【Xue Xiao】Desolate City Crossing

No one will know, and no one will believe, that the murderer, who regards human life as nothing, was also in great torment when he killed someone for the first time at the age of eight.

When he was seven years old, his fingers were crushed by the wheels of a bullock cart, and the wound on his little finger was bleeding, dragging a piece of squashed rotten flesh. He lay down on the corner of the street for a day, feeling hot and cold all over his body.The little child didn't know what he did wrong. He just wanted a plate of snacks. He obediently delivered the letter. Why did the person who received the letter beat him? The person who ate snacks actually crushed his fingers.

The wheels ran over the immature fingers one by one, and the bones of the hand were all broken. The child let out a hissing and lung-piercing scream, and the carriage drove away.

In that case, a child with no money and no relatives would probably have to wait to die.Unexpectedly, when he woke up the next day, he was indoors.The bandaged hands smelled of herbs, and it didn't hurt that much to move.

For beggars on the street, having walls on all sides to keep out wind and rain is a very good room, so at first I didn’t think there was anything wrong with a stone room with only four stone walls, and I was even flattered by the delicious meals delivered every day .

After staying for three days, he finally understood that the man who rescued him said that he wanted to train his subordinates. He felt that he had potential and spiritual roots. .

The man was about 40 years old, dressed in a gray Taoist robe, with a black and thin build, two prominent cheekbones, a long pointed chin, and a mustache. He called himself Shi Zongzhu.

Sect Master Shi came to see him in the stone room with the medicine box, and his attendants were respectful.After changing the medicine for him, Sect Master Shi squeezed his beard and said with a smile, "Xue Yang, take good care of your injuries. Only when your body recovers will you have the strength to do things for me."

The seven-year-old child burst into tears of gratitude: "Well! I will definitely..."

Before the words were finished, another child's mournful cry came from outside the stone room: "No! I won't go! I won't go in!"

There was a sound of ping-pong-pong, and the impact of iron and stone, as if someone was dragging the child, but no matter how hard the child struggled, he was finally locked in a place he didn't want to go in, and he screamed again: "Let me out!" !let me out!"

Xue Yang was terrified when he heard it, not knowing what was going on outside.Sect Master Shi said inscrutablely: "To be my subordinate, you have to have the guts. I will let you experience it today."

Opening the stone door, he walked out of that stone room for the first time.The location is a huge semi-underground space, with a row of small doors on three sides, about twenty.

The entourage moved the mechanism by hand, and twenty stone doors rumbled open. From a distance, there were four stone walls and a high window inside.A child walked out of each stone room. They stood upright and looked at a cage in the center of this huge space together.The children ranged from six to seven years old to teenagers, some looked terrified, some were indifferent and expressionless, and they all kept strangely quiet by coincidence.Another six adult men, tall and mighty, with leather whips pinned to their waists, saluted Sect Master Shi.

Inside the cage, one child was wheezing and panting heavily, while the other, who was thinner, shivered in the corner of the cage.

On the other side of the underground space, in the direction of no stone chamber, stood a furnace taller than an adult man, and the burning flame illuminated one side.

However, he couldn't feel the heat, and a trace of cold air rose from the ground and penetrated into Xue Yang's body. After watching a fight, he panicked and trembled all over, like a ghost who just died and came to hell.

The body of the defeated child in the cage was dragged out, thrown into the giant stove, and disappeared without a trace.

Xue Yang finally knew that he had entered the Tiger and Wolf Den, or the Mysterious Underworld.

He rejected Sect Master Shi, refused to cooperate, and didn't want to learn any "spirit-gathering technique". He already knew that that kind of technique would kill people.

Sect Master Shi was still smiling, and even gently lifted Xue Yang's injured hand lovingly, "My good boy, you will agree."

The gray priestly robe disappeared around the corner of the corridor behind the stove, and his entourage stayed behind, tearing off the bandages on the child's hands roughly and effortlessly.

If he didn't cooperate, there would be no medicine, no rich meals, only rotten leftovers, delivered irregularly.

At the beginning, he was noisy in the stone room, knocking on the door and window, shouting that there is no need to treat him, as long as he is let out, he is stubborn by nature, shouting for a long time and loudly, and the guards have a bad temper.Xue Yang was always hungry and malnourished, and was shorter than a normal seven-year-old child. When he raised his head, the tall man's body covered all the light, and the whip shadows were mercilessly waving in all directions.

There was nowhere to hide in the narrow stone room, he walked close to the wall with his head in his arms, and the man just had to stand in the middle and circle around, the whip could always get him, bloodstains were drawn on his young body, the skin was badly bruised, and the seven-year-old In the end, the child squatted in the corner and cried helplessly, shrinking his body to the minimum, his hands were still not healed, and he had new injuries on his body.He needs anti-inflammation, pain relief, and bone renewal, otherwise he will die here.

It is not easy to find a child with spiritual roots, so those people will not let him die easily, they just beat him severely, and heal him if his life is endangered, and then continue to detain him, beat him severely, and so on.

He understood why the rest of the children were quiet and obedient, and had no choice but to submit under the violence. After a month of pain, he agreed to learn the spirit harvesting technique.

Ligatures are all learned now, and it took another month to finally memorize those obscure mental methods.

As soon as he agreed, the treatment was completely turned upside down. Sect Master Shi came to give him medicine in person, with a full face of pity, and pretended to reprimand his subordinates: "I said that I will only be detained, but who told you to use torture! Get out! Bring the food!"

While Xue Yang was recovering from his injuries, he was forced to learn spells and exercise his body every day, both internally and externally.

Sect Master Shi said: "Only a strong body can accommodate the spiritual energy absorbed, and quickly form alchemy. You can't just learn one kind of technique. In addition to the spirit harvesting technique, there are various ways to increase spiritual power. You must learn."

There was a time when he was imprisoned in a semi-underground dungeon, looking forward to the only high window in the stone room every day with infinite expectations.

It was cold and damp in the dungeon, and it was cold even when the sun shone in.He had been expecting that a person would appear outside the window, smash the wall, and take him away, leaving that cold and bloody dungeon.

But a year later, he was still in the dungeon, and he would also be pushed into the cage. With another child of similar age, a partner who usually learns Chinese characters and martial arts together, he killed each other, collected the spiritual energy in the opponent's body, and fought to the death.

Xue Yang didn't want to be turned into a corpse and thrown into the stove. If he wanted to survive, he had to kill them one by one.

In the beginning, there were constant nightmares. He always dreamed that the children killed by his spirit crawled out of the stove one by one, demanding his life, and pulling him into the stove to be buried with him; killing No. 20 children, he His heart was already cold, and his dreams were numb; after killing a child, he could already lick the blood off his lips, and laugh while stepping on the dead body.

When facing Gao Chuang, he no longer has any self-deceiving expectations. He knows that no one will come to rescue him.

The wound on his hand was scarred, but the child's heart was rotten, and something was crushed like the broken little finger. He trampled on life, practiced magic, and vowed to go out one day to get out of the cage. Those who watched him persecute him were torn to pieces.

That year, when he was ten years old, he had already forgotten what humanity and conscience were, and his heart was cold and hard, turning into a stone.

Survival becomes easier when humanity is thrown away.He learned to be hypocritical and to act, and every time he saw the man who wanted to eat him alive, he could raise the corners of his mouth and call out "Sect Master Shi" obediently and enthusiastically.

From the third year onwards, Sect Master Shi saw that he was talented, murderous and hard-working, so he no longer restricted him to stay in his own small room. He is going to go into a cage to complete a fight every day. His treatment is better than other children. There is a special person responsible for the food and clothing. He can apply for anything he wants. As long as it is not too much, he will be accepted. He asked Sect Master Shi to investigate who it was.

"Do you want me to avenge you?" Sect Master Shi asked in a strange tone.

"No, I will avenge myself in the future."

Not only the revenge of severed fingers, but also other revenges.

"Haha, good job, you have backbone."

Sect Master Shi looked approving, and handed over Chang's family tree to him.

Xue Yang took it, and felt a hint of mockery and even pity flashing across the man's long and narrow eyes, like a vulture looking at the prey near its mouth, allowing the prey to make the last struggle before dying.

It was only later that Xue Yang understood, how could Sect Master Shi not be aware of the hatred for this dungeon master buried in his heart?It's just that the winning ticket is in their hands, and they believe that he can't escape from the palm of their hands. The two acted on each other, one pretending to be loving, and the other pretending to be grateful.

In addition to restricting freedom, Sect Master Shi has become more and more conniving to him, even pampering him. Even the adult guards guarding the dungeon have to be more polite to this ten-year-old boy. Accidentally "manslaughter", Shi Zongzhu just raised his hand and asked someone to throw the body into the stove, and did not pursue anything.

Sect Master Shi is the most generous in terms of food supply to the dungeon.If Xue Yang wanted to eat what was ready-made, someone would prepare it and bring it to him. He could order hundreds of dishes at will, and only distributed the ones he didn't want to the other children.Xue Yang wanted to do it himself, so Sect Master Shi asked someone to build a kitchen for him in the dungeon, build an ice cellar, and provide all kinds of high-quality ingredients.In that environment, the only normal habit that Xue Yang retained was eating. He used the fire that burned countless children's corpses in the stove to cook and cook without any malice.

It seems that he has really been at ease for a while, especially after each battle in the cage is won, looking at the gradually cold body of another child, he is contemptuous and satisfied.Because every time he walked out of the cage, Sect Master Shi would take him out of the dungeon, go out to bask in the sun, and even go shopping, as if he was really Sect Master Shi's future subordinate.

"Hey, Sect Master Shi has accepted a new disciple? How handsome!"

Someone greeted warmly, and Sect Master Shi also responded with a smile.

"Thanks to Sect Master Shi's spell, I helped drive away the evil spirits in my house. My child, you have to learn from Sect Master Shi so that you will be capable and kind in the future!"

From other people's few words, Xue Yang gradually learned that Sect Master Shi is a small family of the local fairy family. He usually does his best to help the nearby people exorcise demons and exorcise evil spirits, and he has a good reputation.

What a gentleman with a human face and a beast heart.Xue Yang curled his lips, revealing his pointed canine teeth, and his eyes gleamed with evil spirits.

Xue Yang walked through the bustling crowd, never thought of calling for help or running away.He was blindfolded when going in and out of the dungeon. If Sect Master Shi dared to take him out to meet people, he must have made all kinds of preparations. The virtuous gentleman actually persecuted countless young children secretly, who would believe it?

The child's heart oozes poisonous juice in the dark and bloody soak. In his eyes, people can only be divided into three types. One is evil and vicious, with a human face and animal heart, like Sect Master Shi; The kind of Sect Master Shi; there is another kind, weak and incompetent, with a low life and little fortune, who deserve to be a stepping stone for others, like the kind he killed.

He has long given up the idea of ​​asking others for help, and has his own revenge plan. He wants to make himself strong, gain the trust of Sect Master Shi, and then at the best time, peel that person's skin with his own hands and dig out that person's heart .

But he gradually discovered that things were not as simple as he thought.With the collected spiritual energy, the spiritual core golden core has already been formed, and the spiritual power is becoming more and more abundant.But when confronting other children, he couldn't use his spiritual power, and he could only fight with fists to the flesh, and the same with other children.

The spiritual power can only go in and out, and none of the techniques and mental methods he has learned teaches him to release and operate the spiritual power.He asked Sect Master Shi, and the answer he got was that the time had not come, and he had to have a solid foundation before he could learn other related spells.

Xue Yang asked: "When will the foundation be considered stable enough?"

"Hehe, haste makes waste," Sect Master Shi squeezed his beard and chuckled, repeating the promise he had made to all the children in the dungeon: "There are hundreds of people who have collected spirits. If you want to stay, you can be my subordinates. Learn more What a profound spell, if you don’t want to keep it, just return the golden core in your body to me, as a repayment for saving your life and nurturing, and you will be free from now on.”

When asked how to keep the □□ inner golden elixir alone, Sect Master Shi refused to say more, only said: "I will tell you later."

The author has something to say: Jinjiang readers don’t seem to like comments, it makes me feel like I’m playing the stand-alone version