151: Chapter 151 Torture

"Click."

Shen Xingyue methodically slotted the last high-frequency scalpel into the sterilization tray and casually closed the silver toolbox.

She turned around and looked at Hoffman, who was within arm's reach. His eyes had become murky and aggressive, yet not a single ripple disturbed Shen Xingyue's calm face.

"By the way, I have a question."

Shen Xingyue pushed up the rimless glasses on the bridge of her nose, her cool, clear voice ringing out in the spacious room.

"You should have a captain named Ivy here, right? Where is she now? We haven't been able to reach her."

Upon hearing the name "Ivy," Hoffman's face, which had been full of desire, suddenly stiffened.

The hand he had reached out toward Shen Xingyue's shoulder stopped abruptly in mid-air, the greed in his eyes instantly replaced by extreme vigilance and chilling murderous intent.

"How do you know about her?"

Hoffman's expression changed drastically. As the Great Elder's son, he knew all too well about Ivy's current situation and that unspeakable secret.

Without the slightest hesitation, he erupted into action, turning his hand into a claw and lunging fiercely toward Shen Xingyue's fair neck!

"No matter who you are, don't even think about walking out of this room today!"

However, at the very moment he exerted his strength—

"Ugh..."

Hoffman suddenly let out a muffled groan of pain. He felt as if the spiritual energy that had just filled his body had been instantly drained away.

Immediately following that, a profound sense of neural paralysis spread wildly from his spine throughout his entire body. His originally tall and strong physique went limp, as if all his bones had been removed, and he collapsed uncontrollably.

"Thump!"

Hoffman slammed heavily onto the cold metal floor, bruising his face.

He discovered with horror that he was completely unable to move; except for everything above his neck, his torso felt as if it no longer belonged to him!

Even more terrifyingly, his vocal cords felt as if they were tightly clamped by some force, allowing him only to make weak, raspy sounds, completely unable to call for help.

Zhou An, who had been standing in the shadows of the corner, didn't even move a finger, merely watching this "medical performance" belonging to Shen Xingyue with great interest.

Shen Xingyue looked down condescendingly at Hoffman, who had collapsed at her feet.

"You don't need to ask how I know."

"I'll ask you one more time: where is Ivy?"

"You... what did you do to me?!"

Hoffman's face flushed red as he squeezed out a vicious threat from his throat.

"This is Winged Clan territory! If you dare to touch me, my father will absolutely chop you up and feed you to the exotic beasts! Untie me now!"

"You've got a stubborn mouth."

Shen Xingyue shook her head expressionlessly. She pulled a glass syringe emitting a pale purple fluorescent glow from the pocket of her lab coat.

She skillfully flicked the side of the syringe with her slender fingers to expel the tiny air bubbles inside—the movement was elegant and standard, looking exactly like a cold nurse in an old-world hospital preparing to give an injection.

"This thing is a fresh product I researched after recently analyzing the Winged Clan's genetic sequence."

Shen Xingyue watched a drop of purple liquid seep from the needle tip.

"I happen to be short a clinical test subject, so let's use you."

With that said, Shen Xingyue lifted her foot, clad in a flat leather shoe, and stepped precisely and mercilessly onto the back of Hoffman's right hand.

"Pfft!"

Without waiting for Hoffman to beg for mercy, Shen Xingyue bent down, and the syringe in her hand plunged without hesitation into the carotid artery in his neck, pushing the entire tube of pale purple liquid inside.

After the liquid entered his body, for the first few seconds, Hoffman felt nothing unusual.

He even had a fleeting illusion of having escaped death due to extreme fear, and let out a raspy, mocking laugh in his throat: "Heh... your drug isn't all that great! You think you can scare me with this? My guards are right outside the door. As soon as they realize there's no sound inside, they'll rush in and..."

Before he could finish his sentence.

Shen Xingyue curled her lips into a rare, stunningly beautiful, faint smile. This smile was like a snow lotus blooming on an iceberg in winter—breathtaking, yet carrying a lethal chill.

Subsequently, she suddenly applied her full body weight to the toe of the shoe pressing on the back of Hoffman's right hand and ground it fiercely.

"Ahhhhhhh—!!!"

A terrifying, agonizing pain that exceeded the limits of the Winged Clan's comprehension instantly erupted from the back of his hand like a nuclear explosion, transmitting at the speed of light along his nerve endings to Hoffman's cerebral cortex! The sensation was as if ten thousand rusty saws were tearing at his soul all at once!

His face turned a deep purple-red in a tenth of a second, and the veins on his forehead bulged out like earthworms.

He desperately opened his mouth wide, wanting to let out a shrill scream, but due to the paralysis of his vocal cords, he could only emit intermittent, muffled roars like a broken bellows.

Because of the extreme pain, his eyeballs bulged, and the corners of his eyes even split open, bleeding.

"This reagent itself does not possess any toxicity."

Shen Xingyue, while expressionlessly grinding her shoe sole against his already deformed finger bones, explained the truth of his living hell in the coldest, most professional tone:

"It has only one effect—it can forcibly amplify your Winged Clan's nerve sensitivity by tenfold. Therefore, right now, even if you are just lightly touched, you can experience the joy of being sliced into a thousand pieces."

Shen Xingyue leaned down slightly, her rimless glasses refracting a chilling light under the lamps: "So, Mr. Hoffman, let's review the previous question again... Where is Ivy?"

The torment of tenfold sensory amplification made Hoffman understand what it truly meant to be in a living hell.

The drool at the corner of his mouth mixed with the blood seeping out from excessive clenching, flowing messily onto the cold metal floor.

"I'll give you three minutes to consider."

Shen Xingyue expressionlessly moved her leather shoe away and casually fished an exquisite mechanical timer from her lab coat pocket, placing it gently on the metal laboratory table to the side.

"Tick... tick..."

The crisp sound of the second hand moving rang out in the deathly silent room. Shen Xingyue pulled over a chair and sat down quietly and elegantly.

Between her slender fingers, she carelessly toyed with a few other syringes filled with the pale purple liquid, as if spinning a pen.

Time passed minute by minute.

Hoffman panted heavily on the ground like a dying dog. Now, even the slightest faint airflow brushing across his skin could trigger that agonizing pain deep within his nerve endings, like being flayed alive.

When only one minute remained on the timer, Shen Xingyue stopped twirling the syringes.

She stood up slowly. The sound of her flat leather shoes striking the metal floor sounded to Hoffman now like a funeral knell. Shen Xingyue returned to stand before him, looking down at him condescendingly.

"I'll speak... I'll tell you everything! I'll tell you whatever you want to know!"