274: Chapter 272 Soul Torture

"Sometimes, extreme cleanliness actually signifies extreme filth."

He tucked the jade tablet into his sleeve and spoke indifferently, "You only know that ordinary ghost cultivators rely on absorbing corpse Qi and resentment to Cultivate, but you don't know that in this world, there is another kind of underworld legacy that directly strips away the seven emotions and six desires, cultivating only pure death intent."

"A ghost cultivator? I happen to know one, and she's right there in the Daochu Sect."

Su Lin's lips curled up slightly, revealing a smile that made one shiver. "I'll go and ask; perhaps she knows something."

Hearing this, the movements of several female Disciples paused slightly.

"Is Revered Master referring to that little shorty you left to guard the door in the back mountain dungeon?"

Chu Weiwei flipped her wrist, putting away those colorful poison bottles. A look of anticipation for a good show appeared on her pure and harmless little face.

"Second Senior Sister, that's no ordinary shorty."

Luo Ximei fanned herself from the side. "That's an old monster at the Body Integration Stage who has lived for over a thousand years and controls the Jiming Ghost Domain."

Su Hongling curled her lip. "Tch, no matter how long she's lived, in my eyes, she's just a matter of one hammer strike. Since the Old Man says she knows, let's haul her out and ask!"

"Let's go, back to the Sect."

Su Lin waved his sleeve, no longer paying attention to the mess in the Star Sea Treasury.

Although Gu Qiuyue was heartbroken to death, she didn't dare delay the important business. With tears in her eyes, she quickly mobilized the Jiuzhou Chamber of Commerce's hidden guards to clean the scene and repair the Formations.

Then, she quickly caught up with Su Lin's pace and activated the highest-level cross-realm teleportation Formation.

With a flash of light, the group's figures disappeared into the depths of the underground.

...

Daochu Sect, Back Mountain Forbidden Ground.

This was originally a black prison used by the Sect to hold serious criminals. Ever since the "Nether Moon Empress" Yue Xiaoxiao was branded with the [Primordial Soul Contract] by Su Lin and assigned here as an "interrogator," this area had completely become a forbidden zone of life that Daochu Sect Disciples spoke of with fear.

The sky was covered year-round by a thin layer of grey-black haze, and sunlight could not penetrate it at all.

There was no wind in the air, but as soon as one approached this place, their Divine Soul would uncontrollably feel a terrifying sensation of being stared at by countless pairs of cold eyes.

"Sect Master, you're back."

"Xuan Zhen, how is the situation in the dungeon?"

"In... in response to the Sect Master."

"That Senior Yue... she recently caught a few spies who had infiltrated the mountain gate to gather intelligence, and she is currently... working inside."

"It's just that the noise... is truly too terrifying. Disciples below the Soul Transformation Stage are strictly forbidden from coming within ten miles of the back mountain; otherwise, they risk their Dao Heart collapsing."

"Oh? It seems she's working quite hard."

Su Lin raised an eyebrow. He wasn't surprised and pushed open the heavy black iron door directly.

On both sides of the long corridor, there were no torches, only clusters of eerie green ghost fires burning quietly in the air.

The deeper they went, the more peculiar the expressions on the disciples' faces became.

Because what they heard wasn't the heart-wrenching screams of prisoners under torture.

But rather a burst of immature, crisp laughter, like the silver-bell-like giggling of a child playing in a playground.

"Hee hee hee... Big brother, the resilience of this Soul thread of yours isn't good enough; it snaps as soon as I pull it..."

"It's okay, Xiaoxiao will help you sew it back together. Shall we play again?"

Su Lin and his group turned the last corner and reached the deepest part of the dungeon.

The scene before them caused even Su Hongling, who was used to mountains of corpses and seas of blood, and Chu Weiwei, who had poisoned tens of thousands, to feel their scalps tingle.

In the spacious underground cell, there was not a single torture instrument.

In the center hung a giant swing pieced together from piles of white bones.

On the swing sat a pale young girl wearing a black lace dress.

Her feet were bare, swaying gently in the air.

Her jet-black, silky long hair fell to her waist, framing her face, which was as delicate as a porcelain doll's.

The most striking thing was her eyes.

There were no whites and no pupils, only two pools of pure, bottomless, extreme darkness.

It was as if even light looking into them would be completely swallowed.

Yue Xiaoxiao.

At this moment, the former Nether Moon Empress was holding several shimmering threads, intently... playing cat's cradle.

And at her feet knelt three men.

There wasn't a single wound on their bodies, and even their clothes were intact.

But they All of them rolled their eyes back.， Drooling from the corner of his mouth， The body was twisted in a posture that was extremely contrary to the structure of the human skeleton.， It was like enduring unimaginable torture..

Because the "threads" Yue Xiaoxiao was using for her cat's cradle were the main Souls forcibly pulled from their skulls and stretched extremely thin and long!

"Revered Master!"

Sensing the presence of Su Lin and the others, Yue Xiaoxiao suddenly looked up.

A fanatical and submissive light instantly erupted in those pure black eyes.

She Like a well-behaved child who has thrown away a toy， casually picked up those few sticks“ Soul Silk” a pull.

*Pop, pop, pop.*

With three light sounds, the main Souls of the three spies instantly snapped and shattered.

Without even letting out a scream, their bodies fell straight down, becoming empty shells.

Yue Xiaoxiao jumped down from the bone swing, ran to Su Lin with pitter-patter bare feet, knelt on the ground with a "thud," hugged Su Lin's calf, and rubbed her cheek against it pleasingly.

"Revered Master, you finally came to see Xiaoxiao!

Xiaoxiao has been obediently completing the tasks Revered Master assigned every day. These bad people who wanted to infiltrate the Daochu Sect, Xiaoxiao dug out all the secrets in their brains, leaving nothing behind!"

Her voice was sweet and soft, and with her well-behaved posture, any outsider would surely think she was the most pampered little maid in a wealthy household.

But the moment she stood up and approached, Su Lin's gaze suddenly froze.

Not just Su Lin, but Cold Moon, Luo Ximei, Mu Qingxue, and the others behind him all changed expressions at the same time.

"Your cultivation..."

Su Lin looked down at Yue Xiaoxiao, a hint of surprise flashing in his deep eyes.

When he had previously subdued Yue Xiaoxiao, her cultivation had dropped from the Peak of the Body Integration Stage because one-third of her Origin Soul had been stripped to sign the Primordial Soul Contract.

But now!

Although Yue Xiaoxiao was intentionally restraining herself, that terrifying aura, as deep as the abyss and as vast as the sea, resonating with the Law of death in the world, was absolutely impossible to fake!

"Mahayana Stage?!"

Su Hongling couldn't help but cry out in surprise, her eyes nearly popping out. "You little shorty, locked in a dungeon playing with Souls every day, and you actually quietly broke through to the Mahayana Stage?!"

This simply defied the common sense of the Cultivation World! Who could reach the Mahayana Stage while being in prison?

Hearing this, a sickly flush appeared on Yue Xiaoxiao's pale little face. She looked up at Su Lin, her eyes full of fanaticism and obsession.

"This is all Revered Master's blessing!"

She explained excitedly, "Revered Master left me here, and the ground beneath the Daochu Sect already has extremely heavy Yin Qi. Those are top-tier Materials! Plus these spies who came looking for death recently, their Divine Soul fear and despair, Xiaoxiao took them apart, chewed them, and digested them..."

She licked her scarlet lips, seemingly still savoring the memory.

"Most importantly, Xiaoxiao's Soul signed the Primordial Soul Contract with Revered Master! Revered Master's cultivation has progressed by leaps and bounds, entering the Great Perfection of Integration Stage and even reshaping his Dao foundation. That supreme Law feedback nourished Xiaoxiao's depleted Origin through the Soul contract!"

"So, Xiaoxiao not only restored her Soul but also touched the barrier of the Mahayana Stage thanks to Revered Master's light, and completely transformed a few days ago!"

As Yue Xiaoxiao spoke, she kowtowed deeply once more. "Xiaoxiao is now a Mahayana Stage Soul slave and can better tear apart the Souls of those enemies for Revered Master!"

After hearing her explanation, the group of female disciples behind Su Lin fell silent.

Luo Ximei gasped, while Chu Weiwei looked at Yue Xiaoxiao as if she were a monster.

What was this?

Parasitizing Revered Master and leeching experience all the way to the Mahayana Stage?!

"Revered Master..." Su Hongling swallowed and whispered, "I suddenly feel like being your Soul slave seems quite worth it..."

"Shut up."

Su Lin glared at her, then turned his gaze back to Yue Xiaoxiao.

"Get up."

Su Lin spoke indifferently, "I came today because I have work for you."

He waved his sleeve and threw the dark red [nether soul stone] jade tablet obtained from the Star Sea Treasury Death Soldier, as well as the storage ring Su Hongling had stripped off, in front of Yue Xiaoxiao.

"When Hong Ling killed this Mahayana Stage Death Soldier, an extremely faint remnant Soul escaped into this jade tablet."

"These people's Qi is extremely clean, without the usual corpse stench of ghost cultivators; even their Cultivation Technique fluctuations are hidden by some high-level Law. They infiltrated the Jiuzhou Chamber of Commerce's Star Sea Treasury with ill intent."

Su Lin looked down at Yue Xiaoxiao. "I want you to dig out their background and the forces behind them from this remnant Soul, word for word. Can you do it?"

Hearing that there was "work" to do, especially with the remnant Soul of a Mahayana Stage Cultivator, Yue Xiaoxiao's pure black eyes instantly lit up, as if she were seeing the most delicious delicacy in the world.

"A Mahayana Stage Soul? Wonderful!"

She bounced up from the ground excitedly, carefully picked up the grey jade tablet with both hands, held it to her nose, and took a deep breath.

In the next second, the innocence and obedience on her face vanished without a trace, replaced by an extreme chill and a sickly excitement.

The surrounding temperature plummeted, and even the eerie green ghost fires seemed frozen.

"Such pure Death Qi..."

Yue Xiaoxiao stuck out her scarlet tongue and licked her pale lips, her voice becoming hoarse and ethereal.

"Revered Master, they aren't ordinary ghost cultivators, much less those lowlifes who toy with corpses."

"They are... Nether Cultivators."

"Nether Cultivators?" Mu Qingxue's brow furrowed slightly. "How are they different from ghost cultivators?"

"The difference is massive."

Yue Xiaoxiao sneered and suddenly tightened her fingers on the jade tablet.

"Ahhh!!!"

A blood-curdling, shrill scream suddenly erupted from the dead-like jade tablet! The sound was extremely agonizing, as if suffering the pain of having one's tongue pulled out and heart gouged.

Wisps of ink-black ghost Qi seeped from Yue Xiaoxiao's fingertips. These Qi strands, like the sharpest surgical knives, forcibly stripped a walnut-sized, nearly transparent remnant Soul light from the jade tablet!

The remnant Soul struggled frantically in Yue Xiaoxiao's palm, twisting and trying to self-destruct, but it was firmly imprisoned by the absolute ghost Qi of the Mahayana Stage, unable to move.

"Ghost cultivators absorb the mixed resentment, Death Qi, and corpse Qi in the world, so they always carry a nauseating stench."

While staring intently at the clump of remnant Soul in her hand, Yue Xiaoxiao explained in the professional tone of an old scholar dissecting a frog:

"But Nether Cultivators are different; they Cultivate the pure Law of death!

They place their Divine Soul in absolute dead silence for repeated tempering, washing away all seven emotions, six desires, and Yin-evil Qi.

They don't rely on external things; they only Cultivate Origin death."

"Therefore, they appear even cleaner than those of the righteous Sects. But their methods of stripping away life are more terrifying than any demonic cultivator."

Yue Xiaoxiao's gaze became solemn.

"Furthermore, the defensive power of this Divine Soul is extremely strong, and someone has placed the highest-level Forgotten River Silence Curse on it.

Once a Soul search touches their core memories, this remnant Soul will instantly self-annihilate, leaving nothing behind."

Hearing this, a flash of disdain appeared in Chu Weiwei's eyes. "In that case, what else can you ask? Better to give it to me; I'll use [Soul-Eroding Powder] to turn it into water and see what residue can be filtered out."

Yue Xiaoxiao suddenly turned her head and gave Chu Weiwei a cold glance with those pupil-less, pure black eyes.

The pure tyranny and Mahayana Stage pressure emanating from that gaze actually made this battle-hardened Medicine Immortal feel an instinctive chill.

"In my domain, even the God of Death would have to spit out the secrets he swallowed!"

With that, Yue Xiaoxiao turned around and tossed the clump of remnant Soul into the air.

"Revered Master, please watch closely. This isn't like those crude Soul-searching techniques outside."

She grinned, revealing a hair-raising smile. "This is called... [Divine Soul Lingchi]."

She extended her hands, her ten fingers dancing rapidly in the void like she was playing an invisible piano.

With her movements, the eerie green ghost fires of the entire underground cell instantly turned a suffocating scarlet!

*Squelch!*

A pair of black "scissors" condensed from the pure ghost Qi of the Mahayana Stage appeared out of thin air. Without any hesitation, it snipped the Mahayana Stage remnant Soul right down the middle with a "snip"!

"Aaaaaaaah!!!!"

An even more shrill scream exploded in the void, shaking the cell walls so hard that dust fell. The pain of having one's Soul forcibly severed was ten million times that of physical lingchi!

But this was only the beginning.

A look of innocent and naive smiles hung on Yue Xiaoxiao's face, and she even hummed an unknown, eerie nursery rhyme:

"One cut, one part pain, secrets hidden in the deepest layer..."

"Two cuts, three howls, Soul fragments shining bright..."

Those giant black scissors danced frantically in the air, turning into countless afterimages.

Within just a few breaths, that originally walnut-sized remnant Soul was actually sliced by her into over a thousand tiny Soul fragments, like slicing a piece of tofu!

From every fragment, too small for the naked eye to see, came the hopeless wails of that Mahayana Stage Death Soldier! This high-frequency, overlapping screaming almost pierced the eardrums of everyone present.

Standing in the back, Su Hongling couldn't help but rub the goosebumps on her arms, a look of revulsion flashing in her red eyes. "Damn... this little shorty looks harmless, but her methods are even more twisted than mine!"