Chapter Fourteen: The Demon Prisoner

After Qi Bian and his companions left, the shrieks of the tormented monster immediately became the focus of the entire room, and Six Blights could at last see the details of what was happening.

Two of the men wielded short clubs wrapped in cloth at the ends, swinging them to batter the monster's lower abdomen. The belly was bruised and swollen, the skin and flesh mangled. Meanwhile, Goat Wen picked up the object in his hand—a slender bronze rod tipped with a hook.

The two beside the monster put down their clubs and, exerting their strength, pinned the creature’s limbs to immobilize it completely. Only then did Goat Wen drive the hooked rod into the rabbit demon’s lower body, pushing it deep inside before slowly twisting and pulling.

The rabbit demon’s screams grew even more piercing—heart-rending and nearly breathless. Yet the three men were unmoved, proceeding methodically with their tasks. After a moment, Goat Wen’s face lit up with delight; he gave a forceful yank.

With a hoarse, desperate cry, the female demon fainted dead away, while the man’s bronze hook drew out a bloody, mangled mass of flesh. He held it aloft, grinning with satisfaction. “Ha! Got it!”

It was, unmistakably, the demon’s uterus.

Though Six Blights was itself a demon, witnessing such a scene sent a chill through its heart. It was hard to believe humans could commit such acts. In all its lives, past and present, not even in its wildest dreams had it ever imagined such sights.

The daytime torments could at least be ascribed to the enmity between humans and demons, but this was simply too cruel.

This single act was enough to fill Six Blights with a profound loathing and hatred for this world, and to see the true face of humanity.

Yet to those beside Goat Wen, this was nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, the two men looked on with envy, their voices dripping with flattery. “Master, your skill is truly remarkable! The art of extracting the Palace of Life—there are probably only a handful in all of Great Yan who could match you!”

“So quick and precise, with hardly any fatalities or crippling—perhaps not just in Great Yan, but anywhere in Zhou! I doubt anyone could do better!” the other chimed in with lavish praise, then asked, “Master, the demon has passed out. What about the talisman…?”

At this, Goat Wen snapped out of his elation, casually tossed the uterus and hook into a basket on the table, and gave instructions. “Take it out to dry.” Instantly, one of the men eagerly carried it away to hang on a wooden rack.

(The extraction of the uterus as described here is not a figment of Liu Yun’s imagination, but a true historical practice. In a certain era of our country, when women of foreign tribes were sent into the imperial palace, there were those assigned to beat their abdomens and forcibly remove the uterus to prevent the mixing of bloodlines. The mortality rate was about fifty percent. You may research this yourselves.)

Goat Wen bent over to examine the bleeding wound, then straightened and ordered another, “The talisman may be removed; let it show its true form. Lock it in Cage B, and keep a close watch tonight. If the bleeding won’t stop, or its breath grows weak, report to me at once.”

“Yes, sir.” The man reached into the bloody gash on the rabbit demon’s forehead, and pulled out a wad of blood-stained yellow paper. No sooner was the talisman out than the rabbit demon’s body began to shrink, its fur sprouting wildly, bones crackling and popping. Clumps of black hair fell to the ground, dissolving into curls of green smoke. When the smoke cleared, there was no longer any trace of the woman—only a white rabbit remained on the table.

The man carried the rabbit demon away to be locked up. Goat Wen, after washing his hands in a wooden bucket, came to stand in front of Six Blights. He grinned, checked its ribs and limbs, and smacked his lips. “So badly injured—I wonder if it can even be saved… Well, for Qi Bian’s sake, I’ll at least apply some medicine. The rest is up to fate.”

As he spoke, he took several wooden jars from the table, poured out powders of medicinal herbs, and ground them finely in a mortar. He approached Six Blights, sprinkling the powder gently over its wounds and all across its body. Once finished, he produced a key and opened a box standing against the wall.

The moment the box was opened, Six Blights immediately sensed the presence of demon cores within. It tried to look, but Goat Wen blocked its view. There was a faint clinking sound as Goat Wen retrieved something from the largest jar, then locked the box again.

Even without seeing them, Six Blights could tell by the aura that there were quite a few demon cores inside.

Goat Wen brought over something yellow-brown and shriveled, resembling a chicken egg’s membrane—it was the dried outer skin of a demon core. Without even grinding it, he stuffed it into Six Blights’ mouth. This membrane, though devoid of demonic energy, was a companion to the core and could at least provide some nourishment for a demon body—a small mercy.

With this hasty treatment done, Goat Wen knelt on a straw mat to await his assistants’ return and summon the jail guards. He had barely sat down when footsteps sounded outside, and a squad leader arrived with three men. They announced they were here on the chairman’s orders to take custody of the demon beasts. Goat Wen made no mention of treating injuries, merely waved them off. “Go on, don’t mind me.”

Soon enough, Six Blights was shackled hand and foot and thrown into a wooden cage nearly ten feet across. The bars above were strung with crimson cords, each bearing a copper bell. The wind could not stir them, yet their glow was eerie and cold. There was nothing else inside.

Three other demon beasts were already in the cage: two leopards and a monkey, all at the Shapeshifting stage. Each kept to its own corner. When Six Blights was thrown in, they barely reacted; the leopards licked their fur, seemingly indifferent, though their eyes flickered with wary glances. The monkey gave just one look, then went back to sleep.

Six Blights did not move at first. After the squad leader and his men departed, it slowly dragged itself to another corner, struggling to breathe, first observing the prison’s layout, then memorizing its surroundings.

There were dozens of such cages, this one the smallest and housing the fewest beasts. Others held more: ten or so, some twenty or thirty. The cages with a dozen demons all held those at the Core Formation stage; the larger ones, those at the Opening Spirit and Enlightenment stages. All the caged beasts were tightly bound with iron chains and shackles, most so weak they lay in the filthy mud and water, barely clinging to life.

Every cage was the same—squalid, muddy, littered with excrement and bones, the stench choking.

Worse than the cages, however, was a nearby heap of corpses. On closer inspection, some were only partial remains: heads, organs, scraps of flesh and shattered bones, all piled together. Next to the corpse heap, a dozen or so broken and dying demon beasts were roped together, their bodies covered with wounds, lying unmoving on the ground. Occasionally, a harsh breath could be heard, as maggots crawled in and out of their wounds.

In addition, several steel columns stood upright, though only one was in use. A small, wretched-looking demon was nailed through its chest and belly to the column, shackled hand and foot. The wounds still bore traces of brown powder, with little blood but frequent oozes of yellow pus. The demon hung its head, half-suspended, occasionally whimpering, but otherwise motionless.

Only the rabbit demon, just carried in, was kept alone in a separate cage. It lay on a bed of animal skin and branches, the ground covered with grass and earth, tightly sealed. The cage was clean and dry, free of filth or bones.

Surveying the scene, Six Blights quickly took stock, becoming even more wary of these people’s power. To capture and slaughter so many demon beasts was no ordinary feat. If there was to be any escape, it must be swift and certain—for if recaptured, there would be only one fate.

Six Blights edged backward to test the strength of the cage. The moment it pressed against the crimson cords, the copper bells overhead rang out sharply, a sudden light flaring down the cords and striking it.

Its whole body shook violently in agony, as if its organs were being seared. All strength drained away. It took a long moment to recover, and only then did it truly realize the power of these cages. Escaping would require overcoming this as the first obstacle.

The second problem was how to remove the shackles; fleeing while still chained was impossible and required a solution.

The third—and easiest—was to obtain and swallow the demon core. For this, it need only wait until the other three beasts were asleep. The other two problems, though, were far more difficult. Six Blights thought long and hard, but found no clear answer.

As it pondered, it suddenly caught the faint sound of voices—Goat Wen, it seemed, speaking to his two apprentices as they cleaned and prepared, mentioning something indistinct. Six Blights’ ears pricked up.

It sat thus until evening fell.

As the aroma of meat and grain wafted through the camp, the four guards who had escorted Six Blights returned, each carrying a wooden shovel and a large basket. They gathered near the pile of scraps swarming with green flies, shoveling up the remains and carrying them to the cages of the Enlightenment-stage demon beasts.

The beasts, who moments before seemed near death, suddenly sprang to life, surging forward, straining at the bars, growling and snapping at each other. Some of the more irritable ones even broke into fights.

The baskets were set down. The squad leader took up a shovel and prepared to toss the meat inside, but one of the others laughed, “Not so fast, squad leader—let’s have a little wager today. I pick…”

“Not today,” the squad leader cut him off, flinging a shovelful of meat into the cage as he spoke. “Tomorrow we’re being sent up the mountain—Hundred Schools Division is assigning us. Let’s feed them quickly and eat ourselves; don’t get us in trouble with Hundred Schools, you know what they’re like.”

As the rotten flesh hit the floor, the beasts pounced, devouring and snarling.

The man with the basket shrank back, grinning sheepishly. “Of course, of course…” He joined in, shoveling meat into the cages.

Unnoticed, Six Blights’ ears twitched faintly.

There were twenty or thirty beasts in the cage, but only a few pecks of meat—far from enough. When it was gone, the beasts began to fight among themselves. The men with the shovels produced long whips, cracking them sharply to drive the beasts apart. With the meat devoured, the fighting ceased.

Next, they moved on, feeding each cage in turn.

But when they reached the Core Formation cages, they did not throw in scraps. Instead, they walked to the group of dying beasts. At this, all the wounded demons began writhing and struggling, each displaying what little vitality they could muster. The squad leader picked out a pig demon that couldn’t move, and with a single stroke, chopped off its foreleg.

Even so, the pig demon merely spasmed twice before falling still.

The four men took out hooks, stabbed them into the pig’s chest, and dragged it to the Core Formation cage. There, instead of butchering it, they simply lifted it and tossed it inside.

The caged beasts all gathered round, but did not fight. Instead, they waited patiently as a tiger demon stepped forward, tearing into the carcass. Only after it had eaten did the others move in to rip apart the remaining flesh and bones, each dragging a piece to a corner to gnaw on.

As for the severed foreleg, it was placed before the rabbit demon’s cage—but the rabbit lay still, curled in a ball, blood still trickling from beneath it.

Finally, they came to the Shapeshifting cages. Here, too, they selected a beast to slaughter. The man with the basket chose a donkey demon, which was half the size of the pig. But the man with the shovel stopped him and picked a scrawny dog demon instead.

The dog was wounded, but livelier than the donkey. No one dared argue with the squad leader as he dispatched the dog and threw it into the cage.

Six Blights, gravely injured, could barely move. It could only watch as the three other beasts pounced, the leopards tearing the dog apart in moments and carrying away chunks, each beast retreating to its own corner, leaving only a pool of blood.

In the world of demons, strength is the only law. It may seem brutal, but it is no different from the human realm. Demons are brazen; humans, more restrained—yet their hearts are the same.