61 Volume 3: Dungeons (2/2)

Jin's spirit, the Fairy Emperor, shuddered as it crawled through the mire of the trash's soul to get to the bloated dantian. He felt like it would take days to purify himself of the trash's 'soul stench'. He clasped the dantian with the marble shaped qi inside it and almost destroyed it before pausing.

A thought came to him and he acted on it immediately: with his physical hand also moving, he yanked out the core. The trash's body gave a violent convulsion before going limp, blood dribbling out its mouth, nose, and ears.

Holding up the dantian, he pulled out the core and examined it with a thoughtful expression on his face. Perhaps the Fairy Doctor could find some use for this trash's core? It was a piece of a human soul, so the Doctor could learn something from it through experimentation. With that in mind, Jin stuffed the core into his inner shirt.

Though it started on a whim, this would not be the last time Jin destroyed a Cultivator by stealing their core. While he only took cores from his enemies, that didn't stop rumors of his torture method spreading far to the East, even to the Jianghu Islands. There cultivating sects, righteous or evil, could only think of such a man as a threat and be deeply unsettled by his very existence. But that was a problem for the far future.

At the moment, Jin was carefully examining the trash. Totally unaware of the future implications his current actions would cause.

Quite a few of its bones were broken, most likely Shan Hui's work (from what Yan Li had told him) and Jin's action just then had created an ugly, seeping tear on the trash's soul. It was important that the trash didn't die, so if there was anything seriously wrong he'd need to fix it now.

After some thinking, he ”cauterized” the meridians that were left dangling where the bloated dantian had been. With that, it wouldn't die any time soon. The trash would be in agony of course, but that was obviously not something Jin was worried about.

Jin suddenly tilted his head.

”Hm? What's this?”

”What do you see Father?”

Shi Ji wasn't able to look into humans as Jin was able to. Jin was quiet for several more seconds before explaining further.

”It seems the trash has pockets of hidden poison in its body. There's some in its teeth, finger nails, even its toes. Nothing as bad as what was used on me but... it will definitely kill this trash. And there's a strange tattoo on its back too.”

”Tattoo? Father, can you show it to me?”

”Of course.”

Jin tore off the trash's shirt like it was paper and then roughly turned the trash over to show its back.

Sure enough, right in the center of its back, was a tattoo. It was a circle with a five pointed star inside and strange writing scribbled along the line and curves.

Shi Ji growled in annoyance when he saw it. ”Another one of those magic circles!”

”Ah, so this is what the circle Yan Li spoke about.” Jin stared at it curiously. ”What does it do?”

”I don't know, but it can't be good. It seems like they're used as weapons. So it could be for attacking an enemy or for suicide. The most I could tell you is what element it's using, not what it does with that energy after it's absorbed it.”

His son shook his head apologetically, ”Sorry I can't be more helpful.”

”It's fine, it's fine. But if it's for suicide, that'd be… inconvenient.” Jin rubbed his chin as he looked at the tattoo, wondering what to do.

”What if you take off the tattoo? You know, skin him?” Ye suggested in gleeful malice. ”Would that nullify it?”

”Doing that might set it off Uncle Ye. The magic circle right outside the kidnapper's lair was like that, just trying to get close set it off… If this is a circle like that one, then trying to mess with it will do the same. And, this is just my guess, but I think that's very likely what will happen.”

Ye looked thoroughly disappointed at Shi Ji's explanation.

”Ah… we can't risk that.” Jin 'tsked' in annoyance. ”Unless Shan Hui brings back more information, this trash is all we've got as a source.”

”We've got that little girl Yan Li brought back.” Shi Ji reminded his Old Man.

”Hm… but that's a… whatsit… human sacrifice. I doubt the girl knows as much as this trash heap.”

Ye's eyebrow scrunched together, ”Maybe we should get Zufu involved.”

”The Fairy Doctor? Why him?”

”He probably knows the human body better than you do at this point, Jin.” Ye continued. ”He's got all kinds of crazy potions too. You've got no idea the weird stuff that Grandpa thinks up in his spare time. He once told me to study how to heal someone, you gotta know how they break. That lovable grumpy face hides a dark, dark mind on the inside. He could probably figure a way around this circle thing. So if you need to keep this guy alive but make him suffer, Zufu is definitely the fairy for the job. ”

”Is the Fairy Doctor really like that? I thought he valued life?” Shi Ji asked, a bit shocked. Indeed, from the outside, Doctor Zufu didn't look at all the type do such nasty sounding research.

Ye grinned maliciously. ”Never under estimate a fairy's ability to rationalize to get and do what they want.”

While Jin nodded in agreement, Shi Ji raised his eyebrows slightly. It's not as though his Mother hadn't warned her sons of how conniving and black bellied fairies could be. His Uncle Ye was a perfect example of this. It's just that, as fairies were loyal to his family and had always favored him, he'd never been witness to that dark nature spoken of by his Mother. It had been a theoretical thing and to suddenly have it brought up had surprised him a little.

But only a little.

For Shi Ji himself was not quite human. Regardless of his Mother's teachings, his nature was a little bit fairy-ish too. And since he'd seen with his own two eyes what this person had intended on doing to his dearest Mother, he didn't mind indulging in the darker side of his nature.