When he mentioned the prisoner in the third layer, Ye Zichen sensed that the prisoners of the second layer’s aura shifted slightly.
Ye Zichen was stunned despite himself. This was a Divine General-level figure, but even just bringing up the prisoner of the third layer was enough to make him act like this.
“Since you’re not from the Xue Family and you’re awfully polite, I’ll give you a warning out of the goodness of my heart. Ultimately, it’s up to you whether you descend any further or not. Still, I urge you not to go. In the past, some members of the Xue Family went down there to deliver food, and they left terrified. All of them were rulers, too.” The yao ruler laughed, then looked away and started muttering to himself. Ye Zichen paid him no further heed.
He looked at the stairs leading down to the third level, and he felt irrepressible curiosity. Still, when he recalled how terrified that Yao General had been, he couldn’t help but wonder just how terrifying and cruel the dungeon’s strongest prisoner was.
He bowed at the imprisoned yao. Then, after a moment’s hesitation, he steeled himself and took a step downstairs.
A fraction of a second later, he lifted his foot, turned around, and rushed back up to the first floor without so much as looking back.
The yao who’d warned him chuckled, glanced at the steps leading downstairs, and took another sip of wine.
“Ha….Ha…..Ha…..” Ye Zichen crouched, hands on his t.h.i.g.hs, his eyes wide and pupils constricted as he let out a series of ragged breaths.
Beads of sweat dripped down his chin and fell, drop by drop, to the ground.
He’d only taken a single step downstairs, but that had been enough to make him feel as if he were about to die. That was why he’d turned and rushed back upstairs. Even now, his hands trembled violently.
He’d never felt such fear, not even when he faced the God, Yao, and Demon Emperors simultaneously.
“Who on earth do they have trapped down there?” Still drenched in sweat, Ye Zichen stood there muttering to himself. Quite some time passed before he wiped his forehead and stood up. He barely so much as dared look downstairs.
He found an empty cell on the first floor and clenched the talisman Xue Beibei had given him.
Light shot forth, and the door to the cell opened on its own.
The owner of the Yao-Sealing Pagoda could change the scenery inside at will, and now, the inside of the Yao-Sealing Pagoda was under Ye Zichen’s control. He’d linked the interior together, from the initial palace to the first three layers. Only the fourth layer remained locked; his cultivation wasn’t enough to enter, much less merge it with the other layers.
All his yao servants now lived and worked together, from earth supremes to diviners. This way, the experts could share their cultivation experience with the less powerful.
“Your Excellency.” As soon as Ye Zichen arrived, a yao servant called out to greet him.
Following the war against the Bai Family, most of his powerful yao servants had sustained injuries. Fortunately, the Yao-Sealing Pagoda had ample reserves. There were more than enough medicines to treat all the wounded. Although they hadn’t completely healed up yet, it was just a matter of time.
“Where are the two people I brought in earlier?”
“They’re both in the pavilion up ahead. Do you need me to lead you there?” asked the servant.
“I can go on my own. Stay here and look after your wounds.”
Ye Zichen arrived at the pavilion, but even before pushing the door open and entering, he heard a series of desperate shrieks and pleas for mercy.
After going inside, he saw both Yang Jian and the Great Sage. Bai Yulong lay sprawled on the floor in front of them. He’d been beaten so badly, he was barely recognizable.
“Ye-zi, you’re here.” Yang Jian held a whip formed of pure divine power. Long whip marks climbed up and down Bai Yulong’s back. He lay there, barely breathing, his body a mass of open wounds.
When they saw Ye Zichen’s black robes and missing eye, his friends’ eyes flashed with cold light.
Yang Jian had only just stopped whipping Bai Yulong, but he gave him a few more lashes for good measure. Bai Yulong shrieked nonstop.
“See? He can still shout. He’s alive and well.”
“Enough, don’t beat him to death. I kept him alive because I still have use for him.”
When he heard that, Yang Jian dispersed his divine power whip and stared at Bai Yulong, his eyes full of sinister light. “Just looking at you makes me want to pluck his tendons and drink his blood.”
The Great Sage said nothing, but the vicious light in his eyes was even stronger than in Yang Jian’s.
They were just like Lin Ru: when Bai Mingli exploded himself, Ye Zichen brought them into the Yao-Sealing Pagoda for safety.
By now, Bai Yulong was already covered in wounds. He’d endured the Great Sage and Yang Jian’s torture all this time; it was practically a miracle that he was still alive.
He patted Yang Jian on the shoulder, then crouched in front of Bai Yulong and dragged him up by the hair. “Can you see who I am?”
“Just kill me!” Bai Yulong’s face was swollen, and he could only peer through the slits of his puffed-up eyes. His words were muffled and unclear.
He already had no hope of surviving this. He was in so much pain that all he wanted was to die. Yang Jian had sealed his divine core as soon as he entered the Yao-Sealing Pagoda. After that, he’d been tortured relentlessly, but no matter what they did, they refused to let him die.
When he learned of Bai Mingli’s self-destruction, he knew his family, his entire clan was done for.
He knew that this was all in the name of avenging Xue Mo. They’d killed his entire clan for that, so there was no way they’d give him a way out of this.
All he hoped for was death!
“Want to die?” Ye Zichen grinned hideously, then smacked Bai Yulong right in the face, knocking out all of his remaining teeth. The left side of his face caved in.
The fist knocked Bai Yulong several meters back. He crawled onto his knees, blood pouring from his mouth…..
“Kill me!”
As he spoke, Ye Zichen pulled a pill from his pocket and forced it down Bai Yulong’s throat.
This was a miraculous, holy healing medicine, worth many hundreds of times more than any ordinary pill. And yet, he’d chosen to give it to Bai Yulong.
The miracle medicine lived up to its reputation. In just a few breaths of time, Bai Yulong had recovered quite a bit of his vitality.
Of course, to him, this was a nightmare! He was well aware of why Ye Zichen had fed him that pill.
It was to prevent him from dying!
So long as he was alive, he’d be forced to endure endless, limitless pain, both physical and mental.
His core was sealed, so he couldn’t self-destruct. His teeth had already been punched out of his face, so he couldn’t even bite his tongue.
Thud.
After recovering some of his vitality, Bai Yulong struggled to his feet. Before Yang Jian and the Great Sage could intervene, they saw him kneel before Ye Zichen. “I beg you, kill me. Let me die quickly. I beg you.”
Bai Yulong slammed his head into the dirt. However, to his surprise, after just a few kowtows, he felt divine power envelop the ground.
“Don’t think of dying. You ought to live on properly, you know?” said Ye Zichen. Normally, such words were used to comfort people, but to Bai Yulong, they sounded like demonic taunts.
He wanted to die! He wanted to die!
“Your chance is right here before you. Tell me, who ordered you to do that? Did you hurt Xue Mo of your own volition, or did someone order you to do it?”
“It was me! I just couldn’t stand that debased wench Xue Mo….”
Wham!
A fist slammed right into Bai Yulong’s abdomen.
“Watch your tongue and tell me the truth. It’s not so easy for a Bai clansman to break the Xue Family's bloodline power. I told you to tell me the truth, got it? Or would you rather take a few hundred more lashes first?”
Bai Yulong dry-heaved, and his eyes filled with terror….
“Yang Jian, whip him a few times for me, will you?” snorted Ye Zichen. “Even now, after all this, he’s trying to sully the God Emperor’s name.”
“No problem!” The divine power whip reappeared in Yang Jian’s hands.
“It really was the God Emperor, it really was! I swear it: all of this was at the God Emperor’s orders. If I breathe even a single untrue word, let heaven smite me with lightning and the earth bury me alive, killing me without so much as a proper burial….”
Yang Jian was just about to strike when Ye Zichen stopped him, then knelt before Bai Yulong and patted his head. “Don’t curse yourself like that. Don’t worry; you won’t die. You have to live on for me.”
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