Chapter 279 (1/2)
”There is only absolute silence, no sounds at all. No ants crawling by, no leaves rustling. Nothing at all. Your ears eventually become very sensitive because you desire so much to hear any sound. You can even hear the bodies around you rotting. You hear how the bloated bellies of the corpses explode and they sound like a thunder!”
The old monk's shrill voice reverberated in the quiet room like a never ending roar of thunder.
”All the bodies in the room have rotted, or dried out and these sounds have stopped. The sounds that have previously made you nauseated have become the most wonderful things in your memory. Do you know this feeling?”
”In the end, you can even hear your blood flowing in your veins, your muscles losing its water content. You can hear your stomach drying out and sticking to your intestines. You hear them tearing. It's really interesting, isn't it? If you listen for a long time, you'd definitely want to vomit. But the problem is, you can't.”
The old monk's eyes had lost all its s.h.i.+ne. He reminisced about the decades of suffering like a granite statue. He muttered, ”Even the strongest cultivators must eat or drink. You have to eat something, no matter how disgusting it is. If you spit it out, you will die.”
The old monk suddenly yelled shrilly, ”I know that living like this is even crueler than death. I should have killed myself when I was imprisoned by Ke Haoran. But this fellow, he seemed bold and tough, but he had a heart more insidious than the devil himself. He knew that I thought of living, and he made it so that I could never die! He is the real devil!”
Ning Que asked, after a moment of silence, ”What did you eat to survive for the past decades?”
The mountain of bones below the old monk consisted of both dried corpses and white skeletons.
Ning Que's gaze landed on them, and could not help frowning.
Mo Shanshan followed the trajectory of his gaze and found that there were several silvers of bones in the mountain of bones. There were marks on them that looked as if a beast had chewed on them. She had a sudden epiphany. Her body stiffened and her face became especially pale.
The old monk laughed loudly when he saw their reactions. His laughter was bitter and shrill, and it sounded like a sad ghoul crying grievously. However, the tears that flowed from his eyes were cloudy and pebble-like due to the fact that he was severely dehydrated.
Even the toughest man might feel sympathy for the old monk; looking at the pair of old, cloudy eyes, listening to the heart wrenching, crazy laughter, and thinking of how he had been imprisoned in the Front Gate of the Devil's Doctrine for decades, leading a life worse than death. However, Ning Que did not feel anything like that. He looked at the old monk and said, ”Sympathy is not something that can be pleaded for.”
The old monk's crazy laughter stopped. He looked at Ning Que with what seemed like a ghost fire in his eyes.
Ning Que looked at the rock walls and continued after a moment of silence, ”It must be due to the fact that I have seen too much danger as a child. I am someone who lacks a sense of security. I like thinking about what would happen to me should something happen all the time. Who would raise Sangsang? What would happen if Sangsang meets with an accident? How can I persuade myself to continue living?”
”If someone treated Sangsang like how you did, I would think long and hard about how to revenge. It'd be too easy on you if I were to kill you with a single stroke of my blade. If I break your arms and legs and throw you into a s.h.i.+t hole, you might not last for long. You won't suffer for long. That wouldn't make me happy either.”
He retracted his gaze and stared at the old monk. He smiled lightly and sighed. ”Now that I think about how you have spent the last few decades, I realized how Youngest Uncle is indeed a genius who is well versed in cultivation. He is even talented in torture methods. I will not pity on you. I will learn from such methods, and I can only hope that I will not have to use it in the future.”
The old monk did not know who Sangsang was, but Mo Shanshan did. She glanced at Ning Que.
The old monk smiled and did not say anything else. The questions that he had asked previously already released the anger he had felt for the past decades. He had something more important to do now.
He lowered his head slowly and placed his dry lips on the girl below his palms gently.
Ye Hongyu looked at the old monk coldly. However, gooseb.u.mps erupted on her skin. Anyone would find it impossible to get rid of the fear in their hearts when they were about to be torn into shreds and eaten slowly.
A series of chocking sound rang in the quiet dark room.
Ning Que had pulled out the podao behind his back. He leaped up like a tiger who had finally caught his prey after an entire night of waiting. He leaped towards the old monk in the Bone Mountain.
He was suspended in mid-air and a shred of light splashed out like a thunderstorm.
Ning Que and Mo Shanshan's sense of perception were severely injured by the old monk. They were no longer able to control parts of their bodies. However, they had managed to overcome this through unknown means and forcefully regained control of their bodies. At this time, the old monk was about to sink his teeth into Ye Hongyu's flesh and was not aware of the happenings around him. This was a good time for them to ambush him.
The old monk managed to see the light reflecting from the blade from the corner of his eyes. The podao in Ning Que's hands was only half an inch away from his neck. He would be unable to prevent his imminent death no matter from which angle one looked at it from.
However, the glace from the corner of his eyes was sufficient.
The old monk saw the light from the blade and his mental state rippled.
Other than the sacredness of Haotian, there was nothing faster than one's mental state.
A power that, while not strong, was mild and pure in state exuded from the old monk's gaze. The numerous white bones in the pile of bones answered to the power and flew up. A strong femur stood and blocked the s.h.i.+ny blade.
It was unknown which powerhouse from the Devil's Doctrine this strong femur belonged to. Its spirit was long lost, but its strength still lingered. It collided with the blade strongly. A deep gouge appeared, but it did not break apart.
The entire room was filled with a Confinement tactical array set by Youngest Uncle back then. The Fu character set on the podao by the two Senior Brothers could not absorb any Qi of Heaven and Earth. He could not fight against the bone controlled by the old monk's Psyche Power.
Ning Que harrumphed. An immense force came from the blade, breaking his wrist. Blood spurted from his mouth as he was thrust backward with a great force.