Die, Replay, Repeat

Chapter 54: Table Turned, No Mercy

"You got it right. As a reward, I'll cut you piece by piece," Fang Xiu said with a faint smile.

He turned, and he was wearing a hood-like hat that concealed his entire face in shadows.

He hid his face so Lin Ziyang couldn't use his special eye powers. He didn't blind Lin Ziyang's other eye because he wanted him to see how messed up his end would be.

Slowly walking up to Lin Ziyang, he stood still right behind him. No way Lin Ziyang could use his powers now.

"Fang Xiu! You should let me go! I'm one of the Bright! Our leader is an incredibly strong psychic, and I'm his most trusted member. If you dare lay a finger on me, you're as good as dead!"

"Hush," Fang Xiu whispered into Lin Ziyang's ear, "Like I said, I've got your life in my hand."

His calm words carried a chilling, spine-tingling undertone.

Lin Ziyang struggled violently, the iron chains on him clanging wildly, but he couldn't break free. These chains were his own idea, built to hold psychics tight; he had killed psychics here before.

Now, these same chains would lead him to his demise.

"What's your deal? I have nothing against you! I just heard you're a rising psychic and wanted to recruit you to join Bright."

"Wrong. We do have unfinished business," Fang Xiu said.

"Unfinished business?" Lin Ziyang was confused. "We just met. How could there be any unfinished business between us?"

"You forgot about your loser cousin. I was the one who killed him."

Lin Ziyang was taken aback for a moment but quickly replied, "My cousin was trash. If he's dead, so be it."

"That won't do. What happens to one should happen to all. I killed your cousin, so you gotta go too."

_'This dude is nuts!'_

Lin Ziyang thought he was crazy, but Fang Xiu was way crazier.

He wanted to say more, but Fang Xiu didn't give him the chance.

Fang Xiu placed both hands on Lin Ziyang's shoulders and gave him a firm pat as he sneered, "Tables have turned. You deserve no mercy."

WHOOSH!

A glint of silver light.

"Ah! F*ck!" Lin Ziyang let out an excruciating scream.

There was merely a small cut on his chest.

The wound was tiny, about an inch long, and not even half an inch deep. But even with such a small cut, Lin Ziyang felt like he was about to pass out from the pain.

He hurriedly looked down, thinking his guts were out, only to see that the cut was surprisingly tiny.

"Bastard! What's on that blade? Why does it hurt so bad?!"

What caused Lin Ziyang to be in so much pain was Fang Xiu's spiritual power. He had activated just a hint of it, but it was enough to make it feel like level-12 pain.

WHOOSH!

Another slash.

Lin Ziyang continued to scream in agony.

After more than a hundred slashes, his voice had become hoarse. The wild look in his eyes was gone, replaced only by never-ending fear.

He pleaded, "Come on, just end it! Put me out of my misery!"

Fang Xiu calmly stared at him, his face devoid of emotion.

_'Who says you can't fix Spiritual Energy when it gets out of control? Isn't he fine now?'_

Then Fang Xiu said slowly, "I ask, you answer. What's the bronze candlestick for?"

By now, Lin Ziyang was a wreck, broken down by endless pain. Quickly, he replied, "It helps keep away attacks from Specters. All you need to do is fill it with blood that has Spiritual Energy, then it can be ignited. Once ignited, it guards against Specters as far as the light goes. But if the Specter is strong, the blood burns up quicker."

_'Blood with Spiritual Energy? That's Blood from a psychic? Counting on burning blood to stay alivewow, that sounds like a handy Specter Gadget.'_ Fang Xiu thought.

"How much of your Spiritual Energy have you expanded?" Fang Xiu asked.

"Twenty percent! Just a tiny bit more, and I'd be advancing to a second-tier psychic."

"Why'd your Spiritual Energy become unstable?"

"The more Spiritual Energy you expand, the more your soul becomes tainted."

"So, why would anyone keep expanding their Spiritual energy?"

"Because the contamination of your soul is gonna happen no matter what. It's like putting a drop of ink in clear water; it's gonna spread until the water turns black. The only way to stop that is to keep adding more clear water, meaning you have to expand more Spiritual Energy," Lin Ziyang explained.

He added, "But that's just a quick fix. If you stop expanding Spiritual Energy, the ink will eventually make everything dark. You gotta keep moving up to stay okay. I couldn't level up to the second-tier, so my Spiritual Energy became unstable. Our leader gave me this bronze candlestick, hoping it'd help me level up during a Specter attack."

Lin Ziyang talked fast, trying to suppress his pain.

He couldn't take the hurt anymore; he just wanted it to end.

"Name all the members of the Bright Club, what they can do, and how much Spiritual Energy they've expanded," Fang Xiu ordered.

"Okay, I'll tell you everything I know. But you must know that it's a private organization, and many of the members keep their powers a secret, so I don't know everything."

Half an hour later, Fang Xiu got all the info he could from Lin Ziyang.

"I've said it all. Just finish me off," Lin Ziyang managed to say, barely hanging on.

"What's the hurry? We're just over a few hundred slashes. Shouldn't we aim for at least a thousand?"

WHOOSH!

"Aaargh! You liar! You rotten cheat!" Lin Ziyang shouted.

"Don't get me wrong. I never said answering me would save you," Fang Xiu replied.

WHOOSH!

"Argh! I swear, I'll get you for this!"

After even more slices, Lin Ziyang began to lose his mind.

He still hurt like crazy, but his face became increasingly twisted, and his screams started to sound less human, more like the howls of some wild beast.

His remaining eye was getting more and more bloodshot, almost turning into a sea of red. It looked like his eyeball might burst out of its socket.

But Fang Xiu didn't see any of this; he'd kept his back turned to Lin Ziyang to avoid any sneak attack.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

After a few more slashes, Fang Xiu sensed that something was amiss.

Lin Ziyang stopped screaming. His body started shaking violently, as if countless mice were scurrying beneath his skin.

And those "mice" were heading straight for his head, right to that eye!

All of a sudden, a violent, Specter-like Spiritual Energy emanated from Lin Ziyang.

"Is this a full-on Spiritual Energy meltdown? A mutation?" Fang Xiu's eyes showed a hint of excitement.

This was the first time he'd seen a psychic go through mutation, and he thought it would teach him something new.

However, just to be on the safe side

SLASH! SLASH!

Fang Xiu quickly chopped off Lin Ziyang's limbs.

And right after that, Lin Ziyang's head drooped down. He was completely motionless, not making a sound."