chsdbacks Chapter 116 How could you tolerate this?
Chapter 116 How could you tolerate this?
A cruel silence permeated the clearing shaded by the trees. Lin Bei squatted on the ground, with the "spoils of war" brought back by Ashina Jiro, Lady Rose, and Jasmine spread out in front of him.
He carefully categorized and sorted the various plants and fungi with their strange shapes and colors, his movements unhurried yet carrying a sense of scrutiny.
As the classification progressed, even he, the instigator, couldn't help but silently mourn for Mikako, who lay stiffly beside him, disguised as a corpse.
He admitted that he did have some mischievous intentions. After all, when facing a cunning and treacherous demon lurking nearby, it was necessary, and also a bit of a perverse pleasure, to test its limits with unconventional methods.
However, the malice contained in this pile of "ingredients" far exceeded his original intention of "playing around".
Ashina Jiro clearly operates on the principle of "the more unpalatable the better," and his strong palate suggests he's no benevolent character.
Lady Rose, on the other hand, focused more on "immediate torment." Most of the things she picked had strange shapes, either covered with fine hairs or with a bumpy surface like a toad's back, as if just touching them could bring discomfort.
As for Jasmine… Lin Bei picked up a brightly colored mushroom with an eerie glow along the edge of its cap, then glanced at several other fungi with even more twisted shapes and darker, more ambiguous colors, raising an eyebrow slightly. This little girl is quite meticulous; she's chosen mushrooms with "unknown tastes and even more unknown effects," practically aiming to send the eater into an unknown hell.
This is far more than just "unpalatable".
It was clearly a meticulously crafted "torture package"—extreme gustatory insults, intense sensory stimulation, unknown neurotoxins, and potentially fatal physiological disorders... The three reached an unspoken consensus: it would be better to kill a thousand innocent people than to let this "suspected" evil spirit go free.
They were aiming to make Mikako experience "a fate worse than death" or even "die on the spot."
This is the ultimate insult to a man-eating demon.
Lin Bei tossed the last clump of unidentified grass leaves, which emitted a strong, fishy smell, into the "torture" category, clapped his hands, and stood up.
He observed a moment of silence, but the tiny bit of sympathy he felt vanished instantly. For a cunning and cruel demon that feeds on humans, any pity was superfluous, even foolish.
What he needs is not sympathy, but irrefutable evidence—proof that beneath this "corpse" lurks a living threat that needs to be completely eradicated.
"Ashina Jiro," Lin Bei's voice broke the silence, calm yet carrying an undeniable command, "put these 'good things' into its mouth, one by one."
He pointed to Mikako, who lay motionless on the ground. "I'll see if she can survive this first trial, the 'Taste Hell'."
Ashina Jiro responded, his facial muscles twitching slightly as he looked at the pile of plants emanating an ominous aura. His Adam's apple bobbed, clearly indicating that he also felt uneasy.
Without hesitation, he strode forward, squatted down beside Mikako, and grabbed a handful of grass leaves that Ashina had picked herself, which had a strong, bitter smell. He forcefully pried open Mikako's tightly clenched teeth and shoved them into her mouth.
At this moment, deep within Mikako's seemingly lifeless body, her consciousness was operating frantically.
It sensed the movements around it, heard Lin Bei's cold commands, and felt Ashina Jiro's disgusted brutality. A surge of anger and humiliation rose within it, but even more so, an almost twisted determination.
"Eating grass? Ha!"
Mikako sneered inwardly, her expression laced with the arrogance characteristic of a demon and her disdain for human food.
"Just a lowly plant! Back when it was still a human, in the deep mountains and forests, what tree bark and grass roots didn't it gnaw on to survive? They were just things that tasted nauseating and were hard to swallow."
"What does this little bit of suffering matter as long as I can fool this damned Lin Bei?"
"Endure this, prove I'm a real 'corpse,' dispel his doubts, and I'll gain a chance to catch my breath... Then, I'll take you all one by one..."
The venom of revenge flowed through its consciousness, becoming the driving force that sustained its endurance. It mobilized the demon's powerful body control, keeping every muscle completely relaxed and rigid, forcibly suppressing even the most subtle nerve reflexes.
However, when the first handful of extremely bitter grass was roughly stuffed into her mouth and soaked with saliva, the indescribable taste, which seemed to embody all the despair and decay in the world, exploded instantly, and Mikako's psychological defenses suddenly trembled!
These were not the mere unpalatable weeds it remembered!
The bitterness was so intense, like a real poison, that it assaulted its taste buds and rushed straight to the top of its head. The bitterness made its very soul tremble, and it wished it could bite off its tongue and end this terrible torture!
Immediately afterwards, a strong numbing sensation surged through its tongue like an electric current, instantly stripping it of all sensation, as if that part of the organ no longer belonged to it.
Before it could even adjust to the double torment of bitterness and numbness, another handful of "wild vegetables" was shoved in. This time, it was a plant stem with sharp barbs, which Ashina Jiro practically shoved in.
The barbs scraped against the soft flesh inside Mikako's mouth, bringing a sharp, piercing pain, as if countless tiny, cold teeth were gnawing at her!
It almost lost control of its body's instinctive reaction and was about to jump up from the ground.
Immediately afterwards, an indescribable stench suddenly erupted, an ultimate odor that was a mixture of rotting corpses, swamp silt, and fermenting excrement, strong enough to knock out an elephant.
The stench assaulted her nostrils and filled her brain, making Mikako feel like she was about to suffocate and faint. Just as she was about to be overwhelmed by the stench, an intensely salty and pungent smell enveloped her, like swallowing a mouthful of sticky, rotten fish entrails. The strong nausea made her stomach churn violently, almost bursting out of her throat.
Before the pungent, salty smell had even dissipated, a pure and violent burning sensation, as if from the depths of hell, suddenly descended upon us!
Those were chilies carefully selected by Ashina Jiro, similar to bird's eye chilies, but even spicier!
The spiciness was like molten lava, instantly igniting her entire mouth and throat, burning all the way down, making Mikako feel as if her mouth and esophagus were about to be burned through and melted!
Bitter, numb, painful, smelly, fishy, spicy... all sorts of extremely unpleasant tastes and sensations take turns attacking, mixing, exploding, and raging in its mouth, as if it is conducting an endless, sensory torture.
Mikako's mind was teetering on the brink of collapse.
Every second felt like an eternity.
It mobilized the demon's patience, which far exceeded that of humans, and suppressed all the pain, humiliation, and rage deep within its soul.
Its body remained in a perfect state of rigor mortis, not even its eyelashes trembled, only its consciousness roared and twisted silently.
Just as Mikako felt that her sense of taste and reason were about to be completely destroyed by these "wild vegetables", Ashina Jiro's hand reached for the pile of strangely shaped mushrooms that Jasmine had picked.
When the first colorful mushroom with fluorescent edges was put into her mouth, Mikako was almost moved to tears—compared to the previous pile of wild vegetables that could be described as "biological weapons," this mushroom actually had a slightly slippery, animal fat-like deliciousness!
As it chewed, it actually experienced a long-lost sense of satisfaction that sent shivers down its spine—a feeling akin to tasting fresh human flesh! The stark contrast instantly captivated it, even giving rise to a sense of absurd ecstasy. 'Yes, that's it… this is what I should be enjoying…' it greedily (in its mind) swallowed.
However, this "gift" was fleeting.
Before it could even revel in its newfound joy for a few minutes, a sudden change occurred!
First, there's the perspective.
Even though its eyes were tightly closed, several tiny figures, no bigger than a thumb and shimmering with dazzling neon light, suddenly appeared in front of it!
They danced wildly, their movements frenzied and alluring, singing completely out-of-tune, sharp and piercing "songs" like the friction of metal, leaping madly on the stage of their consciousness.
The scene was so real, yet so bizarre, that it forcibly tore apart its reason.
Immediately afterwards, an irresistible force seemed to grab the sides of its head and began to tear it apart with tremendous force!
A sharp headache struck instantly, accompanied by a real tearing sensation, as if his head was about to explode like a watermelon! The colorful neon world before his eyes was stretched and distorted, turning into a bizarre vortex.
Before the terrible pulling sensation had subsided, another, even more terrifying hallucination followed.
Mikako felt her torn head suddenly detach from her body, soaring higher and higher into the endless, dark sky like an out-of-control rocket, without end.
Meanwhile, its body plummeted like a heavy meteorite into the bottomless abyss of hell! This extreme experience of its soul and body being completely torn apart, and its consciousness being pulled between endless ascent and endless descent, plunged it into utter chaos and fear, almost driving it insane.
Just as its consciousness was about to be completely swallowed by the hallucination, an unprecedented, excruciating pain, like being stabbed with a knife, suddenly erupted from its abdomen! The pain was so intense and sharp, as if countless red-hot blades were frantically churning and cutting inside its intestines!
What horrified it even more was that, along with this excruciating pain, its sphincter muscles, which had been completely abandoned and sealed away for countless years after it became a demon, began to spasm and twitch uncontrollably and violently!
A powerful, long-forgotten, biologically instinctive urge to excrete surged through its will like a tsunami!
"No!" Mikako's soul screamed in despair. "This is impossible! I am a noble demon!"
"I have long since transcended such base physiological needs!" An overwhelming sense of shame and fear instantly overwhelmed all pain and illusions. More clearly than ever, it realized that if it were to succumb at this moment, if it were to truly soil its pants in front of everyone, in front of its most hated enemy, because of human poisonous plants and mushrooms… that would be the ultimate humiliation, a thousand times more terrifying than death!
It will become completely "socially dead," turning into a "Deadpool Ghost" that can't even hold its head up in the ghost world!
Even if it manages to fool Lin Bei and survive, this unforgettable humiliation will haunt it for eternity, making its life a living hell!
At this moment, Mikako was enduring a torment she had never imagined in her long ghostly life—a torment that was all-encompassing and superimposed. Her mouth was filled with a mixture of extreme tastes: sour, spicy, bitter, foul, fishy, salty, painful, numb… as if countless red-hot steel needles were repeatedly piercing her oral nerves.
In my brain, a chaotic hallucination of colorful neon figures dancing wildly, heads tearing apart, ascending to heaven and crashing to the ground raged on the floor—like a never-ending nightmare revelry. My abdomen was wracked with excruciating, stabbing pain, while beneath me, a life-or-death battle for dignity and the meaning of existence raged on my sphincter muscles!
This is far more than just "eating grass".
This is clearly a vivid and simultaneous performance of the legendary "Ten Cruelest Tortures of the Qing Dynasty" on its body! Every second, its will is being pushed towards the abyss of collapse.
However, the demon's superhuman strength and pain tolerance were pushed to their limits at this moment.
The fear of exposure, the desire for revenge, and the extreme resistance to "social death" became the pillars supporting its last line of defense.
It mobilized every bit of the power of the ghost blood, suppressing all of its body's instinctive reactions.
Its muscles remained as relaxed as a corpse, its expression (if it could still be called an expression) frozen like a stone sculpture, and even the slightest rise and fall of its breath was forcibly controlled to almost nothing. It was like the most perfect, the most stubborn, the most patient prisoner, locking itself firmly in this tortured shell, motionless.
When Jiro Ashina finally shoved the last handful of unknown, slimy, and disgusting fungus into Mikako's throat and slammed her jaw shut, he let out a long, tired, and incredulous sigh.
He looked down at the still motionless "corpse" on the ground, then at the pile of "ingredients" next to him, which was clearly half gone and exuded an ominous aura. His heart began to tremble violently.
"Lord Linbei..." Jiro's voice was hoarse and confused as he wiped the beads of sweat from his forehead, whether from nervousness or nausea.
"This...this guy...is he really dead?"
He pointed at Mikako, his tone full of doubt.
"So much random stuff, I can't even look at it, let alone eat it! It's disgusting and weird, and the portions are huge, at least four or five pounds! Even a cow would jump up after being handled like this, right?"
"But it...it didn't even blink once from beginning to end! How could it have endured it if it wasn't truly dead?"
Jiro Ashina simply couldn't comprehend what kind of being could remain absolutely "deadly" under such inhuman torture.
Lady Rose's focus at this moment was completely different from Jiro's.
Her beautiful brows furrowed slightly, a hint of barely perceptible annoyance and grievance in them, her gaze shifting between the pile of remaining plants and Mikako on the ground.
The most bizarrely shaped "artworks" that she carefully selected for "torture" did not seem to attract Lin Bei's special attention, nor did they cause the evil spirit to lose its composure on the spot as she had expected.
This feeling that her "efforts" were not fully "recognized" left her somewhat resentful.
Since confirming her relationship with Lin Bei, this once meticulous Mrs. Rose seems to have truly converted a portion of her intelligence into a purely love-struck mind, and her behavior pattern is visibly converging towards that of a single-celled organism (like a silly roe deer).
Jasmine remained highly vigilant and calm throughout.
Her clear eyes were fixed on Mikako, not missing a single subtle moment that was difficult for ordinary people to notice—such as the extremely brief and weak contraction of blood vessels under the skin of the "corpse's" neck when some of the most stimulating plants were inserted; or the almost negligible tremor of her fingertips when the hallucinogenic mushrooms took effect.
These tiny flaws were as clear as fireflies in the dark to Jasmine.
She was more certain than anyone else: Mikako was not dead!
It was simply enduring all of this with unimaginable willpower. And the clearer Jasmine realized this, the more her fear of Mikako rose to a new level.
Such inhuman torture... such extreme humiliation... yet it endured it all, remaining unmoved like a mountain...
Jasmine's heart sank, and a chill ran down her spine.
"This demon's tenacity and terrifying endurance are unheard of! Every bit of pain it suffers now will be inflicted upon us a hundredfold, a thousandfold, in the future… It must be eliminated! At all costs!"
Mikako's terrifying endurance only strengthened Jasmine's resolve to completely eliminate her.
Lin Bei's gaze swept over the three people with different expressions, and finally fell back on the "corpse" on the ground. A meaningful smile, with a hint of amusement and coldness, slowly curled up at the corner of his mouth.
"Oh……"
A barely audible sneer escaped from his lips.
Mikako's performance was indeed beyond his expectations. In his opinion, this demon's strength was nothing special, but her skill in "playing dead" and her ability to endure pain were first-rate, and could even be said to be the best he had ever seen in his life.
If he hadn't been so familiar with the characteristics of a demon after death—its distinctive ash-like appearance and the fluctuations of dissipated energy—he might have truly been deceived by this perfect disguise.
"interesting……"
Lin Bei muttered to himself, his eyes gleaming with the excitement of a hunter discovering a new trick on his prey.
"You still can't win me over?"
He looked at Mikako as if she were an interesting toy, or perhaps an opponent worthy of serious consideration. "It seems this test of 'taste hell' is still too 'gentle' for you?"
He straightened up, his gaze sharpening and turning icy. His voice echoed clearly in the silent forest clearing, serving as both an explanation to Jiro Ashina and the others, and a final ultimatum to the "feigning death" demon on the ground:
"Alright, that was just an appetizer. It seems that the trick of using 'wild vegetables' to identify evil spirits has limited effect."
Lin Bei's tone carried a hint of mockery, then became resolute, "Well then, now it's time for the main course. My second method is simpler, more direct, and its effect is definitely a hundred times better than the first!"
He paused, his gaze sweeping across Mikako on the ground like lightning, and said, word by word:
"That is—burning!"
"These monsters, demons, possess an almost perverse self-healing ability that you can hardly imagine. Ordinary cuts and axe blows, even severed limbs and pierced hearts, can quickly regenerate as long as they are not killed on the spot or their core is damaged. This is what makes them so troublesome."
Lin Bei's voice carried a calm, almost scientific tone, yet it contained a chilling killing intent. "There aren't many things that can truly kill them. One is a weapon made from the extremely rare gorilla-red iron ore, which contains special solar energy."
"And the other one," Lin Bei raised his hand, his fingertips seemingly dancing with invisible flames, "is fire! The most primal, and the most effective!"
"No matter how strong its self-healing ability is, as long as it is completely burned to ashes! Burned until not a single cell remains! Then, even the most powerful self-healing ability will lose its foundation and can only vanish into nothingness!"
His words struck the hearts of every listener like a cold hammer, especially the demon on the ground who was experiencing an internal storm.
"So," Lin Bei turned his gaze to Ashina Jiro, giving the final instruction, his tone calm yet carrying an undeniable cruelty.
"Ashina Jiro, go find some gasoline. The more the better. We'll hold a grand 'barbecue' farewell ceremony right here for this guest who 'may already be dead'."
The moment the words left his mouth, the atmosphere in the open space froze.
Moonlight filtered through the leaves, falling on Mikako's still "peaceful" body, yet it seemed to carry a scorching heat.
Ashina Jiro paused for a moment, then responded and quickly turned to leave to find something to ignite.
Mrs. Rose blinked, seemingly still reeling from the shock of the overly direct word "barbecue".
Jasmine clenched her fists instinctively, staring sharply at Mikako, ready to deal with any unexpected events.
On the ground, deep within the "corpse," the moment Mikako heard the words "burn" and "gasoline," her consciousness plummeted into a true, irreversible ice cave! An unprecedented, instinctive, ultimate fear of the sun's power instantly coiled around her heart like a cold, venomous snake!
All its patience, all its pretense, all its plans for revenge seemed utterly powerless before this most primal and deadly threat. An uncontrollable despair and panic, originating from the deepest recesses of its soul, nearly breached the last bulwark it had built with willpower!
Can it continue to "endure"? When real flames lick its body, can the deep-seated fear still be perfectly hidden?