Chapter 169: Liu Ruyan
The Shadow Hall.
A name whispered in the deepest, darkest corners of the Tian Yuan Empire, a place where the sun never shines and mercy is a concept long since rendered extinct.
It was a realm of shadows within shadows, a hidden pocket dimension where the laws of the empire held no sway.
Here, in a chamber that seemed to exist at the very edge of the void, Fairy Liu Ruyan was suspended in mid-air.
The sight was horrific.
She was crucified upon a pillar of obsidian that glowed with a pulsating, malevolent red light, with the heat radiating from the pillar was enough to melt common steel, designed to slowly char the spiritual essence of a cultivator until only a husk remained.
Yet, as the heat licked at her translucent skin, Liu Ruyan seemed strangely detached.
Her head hung low, her eyes glazed and staring blankly into the empty space beneath her, her breathing shallow but steady.
Just then, the silence of the chamber was broken by the sound of boots echoing against the cold stone floor as a man wearing a heavy black and purple cloak, with a hood that cast a permanent shadow over his features, approached her.
He stopped just beyond the heat-shimmer of the pillar, his presence cold and suffocating.
"Liu Ruyan... how do you feel?" the man asked, his voice was a rasping whisper that sounded like dead leaves skittering across a grave.
Liu Ruyan slowly lifted her head and gave a small smirk. It was thin, with her lips trembling as if struggling to maintain it, but sharp enough to cut the shadows.
"Nothing," she replied, her voice remarkably clear despite the circumstances. "I thought the infamous Shadow Hall was a place where nightmares were born. I thought you could actually torture this soul of mine. But it seems the tales of your infamy are greatly exaggerated. This heat? It’s barely enough to keep me warm."
The man chuckled, letting out a dry, grating sound. "Don’t worry, Fairy Liu. Those were just the appetizers. We are professionals here, but we have no desire to break your mind before you have given us exactly what we are asking for. A broken mind produces broken information, and we require the whole truth."
"Ah?" Liu Ruyan tilted her head, her blue eyes flickering. "I’ve told you a thousand times, I don’t know what you want. I am just a lowly alchemist, a wandering soul with no clan to back me and no treasure to my name. You can’t use me for ransom, and you certainly can’t use me for political leverage. You’re wasting your time."
"Don’t play coy with me!" the man’s voice turned suddenly, violently serious as the temperature in the room seemed to drop as his killing intent flared. "You have it, don’t you? The Imperial Flame Transformation Technique. The lost cultivation manual of the Burning Heaven Emperor. We know you were the last person to enter his secluded grotto before it collapsed. We know you possess the key to the most powerful fire-attribute technique in the history of the Central Region."
Liu Ruyan didn’t even flinch and just simply closed her eyes as if in deep thought, her expression serene despite the glowing pillar at her back.
After a moment, she shook her head slowly. "Nope. Never heard of it. Is that a new brand of spirit wine? Because if it is, I’d love a glass. I’m quite parched."
The man gritted his teeth, his gloved hands clenching into fists.
"Stubborn fool." With a sharp flick of his wrist, he activated a formation hidden in the ceiling.
Suddenly, a localized rain began to fall upon Liu Ruyan.
But this was no ordinary water, because as the droplets touched her spiritual body, a violent hissing sound erupted, and white steam billowed out from the points of contact.
The man smirked as he watched her flinch for the first time. "This rain... it is harvested from the tears of a Three-Legged Golden Crow during its final solar flare. It is the liquid essence of a dying sun. Just one drop of this can boil an entire ocean to nothingness. Imagine what it is doing to your fragile soul-veins."
Liu Ruyan gritted her teeth, her knuckles turning white where they were pinned to the pillar.
The pain was indescribable—it felt as though a thousand needles of molten fire were being driven through her nerves and into the core of her existence.
Her soul-body started to flicker and dim, the edges of her form fraying into spiritual sparks.
Seeing her struggle, the man flicked his wrist again, and the rain stopped as abruptly as it had begun.
He stepped closer, peering into her eyes. "What do you think? Still want to claim you don’t know what I’m talking about? That was only a light drizzle. I have an entire reservoir of solar tears waiting."
Liu Ruyan breathed heavily, her chest heaving as she fought to stabilize her spiritual essence, but even as her form trembled, she managed to pull her lips back into a jagged grin.
"Ah... boil an entire ocean? Man, I have to tell you... that’s exactly how hot I used to like my bathwater back when I was still alive and had a body. You’re going to have to try harder than a lukewarm shower, Shadow Master."
"LIU RUYAN!" the man roared, his patience snapping. "Do you really think we are fools?! We know your movements! You passed it on to that red-headed girl, didn’t you?! Huo Yue! If we weren’t so busy dealing with the movements of the Imperial Guard, we wouldn’t have bothered keeping you alive. We would have simply refined that girl’s soul into a memory-crystal and be done with it!"
Liu Ruyan blinked, a look of realization crossing her face before she began to chuckle, a low, melodic sound that mocked the man’s fury. "What a flimsy, pathetic excuse. Let’s call it what it really is, shall we? You aren’t ’busy.’ You’re terrified. I mentioned to you when you captured me that she is backed by the Shen Clan and you know that even the great Shadow Hall is nothing but a bug beneath the heel of the Slaughter Empress. You’re too afraid to go after the girl, so you decided to torture little old me for information you think I have, hoping for a shortcut."
The man went silent.
The truth hit the room with the force of a physical blow. Indeed, no matter how powerful the Shadow Hall was, no matter how influential the Immortal Clan backing their operations might be, they lacked the suicidal courage required to openly antagonize a girl related to the Shen Clan.
So directly going after her to take that cultivation technique is impossible.
So they can only resort to torturing Liu Ruyan until she spit it out. As for refining her and reading her memories...forget it, as a Saint level powerhouse, not to mention an Alchemist, her soul was incredibly powerful that if they tried to use Soul Search on her, she can resist it and even counter attack.
But the man could not bear being humiliated by a prisoner in his own dungeon, his pride as a high-ranking officer of the shadows was at stake.
"You think you’re safe because we need something from you?" He reached into his wide, silken sleeves and pulled out a small, glass vial.
Inside, a pale, translucent worm no larger than a grain of rice was writhing slowly.
He held it up so the red light of the pillar illuminated it for Liu Ruyan to see. "Do you know what this is?"
Liu Ruyan stared at the tiny creature, her smirk finally faltering, but remained silent, her eyes narrowing.
"It seems you do," the man said with a cruel delight. "This is a Soul-Eating Maggot. A spiritual parasite from the Nether-Void Realm. It doesn’t eat flesh, but eats the concept of self. It burrows into the soul-body, causing the essence to rot and decay from the inside out. The pain it inflicts is said to be beyond the comprehension of even the most hardened Saints. It is a torment that lasts for as long as the soul has a single thread of identity remaining."
"...You gonna put that in me?" Liu Ruyan asked, her voice tight.
The man chuckled, the sound vibrating with a dark, oily glee. "Kekeke... these are incredibly precious. It takes a thousand years of nursing in a graveyard of saints to produce just one. If you tell me the mantras of the Imperial Flame Transformation Technique right now, I wouldn’t bother wasting it on you. I might even give you a quick, clean end."
Liu Ruyan looked him dead in the eye and saw the desperation behind his cruelty.
She knew that if she gave him the technique, he would kill her anyway, and then he would use that power to grow strong enough to threaten the people she cared about.
She thought of Huo Yue, her "disciple" and daughter-figure, and she felt a surge of cold, stubborn fire.
She shook her head. "I have no idea what you’re talking about. Maybe you should try looking in the library? I hear they have books there."
The man’s grin turned purely, hideously cruel. "Then you leave me no choice. You’ve chosen the long road to oblivion."
Liu Ruyan chuckled one last time, her eyes defiant. "Do your worst, shadow-spawn. But hear me now: if I cry out in pain even once, then I’m your bitch. And I, Liu Ruyan, have never been anyone’s bitch."
The man walked toward her, the red light of the pillar casting his shadow over her small, crucified form.
He carefully unscrewed the vial and held it to her ear. "Do you know what’s so truly terrifying about these maggots, Liu Ruyan? They don’t stay alone. They multiply in seconds when they taste a soul as high-quality as yours."
He tipped the vial.
Liu Ruyan’s body instantly convulsed.
Her back arched against the burning obsidian as the maggot entered her spiritual ear.
Within seconds, the single parasite became a dozen, then a hundred, then a thousand.
They were visible beneath her translucent skin—pale, writhing shapes that began to dig through her spiritual flesh.
The pain was a tidal wave that drowned her mind, it was as if her very history, her memories, and her ego were being chewed on by tiny, jagged teeth.
White maggots started digging out of her spiritual eyes, her nose, and her mouth, only to burrow back in again.
It was an experience of such profound agony that her mind blanked out, her vision turning white.
Yet, as the man leaned in close to hear her beg, he heard nothing but the grinding of her teeth, even as her soul-body thrashed in its bonds, she did not let out a single cry.
"Impressive," the man chuckled, his voice filled with a sick fascination as he watched her suffer. "Truly impressive. Let’s see how long your will lasts when they reach your core. I have all the time in the world, Fairy Liu."
He sat down on a stone chair in the corner of the dark room, his eyes fixed on the writhing, silent soul on the pillar, waiting for the first scream that would signal his victory.
But Liu Ruyan, despite suffering this pain beyond comprehension, was only thinking of one thing;
Her disciple’s safety.