I'll Slaughter My Way to Immortality on the Bones of Betrayers - Chapter 42:

Chapter 42: Tearing Out the Tongue, Digging Out the Heart, Pulling Out the Intestines

In her unconscious state, Qiu Liu felt a sharp wave of pain surge through her body, even her soul trembled. The agony forced her out of her coma. When she opened her eyes, the first person she saw was a familiar figure.

She thought it was Ye Feng and instinctively moved her dry, cracked lips, uttering hoarsely, “Junior brother, I want water…”

“No water,” came the reply. “But I do have the urge to relieve myself. If you really want to drink something, I could make a little sacrifice.”

The voice was familiar too.

Then, in an instant, Qiu Liu’s spirit focused. Her vision cleared—and the man sitting by her bed came into full view.

Lu Hengge!!

“You poisoned me!” she shrieked. “Lu Hengge, you’ve got some nerve, you damn dog!”

She struggled to get up and kill Lu Hengge. Even though she was poisoned and couldn’t walk, she was still in the Golden Core Realm. Killing someone without cultivation like Lu Hengge should’ve been effortless—or so she thought.

Whoosh!

She slapped at him, her palm carrying a wave of black poisonous wind, aiming straight for his face.

But the next second, Lu Hengge firmly caught her wrist.

“Qiu Liu, do you know the price Lu Sheng paid to beg me to save you?” Lu Hengge smiled, expression as casual as ever. “If I don’t detoxify you, do you really think you’ll live through tonight?”

His smile made Qiu Liu so furious she coughed up a mouthful of black, foul-smelling blood.

Lu Hengge loved this kind of expression—the impotent fury of someone who couldn’t do anything about him. Only now did he understand why Ye Feng liked humiliating him before killing him in his past life. The pleasure of watching an enemy suffer was truly addictive.

“Where’s Master?! I want to see Master!!” Qiu Liu screamed.

Lu Hengge waited for her to shout for a while before lazily replying, “Forgot to tell you—the poison in your body is spreading through your meridians. If you move too much or get too emotional, it will spread faster. Once your body turns into charcoal, even a god won’t be able to save you.”

Those words immediately shut her up.

No one could truly remain calm in the face of death.

Yao Fan had accepted his fate because he had lived long enough and had no means left to extend his life. He made peace with death.

But Qiu Liu? She wasn’t even as old as Lu Hengge.

At her age—whether in the mortal world or cultivation world—she was still in the phase of opening her eyes to the world. She didn’t want to die.

After all, she was only poisoned.

Not necessarily doomed.

Surely there was still a cure.

At that moment, Qiu Liu’s will to live peaked.

“Lu Hengge, I’ll give you one chance to save me. I can convince Master to let you return to Qingyun Peak. But don’t expect me to call you senior brother—you’re at most a servant of the peak.”

She clearly didn’t understand the situation. Lu Hengge didn’t respond. The more arrogantly Qiu Liu barked now, the more satisfying it would be to kill her later.

“Are you even listening?!” she demanded again, but choked down her tone at the last second, reducing it to a flat statement.

Lu Hengge began wandering around the cave, looking over the layout. He had built this place himself. Back then, it cost him a fortune in spirit stones, and he had transplanted a lot of rare spiritual herbs into the cave’s inner garden.

But Qiu Liu clearly hadn’t taken care of any of them.

All the transplanted spiritual herbs had been left to grow wild, unattended.

Seeing this, Lu Hengge didn’t hold back—he started digging them out.

They were his anyway.

Now, they were simply returning to their rightful owner.

Qiu Liu thrashed on the bed, but the poison was too strong—she didn’t even have the strength to get up.

“Lu Hengge! How dare you touch my things! Those are mine!”

“You useless piece of trash, give them back to me!”

“I’ll make sure Master punishes you severely!”

“You bastard! If Master hadn’t brought you back from the streets, you’d be a rotting corpse in some ditch by now!”

…

So noisy.

Lu Hengge had originally planned to ignore her.

But the moment she said “bastard,” he brushed the dirt off his hands, stood up, and walked to the bed.

Qiu Liu’s eyes lit up.

She thought he had given in.

Then—SMACK!

Lu Hengge’s palm landed clean across her cheek, leaving a bright red print.

“You—!” Qiu Liu stared, dazed.

SMACK!!

Another slap.

Lu Hengge looked at his handiwork with satisfaction. “Back in the Hall of Justice, I said slaps need to be symmetrical to look good. Hitting only one cheek ruins the aesthetic.”

He glanced at her coldly. “I didn’t expect you, an ungrateful mutt, to say anything kind. But after being around me for twenty years, you should at least know what not to say. You’ve disappointed me.”

Qiu Liu was livid.

Of course, her rage only sped up the spread of the poison. Her skin was already turning as dark as coal.

“Remember that,” Lu Hengge said kindly. “Don’t say such things again.”

Then he leaned in close to her ear, as if remembering something, and whispered, “Almost forgot—there won’t be a next time for you.”

Before she could speak, Lu Hengge tossed a Shut-Tongue Pill into her mouth. Her throat immediately felt like it was blocked with filth—she could only produce muffled groans, unable to form a single word.

Lu Sheng arrived.

Lu Hengge sensed it.

Sure enough, a few breaths later, a figure appeared out of thin air and casually tossed a red rabbit into Lu Hengge’s hand.

“The Fireflame Rabbit you asked for.”

Lu Hengge didn’t even glance at it before stashing it into his storage ring.

“That’s a living creature. It won’t survive long in a storage ring,” Lu Sheng reminded him.

No kidding.

Lu Hengge knew that perfectly well.

He had no intention of keeping it alive. Once it died inside, he planned to roast it for spicy rabbit stew.

“You planning to stay and watch?” he asked.

Lu Sheng hesitated.

She didn’t trust Lu Hengge alone with Qiu Liu in such a confined space. The current Lu Hengge felt unfamiliar—dangerous.

Lu Hengge supported Qiu Liu on the bed as he said offhandedly, “I don’t have any cultivation now. Treating and detoxifying her takes all my focus. If you make a sound and distract me, I can’t guarantee what might happen.”

Lu Sheng wavered.

“I’ll wait outside,” she finally said before vanishing.

Lu Hengge took out the Xuantian Treasure Scroll and activated it to seal off the cave. No matter what happened inside, Lu Sheng wouldn’t know.

Then he retrieved a pill.

Inside it, three small insects wriggled.

“In mortal tales, there’s a fantasy about becoming immortal. To do so, one must pass through three trials of torment: tongue ripped out, heart dug out, intestines pulled out.”

“I think it’s a brilliant concept.”

“But no one’s ever tried it before… so I guess you’ll be the first.”

As terror filled Qiu Liu’s eyes, Lu Hengge placed the pill into her mouth, lifted her chin, and let it slide down her throat.