89 Confessions

After hearing each one of his subordinates being tortured, their shrill cries and screams brought chills coiling down his spine. A cold sweat also broke over his brow. However, he could still endure as the scene of carnage had been at his back. He had not witnessed it first hand and thus could fool himself into thinking those men had been weak, giving his heart courage.

Most, when torturing for information, opted to first peel back one's fingernails and then break the finger itself. They would then visit the same torturous session upon one's toes. One's teeth being picked out with pliers was also a common choice.

Having such a high cultivation, Wei Ping felt that he could halve the pain of such methods, getting through the torture without needing to utter a word. Their master had such a wonderful doctor at his side that, even if he suffered, he could be restored to his original state.

As he could not see behind him, he was not aware that one by one his and Ruang Ning's subordinates perished under An Ying's ruthless hand. Wei Ping wasn't aware of the severity of the torture until it was the turn of the unlucky scholar to the side of him.

As heard from the turns of the others before, An Ying asked his question. "Who are you working for and why have you targeted my master?" Once the question was not met with a satisfactory response he, without preamble, separated a finger from its place without giving way to the move that took it.

Faced with a front row viewing, his face blanched as he tried to force the rising bile back down his throat. Though he cut a heroic figure, his courage was that of a mouse. From that first ruthless, unconventional, move Wei Ping was already witless enough to spill his guts.

However, even though he tried to speak out, his voice fell soundless from his lips. It was from that horror that he realized his throat had been sealed. Even though he panicked and struggled and did everything he could to attract attention, to let it be known he was willing to speak, An Ying didn't give him a single moment of notice. Like an insignificant bug to be ignored.

He could only watch as An Ying switched between slicing away slivers of arm flesh and tearing fingers from their place. The worst of it was when that heinous spirit sliced into the skin, beneath the veins, and carved them out to dangle from his wrist.

No, Wei Ping took that back, the worst of it was the screams that sounded as if his very soul was being shredded apart. Although Ruang Ning's cultivation was a step above his own, he wasn't able to overcome the pain at all. He even suspected that An Ying had done something to heighten his sense of pain.

He was terrified and wanted to spill everything, but there was nothing he could do about it.

So, when Li Yu Rong appeared and An Ying's attention taken away from his task of torture, he felt a tad bit of hope. While Li Yu Rong was a terrifying devil at least he could be reasoned with. Now that the killing aura falling off the spirit, An Ying, had been muted due to his master's presence, Wei Ping struggled with all his might to scream.

"I'll talk, I'll tell you, just please let me go!"

A bloodthirsty grin spread across his lips as his dual-colored eyes glittered with dark emotions, it was enough to make one feel suffocated by bearing the weight of its gaze. Li Yu Rong halted An Ying's actions, slowly making his way toward the strung up Wei Ping.

"Are you sure you want to be questioned by me, my methods aren't as nice as An Ying's."

Wei Ping tried to shake his head, but couldn't manage it. "I-I'm not, I'm n-not playing g-games," he vehemently denied, "I p-promise I'll tell the t-truth of everything I know." Ah, faced with Li Yu Rong's stare and horrific words, it felt as if the cold hands of hell were trailing down his spine.

If he weren't bound as tightly as he were, he would be shuddering all over as he fled the scene as far as he could run.

Li Yu Rong's hands came together behind his back. He didn't move forward but remained where he was standing. Even so, his presence was so overwhelming he might as well have been sitting on Wei Ping's chest.

"Go ahead, lie and see how well you regret."

Not allowing himself to consider the meaning of those words for fear his mouse-like courage would snap, Wei Ping began to babble out everything. "You weren't able to get anything out of them, and won't get anything out of Ruang Ning or I-" his eyes widened and his bladder nearly failed him as An Ying made his way toward him in a threatening manner that he spat everything out as fast as he could.

"Our master placed a spell on us! Or, rather, its an array burned onto backs. We can't speak of his identity, his appearance, or anything else he had explicitly said not to mention... so even if you torture us to death it would impossible to get it out.

"But that doesn't mean that there's nothing I can tell you. For instance, the fact the Gate Guardians, or Spirit Masters, as we're called in the Mortal Realm, inherit the position from father to son is a lie. Master placed us in these positions. You weren't supposed to be able to sit in this seat, yet somehow the Palace of the Four Gates in Jiang An Country accepted you."

As Wei Ping spoke out all the secrets he knew, An Ying swiftly went behind him to verify whether or not there was an array burned into the flesh of his back. Cutting the robe with a swift strike revealed puckered and upraised skin in a designed equation that spoke of absolute obedience.

Nodding toward his master, An Ying returned to his side as the weak-kneed Gate Guardian couldn't handle his close proximity. For his part, Wei Ping managed to keep his calm through it all, as he focused speaking his piece so that he could live to see another day.

"M-M-Master was v-very upset b-by that, but as there were things he had to do, he didn't do anything in the beginning. I don't know why he suddenly chose now, but he had the rest of us lie in wait here, to take you down. Not only that, master has plans to move the people in the Mortal Realm and Spirit Realm against each other. I don't know much about that plan though, I'm not sure what he intends to do. He just mentions it from time to time."

Wei Ping kept on, spitting out everything he knew. Even if it were merely a vague or unclear piece of knowledge.

"Oh! It was a double-pronged attack, by the way. As we took care of you here, the others were to lay siege to your Palace of the Four Gates. I don't know what the aim was for it, as I was only told so far as what concerned my own mission...

"T-T-That's all I can tell you...." his voice trailed off to a small, muted whisper as he awaited Li Yu Rong's answer to his fate.

After taking a moment to digest the dialogue confessed to him, Li Yu Rong waved off An Ying. "Let them go." The three Ying spirits moved to release the array and free the two Gate Guardians, the only survivors, and then tidied up the carnage around them.

The position of Gate Guardian couldn't be left open. It was a seat of power that safeguarded an entire nation. It wasn't something that could easily be replaced. Therefore, though it would save him trouble in the long run, he didn't kill the pair.

Done with his questioning, having gotten the best answer he could, Li Yu Rong pulled the sleeping Asya from the cart. As he walked toward where they docked the boat, he said to those lingering behind him.

"Once you're through here, we'll leave to Paoxiao's village."

Hearing that, Paoxiao said nothing as he quietly pulled the cart holding his sister's coffin to also board the boat. Soon, he would be able to bring Xianmei back home.