Chapter 811 - 567: After the Fright
...
In the depths of Jin Yu Prefecture’s government office, within the hall of justice, the smell of blood was so thick it couldn’t be dispelled.
The charcoal fire burned brightly, branding irons emanated a terrifying red glow, and various torture instruments were neatly arranged, reflecting a cold metallic sheen.
Wang Xuan’s expression was cold and stern as iron, holding a whip forged from the sacred fire of Jin Wu, its body entwined with a faint golden flame.
Every strike on the alien race generated an extremely piercing scream, while the smell of charred flesh instantly pervaded the entire hall of justice.
Coercion, inducement, intimidation, psychological attack... every possible method, Wang Xuan used them all.
"Will you speak or not!"
"Will you speak or not!"
Enraged, he deliberately summoned an old forensic doctor from the city who had immersed himself in this field for decades, to apply every recorded ancient torture and those passed down in folklore on these alien beings one by one.
More ruthlessly, he controlled the suppression strength of the Jin Wu sacred fire chain, allowing the alien’s freakishly strong self-healing ability to continually take effect.
Severed limbs reattached, charred flesh slowly regenerated, and festering wounds gradually healed.
Then, a new round of even more brutal interrogation commenced.
Healing, torment, healing again, and more torment.
Cycle after cycle, endless and unceasing.
Finally, one alien, whose will was not the strongest to begin with, completely broke down in this cycle of living hell, the mental defenses shattered as he stuttered out the first useful piece of information.
A surge of wild joy instantly burst in Wang Xuan’s eyes:
"Good!"
With the first one speaking, there would be a second, and a third. Once a breach was made, subsequent intelligence would pour in like a torrent.
Moreover, because of Chen Sheng’s previous warning, he had already made arrangements, capturing two alien races in one fell swoop. As soon as one person divulged information, a chain breakthrough could immediately form.
Almost simultaneously.
Elsewhere in three separate camps where interrogations were being conducted, similar reports of success came one after another. The alien races captured could no longer withstand the torture, and fragmented information was continuously compiled.
...
In the underground chamber.
Chen Sheng closed his eyes, concentrating, as he meticulously sorted and collated the intelligence pouring in from all directions.
A moment later, he suddenly opened his eyes, a trace of solemnity flashing within.
"Blood Race..."
But these entities differed somewhat from the vampire blood races in Western legend as he remembered.
They were not transformed by an initial embrace or by blood infection. Instead, they resembled the method of creating zombies in Eastern lore that existed in his memory.
Buried in a yin land after death, through a bizarre and rigorous ritual, repeatedly tempered by yin qi, blood qi, and curse power, ultimately they rose from the dead, becoming these immortal, abnormal beings.
They were bloodthirsty and violent, capable of transforming into bat-like black shadows to escape, their physical defense and recovery capabilities were astonishingly formidable.
And yet, they were not afraid of sunlight, silver, crosses, or other typical restraining objects of blood race lore.
The strength levels of these alien races were distinctly divided from low to high:
Copper Blood, Silver Blood, Gold Blood, Purple Blood, Pure Blood Great Monarch, Source Blood Ancestor!
As he pieced together all the information completely, a powerful sense of déjà vu surged wildly in Chen Sheng’s heart.
"It’s simply... a monstrous fusion of zombies and blood races."
"Taking the strengths of both, discarding the weaknesses of both..."
"Physically strong, heaven-defying recovery capabilities, immune to restraints, massively formidable in combat."
He paused slightly:
"Perhaps, the only shortcoming is lacking the vampires’ terrifying ability to infect rapidly, thereby quickly creating a fellow race with just one bite."
The next moment, Chen Sheng’s gaze suddenly turned cold, his eyes sharp as a blade.
"No."
"This is not a shortcoming."
"It was deliberately excised by that Blood Race Ancestor..."
"Crafty old thing!"
He spat forcefully in his heart, a chill piercing to the bone.
From those fragmented confessions of the blood races, their instinctive fear, and various hidden details.
Little by little, Chen Sheng extracted, sketched, and pieced together the outline of that covert ancestor.
Gu Youming.
The founder of this world’s true qi martial arts.
The source of all blood races, the supreme ancestor.
This individual secretly orchestrated silent purges against so-called anomalies, time and again.
And Chen Sheng was not his first target.
Among the hunted anomalies,
Were talents exceedingly brilliant, who had, in just a few short years, perfected martial arts to the pinnacle, even charting new paths and comprehending true qi, true geniuses of their generation;
Officials who had studied diligently, entered the court, devoted themselves to benefiting a region, and developed firearms, concrete, and intricate mechanisms, capable ministers and ingenious craftsmen;
And others like Chen Sheng, possessing the mystical methods of Daoism, entering the court, becoming the national advisor, exhibiting divine techniques as cultivators...
All these individuals were silently hunted by Gu Youming, through thunderous methods.
Even traces of their existence were completely erased from history books, public opinion, and the memory of the people, as if they had never appeared in this world.
Chen Sheng’s heart suddenly trembled, his brows tightly knitted, his knuckles turning white.
He was all too familiar with the experiences of those anomalies.
An absurd yet utterly reasonable and horrific idea suddenly flooded his mind.
"Could these so-called ’anomalies’... be, like me, all transmigrators?"
"Specifically... hunting transmigrators?"
He sharply inhaled, the cold air chilling him to the core, making the hair on his body stand on end.
In this way, all the unreasonable parts suddenly became glaringly obvious.
This seemingly mundane world of Da Li, where even the Jianghu forces were thoroughly suppressed, appearing just like a standard ancient feudal dynasty, was actually a meticulously arranged fishing ground.
Aimed at catching transmigrators descending into this world!
A typical transmigrator arrived in this place, doing a little cement, gunpowder, mirror trio, and was already extremely striking.
If they possessed extraordinary power, in such an apparently low-martial world, they were likely to produce the illusion of invincibility, displaying their talents without restraint.
Much like that martial arts prodigy who claimed to be an Innate Major Sect Grandmaster, soon finding themselves exposed as "anomalous," becoming prey on Gu Youming’s chopping board.
On the contrary, in those high-martial, fantasy worlds, every transmigrator proceeded cautiously, advancing step by step, making it less likely for them to be exposed.
"So insidious!"
Chen Sheng’s back instantly broke into a cold sweat, the chill shooting up from his tailbone to his skull, spreading a coldness throughout his body.
He reflected on his initial plans, feeling increasingly alarmed.
Initially, he too intended to follow the path of "entering the court, being appointed as the state advisor, and being ordained as a Great True Master of Daoism," to increase his own luck and expand his power.
Never did he expect that this path had been walked by predecessors long ago.
And that pioneer, in the end, was delivered into the tiger’s mouth, personally hunted by Gu Youming, not leaving the slightest trace.
"Whew—"
Chen Sheng exhaled a long breath of turbid air, forcibly suppressing the tumultuous waves within his heart.
"Thankfully... thankfully I was careful and clandestine enough when spreading my teachings."
"In the eyes of others, I am no more than a Loose Cultivator Daoist pretending to be mysterious, only showing my Daoist skills when fully confident."
"And thankfully, my golden finger is strong enough."
"Allowing me, in a matter of a few months, to acquire the strength sufficient to protect myself as I have today."