Chapter 356 - 340: It Was I Who Harmed Him...
This place was a true Asura’s field. On one side of the great hall, a "taming" was in progress.
Several victims, their arms and legs freshly broken, were being herded like cattle by the guards, forced to crawl across a floor covered in sharp gravel.
Crawl too slowly, and you’d get a vicious beating. Too pained to even scream, and they’d give you a fresh cut to "perk you up."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the hall, separated by only a thin screen, glasses were clinking and the air was thick with the smell of roasting meat.
A group of thuggish gang leaders sat around a bonfire, tearing into large chunks of meat and downing huge bowls of wine. The sound of their drinking games was deafening.
"Come on, come on! Drink!"
A powerfully built man raised his wine bowl. He was the leader of this branch—Guo Tu.
"Drink your fill tonight, brothers! We’ve gotten word from the higher-ups. Once this batch of ’goods’ is dealt with, our branch is breaking camp and moving to Pingyang City!"
"We’ll always eat well following the Chief!"
"Bottoms up! To the Chief!"
They paid the screams no mind, treating them as music to liven up the party.
「Just then.」
"WAAAHHH—!!!"
"You bastards! You monsters! Give me back my mom and dad! Where are my mom and dad? AHHHHHH!"
The cry pierced the air.
The little boy, about five or six years old, had been kept in isolation. He finally managed to spit out the rag in his mouth and broke down completely, sobbing.
This crying clearly ruined the Chief’s good mood.
"Damn it! Who didn’t gag him properly? Whose job was this? Go get your punishment later!"
"Fucking little shit, are you wailing for a funeral here?!"
Guo Tu’s brow furrowed. He slammed his wine bowl on the ground, grabbed the iron rod, and walked over.
He walked to the corner and looked down at the trembling child.
The child was filthy, but his limbs were intact. He had large eyes, and his cries were surprisingly strong and full-throated.
Guo Tu’s impatient expression suddenly changed the moment he saw the child.
He grinned, revealing a set of rotten, tobacco-stained yellow teeth, and let out a chilling, strange laugh. "Oh? This one’s a good specimen."
A subordinate quickly sidled up to him. "Chief, this one was originally going to be sold to the ’human market’ as a house slave, so we haven’t used a knife on him yet."
"Sell him to the ’human market’? What a waste!"
Guo Tu used the iron rod to lift the child’s chin. "Look at this little frame, so sturdy. And listen to those cries, so pitiful! If we sell him as a slave, he’ll fetch a few dozen taels of silver at most."
"But if..." Cruelty practically dripped from Guo Tu’s eyes. "...we break both of his legs, gouge out those eyes, and throw him on the street... tsk tsk tsk. With that pathetic look, he could earn us several taels of silver a day! Besides, this little shit dared to curse at us. Selling him to the human market would be letting him off too easy. Does he deserve that?"
"The Chief is brilliant! You truly have a keen eye!" the subordinate hurriedly flattered.
"Then let’s not wait. Things are lively right now, perfect for giving the brothers a little show."
Guo Tu grinned maliciously, raising the iron rod high and aiming for the child’s knees.
"No... whim... whim..." The child was too terrified to even cry properly, able only to watch the descending shadow.
...
[Jiang Stone’s Livestream]
[FUCK FUCK FUCK! Isn’t that the branch leader?! Looks like we’ve got a big fish!]
[What are you waiting for, Streamer?! Do something!]
[System Notification: User "Moneybags" has gifted the streamer "Interstellar Battleship" x1!]
[Streamer! Call for backup! Obliterate these bastards for me! I’ve already tipped you for the cost!!]
Seeing the massive gift animation, Jiang Stone chuckled. "Thanks for the battleship, boss! Blowing it right now!"
Jiang Stone began to retrieve an item from his system inventory. [Item: Communication Whistle] -> [Retrieve]
A small whistle materialized in Jiang Stone’s hand.
He gathered all his strength and blew it with everything he had!
"TWEEEEEEET—!!!"
A high-pitched, piercing whistle suddenly blasted through the dilapidated temple!
The sound instantly shattered the bloody, oppressive atmosphere.
Guo Tu’s movement stopped abruptly, the iron rod frozen in mid-air.
Every thug mid-assault, every bandit mid-drink, and even the numb victims—all of them instinctively turned their heads.
Dozens of pairs of eyes fell in unison upon Jiang Stone, who was missing a hand and had a lame leg, but still had a whistle dangling from his mouth.
Facing Guo Tu’s murderous glare, Jiang Stone spat the whistle onto the ground and blinked innocently.
Jiang Stone scratched his head with his one remaining hand and started spouting nonsense to stall for time. "Well, actually, I just found this whistle on the ground. I thought it looked pretty nice and figured it might be some treasure you guys dropped, so I blew it to get your attention... Do you buy it?!"
"Found it, my ass! Do you take me for an idiot?!"
Guo Tu felt his intelligence had been insulted. Fury surging through him, he roared at his men, "Get him! Let’s see which is harder—his mouth or my club!"
A mob of thugs instantly swarmed him, fists, feet, and clubs raining down on Jiang Stone’s body.
"THUD! THUD! THUD!"
The dull thuds of the impacts were endless.
However, Jiang Stone, at the center of the storm being battered about, was currently... ’a little bored.’
’Tsk, these mobs have a pretty fast attack speed. Well, until the heroine arrives, I might as well scroll through some short videos.’
[Playing short videos from various creators]
[Jiang Stone’s Livestream]
[??? What are you doing, Streamer? You’re getting beaten up! Can you at least react a little?]
[The streamer’s eyes are glazed over, and he’s smiling... Can’t you be a little more professional at a time like this?!]
[Jiang Stone]: What’s the rush? What’s so interesting about watching me get beaten up? There aren’t even any special effects. I’ll switch the camera back when Miss Su arrives. For now, just let me finish watching this episode of *Eva is with you*...
[Light begets all life, and all life follows the shadow.]
...
They beat him for the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.
"Huff... huff... This kid... why’d he go quiet?"
A few of the thugs, panting with exhaustion, stopped what they were doing. Mr. Zhang, the one in charge of him, was also puzzled.
Normally, after a beating like this, he should have been screaming his head off long ago. Even if his reflexes were slow, they’d beaten him for so long now that the signal should have had time to travel around the Milky Way and back, right?
But Jiang Stone was just sprawled on the ground like a pile of sludge, not making a sound, not even furrowing his brow.
"Don’t tell me... we beat him to death?"
Another thug cautiously checked for breath under Jiang Stone’s nose.
"He’s still breathing." The thug sighed in relief, but then his brow furrowed. "But he’s staring blankly and drooling... Don’t tell me... we beat him stupid?"
Guo Tu walked over, kicked Jiang Stone, and snorted. "Is this guy that fragile? If he’s broken, we can only use him as a ’gravely ill and paralyzed’ prop for the other beggars!"
...
The couple was awake, but they wished they had never woken up.
Awakened by pain long ago, they didn’t even dare to breathe loudly, huddled tightly in a dark corner.
’The hero who saved our child... is he dead?’
...
And yet, at this very moment, Jiang Stone was cheerfully binge-watching a web series starring the virtual idol, Ava.