Chapter 131: Ji Tianrui

Li Miao rattled off a long string of words, yet the woman showed not the slightest reaction.

After battling Li Miao for the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, even though he had deliberately held back, she was now barely human—her left eye was a hollow, pitch-black socket from which blood flowed. Her right arm was severed at the elbow, a large patch of flesh on her left abdomen was a bloody mess, and her legs were covered in lacerations and gore. Her clothes were shredded, revealing a body covered in hideous scars.

Yet, she did not make a sound.

Ever since she had revealed her true form, no matter how Li Miao injured her—even when he had torn her right arm clean off—she had not let out a single whimper.

This was not normal.

The martial arts conflicts of the Great Ming were exceptionally brutal, so people of the Jianghu were accustomed to fighting while wounded; a high tolerance for pain was normal.

But willpower is one thing, and instinct is another.

No matter how much one can endure, it only means one can continue to fight while injured; it does not mean one will not react. To have an arm ripped off without warning and not even let out a muffled groan was impossible.

Li Miao looked her up and down and frowned.

He had beaten her into a critical state before speaking precisely so that, under the duress of severe injury, she would lose control of her emotions, allowing him to verify if what he said was correct.

As it stood, it was completely useless.

Just as Li Miao was considering whether to kill her outright, the woman suddenly spoke.

"Lord Li, you need not think you can extract anything from my mouth."

"I have only three sentences to pass on to you on behalf of the Cult Leader."

"Once I have finished, you may do as you please with this life of mine. Whether you flay me, disembowel me, or cut off my head to hang upon the city gate, it is all as you wish."

Li Miao raised an eyebrow and let out a cold laugh.

"You think you can refuse to speak just because you don't want to?"

As long as she wasn't a mute, he could squeeze words out of her even if she were a block of stone!

With that, he formed his hand into a claw and swiped through the air toward the woman's head!

After finishing her sentence, the woman neither dodged nor evaded; she even let her stance drop, standing calmly in place, watching with open eyes as Li Miao’s fingers hooked into her forehead.

"Hmm?"

Li Miao was surprised, but his hand did not pause in the slightest. With a *rip*, he tore off half her scalp, then pressed it back into place, employing that miraculous "biological welding" technique to reattach the flesh.

This technique was excellent for healing, but even better for interrogation. Even an old Jianghu hand like Liu Baiyun could not withstand it.

The woman’s injury was to her head, where nerves were most dense, and blood streamed down her forehead, covering her face.

Yet she truly let Li Miao do as he pleased.

The woman stood there composed; her pupils did not contract, her fingers did not tremble, as if Li Miao had merely stroked her head gently.

She said indifferently, her face expressionless.

"Lord Li, as long as you do not kill me before I finish passing on the Cult Leader's words, you may verify whether I am bluffing as much as you like."

"After the battle just now, I am convinced that there is no way I can escape your hands. Thus, my mission is only to finish those three sentences; after that, my life is yours."

"I know you are a veteran of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and that you have integrated the three paths, possessing a thorough understanding of the human body's meridians, sinews, bones, and Qi. You have countless self-created techniques. You have as many ways to torture people as you could want. But, you cannot torture me."

"No matter what you do to me, I feel nothing."

Li Miao frowned, rubbing his fingers as he looked the woman up and down for a long while.

Then, he realized, and let out a long sigh.

"So that's it. I was wondering why those scars on your body looked so familiar."

"You are a 'Pupa Maiden' who was rescued."

During the trip to the Miao King’s tomb, Li Miao had seen such maidservants, kneeling before the Miao King’s coffin as funerary offerings. After enduring all manner of torture, their five senses were stripped away, and they were left to despairingly await the Miao King’s resurrection while feeling the Gu insects devouring them from within—a pathetic creation of ignorant faith. The scars revealed by the woman’s torn clothing after her fight with Li Miao were exactly like those of a "Pupa Maiden."

The woman nodded.

"You must have seen 'things' like me in the Miao King’s tomb."

"The Gu insects crawled through my neck and into my skull, eating away a portion of my brain. Since then, I have never been able to feel a shred of pain. And it is precisely because of that that I survived until the end."

"So-called torture is merely a matter of the mind and the flesh. I can no longer feel the pain of the flesh, and as for the pain of the mind... could it possibly be worse than the experience of losing all five senses in that tomb, waiting in agony for death? So, you need not waste your efforts on someone like me."

"Now, may you listen to the three sentences the Cult Leader wishes to tell you?"

Li Miao felt a bit helpless.

All interrogation methods are built upon two premises: the ability to feel pain, and the desire to live.

But this woman was clearly a deviant, and a deviant in both mind and body; she neither wanted to live nor could she feel pain. She cared even less for her own flesh.

Of course, it wasn't that Li Miao couldn't think of some extreme methods that might work.

It was just that those methods were time-consuming, and secondly, they were too extreme; even Li Miao found them disgusting and had no desire to use them.

Thus, he was truly at a loss with this woman.

Seeing that Li Miao did not speak, the woman slowly opened her mouth.

"In that case, I shall speak them to Lord Li."

"The first sentence: Lord Li and I are both 'Outer Path,' not tolerated by the 'Righteous Path.' Why bother killing each other?"

Li Miao sneered.

"I am Outer Path, so who is the Righteous Path?"

"The Imperial Court."

The woman said without hesitation.

"The tree that stands above the forest will be destroyed by the wind. The reason Heavenly Humans have not appeared in the world for so long lies with the Great Ming and the Zhu family. As your martial arts continue to advance, one day, you too will stand where Ji Tianrui, the Ming Cult, and the Cult Leader stand, facing the blades of the Imperial Court."

Li Miao let out another scoff.

"Anything fresher?"

In Li Miao's view, these words were all outdated nonsense.

He had spent twenty years biding his time, only revealing his martial arts once he had the power to protect himself—did she think he was just bored?

On Mount Taishan, after knowing the Eastern Depot had begun to emerge, the words he said to the Five Mountain Sword Sects—"serving the Embroidered Uniform Guard," rather than "serving the Imperial Court"—was that just shooting at nothing?

Outside the Shaolin Temple, Zhu Zai had already made it very clear: "Whether one is a rebel depends not on whether one wants to be, but on whether one can be." Whether in the Great Ming or his previous life, as long as the core of civilization remained human, the underlying logic of operation would always be "fists" and "posture." Li Miao had seen this clearly long ago.

At this moment, for Ji Tianrui to say such things to him, Li Miao only felt that he must think he was some brute who only knew how to fight.

The woman showed no reaction and continued.

"The second sentence: The four Heavenly Humans who killed Ji Tianrui all suffered the Five Decays of Heaven within a year of his death and perished one after another. Zhu Zai only escaped death because he was of the Imperial Clan, but he was pinned to the position of Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander, unable to advance an inch for fifteen years."

"After Jiajing dies, Zhu Zai will also die."

"Oh?" Li Miao raised an eyebrow, noncommittal.

This sentence was actually useful. If it were truly as this "Ji Tianrui Number Two" said, then if the Imperial Court found out he was the one who killed him, he might well end up like those Heavenly Humans of the past, inviting disaster.

However, that was a matter for the future to verify.

Seeing Li Miao’s indifferent expression, the woman didn't mind and spoke slowly.

"The third sentence: I have become disheartened and will leave the Great Ming in a few days. If Lord Li has a grudge against the Ming Cult, you may kill as you please; I will have no complaints."

"But, if Lord Li still wishes to spar with me, I will gladly await you. I only hope Lord Li will fulfill the appointment soon, so as not to delay my journey."

"Ji Tianrui, respectfully."

With that, the woman raised her hand into a palm and struck her own forehead with force.

*Bang!*

A muffled sound, red and white matter splattered, and the woman’s beautiful face was gone. A headless torso swayed in place for a few moments before crashing to the ground.

Li Miao had no intention of stopping her; he simply stood there, rubbing his fingers.

"Interesting. This Ji Tianrui should know exactly what I did on Mount Taishan and at Shaolin."

"Knowing that I have integrated the three paths and can perfect two of them simultaneously, she still dares to ask me to find her?"

"Very well, very well."

Li Miao revealed a smile.

Unlike his usual lazy grin, this smile carried a hint of excitement.

"I'm getting a bit tired of beating up children."