53 Chapter 52: Torture (1/2)
”Hey, wake up.”
I jolted up as a sharp stroke of pain arced through my body, causing me to writhe and choke. Clutching my gut, I glanced up at Ba Yun's leering face. He must have kicked me awake.
No, wait…when did I lose consciousness?
”Who gave you permission to fall asleep?”
Another kick, and I shuddered as red-hot agony lanced through my mind. Heaving, I tried to stand up, but he stomped on my spine, pinning me to the floor.
”Who said you can get up?”
”Ugh…”
Wham!
”Who says you can make a sound?”
”…”
I desperately did my best to hold my grunt of pain in, so as to avoid another vicious blow. Ba Yun looked down on me, almost as if disappointed.
Then he smiled as he observed me. He poked my wound with a toe – the injury that Tuo Ta La dealt me when he impaled me with his arm.
”Oh? Interesting. It seems that your wound has already closed up.”
Surprised, I clutched at it. Ba Yun was right. The bleeding had stopped and it no longer hurt. How? Was I out cold for that long?
With a roar of laughter, Ba Yun kicked me viciously, reopening the wound and causing me to shriek and flail about. Shaking his head, he curled his lips into a sneer.
”Who said you can heal?”
Huffing, I did my best to still myself, desperately trying to hold my groans in.
”Get up.”
I obeyed. There was no point defying him here. Ba Yun was stronger, and more brutal. All I would achieve was suffer a lot more.
The moment I stood up, I regretted it.
”…!!!”
My eyes widened when I saw the emaciated figure strapped in a chair, his head hung low and his flesh stretching thinly over his bones. His chest wasn't even moving and I sensed no qi whatsoever from him.
The guy was clearly dead.
”Oh? Glad to see you're taking to your new home pretty well.” Ba Yun chuckled as he strode over and unstrapped the dead guy before unceremoniously kicking the corpse to the ground. ”The previous occupant…expired and I was looking for a new tenant.”
He couldn't mean…
”Let's get to know each other over the next few weeks.” Ba Yun was rubbing his hands in glee as he tended to the table of metallic tools that was beside the chair. He chuckled throatily. ”I'm sure we'll get to know each other really well.”
The bastard…
I tensed and began to draw whatever qi I could from my own body and the surroundings. I wasn't surprised that the atmosphere was saturated with ominous yin qi, most likely produced from the death and violence that had been perpetuated in this space. Having seen the fate of the previous victim, I had no desire to end up like him.
At the very least, I would die fighting to the very last.
”Oho? Interesting. So you still have a little fight in you.” Ba Yun applauded. ”That's more like it! That's how it should be!”
Gulping, I got ready to use a footwork technique, but…
Bam!
”Kaha! Kah!”
Coughing and groaning, I found my face slammed against the floor. My vision turned red and I thrashed about, only for Ba Yun to pin me onto the ground.
”Hmm, Tuo Ta La is right. You seem to be using moves similar to my Demonic Shadow Strike. Your qi feels very familiar.”
Ba Yun took a deep sniff and chuckled again.
”But…you're too weak.”
I twisted around and tried to kick him, but he stomped on my back, causing me to shriek in agony. While I writhed in pain, he bent down and lowered his head to sneer at me.
”It'll be problematic if you don't stop fighting.”
Fucking bastard! Like hell I would stop! I wasn't going to just lie down and watch wide-eyed as you torture me to death! I would rather die sooner than excruciatingly!
Gritting my teeth, I gathered whatever qi I could and clashed it with my purified innate qi, causing a slight explosion that almost threw Ba Yun off.
”Heh, interesting…you still have a few tricks up your sleeve.”
I didn't respond to his impressed tone, focusing on escaping. Using Tui, I tried to widen the distance between us as much as possible.
”As interesting as it would be to see you struggle, as I said, it would be problematic if you don't stop fighting. I want to spend more time playing with you, after all.”
I continued to ignore him and continued to escape out of the room. It was a vast, cavernous space. A basement underneath the warehouse, if I wasn't mistaken. Despite the enormous space, it was largely empty, with only the chair and the table of tools in the center of the dimly lit interior. There was a door on the far side, a heavy metallic double door that used wheels to keep it shut, but no windows. In other words, there was only one exit.
I dashed toward the double doors.
”Going somewhere?”
”?!”
I spun around and saw that Ba Yun had caught up with me in a single bound. He giggled as he studied me.
”You…those Shadow Steps…I'm impressed you've mastered them to this extent. But…”
He seized me by the throat, halting my dash and lifting me off the ground. Dangling from his hand, I kicked and squirmed, but was unable to break free. Ba Yun brought me closer to his bear-like face and grinned sadistically.
”But…Shadow Steps is just the most basic of martial arts. You could say that my Demonic Shadow Strike is the advanced version of your pitiful Shadow Steps. But I guess Wu Ling Academy only has access to the first, huh?”
I responded with a kick. Ba Yun merely stood still as my foot caught him in the gut, looking more amused than hurt. He shook his head in mock disappointment.
”This is what you call an attack.”
”GAH!”
Ba Yun buried his fist in my midriff and I went limp, coughing and throwing up blood. As I hung there, winded. Ba Yun raised me a little higher and then retrieved a syringe with his other hand. Before I could react, he rammed the sharp point of the syringe into the corner of my eye.
”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
My vision blurred, I screamed and thrashed about, this time more from agony than defiance. I grabbed his arm and struggled to yank the needle out of the corner of my eye, but Ba Yun's arm wouldn't budge.
”Do you know what drug this is?”
I didn't. Even if I did, I couldn't answer. I could only flail and wail in excruciating agony. Tears were forming in my eyes, and red-hit agonies lanced from my socket and directly into my skull. The sharp, intrusive sensation of foreign metal piercing my soft, tender tissues and lodging it there. Unable to endure the pain, I dropped to my knees, begging and pleading.
”Please…no…AAAAAH! Get it out! Please! I'm begging you!”
”Oh? But I haven't even injected the suppressant yet. This is just the beginning.”
Ba Yun thumbed the syringe and pushed. Something surged into the tissue in my eye, and I screamed. It felt like molten lava creeping into my veins, spreading through my body in a destructive rampage and burning me from the inside out.
”AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! Please! NOOOOOOOOOO! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
”You see, qi suppressant drugs are extremely rare,” Ba Yun said matter-of-factly, completely ignoring my pleas. It was as if he was explaining an interesting product in display to a group of curious students on a field trip. ”This qi suppressant is made from the Hellfire Toxin, with its lethality toned down and diluted. Even so, its effects are so potent that your body will react instinctively by suppressing it with every ounce of qi it has. I won't say it's perfect, because it doesn't shut down your qi entirely, but it forces your body to devote a significant amount of qi into suppressing the toxins in your system to prevent a messy death. But…even if it suppresses 80 to 90% of your qi, I would say that it already has done a pretty good job.”
”NOOO! Please…!!!!”
Sobbing, I begged and thrashed against the needle even as I fought to yank it out, even as the toxin ravaged my system. I couldn't hear what Ba Yun was saying, didn't want to listen to him. I just wanted it to end.
And…it finally ended. As the last of the suppressant flowed into my veins, Ba Yun yanked the needle out with a spray of blood. Choking and weeping, I curled into a ball on the filthy floor, not caring how pathetic I seemed. Not caring how pitiful I looked. Ba Yun snickered as he looked down on me, and nudged me with a toe.
”You're still alive, aren't you?”
I whimpered incoherently and he kicked me. With most of my qi dedicated to suppressing the toxin, I was unable to muster up an inner force defense and the pain felt amplified several times over, sending me spinning about.
”Gah…!”
”I asked you a question,” Ba Yun snarled.
”Y…yes. I'm alive.”
”Then get up. Your chair.”
I looked up, dazed, and Ba Yun struck me. By that time, I was so out of it that he could have hit me a hundred times and I still would have remained slumped on the ground. Ba Yun shook his head and hauled me up before planting me roughly on the chair.
”I'll let you rest a bit,” Ba Yun sneered in mock mercy. ”So make sure you can recover as much strength as you can. You're going to need it.”
He then left, leaving behind an echo of horrifying laughter.
*
I didn't know how much time had passed, but the agony that swirled through my veins had finally dulled down. Breathing a sigh of relief, I leaned against my chair. I was too weak to stand, too weak to get up and explore the room. The suppressants had sapped me of most of my strength and qi, as well as my ability to resist.