"Madman!"
Lin Xie frowned, his face looking extremely displeased.
He couldn't help but glance at Nan Shiying, expecting her to smash his bones in anger. Yet, the person before him seemed to have anticipated his reaction, her expression calm and composed, devoid of any emotion.
She simply sighed leisurely, shrugged her shoulders, and murmured in exasperation, "I thought I could extract something more, what disgusting insects!"
As she spoke, she turned her gaze towards Yu Dabu's relatives, offering them a smile. "You all heard it, right? To thank Lord Yu, I will also take good care of you. But no rush, I have one more gift for Lord Yu!"
She looked at Lin Xie, who blinked slightly, then understood what gift she was referring to.
Lin Xie clapped his hands. The Langhuan Army escorted a group of people into the hall once more. These were girls in their late teens and young children around four or five years old.
"Nannan, Lantian, my child, my child!"
A woman, upon seeing her two daughters, scrambled to her feet from the ground and lunged towards them.
"Mother!"
The girls, having gone through hardships and finally returning home, embraced their mother, burying themselves in her chest and crying profusely, as if to shed all the fear and grievances of the past days.
Cries erupted one after another. Most of the victims who came to the hall were parents who had recently lost their children. Those whose children had gone missing years ago had long since had their hopes extinguished through their relentless search.
The man whose daughter had been missing for three years covered his eyes with his hands and wept silently. He had not found his daughter.
"My Lord, our, our children?"
"I apologize!"
All Nan Shiying could say was "I apologize."
Those children would not be coming back.
"My Lord, our children, have they… have they already…"
They choked on their words, unable to speak.
"Yes, they are already dead, long dead!"
Yu Dabu replied fiercely, his eyes wide, his features contorted and twisted, his mouth almost splitting to his ears. Only by witnessing their pain, their despair, could he alleviate the hatred in his heart.
"Do you know how they died? They were stripped naked like livestock, their throats slit and bled dry. Hahaha, the blood dripped onto the ground drop by drop. Do you know how beautiful that sound was?"
"Hahahahaha, hahahahahahaha~"
His crazed laughter echoed throughout the hall. Not only the families of the victims but also the onlookers, commoners, and the yamen runners, wished they could flay this beast Yu Dabu alive.
Nan Shiying stepped forward, then again, and again, until Yu Dabu's mouth was a bloody mess, before she stopped. She then crouched down, gripping Yu Dabu's chin. Her voice, like the chilling wind scraping across ice, was exceedingly sinister. "Open your eyes and look properly, see what gift I've brought you!"
She pried open Yu Dabu's eyes and twisted his head. The cook walked to a corner of the hall, dragged out the corpse of a man in a black robe, and placed it before Yu Dabu. The cook thoughtfully cut open the black-robed man's clothes, revealing a wound the size of a bowl on his chest. "Look, this is the gift I've brought you!"
"No, no… this is impossible!"
There were twelve people whose hearts had been gouged out, matching the number of the final sacrifice. Yu Dabu clearly understood what this meant, yet he refused to believe it. He refused to believe that the final sacrifice had also encountered problems. This was their last chance. Zi Zhu had only bred two batches, and one had already been destroyed. If this sacrificial ritual also encountered issues, then all their planning and schemes over the years would be in vain, their efforts ruined.
"You're lying to me, this isn't true. The sacrifices would not have problems, absolutely not!"
Yu Dabu, like a trapped beast cornered to desperation, saw his beliefs almost collapse at one point. The only thing supporting him now was to deny everything before him.
His state was truly amusing.
Nan Shiying watched his near-breakdown with leisurely amusement. She pointed to her own face and said to Yu Dabu, "I was one of the last batch of sacrifices captured."
"Surprised?"
Yu Dabu's eyes were about to burst. He roared, as if his throat was filled with blood. His face was as ferocious as a mad dog ready to devour someone.
Unfortunately, he was unable to move.
Watching him go mad, watching his anger, watching his despair, Nan Shiying finally felt a sense of trampling someone underfoot. For such fanatics who did not fear death, who even regarded death and torture as proofs and badges of their devotion to the Spider God, only by completely shattering their faith and their convictions could they be made to understand despair and torture.
Nan Shiying waved her hand, feeling a bit weary. The cook bent down, lifted Yu Dabu, removed the black robe's clothes, bound his hands, and stuffed shattered wooden planks into Yu Dabu's mouth to prevent him from biting his tongue and committing suicide.
After finishing these actions, the cook held his head, forcing him to look forward.
The Langhuan Army lifted a young man around twenty years old and brought him before Nan Shiying.
Ying Yi drew his sword and pierced the man's wrist.
"Ah!"
The man let out a cry of pain.
"Speak, what do you know!"
"I…"
The man opened his mouth but did not continue. Ying Yi swung his sword again, slicing off his left ear.
"Speak!"
"I don't know, I really don't know!"
Ying Yi unfastened his collar and cut off a piece of flesh from his chest. Nan Shiying threw Ying Yi a bottle of medicine. Ying Yi opened the bottle cap and sprinkled the powder onto the man's wound.
In that instant, pain several times more intense enveloped the man, piercing him to the bone, agonizing to the soul.
His horrific screams echoed for a hundred feet, their sound piercing the heavens, chilling everyone to the bone!
"Don't, don't torture my son anymore. I know, I'll speak, I'll speak!" The man's mother could no longer bear to see her son suffer such inhuman torture. Since their years of planning had come to naught, what was the point of keeping these secrets? Better for everyone to die together!
"Mmm… mmm…"
Yu Dabu couldn't speak. He could only glare at the other person, his face threatening.
Nan Shiying smiled, picked up a broken arrow shaft, and thrust it into Yu Dabu's eye. With a "poof," it was like a lightbulb being pierced.
Blood spurted out directly. The cook raised his sleeve, shielding Nan Shiying from all the bloodstains.
Chen Zimo knew the other party was ruthless, but he hadn't expected them to be this ruthless. It seemed the other party had truly held back when he was in the cave.
Otherwise, he would have lost at least something from his body by now.