Determined to die, the hunter had still a bit of reluctance of course. However, he knew what tortures could await him if he did not kill himself right away. Thus he accumulated as much Qi as possible. If he were to not concentrate enough of his Qi, he might survive the detonation. On the other hand, the more he waited, the more he risked being discovered. Killing oneself to avoid being questioned or tortured was not unheard of. And many people were even fully expecting it. As such, there were many techniques to try and stop someone from doing so. That was also why the demonic cultivators used demonic methods to ensure that their servants and disciples would die once captured, for example, the Heart Locking Fire Pact.
Unfortunately for the hunter, Can Mouye was a 6th-grade Mortal Warrior, ready to step into the Spirit Warrior realm in a few years from now. His age made him appear weaker than that, but as a demonic cultivator he had used strange and evil ways to become stronger way faster than any orthodox cultivator. Although he was merely 31, he was almost a Spirit Warrior. Even Cao Guang had broken through to Spirit Warrior at 45 and he was considered a genius.
With this kind of cultivation, Can Mouye did not need to have spiritual senses to sense that the Qi around and even within the hunter was slowly being focused in his Lower Dantian. The only conclusion was that he was trying to end his own life in order to avoid being subjecting to pain and torment. But the problem was that Can Mouye really wanted to submit him to those.
Can Mouye bent down and put his palm on the abdomen of the hunter. He had no time to react when he felt a sharp pain radiating through his belly. By injecting a bit of Qi, Can Mouye had completely destroyed his Lower Dantian. He had mixed a bit of Evil Qi within the hunter's Qi. And now, he was extracting it forcefully through his acupoints. It felt as though his very organs were being taken out of his body. And even though his skin was not cut open, it felt as though he had been sliced in two.
The pain was so intense that the hunter almost lost consciousness. And just as he thought peace was finally coming for him, another kind of pain woke him up. Can Mouye had taken out his weapon from his spatial ring. In his left hand, he was holding a black whip riddled with thousands of metallic thorns. Under his control the weapon seemed to have a will of its own. Just like a demonic beast, it had attacked the poor hunter on the ground. The whip had not only lacerated his flesh but all its thorns had even taken bits and pieces of him out.
This time, the hunter screamed so much that he felt pain in his throat.
"Sir, I just need you to answer a single question, please. Where is Chen Guo? If you've come here in his stead, I shall assume that you know where he went, correct? Why would you suffer for nothing? Once you've answered me, I shall do what you just tried yourself, and end you peacefully. You are just delaying the inevitable. Please sir, be reasonable."
The politeness and the calm of his tone was eerie since it was absolutely opposed to both his actions and the entire scene. He had a weapon of torture in hands and a giant monster behind him, still covered in the blood of his friend.
No matter what pain he would suffer, the hunter would never betray another hunter. He was now certain that Can Mouye was a demonic cultivator, an enemy of all mankind. There was no way he would give out a fellow cultivator, even though he barely knew him. Cao Yun had come from the Wubei Sect to risk his life for a small city and that was enough to respect him as a brother.
Gargling his own blood, the hunter spat on Can Mouye's face. On the smiling face of the beast tamer, saliva and blood dripped down from his cheek. Without losing his smile, Can Mouye sighed with disappointment. He took out a small piece of cloth and cleaned himself.
"Sir, this was not very nice. I am sincerely sorry that you fail to see how much I've tried to spare you from pain. But, sir, what do you think will happen if you do not grant my request? First of all, I will have to inflict a lot of pain on both your body and your soul. It may even cause you to be unable to reincarnate in a better life. But then, all your pain and sufferings will still be for naught. I know exactly which areas you've been assigned to. Thus, I will just have to search each and every one of them until I find my target."
As he spoke, Can Mouye kept a composed and nice voice. It was as if he was merely advising the hunter during a friendly discussion, as though he was not concerned by all of this. From his tone, someone could have believed that he was talking about mundane business, not life and death. But more than that, the hunter got a terrifying feeling. If Can Mouye had found them here while he was looking for Cao Yun, then it meant that he did know of their areas.
The hunter thought back on the attitude of Zeng Minghe. Could he have betrayed mankind?
"Not only will you not protect Chen Guo at all, but you will put your fellow hunters at risk too. You see, I just want Chen Guo, no one else. There are more important matters for me to take care of. But if you do not tell me what I need to know, I will have to torture and kill more of your friends. I will let you think about it for... let's say... twenty lashes."
Just as he finished speaking, Can Mouye, while remaining absolutely calm, used his whip. Twenty times indeed did he lacerate the hunter's body. His attacks were relentless and vicious. He even injected a bit of Evil Qi in them both to make them hurt more as it was slowly corroding his victim's flesh, but also to keep him conscious. The Evil Qi was traveling in his nervous system and his organs and made sure that he was staying fully conscious.
This technique had been invented by his master Xiong Nixie, this was 'Cultivate Love Through Pain'. As the opposition in the very name suggested, this technique was depraved. It was a technique meant to tame demonic beasts by abusing them while sending enough energy through their body both to increase their strength and keep them alive and conscious. Unlike some cultivation methods which required to inflict a bit of pain to achieve result, this one emphasized pain as the main way to break and tame. Pain during a training was usually a by-product but everything was done to alleviate it and not inflict it more than necessary. This technique was the exact opposite and tried to inflict as much pain as possible while achieving the wanted results.
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Not only was the technique sickening, even its name was disgusting. However, it was sadly very effective. After the twenty lashes, the hunter only wished for the sweet release of death. And the first thing he heard was the calm voice of Can Mouye.
"Sir, please stop making me do this. Just tell me where Chen Guo went. Please, let's end this unnecessary pain."
-
The man they were talking about was now climbing the peak where the nest of the Mountain Fenghuangs used to be. Unlike last time, he had to go there without any help, but he was now way stronger and resistant. Climbing a mountain was not a problem at all. In fact, he could literally shove his hands in the rocks and create new climbing holds whenever he wanted. Despite how easy it was for him, Cao Yun regretted his inability to fly. As a Spirit Warrior, he could have reached the top of the peak in a matter of minutes without any physical effort.
While climbing, he was completely dirtying his clothes, which was a shame. Right now he was wearing the robe Chief Elder Baishen had made for him. Since his fight in the Lunar Marsh, she had repaired and cleaned it up. And here he was dirtying it again. Thankfully, it was as tough as a 5-star Human armor so it was not easily cut. Although it was dirty, it was not damaged one bit.
After a few hours of efforts, Cao Yun finally reached the spot where he had witnessed the death of the Muddy Bashe. That scene was still very vivid in his mind. Back then, he was unable to kill such a demonic beast by himself, but now he felt like he could take ten of them. Maybe ten was pushing it, but Cao Yun was very confident against a 3-core demonic beast.
Just as he reached that spot, a giant shadow got cast over him and a powerful screech shook the rocks he was holding onto. Although he got startled, Cao Yun was not afraid for he had recognized the screech. It was Feng'er, the male Mountain Fenghuang, as Feng Yingyue had named him. However, he wasn't sure whether the demonic beast had recognized him and how it would react with the recent intrusions of powerful demonic beasts in the area. Hence, Cao Yun moved carefully and slowly. Contrary to the infamous Muddy Bashe, the Mountain Fenghuang lacked a powerful sense of smell. In fact, they were not better than humans to recognize odors.
And since Cao Yun was only showing his back right now, Feng'er had probably not recognized him at all. So the young man tried to show him his face. Feng'er landed very close to the intruder as a way to intimidate him and force him to leave. That was when he finally saw the face of Cao Yun who was slowly turning toward him.
Immediately, Feng'er recognized the boy who had saved his life more than a year ago. All its intimidation faded away and he even went to the extent of bowing to the young man.
"Sorry if I startled you. We humans are trying to understand what's going on in those mountains. And since I came here to gather some information, I thought I should visit you as well."
A Mountain Fenghuang was unable to fully understand the human language. However, it was able to discern most of Cao Yun's intentions from his body language and tone. As a 3-core demonic beast, it was smart enough to piece it together with what was currently going on in the vicinity. A Mountain Fenghuang, unlike some other demonic beasts, mainly got its Qi from the surrounding environment. Mountains, especially high up, concentrated a lot of Qi and were good spots for those beasts. However, they still needed to feed. Most of the time, they would eat animals or small demonic beasts and would not enter into conflict with powerful foes or human cultivators. Moreover, it was a creature that was widely appreciated by humans so even hunters seldom tried to attack them.
However, Feng'er had still had to fend off against several attacks from other 3-core demonic beasts recently. The situation was becoming more and more chaotic. And as he had an egg to protect, Feng'er had become more violent as well. Seeing the human who had helped him brought some joy to the tired beast. He flew back toward his nest and waited for Cao Yun to finally join him.
When he reached their nest, Cao Yun also saw Huang'er, the female. She was incubating their egg in the nest. Cao Yun was unsure of how old the egg was but he knew that it took a long time for a baby Mountain Fenghuang to finally hatch. In fact, the more powerful a demonic beast was, the harder it was to reproduce. Just like humans who passed on some of their own Jing to their children, demonic beasts also passed on their bloodline. However, no matter how many cores they had, demonic beasts gave birth to babies with only one core. But their progeny's bloodline would be further enhanced by the number of cores of the parents. As such, they could develop way faster. On the other hand, powerful bloodlines made reproduction more difficult. The best situation was in fact precisely this one, two parents with the exact same development and bloodline. Even then, the gestation was very long.
Cao Yun was not a beast tamer but he had read enough on demonic beasts to know the gist of it. Reproduction was a tough question even among beast tamers. Since hunters were killing some demonic beasts to get resources, it was important to be careful with some species so that they wouldn't go extinct.
And apparently, even the demonic beasts had been affected by the Forsaken Dao Era. In the ancient texts, 9-core demonic beasts were quite common and could live for thousands of years. But most of them had simply disappeared with time. Finding them was getting harder and harder. They were even as rare as late Spirit Warriors.
Both of the birds looked absolutely delighted to see Cao Yun. They also looked around, as if they were looking for something or someone.
"I'm sorry. I am alone this time, Feng Yingyue is not with me..."
Cao Yun had understood their intent and answered them. Although they did not understand his words, both of them still looked a bit dejected. But they soon got over it and gestured for the boy to get closer. They even invited him to touch their egg. A year ago, Cao Yun had risked his life to save that very egg from the Muddy Bashe and both parents fully trusted him. When Cao Yun put his hands on the egg, he could feel the warmth of the child inside. He even felt the vibration of his heartbeat through his arm. This feeling was incredible. Amidst the ongoing chaos, this was an island of peace and serenity.
"I came here because I was worried about you. But... there is also another reason. We are worried about a stampede. I thought that, since you can fly, you may have already seen things that may interest us. I was sent to find how the demonic beasts are behaving recently. If you could point me in a direction where you witnessed something unusual, a powerful demonic beast, a lack of beasts, anything suspicious..."
Once more, the beasts understood the gist of it. They looked at each other and seemed to communicate through small movements of their heads and tiny screeches. However, they suddenly changed their attitude. They went from calm and peaceful to aggressive and frightened. Feng'er's feathers shook and the wheel that was his tail partially opened to make him seem bigger and more menacing. Although Cao Yun had not perceived what had scared them, he trusted their instincts.