Chapter 74

Xuan Xe yelled: “You’re being crazy! I go away for a little bit, and now you’re going to kill that little man?!” Xuan Xe growled. He had temporarily closed himself away, never expecting he would emerge to such a strange situation.

He could tell Ling Luo was being dominated by his emotions, losing all clear-headedness.

Ling Luo was so strong. If he completely lost hold of himself, the energy flowing within him, there could be a vicious rampage, with untold damages. Destroying who knew what and killing people.

Xuan Xe needed to help Ling Luo rein in his rage. Snap Ling Luo back awake.

Hearing Xuan Xe’s roaring, Ling Luo registered Lin Xiao’s pale face.

The original Lin Xiao had been a young, soft, and innocent boy. The Lin Xiao in front of Ling Luo was wan and feeble. Seemingly powerless.

Ling Luo couldn’t stop his momentum, but lowered his aim from the heart. And pierced straight into Lin Xiao’s dantian (core).

Lin Xiao bit his lips and a hollow moan caught in his throat. He stared wildly at Ling Luo. He had never imagined Ling Luo wouldn’t kill him, but instead destroy his dantian.

A cultivator’s dantian…without his dantian, he was nothing. Unable to cultivate. A waste.

Ling Luo pulled out the qi from Lin Xiao’s body, and Lin Xiao couldn’t help groaning again.

Kneeling on the ground, Lin Xiao tried to cover the gaping wound with his hands. His eyesight blurring, he looked up narrowly at Ling Luo’s face.

The trees laid jumbled on the ground, and Ling Luo’s back was to the sun, casting his shadow. Lin Xiao saw the face from his previous life and the face before him now mockingly merge together.

Lin Xiao smiled bitterly. What new life? Wasn’t everything just repeating?

Cannon fodder will be cannon fodder, no matter how many times they’re reborn.

He sighed softly, not anticipating the pain rippling through his body from just the slightest movement. His sight got foggier and foggier and he opened his mouth to make one last plea for the lives of his family.

But he couldn’t form the words.

He swayed, then fell to ground, raising a little dust.

……

Lin Xiao had assumed his death. After taking his dantian, Ling Luo would surely finish him off. Yet his eyes opened again, and he found himself in a cave.

He was laying on a stone bed, no strength in his body. He touched his lower abdomen, where his wound had been. The surface had healed, but his dantian was still destroyed. He was now no different from any regular person. In fact, thanks to his injury, his health was likely worse than an ordinary person.

Grimacing, Lin Xiao propped himself on the bed and then sat up.

The lay out of the cave was very simple. There was nothing but the stone bed. No way out, or in, to be seen. Light was shining, but with no visible source.

Lin Xiao coughed helplessly. He was so weak that even just sitting up on the bed became a difficult task.

“Dantian is dead. You’re very pitiful. How much did you provoke the master?”

Hearing the voice, Lin Xiao suddenly realized where he was. The crisp tone belonged to that qiling (spirit) Ling Luo had subdued…

No wonder the cave seemed so surreal, he was in a construction of the qiling.

Lin Xiao didn’t reply to the qiling. He could only smile bitterly to himself. Ling Luo had cured his wound, then thrown him here for the qiling to take care of?

Why did Ling Luo keep him alive? So he could slowly torture Lin Xiao?

Lin Xiao closed his eyes. Sitting up was too hard, he sluggishly reclined back down.

Anyway, as someone who has already died once, and now lost his dantian, what did Lin Xiao have to be afraid of? As long as Ling Luo spared his family, he could accept any abuse. He’d be dead, one way or the other.

The qiling, being ignored, did not try to talk to Lin Xiao anymore.

Lin Xiao lay there, surrounded by a terrible, impenetrable silence.

People stuck in a dim and sealed environment were liable to lose their vitality, Lin Xiao being no exception. Maybe if he had still had his cultivation, he could have endured better. But now he was inferior to even an average person.

To Lin Xiao, the isolated days in the cave were a torment worse than death.

Stretched out on the stone bed, struggling to even just get up. The only thing to see when he opened his eyes were the stone walls enfolding him.

When he would ask the qiling how much time had passed, he received no reply.

The only thing he got was one meal a day, enough that he didn’t starve.

He felt that he was gradually going crazy. He gained a new understanding of why solitary confinement was used on prisoners. No one to converse with, nothing to do, only never-ending monotony.

Eventually, he couldn’t even lament his fate. His emotions withered away, until he didn’t want to eat, he didn’t want anything, but…He wanted simply to die.

The rations he received every day on the stone bed, if he didn’t eat them, they stayed there, even when the new meal appeared. Lin Xiao started placing the food underneath the stone bed. He went five or six meals without eating, until he didn’t even have the strength to move the unwanted food away.

Staring blindly, Lin Xiao felt himself slowly drifting away.

It was good enough, to pass like this.

Then a figure appeared before his sight. Struggling to comprehend, Lin Xiao realized it was Ling Luo.

Ling Luo stared down at Lin Xiao with a cold, angry expression.

Without saying a word, Ling Luo grabbed Lin Xiao and shoved a dan medicine in Lin Xiao’s mouth. Then made Lin Xiao to swallow.

With a chilling smile, Ling Luo said: “Since you don’t like your food so much, don’t eat it in the future.” Ling Luo waved a hand, and all the leftover meals disappeared.

The dan forced on Lin Xiao warmly flowed down Lin Xiao’s throat and into his body, restoring a little strength. The dan was probably one that could replace food.

Ling Luo was unwilling to let him die.

A pressing question came to Lin Xiao. His voice hoarse from not drinking or talking for many days, he questioned, “My family?” Ling Luo hadn’t killed him yet, did he plan to start with Lin Xiao’s family?

Ling Luo sneered, saying nothing.

Lin Xiao’s heart sank. This scornful Ling Luo was the Ling Luo that Lin Xiao remembered from his previous life. The Ling Luo who dealt harshly with his enemies.

“I haven’t had time for your family,” Ling Luo spoke suddenly. “But they don’t want to let me go. How many people have your family sent to hunt me down?”

For a split second, Lin Xiao had had hope, but at Ling Luo’s last sentence, Lin Xiao’s chest tightened.

His previous life, after his death, his father had sought revenge on Ling Luo. But then Lin Xiao’s father was destroyed by Ling Luo also. Was it all happening again? Agitation gripped Lin Xiao.

And then Ling Luo’s hands left Lin Xiao’s body, as Ling Luo vanished without warning.

Lin Xiao, not able to support himself, fell back on the stone bed.

He covered his eyes. He could not escape, not as he was, with no cultivation. All he could do was beg. Beg Ling Luo not to hurt his father, his family.

……

It wasn’t long before Ling Luo appeared again, face still icily indifferent. He roughly pulled Lin Xiao up off the bed, then started dragging him. A flash of light. And Lin Xiao was somewhere else.

Sunlight was streaming, hurting Lin Xiao’s eyes. He hid them behind his hands, until they adjusted. Looking around, he found himself in a large room.

Ling Luo still stood there. When Lin Xiao met his gaze, Ling Luo apathetically stated: “Stay well.” Then disappeared yet again.

What the hell was going on? Lin Xiao was utterly confused. And there was no one to answer his questions. Carefully walking to the door, Lin Xiao reached out his hand and pushed.

The door slid open. Ling Luo hadn’t locked it.

Lin Xiao can leave?