75. Infinite Loop: The True Devil’s Sonata

That fellow was engrossed in watching the Fire-tailed Rooster King and had no idea that Xie Wuji was charging at him like a mountain. At that moment, Xie Wuji’s attack struck him squarely, sending his body flying like a cannonball with a thunderous crash! Caught off guard, the man’s back collided intimately with the Purple Gold Pill Furnace, which toppled over and scattered its remaining embers all over him.

“Ahhh!” He began to roll on the ground, tormented by the burning coals, but Xie Wuji’s strike had already broken his spine, rendering him immobile.

The other two, seeing the display of Xie Wuji’s prowess, exchanged glances and prepared to flee. Yet Xie Wuji was in the midst of battle and had no intention of letting them escape.

“Don’t run, my friends, come and play some more!” Xie Wuji shouted, launching both fists at them. Their blades managed to parry his blows, but the inextinguishable True Fire on his fists exploded immediately.

With one punch each, the two were knocked backward through the air. The Fire-tailed Rooster King seized the opportunity—its iron beak darted forward, pecking directly into one man’s eye.

He let out a miserable howl as blood spurted from his eye, staggering as he tried to flee. But the Fire-tailed Rooster King was a formidable fighter; with a flap of its wings, it circled behind the man, its beak attacking like a machine gun—ten pecks a second—leaving the man battered and bloody, his wounds too ghastly to behold.

The last man, forced to abandon his companion, grunted and escaped out the window. Xie Wuji rushed to the window, but the man had already vanished. Turning back, he saw that the man defeated by the Fire-tailed Rooster King was hovering between life and death.

“Ah Ji, stop!” Xie Wuji ordered.

The Fire-tailed Rooster gave a few proud clucks, shook its beautiful tail feathers, and, surprisingly obedient, ceased its assault.

Surveying the chaotic scene, Xie Wuji stepped forward, demanding, “Who are you? Why do you want to kill me?”

The man sneered, “Heh heh, take your questions to the grave!” As he spoke, he gritted his teeth, but Xie Wuji immediately pulled off his shoe and shoved it into the man’s mouth—he had been trying to bite his tongue and end his life.

At that moment, Dongmen Qianyun and the others arrived. Seeing the scene, they were struck speechless.

“Brother Xie, this is...?”

“Hurry and drag this man up—I want to interrogate him,” Xie Wuji said angrily.

“He’s already been knocked out by the smoke,” Dongmen Qianyun replied.

Xie Wuji picked up his shoe. “It can’t be that bad...” He sniffed it, and promptly fainted himself.

When Xie Wuji awoke, he found himself lying in bed. Holding his aching head, he recalled the previous events. Stepping outside, he saw Dongmen Jianhao and Dongmen Yong had arrived as well. On the scene, a corpse covered with a white cloth was clearly the man who had been killed, while the other was the one Xie Wuji had captured alive.

“Wuji, you’re awake?” Dongmen Yong looked at him.

“Master, Senior Brother,” Xie Wuji greeted them with a fist salute.

Dongmen Jianhao asked, “You say these two ambushed you?”

“To be precise, it wasn’t an ambush—they came specifically to kill me,” Xie Wuji replied. “And it wasn’t just two of them, but three.”

“They’re from the Hall of Ten Thousand Monsters,” Dongmen Yong said. “There’s Gu poison on these blades—if you’d been scratched, the poison would invade your organs, causing unbearable agony. But how did these three get into Danxia Sect? Our defenses are tight; it shouldn’t be possible for outsiders to sneak in.”

“Unless there’s a traitor,” Dongmen Jianhao remarked.

Xie Wuji approached. “And this one refuses to talk?”

“He won’t say anything, dead or alive,” Dongmen Jianhao replied. “We’ve tried every torture, but he’s stubborn as a mule.”

“Do you have any way to make him talk?” Dongmen Yong asked Xie Wuji.

Xie Wuji straightened. “Let me give it a try… wait here for me.”

Using the bronze mirror, Xie Wuji returned to the real world and fetched his phone, bringing it into the pill-refining hall. The others gathered around, curious about the device, though with the many oddities in their world, they assumed it to be some sort of spiritual tool.

Xie Wuji turned on the phone and played a downloaded cartoon, fitting the headphones onto the prisoner.

The man sneered, “Hmph, do you think your tortures will break me? I will never betray that lord!”

“Well then, enjoy the cartoon for a while…” Xie Wuji grinned.

The disciple of the Hall of Ten Thousand Monsters was bewildered when suddenly a song echoed in his ears: “Happy Goat, Beautiful Goat, Lazy Goat, Boiling Goat, Slow Goat…”

He burst out laughing. “So it’s just a song? You people... you underestimate me…”

But Xie Wuji remained silent. He knew this particular cartoon was notorious for dulling the mind with repeated exposure, to the point that the authorities had eventually banned it…

After the song had played ninety-nine times, the disciple’s eyes and ears began to bleed. “You... you’re shameless… how can you call yourselves righteous sects, using such fiendish methods!!”

“Happy Goat, Beautiful Goat, Lazy Goat, Boiling Goat, Slow Goat…” The infernal tune looped endlessly in his mind. It was becoming truly terrifying, and the disciple could endure no more.

Xie Wuji said, “Listen to it all night; I’ll question you again tomorrow. If you still won’t confess, you’ll listen to it for ten days and nights straight!”

The disciple finally broke. “Wait, Happy Goat… oh no, what’s happening to me, Beautiful Goat…”

He began to babble incoherently.

Xie Wuji switched off the sound. “Speak. Who let you in?”

“It was… wait, if I tell you, will you stop that sound?” the disciple pleaded.

Xie Wuji pounded his chest. “Of course. But you have to talk first. If you hold anything back, you’ll listen to that song until you die!”

“No, please! Let’s be reasonable! I can tell you’re a true hero, Xie Wuji—you wouldn’t use such a cruel method again, right?”

“Don’t be so sure. Start talking,” Xie Wuji said, waving the headphones.

The man gritted his teeth. “It was an old man, masked. He has close ties with our Hall of Ten Thousand Monsters. He told our master that the descendant of the Undying Longevity Sect, Xie Wuji, was here and might know about the Phoenix. So we were sent to capture you—well, we wanted to save time and just beat you half-dead and take you back, but you were too strong for us!”

“Fine, then tell me—who is this old man?” Xie Wuji pressed.

“I really don’t know,” the man replied. “We only saw his mask. But he’s powerful—his cultivation was beyond our ability to gauge.”

“Could it be Elder Ding Desheng?” Xie Wuji asked, glancing at Dongmen Yong.

Dongmen Yong frowned. “Hard to say. We can’t jump to conclusions; anything is possible right now.”

He changed the subject. “By the way, what pill did you feed the Fire-tailed Rooster? Its aura surged in a short time, but now it’s back to normal.”

Xie Wuji explained honestly how he had refined the pill. Dongmen Yong laughed heartily. “Well, I’ll be—so you made a Strength Pill!”

“A Strength Pill?” Xie Wuji was puzzled.

“Yes, it temporarily boosts the user’s power. But your version is unique—it has the effect of a Foundation Establishment Pill, yet after taking it, it increases strength and speed by ten to thirty percent for six hours. That’s remarkable.”

Xie Wuji wisely refrained from mentioning he’d used the Undying True Fire in the process, and simply grinned foolishly.

Just then, the Hall of Ten Thousand Monsters disciple, drooling, suddenly wore a vacant look and began muttering to himself.

“He’s lost his mind, Junior Brother Wuji! What kind of punishment did you use to break him like this?”

“I never expected that song to be so demonic. But is he ruined for good?” Xie Wuji asked.

The man began to giggle. “Lazy Goat, come into my bowl…”

“How pitiful…” Dongmen Qianyun sighed.