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Chapter 232: Nightingale’s Desperate Escape
🕑 Added 2024-10-16 14:47:11 +0000 UTCNightingale awoke from unconsciousness.
He found himself bound by chains in a cold, damp cave. The cave was eerily quiet, with the sound of dripping water echoing clearly.
Drip!
Drip!
It seemed like water was dripping from the ceiling into a dark pool, making the already silent environment even more unsettling.
"Hehe, you're awake?"
A lazy voice rang out.
Nightingale jerked his head toward the sound, and there, emerging from the darkness, was a familiar figure.
Above the figure, a skylight allowed a beam of white light to shine down, illuminating him as he approached.
"It's you! What are you planning to do?"
Nightingale’s expression changed drastically, and he shouted in alarm.
"What do you think?"
Qin Chuan smiled and asked casually.
"Are you planning to betray the clan?" Nightingale's heart filled with increasing unease.
"No, actually... I'm not from the Tianheng Clan." Qin Chuan's face wore a friendly smile.
"What?!"
Nightingale felt as if the sky had collapsed. This revelation was devastating to his spirit.
If the person had betrayed their clan, Nightingale could understand being backstabbed. But to realize that the other party wasn’t even from the Tianheng Clan and had tricked him so thoroughly... That meant he was nothing more than a fool!
"Thanks for telling me how to reach the Tianxuan Palace. I’ve already passed this information to the Jiucang Human Sacred Hall. By now, I’d say Tianxuan Palace has likely been wiped out."
Qin Chuan said with a smile.
"What??"
Nightingale froze, his mind blank for a moment before he processed the words and let out a heart-wrenching scream:
"No!!!"
At that moment, it felt like his entire world had collapsed. Everything around him blurred as a voice echoed in his mind:
You are a traitor to the clan.
You are a traitor to the clan.
You are a traitor to the clan!
The voice grew louder and louder, first becoming the voice of his family, then his friends, and finally his master. In the end, it even morphed into his own voice.
This voice, like an inescapable curse, reverberated in his ears, stirring up guilt and self-blame like a thousand cuts to his soul!
"No... it’s impossible, this can’t be real... You must be lying, you must be lying..."
Puff!!!
In the end, Nightingale spat out a mouthful of blood and passed out again.
Qin Chuan, watching this unfold, wasn’t surprised.
He could somewhat understand the pain his captive was going through from Nightingale’s perspective. Fainting from the shock was perfectly reasonable.
After a moment's thought, he took out a bright red flower—the same fragrant immortal herb he had found earlier.
"Lucky you."
Qin Chuan muttered, then crushed the flower into a ball and stuffed it directly into Nightingale's mouth.
The question was, how to make someone swallow something when they were unconscious?
For Qin Chuan, this was no problem at all—he had experience.
If you think about it, in TV dramas, when the heroine needs to feed medicine to an unconscious hero who can’t swallow, how do they do it?
And so...
He lifted Nightingale’s drooping head with his left hand and slapped him hard several times with his right hand, making his head sway from side to side.
Gulp.
After the slaps, a sound came from Nightingale’s throat. The flower had been swallowed.
Well, that’s not how it’s done in TV dramas.
But Qin Chuan wasn’t one to follow the TV dramas' lead. He had his own unique methods, all honed through personal practice.
Buzz, buzz, buzz!
This immortal herb was indeed extraordinary. Soon after swallowing it, a faint golden light began to emanate from Nightingale's pores, and he slowly regained consciousness.
"Nuh..."
He tried to speak but found his mouth stiff. His face had been beaten so badly that it was swollen to the point of resembling a pig’s head.
"Nuh... nuh gonna get away wif dis..."
Furious, he tried to curse, but the sound that came out was so ridiculous even he found it laughable.
So he shut his mouth.
"Still trying to act tough?"
Qin Chuan pulled out a whip, an imperial weapon that seemed to be made from the spine of a serpent, segmented and barbed, looking utterly terrifying.
"Crack!"
One lash struck Nightingale's body, and he let out a heart-wrenching scream.
"Awoo!"
His swollen cheeks squeezed his mouth into a strange shape, making his cry sound bizarre.
"Still defiant?!"
Qin Chuan glared at him and cracked the whip again, causing another howling wail.
"Crack! Crack! Crack!"
"Crack! Crack! Crack!"
Qin Chuan kept lashing him, delivering over a hundred strikes, leaving Nightingale on the brink of death.
Nightingale, despite being a Sovereign, was helpless against this imperial-grade whip, which had been specifically designed as a torture device for Sovereigns.
No matter how powerful you are, if something is tailor-made for you, there’s no escaping its “comfort”...
"Awoo!"
Nightingale howled again.
"Still trying to provoke me?"
Qin Chuan shot him a piercing look and continued to lash him.
Two streams of tears rolled down Nightingale’s swollen face. In fact, he wasn’t trying to provoke anyone—he was begging for mercy!
Perhaps the physical pain distracted him from his emotional torment, and the intense guilt and anguish gradually faded. His spirit, which had been heroic and sorrowful, now felt strangely absurd.
It was like a drunk man shouting, “Don’t push me, or I’ll do something crazy!”
Then someone hands him a complex math problem.
Go ahead, solve it.
Go ahead, prove your claim!
The whole scene would fall silent.
And so, the drunkard would pretend he hadn’t heard the challenge, mumbling a few more words before collapsing peacefully into sleep.
The classic drunkard’s retreat!
After a long while, Qin Chuan put away the whip and squinted at Nightingale.
"Now, I’m going to ask you some questions, and you’re going to answer them honestly."
Nightingale fell silent.
Although he was terrified of being beaten again, there were some things he would never reveal, no matter what!
"Rumble, rumble!"
At that moment, loud tremors came from outside the cave, followed by an enraged shout from someone rough and wild:
"You filthy thief! I’ve finally tracked you down! I know you’re in there! Come out and face your death!"
"Damn it, how did they find me?!"
Qin Chuan’s expression shifted, and he appeared briefly flustered. He glanced at Nightingale, seeming to weigh his options, then, deciding he couldn’t afford to deal with the captive, used his Earth Traversal Technique to flee.
"This..."
Nightingale was dumbstruck.
Then, with a deafening crash, the mountain above the cave split open, and sunlight poured in through the gap.
A burly, bearded man descended from the sky, landing in the now-destroyed cave.
"Where is he? I could have sworn I sensed that scoundrel’s presence... but he’s gone?!"
The burly man, wielding a large axe, scanned the cave. When he found no trace of his quarry, he turned his attention to Nightingale, who was lying bound on the ground.
"Who are you?"
The burly man asked.
"Ahwoo..."
Nightingale tried to speak but only made that same strange sound. His cultivation was sealed by the runic chains, so he couldn’t even use divine sense to communicate.
"Ah, forget it. You look like another poor soul who fell for that scoundrel’s tricks. Since I found you here, I might as well help you out!"
The burly man raised his axe and chopped through the chains binding Nightingale, then, without another word, shot into the sky and flew off.
From the distance, the burly man’s voice echoed back:
"Scoundrel! You can’t escape!"
Meanwhile, Nightingale stood there, dazed, staring at the broken chains on the ground, then at his own hands.
His expression was blank, and everything around him felt unreal.
Just like that... he was free?!
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