moment, he nodded with difficulty and waved his arm forcefully.

"Child of darkness, I will remember your provocation and insolence! And you should remember me, the Third Thunder Emperor of the Human Alliance, Jolus. When I destroy the nest of your evil family and hang all your relatives on crosses to be burned to ashes by the sun, I will let you witness this beautiful scene!"

Yin Xuege felt a surge of satisfaction—destroying the Yin clan's nest and hanging all the clan members? This was a beautiful dream that Yin Xuege had been having since he was a child! So, he continued to provoke Jolus: "Just the Third Thunder Emperor? So, there are two more powerful ones above you? No wonder your student was killed by me so easily!"

Struggling to lift his head, he glanced at Jolus with disdain and laughed to the sky: "A poor teacher, so the student is a waste!"

"Damn scoundrel!" Jolus's eyes turned red with anger at Yin Xuege's provocative words and insolent gaze. At that moment, he even looked a bit like a blood demon. Jolus waved his hand wildly, and the entire long tunnel was enveloped in glaring lightning. From the cells on both sides of the tunnel, came the frantic curses of countless prisoners.

All the prisoners imprisoned there were scorched by the lightning. They gathered at the air vents, cursing Jolus's female relatives with the most vicious and vulgar language. The tunnel was instantly filled with foul language, and Jolus, already furious, had veins popping on his forehead. He almost couldn't resist the urge to kill all the prisoners.

The air around him twisted slightly, and a man in a black robe, with striking golden hair, appeared out of nowhere. He placed his hand on Jolus's arm, which was emitting countless lightning bolts, and shook his head firmly and unyieldingly.

"Don't be impulsive, Jolus, my old friend. They will be punished eventually. Humans are still the masters of this land. Don't forget our main task. A child of darkness who is not afraid of sunlight, don't you think there is some conspiracy here?"

"Aaron, you are right!" Jolus forced himself to suppress his anger and stomped his foot heavily.

A group of fully armed Blood Prison guards rushed forward, grabbing the paralyzed Yin Xuege and dragging him toward the end of the tunnel. Led by Jolus and Aaron, they passed through one heavy door after another, finally arriving at a massive metal archway.

This archway was over three meters high, and the black door was carved with numerous scenes of legendary gods and demons in battle. The carver was clearly a master, and the scenes were vividly depicted. On the not-so-large door, there were at least a thousand lifelike characters, and Yin Xuege immediately recognized a blood demon with wings on its back.

This blood demon, enveloped in flames, had a spear piercing its chest and was falling from a cloud. It pointed at a god enveloped in light on the cloud, and blood was pouring from its body.

Yin Xuege had seen this story in the statues on the walls of the Child Hall. This was the last 'Twilight War' that took place before the legendary Age of Lawlessness, when the gods and demons were in decline.

In that war, both the Eastern and Western cultivation worlds were in chaos. In the Twilight War, many Eastern cultivators appeared, some joining the gods and others joining the demons. After a fierce battle, the gods and demons all disappeared, and only a severely injured blood demon, who was among the most powerful, managed to return to the Blood Demon Sanctuary, leaving behind dozens of drops of blood demon holy blood in its heart for its descendants.

Yin Xuege's ancestor, Yin Tianjue, led a group of Yin clan elders to raid the Blood Demon Sanctuary, seizing all the blood demon holy blood, thus establishing the Yin clan.

The black-robed man, Aaron, noticed Yin Xuege's gaze and gently tapped the falling blood demon on the door, nodding at Yin Xuege with a smile: "You are particularly interested in this scene? Black-haired, black-eyed child of darkness, you are a member of the Yin clan, right?"

Yin Xuege's heart tightened, but he remained silent.

Aaron smiled and looked at Yin Xuege for a while before nodding: "A troublesome little guy. If it were a child from another family, a bit of torture would make them confess. But a child of the Yin clan, though as cunning and sinister as those from other families, you are from the East!"

He spread his hands helplessly and sighed: "I dislike your Eastern concept of integrity. Among the Yin clan captives we have caught in the past, few have spoken. I hope you are not as stubborn. I hope so!"

The black door opened, and a cold, blood-soaked air rushed out.

Jolus, with a sinister smile, and Aaron, with a friendly smile, led the way inside, and the guards dragged Yin Xuege in as well.

This was a spacious hall, or more accurately, a torture chamber. In the long, wide torture chamber, various strange and bizarre torture instruments were densely arranged, along with several furnaces and a small steel crucible. A pot of molten steel was boiling, occasionally splashing out thick, red-hot iron.

Yin Xuege's body suddenly stiffened as he looked at the steel crucible, unable to imagine what kind of torture this was!

Would they throw someone into the molten steel? Even the most powerful blood demon couldn't withstand such high temperatures, right? Even though Yin Xuege, for unknown reasons, was not afraid of the blood demon's natural enemy—sunlight. But this was molten steel. Looking at his young body, he felt he wouldn't last a second in it.

All his attention was drawn to the pot of molten steel, and Yin Xuege didn't notice the other bizarre torture instruments in the chamber.

Two guards dragged Yin Xuege to a cross and forcefully bound his hands and legs to it. Special metal ropes tightly tied his limbs, and pale golden runes appeared on the cross, just like the golden runes on the cell door, emitting a majestic divine aura. This aura made Yin Xuege instinctively feel repulsed.

Surrounded by this divine aura, Yin Xuege lost all his strength.

Jolus and Aaron slowly walked to a row of high-backed chairs and sat down. A middle-aged woman in a bright red dress, like a flame, was already seated. The woman, with a few crow's feet at the corners of her eyes, held a cup of water and looked at Yin Xuege calmly.

"Is this the child?" The woman shook her head and took a sip of water. "Fenisse, is this the one, the Daywalker?"

Yin Xuege looked up, and standing next to the woman was Fenisse, who had cruelly tortured him with fire. With a sweet smile, Fenisse leaned close to the woman and whispered something. The woman shook her head indifferently and nodded to Jolus and Aaron.

Jolus's face was gloomy, and he said coldly, "Fire Empress Faylan, this is the boy. A Daywalker, don't you find that strange?"

Faylan curiously examined Yin Xuege, and Aaron said slowly, "A Daywalker, even we know the importance of a Daywalker to a blood demon family! He has the potential to become a legendary Blood Demon Emperor or even a Blood Demon God! The Yin clan sent a Daywalker to infiltrate the Great Berlin City-State. What do they want to do?"

Faylan narrowed her eyes, and the crow's feet at the corners of her eyes disappeared. Her smile became even sweeter.

"Perhaps they know something? For example, the person we captured from the abandoned cemetery's underground lair, in collaboration with the Milan City-State, a few days ago? Anything is possible, isn't it, my friends?"

Faylan's smile was sweet, but her next command was not.

She waved her hand and pointed at Yin Xuege with a smile, "Break half of his body's bones. Let our little guy wake up and know where he is!"

Two men in black leather pants, bare-chested, and wearing black leather masks, slowly approached Yin Xuege. They stuffed a dirty towel into his mouth and attached several specially designed alligator clips, embedded with small crystals, to the vital points where nerves and blood vessels converged on his right side.

These alligator clips deeply pierced into Yin Xuege's flesh, and the crystals glowed faintly, sending sharp bolts of lightning into his body, amplifying his pain by at least a hundred times.

"Kid, try to endure it, don't die from the pain!" One of the masked men grinned and raised a strangely shaped mallet.

"Don't worry, I think this kid can take more than others!" The other masked man's laugh was like an owl's, 'gurgling' and making Yin Xuege's back shiver. He raised a steel rod covered with countless one-inch-long steel needles, pointed it at Yin Xuege's right ankle, and then struck it heavily.

The steel needles pierced through the bone and into the bone marrow, and the steel rod shattered Yin Xuege's bones, damaging the nerves and blood vessels around his ankle. The lightning from the alligator clips amplified his pain by more than a hundred times, and Yin Xuege felt an unbearable pain surge from his right foot. His body convulsed violently, and blood spurted from all his orifices.

His internal organs twisted and exploded, and the intense pain made Yin Xuege's mind go hazy. Just one blow almost cost him half his life! If he hadn't just broken through to the level just below a Moon Warrior, with his physical abilities enhanced several times, this blow would have knocked him unconscious.

But the problem was, with his enhanced physical strength, his endurance had also increased, so this blow didn't knock him out, and he could only passively endure the pain.

Cold, sticky sweat continuously seeped out, forming a gray paste on Yin Xuege's skin. His body convulsed violently, like a fish thrashing on land. He opened his mouth to scream, but the stinky towel blocked it.

He tried to take a deep breath to ease the burning pain inside, but the other torturer placed a burning piece of tinder in front of his nose. The tinder emitted a pungent black smoke, and instead of fresh air, Yin Xuege inhaled the choking black smoke. His lungs convulsed violently, and he couldn't cough, his body writhing, and his vision turned red.

"Fenisse, my dear child!" Fire Empress Faylan smiled at the struggling Yin Xuege and said calmly, "When dealing with these dark creatures, there is no need for mercy or hesitation. Torture them with the most cruel means, and you might gain unexpected results!"

Fenisse stood calmly and sweetly by Faylan, watching Yin Xuege on the brink of collapse with satisfaction.

"My friends, think about it. Why would a precious Daywalker, a rare sight in a thousand years, appear in our territory? What plot does the Yin clan have against us? What mission does this poor little guy carry?"

Aaron's fingers lightly tapped the armrest of his chair, and he said thoughtfully, "The most important thing is, if we hadn't received a tip and caught this little guy at the tavern, and found the blood demon-specific potions and soft sword on him, would we have been able to catch him after he integrated into the Great Berlin City-State?"

Jolus's face was dark and sinister, and he glared at Yin Xuege with venom, his teeth grinding.

"He doesn't have the usual sinister aura or blood smell of a blood demon. His scent is even more sunny and healthy than most human children! And he's not afraid of the sun! If he had blended in with humans, perhaps one day we would have discovered his exceptional talent, taken him as a student, and made him protect the safety of the Great Berlin City-State?"

Jolus laughed coldly and shattered the armrest of his chair with a palm.

"A plot, this is a plot against our Great Berlin City-State!"

A green light shone in his heart, and Yin Xuege's shattered ankle bone rapidly healed. On the brink of collapse, he heard Aaron's words—they had received a tip and caught him at Old Jack's tavern!

'They received a tip!'

'They received a tip!'

If they hadn't received a tip, they wouldn't have suddenly attacked Old Jack's tavern and wouldn't have caught Yin Xuege!

If Yin Xuege hadn't had the Daywalker constitution, according to the Human Alliance's usual practices, they would have extracted no valuable information from him and simply burned him to ashes in the sunlight, erasing all traces of his existence.

Those two Yin clan warriors! Yin Xuege's chaotic mind suddenly thought of Yin Jiujiusanqi and Yin Jiujiusanba, who had escorted him into the city-state. Where were they? Had they not been caught, or had they already turned to ashes?

His body convulsed violently, and the torturer's mallet struck his knee with a heavy blow. This blow almost severed his entire lower leg. Yin Xuege convulsed in pain, his body thrashing wildly on the cross, and more blood spurted from his orifices.

Jolus watched Yin Xuege with satisfaction, clapping his hands: "Well done, children, keep it up! Let this damn blood demon know they shouldn't even step near our city-state!"

The endless pain made Yin Xuege wish he were dead.

His bloodshot eyes stared at Faylan and the others, at every person around them. He memorized their smiling faces, remembering them all.

At that moment, a man in black rushed into the torture chamber and approached the three grand magistrates, bowing.

"Respected Grand Magistrates, a few guests from the East say they must see you as soon as possible."

Before the man in black could finish speaking, a green light flashed behind him, and an old man with white hair and a white beard, exuding a transcendent aura, appeared.

"Faylan, your threshold is getting harder to cross!"