Yefutidaolu

Chapter 259 Perpetual Motion Machine

Gu Baisong, nicknamed "Master Bone," is very famous and powerful. Every year, he makes a fortune from the lower-level bone and flesh materials in the capital.

Now, he is speaking eloquently to the void where there is nothing: "The ancient sages stood at the foundation of heaven and earth, enjoying the highest state of leisure, embracing virtue and harmony, while all things were entangled in them. Who would be willing to deconstruct human affairs and trouble their life with material things? Mr. Gaojian, you are a person who is destined for greatness. Why bother with me, a mere merchant who has neither fame nor success?"

Facing the vast emptiness above, Gu Baisong was drenched in cold sweat, but dared not move rashly. He could only continue speaking: "These common people, unable to bear the hunger, sell themselves into slavery. This has been the case since ancient times. I have heard that Mr. Gao Jian is from Cangzhou. Do you know the Zuo family of Cangzhou? They especially value sacrifices, using blood to dance and pray for blessings. Some are so devout that they even sell their brothers, wives, and slaves to provide for the sacrifices. It is all just local custom. Why go to such lengths?"

“Now, there is famine in the eastern region, and seventeen or eighteen out of ten people have died. Common men and women are all selling themselves. If they don’t sell themselves, their families will have no way to survive. If I don’t buy them, it will only be more difficult for them to endure.”

He kept explaining the situation, from customs to reason, hoping to get that person, Gao Jian, to listen to him.

The one who speaks, and the one who listens.

Although it's just a change of one word, it's like a merciless abyss, clearly dividing the upper and lower levels.

The process is worthless in the face of the result; the joys and sorrows of those at the bottom will only be thrown into this abyss, as if they never existed.

History is written by the victors, but do the victors really write anything? They merely leave their footprints on the rotten flesh and blood of the defeated.

That's true for those ordinary people, and it's also true for Gao Jian.

These are the rules of the Divine Dynasty.

If the power gap among cultivators is too great, then the concept of 'human rights' will naturally not exist.

Even among ordinary people, a large power gap can breed situations where people are not treated as human beings. So it is easy to understand how much contempt can arise among cultivators, whose differences are extremely great, to the point that mortals and cultivators are not even the same species.

For Gu Baisong, this was a threat. As long as Chen Ming was shrewd and provided enough benefits, he should be able to get everyone to shake hands and make peace with smiles.

To put it bluntly, on the path of cultivation, all kinds of resources are extremely important. Those who cultivate the righteous path need to cultivate pure energy and eat herbs, fruits, and the natural world. Those who cultivate evil paths need to cultivate malevolent energy and eat bones, flesh, blood, and all kinds of living beings.

These are just different methods of cultivation. Gu Baisong didn't think there was anything special about them. So what he said was all about benefits, all about 'hinting' at his superior insight, implying that he could give up benefits.

However, Gu Baisong became increasingly anxious as he spoke, because there had been no response from above.

He couldn't help but look around, and then he saw the trembling stone below.

From the very beginning, Shi Chi had been cautiously hiding underground, but it was clear that for a sixth-realm cultivator who had already opened the Divine Gate, her hiding was meaningless. The living yang energy emanating from her body allowed Gu Baisong to easily discover her.

I hadn't noticed it before; I was just focused on perceiving Gao Jian.

Gu Baisong looked at Shichi.

He didn't know Shi Shi, this ordinary servant girl. With so many flesh and blood coming to Yangjing every day, amounting to hundreds of thousands or even millions a year, how could he possibly remember them all?
But he knew at a glance that this person must have escaped from him.

Perhaps... it can play a little role.

So he said, “Mr. Gao, if you put it that way, you probably don’t understand my value. Just look at my methods and you’ll know my ability to manipulate resentment. Then you’ll know why I’ve been able to sit in this position for so long.”

As he spoke, he reached out his hand, and an invisible force appeared out of thin air, grabbing the stone.

Since the other party is not speaking, let's use this ready-made person to let Gao Jian see his value, understand why so many people rely on and value him, and confidently let him handle so many materials.

This is all because his skills are good enough, his prices are low enough, he handles all kinds of resentment and blood energy with great efficiency, and he is most skilled at stimulating the effects of these corpses.

If it were someone else, the output of materials would likely be 10% or even 20% lower! What a huge loss that would be! How many cultivators would be left without enough materials? What a lack of virtue that would be! What a loss of benefit!

Shi Chi was suddenly grabbed out of thin air. She was already numb, but at this moment... she still felt a sense of fear.

It wasn't a fear of death; she had long since become numb to it.

The object of her fear... was the 'Master Bone' in front of her.

She had seen the other person's 'craftsmanship' before; everything was geared towards extreme pain.

Even for the simplest act of flogging, he would bring along some personally trained executioners and have them begin flogging. The flogging technique was carefully taught; with each flogging, pieces of flesh would fly off the thigh, blood and flesh flying everywhere. After a dozen or so floggings, the flesh would be gone, exposing the bone.

At this point, he would instruct the executioner not to strike with the board horizontally, but to strike it horizontally across the thigh, making the bones crack and pop, sometimes even splitting the bones open so that the marrow would spurt out several feet...

Even if they weren't aiming to kill people, the daily torture was unbearable. People who had "lost their value" and whose only remaining purpose was their own lives would be shackled and chained to iron stakes, with their hair tied to nails. All of this was to restrict their freedom, oppress their bodies, and cause them extra pain.

Their feet were clamped by boards, and their backs and chests were bound with chains and instruments of torture, likely to break their ribs. When prisoners in shackles and chains were forcefully shoved into small, narrow, triangular cages only an arm's length high, their heads were pressed down so low that they were squeezed together with their limbs, making them look like boneless lumps of flesh stuffed inside. When the cage was opened and the person was pulled up in chains and shackles, they were almost unrecognizable as human.

Another method involved making a curved pipe, which, when straightened, would be over two zhang long. The prisoner would be stripped naked and covered up entirely with the pipe. A large opening was made at the top of the pipe, and a small opening at the bottom. Boiling water was poured into the pipe from one end, flowing all over the body and out the other end, until the person could no longer bear it. This boiling water had to be poured continuously.

They also used iron hooks to pierce the nostrils and scrape out the brain marrow, scraping it out little by little until the brain marrow was completely dried out.

There are many other forms of torture, such as nailing bamboo skewers to one's ten fingers, or subjecting oneself to scorpion baths and other forms of torture. These tortures can cause excruciating pain, making one's excrement and urine spill out at the same time, a truly horrific experience.

All of this has developed into a craft.

The purpose is to create as much 'resentment' as possible, so that the vengeful spirit is powerful enough after a person dies.

Think about it, they are just ordinary people, but their resentment after death can make them become first-realm, second-realm, or even third-realm vengeful spirits out of thin air!

What level of profit is this? What level of business is this?

An ordinary person is not worth much, but after going through this process, they can become a vengeful spirit of the first or second realm after death. The various spiritual materials in these vengeful spirits can be used in the operation of the capital, or in the cultivation of some evil cultivators, or even used for alchemy and weapon crafting. They are all good things and will sell well.

It's practically a perpetual motion machine industry.

Ordinary people, if tortured a little, can be turned into spiritual materials. That's why this craft is so important. It's even so important that it can become Master Bone's livelihood!

It should be noted that Gu Baisong is one of the most renowned masters of this craft in the capital. People or demons who have been processed by him are generally at least at the third realm after they become vengeful spirits or malevolent spirits!
The executioners he trained, as well as the disciples of his immortal sect, were all experts in their fields, which is why this immortal sect was able to establish itself in the capital.

Shi Chi, a little girl whose name sounds rustic, was so frightened by witnessing this craft that she couldn't move.

A person who is not afraid of death is now overwhelmed by extreme fear.

She wanted to die; she even wanted to be scared to death, or bite her tongue to commit suicide.

but……

Can't do it.

What they excel at most is making people immortal. Death is unacceptable; if someone dies and becomes a vengeful spirit, their resentment won't be as strong, and they won't be considered a suitable spiritual material.

Killing is easy; there are plenty of people more efficient at it. But how do you stir up fear, resentment, and hatred in people's hearts, and then, at the top, become an expert, a master, a craftsman, a top-notch artisan who can establish himself in the capital city with this skill?

With such huge benefits, I don't believe that person with such insightful opinions wouldn't be tempted!
Just as he was thinking this, Shi Chi suddenly raised his head.

It's nighttime now, and it should be pitch black, with only the constellation-like light visible when the gods are in motion.

But at this moment...

Its daybreak.

Countless golden rays shot into the palace, shining directly outside. The vengeful ghosts and corpse puppets all ran away and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

These golden lights conjured up all sorts of strange phenomena.

Like pure water, it washes away all defilement and impurities. Like the King of Fire, it burns away all the fuel of afflictions.

Like a great wind, it travels through all the worlds without hindrance. Like empty space, it is unattached to anything, whether it exists or not.

Like a lotus, it remains undefiled in all worlds. Like the Mahayana, it carries all sentient beings out of birth and death.

Like heavy clouds, it shakes the great thunder of the Dharma, awakening those who are unaware. Like heavy rain, it rains sweet dew, nourishing all beings.

Its radiance is majestic and imposing, like a clear mirror, reflecting both its inner and outer beauty; its majestic countenance is supremely magnificent and immeasurable.

"Buddhism?" Gu Baisong frowned.

I've never heard of him being a Buddhist monk, and this pure Buddhist light... it doesn't seem to have any killing power, it should only have the ability to deliver the dead.

No, is this person trying to release his own corpse puppet and dispel its resentment? Doesn't that mean he's going to release all the people's banners he's accumulated to this day?
Is this an attempt to lower the price for oneself?

That won't work.

But then Gu Baisong paused, holding the bone banner in his hand.

In an instant, dark clouds covered the ground and red flames soared into the sky. Then the flames vanished, turning into a dark light. The shadow of the dark clouds followed, and a black mist descended from the sky. Within the black mist, heads thronged!
Black energy surged back, the sky turned gloomy and twisted towards the sky. The energy transformed into countless human heads, which scattered into the air, stirring up strange winds, flying sand and stones, shaking the earth and sky!

In the shadows, blood rained down, heads rolled, and all five poisons were present. Amidst the black mist, shouts of violence erupted, and the stench of rotting flesh and blood wafted through the air. Countless wronged souls were tormented, unable to live or die!

Coughing and wheezing, bleeding and blood leakage, fever and bone pain due to the spread of disease, resentment rising to the surface will cause floods and droughts, causing suffering to the people, accumulation of resentment will bring disasters, resentment will suffocate, and heaven will show its response.

Resentment can bring about natural disasters.

And so, natural disasters struck the area.

A pervasive sense of resentment gathered, and a biting, mournful wind swirled in gusts. There was no way to appease the spirit of the deceased emperor, nor to quell the anger of the people. Thus, the heavens gathered, and cruel calamities of drought and flood arose. Consequently, the sun and moon lost their light, snow and frost fell in summer, the seas boiled, hills and valleys shifted, the stars lost their course, and dark clouds gathered in the sky, threatening to fall as a calamity!

However, before it fell, a pupil opened in the sky.

Gu Baisong's eyes widened immediately!
What it is?
The numerous calamities that had just been summoned by resentment were instantly dispelled!

Those are the eyes of the Grand Duke Jupiter!

The God of Disaster—before him, all calamities must retreat!
The mere appearance of Tai Sui's divine aura, with its golden pupil on the red planet, easily suppressed all the calamities.

Tai Sui can both bring and ward off disasters, but it generally doesn't do so. It is an evil deity and has no benevolence towards mortals.

But what is here is not the Grand Duke Jupiter himself, but Gao Jian.

Therefore, the calamity dissipated.

But the resentment did not dissipate, nor did the evil spirits disappear.

Gu Baisong paused again with the Dharma banner in his hand, and the wailing wronged spirits suddenly became fierce!
Hundreds of fierce ghosts, howling like pigs, their resentment from the violent deaths transformed into numerous weapons, their intestines into tendons, and countless phosphorescent flames, defiling the Buddha's light with their blood. Iron chains and hooks, pounding and grinding, vicious and perverse, they wanted to pour out all the suffering they had endured!

But then, those beams of light flashed again.

As the Buddha's light flashed, a mantra resounded, consisting of six syllables: "Om, Bha, Ji, Dha, Na, Mo!"

Then, flames rose.

The great flame of wisdom shines brightly, extinguishing all sins and defilements.

May all sentient beings' minds be used for the highest benefit.

The minds of all sentient beings are purified by understanding the realm of reality.
The minds of all sentient beings are equal and without difference.
All sentient beings' minds rejoice and generate love and happiness.
Many wronged souls immediately felt the pain in their bodies and began to dissipate.

In reality, this is not a solution...

However, he did not want to use the power of divine incantations to bear all the suffering on his own shoulders.

At this moment, the dragon's shadow flickered in the sky.

Gao Jian stood atop the dragon, looking to the side at Fei Xiang, whose body was covered in bloodstains: "Master Fei Xiang, are you alright?"

Fei Xiang did not reply, but only said, "I suffer this pain for all the vengeful spirits. You are no longer bound by any constraints. Quickly enter the cycle of reincarnation."

"Don't even think about it!" roared the ancient white pine below!

Gao Jian glanced down.

Really...

What? These people don't think that 'expert opinion' is something they should be listening to, do they?

In reality, insightful opinions are merely about positioning.

It's time to kill him.

(End of this chapter)