Qiao Chu was also obviously not going to become the Hidden Cloud Peak’s labourer.
“Where are you going?” Jun Wu Xie asked suddenly.
Qiao Chu hesitated, and thought what Jun Wu Xie was going to do left alone.
“You want me to stay out here, what about you?” Jun Wu Xie pointed out the absence with no mention of himself.
Qiao Chu slapped his forehead in frustration and said: “I was rather obvious, wasn’t I? Brother Hua had always scolded me for that.” He looked around to make sure there was no one around before he said in a low voice: “I am going to find someone. The Hidden Cloud Peak is extremely dangerous, so do not stray too far from here. After I am done talking with that person, I will come back here for you.”
In Qiao Chu’s eyes, Jun Wu Xie’s petite little frame and skinny limbs would be very dangerous to stay within the Hidden Cloud Peak. He thought if he was not around to keep his eyes on Jun Wu Xie, the other youths might prey on him and carry him off with them.
“I’ll go with you.” Jun Wu Xie said to Qiao Chu.
Qiao Chu was taken aback.
“You want to come with me?”
Jun Wu Xie nodded.
Qiao Chu was more familiar with the Hidden Cloud Peak than she was. No matter who Qiao Chu was, he was obviously not friendly to the Qing Yun Clan. If there were no conflicts in their objective, she was willing to familiarise herself a little through Qiao Chu.
Qiao Chu was looking troubled, he looked at Jun Wu Xie and paused a long moment before saying: “Alright, but you must promise me. No matter what you see, you must not make a single noise.”
It might be better to bring Jun Xie along, leaving him here alone in the lion’s den did not sit that comfortably with Qiao Chu either.
It was obvious, Qiao Chu had a wrong perception of Jun Wu Xie. He saw Jun Wu Xie as a defenceless little youth, cleanly forgetting Jun Wu Xie’s previous abilities with poison he had witnessed just recently with his own eyes.
Volume 3
Chapter 271: Dream turned Nightmare (3)
Jun Wu Xie who had been mistakenly taken to be a harmless little bunny, was hence led by Qiao Chu deep into the inner parts of the Hidden Cloud Peak.
Qiao Chu proceeded unerringly, and stuck to dark and dim paths, totally avoiding the patrolling disciples within the peak.
Seeing Qiao Chu’s familiarity with the route to take, Jun Wu Xie grew more certain with her earlier guess.
Qiao Chu’s knowledge of the Hidden Cloud Peak, might not be inferior to Bai Yun Xian!
She followed Qiao Chu through many of Hidden Cloud Peak’s architecture. Jun Wu Xie’s sharp nose told her, the deeper they went into the Hidden Cloud Peak, the stronger the scent of herbs and medicine was permeated in the air. The smell was not exactly the fragrance that herbs originally gave out when processed, but was the scent of a multitude variety of herbs mixed together. The stench was rather pungent, and did not smell like anything like nourishing or healing medicine.
Finally, Qiao Chu stopped before an unremarkable building. Outside the building, two Hidden Cloud Peak disciples stood guard. It was late into the night and the two guards looked to be rather tired as they leaned on the doors, eyes half closed, almost drifting off to sleep.
In the next moment, Qiao Chu streaked like a bolt of lightning past the two sleepy guards, and raised both his hands and quickly knocked the lights out of both of them before they even realised anything was amiss.
With the guards taken out, Qiao Chu waved to Jun Wu Xie who had stayed hidden in the dark, and proceeded to push the doors open to enter inside.
Jun Wu Xie followed closely behind. Upon setting foot inside the building, an overwhelming stench of blood swept over them, nearly gagging Jun Wu Xie.
The interior was lit dimly, and the faint light shone upon the furnishings within. The walls were filled with shelves of herbs and nothing looked out of place. But the thick stink of blood that went into their lungs made Jun Wu Xie realise that everything before their eyes here, was just a false front put up, to fool the unsuspecting.
Qiao Chu turned a corner from the room and squatted down to pull at a part of the floor. A gaping dark tunnel appeared before them, so dark that the bottom could not be seen. The intense stench of blood had rushed out from the darkness when the trapdoor was opened, and the stink continued to surge forth, almost as if alive.
“Follow me.” Qiao Chu said quietly to Jun Wu Xie and took out a small light, a small glowing amber, and stepped down onto the dark staircase leading down.
Jun Wu Xie followed behind Qiao Chu in the seemingly endless darkness. It was deathly quiet, and the unnerving silence pounded at their souls like a soundless knell.
And soon, the stairs brought them to a scene straight from hell.
The underground chamber was filled with large urns scattered all over, and a liquid bubbled within them as they emitted a dark green gas. More shockingly, was that every large urn contained a live human soaked within the liquid!
Or rather, those people looked more dead than alive…..
The humans immersed within the urns were stark naked and their skin were festered with sores from being soaked in poisonous liquids. Their eyes had been gouged out and left with two dark gaping holes, and their mouths were gagged and tied with black ropes. Dried blood smeared around their mouths in dark brown streaks as they sat unmoving within the urns. Their lolled heads did not show any signs of movement, but only the slight rise and fall in their chests showed anything otherwise to Jun Wu Xie.
They were still alive!
Tens of urns stood with incapacitated humans immersed within. Above the urns, there were several wooden racks. Several more youths were chained to the racks and stripped off their clothes. They were covered in many festering wounds and the pus emitted a pungent stink. Another young youth hung from the rack, skinned alive…..
Volume 3
Chapter 272: “Brother Hua (1)”
The sight before her eyes brought a humming in Jun Wu Xie’s mind. At that moment, she felt like she had been transported back into the prison of her nightmares. Under the coercion of the demon, she was forced to watch him conduct various inhumanely cruel experiments on the human body.
Qiao Chu noticed Jun Wu Xie’s sudden pale face and he looked guiltily at Jun Wu Xie.
“I had not wanted you to see all these…..” He had obviously known of this repulsive place hidden within the Hidden Cloud Peak.
“I’m alright.” Jun Wu Xie snapped back to her senses and waved her hand. She had burned that hell on earth to the ground, and sent that demon into the inferno.
She had nothing more to fear!
Qiao Chu did not know how to console Jun Wu Xie and could only scratch his head furiously in frustration as he led them deeper into the underground chamber.
The further in they went, the sights grew more grisly. The gory hell hidden deep within the Hidden Cloud Peak, was a nightmare brought to life!
At last, Qiao Chu stopped to stand before a wall. Upon the wall, a tall youth had two hooks pierced through his pelvic bones, and nine other stakes were driven through his body. His two hands were secured by chains that hung suspended from the ceiling. Fresh red blood ran from his wounds and flowed down his body, finally dripping from his toes. A pool of blood had formed on the floor below him.
His head was lowered and he was silent, as if dead.
“You’re finally here?” A gentle but cold voice sounded suddenly, and the youth who hung from the wall suddenly came alive as he raised his head.
He had rather feminine features and looked pretty enough to make a person not want to destroy that beauty. The eyes slightly inclined at the outers corners had a small mole dotted just below one, which lent a bewitching essence to the youth’s beautiful features.
“Bro….. Brother Hua…..” Qiao Chu stared at the horribly ravaged but still pretty looking youth above.
Jun Wu Xie narrowed her eyes and looked at the figure upon the wall. She measured the wou
nds suffered by the youth and was surprised that anyone could still remain conscious under those conditions. That guy had a very strong will.
The pretty youth frowned as his eyes set on Jun Wu Xie standing behind Qiao Chu.
“Who is that?”
Qiao Chu gulped and said: “This is the boy I mentioned to you guys before. The genius I met in Ghost City.”
Genius? Jun Wu Xie raised an eyebrow at that statement.
The youth who was Brother Hua narrowed his eyes further and a astonishing sight played out right before Jun Wu Xie’s eyes!
The youth who had been imprisoned by the hooks and stakes suddenly started to move. His hands that had been tied with chains seemed to slip out from them and hung limply as if his bones had been sucked out of him. While he freed himself from his shackles, he set a foot against the wall behind him and pushed himself free from the hooks on his pelvic bones. His tall slender frame drew a graceful arc in the air as he landed firmly before Jun Wu Xie and Qiao Chu, his bare feet in the puddle of his own blood.
Brother Hua who was standing on the firm ground had restored his hands, the distinct joints in his fingers and hands pulling out the stakes lodged into his body one by one.
The stakes removed had flesh stuck to them but he did not even flinch, and only continued to stare at Jun Wu Xie through narrowed eyes.
His escape from his imprisonment had been so graceful and easy for him that it left anyone watching stupefied.
“Why did you bring him here?” Brother Hua turned and his cold eyes bore into Qiao Chu. The pretty youth’s angry stare did not pose any real threat to Qiao Chu, but had instead been charming and gentle.
Volume 3
Chapter 273: “Brother Hua (2)”
Qiao Chu cleared his throat nervously and said: “Brother Hua, you should have a little more faith in me. I just happened to meet Jun Xie here in the Qing Yun Clan’s Cloudy Peaks. We were both candidates applying to be admitted into the Qing Yun Clan as disciples. You know very well how dangerous it is late at night within the Hidden Cloud Peak, if I had left him alone out there, he would have been in grave danger.”
The pretty youth’s frown eased and he turned to Jun Wu Xie and said: “My name is Hua Yao, our dense Qiao Chu told us about you before and we did not expect to meet you here. This is not exactly the right place nor the right time for a first meeting, or I would have much more I would like to say to you.”
Hua Yao had a pleasant voice, and his tone was neither hurried nor slow, pulling at the heartstrings of people, but his bewitchingly pretty face was startlingly cold.
“If you are anything like what Qiao Chu had told us, I would think that you had come to the Qing Yun Clan with other underlying motives and not just to be a disciple under them. The Hidden Cloud Peak is not a safe place, no matter what your motives are, just remember this. Stay away from Ke Cang Ju. Do not pay heed to any of the seniors’ suggestions to meet up alone, and do not take any medicine or elixirs of unknown origins….. If you can, do not even eat or drink anything from them.” The brow that had just eased suddenly creased back into a frown.
When Qiao Chu had first mentioned his meeting with the kid in the Ghost City, they had hoped to find him again, to see if he could help them with producing the elixir that they needed.
They had managed to find the person, but it most definitely was not the right place or time for them to discuss any of their intentions.
They had another task at hand and were unable to bring Jun Wu Xie back with them, and they could only try their best not put expose Jun Wu Xie to any danger before their mission was completed.
“Those people out there, the disciples the Hidden Cloud Peak newly brought in, did not have their names recorded in their list of disciples. Even if they were to die, no one would be able to find out they were associated with the Hidden Cloud Peak. All the disciples secretly brought in by Ke Cang Ju, would end up dying here in this underground chamber, as his live subjects in his research of poisons. If I remember it correctly, he will torture the batch of new recruits the first night they enter the Hidden Cloud Peak.” Hua Yao continued.
“You should have seen them, Brother Hua! That hideous beast actually made everyone go hungry and made them go fetch water.” Qiao Chu nodded as he said, revealing that his well prepared self must have been through the information given by Hua Yao.
Hua Yao’s lips curled slightly, forming into a devilish cold smile.
“Vigorous activities on an empty stomach will burn out those bodies thoroughly, and it will not be a surprise if a few of them were to fall ill. If Ke Cang Ju truly intends to kill the whole bunch of recruits, he will not do it to all of them at the same time, but to start off with the most inconspicuous methods and whittle them down bit by bit to fully utilise them. The Hidden Cloud Peak is actually just a pen that cages in all these sacrificial sheeps, and Ke Cang Ju just needs to introduce an excuse or two when he needs to, and to keep the rest in the dark about his shady actions, he proclaims to bring back and ‘heal’ those that had fallen sick. Am I right?” Jun Wu Xie asked nonchalantly, her eyes narrowed as she shared her analysis.
In order to not alert the rest of the herd of sacrificial sheep, Ke Cang Ju used harsh treatments to tire them out, and those disciples who injured themselves or needed other treatments would be brought to the Elder, and nothing would seem out of place.
And as for those who were brought away, the rest would be too tired to bother whether they were dead or alive.
A whole batch of new and naive recruits brought into the Hidden Cloud Peak, would only end up dying one after another. And by the time any of them felt anything amiss, it would have been too late.
Volume 3
Chapter 274: “Brother Hua (2)”
Hua Yao looked at Jun Wu Xie in surprise, he had not expected to see such a young boy to be able to assess Ke Cang Ju’s underhanded and malicious deeds in such detail after just spending half a day in the Hidden Cloud Peak. He saw that Jun Wu Xie was indeed extraordinary.
“Your guess is right on the mark. That is indeed Ke Cang Ju’s modus operandi. He would bring in a few of them every other few days, and kills them all off slowly. Within the Hidden Cloud Peak, only those disciples dressed in the Qing Yun Clan’s uniform are truly safe as they are wolves of the same pack, and know exactly how things work within the peak.” Hua Yao affirmed, impressed by Jun Wu Xie.
“You came in last month?” Jun Wu Xie looked at Hua Yao, noticing the grave injuries on him, but compared to the others within this underground chamber, were far less serious, and at least he was conscious.
Hua Yao nodded, “I am the last one to be brought here into this chamber from the previous batch, and I sent my contractual ring spirit bearing all these information to Qiao Chu before I came in.”
Jun Wu Xie observed Hua Yao and noticed the blood on his wounds had clotted. His body looked a mess, but he seemed to be in good spirits. If he had not been seen to have hung shackled and pierced with stakes to the wall just moments ago, nobody could have guessed at the travesty done upon him.
For a normal person, to have their pelvic bones pierced through and stakes driven through the body, even if they did not die, they would be on their last breaths. But Hua Yao seemed to still be rather spirited.
Noticing Jun Wu Xie’s eyes upon Hua Yao, Qiao Chu stepped up and rested a hand on Hua Yao’s shoulder, “Don’t just judge Brother Hua in his wretched state, these injuries to him, are just a walk in the park.”
Jun Wu Xie raised an eyebrow, from Hua Yao’s escape from his shackles that pinned him to the wall, this pretty youth could only be someone extraordinary.
“I have free control over my bones.” To clear up Jun Wu Xie’s doubts, Hua Yao raised a hand, and his slender fingers turned visibly soft before her eyes, and the bones within seemed to have disappeared into thin air, his hand hanging limply from his wrist.
Jun Wu Xie’s eyes flashed with a slight tinge of surprise. She had met contortionists in her previous life who we
re able to change their bones in certain ways, but they were in no way comparable to what Hua Yao was capable of. Hua Yao’s control over his bones did not only allow contortion, but seemingly allowed him to freely make his bones grow or disappear at will.
“What is your objective here?” Jun Wu Xie reined in her surprise. From Qiao Chu’s and Hua Yao’s actions, she was able to ascertain that they were definitely not allies of the Qing Yun Clan.
As long as they were not friendly to her enemy, she would find a use for them.
“We are here to retrieve some things, what about you?” Hua Yao restored his hand. He did not hide his objective for coming here. Just like Jun Wu Xie, he was clear they were all not friendly towards the Qing Yun Clan.
They both had their own objectives, and they could form a temporary alliance. Besides, they had another favour to ask of Jun Wu Xie, and the intelligent should know very well when they should show their sincerity.
Among them all, Jun Wu Xie, Hua Yao and Qiao Chu were intelligent people.
“I am here to wipe out the entire Qing Yun Clan.” Jun Wu Xie spoke easily, but every single one of her words stunned her listeners.
Qiao Chu widened his eyes in amazement, staring in disbelief at Jun Wu Xie, and even Hua Yao’s face showed a flash of surprise.
“You….. you must be kidding right?” Qiao Chu dug his finger into his ears furiously, thinking he might have heard Jun Wu Xie wrongly…..
Wipe out the entire Qing Yun Clan? Was this guy serious!?
“I think our objectives are not in conflict. Cooperation, or fight our own individual battles?” Jun Wu Xie was not interested in lengthy explanations. Hua Yao’s familiarity with the Hidden Cloud Peak would be useful to her, and if they agreed to cooperate, it would shorten the time she would take to annihilate the Qing Yun Clan, if not, she would not force the issue.
Genius Doctor: Black Belly Miss Volume 3 Page 18
