Chapter 276 : Impersonation (2)
"Kill Ke Cang Ju, and have you take his place." Jun Wu Xie narrowed her eyes as she revealed her plan.
Hua Yao and Qiao Chu felt the shock reverberate through their entire beings.
They never would have expected that Jun Wu Xie would even think about killing Ke Cang Ju the very first night she entered the Hidden Cloud Peak!
Jun Wu Xie might have stated her objective for coming to the Qing Yun Clan was to wipe out the whole Qing Yun Clan. But wasn't the speed the plans were being carried out a tad bit too fast!?
"Can it be done?" Qiao Chu stared at Jun Wu Xie stunned, unable to accept such shocking ideas coming from the petite and refined looking youth before him.
Jun Wu Xie frowned.
Hua Yao replied instead: "How do you intend to do it? I might be able to change my bones' structure, but I am unable to transform my skin. Even if I am to change my facial bone structure to be exactly like Ke Cang Ju, I won't be able to replicate that face."
"I have my ways." Jun Wu Xie looked at Hua Yao, "You do not have to do anything else, but to wait here."
Hua Yao stared at Jun Wu Xie a moment, as if guessing at her intentions. He decided not say anything further, and gave his silent consent.
The three young youths made their first pact of agreement in the dark, dank, and wet underground chamber. Their cooperation this time, was the start to the tangles that was destined to bind their lives.
At the earliest break of dawn, Jun Wu Xie and Qiao Chu left the underground chamber. Before they left, Jun Wu Xie witnessed Hua Yao drive the stakes into his body and hung himself back onto the hooks and bound himself to the chains.
He looked just as he had before they found him.
After a night of torment, the newly recruited youths were tired beyond words. Before Jun Wu Xie and Qiao Chu reached their quarters, they saw over twenty of the battered and exhausted youths leaning beside the water urns. At that moment, they seemed to have lost their spirit and energy, lying around like limp rag dolls, listless and limpid. Many of them were soaking wet and the buckets used to carry the water laid beside them, and they had no strength left to go on. Having gone hungry a whole day and night, the stomachs were growling furiously, and the night's hard labour and resulting exhaustion wringed every ounce of energy out from their bodies, and many of them had fallen asleep where they sat.
Jun Wu Xie's and Qiao Chu's arrival had not been noticed by anyone else and they conveniently picked a spot to sit down. Without anyone seeing, Jun Wu Xie pushed an elixir into the hands of Qiao Chu.
"What is this?" Qiao Chu looked at the greyish elixir in his hand, and then looked in puzzlement at Jun Wu Xie.
Jun Wu Xie glanced at Qiao Chu but did not feel like explaining. She picked up the elixir from Qiao Chu's hand and slapped her hand onto Qiao Chu's mouth, sending the elixir down the his throat, and swallowed an elixir herself.
"........." The extremely bitter elixir slipped down his throat and brought tears to Qiao Chu's eyes. He grimaced in agony as he stared at Jun Wu Xie, and pinched on his own nose.
This kid was simply straightforward and brutal!
When the first rays of light spilled onto the lands, the exhausted youths were stirred back to consciousness by the blinding light. The figures picked themselves up wearily and wobbled unsteadily into their sleeping quarters.
They was nothing else they wanted more than to go back and sink into their beds, and drink a few mouthfuls of water to flush away the hunger pangs.
Not a single one of them was able to complete the task set to them, and according to what the Hidden Cloud Peak senior had said, they would not have any breakfast either.
A pity but the torment had not ended. Just when the new recruits were dragging themselves back into the quarters, they were stopped by the senior disciples of the Hidden Cloud Peak who had just awoken.
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Chapter 277 : Impersonation (3)
"Have all of you finished it?" The fully refreshed disciple asked as he looked upon the group of wretched and exhausted youth, as an evil smile appeared on his lips.
The youths lowered their heads, unable to make a sound.
"What a bunch of losers! Since you can't even complete such a simple task, you can forget about breakfast! Now, go and get the water from the urns and water the herb beds!" Without allowing the ravaged youths any chance to rest, more torment was being heaped upon them.
Howls of protests sounded from those youths then.
"Senior, we are dying from exhaustion, and did not sleep a wink last night..... Can we sleep just a little before we go?" A braver youth among them pleaded for them.
The next moment, as soon as those words had left his mouth, the Hidden Cloud Peak disciple rushed at him and kicked him hard in the stomach, making the weakened youth double over and fell onto the floor, howling in pain.
"What a lazy bunch! These rules in the Hidden Cloud Peak are meant to be followed once you are admitted! Anyone who refuses to follow them can pack up and leave!" The Hidden Cloud Peak disciple looked at every single one of them in disdain and gave a cold laugh, the cruel look in his eyes did not even see those new recruits as humans anymore.
Under threat and fear..... made these totally exhausted youths huddle together, unable to argue further. They dragged themselves to their feet and straggled outside.
The Hidden Cloud Peak did not allow any outsiders to enter, and hence, no one knew what went on behind their firmly closed doors.
There was no one to come save these sacrificial lambs about to be sent to slaughter.
"Say, if these guys knew they would be tortured to death by the Hidden Cloud Peak, would they still cling on so desperately to be admitted into the Hidden Cloud Peak?" Qiao Chu walked slowly out of the quarters and looked at the figures before him walking unsteadily, his eyes inquisitive.
Ke Cang Ju was a bad egg, but these scoundrels were no angels as well. When they had just come to the Hidden Cloud Peak, they had sneered and jeered at him and Jun Wu Xie. He doubted they had the energy to do that anymore.
Jun Wu Xie did not say anything. She lowered her eyes and looked at the ground before her feet.
A place like this, totally disgusted her every moment she was here.
And since it disgusted her that much, she would totally wipe the place out!
Qiao Chu waited for Jun Wu Xie to reply but she did not say a word. He then turned his head and suddenly saw that Jun Wu Xie's pink cheeks had lost all colour, and her lips were deathly white!
"Jun Xie! You....." Qiao Chu had just opened his mouth to speak when he suddenly felt the world spin around him. Before he could react, he involuntarily fell flat on his face onto the ground.
Two loud thuds alerted the youths who were walking before them. They turned their heads to see and found that the trailing pair of Qiao Chu and Jun Wu Xie had fainted, as they lay flat on the ground. They had shown no prior signs of fatigue but their faces were now deathly pale and the dry cracked lips were white!
"H..... help! Some people fainted!" Shouts erupted from the group of youths.
The Hidden Cloud Peak disciples were drawn to the noise and they immediately spotted Jun Wu Xie and Qiao Chu lying at the side of the path the moment they stepped out.
For just a brief moment, a flash of malicious glee flashed within the eyes of the disciples of the Hidden Cloud Peak, but it disappeared very soon after.
They put on an exasperated face thereafter and reprimanded with disdain at the group of youths: "What a useless bunch this is! They are falling to pieces after just one night in the Hidden Cloud Peak! Get some people here and bring these two useless pieces of thrash back to Elder Ke. I can't believe they could be this hopeless! They are more trouble than they are worth and would only be a bother to the Elder!"
They bumbling group of youths looked with uncertainty at what was happening here. According to the senior Hidden Cloud Peak disciples, they would be sent to Elder Ke for treatment, and they were suddenly comforted by the fact that the Elder of the Hidden Cloud Peak took a personal interest in the well being of their disciples.....
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Chapter 278 : Impersonation (4)
That must be true! The Hidden Cloud Peak would never torment them like this without reason. This must be a test for them! If they can hold out a little longer, they would soon become a true disciple of the Hidden Cloud Peak!
After they told themselves that they would be treated by the Elder himself if they were to fall ill, their earlier complaints of exhaustion seemed to evaporate into the air. Some of them even started to anticipate eagerly for their bodies to succumb to exhaustion and be subjected to the 'treatment' from Elder Ke, and pushed their bodies beyond their limits.
The fantasy that enveloped the naive youths gave them renewed strength and their ravaged bodies were suddenly able to move as the youths moved out determined to succeed.
"Dumb pieces of trash." The Hidden Cloud Peak disciple muttered to himself as he stood at the entrance to the quarters, his eyes fixed on the naive sacrifices who were oblivious to the certain death that awaited them at the end of their disillusioned good fortune, as they trudged out to suffer further torment.
"Do we just send these two to the Elder?" A few Hidden Cloud Peak disciples walked over and kicked at the unmoving pair lying on the ground asked easily.
"Just send them up, I did not expect that there to be such weak ones among the sheep that would succumb to the torture on the very first night. They're sure out of luck." Without feeling any pity for the pair, two Hidden Cloud Peak disciples carried Qiao Chu and Jun Wu Xie, moving deeper into the peak.
As they made their way in, the disciples paid no attention to the injured pair and handled them roughly. After some time, they came before the same building that Qiao Chu and Jun Wu Xie had sneaked into last night.
The doors to the building were open and the guards at the doors allowed the disciples in without stopping them when the guards saw them carrying the two injured over their shoulders.
After they entered, Qiao Chu and Jun Wu Xie were thrown like sacks onto the hard floor.
With a boom, the doors to the building were then closed.
Qiao Chu lay flat on the ground, his face stuck to the dirty floor, his pale face in a grimace.
Will somebody tell him what was happening to him?
Why did he suddenly faint? What scared him more was that after he collapsed, he had remained conscious, and heard every single word of the conversation between the senior disciples. And no matter how hard he tried, he could not move a finger.
He had remained conscious, and his half closed eyes had allowed him to see everything that was going on. But he just could not..... move!
What kind of an elixir did Jun Xie give him? Why is he in such a state?
As Qiao Chu was feeling helpless and confused on the hard floor, he suddenly noticed a little shadow that suddenly flashed past before his eyes. The shadow nimbly jumped across the room and finally stopped before a shelf filled with medicinal jars.
It was a graceful little black cat, and its chest was decorated with a brilliant crest of gold!
The little black cat noticed Qiao Chu eyes as it licked its paws slowly and swished its tail lazily, before it jumped up to hide behind the jars of medicine.
Time passed, before the doors to the building were opened again. The sun shone in through the doors and lit the dim room with its light. A crooked figure shuffled to stand before the doors into the room, the light shining behind him.
"Stay alert and watch carefully, I do not want any disturbances." An evil chilling voice was heard, one that made anyone feel like they were dipped into the icy cold water of a winter lake.
Before the comforting sunlight could warm the cold hard floor, the doors to the room were shut tight once again!
The sharp jingle of bells sounded in the ears of Jun Wu Xie and Qiao Chu, and the sound gradually came closer to the two figures lying motionless upon the ground. The jingles of bells beat at their thumping hearts, its rhythm in tandem with their heartbeats.
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Chapter 279 : Fifth Slap (1)
Ke Cang Ju stood, his back hunched and his eyes narrowed as he stared at the two youths, his darkened lips curled in a cruel arc. He shook his hands and two lengths of chains slipped out from his voluminous sleeves. He secured the chains around the bellies of Qiao Chu and Jun Wu Xie, and dragged the unconscious pair towards the underground chamber.
After he left, a nimble black shadow slipped from behind the medicinal jars upon the shelf and followed, its small body blended into the darkness easily as it dove into the tunnel leading down into the chamber.
In the deep underground chamber, the nauseating smell of blood permeated throughout, mixed with the strong smell of herbs that assaulted one's sense of smell.
The crisply clear jingle of the bells followed Ke Cang Ju as he shuffled forward, and the two Hidden Cloud Peak disciples who were busying themselves within the underground chamber immediately dropped the tasks at at hand and went up to Ke Cang Ju when they heard him coming.
"Master." The two disciples bowed respectfully.
Ke Cang Ju released the chains around Jun Wu Xie and Qiao Chu and said to the two disciples: "Bring them over."
"Yes, Master."
The disciples picked up the two youths and carried them over to the raised wooden platforms at the side.
Two loud thuds sounded as the youths were thrown carelessly upon the wooden boards.
"Clean them up properly. I have new drugs to test on them." Ke Cang Ju let out a spine chilling cackle as he turned to walk further inside.
Within the dimly lit underground chamber, the torches flickered, and the pretty faced youth hung from the wall, his face pale. He was not moving, and it seemed as though he could be dead.
Ke Cang Ju lifted a water scoop from a bucket and splashed it heavily upon the youth.
The icy cold water woke the unconscious youth and he raised his head slowly, his eyes glinted with a trace of hatred, the tiny teardrop mole below his eye showing clearly on his face.
"I can see you are still very spirited. That's good. Let's play a different game today." Ke Cang Ju cackled maliciously, and pulled a thin cane from a bucket filled with a black gooey liquid. The cane was soaked through with the black liquid and it glistened darkly within the dim firelight, and thorns were embedded throughout its length.
This youth was from the previous batch of new recruits brought into the Hidden Cloud Peak last month. All the others from the same batch that had been brought in had already died under his hands. This youth had possessed exceptional life force and his vitality had far surpassed all the others. Even after more than two weeks' torture, he had remained alive.
The cane soaked in the poisonous black liquid was slashed upon the youth's tall slender body, every stroke left glaringly gashing red wounds as the thorns dug into his flesh. The black poison liquid stuck to the wounds and the red bloody gashes soon turned a dark purple.
"This is the poisonous cane that grows only on the Eastern Spirit Mountain, I collected and immersed them in the juice of the Heart Eroding Grass. The poisonous cane's barbed hooks might be sharp, but were rather brittle. They break off easily after just a few uses and lose its effectiveness. But when it is soaked in the juice of the Heart Eroding Grass, it hardens and strengthens the barbed hooks, making them unbelievably strong and increases its poisonous qualities greatly." As he continued lashing, Ke Cang Ju was immersed in his 'teaching' as he rattled on with his hoarse voice.
"The best thing about it is, the poison is not lethal enough to kill, but will induce unbearable pain and agony in the human body. The wounds it leaves behind will feel like thousands of ants biting away at the flesh. Hua Yao, have you remembered everything your Master had so painstakingly prepared for your lesson today?" The cane slashed mercilessly within the dim chamber, and Ke Cang Ju's eyes grew crazed, his face contorted in glee, and his breaths grew shorter as he got more and more excited.
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Chapter 280 : Fifth Slap (2)
The youth took on the slashes without uttering a single sound with his head lowered, as he clenched his jaw tight. Within the pair of pretty eyes, they did not show any trace of fear or terror, but flashed with a chill and showed defiant calm.
The endless cracks from the cane echoed throughout the underground chamber while the two disciples outside lowered their heads as they began to "prepare" the two newly arrived sacrificial sheep.
"That kid in there can really take it, he's actually still alive!" One of the disciples said indifferently, having gotten used to the daily tortuous experiments that happened daily in the underground chamber, and Hua Yao was the only one to still survive after more than ten days under the malicious hands of Ke Cang Ju. Before him, none had managed to last that long.
Forget ten days, none had lasted more than even five days! Basically, any of the new recruits sent here mostly die in three days and even if they miraculously survived, an outcome worse than death awaited them. Their vision and voices would be snatched away from them, becoming blind and mute, unable to utter a single word of protest or curse and immersed in the urns that were filled to the brim with poison. Death was actually a relief for these people.
"I took a look at him earlier this morning, he would not last much longer." The other disciple replied without any expression.
"I wonder how long these two sheep here would last, two days? Or three days..... This kid here had looked rather thin, but he is actually rather muscular." The disciple exclaimed as he cut up Qiao Chu's clothes. Under the tattered tunic, his firm muscular chest glistened under the dim flickering torches, as the disciple admired for a little longer before he reached out his hand and stroked Qiao Chu's chest when he could not resist it any longer. The disciple, absorbed in his admiration and the feeling that lingered on his fingertips, had not noticed that the sacrificial sheep that laid there, had seemed to shiver from his touch.
The other disciple pouted at his partner's luck as he stared at the petite and skinny specimen of a boy before him, and was about to begin with his task in disdain.
"I don't know about yours, but this one here, should be lucky if he could even last through today."
As he spoke, he picked up the blade, raised his hand and was about to cut through the clothes when his hand was back in mid action.
The disciple froze, the shock paralyzing him a moment, as he looked in disbelief at the small hand that was gripped on his wrist!
That hand, belonged to the little brat that lay before him.
"Little Black." Jun Wu Xie, who had been unconscious just a second ago suddenly snapped her cold and chilling eyes open, and with a low call, a massive black shadow had suddenly appeared in the underground chamber!
The two disciples had been rather laid back and relaxed when suddenly, they spotted the big black beast, but it had pounced on them from within the shadows fast as lightning before they could react and pinned them firmly onto the ground!
How did such a huge beast get into this underground chamber?
And they had not even noticed anything at all!
The daggers that they held within their hands had dropped on the ground when the massive beast had pounced on them, and it held them both down under a paw each pressed against their necks, its sharp claws digging into their carotid artery. A little more pressure, and the beast would have taken their lives!
Everything had happened too fast, and they only glimpsed a massive shadow before they found themselves pinned, and were unable to react in the slightest.
"Hear them utter one word and kill them." The cold clear voice sounded in the ears of the two Hidden Cloud Peak disciples and their eyes widened in fear when they saw where the voice had come from.
A small petite figure sat up slowly on the wooden platform unhurriedly. The small youth who had been unconscious just moments ago now sat there looking at them with eyes that sent a chill deep into their bones as they lay on the floor, not daring to move a muscle.
Gulp.