(MC POV)
I slapped the guy who I identified as the bandit leader's face, waking him up from his unconsciousness. I even helped heal his crushed legs too, aren't I a great guy?
Just ignore the fact that I'm hanging him upside down from a tree that is.
Hmm? Was slapping too much? Come on now, Lian Li wanted to shock him awake while Elaria had a cattle prod out, this was the best result for him already.
I smiled at him, "Good day my friend. How are things hanging?"
He looked around frantically, frowning when he realised all of his subordinates were otherwise incapacitated.
He turned back to growl at me, "Hmph… What are you doing? Are you trying to humiliate me? Just kill me. You're obviously not man enough to deal with me."
I grinned, "Oh? How noble of you, a rare breed around here aren't you? You're definitely not a simple bandit so why don't you make this easier for us and tell me what I want to know?"
"I have nothing to say to you, brat. Look at you with your scrawny limbs, calling you a man would be an insult! You even needed girls to protect you!"
"Mmm… You know we can do this the easy way or the hard way, right?"
The man growled at me but said nothing else.
I shrugged, "Hard way it is then."
I turned around to make sure my disciples were all busy with tying up the other bandits before moving closer to the bandit leader.
Waving my hand, I created a silencing and illusion inscription that would make it look like I was just talking normally to him to anyone else outside.
At the same time, I also placed another inscription on him, grafting it onto his chest.
I then lifted my hand and pointed two fingers at him, shooting a small bolt of lightning at him.
The man let out a scream as lightning coursed through his veins, burning him from the inside.
I kept the current up for a few moments before releasing it, letting him breathe.
He glared at me, "Bas… Tard… That's the… Best you can… Do?"
I smiled at him and pierced his chest with my hand, ripping his still beating heart from within.
He gasped at the sight, then turned to look at me and smiled, "Got… You…"
And then we just stared at each other for the next minute or so.
That was when he realised he was still alive even after his heart was ripped out from him. His attention then shifted to the heart in my hand to realise it was still beating.
Right at that instance, he finally registered the pain of having his heart ripped out from his chest and screamed.
I let him scream for a minute more before shoving the heart back into his chest cavity, the wound closing up as soon as my hand retracted.
"What… What did you do to me?!" He demanded.
I tapped him on the chest which caused him to flinch back, not like he could have moved very far considering he was still strung up upside down on the tree.
"The existence of this neat little inscription here… Has banished you from death. Your Origin is set to exist permanently and there can be no End for you."
"What… What are you talking about?"
"No matter what I do to you, you will feel the pain of it… And you cannot die."
He growled at me, "You… You can't do that…"
I chuckled, "Want to see me rip your heart out again?"
"What do you want from me?!"
I crossed my arms and clucked my tongue at him, "Tsk, tsk. Come now, you and I both know there is absolutely no way a bandit group like yours can be working around here without anyone else knowing or even sending someone to get rid of you this close to the capital. You're obviously targeting me, or more specifically, the delegation that would be coming from Beiyang, am I correct?"
"I will tell you nothing."
"Just to let you know… I literally can allow you to cheat death. So forcefully pulling the information from your head is an easy feat for me. The only reason why I'm not doing it now is because I find it amusing to torment you. So if you don't talk, I'm more than happy to experiment on you until you do."
Fear crossed his eyes, "You're… You're bluffing!"
Well… Honestly it was only partially true. I don't exactly find it 'amusing' to torment him, I was just a little bored that's all.
I placed my hand on his head and made a pulling motion, causing him to scream out in pain as I materialised a flame inside his head to burn a part of his brain.
At the same time, I used omniscience to figure out his name and family before extinguishing the fire.
"Oh, nice to meet you mister Yang Jin. I see you have a nice family waiting for you at home, don't you? Nice wife… Oh, my condolences to your sick son."
He widened his eyes at me, "You… You… How?"
I gestured to my hand that was just on his head a few moments ago, "Like this. Do you want to talk or should I just go ahead and keep doing this until I extract the information from you?"
He opened his mouth and bit down on his tongue, hard enough to sever a part of it to splatter on the floor.
I tilted my head down to look at the piece of meat on the ground before tilting back up to look at him again.
"Were you expecting to kill yourself with that? You thought I was joking about you not being able to die?"
He glared at me silently.
I sighed and made a show of lifting my hand again.
He tried to look defiant but I could see the small hint of fear in his eyes.
When I grabbed his head again, I made sure to make it hurt more than normal.
This time I 'extracted' the fact that the people that had fought with us were part of the country of Sun's imperial army.
I smiled at him, "So… A general of the army hmmm? Should I make a guess on who is actually behind this based on these facts or shall you tell me?"
He remained silent.
I shrugged, "Alright then. Guess the king of Sun has much more to answer for than just the Dark Sect he's hiding. Perhaps if we were to bring you to him in chains alongside the rest of all these guards, we can get more options?"
When he still kept his mouth shut, I realised his tongue was still cut off. So I bent down to shove the piece of meat back into his mouth and he quickly regenerated.
"Bah! You… You won't get anything from me!"
"Oh? But I already have? Let's see what else you have to give…"
I did the 'extracting' again and made his whole body burn this time.
Once I was satisfied with the amount of screams I extracted for him, I extinguished the flames and took a step back.
"Very interesting. Quite a family man aren't you? Taking up this mission despite the risks just so the king can take care of your family. Should I pay them a visit before I meet the king? Maybe let them see your disembodied corpse?"
"You… You can't fight me man to man?! Resorting to all these petty tricks to get what you want?!"
I lifted an eyebrow at him, what's all this thing about being a 'man'? Is his masculinity so fragile that he has to do all this to confirm it?
I cut him down from the tree, sending him crashing onto the ground.
He immediately leapt up on his feet and charged towards me with his fist punching towards my face.
I caught the fist with a palm and crushed it, then I kicked him in the knees and broke his kneecaps.
When he dropped onto the ground, I punched through his throat with my other hand, my entire arm going through his neck to appear on the other side.
I slowly withdrew my arm and stepped back from him, allowing him to heal back to normal.
"So, how's it feel to die again?"
"You… You will get nothing from me…"
"Are you dumb? I already have what I need from you. Now I guess I'll just bring you along on our trip to be used as a bargaining chip with the king. If he doesn't care about you, then I guess I can always just burn the country down."
He started to panic but too bad, I snapped my fingers and knocked him unconscious.. Hope you guys like being treated like baggage.
