“You think I won’t guess?” Ryūyama Nagashi’s cold, distorted voice carried a trace of contempt. “I’m quite pleased you’ve chosen to be stubborn. Now let’s proceed with the standard procedure. As I said before, I enjoy beginning an interrogation with the oldest, most primal forms of physical destruction. A nice little warm-up. So, which one do you prefer?”
He gestured for his subordinates to push a torture rack toward them. The iron table was covered with a variety of tools, including saws, barbed whips, needles, spikes...
Li Xiaofei’s gaze swept across them, his expression calm and detached.
Ryūyama Nagashi casually picked up a saw and said, “Crafted from refined meteoric iron and embedded with thirty-six layered formations. In the hands of a top-tier cultivator, this can saw through stars. You wouldn’t give it the slightest resistance. For example, sawing off your masculine pride... heh.”
He raised the saw and made a slicing motion toward Li Xiaofei’s groin. This kind of torture wasn’t merely physical. It was psychological devastation. Then he pointed toward a special spike, over forty centimeters long.
“Forged from Ruyi Gold, this cursed weapon’s special trait is its ability to expand and contract at will. If it’s inserted into your rectum, and then gradually enlarged... hehehe. What a delightful scene to imagine. I’m curious, just how much can you take?” The voice beneath the grotesque helmet echoed cruelly.
Li Xiaofei withdrew his gaze and said, “If you have a taste for torture this perverse, there’s no doubt you’re a Jiepeng dog.”
“Of course I’m a Jiepeng native,” Ryūyama Nagashi replied, “I already told you that earlier...”
A loud explosion rang out as Li Xiaofei suddenly burst into action. The specially made handcuffs shattered like dry straw as shards flew and flew away. He raised both hands with casual ease and struck out with a simple double palm strike. He used the Twin Winds Through the Ears technique and smashed both palms hard against Ryūyama Nagashi’s helmeted head.
The strange helmeted skull burst instantly. White and red fluids sprayed from the holes in the faceplate like a watermelon inside a sack. And just like that, Ryūyama Nagashi was dead. Utterly. Abruptly. He didn’t even have time to process what had happened. His subordinates were even more stunned, unable to react.
After all, Ryūyama Nagashi, known as the Torture Master, was a genuine Neutron Star level powerhouse.
His reputation in Chongque City had been earned through countless battles. He had been a true grinder who had clawed his way up from the bottom. Whether in cultivation realm or combat experience, he easily ranked among the top thirty figures in all of Chongque.
But Li Xiaofei had been known a decade or so ago as merely a Star level lifeform. Even after defeating Nangong Longjian, no one believed he was capable of challenging the true top-level powerhouses.
Even if he had improved over the years, no one had dreamed he could instantly kill Ryūyama Nagashi. But the reality was that a single exchange had reduced Ryūyama Nagashi to pulp.
It took a full three to four seconds before the other armored guards of the Darkmoon Bureau finally snapped out of their daze. Instinctively, they raised their weapons, encircling Li Xiaofei.
At the same time, the prison was filled with the shrill wail of alarms. The Darkmoon Bureau’s guards were prepared to sacrifice their lives to stop Li Xiaofei from escaping. But Li Xiaofei made no further moves.
He lowered his arms and smiled faintly. “Don’t misunderstand. I don’t intend to break out. I just swatted a fly.”
He then spat on the corpse lying in front of me and continued, “Damn it. A filthy Jiepeng dog like you, pretending to act tough in front of me? If I didn’t beat you to death, it’d be an insult to every mouthful of Yellow River water I’ve ever drunk.”
Half an hour later, Li Xiaofei’s wrists were once again shackled with a new pair of specially crafted, silver-colored handcuffs.
“You’re absolutely insane.” Li Sheng, who had returned once again, forced down the shock in his heart and said, “You actually dared to kill the Director of the Darkmoon Bureau. Do you have any idea what that means? It’s the same as openly betraying Chongque City; it’s a declaration of war.”
Li Xiaofei’s expression remained eerily calm.
“Oh?” He raised his head and replied, “Wasn’t hiding and claiming Earth No. 1818 for myself already an act of betrayal and declaration of war?”
“You...” Li Sheng’s voice was filled with anguish. He said, “With your cultivation, if you had just bowed your head and compromised for thirty or fifty years, you would’ve definitely become one of this city’s highest elites. Why insist on going against the City Lord and the High Chancellors?”
“Well, that’s funny,” Li Xiaofei said serenely. “They’re the ones who insisted on going against me.”
Li Sheng was at a complete loss for words.
“You really... sigh, insist on walking a dead-end path.” Li Sheng said bitterly, “If I may speak frankly, you should’ve fled after killing Ryūyama Nagashi. At least then you might’ve had a sliver of hope. But instead, you chose to stay and surrender. What’s the point?”
Li Xiaofei said nothing.
“You’re afraid of implicating others? You don’t really believe you can keep your wife and children hidden forever, do you?” Li Sheng pressed.
“Oh, that’s right.” Li Xiaofei replied, “As long as I stay here, they won’t put all their efforts into tracking down Little Xue and the children.”
Li Sheng let out a long sigh and said, “You’ve cornered yourself. Don’t you realize that the Dark Prison is the most terrifying department in all of Chongque City? You’ve never dealt with them before, so you don’t understand how horrifying they truly are. And now you’ve killed their director... They’ll stop at nothing to destroy you. You won’t be able to hold out.”
“I want to try.” Li Xiaofei spoke the same four words, calm as ever.
Li Sheng nearly lost it then. But then he slumped, “Take care of yourself, then.”
He didn’t even know why he still felt sympathy for this lawless fool. In any case, he could no longer make sense of Li Xiaofei’s decisions.
Why didn’t he go into hiding along with Earth No. 1818? Why walk right into the trap? Why court death so recklessly?
“The next interrogator will be Han Sui, Director of the Darksun Bureau. He’s a Neutron Star level cosmic lifeform. He was a close friend of Ryūyama Nagashi and ranks ninth among the powerhouses of Chongque City. The handcuffs on your wrists are called Dragon God's Lament. Even a true dragon wouldn’t be able to break free from them... If you want to die with some dignity, just confess. Bow your head and be a man. There’s no shame in that.”
Li Sheng quickly turned and walked away. A sudden, overwhelming urge surged within him. He had to leave this storm behind once and for all.
Twenty minutes later, Han Sui, Director of the Darksun Bureau, arrived with his people and took over the prison. Then the torture began.
Twenty minutes later, Li Xiaofei, now a bloody, mangled mess of flesh, was sent to the medical chamber to be kept barely alive. Once he was healed, the torture resumed. And so it repeated.
The brutality was so severe that even the seasoned torturers of the Darksun Bureau turned pale. The torment lasted for three days and three nights.
“Pause.” Han Sui halted the torture.
From experience, he knew that a well-timed break often did more to crush a prisoner’s spirit than continuous punishment.
“Your mental fortitude is truly impressive.” Han Sui looked at the barely recognizable Li Xiaofei. “You’ve become the second-longest to endure under my hands without confessing. Keep going, and maybe you’ll break the record held by that blind woman.”