Author’s Note
⚠️ Content warning: This chapter’s plot centers on tormenting Ye Kai. Some scenes are cruel—feel free to skim.
Within the space created by the system, Lin Mo could bring forth whatever he desired. The space wasn’t large, but it was more than enough to torment Ye Kai. When Ye Kai awoke, he found himself in complete darkness. More precisely, there was nothing in this space but himself. Then—Clap!—a snap of fingers rang in his ears, unnaturally clear in the void. The surroundings quickly brightened, revealing nothing but emptiness, like a sealed, isolated world.
“It seems like I’ve been taken by Lin Mo…” he thought. His mind cleared as he remembered how, during the Demon-Subduing Assembly, Lin Mo had captured him with some unknown method. Ye Kai had heard that some great experts could create domain spaces of their own. Could this really be Lin Mo’s? He shook his head. No matter how strong Lin Mo was, that seemed impossible. “It must be an illusion,” he told himself—not because he couldn’t admit it, but because he didn’t dare admit Lin Mo might truly be this powerful. He tried to move, only to realize his arms and legs were gone.
“I think… before I blacked out, a sword light flashed before my eyes… That’s right—it was Lin Mo. Lin Mo severed my limbs.” For a cultivator, losing limbs wasn’t necessarily fatal, and Ye Kai was already accustomed to Yuehua taking parts of his body. But losing all four at once cut deeper into the mind than the flesh. All his cultivation had been stolen from others’ hard-won efforts. His state of mind had never grown; in that, he was no different from a mortal. Worse, he couldn’t circulate his demonic qi. Insecurity gnawed at him, and his already hideous face twisted further.
Then came the sound of clapping, and a figure appeared before his eyes. Lin Mo stood there, a faint smile at the corner of his lips, gazing down at Ye Kai curled on the ground like a ball. “Junior Brother Ye,” he said lightly, “it’s been a while. Seeing you like this is… quite amusing.” The smile made Ye Kai’s heart lurch. He knew his life now rested entirely in the man’s hands.
“Senior Brother Lin, please spare me. I’m not human—I was wrong. I admit it.” With no limbs, Ye Kai writhed and dragged himself backward, trying desperately to retreat. What he couldn’t understand was this: after all his relentless pursuit, after seizing all of Yuehua’s cultivation, why was the gap between him and Lin Mo still so vast? In the end, the Heavenly Dao was unfair.
“Spare you?” Lin Mo looked as if he’d heard the greatest joke under heaven. “Ever since you entered Qingzhu Peak, when have we ever treated you unfairly? And you? What is it—brain shrunk, brainstem missing? You insisted on provoking me again and again, and now you want me to let you go?” Lin Mo truly believed that since Yuehua had brought Ye Kai into Qingzhu Peak, they had never mistreated him. On the contrary, because he was Yuehua’s chosen disciple, Lin Mo had cared for him even more—his food, clothing, and lodging matched Shen Ke’er’s, and they had even sought out spirit pills to strengthen his body and nourish his qi. Yet Ye Kai schemed in secret, sowing discord among the sect’s juniors.
“Senior Brother Lin, I—I’m a beast, worse than a pig or dog. I beg you, I don’t want to die! If you spare me, I swear to the Heavenly Dao I’ll follow you for life!” Ye Kai sobbed. Compared with dignity, he feared death far more—feared losing everything, feared never seeing tomorrow’s light.
“Do you take me for a fool, or are you the fool?” Lin Mo stepped forward and kicked him hard. Ye Kai rolled across the ground like a tire before finally stopping. “Oh, right—I almost forgot. Back then, just to live, you were even willing to eat filth.” In this at least, Lin Mo admitted, he had to admire Ye Kai’s courage—and his shamelessness. He had seen Ye Kai’s memories clearly, including the moment when Wanwan forced him to eat.
Face-down and limbless, Ye Kai couldn’t even sit up. Smashing his forehead against the ground to bounce himself upright, he forced his body to face Lin Mo. “Senior Brother Lin, I’m unworthy. Spare this dog’s life, and I’ll be your ox, your horse. I’ll do anything.”
“Why didn’t you think of that earlier?” Lin Mo sneered. “There were so many paths you could’ve chosen. If at Qingzhu Peak you’d kept up the act of an obedient junior brother your whole life, I would’ve protected you your whole life—and helped heal your body. But because of your ridiculous jealousy, always whining that Heaven is unfair, you chose the dead-end of opposing me. Brilliant.”
Hearing this, Ye Kai couldn’t help reflecting. If he hadn’t opposed Lin Mo—given Lin Mo’s current status and means—his body could truly have been healed. After all, ever since stealing Yuehua’s cultivation, he had scarcely enjoyed a good day: hunted and tormented by the demonized Yuehua, and now fallen to this miserable state. Had he known it would end like this, he never would have opposed Lin Mo.
[Ding! Someone has felt regret because of you, the host—regret points +600.]
Seeing that so little regret could be harvested, Lin Mo found it laughable. Clearly, Ye Kai still wasn’t feeling much remorse. But that didn’t matter—what Lin Mo wanted was to make him live a life worse than death.
The smile on Lin Mo’s face brightened, and a chill ran down Ye Kai’s spine. Disaster was coming. Suddenly, a transparent box appeared. With a wave of Lin Mo’s hand, spiritual force swept Ye Kai inside, leaving only his head exposed.
“Lin Mo… what are you going to do?” Ye Kai asked in terror.
“Not bad. Just the right size,” Lin Mo said, satisfied that the box still had space left. “It’s just that your face looks unpleasant.” He jabbed spiritual energy through his fingertip into Ye Kai’s right eye. Blood flooded it instantly.
“No—don’t—!” Ye Kai writhed in agony, but Lin Mo, ignoring his pleas, began tearing away everything that didn’t truly belong to him: the eye, an ear, the upper half of his lip, half his nose, even the last “egg” that wasn’t his. In moments, Ye Kai’s face was a bloodied ruin, and the space resounded with his screams.
“Oh, I almost forgot—your voice isn’t yours either. It sounds wrong.” With a thought, Lin Mo restored the torn pieces, but this time swapped the vocal cords for Ye Kai’s true ones. “Sorry—mind screaming again in a little while?”
Ye Kai stared at his sincere smile, speechless. Then he suffered it all over again—the agony of his organs being gouged out, his own voice now echoing with heart-wrenching cries.
“Hearing your own screams—now that has the right flavor,” Lin Mo said, pleased. “Good. Now nothing on your body belongs to anyone else. This way, no one else’s organs will suffer with you.”
[Ding! Someone has felt regret because of you, the host—regret points +26,000.]
The regret value had surged. Ye Kai really was stubborn to the bone. “Senior Brother Lin, please—spare me, spare me…” he begged, head-butting the glass to kowtow.
After all these years, it was the first time he truly saw Lin Mo’s methods—so brutally cruel. Nothing like the kindly man he had once imagined. Compared to Yuehua now, Lin Mo surpassed her in ruthlessness.
“What are you afraid of, Junior Brother Ye? Do you think I’d let you die so easily? Without your ‘help,’ I wouldn’t have seen through so many people, and I certainly wouldn’t have achieved what I have today.”