Chapter Twelve: The Hell of Tongue Extraction

Aboard the Cloudwalker Spirit Ship.

“Only twenty-five minutes left.”

Shen Qingzhou muttered to himself, eyes fixed intently on the moving blue dots that marked the Tianquan Squad and Li Huanyi. His brows furrowed unconsciously as he paced back and forth, trying to ease his nerves.

“Li Huanyi, oh Li Huanyi…” He muttered her name, then, still not satisfied, cursed under his breath, “Brute! No, foolhardy woman!”

There were only so many chief commanders in the entire country, and those who had advanced to the Nascent Soul stage were even rarer. Not only did she seem to care little for her position, but she was also gambling with her own life.

Yet, despite these thoughts, a flash of admiration flickered in Shen Qingzhou’s eyes. To have such a chief commander was a blessing for F City, but he feared losing both the commander and their forces.

With his hands clasped behind his back, he let out a deep sigh.

In the abyss beneath the black hole—

Li Huanyi and the Tianquan Squad, drenched in blood, had finally cleared the swarm of parasitic beasts at the outskirts and arrived at the Beast King’s lair.

Within the cave, a demon core the size of a bowl radiated a sinister crimson aura.

Li Huanyi’s brows knitted tightly as she spun around and strode for the exit. “No, it’s a trap! Quick, get out!”

The Tianquan Squad followed her without hesitation.

Outside the cave, other monsters attracted by the Beast King’s core caught sight of them and, without a word, surged in for the kill.

“Attack!”

In an instant, thousands of monsters engulfed Li Huanyi and her team.

With practiced coordination, Li Huanyi and the Tianquan Squad formed the Northern Dipper Star Formation, transforming into a colossal meat grinder as they charged outward.

For a moment, flesh and blood flew in all directions, painting the darkness of the abyss with fresh crimson.

Elsewhere in the abyss—

Little Black moved like a fish in water, stealthily slipping into the parasitic beast horde.

He sniffed out the Beast King’s scent, searching one cave after another.

He devoured demon cores one after another, his belly swelling round with fullness; those he couldn’t eat he stored in his dantian.

It wasn’t until he could no longer detect the Beast King’s scent that he snapped back to himself.

He’d eaten so many demon cores—so why had his cultivation not advanced in the slightest?

What was going on?

Agitated, he grabbed the nearest parasitic beast, tearing its head from its body in one swift motion. The twisted head rolled to his feet.

With a step, he crushed it, then dashed swiftly toward the surface.

The problem must lie with that weakling reserve ration.

On the surface—

Jiang Wangshu held the Immortal Binding Rope in one hand, her other formed into a fist, channeling all her spiritual power as she pummeled Wu Rousha’s face, blow after blow.

“That’s for disgusting me!”

“That’s for laying those beast eggs!”

“Are you a mother cockroach? Laying so many eggs—why don’t you drop dead from exhaustion!”

Huo Jinyu and Zou Xiuzhen, their spiritual power depleted, could only sit cross-legged, desperately circulating what little strength they had to resist the eggs draining their energy.

Watching Jiang Wangshu’s relentless and physical assault, they felt vicarious pain for the Beast King herself.

Wu Rousha, unable to break free, was pinned and forced to endure the beating. Her human form was barely holding together; her face flickered between human and beast, her voice low and sinister as it spilled from her lips, “How are you still conscious?”

By all rights, this woman should have been drained dry by the beast eggs and turned into a puppet by now.

Yet not only did she retain her spiritual power, she still had her own will. Wu Rousha could not make sense of it.

She commanded the beast eggs inside Jiang Wangshu to draw power more fiercely.

The next moment—

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The beast eggs, overfed by spiritual power, exploded one after another.

Blood and viscera splattered across Wu Rousha’s face.

She blinked in disbelief. Her beast eggs had actually burst!

“How is this possible!” she screamed, her true form revealed at last.

A five-meter-tall mass, she sprawled on the ground like a small mountain, her body translucent—inside, plump eggs as round as hen’s eggs were clearly visible.

“I’ll kill you!” came the muffled, monstrous voice.

Wu Rousha spread her enormous form, hurling herself at Jiang Wangshu with all her might.

But though she was so close, she couldn’t move forward—her feet slipped in place. Upon closer look, the golden rope still bound her, sealing her powers.

What in the world was this thing?

The mountain of slime quivered violently, seemingly on the verge of breaking free.

Jiang Wangshu wiped her face, tightened her grip on the rope, took a swig of water, and rinsed her mouth. “Come at me if you have the guts!”

In her mind, she couldn’t shake the image of her body riddled with eggs, the disgust driving her nearly mad beneath her cool exterior.

She wanted nothing less than to have this Beast King cut to pieces, fried in boiling oil, dragged across blades and through fire…

The Pay-to-Win System, watching its host furiously scroll through the shopping page, felt as if a tornado had ransacked its database.

It cowered in the corner, not daring to show its face.

“This is it!”

Jiang Wangshu clutched the book she’d exchanged for and vanished from her consciousness space.

The Pay-to-Win System wiped its brow—terrifying! A mad host is not to be trifled with!

“I’ll kill you!” Wu Rousha lunged forward, nearly upon Jiang Wangshu.

Jiang Wangshu snapped back to herself, grinning wickedly. “Heh heh heh…”

Wu Rousha, for reasons she could not name, felt a chill creep over her heart. Her bluster faded. “You—you—what are you going to do…”

Jiang Wangshu raised the ancient black book in her right hand.

The moment the book appeared, a sinister yet righteous aura filled the air.

A crushing, inescapable pressure fell like Mount Tai upon every living thing—save for Jiang Wangshu herself.

Suddenly, the wind died and the trees stilled.

Even the distant beast horde fell silent.

Huo Jinyu’s teeth chattered uncontrollably. “What—what is that…”

Zou Xiuzhen shook as well, unable to stop trembling. “It’s—too terrifying…”

Neither noticed the beast eggs falling one by one from their bodies.

But compared to the others, Wu Rousha was struck by an even greater force.

This pressure surpassed even the dreadful aura emanating from the depths of the abyss—she couldn’t muster the will to resist.

The step she’d fought so hard to take toward Jiang Wangshu, she now bitterly regretted, scrambling to turn and flee.

“Don’t—don’t come any closer!”

She transformed instantly back into human form, flailing her legs frantically. “I—I’m warning you! I have powerful backers!”

“Even if you had gods behind you, you’d still have to bow down!” Jiang Wangshu poured her spiritual power into the book, finally opening to the first page.

“First layer—Hell of Tongue Extraction—open!”

A wave of blood-red light radiated outward, enveloping Wu Rousha in a five-meter radius, as if the world had shifted entirely.

The dark sky loomed low and oppressive, the earth below glowed like burning iron, shimmering with searing crimson.

From that blood-red ground, countless arms stretched upward, scrambling to seize Wu Rousha.

The soft, boneless arms displayed endless tenacity, stretching limitlessly to catch hold of her skin, desperate for a share in the task.

Wu Rousha’s struggles were as futile as a mayfly fighting a tree, caught amidst the endless hands.

“I was wrong! I was wrong! I never should have come to the human world! I’ll go back to the abyss right now…”

Jiang Wangshu released her left hand; the Immortal Binding Rope loosened on its own, slipping into her wrist and hiding away.

Following her intuition, she sat down, and a golden chair materialized beneath her, lifting her to the perfect vantage point above.

She sneered, “Regret is useless! It’s too late!”

“Not enough tongues? But you have plenty of beast eggs, don’t you?”

“Extract them!”