Warning: There are depictions of graphic violence taking place that is not recommended for younger audiences.

– – – – –

In just a few hours, a lump of skin, meat, and bones was on the floor, heaving and praying to just die. He’d rather suffer the Thirteen Torturous levels of the Netherworld and spend his sweet time there rather than remain on Earth in the hands of such people.

Yang Yulong and Guo Sheng had finally gotten the information they wanted out of Mu Ting. It was exactly as Yang Feng had told his younger brother; there must’ve been an ulterior motive to this incident. After all, one wouldn’t have been stupid enough to go after Yang Ruqin knowing full-well who exactly was backing her up.

“Longlong, what should we do with him now? We have all that we need to know.” Guo Sheng watched as the man washed the blood off of his hands. His eyes drifted to the man on the ground with multiple whip marks, missing several nails and one eye, chopped off fingers, and half his body skinned. That was not all the damage that had been done.

Guo Sheng looked at the metal pot and portable burner near the table. He saw this method in movies and wanted to try it on Mu Ting. A couple of hours into the torturing, he had chopped the man’s little friend off, cooked it, and force fed it to him.

“Tell the doctor to come in and keep him alive.” Yang Yulong instructed Guo Sheng who pouted.

“But he’s all the way upstairs and I don’t want to walk that much!”

Yang Yulong walked to Guo Sheng and patted the boy on the head. Guo Sheng was sitting on the table, swinging his legs back and forth while playing with something that Yang Yulong assumed was Mu Ting’s missing eyeball, in his gloved hand.

“It’s an order.”

Guo Sheng’s pout dipped into a scowl, his brows deeply coming together causing his face to be scrunched up. “I only take orders from Big Boss.”

Yang Yulong chuckled. ‘He’s such an obedient and loyal follower’ “Alright then. I guess I’ll complain to your Big Boss that you were reluctant to—”

Without letting him finish, Guo Sheng made a beeline to the door, running faster than he ever had. Yang Yulong let out another laugh before running a hand through his hair then frowning when he realized some specks of blood had gotten into the thick strands.

‘Great, just great.’ Now he had to wash his hands again and his hair later on.

He walked back to the sink, whistling a tune, before his eyes caught Mu Ting’s reflection in the mirror who was weakly moving around on the ground. He glanced back to marvel at his fine work.

The slightest glance from Yang Yulong was enough to evoke the fear that had been instilled in Mu Ting during the multiple torture sessions. It caused him to let out a terrified shriek before slamming his head into the messy floor.

“Good boy.” Yang Yulong mused before turning off the water. He was prepared to leave the room when he suddenly said, “You must be lonely down here.”

Mu Ting’s entire body was trembling in pain and fear. He was trying his best not to rock back and forth like a baby, in fear that the more he moved, the more his body would hurt.

“Don’t worry, your companions will join you soon.” Yang Yulong taunted as he walked out of the room, slamming the door in the process.

– – – – –

In a spacious and well-lit room, there was an elongated mahogany wooden table. There were a few elderly men frequenting a few of the seats while the other seats had men and women ranging from late forties to sixties.

It was oddly quiet in the room, except for the occasional puffs of cigarettes. Every important member of the Su family was gathered before the table. It was rare for them to all gather in one place. The rarity was to avoid the outbursts of family feuds and petty arguments.

Some time had passed and finally, someone spoke up. “Is it true? One of our older disciples was seized by the Yangs for allegedly harming Yang Ruqin?”

All eyes shifted to Su Xueying who was Su Meixiu’s second aunt.

“It would be a disgrace to call him one of our students, especially after what he had done!” Su Boyuan interjected while passively shaking his head in disapproval. “He was known as the best fighter of his time, but he lost to a girl half his size!”

“And how do you know of this?” Su Xueying curiously asked her younger brother.

“Unless you were living under a rock, you would definitely know what happened yesterday.” The eldest Su sibling spoke up, his deep hum of a voice piercing through Su Meixiu whose entire body stiffened upon hearing him speak.

Su Meixiu obediently sat beside her father. She tried to leisurely sip her tea, but with her eldest uncle leering at her, she could not. Her fingers were shaking, causing the scalding tea to swish about, droplets landing upon her pencil skirt. She was too distracted by her fear to register the pain.

“What shall we do then?” Su Xueying sighed. She pinched the bridge of her nose when her head began to throb. A headache was kicking in, all because she was so stressed about the sticky situation.

“Why should we do anything? It’s not like we owe the Yangs an explanation! He was simply a student here.” Someone chimed in and his words were followed by agreements.

“Exactly. How can we predict the future and what our pupils would do with their skills?”

“I reckon we should lay low so the storm can easily pass by.”

“Lay low and not do anything?! Are you out of your mind?!” Su Xueying angrily said, slamming her hand on the table. Her palms turned pink from the impact and she felt a tingling sensation in her hand.

“What?” Someone scoffed. “You have a better solution?”

Su Renxu who was Su Meixiu’s third aunt spoke up. “We better not apologize to the Yangs. We did nothing wrong here. To say we’re sorry is to admit to the wrongdoing that was not committed by us!”

“We did nothing wrong here? How daft are you, Su Renxu! Mu Ting was a disciple raised and taught by us. That alone ties the incident back to our family!”

“It’s not like we told him to do anything! Stop screaming at us as if we had anything to do with the entire ordeal.”

Everyone began to bicker like a bunch of children on a playground, arguing for their supposed innocence. Hands were slammed onto the table and teacups were tossed around as boisterous and angry screams erupted in the air. It was chaotic.

Su Meixiu shrank back in her chair and wished she could escape. Anywhere was better than here. Her eyes drifted to her grandfather who sat tall and proud, unwavering in the eyes of his screaming children, nieces, and nephews.

Su Meixiu saw her father was mimicking Elder Su’s posture. Both of them were very calm and neither desired to take part in the ongoing arguments. It was strange to see her father like this, especially when he was known to be a very violent and selfish man by nature. He was usually leading the discussions, arguing and debunking everyone’s opinion, whether they were right or wrong. Today, he was oddly quiet. Perhaps it was because he was lost in his thoughts. It must’ve been hard to gather all of her aunts, uncles, cousins, and distant relatives into one place.