Chapter 38: Torture

The entire world began to invert; the many people in the conference turned into a layer of blurred shadows. Sounds seemed to come from nearby, as if someone were speaking—perhaps from the podium, perhaps Feng Liancheng asking her something. Suddenly, it seemed everyone in the hall was shouting loudly at her. This shouting gradually turned into roaring, rising and falling beside her ears.

She struggled to open her eyes. Through the blur, she saw the ceiling of the hall covered densely with lamps. These lamps spun before her eyes like a kaleidoscope. Suddenly, several familiar faces seemed to flash by; they were speaking to her with concern and anxiety.

Suddenly, they all seemed to look at her with fear. Someone pointed at her, shouting and screaming. Countless voices clamored in her ears, countless figures darted back and forth beside her, and the dark matter energy around her fluctuated violently...

Why were they shouting at her? Did someone want to attack her?

Had they discovered her abnormality? Had they discovered she had absorbed the Source of Life?

An extreme fear rose from the depths of her heart. No, no, it wasn't me!

I didn't kill anyone; the altar has nothing to do with me!

Why is the Source of Life of those four thousand-plus people on you? Someone seemed to ask.

I... I don't know. She was utterly bewildered, murmuring: "I don't know, I don't know..."

You are the murderer! You absorbed the Source of Life of over four thousand people! You are the chief culprit!

A million voices converged into a torrent, drowning out her defense. Her weak figure was about to be submerged in this magnificent denunciation...

'Kill them! Kill them all!' It shouted tensely: 'If you don't act now, it will be too late; they are going to kill you! Hurry! Act now!'

'No! They are innocent; I don't want to... become an executioner...'

'Then what about you? Aren't you innocent? Are you willing to let this mob judge you? Kill you? Admit it; you don't care about them at all. You hate humanity; you hate this world! There is nothing in this world you care about. You deliberately maintain a detached attitude toward this world; you never engage in deep relationships with anyone. You hate everyone; you loathe everyone! Kill them, and it will be over! All troubles will be resolved! Do it now! Otherwise, if you continue to weaken, you won't get another chance!'

The hunger surging from within her body made her limbs weak. She had never known that hunger to the extreme could be so painful. Ten thousand ants were gnawing at her internal organs and flesh and bones from the inside out. She slumped in her chair, covered in cold sweat.

'Hurry, do it now, before you weaken completely! Act!' It said anxiously.

Yang Yi suddenly felt her own hands, then her feet. She seemed to have regained some strength, but the noise still raged in her ears; countless noisy voices were arguing and shouting. Everything before her eyes was blurred. She wanted to open her eyes to look, but only felt a wave of dizziness.

'Kill! Kill! Kill!' It screamed madly, its tone excited and urgent.

Through her blurred vision, Yang Yi suddenly smiled. 'Is this your goal?' she asked softly.

She leaned weakly against the back of the chair, enduring the hunger like ten thousand ants drilling into her heart within her body. She laughed almost madly: 'You finally agreed to come out; I have been waiting for you for so long...'

It remained silent.

Yang Yi, disregarding everything, seemed to want to vent all her pain through words: 'You will come out. You made me absorb the Source of Life, made me addicted to this thing, unable to eat human food. Wasn't it all to force me to continue drawing the Source of Life? Let me tell you, I have always hated most being forced to do things I don't want to do. For this, even if I starve to death, I will never absorb anyone's Source of Life again!'

She suddenly burst into a fit of mad laughter, shouting provocatively: 'Come on, continue torturing me! Make me hurt, make me feel like ten thousand ants are drilling into my heart, flay my skin, strip my tendons, crush my bones! Make my whole body ooze pus, make me rot and breed maggots!'

It remained silent as before; it seemed everything was just Yang Yi's one-man show.

The pain within her body continued to surge in waves, burning like fire. Her internal organs were scorched black. Her mouth was unbearably dry, as if she were lost in a desert, surrounded by scorching sand grains. Her throat was ground by sand, dry, cracked, and aching...

Suddenly, the burning turned into extreme cold. Her scorched black internal organs were covered in frost. Her body gradually went numb. Her clothes and skin froze into a single block. With the slightest movement, large patches of skin and flesh were torn off...

Yang Yi laughed nervously in a low voice. 'Yes! Yes! Just like that, keep torturing me! It hurts so much! But... only humans feel pain; this makes me feel I am still human... I am definitely human! That is why I must feel this pain... I not only want to feel this pain, I want to enjoy it. Really, have you ever heard of ascetics? They use torturing their own bodies as a means to practice their faith... Of course, I don't agree with that; I believe in no gods; I despise all gods... But this pleasure of self-torture is really interesting...'

She wore a strange smile on her face, murmuring to herself. Her whole body was soaked in cold sweat. Blood seemed to seep out from her thirty-six thousand pores, mixed with fragments of internal organs, flowing slowly...

Gradually, she didn't know how much time had passed; it seemed as long as a lifetime, yet also as short as an instant. This pain slowly faded away.

'What, are you leaving? I haven't enjoyed it enough yet...' Yang Yi said. Suddenly, she realized: 'Oh—I know, this is just a little reminder, right? You didn't even use your full strength!'

She involuntarily shivered, then laughed even more madly: 'Great, I'm waiting for you... Or you torture me to death... Or it submits to you... Either way, it counts as a kind of relief...'

The hunger gradually disappeared. She gradually regained feeling in her stomach, her body, her limbs, and her hands. Her internal organs were still convulsing in the aftermath of pain, but it was only the final aftereffects.

Yang Yi wanted to open her eyes and return to the real world. But she was also afraid to return to the real world; this fear was even greater than the torture of hunger just now—Had they already discovered something wrong with me? How would they look at me? How would they treat me? Would they call me a murderer? A hypocritical maniac? Or would they imprison me? Has my appearance already been broadcast live to a global audience? Will everyone see my wretched state, pointed at by thousands...

This fear made her tremble with dread. She would rather stay in the dream forever and never wake up than face this scene.

Right, Chris is still waiting for me. He came to Xincheng specifically to see me. Did he see this scene in the news...

Suddenly, the figure of the Fire Demon seemed to flash before her eyes. Its two horns were broken, and its body flowed with blood like molten lava. It laughed madly before dying: 'I said, I would curse you...'

Suddenly, she found herself again in the dark, stagnant alien space. A stone chair appeared on the altar. Her body moved toward it slowly, uncontrollably. She gently touched it, as if reminiscing about something, a contented smile appearing on her face—then she sat down.

She looked down. Below the altar, corpses lay piled layer upon layer, densely packed, stretching all the way to the distant horizon.

Their withered faces wore smiles, strange and satisfied, as if offering themselves to her was the happiest thing in the world. Some of the faces seemed familiar. Yang Yi looked down; it was Feng Liancheng, and Chen Chen Yushu, Director Zhou, Daniel, Helen, Jane... A face she had been infatuated with for four and a half years suddenly appeared in her line of sight. His eyes were tightly closed, hiding his blue eyes. His face was gray and withered. He lay prostrate at her feet, his face still bearing a sweet, shy smile, sleeping in a beautiful dream from which he would never wake...

No!