Tenacity
"Ugh..."
The world spins around me when I open my eyes, my vision is blurry.
The sound of water dripping echoes, I'm in some sort of cave. My hands are tied behind a chair as my body is wrapped to it. I can only move my head.
"He is awake." Someone says. "Are you sure he is the one? He doesn't even have a Meridian and Dantian."
"Yes." Says a familiar woman's voice, it's Jia Xi.
*Smack*
Someone slaps my face and forces me to sober.
!
It is a man with a burn scar on his right cheek. He wears the black robe of the Blood Sect sloppily and wields a spear behind.
Suddenly, a knife was pierced into my shoulder.
"ARGHHH!!" I cry out.
"Answer me. Who are you?"
"...Xie Mo..."
...
Jia Xi leans against the wall and glares at me. I don't bother to look at her.
The man sighs. "Are we doing this the hard way or the easy way? You are dying either way but I will be deciding how much you suffer."
"I'm not someone from the Wulin Alliance or any sect," I say.
The man clicks his tongue. "Then how do you know so much?"
...
"..."
"You can't tell us huh..."
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Bluff activated.
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Choose a dialogue:
1-(I read about it in a book I found in an abandoned shack)
2-(I tortured the outer disciple I caught for information)
3-(I am indeed actually from the Wulin Alliance)
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Am I asking for death? All options are unreasonable.
Strangely, there isn't a timer this time.
I look around at the grey, frozen-in-time atmosphere. I didn't realise many torturing devices are placed behind me, it seems that he planned to use them if I don't talk.
...
I sigh.
Option 1.
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Time resumed.
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"I read about it in a book I found in an abandoned shack," I say.
!!
The man widens his eye.
What is that weird response?!
"I see..."
He glares at me immediately afterwards and thrust his leg to my stomach.
"ARCK!!"
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-10
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"As if I will believe that." The man says. "Don't think we will be letting you off that easily."
He walks behind and pulls the tools ahead, grabbing a small knife.
*Bam!*
He plunges the knife in between my thighs.
I gulp.
"You know what will happen. Don't make me repeat myself. Who are you?!"
I grit my teeth. "I am nothing but a mere villager! I know nothing about the Wulin Alliance!"
The vein erects on the man's face in anger. He pulls the knife out and stabs my thigh.
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-40
The attacked have avoided your vital points
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"ARGHH!!!!"
The blood is splattered around as a stream of red flows down.
"Huff...huff..."
Sweat fills my forehead. My vision goes blurry once again before the man slaps me, forcing me to recompose.
"Tell me!" The man exclaims.
"I don't fucking know!" I reply.
"You bastard!"
The man plunges the knife deeper and twists it.
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-58
Warning: The player is dying.
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"UCKAJHHHHHHH!?!!!!!!" I cry out.
Shit! Shit shit shit!
Why did I provoke him!? The pain is breaking my rational mind.
The man grabs my head and forces me to look at him.
"I have all day..." He says, showing me a bright orange pill and a red pill.
He throws a glance at Jia Xi who steps forward and throws a punch at my stomach.
"Ack...?"
When I open my mouth to groan, he pops both pills inside me.
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Blood Essence Pill consumed.
+300 Blood Essence.
Blood Elixir Pill consumed.
All Blood Essence is converted to hp.
Hp has been maxed out.
---------------------
!!!
With the knife still in my thigh, my body tries to heal the open wound but is constantly interrupted by the foreign object, sending thunders of pain.
Afterwards, it was...hell.
I was repeatedly healed and restored as they try different tortures: Plucking off the fingernails, the fracturing of limps, and peeling of my skin. I wasn't sure what happened afterwards, my mind went blank.
But I must hold on. At the end of the day, I still have one more life. It's okay. That's how I hold onto my last bit of sanity as I repeatedly convince myself.
=======================
"Wow... His sanity is still intact albeit unconscious." Says Jia Xi, sliding Xie Mo's eyelid wider to look at his pupil.
The man clicks his tongue. "His tenacity is impressive. It doesn't seem like he was lying."
...
"Give me the dragon elixir." He says to Jia Xi.
"What? Why?"
"No why or buts and give me a blood worm."
Jia Xi furrows her brow. "Are you crazy? He knows my group's secret!"
"Everyone in the blood sect does."
Jia Xi grits her teeth with her fist clenched. "You are fucking insane. Even if the Blood Sect is desperate, how can you take in someone with no Meridian and Dantian?!"
The man gazes at Jia Xi, releasing suffocating killing intent.
!!!!!
"Ugh...ACK..."
Jia Xi grasps her neck and falls to the floor. An intangible entity is strangling her.
"This is the Blood Sect's affair, why are you butting your nose into this?" The man asks. "Is it your pride? You will die early one day if this goes on."
"No...I..." Jia Xi attempts to say.
Jia Xi is the lady of a famous prosperity merchant. Ever since young, she had insights and deductions far more than people of her age. That built up an incomprehensible amount of pride and arrogance in her; A mere villager taking advantage of her is something she cannot take.
The pressure loosens and Jia Xi gets to breathe again.
"Huff huff...Tch..." She reluctantly follows the man's instructions.
He feeds the pill to Xie Mo and places the worm on Xie Mo's skin, the worm immediately burrows itself into the blood vein.
The Blood Sect is kidnapping people, more specifically children and martial artists, and forcing them to be disciples by implanting the blood worm. They are preparing for war.
There were instances of people born without Meridians and Dantian. Most would think they cannot venture the path of Jianghu. However, there were two prominent martial experts without a meridian and a dantian. It was the result of neverending hard work and perseverance.
The man throws a glance at Xie Mo again. Around Xie Mo are viscous pools of blood and rivers of wounds.
He smiles, amazed at the fact that Xie Mo still has bits of sanity even after 10 hours of torture. An amazing tenacity indeed.
"Maybe another monster will rise." The man mumbles.