The man in black let out a shrill scream, feeling as if thousands of tiny needles were piercing his eyes.
Xia De ordered the shadows holding the man's eyelids open to retract, finally allowing the man in black to move his eyes again.
However...
It hurt!!!
No matter how much he blinked or rolled his eyes to find some relief, the agonizing pain refused to subside.
Worse, the more he moved his eyes, the more they hurt, and the more they hurt, the more he instinctively tried to move them!
He was trapped in a vicious cycle.
Xia De stood by, silently watching the man writhe in unsightly agony, quietly listening to the wails echoing from his contorted face.
As time ticked by, about ten minutes passed.
Suddenly, the man in black stopped struggling. He lay on the ground like a dead dog, his swollen, bloodshot eyes completely devoid of life.
If not for the faint rise and fall of his chest as he breathed, one would easily mistake him for a corpse.
Seeing him on the verge of death, Xia De leaned over, his eyes narrowing into a smile as he asked, “Well? Are you ready to tell me now?”
The man in black panted weakly, squeezing out a few disjointed words from his mouth with great effort:
“I... will... never... betray...”
With just those few words, Xia De understood his stance.
He would not reveal their plans.
But Xia De wasn't discouraged. This wasn't the first time he had dealt with such stubbornness.
Thus, Xia De extended his hand, and a green magic circle materialized in his palm.
“Then let us continue the interrogation. Heal!”
A soft green light enveloped the man in black. His injuries began to mend, the swelling in his eyes subsided, and the pain gradually faded away.
But then, he heard Xia De speak once more.
“Wind.”
At first, he felt only a faint prickling sensation. But the pain quickly intensified until it felt as if countless ants were crawling over him, gnawing away at his flesh.
Before the man could even scream, Xia De dumped the remaining glass fibers floating in the air directly onto the fresh cuts carved by the wind blades.
Then, he had the shadow completely release him.
“Aaaaaaargh!!!”
The expected scream erupted, hoarse and agonizing, sounding like a wailing specter.
“I'll talk! I'll talk! Please, I beg of you, spare me!”
Desperate to avoid experiencing that hellish agony again, the man in black thrashed on the ground, begging Xia De.
Hearing his pleas, Xia De looked at him with a face full of disappointment and said,
“Giving up so soon? Honestly, I still have plenty of other methods. Why don't you hold out a bit longer and try to experience them all?”
A demon!
Xia De's words almost made the man in black curse aloud. If his mana hadn't been sealed, he would have committed suicide on the spot just to escape.
But along with that came a deep, paralyzing dread. He finally realized it.
This man was a demon.
Even when the Demon God Cult tortured people, they only went as far as severing fingers, pulling tendons, or crushing bones. Yet the demon before him had actually developed some unknown powder that could inflict such excruciating agony.
Just one of his methods made him wish he were dead. He couldn't begin to imagine how cruel the remaining tortures would be.
And so, enduring the pain, he struggled to push himself up and knelt before Xia De, begging for mercy.
“My lord, I was wrong! I'll tell you everything! I'll confess everything! Whatever you want to know, I'll say it all! Please, just give me a swift death!”
“Then spit it out already! Didn't I already tell you that I wanted to know your objective this time?”
Xia De felt a wave of exhaustion. He thought back to the others he had interrogated before and couldn't help but wonder.
Why did everyone in this world feel the need to babble so much nonsense at the end of an interrogation?
He had clearly stated his objective from the very beginning.
Yet they always had to drag it out, wasting precious time.
“Hmm, I should research some soul-related magic later and develop a Soul Search technique,” Xia De decided silently.
After making up his mind, he quietly stared at the man in black, gesturing for him to continue.
“The Cult's objective in Toka City this time is to test the efficacy of the Demonic Seed.
After years of research, the Cult created the Demonic Seed, which contains a trace of the Demon King's power. It can significantly boost the strength of any living creature and help peak Tier Seven entities more easily comprehend the true ‘Laws’ of heaven and earth.
However, after using the Demonic Seed, one's mind will be eroded, and negative emotions will be infinitely amplified. It also forces absolute loyalty to the Demon King. That said, this method cannot yet achieve complete control over Tier Eight magical beasts.
The Crack-Rock Bear King's sanity would occasionally resurface, but I used my words to provoke him, letting the Demonic Seed amplify his hatred for humans so he wouldn't break free from our control.”
“After the Bear King absorbed the Demonic Seed, we leveraged his hatred for humans to trigger a monster tide to attack Toka City.
This was also our way of testing the Demonic Seed's effectiveness. Not only would it test the seed's enhancement capabilities, but it would also display the Demon God Cult's power to the entire continent.”
“Just you, a Tier Seven, Rank Five, and a bear that only recently reached Tier Eight?” Xia De asked.
Even though the man in black felt Xia De's utter contempt, he didn't dare show even a hint of anger. He continued to speak submissively:
“No, no, no! There are several Tier Eight Calamity-class powerhouses stationed in the city. The Demon God Cult is fanatical, but we aren't stupid; we wouldn't just send ourselves to our deaths.
The only two Tier Eight Cardinals in our Cult went to stall those Tier Eight powerhouses, while the rest of our members, who had already ambushed the city, were supposed to cooperate and cause chaos.
But for some unknown reason, a massive number of adventurers who should have been out on quests gathered in the city instead. Furthermore, those bastards from the Holy Light Church suddenly began a Demon-Purging Operation, and the Count's estate declared citywide martial law.
Because of this, our plan to incite chaos failed.”
“A collective operation? Could there be some danger I haven't noticed yet?”
Xia De pondered in confusion, deciding that he would thoroughly search Toka City once he returned.
“Still, Tier Eight Cardinals, you say?”
Xia De murmured softly. A faint light flashed in his eyes, and a map of everything within a hundred-kilometer radius materialized in his mind. Then, he found them.
Just beyond the other side of Toka City, about eighty kilometers away from his current location,
an intense battle was raging. Judging by the aura radiating from the combatants, they were unmistakably Tier Eight.
Toka City's Tier Eight powerhouses were locked in a fierce struggle against the two Tier Eight Cardinals of the Demon God Cult.
Meanwhile, another powerhouse who had recently reached Tier Eight remained in the city to maintain order and prevent any riots.
Upon spotting the two Tier Eight Cardinals of the Demon God Cult, a terrifying smile spread across Xia De's face, making him look like a demon straight from the abyss.
Then, under the terrified gaze of the man in black, a blue magic circle materialized around Xia De. He extended his slender hand toward a certain direction and gently clenched his fingers in the empty air.
A moment later, two elderly men in black robes, their faces pale with sheer terror, materialized right in front of him.
Back on the distant battlefield, every Tier Eight powerhouse locked in combat was suddenly gripped by absolute terror.
During their clash, a colossal hand that literally blotted out the sky had suddenly materialized above them, leaving everyone paralyzed with fright.
Beneath this massive hand, every Tier Eight powerhouse felt as insignificant as an ant. Their Calamity-class instincts screamed in frantic warning.
Violent winds whipped against their faces as the overwhelming aura of death enveloped them.
Then, the giant hand gently swept down, grabbing the two terrified Tier Eight Cardinals of the Demon God Cult before vanishing into thin air.
With the giant hand gone, the remaining powerhouses panted heavily, their faces filled with shock and lingering dread.
The strongest among them, Count Toka, stared at the empty sky with horror. With a grim expression and a trembling, fearful voice, he muttered, “Was that... a Cataclysm?”
On the other side, Xia De clenched his fist. The two Demon God Cult Cardinals who had been suddenly abducted didn't even have time to scream before they were instantly crushed into a mist of blood.
They hadn't even figured out what was happening.
Since he already had one source to extract information from, Xia De had no interest in wasting his breath interrogating others.
Unless absolutely necessary, he was never one to exchange idle chatter with his enemies.
“I didn't expect your Demon God Cult to actually have Tier Eight powerhouses, and they weren't weak either—one was Tier Eight, Rank Four, and the other was Tier Eight, Rank Five,” Xia De remarked casually.
Witnessing Xia De effortlessly crush the two Tier Eight Cardinals to death, the man in black's terror intensified, completely overriding the physical pain in his body.
Rate on N.U.
