MMB Chapter 17 Unraveling the Mystery
Chapter 17 Unraveling the Mystery
"ah--!!"
A piercing scream, inhuman and shrill, tore from Zhao Wuji's throat, piercing the ruined banquet hall and echoing through the night sky of Xishan, sending chills down everyone's spine. It was no ordinary wail of pain; it was a desperate roar as if one's soul were being brutally torn apart, a mournful cry of resentment at the loss of a century of cultivation.
Soul Searching Technique is the most domineering and cruel interrogation method in the cultivation world. Without any coercion or inducement, it directly tears apart the opponent's sea of consciousness with supreme divine power, plundering all memories and crushing all soul imprints. Those whose souls are searched will suffer anything from: at best, a shattered sea of consciousness and becoming an idiot; at worst, their soul and spirit will be completely destroyed, and they will never be able to reincarnate, not even qualifying for the cycle of rebirth.
Zhao Wuji's withered body, as dry as a dead tree, suddenly convulsed violently as if struck by a high-voltage electric shock. His limbs twisted into bizarre arcs, his originally cloudy eyeballs bulged out, and black blood slowly gushed from his seven orifices, sliding down his cheeks and dripping onto the gravel with a soft "drip-drip" sound, emitting a pungent, fishy stench.
His long memories of 150 years flashed wildly through Lu Yuan's mind like a film reel fast-forwarded—the Zhao family's century-long history of evil rise to power, their unscrupulous power-money transactions, and their brutal acts of disregarding human life. Scene after scene of filthy and disgusting images were too gruesome to bear.
Lu Yuan's eyes were icy cold, and the spiritual light at his fingertips rippled slightly, directly filtering out those irrelevant family infighting and killings. His divine sense, like a sharp sword, precisely locked onto the memory of his mother's car accident, and without the slightest hesitation, forcibly pulled it into the center of his mind.
The memory is frozen in time.
It was a dark and damp secret room, without windows, only a dim oil lamp, which made Zhao Wuji's gaunt face appear even more ferocious. Zhao Tiangang knelt respectfully on the ground, his forehead touching the ground, holding a photograph in his hands, his expression both obsequious and greedy. The photograph showed the crescent-shaped blue jade pendant that Lu Yuan's mother wore around her neck. The pendant emitted a faint spiritual light; it was the Spirit Gathering Jade.
"Ancestor, news has come from the Ye family." Zhao Tiangang's voice echoed in my memory, carrying a hint of barely perceptible urgency. "As long as we obtain this Spirit Gathering Jade, they have agreed to help our Zhao family secure a spot to enter the 'Kunlun Secret Realm.' From then on, our Zhao family will be able to reach new heights and stand tall in the capital!"
Zhao Wuji closed his eyes, a faint black aura swirling around him. His tone was cold and devoid of warmth as he uttered a few words, yet they concealed a chilling ruthlessness: "Be careful with your hands and feet. If you cause an accident, don't leave any trace, lest you attract trouble."
As soon as the words were spoken, the memory abruptly ended, as if it had been abruptly severed.
"Bang--!!!"
Zhao Wuji's head exploded like a watermelon smashed by a heavy hammer, scattering red and white matter everywhere, splashing all over Lu Yuan's blue robe, only to be instantly deflected by the spiritual light surrounding him, leaving him spotless. Without the skull obstructing the view, a faint white sphere of light floated out from the shattered remains, radiating a faint fluctuation of divine soul energy—it was Zhao Wuji's remaining divine soul, the last trace of his century of cultivation.
Lu Yuan remained expressionless, slightly opening his mouth. An invisible suction force erupted, directly drawing the white soul into his abdomen. The soul furnace of a Great Ascension Immortal Venerable within his body instantly activated, unleashing a surge of violent soul power. In just a breath, it refined Zhao Wuji's soul into the purest spiritual power, merging it into his own sea of consciousness, leaving him no room for resistance.
After dealing with Zhao Wuji, Lu Yuan slowly turned his head, his gaze like a cold, sharp blade, landing precisely on Zhao Tiangang, who was lying on the stairs, already terrified and incontinent. Zhao Tiangang's crotch was wet and yellow, and a foul stench filled the air. He was trembling like a leaf, not even daring to lift his head, only filled with a deep-seated fear.
"The Ye family."
Lu Yuan slowly chewed on these two words, his voice not loud, but carrying a chilling aura. Every word seemed to have been pulled from an ice cellar, and his eyes surged with overwhelming killing intent. It was the anger that had been suppressed for a hundred years, the pain of losing loved ones, all of which were now erupting.
"For a mere, elusive spot in a secret realm, you dared to harm my family, dared to disregard human life, and dared to incur this blood debt."
Zhao Tiangang trembled with fear and frantically kowtowed on the ground, his forehead slamming heavily against the cold, sharp stones with a loud "thud." His forehead quickly broke open, and blood smeared his face, obscuring his features. But he felt no pain, only pleading, "Mr. Lu... Immortal Master Lu! I was wrong! I was really wrong!"
"It was all the Ye family's fault! They are the most powerful and influential family in the capital, I dared not disobey them! They made me steal the Spirit Gathering Jade, they made me cause this accident, I had no choice!"
He kowtowed and cried out in despair, his voice lacking even the strength to beg for mercy: "Please...please kill me! Give me a quick death! I know I deserve to die, I just beg you not to torture me, give me a quick death!"
Zhao Tiangang's only thought now was to die quickly. Even a patriarch in the Divine Realm was treated like a snack by Lu Yuan, his soul easily devoured and crushed into mincemeat. As a mortal, he couldn't even muster the slightest thought of resistance. Rather than being tortured to death, he would rather die a quick and painless death.
"happy?"
Lu Yuan slowly walked up to him, stopped, and looked down at him. His eyes held no pity, only endless indifference and mockery. The chill in his voice was enough to freeze everything: "When my mother was run over by the car, struggling in agony and dying in despair, did you give her a quick death?"
These words were like a cold, sharp knife, piercing Zhao Tiangang's heart and freezing him instantly. He stopped kowtowing, his face filled with ashen despair—he knew he couldn't escape, and what awaited him was torture worse than death.
Lu Yuan slowly raised his right hand, and with a slight exertion of force at his fingertips, a drop of dark red essence blood was forced out from his fingertips. The essence blood floated in mid-air, radiating an eerie and violent red light. It was the essence blood of the Immortal Venerable within his body, containing terrifying power.
With a slight twitch of his fingertips, his essence blood swirled rapidly in the air, drawing a strange and complex rune. The rune shimmered with scarlet light and exuded a chilling aura that sent shivers down one's spine. The temperature in the air plummeted once again, and even the surrounding rubble was covered with a layer of white frost.
"Soul-Devouring Curse".
Lu Yuan's voice was cold and resolute. As soon as he finished speaking, the scarlet rune instantly transformed into a beam of red light, like a sharp arrow, and pierced directly into Zhao Tiangang's brow, disappearing without a trace.
Zhao Tiangang was stunned for a moment, his face expressionless, as if nothing had happened. But the next second, an indescribable pain erupted from the depths of his bone marrow, sweeping through his entire body, a hundred or a thousand times more terrifying than the pain of soul searching.
The feeling was like thousands of highly venomous ants were frantically gnawing at his brain nerves and tearing his soul apart. Every inch of his flesh and every bone was screaming and in excruciating pain, and even breathing was excruciatingly painful.
"Aaaaaahh ...
Zhao Tiangang let out a heart-wrenching scream, fell to the ground and rolled around wildly, his hands gripping his face tightly, his nails digging deep into his flesh, tearing off large chunks of flesh, blood gushing out, revealing the hideous white bones underneath, but he still felt no pain, only struggling frantically, like a madman.
Lu Yuan looked down at him, his expression indifferent, his tone calm and undisturbed, as if watching an insignificant ant struggle: "This curse will make you watch helplessly as your physical body rots and festers little by little for the next seven days, feel your soul being torn apart and devoured bit by bit, and suffer endless pain day and night, unable to live and unable to die."
"This is what you deserve."
Having done all this, Lu Yuan didn't glance at the mangled, still frantically struggling mass of flesh on the ground again, as if even looking at it would soil his eyes. He slowly raised his head, his gaze piercing through the dilapidated roof of the banquet hall, through the darkness of the night, looking towards the deep night sky above the capital, his eyes sharp as knives.
His divine sense had already spread out, clearly perceiving that in near-Earth orbit, 300 kilometers above the ground, there was a cold "eye" staring intently at the Zhao family manor, transmitting everything that was happening there in real time to a certain place—that was a high-precision military reconnaissance satellite of the Immortal Bureau, a tool that Long Yuan used to monitor him.
Lu Yuan curled his lips into a disdainful smile, slowly raised his right hand, and formed a sword with his fingers. A faint blue spiritual light emanated from his fingertips. He did not exert any force; he simply made a casual slash towards the night sky.
An invisible sword aura, invisible to the naked eye, burst forth instantly, carrying a world-destroying force, breaking through the atmosphere and hurtling towards the reconnaissance satellite at a speed exceeding the speed of light.
......
Three hundred meters underground in the capital city, at the headquarters command center of the Bureau of Extraordinary Immortals.
On the huge electronic screen that occupied the entire wall, the tragic scene of the Zhao family manor was being broadcast in real time—corpses all over the ground, glaring blood, the crushed Divine Realm Ancestor, and the indifferent young man in blue robes who had planted the curse mark on Zhao Tiangang.
Inside the command center, dozens of senior agents and staff fell into a deathly silence, even their breathing became cautious. Everyone remained in the same position, mouths agape, eyes glazed, faces filled with disbelief and deep-seated fear, their bodies trembling slightly, even the documents in their hands fell to the ground unnoticed.
Sitting in his wheelchair, Long Yuan's palms were soaked with cold sweat, which had already soaked through the bandages on his hands, making them sticky and icy. He stared intently at Lu Yuan on the screen, his pupils contracted, his heart pounded wildly, and even his breathing became difficult—he had always known that Lu Yuan was strong, but he had never imagined that Lu Yuan would be this strong!
"Chief... what... what kind of monster is this?" The adjutant's voice trembled so much he couldn't utter a complete sentence. His face was ashen, and his eyes were filled with terror. "A god! That's a terrestrial immortal who can withstand small tactical nuclear weapons and is above the mortal realm! Just like that... just like that, he was crushed to death like a chick?"
Long Yuan remained silent, his eyes fixed on Lu Yuan on the screen. His throat tightened, and an unprecedented sense of powerlessness welled up within him. He knew that from the moment Lu Yuan set foot in the capital, the entire landscape of the city and the martial arts order of China would be completely overturned.
Suddenly, Lu Yuan on the screen slowly raised his head. His clear, cold eyes seemed to pierce through the screen, through the thick layers of rock, and directly into the command center, into the depths of everyone's soul. With an invisible pressure, everyone froze, and even their breathing stopped.
Immediately afterwards, he raised his hand and made a casual gesture.
"Warning! Satellite signal lost!"
"Warning! Satellite orbit has deviated significantly!"
"boom--!!!"
The huge electronic screen instantly turned into a blinding speck of static, and the piercing alarms exploded in the command center, breaking the previous silence and shattering everyone's last hope.
A technician, drenched in sweat, his hands flying across the keyboard, his face deathly pale and his voice trembling with tears, suddenly turned around and roared at Long Yuan, "Director... Reconnaissance Satellite Zero... has been cut in two! Completely destroyed! Not a single wreckage can be found!"
Long Yuan slowly closed his eyes, exhaling a long breath of stale air, a breath filled with endless exhaustion and despair. He raised his hand and rubbed his throbbing temples, his voice hoarse and heavy: "Block all information. Not a single word is to be leaked. Otherwise, it will be considered treason."
He paused, a cold resolve flashing in his eyes, and continued, "Notify the Ye family to wash their own necks clean and prepare to die."
After saying that, Long Yuan slowly opened his eyes, looked at the rock wall at the top of the command center, and said in a tone that was both sad and helpless: "The sky is about to collapse."
The command center fell silent once more, with only the piercing alarm and the heavy, desperate breathing of everyone present. They all knew that an era belonging to Lu Yuan was about to begin, and those once high-ranking noble families would eventually pay a heavy price for their sins.