Chapter 63: True Pain
Chapter 63: True Pain
Chapter 63
Ozaki, the great and powerful Ozaki, was finally dead... and the one who had killed him was the strange green-haired kid who had only entered their base barely twenty or so minutes ago.
And the thing that was even more terrifying was the fact that Ozaki’s death had by no means been an easy one; in fact, it was perhaps the most horrifying death any of the Dark Reaper members had ever witnessed in their entire lives.
That statement alone carried immense weight because, being the savage group that they were, they had perpetrated countless brutal tortures and witnessed gruesome deaths far beyond what ordinary people could even imagine.
Their hearts had long since turned into cold, immovable iron, and yet... as they watched their leader fall in such a horrifying and gruesome manner, those iron hearts seemed to melt away in an instant.
Every single face became filled with dread and terror; all of them had long since collapsed onto their knees due to the shock, horror, and countless negative emotions surging through them right now.
They didn’t even dare think about what fate awaited them; if their fate was anything similar to Ozaki’s then... they couldn’t even finish the thought, not when they saw the green-haired monster slowly turn his blood-soaked face toward them.
At once, all of their blood froze within their veins; their bodies trembled violently as panic exploded inside them:
"Please forgive us! We were only following orders! We are not evil! No... we are evil, but we have changed! We have changed our minds! From now on we will become saints! Spare us, please, sir!
We shall do whatever you deem worthy! I was sold here for a few bronze coins! It wasn’t my fault that I joined them! I was threatened!
Please don’t kill me! You can kill the rest, but I haven’t killed anyone ever since joining the Dark Reapers! Shut up, you liar! You recently raped and killed a young female cultivator just a few weeks ago!
Ahhh! You crazy bastard! Do you want to condemn me to eternal damnation? Why are you lying?! Sir, please give me a chance for redemption! I won’t let you down! Sir, you have already killed Ozaki! The entire Dark Reaper organization now belongs to you! You can rule us! None of us will dare oppose you!"
More and more pleas poured out from the mouths of the Dark Reaper members as they desperately begged for mercy. After all, what would Liyu gain from killing them? At least, that was what they believed.
In their minds, Liyu’s decision was already obvious: he might punish some of them severely, or he might even kill a few unfortunate souls to vent his anger.
Those unlucky enough to be chosen would die; the rest would be allowed to live and serve him as loyal slaves.
Seeing that the green-haired monster appeared to be contemplating whether to spare them or not, they all bowed deeply and desperately presented their various reasons for why they deserved to live.
Most argued that their cultivation levels were high and that they could assist Liyu in many matters; others made even more ridiculous claims.
Some claimed they could cook excellent meals, others swore they could brew the finest tea, and some even listed all sorts of strange and bizarre talents they believed might prove useful.
Liyu, however, wasn’t listening at all; contrary to what the Dark Reaper members believed, he wasn’t deciding who deserved mercy and who didn’t. The moment he heard that this vile group had skinned a child alive, their fate had already been sealed in his mind.
Not one of them had any right to continue breathing; he had already made an oath. He would personally escort every single one of them to the gates of hell and personally push them through.
Right now, the thoughts running through his mind were far more dreadful than anything the Dark Reaper members could imagine.
He was thinking about killing them, but more importantly... he was thinking about how to make every single one of them experience true pain before they died... the kind of pain that would haunt them even after death itself, the kind of pain that would make them pray for death long before it finally arrived.
After a long while, Liyu slowly raised his eyes; emerald lightning flickered faintly within them, and then... he grinned. The Dark Reaper members saw that grin and instantly relaxed; some even began laughing in joy.
In their minds, they believed Liyu had finally decided to spare them, but nothing could have been further from the truth. Looking at them, Liyu’s grin widened ever so slightly: "Those previous ten people before you... they were actually very lucky."
He had not terrorized and carved those ones apart as he should have; instead, he had given them a painless death. "Senior, you mean unlucky, right?" one of the Dark Reaper members said with a nervous smile on his face.
"Those fools angered Senior after all, and now they are dead. They were truly unlucky." The man laughed after speaking, and several others quickly joined him; of course, their laughter was anything but normal.
They were merely trying to calm their racing minds, soothe their burning nerves, and suppress the terror gripping their hearts. Their hearts were beating so fast that it felt as if they might explode at any moment.
Liyu raised an eyebrow when he heard their words, then he slowly shook his head: "Actually, no. You are wrong." The laughter gradually died down. "You mean... they weren’t unlucky?" someone asked hesitantly.
Liyu nodded: "No. I didn’t mean they were unlucky. They were lucky." The smiles on the faces of the Dark Reapers froze instantly. "Really? How so?" Liyu’s grin widened slightly: "And the reason is simple. I gave them the most painless and fastest death possible. Something I shouldn’t have done. They died the easy way."
His eyes slowly turned cold once more... not merely cold, but deathly cold. The kind of gaze that could terrify even the dead into suffering heart failure.
His gaze swept across the more than one hundred remaining Dark Reaper members; the moment that gaze landed on them, they felt their hearts nearly stop beating. "But you guys..."
Liyu’s voice was calm... far too calm, the kind of calm that carried endless doom behind it.
"You guys are not going to die the easy way. You are going to die the hard way. You will all feel pain. You will embrace it even if you don’t want to. And before you breathe your last... you will know pain. True pain."
After saying those words, he stretched out his hands; crackling emerald lightning burst outward. The lightning rapidly condensed before forming two long swords; both blades were forged entirely from lightning and possessed wickedly curved edges.
A nightmarish grin twisted across Liyu’s face; the grin was so terrifying that the Dark Reaper members, who had been frozen by his words, finally snapped back to reality.
That grin promised only one thing: no reprieve, no mercy, no salvation... only dread and doom. "RUN!" Someone screamed.
The entire group instantly scattered; they turned and fled in every direction, yet none of them managed to get far... not even a little. Liyu moved; a flash of emerald lightning surged through the cave.
What followed was a storm of screams; limbs began flying through the air... arms, legs, hands... as blood sprayed across the cave walls.
Many Dark Reaper members cried out in shock and despair as pieces of their bodies were severed from them; others attempted to fight back, but against an opponent like Liyu, such resistance was utterly meaningless.
They were simply too weak.. far too weak. The result was inevitable; all they could do was scream. Their bodies felt pain, their minds felt pain, their very souls felt pain.
Just as Liyu had promised... they learned what pain truly meant. Minutes later, Liyu stood amidst a sea of blood. The cave had become a slaughterhouse; pieces of Dark Reaper corpses littered every corner.
He had eventually ended their lives, but only after making them regret ever being born, only after ensuring they experienced true despair, and only then had he granted them death.
Liyu attempted to take a step forward, yet the moment he did, his body staggered; he nearly collapsed onto the ground.
Fortunately, he managed to form an emerald lightning sword and stab it into the earth before using it to support himself. Ragged breaths escaped from his mouth; he inhaled and exhaled with visible difficulty.
This wasn’t because he was injured, nor was it because he had been wounded; in fact, throughout the entire battle, not a single person had managed to touch him.
Such was the monstrous power of the Verdant Lightning element, an element capable of elevating the user’s speed to terrifying levels.
Since he wasn’t injured, one might wonder what exactly had left him in such a state. The answer was simple: he was exhausted. His stamina had finally run dry.
The Verdant Lightning was incredibly powerful, but maintaining it consumed a tremendous amount of energy; innate physique or not, it still demanded a heavy price.
Liyu had simply chosen to ignore that fact; his rage had been too intense, too overwhelming. He hadn’t cared about conserving energy; he hadn’t cared about tiring himself out; all he had cared about was unleashing destruction upon the Dark Reapers.
Now, however, he couldn’t help but feel that perhaps he had pushed himself a little too far. Still... he felt good; in fact, he felt relieved.
Slowly recovering some of his strength, Liyu raised his head; his gaze landed on the numerous skulls decorating the throne.
Those skulls must have once belonged to cultivators, unfortunate people who had crossed paths with the Dark Reapers, yet those weren’t the skulls that caught his attention.
Instead, his gaze settled on the two smallest skulls resting near the upper section of the throne... children.
They must have belonged to children, perhaps eight years old, maybe ten. Liyu stared at them silently, then he spoke: "You can rest in peace now. I have taken revenge for you." His voice was solemn; a trace of pain lingered within it.
After a while, Liyu let out a soft sigh, then he turned around and began walking away from the bloody cave. Yet before he could leave completely, the familiar voice of the system echoed inside his mind:
"Ding! 160 cultivators have been slain. You have received 2,000 Essence Points.’ Liyu’s steps paused. "Ding! You have received 20 bonus EXP for slaying your first human prey. Ding! An additional 20 bonus EXP has been awarded for killing a large number of cultivators of higher realms."
"Ding! You have wiped out a vile organization. Host’s actions have earned him an exclusive title. Ding! New Title Unlocked: Paladin Aspirant. Title Effect: All host abilities and combat prowess increase by 20% when facing vile individuals. Activation Requirement: Ten or more powerful vile cultivators. Title has been automatically equipped."
Liyu’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully; the rewards were far beyond what he had expected. Two thousand Essence Points... that was the same amount he had received from slaughtering well over a thousand beasts, yet he had earned it from only one hundred and sixty humans.
Not only that, he had also received forty bonus EXP. Forty... that was an enormous amount. At this rate, wasn’t he already extremely close to reaching Level 2?
The more he thought about it, the more his eyelids twitched, because there was only one conclusion: killing humans was far more lucrative than killing beasts.
Well, it wasn’t as if he would have been able to make much use of this knowledge even if he had known it beforehand; after all, ever since he had awakened in this world, he had been trapped among spirit beasts rather than humans.
There simply hadn’t been many humans around for him to kill even if he wanted to test such a theory. Liyu’s gaze shifted toward the newly acquired title: Paladin Aspirant.
The term paladin was something very familiar to Liyu; back on Earth, paladins were often described as champions of justice, protectors of the innocent, and warriors blessed by divine powers.
Looking at the title and the conditions required to unlock it, Liyu couldn’t help but feel that the system had made a mistake somewhere.
After all, he wasn’t here acting as some divine judge of justice; he wasn’t here because of some noble and selfless reason. No, he was here because he was angry, furious.
The Dark Reapers had ignited a rage inside him, and he had come here to wipe them out. In fact, if he were being completely honest with himself, he might not have even decided to exterminate every last one of them if not for a single reason: children.
Some of the victims had been children, and children had always been Liyu’s soft spot. Thinking about that, he shifted his gaze toward the title list; there, sitting beside Devouring Debt, was the newly unlocked Paladin Aspirant.
Looking at the two titles side by side, he couldn’t help but smile at the irony. One title sounded vile and cursed, the other sounded righteous and blessed; they felt like complete opposites of one another... one represented darkness, the other represented light, one devoured, the other protected.
"A balancing title set, huh?" Liyu chuckled softly. "I’m truly amazing, aren’t I?" A small grin appeared on his face before he finally turned around and began making his way back.
Soon, he stood atop a tall tree overlooking the area where he had left the group. It had been well over forty minutes since he departed; although King Rayden had been playing his role while he was gone, Liyu couldn’t help but feel a growing sense of unease.
That kingly clone of his... there was a very high chance he had already slipped up. The man spoke his mind without filtering his words; he carried an arrogance that could fill a kingdom, and perhaps most importantly... he simply couldn’t keep his mouth shut.
The more Liyu thought about it, the more worried he became. Hopefully, King Rayden hadn’t caused him too much trouble. With that hopeful thought in mind,
Liyu activated Mind Swap once more; a familiar sensation swept through him. Several seconds passed, then King Rayden slowly opened his eyes. Only... they weren’t Liyu’s eyes anymore; they were calm, wise, dignified... a pair of eyes carrying the bearing of a king.
The dominant aura of a feral beast vanished completely; in its place emerged the calm, controlled presence of a true ruler. King Rayden had returned to his own body.
Rather than immediately complaining about how exhausted the body felt or questioning why it was covered in blood, he simply let out a long sigh: "That was brutal." He settled himself on the branch and sat down; at this moment, he looked like someone who had just completed an endless marathon.
Anyone who made that comparison wouldn’t realize just how accurate they actually were. King Rayden shook his head: "The original is probably in danger right now."
He paused, then a faint smile appeared on his face: "But that guy... he should be able to handle himself. Well... hopefully without losing a few layers of skin."
Meanwhile... Liyu felt the familiar sensation of returning to his true body... the monstrous physique, the overwhelming strength, the body that suited his madness far more than King Rayden’s.
All of it returned to him in full; he couldn’t help but smile slightly. It felt good, very good, to be back. Slowly, he opened his eyes, only to discover something that made his smile immediately disappear: a sharp black sword was already descending toward his neck.
The blade gleamed coldly under the moonlight; its owner clearly had no intention of showing mercy. Liyu’s eyes widened: "What the—?!"
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Sorry for the late update, guys!
Your author committed a grave mistake.
I may or may not have spent yesterday binge-watching way too much anime... and then proceeded to oversleep.
My deepest apologies. 😞😞😞
The good news is that the second Chapter is coming soon, and right after that, the unlocked bonus Chapter will be released as well.
Also, the 100 Power Stone goal has officially been reached! Thank you all for the support. As promised, the extra Chapter will be dropping shortly.
You guys keep smashing these goals faster than I expect, and I’m definitely not complaining.
Now let me go make up for my anime-induced negligence and get those Chapters out.
— Ultra