Chapter 232: Chapter 232: Pseudo-Evil
Suppressing the nausea in his heart, Shen Hao stood up and walked out of the darkness, took a fire stick handed over by Old Dog, walked up to the human wax figure, and lit the wick protruding from its mouth.
The wick ignited instantly, and terror filled the eyes of the human wax figure; after seeing the flame truly burning from his own mouth, his gaze instantly became vacant.
Dead. Either tortured to death or scared to death.
At the same time, Shen Hao took a deep breath. In a flash, a mass of dark green mist was inhaled into his mouth. No one among the surrounding executioners seemed to notice.
Sweeping his gaze around, Shen Hao asked again in an icy tone, "So? Are you all planning to turn into human wax as well, or will you open your mouths and cooperate?"
Unless their brains had been completely washed, after witnessing the utterly inhuman process of making human wax just now, anyone would be terrified—especially if someone threatened to use the exact same method on them.
Maybe the scare still isn’t enough?
Seeing the three remaining prisoners still refuse to speak, Shen Hao didn’t bother with more words. He waved his hand, said, "Continue," and sat back down in the shadows.
Old Dog was delighted—not only did he get another chance to hone his human wax skills, but he could also show off in front of higher-ups. It was totally worth learning this craft back in the day; really gave him face.
"Wait! I’ll talk, I..."
Shen Hao remained silent. Old Dog glanced back, then grinned wickedly, but kept his hands busy at work.
"I’m confessing! I’m confessing, you can’t do this to me, ah..."
Screams, curses, and cries for mercy rang out again in the dungeon—from ear-piercing to barely audible. At last, the second human wax figure was finished.
As before, Shen Hao personally lit the wick in the mouth of the human wax, sending the soul off for the last time. Then he took a deep breath and furtively devoured another life soul without anyone noticing.
By now, Shen Hao no longer felt much psychological resistance toward devouring life souls.
Over the course of one afternoon, two out of four criminals had turned into human wax. The brutality of the scene wrenched at the heart.
"Does anyone want to talk now? If you confess, you’ll have a quick death—no more torture. If you don’t, you’ll die anyway, and you saw for yourselves how that ends," Shen Hao’s voice echoed from the dark corner, making the remaining men in their cells blanch to the color of paper.
To speak or not to speak?
It seemed there was nothing left to struggle for.
"I... I’ll confess..."
Once one person broke, the other left couldn’t hold out either. Maybe they weren’t afraid of dying, but they were terrified of what would be done to them before death. A fate worse than death was more frightening.
Shen Hao let out a few cold laughs inside, then quietly watched his men interrogate them. That night, two fresh confessions were obtained under Shen Hao’s watchful gaze.
Just as Shen Hao had suspected, these mysterious captured cultivators were indeed inseparable from Evil Cultivators—or one could say they were an outer branch of the Evil Cultivators’ organization.
The one who’d gone by the alias "Ma San" was actually named Feng San Kui. He wasn’t a leader, just a temporary contact. The others’ relationship to Feng San Kui was sort of like "sect brothers," except there was no real camaraderie—though they learned the same things, there wasn’t much fellowship between them.
The story was long; it stretched back twenty years. And even then, "twenty years" was only the earliest period these two knew of—the real beginning might’ve been even earlier.
In the beginning, all these people were nobodies at the bottom of the cultivation realm—no talent, no resources, no family fortune. They barely scraped by working hard enough to maintain a cultivator’s dignity, hoping to retire as a village landlord if they got lucky. But which cultivator really wanted that kind of ending?
Later, a cultivator calling himself Master Bai Gu appeared, gathering many bottom-tier loose cultivators and teaching them a cultivation method that could partially ignore talent—The Five Poison Cyan Smoke Technique.
One after another, these loose cultivators began breaking through bottlenecks they’d never hoped to overcome, advancing level after level—some even broke out of the Qi Refining Realm to reach the Gathering Spirit Realm, something they’d never dared dream of before. In their hearts, Master Bai Gu became a Land Immortal with godlike means, the object of utmost reverence.
But the Five Poison Cyan Smoke Technique wasn’t without its flaws. Since it largely ignored the user’s innate talent, many people’s souls couldn’t withstand the resulting cultivation growth and simply shattered. Soon, a saying emerged: "Three practice it, one survives"—out of three who practiced, only one would survive in the end.
Also, practicing the Five Poison Cyan Smoke Technique required taking a drug called the Barrier-Breaking Pill.
Shen Hao ordered people to bring out the storage bags confiscated from the prisoners. Inside, sure enough, were medicine bottles. When opened up, they revealed grape-sized dark green pills—no odd smell, and definitely not an elixir. But the moment Shen Hao saw this kind of pill, a faint sense of "hunger" welled up inside him. It was weak but he clearly felt it.
Shen Hao was unsettled; the fact that he felt "hunger" meant this so-called "Barrier-Breaking Pill" definitely counted as energy he could devour—but its nature wasn’t medicinal, but more like soul-based. Shen Hao was now certain his "hunger" only rose in response to soul-type energy.
A bizarre cultivation method that could partially ignore talent—The Five Poison Cyan Smoke Technique—and the secretive Barrier-Breaking Pill. All signs pointed to that Master Bai Gu being an Evil Cultivator.
As for smuggling supplies to the Barbarian Race, these people didn’t know the reason. They only knew it was a mission, and the only one with real knowledge was Feng San Kui.
Unfortunately, Feng San Kui had escaped using a Blood Escape Talisman.
Shen Hao left with the confessions in hand; in the end, the two left had narrowly avoided becoming human wax. For now, at least.
Next, they needed to further investigate those three Snake Race members.
Shen Hao was very curious. According to previous intelligence, the Long-toothed Elephant Race and this batch of Snake Race members were supposed to have been wiped out in the last great war. So how were there any left?
Were they survivors who’d slipped through the net?
But the three Snake Race members were severely injured in the previous Breaking Arrow Rain. They wouldn’t be able to speak for a while—they’d need time to heal before interrogation could proceed. There was no rush just yet.
The progress needed to be reported as soon as possible. So many had died this time, and such a huge commotion had even involved the Border Army. If results weren’t delivered, he’d be in trouble.
Still, Shen Hao was pretty satisfied with what he’d gained. The cost was high, sure—but the harvest was equally great.
Any case connected to Evil Cultivators was a major one—let alone discovering a new way of recruiting: training pseudo-evil cultivators as cannon fodder to act as the vanguard.
However, the shadow of Evil Cultivators in the smuggling case to the Barbarian Race had suddenly made the "Jingxi" operation feel like it wasn’t what it seemed anymore.
