Chapter 632: Spirit Root Extraction
Liu Peiyuan couldn’t describe what he felt, even if he wanted to. This spatial fragment was not large, only about five hundred zhang in radius.
The nauseating stench of rotting flesh filled the air, mixed with urine and other smells he couldn’t place. The stone tiles beneath his feet were covered in a sticky, red liquid. Dry bones littered the ground, alongside bodies that had stopped breathing.
Some men and women still clung to life, their breaths faint. But they merely stared ahead with empty eyes. They lay face down, expressions dazed, drool leaking from their mouths. Someone had used a vile method to drain their spirit roots and strip them of all cultivation. A cultivation method based on devouring other spirit roots was no different from what heretical cultivators practiced.
These people were covered in wounds. Even Liu Peiyuan felt a chill at the sight. It was hard to imagine what they had endured before their spirit roots were stripped away.
Liu Peiyuan stood frozen, mouth agape. His hands and feet were ice-cold. He wanted to walk farther inside, but his feet felt like lead. He couldn’t imagine how many evils the Liu family had committed during the thousand years he’d spent in closed-door cultivation.
After a long pause, he steeled himself and walked forward. The deeper he ventured, the more gruesome it became. More cultivators lay on the ground, each stronger than the last, all penned up like livestock. Fury burned in Liu Peiyuan's chest. His cheeks and eyelids twitched.
He quickened his pace and soon came upon a stone bed where a girl was suspended in mid-air. Chains had been driven through all four of her limbs. The stone bed was covered in bloodstains. Her robes were tattered, and she was covered in wounds.
Her vital force had been sealed. She was wide awake but couldn’t move. She was aware of everything happening around her, yet helpless to stop it—just like when the Purple Sun Pavilion had tortured her.
Her eyelids stirred when she sensed Liu Peiyuan, thinking that she was about to be saved. Two lines of bloody tears fell.