Chapter 481
Chapter 481
‘Taking ten pieces of trash like that to participate in the martial examination a month from now? It’s madness. It wouldn’t matter if they participated in ten years, let alone one month. And those wretches are going off for secret training?’
The censors, who had been quiet for a time, once again began their impeachments. They petitioned the King to revoke their status as civil and martial academy students, thereby stripping them of their eligibility to participate in the Special Examination. Once again, they demanded that Shen Lang apologize to the world and kneel before the Sacred Temple for three days and nights.
The King, too, had watched from the highest point of the imperial palace as the beggars left the capital, tied to their horses. He was about to go mad with rage.
‘Humiliating, so utterly humiliating. Why? Why must I lose face when it is Shen Lang who runs wild?’
With great difficulty, the King suppressed the urge to send men to kill all the beggars. The court would be anything but quiet for the next few days; the censors would be tearing into him daily. Ning Yuanxian would have to pretend not to hear, to act as if nothing had happened. But in his heart, he made a vow. After the Special Examination, if all eleven beggars Shen Lang had brought failed, he would issue an order to have them sliced into more than ten pieces. Only then, he felt, would the resentment in his heart be somewhat appeased.
***
The secret location Shen Lang found was over a hundred *li* from the capital. It was an island in the center of a large lake, upon which stood an abandoned estate. This estate had also been provided by the Heavenly Path Society, so their secret training here would be absolutely secure. The estate was surrounded by walls, and beyond that was only the lake, making it impossible for anyone to spy on them.
Of course, Shen Lang’s worries were excessive. Who would even think of spying on those eleven beggars? Only a ghost might come to watch their secret training. It was as ridiculous as the Somali national team worrying that the Brazilian team would come to spy on their training.
‘If you want us to spy on your tactics, at least make it to the World Cup finals first.’
The Somali team had never even qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations finals.
***
Inside the underground chamber of the estate on the lake island, the beggars trembled with anxiety. They lay side by side on stone beds, their bodies bound. Soon, Shen Lang would inject them all with the Golden Bloodline Parasites to activate the power of their bloodlines. The parasites would improve their original bloodlines, elevating them to a higher grade. Shen Lang had previously succeeded in injecting Go Duhwan with the parasites, but he couldn't be certain it would work on these beggars. Yet, it had to succeed. Failure was not an option.
“Hooo…”
Shen Lang took a long, deep breath and finished his preparations.
“No matter what happens next, none of you are to make a sound. Otherwise, I will cut out your tongues!”
Go Duhwan gave the cold command. Hearing this, the ten beggars clenched their teeth and tightened their buttocks, terrified of letting even the slightest sound escape. This King of Hell was a man of his word. If he said he would cut out their tongues, he would surely do it if they made a peep.
Shen Lang took out ten syringes. Each contained about one milliliter of the Golden Bloodline Parasites.
The procedure began immediately. With swift movements, Shen Lang injected one man after another. In a short time, all of them had been injected, and one milliliter of the Golden Bloodline Parasites had entered the bodies of each of the ten beggars. A complete silence fell, and then, like the beating of war drums, the sound of their hearts began to fill the air. Their heartbeats had quickened by at least two or three times and were incredibly loud. The chamber was filled with the pounding of ten hearts, truly sounding like a drumroll. And then…
“Pfft.”
“Pfft.”
“Pfft.”
They all began to spew blood. Scarlet blood shot from their mouths like fountains. Then, their skin began to crack all over their bodies, and fresh blood oozed out incessantly.
“You can scream now.”
As Go Duhwan gave the order, the underground chamber filled with the most wretched screams imaginable, a sound that could make one’s hair stand on end, as if their very organs were being turned inside out. And then, Shen Lang witnessed a terrifying sight. The beggars' twisted bodies were brutally stretched straight, and not only that, but their blood vessels swelled powerfully, looking as if they could burst at any moment.
“Aaargh!”
An unending agony unfolded.
*Snap, snap, snap, snap.*
The sturdy ropes that bound them snapped one after another. If this experiment failed, they would lose their lives. Only two outcomes remained. Either he would be collecting ten corpses, or he would gain ten powerful warriors of immense potential, creating an unprecedented miracle that would make everyone's eyes pop out.
***
The beggars swore that the pain and torment they endured over the last two days and nights far surpassed all the suffering of their past lives combined. Every minute, every second, they were plunged into a hellish agony. And that pain seemed as if it would never end. It was a pain that erupted from the very marrow of their bones, from within their bloodlines, impossible to resist or suppress, driving them to the brink of madness. It felt as if the pain was completely shattering them, only to reassemble them anew. They wished for nothing more than a swift death. Fainting might have been a blessing, but they couldn't even pass out, forced to endure the full force of the pain that crashed over them like a collapsing mountain and a surging tsunami.
Shen Lang was witnessing a scene unlike any he had ever seen before, one that defied modern science and medicine. The ten beggars, whose bodies had been twisted or disabled, were being stretched out as if by some immense force. They transformed from looking like withered dates into men of normal stature. The sight reminded Shen Lang of Pang Toutuo and Shou Toutuo from *The Deer and the Cauldron*—one was a tall man compressed into a short, fat one, while the other was a short man brutally stretched tall.
Shen Lang watched the scene in the cellar for about an hour before leaving. The screams they let out were truly horrifying. The ten of them screamed like that for two full days and nights.
***
While Shen Lang was reforming the beggars’ bloodlines, Madman Lan, uncharacteristically, was not pestering Hanu or reading his novels. Instead, he had taken out a Buddhist scripture and was reading it intently. The lewdness in his expression had faded considerably, and his gaze had grown more complex. Shen Lang asked him.
“You don’t want to see that sight, do you?”
“How could I dare?”
He clearly did not want to see it. After wasting more than a decade, he had finally found his wandering, displaced brothers. After finding them, Madman Lan didn't know what to do, but he kept his ambitions hidden in his heart. How long must this go on? He had no answer. When the cataclysm occurred, he was still young and had no sense of mission. He only wanted to find and protect his brothers. Madman Lan had entered the estate more out of a desire to live off someone else and provide a place for his brothers to stay. He was not yet mentally prepared to make a name for himself in the world.
Shen Lang asked.
“Do you remember what happened when you were young?”
“None of us remember much from our childhood. I grew up in the mountains, living a carefree life.”
“A carefree life?”
“Yes. A life of playing without a care in the world. Of course, we had to learn, but learning was play, and play was learning, wasn't it?”
“What about your parents?”
“Our parents lived in the mountains. Some taught us academics, some taught martial arts, some made clothes, some prepared meals, and some farmed.”
Shen Lang was surprised. To someone who pursued noble ideals, who believed in the existence of a utopia, that would have been an incredibly beautiful life.
“And later?”
“Later, something terrible happened, and the adults fled with us. We ran east the whole time, trying to get far away across the sea. But we hadn't gone even a few hundred *li* before we were met by pursuers several times.”
“Who pursued you?”
“I don’t know. They were all supreme martial arts masters.”
“What happened after that?”
“Our parents went out to fight the enemies to protect us, and our blind uncle took us and ran. On the run, we were constantly followed by pursuers. Soldiers and warhorses were running rampant everywhere, and displaced refugees were everywhere. We were completely scattered.”
“And you spent over a decade searching for them?”
“There were over thirty of us in total. I found ten of them, but I couldn't find the rest.”
“Were you the oldest child at the time?”
Madman Lan shook his head.
“No. Brother Lan Mo was the oldest; he was thirteen at the time. Sister Lan Mi was also older. But both of them disappeared, so I became the oldest, and it became my duty to protect my younger siblings.”
Shen Lang closed his eyes in thought and posed a question.
“Go Duhwan, Nampo—they are war refugees with outstanding bloodlines. Are they your brothers too?”
Madman Lan shook his head.
“No.”
“Then what about Big Dummy?”
“Even less so.”
By then, Shen Lang had studied martial bloodlines with profound depth, and the more he understood, the more astonished he became. The golden bloodlines of Big Dummy and Qiu Yao'er were unique, without equal in the world. Go Duhwan, too, was born with a naturally high-grade bloodline, as was Divine Maiden Seol-eun, but there was still a significant gap between them and Big Dummy or Qiu Yao'er. The bloodlines of Big Dummy and Qiu Yao'er were so supreme they could look down upon all living beings from the highest throne.
“Are those ten all your younger siblings?”
Madman Lan nodded.
“Do you not want them to stand out?”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“It won’t be. The mortal danger for those with superior bloodlines has already passed. Nampo and Zhuo Yizhen are both safe now, and the Ends of the Earth Sea Pavilion has vouched for those like you with extremely outstanding innate bloodlines. You can set your minds at ease and build your merits. By any chance, is Hanu also one of you?”
Madman Lan shook his head.
“No.”
“Then why do you always keep your eye on her?”
“Since we were young, we lost our homes and wandered aimlessly, so we instinctively seek out our own kind for warmth. Hanu has a past as tragic as mine, so I believe we could connect on a very deep level.”
Just then, Hanu stormed over, fuming, and pointed at Madman Lan.
“My lord, this bastard was peeping on me while I was bathing.”
Madman Lan tried to explain himself.
“No, no, Lady Hanu. I wasn't trying to peek at you bathing; I was just trying to commit your current image to memory. Because with each passing day, you become more beautiful, and I just wanted to commemorate your appearance every day.”
Madman Lan’s words were sweet enough to be slippery, but they were utterly useless. Without a second thought, Hanu charged forward and tackled him to the ground in an instant. And she took out a small bamboo stick, aimed it at the area between Madman Lan’s legs, and began to beat him relentlessly.
“Aaargh!”
Madman Lan let out a scream of utter misery. The sight alone was enough to make one’s scalp tingle, and Shen Lang quickly backed away. This was a matter of incalculable precision. Hanu moved with such accuracy that she inflicted enough pain to make Madman Lan wish for death, yet she didn't strike him in a way that would render his 'equipment' unusable. Maintaining that fine balance was an incredibly difficult feat. Still, since his ten brothers were currently suffering the torments of hell, it seemed only right that Madman Lan share in their pain.