Ye Kai’s little brain was filled with nothing but filth; he completely failed to grasp Lin Mo’s meaning and exclaimed with delight, “Really?”

Lin Mo smiled. “Of course it’s true. Death may be spared, but suffering cannot be escaped. Junior Brother Ye, haven’t you always prided yourself on being responsible?”

“Yes, yes, yes! I, Ye Kai, am the most responsible of all.” He kowtowed repeatedly, his forehead knocking against the ground in frantic gratitude. “Senior Brother Lin, as long as you don’t let me die, you can punish me however you like.” To him, survival was more precious than anything else. After all, he had reached the Soul Splitting stage at such a young age. If he could preserve his life now, he still had a thousand years of longevity ahead. Perhaps one day he might break through to Divine Transformation—maybe even Integration. There could even be a chance to transcend tribulation and ascend. Compared to such a brilliant future, what did a little punishment matter?

Lin Mo didn’t waste words; a syringe appeared in his hand. It came from the mortal world, designed to heighten a subject’s senses—smell, hearing, touch, and pain among them. “Senior Brother Lin… what is that?” Ye Kai asked, suddenly uneasy. He had never seen such a thing before, and his tone betrayed both worry and fear.

“Just something to make things a bit more… stimulating.” As he spoke, Lin Mo drove the needle into Ye Kai’s neck. An icy liquid coursed through his veins, and within moments his heart pounded furiously, his blood seemed to boil, and his spirit jolted awake. His senses—sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch—all sharpened unbearably.

The pain in his face, limbs, and lower body multiplied severalfold. “Ahhh!” Ye Kai’s screams were more wretched than a pig at slaughter. “Lin… Senior Brother Lin, I was wrong! Please take back this spell—ahhh!” But Lin Mo only replied coolly, “This is merely the appetizer. If you can’t endure even this much, how will we proceed?”

A mortal would already have been killed by such torment, but cultivators at the Soul Splitting stage could endure far more. To keep Ye Kai from fainting, Lin Mo even fed him a top-grade pill to stabilize the mind and spirit. Hours of agony passed; his screams grew weaker, his strength fading. When he seemed ready to collapse, Lin Mo gave him another pill to replenish stamina and blood. “No need to thank me, Junior Brother Ye,” he said calmly. “I told you—I won’t let you die.”

Though his body recovered, Ye Kai felt no joy. To him, Lin Mo was no different from a fiend of the deepest hells. His screams returned, lasting an entire day. On the second day, Lin Mo came to check on him and found his eyes dull, his face bloodless—the look of someone who had lost the will to live. He no longer even screamed. Lin Mo wasn’t surprised. “Junior Brother Ye, does it not hurt today?” Ye Kai croaked, “How could it possibly not hurt?”

That day dragged on like an eternity. With great effort, Ye Kai forced out the plea in his heart: “Senior Brother Lin, this punishment should be enough… please spare me.” But Lin Mo only tilted his head. “When did your punishment ever begin?” Ye Kai’s eyes widened. “Senior Brother Lin, you’re going back on your word!”

“How am I not keeping my word?” Lin Mo chuckled. “I made it clear yesterday—that was merely your appetizer. Your real punishment begins today. And as for how long it will last—did I ever say a time?” Ye Kai’s head buzzed. Yesterday’s inhuman torment had only been the beginning? What horrors still awaited him?

In desperation he blurted, “Senior Brother Lin, don’t bully others too far!” Lin Mo’s smile thinned. “Oh? So Junior Brother Ye also knows how to use the phrase ‘bullying others too far’? In the past, weren’t your actions against me nothing but that? My repeated tolerance only led to your schemes growing worse and worse.”

The killing intent radiating from Lin Mo was so sharp it pierced bone. Ye Kai swallowed hard. “I admit it—I might have spoken too loudly just now…” He still wanted to live. As long as he survived, he could still have everything—women, status, a long life. Had he not endured agony before, whether through sheer will or thanks to Lin Mo’s pills? Surely he could endure whatever came next.

But his confidence faltered when Lin Mo produced a transparent jar filled with writhing black worms. “These are corpse worms from the Demon Realm. They feed on human flesh and blood, and make their homes within the body,” Lin Mo explained with eerie calm. Ye Kai frowned in confusion. “Senior Brother Lin, why are you telling me this?”

Lin Mo’s smile was almost gentle. “These worms have been starving for a long time. All of them are in an extremely ravenous state. Junior Brother Ye, why do you think I’m telling you this?” That smile chilled Ye Kai to the core. A horrifying thought struck him. “Senior Brother Lin… you’re not planning to put those worms into me, are you?”

Lin Mo clapped his hands, amused. “Aiyo, Junior Brother Ye—your head is actually working cleverly today.”

Panic overtook Ye Kai. He thrashed inside the glass box, screaming, “You—you can’t do this to me!” But the pain of his body scraping against the box surged, as though his flesh were being crushed beneath a thousand-jin boulder. His miserable shrieks filled the chamber.

【Ding! You have gained 48,000 Regret Value.】
【Ding! You have gained 53,000 Regret Value.】

A chorus of system notifications echoed. Lin Mo had not even acted yet, and already he was rewarded with over a hundred thousand regret points. Ye Kai was terrified beyond reason. And then Lin Mo opened the jar and poured the corpse worms into the box.

“Lin Mo, stop! Stop right now!” Ye Kai shrieked. He no longer called him Senior Brother—only by name. The worms, starved for too long, instantly caught the scent of his blood. They writhed wildly, crawling all over his body. One about the size of half a pinky finger reached his face, making his scalp go numb as he shook violently. “Get off me! Don’t crawl on me—get away!” he cried, but his pleas were useless.

One worm slithered into his empty eye socket. The others soon followed—through ears, nose, wounds, and beneath his body. Ye Kai could feel them crawling everywhere inside, gnawing and tearing at his flesh. “They’re biting me! They’re biting me!” His pupils shrank, his expression twisting into madness. The pain he could endure—but not the thought of them nesting inside him.

Lin Mo leaned close. “Junior Brother Ye, I forgot to mention—these corpse worms are all pregnant females. They love nothing more than giving birth inside a human host. A single mother can produce hundreds of larvae at once, can’t it?”

Ye Kai smashed his head against the glass in despair. “You can’t do this to me! Please, don’t use such cruel methods! Take them out, I beg you!” He would rather be carved into pieces every day than endure worms gnawing inside him, birthing a swarm within his flesh.

But Lin Mo ignored his pleas. Soon Ye Kai felt them laying eggs. His mind broke—he screamed and then burst into hysterical laughter. “Haha! Worms, worms—they’re having babies inside me!”

Lin Mo calmly observed his descent into madness. And when Ye Kai’s spirit seemed ready to shatter, he pressed a rare pill between his lips—his own refinement, worth hundreds of spirit stones. It steadied Ye Kai’s mind just enough.

Because Lin Mo had no intention of letting him collapse too soon.