36. Death and Despair
The weather around the rocky mountains of Cu'alu is always cloudy and the temperature of the environment rarely goes below thirty degrees.
Currently, a man is surveying a wide area using his divine sense. He is Nascent Soul Expert from Blood Moon Sect and the mastermind who planned the blood offerings to nurture an essence flame. Under normal circumstances, he should be hiding his cultivation level when he goes out, but today was an exemption.
His regular daily routine was disrupted when a long distance communication talisman was activated. He could have had arrived to this area in less than five minutes but he needed to take another route to avoid inviting unnecessary attention.
Upon arriving, he was greeted with the worst possible scenario he had imagined.
Two important figures of his hall have died excluding at least more than fifteen Foundation Establishment Experts. The only clue he has were the Formation Pillars and the direction of the teleportation talisman that was activated a few minutes after his arrival.
After retrieving the pillars, he set off following the trail of the Escape Talisman hoping to find the culprit. He swore to refine the bodies and souls of these perpetrators once he finds them.
Half a day later, a team of five headed by a Late Foundation Establishment was searching the same area. They were supposed to rendezvous at Paco City a few days ago but their Elder sent them a message via puppet insects.
As they were waiting, the insects were acting unnaturally which means their Elder must be experiencing distress so they moved and tracked their Elder.
It took them half a day to trace the last location of the transmission and found the brutally decapitated Mii Eit. Unaware of what happened, they cleaned the area and looted rings of the dead then stored the body of their elder for proper burial.
Since they found a boy whom they believe is a witness, they retreated. The boy is barely breathing so they fed him medicines to keep him alive.
The leader was afraid he will be blamed for the death of their Elder, so he forced to gain control of the insects and saw a masked man clad in black and of course, Clay. He then decided they made a detour to one of their hideouts.
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It is located on a forest near Palt Ga'an, a town a few kilometers north Paco City and two days later, he decided to see if they could gather any information from the boy.
Clay woke up and tried to move his body however he could not move an inch and when he looked down, his limbs and body were tightly tied to a wooden chair.
He struggled and wanted to free himself from the restraints and when he tried circulating his Qi, he realized his cultivation was gone. He began to panic and looked around.
"Would you like me to untie you? You see, there was a masked man who killed our elder a few days ago. You just need to tell me where he went."
A burly man revealed himself and slowly approached Clay. His deep voice, the scars and oil on his face and combined that with a hand that looked like it could easily squash a melon made him truly menacing.
"Please, senior. I did not see anyone and I know Alchemy. I can refine pills Perfect Pills. Anything you want.” Clay stuttered in agitation and responded with a trembling voice. He saw the same cold and apathetic look from the man similar to Chung Har’an. The man was clearly up to no good.
The burly man stood in front of Clay and pinched the tip of the nail on his pinky finger.
“Did you say perfect pills?”
“Yes, yes. Please senior I can concoct them.” Clay cried
“But that’s not what I’m asking. Tell me who that mask man was. Who and where is he?”
Clay wanted to move but he could not resist the force clenching on his fingernail.
“Please!!!!” Clay could feel the force pulling his fingernail getting stronger and stronger.
"Arrggh!” Clay shouted in pain. He just saw his fingernail slowly separated from his finger.
"Do you remember something now?"
"Yes, senior…”
"Do you remember something now?"
“Arrggkh .Please stop please" Clay begged as he cried from agonizing pain. “I don’t know where he is. The masked man was absorbed on the spatial tear. . . Please, Nooo!!!!"
Clay saw the man gripped on the tip of the fingernail his index finger. Clay wanted to retract his hand but he did not have the strength to resist.
"Please, please stop. I am not lying. The man. I saw the man… He was absorbed into a spatial...” His sentence was interrupted as the fingernail was forcefully pulled out.
"Aaaaarrrrhhhhh!"
Cries of helplessness and misery sounded through the walls of an underground prison.
It continued for a few more minutes until all the fingernails on both on Clay’s hands were forcefully removed. Even his toe nails were not spared.
Seeing the unresponsive and traumatized Clay, the burly man forced him to drink water and sprayed his fingers medicine to stop the bleeding.
Clay was still tied on the chair. His head was tilted to the side drooling. His eyes were dyed red and tears were still flowing out.
When the medicine took effect, the torture continued.
No matter how Clay cried and begged, the man torturing him did not show any shred of pity.