Chapter 498

Fang Yue's face darkened; he clenched his fist, loosened it, clenched it again, and after a long while, took a deep breath and tested Hua Qiuqiu's breath…

Indeed, there was no trace of breathing whatsoever.

He checked her heartbeat—there was no sign of pulsation either.

At this moment, Hua Qiuqiu resembled an art statue—her corpse had been made into a 【Human Candle】, her limbs and body nailed to a stone platform, enduring humiliation!

How could this happen…

Fang Yue's face was as dark as water.

His final memory of Hua Qiuqiu was seeing her vanish for a long time in Mo Cun; after she returned from Qingsi County, she handed a box to Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu, then left in haste.

When Fang Yue later heard the news of Mo Cun's destruction, he wondered if Hua Qiuqiu might return to Mo Cun, what her reaction would be upon learning the Hua Family was gone, and whether she might come to live in Gu Yue Cun.

Who could have imagined that until the Wu Yu Clan wiped out Gu Yue Cun, not a single word of Hua Qiuqiu was ever heard again.

Until today… when he saw her again, the last bloodline of the Hua Family had already become a corpse.

He pulled out the iron nails pinning Hua Qiuqiu's posture, then withdrew the black short sword piercing her mouth.

"Wait—"

Qing Chen had barely spoken when it was already too late.

In the instant Fang Yue pulled out the black short sword, Hua Qiuqiu's corpse, previously solid, suddenly scattered like sand across the floor.

Fang Yue instinctively grabbed two handfuls—but all he grasped were grains of sand.

Staring at the corpse reduced to a pile of sand, Fang Yue froze.

"What's going on?"

"…That black short sword is a strange artifact, called the Seven-Seal Short Sword. Lord Liao once boasted about it to us, demonstrating its power right before our eyes. It can seal and immobilize a corpse's current form—well, at least that's its surface function. But in truth, it seems to seal the strange. As for its exact effect, Lord Liao said he was still researching it himself. The fact that he hid the Seven-Seal Short Sword in a secret chamber shows it's no ordinary item."

Fang Yue looked at the black short sword in his hand, then at the sand on the ground, and sighed deeply.

He didn't care for now whether the Seven-Seal Short Sword was extraordinary—he only knew…

The Hua Family… had no heirs left.

Like the villagers of Gu Yue Cun and Mo Cun, they vanished silently into the river of time; no one but this group would remember them.

In that moment, Fang Yue's emotions surged—when Qing Chen suddenly shouted: "Big Boss, come quick! Is this keyhole matching your key?"

Fang Yue steadied himself and walked over to Qing Chen. Sure enough, another keyhole appeared on the wall of the secret chamber.

You've got a secret chamber inside a secret chamber inside a secret chamber—ultimate nesting doll!

The Underground Stronghold was already a big secret chamber; Liao Guanjia's room was another secret chamber; inside that room was yet another secret chamber, and inside that secret chamber was another secret chamber—is there no end to these secret chambers?

Inserting the key, Fang Yue immediately knew it fit.

He turned the key and opened the door—

Swoosh!!

A flash of cold light grazed the edge of Fang Yue's cheek—missing him entirely.

In his extreme reaction, Fang Yue forcibly halted the impulse to punch the black shadow's heart.

"Lin Ling?"

Plop.

The sound of the black shadow hitting the ground and Fang Yue's startled cry rang out together.

"Mmmmm?!"

The black shadow on the ground twisted violently around.

Upon recognizing Fang Yue, it trembled all over with excitement.

The sharp iron needles embedded in its cheeks shook with each tremor, dripping blood down its face.

Fang Yue's eyes instantly turned red.

At this moment, Lin Ling's entire body was tightly bound with thin, long iron chains.

His left eye was grotesquely blackened, the sclera entirely dark; his right eye was completely gone, the eyeball ripped out.

His mouth was sewn shut with iron wire; any movement caused fresh blood to flow.

Lin Ling's desperate last strike had been self-initiated—he had deliberately found a long, sharp iron needle, rammed his face into it, driving it through his cheek, then horizontally piercing his mouth and lodging it between his teeth, gripping it tightly with his teeth to fight back.

Honestly, the force of that attack—even if it struck Fang Yue's vital neck—would only have cut a wound; killing him would have been extremely difficult.

Yet under such utter despair, Lin Ling had still managed this—leaving Fang Yue deeply shaken.

He quickly severed the iron chains binding Lin Ling with high heat, then carefully unpicked the iron wire stitched into his mouth.

Throughout the entire process, just watching made Fang Yue feel unbearable pain—but Lin Ling made not a single sound, only trembling slightly from the agony.

When Fang Yue pulled out the iron wire from his mouth and then extracted the long needle piercing his cheek—

He immediately fed Lin Ling several pills to restore injuries, Qi and Blood, and stamina.

As the pills entered his stomach, the dying Lin Ling slowly regained a sliver of strength.

He looked at Fang Yue and gave a bitter smile: "…I knew you'd come to save me."

Just smiling like that caused blood to gush from the dozen wounds on his lips, dripping down and pattering onto the floor.

"So I held on—I absolutely couldn't give up on myself… I had to survive!"

"This life of mine was given to me by Hua Wuye, by the Blood Hunters, by everyone in Gu Yue Cun—I can't die… can't die…"

As if speaking to Fang Yue, as if speaking to himself, Lin Ling collapsed into unconsciousness the moment he finished speaking.

"Carry him for me. Wait for me outside."

Fang Yue's voice trembled.

It was a tremor of rage pushed to its extreme, barely contained!

He ignited the Fire Blade, illuminating the surroundings of the small secret chamber.

Fang Yue discovered the chamber held various interrogation and torture tools, in countless varieties—some of which he couldn't even recognize how to use.

The small secret room was tiny; in the corner, dried, pitch-black blood stained the floor. Judging from the marks, the days Lin Ling had been imprisoned were spent curled up in this corner, sleeping and resting.

"Phoe! nix! Weave!"

A violent blaze of flames surged skyward.

The originally scorching crimson flames instantly transformed into a blazing white!

The terrifying heat directly melted every piece of iron in the small dark room into molten iron, scorched the floor, and burned everything to ash!

When Fang Yue stepped on the blazing white fire and walked out of the small dark room, behind him there was nothing left but a pool of molten iron and a terrifying heat like a furnace.

The flames slowly dispersed; Fang Yue's expression was dark as still water.

"We're going back up. Since Lin Ling was given this kind of treatment, Lord Han can only be even more formidable! I'm going back up there, slaughter every anomaly, and wait at Ning Mansion for the First Butler and Second Butler to return!"

A violent, cold glint flickered in Fang Yue's eyes.

"Th-this… this isn't really a good idea. Those two lords are very strong—at the very least, they're at the Xiantian Realm. You're no match for them…" said Qingchen, who was carrying Lin Ling on his back, cautiously.

"Xiantian Realm? Even if those two are Rain-class today, I'll slaughter them both!!"

(End of Chapter)