“Are you going to confess or not!”
There was a huge cross uprighted in the dark cellar.
Meanwhile, a man wearing costly-looking clothes was tied up on the cross. His face burnt with slap marks, while there were visible bumps on his head.
Young Shopkeeper Song held the whip in his hands and stood in front of the man. From time to time, he would slap the man or give him a hard punch on his head.
“Ha, you impudent son of a b*tch. How dare you impersonate His Highness Shen Ao in front of me!?
“I doubt you can ever guess—I actually know His Highness Shen Ao on a personal basis! In fact, I even fought with him, and both of us couldn’t decipher who the winner was!
“His Highness’ powers and looks are extraordinary, and none in this country can compare to his disposition! How can you—the son of a b*tch—dare to impersonate him?
“Let’s be honest here—you better own up and tell me your motives now, so you can suffer less!”
After that, Young Shopkeeper Song continued torturing Shen Ao again happily. He slapped hard against Shen Ao’s face or punched his head forcefully every few minutes or so.
To be honest, he was enjoying it extremely. Beating up Shen Ao allowed him to feel like he was punishing his own son.
At that moment, Young Shopkeeper Song thought he could finally empathize with his father—he now understood why his father always gained such great satisfaction from being able to beat him up at will.
No wonder that old fellow always scolds me stupid and beats me up with so much satisfaction.
So this is how it felt like when you can punish your son at will! It’s exhilarating!
Young Shopkeeper Song suddenly had an audacious idea—
What if… I let this fellow wear my father’s clothes? Would it feel better if I beat him up, pretending that this person is my father?
“You son of a b*tch, how’s the interrogation going about?”
Just when Young Shopkeeper Song was entertaining himself with all these astray thoughts, he heard his father’s voice ringing out from outside the cellar. He jumped and immediately backed to a side of the cellar.
He felt like his blood might have become frozen!
“Umm, Father, I have used the cruelest means I can think of, to torture this chap for almost an hour.
“However, he’s a hard nut to crack. He refused to speak even a single word!”
Shopkeeper Song took a glance at the unspoiled clothes on Shen Ao, and then at all the slap marks and bumps on Shen Ao’s head.
When he turned back to Young Shopkeeper Song, there was a look of anger mixed with disappointment on his face.
“You haven’t even given him a single whip—and you said you had tortured him?”
Young Shopkeeper Song felt deeply wronged as he replied, “I have followed you around since young, but I have never seen how you interrogate a criminal. You can’t blame me for something I don’t know!”
“Such a useless fellow!” Shopkeeper Song snorted. “Pass the whip to me!”
Shopkeeper Song secretly sucked in a deep breath when he got the whip from his son.
To be honest, this was also the first time he was resorting to means of torture to force the truth out of someone.
Like his son, he also lacked experience in this aspect!
When facing Shen Ao, Shopkeeper Song pondered for a while before he sneered. “I am going to give you one last chance.
“You thief, own up to your crimes now! Or else, my whip will be merciless!”
Despite Shen Ao’s swollen face, one could make out the resentful expression on his face. There was helplessness, distress, and rue written all over his eyes as he looked back at Shopkeeper Song.
And Shopkeeper Song—being the more emotionally and intellectually capable person among the pair of father and son interrogators—finally got the signal from Shen Ao.
Bam!
Shopkeeper Song delivered a hard slap to his son’s head.
“Father, I have spent so much effort helping you interrogate him! Why do you beat me again!?”
Young Shopkeeper Song was really incensed now.
Even if you are my father, it’s not right for you to take it out on me as and when you like! You mistreat me any further—I am going to make a voodoo doll of you and prick that doll with needles every day! You bet I am going to do that!
Shopkeeper Song felt incredulous by his son’s stupidity. He pointed a finger at Shen Ao, who was making gurgling sounds all this while, and shouted, “You son of a b*tch, have you ever seen anyone stuffing up the criminal’s mouth when interrogating them? How do you expect him to tell you anything in this manner?!”
Young Shopkeeper Song was stunned when he heard his father’s comments.
He shifted his gaze to the cross and saw tears running down the cheeks of the bro who was tied up there.
From that bro’s shiny tears, he swore he could see grievance, resent, anger, and… relief.
Finally, someone stood up for me and said something logical! You… bastard!
You keep on asking me to speak, to confess, and to own up!
But why don’t you remove that bloody Silent Incantation which you stuffed into my mouth?
You made me silent and still want me to speak up?
Aren’t you expecting too much of me!?
“Cough, cough, so sorry, bro.
“Umm, well, I have no experience. After all, this is my first time interrogating people.”
Young Shopkeeper Song scratched his head and felt his face burning. However, he was definitely not going to admit that he was having so much fun at being allowed to slap and punch people that he had forgotten the main aim of interrogating Shen Ao—and hence for not removing the Silent Incantation from Shen Ao’s mouth.
On the other hand, he started to secretly blame the creators of the Silent Incantation—why did they have to invent the Incantation, which became totally invisible once it was plastered on someone’s lips?!
Upon looking at the pair of father and son who stared back at him innocently, Shen Ao cried even harder.
He really regretted it now. He shouldn’t have even stepped into the Myriad Spirit Garden right from the start.
When his 13th brother had come to his residence and brought Qin Gao away, he should have replaced all the palace maids and eunuchs on duty that day.
Oh, and why did he even come into contact with Lee?!
It all started with that wrong move… blame me for being so careless!
Meanwhile, at another corner of the Myriad Spirit Garden…
“Ah-choo! Ah-choo!”
Just when Shen Tian returned to the inn and wanted to start his cultivation after a tiring day, he started sneezing profusely.
Shen Tian felt resigned.
Argh, which girl is thinking of me again?
After his transmigration to this world, Shen Tian knew he was constantly on the minds of others.
After all, he had extraordinary good looks, and now he was the Myriad Spirit Garden’s Master Celestial. Especially his fans—all those overly enthusiastic girls, they would surround him every day and rave about how much they would love to bear children for him.
No matter what he did, these girls could not be chased away. This really left Shen Tian very troubled.
If not for the fact that he wanted to change his fate and get rid of that black halo on his head, Shen Tian would have long left the Myriad Spirit Garden and found somewhere quiet to continue his cultivation process.
The cultivation world was a dangerous place, and Shen Tian knew that he could only be safe when he reached the Mahayana stage.
Presently, Shen Tian’s cultivation was not progressing, and he did not want to be too high-key.
After all, from his experience of reading so many novels, he knew that those high-profile characters would always be the first to die at the hands of the main protagonists.
From his actions these days, Shen Tian felt that he would end up on this path.
What if a destined protagonist suddenly pops out now? Won’t I be killed?
Much as though he always laughed his head off at those brainless characters in the novels before in his previous life, Shen Tian knew it was best to keep a low profile after his transmigration to the cultivation world.
As the saying goes, “Don’t overextend, get back to farming[1].”
This was a golden rule, regardless of where one was. After all, who could strike you down when you really become that invincible?
Shen Tian cleared all thoughts and took out the string of rosary beads from his pocket.
All this while when Shen Tian was judging ores, Jiu’er had been absorbing the Spirit Stones. As such, the crack marks on the rosary beads seemed to be getting better—even though there were still some deep cracks that couldn’t be removed, it felt much better when Shen Tian fondled the beads.
“That whole pouch of Spirit Stones got absorbed so fast!”
Looking at the little remains of the Spirit Stones in his pouch, Shen Tian shook his head and let out a wry smile.
It’s lucky that he had quite some savings. Otherwise, how could he afford to keep this ghost by his side?
He took out another small pouch of Spirit Stones and placed the string of rosary beads inside again. Immediately, the hungry Jiu’er started absorbing the Spirit Stones.
All of a sudden, Jiu’er seemed to feel something in the air.
She stopped the absorbing process. There was fear and panic written all over her ghostly face.
“Master, I feel a very scary presence nearing us!”
Jiu’er’s half-translucent body faded even more—it was obvious she was terrified of what’s coming for them.
Shen Tian got alarmed too.
“Can it be that Evil Spirit’s followers have found us?”
Shen Tian fished out the Sword Master Token hurriedly.
Ka!
His room’s door was pushed open.
A halo emitting strong golden light, which seemed even more piercing than the sun, shone upon Shen Tian’s face.
At that moment, Shen Tian felt like he was blinded by the halo.
Who is this person who has such great providence!?
[1] 猥琐发育 (hanyu pinyin: wěi suǒ fā yù) is a Chinese Internet slang adapted from a famous dub in the multiplayer online battle arena game ‘Honor of Kings’. It initially refers to how gamers remind one another that they shouldn’t indulge in fights but concentrate on farming to get stronger. Eventually, this phrase develops the connotation of reminding people to build up strength so that they can be the winner at the end.