271: Chapter 265 Torture and Interrogation

By the side of the Thunder Punishment Sea, the scent of blood and the aura of thunder intertwined, creating a strange and oppressive atmosphere.

In the rapidly constricting pupils of Blood Rakshasa, the figure of Chen Zhiwen was magnified infinitely, resembling a judging demon god stepping out from the depths of the Nine Underworlds.

His question was like an invisible ice pick, piercing fiercely into the deepest fear within Blood Rakshasa.

"You... how could you know... the Old Ancestor's name?!"

Blood Rakshasa's voice became sharp and piercing due to extreme shock. She struggled, attempting to discern even the slightest flaw on this man's face.

However, she was disappointed.

Chen Zhiwen's gaze remained like that bottomless cold pool, so calm that it made one's heart palpitate.

He did not answer Blood Rakshasa's question. Those deep eyes merely watched her indifferently, as if looking at an inanimate object.

This disregard was more oppressive than any vicious words.

"It seems you know where he is."

Chen Zhiwen spoke slowly. His voice was not loud, but every word was clear, like a heavy hammer striking against Blood Rakshasa's heartstrings.

He took a step forward. With just that one step, that invisible pressure of Sword Intent surged toward Blood Rakshasa like a landslide and a tsunami!

Blood Rakshasa was already severely injured. At this moment, under this pressure, she felt her Divine Soul trembling, as if it were about to be completely crushed in the next instant.

"I... I don't know!"

She gritted her teeth, her scarlet lips turning pale from the exertion, yet a flash of resolute madness flickered in her eyes.

"Even if I knew, I would never tell you! You killed members of my Sect; this enmity is irreconcilable! If you have the ability, then kill me!"

Blood Rakshasa laughed shrilly, attempting to use this intense method to cover up the fear in her heart.

She knew well the terror of Old Ancestor Xuanji. If even a shred of information about him were leaked from her mouth, the outcome would be ten thousand times more miserable than dying at the hands of the man before her!

"Kill you?"

The corners of Chen Zhiwen's mouth curled into a cold arc.

"Death is too cheap for you."

He stated this fact calmly, and the matter-of-fact tone caused Blood Rakshasa's laughter to come to an abrupt halt.

"You are a smart person; you should know that there are many ways to make life worse than death."

Chen Zhiwen's gaze slowly moved downward, landing on Blood Rakshasa's lower abdomen, at her Dantian.

"For example, abolishing this cultivation you are so proud of."

Blood Rakshasa's face turned paper-white in an instant!

For a Cultivator, especially a powerhouse standing at the Peak Golden Core, having their cultivation abolished was even more cruel than killing them! It was to cast them from the clouds, fiercely, into the lowliest dust!

"You... you dare!"

Her voice trembled uncontrollably.

"See for yourself if I dare."

Chen Zhiwen's patience seemed to have been exhausted.

He said no more. His right hand, fingers formed into a sword shape, slowly lifted. A wisp of Chaos Sword Qi, thinner than a hair but containing an aura of extreme destruction, silently condensed at his fingertips.

At that moment, Blood Rakshasa was truly afraid.

She could clearly feel that contained within that wisp of Sword Qi was a terrifying power sufficient to completely annihilate her Golden Core!

"I'll speak! I'll speak!"

In the face of absolute fear, all persistence appeared so pale and powerless.

However, the moment she opened her mouth, a trace of imperceptible mockery flashed in Chen Zhiwen's eyes.

He had never expected to ask anything of value from this woman's mouth.

Everything just now was merely to completely break her psychological defenses and clear the obstacles for the upcoming "Soul Searching."

Pfft!

Without the slightest hesitation, that Chaos Sword Qi, like a black bolt of lightning, instantly plunged into Blood Rakshasa's Dantian!

"Ah—!"

A scream so shrill it did not sound human resounded across the entire bank of the Thunder Punishment Sea!

Blood Rakshasa's body, as if its bones had been extracted, suddenly went limp. Her eyes bulged, filled with bloodshot veins, and her face was filled with endless pain and despair.

She could clearly feel her Golden Core, which she had painstakingly cultivated for hundreds of years, under the erosion of that strange Sword Qi, cracking and dissolving rapidly, just like ice and snow scorched by a raging fire...

The massive spiritual power, like floodwaters released from a gate, poured out frantically from her limbs and bones, returning to the heaven and earth.

Her cultivation was plummeting at an irreversible speed.

Peak Golden Core... Late Golden Core Stage... Mid-stage Golden Core Realm...

Until she was completely reduced to a Mortal!

"You... you devil!!"

Blood Rakshasa lay on the ground, hair disheveled, staring fixedly at Chen Zhiwen with eyes filled with extreme resentment.

"Even as a ghost, I will not let you go! The Old Ancestor... the Old Ancestor will surely avenge me! He will extract your soul and refine your spirit, leaving you unable to reincarnate for eternity!"

She cursed frantically, her voice hoarse and vicious.

Having lost her cultivation, her last reliance had also completely collapsed.

Chen Zhiwen, however, acted as if he had heard nothing.

He slowly crouched down, extended his right hand, and placed it over the top of Blood Rakshasa's head.

Blood Rakshasa's cursing came to an abrupt halt.

Replaced by boundless fear!

"Soul... Soul Searching?! No... don't!"

She finally understood what this man truly intended to do!

Chen Zhiwen ignored her pleas. His powerful Divine Sense, like a breaching torrent, surged without reservation along his palm and fiercely rushed into Blood Rakshasa's Sea of Consciousness!

Boom!

Inside Blood Rakshasa's Sea of Consciousness, monstrous waves were stirred up!

Her Divine Soul, under the impact of this overbearing and peerless Divine Sense, could not even put up a decent resistance before being scattered to pieces.

Countless memory fragments, like floodwaters from a broken dam, surged frantically within her Sea of Consciousness!

These memories were complex, chaotic, and filled with blood, slaughter, and conspiracy.

Chen Zhiwen's Divine Sense turned into an invisible net, calmly and efficiently screening and capturing within this ocean of chaotic memories.

He saw Blood Rakshasa's childhood, saw how she was selected by the Blood Fiend Sect, and saw how she stood out in cruel battles, eventually becoming the terrifying Saintess of the Blood Fiend Sect.

He bypassed all of these directly.

His goal was only one—Daoist Xuanji!

Finally, within a deep red memory fragment, he captured that key name!

It was a dark and damp underground cave.

An old man wearing a gray Daoist robe, with a withered face but eyes as sharp as a falcon's, was sitting cross-legged on a bone altar piled high with countless skulls.

He was Daoist Xuanji!

And before him, Blood Rakshasa was kneeling respectfully on the ground, not even daring to raise her head.

"...That is how things are." Blood Rakshasa's voice rang out in the memory. "Li Huo Palace and the Shadowless Gate have both set their sights on the nine-leaf thunder bamboo in the Thunder Punishment Sea. They will surely have a great battle. At that time, we can reap the benefits."

"Hmm."

Daoist Xuanji slowly opened his eyes. His voice was hoarse, like two pieces of withered tree bark rubbing together.

"You have done well in this matter. When my Cultivation Technique reaches Major Achievement, this position of Sect Master of the Blood Fiend Sect will be yours."

"Thank you, Old Ancestor!"

Blood Rakshasa's voice was filled with ecstasy.

The scene ended here.

But this was enough!

Chen Zhiwen's Divine Sense, like the most precise scalpel, completely peeled away this memory fragment and the few segments of memory associated with it.

In these memories, he found the approximate location of that underground cave—the Southern Region, Black Wind Mountain Range!