DragonKnov
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Chapter 309
🕑 Added 2025-02-05 10:10:11 +0000 UTCIt didn't take long for Yin Gang, who had been thrashing and grunting in a futile struggle, to suddenly freeze, his body going unnaturally still. His eyes widened with a dawning terror as he sensed the shift in the air.
"What did you do?!" one of Yin Gang's friends, currently chained and pinned to the ground, screamed in fear, straining against his bonds. His voice cracked with panic as he witnessed the horrific scene unfolding before him.
It wasn't just the sight of Yin Gang falling eerily silent after his vital artery was gently massaged—it was also the grotesque transformation of his head. Yin Gang's skull appeared to swell unnaturally, the skin stretching taut as if it were being inflated like a steamed bun, the veins bulging obscenely against the surface.
'The head, the brain, and the mouth—this is for speaking ill of and abusing my Senior Sister,' Ji Wuye thought inwardly, his expression cold and unreadable as he watched the gruesome spectacle unfold.
Almost immediately, a deafening explosion erupted from Yin Gang's neck with a sickening wet burst, spraying viscous crimson in every direction as the scene was soaked in a warm, metallic rain of blood.
BLAST!
A gurgling, inhuman sound escaped from Yin Gang's gaping mouth, his lifeless eyes dull and empty, resembling a fish staring blankly. His body spasmed uncontrollably, limbs twitching and jerking in a grotesque mockery of life.
Pieces of flesh and shattered organs were splattered across the ground, painting the area in a gruesome abstract of red and pink, as Yin Gang's dismembered body lay at Ji Wuye's feet, the twisted aftermath leaving an air of finality so thick it was nearly suffocating.
BLAST!
Yet another explosion rang out, this time from Yin Gang's hands—or rather, what remained of them. Both his palms had blasted into countless fragments with a sickening crunch, scattering fleshy bits and shards of bone into the air in a macabre rain of gore.
The fragments stained Ji Wuye's impassive face with streaks of blood, but he remained unmoved, his cold, indifferent gaze fixed on Yin Gang's twitching, struggling form as the life drained from his ruined body.
'This is for your hands—for torturing and ultimately killing my Senior Sister,' Ji Wuye thought inwardly as he watched the retribution unfold. Death was too kind, too light a punishment for someone like Yin Gang who had committed such unforgivable atrocities.
The sun's merciless heat reflected off the scattered flesh and gore of Yin Gang's ruined body, casting macabre shadows that danced across the blood-soaked ground.
In the previous timeline, ever since the brutal death of his Senior Sister Shen Bi, Ji Wuye had been consumed with an all-consuming need to track down the culprit.
He had been powerless then, only capable of reaching the 3rd martial realm after years of tireless effort. That inability to bring justice had haunted him like a waking nightmare, as he failed to save not only his beloved Senior Sister Shen Bi but also his other Senior Sisters, Lian and Qiu, from their brutal fates.
At the same time, several transparent screens flashed before Ji Wuye's crimson pupils, the ethereal displays flickering with updates amidst the gruesome scene unfolding under the bright, blazing daylight.
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[>> PRESSURE FORM PERFECTION STYLE (B) <<]
The proficiency of your passive skill has slightly increased!
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[>> PRESSURE FORM PERFECTION STYLE (B) <<]
The proficiency of your passive skill has slightly increased!
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[>> PRESSURE FORM PERFECTION STYLE (B) <<]
The proficiency of your passive skill has slightly increased!
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Yin Gang made no cries, no coherent reaction—just the lifeless, half-dead expression of fish-like, drooping eyes and a mouth muttering disjointed, meaningless words in a wet gurgle. His muscles, however, continued to twitch spasmodically, betraying the immense, unimaginable pain Ji Wuye had inflicted upon him with surgical precision.
All of this was the result of Ji Wuye precisely targeting Yin Gang's Renying pressure point (ST-9). Known as the "Lifeline Gate," this vital point, when struck, disrupted the flow of Qi between the head and the rest of the body.
By severing this connection, it shut down the upper body's Qi flow, leaving Yin Gang unable to focus, think clearly, or respond physically in any coordinated manner.
But Ji Wuye didn't just strike the point—he caused it to explode from within, unleashing a catastrophic wave of internal damage. As a result, Yin Gang suffered a near-total loss of oxygen-rich blood to the brain, starving it of vital nutrients with each stuttering beat of his ruined heart. Were Yin Gang an ordinary man, he would have succumbed to death after five breaths.
Ji Wuye's next targets were Yin Gang's LI-4 pressure points, located between the thumb and index finger of each hand, the areas that controlled the flow of Qi to the appendages.
These points, coupled with Ji Wuye's anguished memories of the horrific rumors and gruesome information he had painstakingly uncovered, triggered a visceral flashback - the searing image of his Senior Sister Shen Bi's body, stripped bare and degraded in unimaginable ways, assaulted his mind's eye.
It was clear, undeniable what depraved atrocities Yin Gang and his ilk had committed against her innocent form.
"Enough, child," came a stern voice that cut through the tense moment like a blade, jarring Ji Wuye from his vengeful reverie.
The commanding voice belonged to a woman - none other than the Elder from the Kongtong sect. She did not step forward, but simply stood rooted to the spot, holding the same ornately carved, razor-edged steel fan as before. Her piercing storm-gray eyes fixed upon Ji Wuye, carrying a weight of ancient sorrow and pity as she regarded him, seeming to see into the very depths of his pain.
"I do not know what grave grudge you harbor against this man, but..." the Elder began, her voice steady yet firm as she gestured with a slight tilt of her head for Ji Wuye to survey his surroundings.
The gathered Inner Disciples stood frozen, their youthful faces drained of color and etched with visceral horror at the gruesome spectacle. Though their hands trembled as they gripped the hilts of their jians, their wide, unblinking gazes stayed unshakably fixed upon the blood-drenched scene before them.
Meanwhile, the remnants of the Black Thunder Emperor's disciples lay crumpled and cowering on the ground, wailing and trembling uncontrollably as if gripped by a waking nightmare. Streams of tears carved glistening tracks down their ashen faces as they raised their voices in desperate, pitiful pleas.
"Please forgive me! Spare us, I beg you!"
"I'm sorry! I'm so terribly sorry! Please, have mercy and forgive me!"
Amidst their harrowing cries echoing across the once-serene valley, Yin Gang's mutilated body lay in full, horrific view. His hands were obliterated down to ragged stumps, his throat a savagely torn ruin that still oozed crimson life, yet his half-closed, vacant eyes still seemed to hold a faint, ghostly glimmer of awareness.
His chest continued its shallow, spasmodic rise and fall in a grotesque pantomime of life.
But what lay exposed before their traumatized gazes was no dignified end. It was nothing short of desecration, a humiliation more horrific than any of them could fathom.
Even if the greatest physicians across the Jianghu were summoned, or if he himself, there was no mortal way to bring Yin Gang back from the precipice he now teetered upon.
His condition was utterly beyond hope, beyond salvation - unless, of course, as in the ancient folk tales whispered around dying embers, an immortal being descended from the heavens to the mundane mortal world and bestowed upon him a legendary Rebirth Pill or some other divine miracle worked into existence by their transcendent powers.
At that fraught moment, Ji Wuye's ears picked up the telltale sounds of rapidly approaching footsteps.
He turned, and realized that his Senior Sisters, along with Elder Qiao and her Inner Disciples had arrived at last upon the bloodstained Lower Level, and as their widening eyes fell upon the nightmarish scene laid bare before them, their expressions contorted into masks of abject shock and horror.
"By the heavens..." someone breathed in a tremulous whisper.
"You fool! What have you done?!" Elder Qiao's voice cracked with a rawness of pure, unbridled emotion that sliced through the tension like a blade.
For the first time Ji Wuye witnessed her unshakable composure crumble before his very eyes like so many brittle autumn leaves scattered by a gale-force wind. Her thick, alluring pink lips - so often wrapped serenely around the long ivory stem of her ever-present pipe - quivered with barely contained fury and disbelief. "Have you lost your mind completely?!"
Her piercing eyes, glared sharply at him as she rushed forward with preternatural speed.
"It's -" Ji Wuye began, his words caught in his throat by the sheer force of the Elder's blazing presence bearing down upon him.
"Silence!" She hissed, those eyes flashing with a dangerous light that brokered no argument. "I indulged your plotting, but we never agreed to provoke the Black Thunder Emperor to such insanity!" Elder Qiao's voice was sharp and piercing, cutting through the tension like shards of jagged ice as she closed the distance between them with ground-devouring strides. "Do you understand the catastrophic consequences of what you've set into motion here?!"
For someone who had ascended to the 8th realm, crossing the remaining distance of mere steps separating them seemed instantaneous to the wide, unblinking eyes of the onlookers.
Within the space of mere heartbeats, Elder Qiao was standing before Ji Wuye, gripping the tattered, bloodstained folds of the now-ruined white martial robe he wore in whitened knuckles - the vivid crimson splatters only further underscoring the chaos he had wrought.
"Tell me why," she demanded in a voice that had dropped to a chilling, dangerous whisper that somehow cut deeper than any shout. "Tell me this cataclysmic mayhem wasn't just a product of reckless abandon and whimsy. Speak true."
"I know the risks. It's...acceptable," Ji Wuye replied, his tone steady and cold as his faint, uncaring smile remained unmoved upon his bloodied features. His chest rose and fell with a calmness.
In this timeline, he had finally managed to deliver a sliver of the vengeance he had craved for so long - killing one of the vile culprits responsible for his beloved Senior Sister's horrific demise.
"Acceptable?" Elder Qiao's derisive laugh was brittle and laced with bitterness.
However, as Ji Wuye's gaze slid past the furious Elder, it landed squarely upon a trembling, ghostly pale figure that stabbed at his heart - his Senior Sister Shen Bi herself.
She was there, whole and alive before him, but her delicate features were awash with streaks of tears, her eyes wide pools of abject horror fixed unblinkingly upon the gruesome aftermath he had wrought.
"Junior Brother..." she whispered, the words barely carrying to his ears over the deafening rush of blood pounding through his veins. "What...what have you allowed yourself to become?"
'Ah...' The realization struck Ji Wuye with abrupt, gut-wrenching clarity. His outward appearance in that moment was utterly monstrous.
But before he could give voice to his whirling mix of emotions, another figure stepped forward with deliberate, measured strides - Senior Sister Qiu Xia. She had been advancing towards him, her exquisite features an inscrutable mask, when suddenly:
SLAP!
The sharp crack of flesh striking flesh echoed hollowly in Ji Wuye's ringing ears, the stinging imprint of her open palm searing his cheek.
The physical pain was fleeting, but Ji Wuye felt as though the world itself had frozen in that crystalline moment of shocked stillness. This was the first time in his life that his Senior Sister, had ever struck him in such a manner.
When at last he raised his gaze to meet hers, Ji Wuye saw her anger burning through tear-streaked eyes, mingling with a profound, soul-deep sorrow that stole his breath. Crimson tears - that terrible, telltale sign of her utter fury , and for the first time he saw the cavernous depths of pain lurking behind that visage.
Turning his head slightly, his roving eyes shifted further into the horrified crowd's midst - to where Senior Sister Lian stood wreathed in an aura of such palpable anguish that it seemed to seep from her slender form with every labored breath.
Her lips were dry, trembling, her sorrow so viscerally tangible that Ji Wuye felt it like a physical weight bearing down upon his shoulders. She looked withered not just in flesh but in spirit itself, the very essence of grief given form in her haggard, haunted expression.
He had almost forgotten. His Senior Sister Lian was kind—so kind that she could never tolerate or accept such inhumanity. His Senior Sister Qiu Xia was deeply righteous, the type of person who firmly believed that no one, not even those with good intentions, should take the law into their own hands.
And his Senior Sister Shen Bi... she was still haunted by the trauma of the past, the bandits who had ravaged her village and stolen her peace.
And now, as if it were the worst possible moment, they had seen him. They had witnessed him. They had watched his actions—actions that fit every condition they despised.
He had almost forgotten...because, in the previous timeline, he had been alone.
RUMBLE!
The moment was interrupted by the low roar of thunder that shook the air. Ji Wuye’s head snapped to attention as the sound rumbled once more, drawing his attention skyward.
Dark clouds were gathering unnaturally fast, their ominous presence smothering the once-bright sunlight. It was as though the heavens themselves were mourning or responding to the chaos below.
A/N: Thanks to God, give me strength to write this chapter.
Comments
musashi
Excellent chapter. Thank you. Vengeance is mine sayeth...
