Chapter 288 – Pitiful Simba
As he recovered consciousness, w.a.n.g Zhong underwent an impartial experience of the increase in his resistance. According to the information he had gathered, such a way should be useful. However, what came in the next second was an intense mental probe piercing all over.
He could be considered as exceedingly resilient and enduring. No matter how small his memory of the event was, it was filled with himself being burnt to the point of excruciating pain with his entire consciousness roasted and his body appeared to be absent of even one drop of water. His whole body continued convulsing for ten full minutes before slowing down due to the mediation by the Fate Stone.
This was damage that was caused to one’s essence Not only did it act upon the body, it even affected the Fate Stone. If such damage occurred to the spiritual consciousness of other people, even their souls would have been roasted to cinders.
Simba had also suffered a similar pain for a while before he regained his senses. With his heart palpitating in fear and trepidation, he patted his chest and exclaimed, “So scary! So scary! Did we take the wrong path, w.a.n.g Zhong? We can never, ever make such a mistake of entering such a place again!”
“It wasn’t a mistake. I’m training my fire resistance.” w.a.n.g Zhong took a deep breath and sent his consciousness to the skies again. He had to endure, as he hoped that the greater the pain he suffered, the strong he would become. He just had to clench his teeth, something he always did in his childhood. Such little pain wasn’t much!
“Train your fire resistance?” Simba followed pa.s.sively, with his brain having yet to comprehend the meaning behind w.a.n.g Zhong’s words. “What do you mean?”
The path to the hyperdimension was once again opened by w.a.n.g Zhong’s consciousness. He could clearly sense that his sensitivity to fire elements was slightly clearer than before. This strengthened w.a.n.g Zhong’s confidence. Looks like this method is good to use!
Very quickly, w.a.n.g Zhong found the place he was just in. Whether it was because he had just entered a while ago or not, he somehow felt that his sensitivity towards flames had grown clearer and more distinct.
Feeling the pull from his consciousness, Simba immediately felt a bad premonition. “w.a.n.g Zhong, big bro, big uncle, where are you going?!”
Before he could finish his sentence, his body was already dragged along with w.a.n.g Zhong as they were pulled into the hyperdimension. A milky white marshmallow like world appeared before his eyes, with the mystical fiery life form faintly present in the distance. In just an instantaneous reaction from it, w.a.n.g Zhong and Simba were engulfed in the next second by intense fiery energies, with nothing left of them.
This time, the damage to their souls was even greater. After recovering their consciousness, the dried up feeling and bodily convulsions continued for over an hour before fading away. This was a feeling of being roasted from the very depths of one’s soul and every single cell in the body, exceeding any pain and suffering that would be brought by ordinary burn injuries.
However, there was something to be gained from this pain. Each time after regeneration and recovery, w.a.n.g Zhong was able to clearly sense his increased sensitivity towards the fire elements in each cell within his body.
In truth, there was no single technological component in the secret training method of special abilities in the dark era. What it detailed was the constant fight towards increasing one’s limits to survive. Things such as fighting desperately while in mortal danger and sc.r.a.ping by every experience with one’s life, these took numerous months of preparation and recovery. With the Fate Stone, however, w.a.n.g Zhong was undoubtedly able to cheat this system, as he could directly go all the way and “die”.
Nevertheless, w.a.n.g Zhong was aware that his recovery was slowing down even with the Fate Stone. Clearly, he still had to pay particular attention to the method he was employing.
“I oppose this! w.a.n.g Zhong!” Simba shrieked out in terror. “I don’t want to experience it for the third time!”
“Okay. We’ll change to a gentler place. I’m also a little unable to deal with this.” w.a.n.g Zhong had already chosen his new target location.
Compared to before, this fire elemental coordinate appeared much weaker, and he needed to focus his senses to detect it. There was no dimensional life form in this place, being the depths of a volcano. As w.a.n.g Zhong and Simba descended, he landed on a cliff protrusion, with bubbling lava surging forth all around him.
With the drastic increase of temperature, the moisture within their bodies were quickly drawn out. Before Simba could open his mouth, his throat had dried up and was unable to make a sound, with his entire body being roasted and baked into a clump. Compared to him, however, w.a.n.g Zhong was barely able to endure and persevere.
Faced against the degree of heat from his surroundings, the fire elements within his cells took on a counter offensive state. A faint layer of fire energy encased his entire body, resisting against the scorching hot temperature.
Such perseverance clearly extended the duration of his suffering by quite a bit. His body burnt up while the stone beneath his feet seemed to melt and glue to his skin. Instantly, his lips dried and began to crack, the rate of moisture leaving his body still being extremely high. At this moment, he felt as though his organs and viscera were being lit aflame.
This scene continued for approximately ten seconds before w.a.n.g Zhong turned completely into a man of fire, his meager fire energy unable to resist against the scorching hot temperatures of the lava. Compared to the previous location, he could clearly experience the process of being slowly burnt alive…
After regenerating his body from “death”, w.a.n.g Zhong could not help but scold the s.h.i.+t out of himself. The feeling of being burnt alive was truly too difficult to bear. Being instantly killed was still considered endurable, yet experiencing such slow death from being roasted alive just once was more than enough for him.
From the two different types of experiences, w.a.n.g Zhong was able to obtain much more information. The results from tempering oneself at a degree far greater than one’s special ability could withstand was not as good as tempering at a low level. After the last experience, the tempering of the fire energies within each and every one of his cells had become even more complete as every sliver of potential had been squeezed out. Nevertheless, w.a.n.g Zhong absolutely did not want to experience it one more time even with his high levels of resilience and endurance. Looks like the Sovereign of Flames is still the better option. Although the result was weaker, the amount of pain he would need to suffer was less.
As w.a.n.g Zhong stood up once again, Simba flew over with tears streaming down his face. Hugging w.a.n.g Zhong’s leg tightly, he cried, “w.a.n.g Zhong! Please have pity on me! This training’s too painful! I feel like we need to change to a different training method! Perhaps you can come up with a way for you to train without me going along! Look, i don’t have any special abilities, so I don’t need to train or temper myself!”
“Is there such a way?” w.a.n.g Zhong asked sincerely.
“Shhhhh…” A bitter expression appeared on Simba’s face as he heard w.a.n.g Zhong’s question. Right now, he and w.a.n.g Zhong were considered to be one body, with him inhabiting w.a.n.g Zhong’s consciousness which meant he was simply unable to leave by himself. Where w.a.n.g Zhong went, he had no choice but to follow.
“One cannot achieve glory and wealth without going through trials and tribulations!” w.a.n.g Zhong replied sincerely and earnestly. He had decided to visit the sovereign of flames once again.
Without waiting for Simba to oppose, the suction force had already started.
Feeling the attraction, Simba instantly fell into despair and cried, “I’m not a human! I don’t wanna be a human! f.u.c.k! What the h.e.l.l is this?! Save me!”
w.a.n.g Zhong continued to disregard Simba’s struggle. This time, however, they were not fortunate enough to spot the sovereign of flames upon their descent. w.a.n.g Zhong and Simba were unable to open their eyes and just felt a searing heat on their eyelids before being burnt into nihility.
This time, their recovery had slowed down to the extreme and took two whole hours. The convulsion and the dry, itching and burning pain from losing all body moisture caused the two to collapse on the floor immediately. Even so, they were able to regain their energy after the sensations of pain gradually disappeared.
Laying flat on the ground, Simba was completely out of gas and even w.a.n.g Zhong was feeling slightly unbearable.
The dark era’s training method for special abilities was too barbaric! Although he was able to minimise danger and risk with the help of the Fate Stone, the pain he suffered might have been even more terrifying. After all, even the mad men in the dark era had to prepare and recover for numerous months to engage in a single attempt. Furthermore, there was absolutely no one who would try out flames of such a degree, not to mention four consecutive burns in a single day.
“w.a.n.g~~Zhong…” Simba’s voice trembled. “If you go in there one more time, there will be no more love between us!”
At this moment, w.a.n.g Zhong was also gasping for air. After four rounds, he felt that his life flashed before him. “Let’s end it here today. I can’t continue anymore either. This simply isn’t something a human can accomplish.”
“Really?” Simba was overjoyed, and tears streamed emotionally down his face.
This fellow w.a.n.g Zhong was actually whining about hards.h.i.+ps for once! This just showed how much pain this training had caused. Nevertheless, such a whine truly came at a good time and was heartwarming. However, the next sentence from w.a.n.g Zhong instantly shattered Simba’s sweet dreams, “We’ll continue tomorrow!”
Those words stunned Simba for three whole seconds, before his dried up body erupted with an inconceivable strength, shrieking, “AAAAAAHHHHHH~~~!”
At this moment, Emily was partic.i.p.ating in the selection of her family along with over a hundred other partic.i.p.ants of the a.s.sa.s.sin Family. Everyone around her had ice cold expressions as the majority of the partic.i.p.ants came from various branches of the family, with even some homeless being chosen.
Once a person was chosen to partic.i.p.ate in the selection to be an a.s.sa.s.sin for the family, they would no longer have a personal ident.i.ty nor name, with only one path of survival in front of them.
Their gazes were murderous like knives, br.i.m.m.i.n.g with vigilance and killing intent as everyone knew that not many of them would be able to live through this. Frankly speaking, every single person other than oneself was an opponent.
Emily understood this, yet she was unable to completely adapt to such an atmosphere and situation. This was exactly why she loved the time she spent in Tianjing. Everyone present here was cold and icy like a machine, and this continued until she spotted a familiar face within the crowd. It was her elder cousin, Russell, who was tagged number 67.
Noticing Emily, Russell smiled faintly and nodded his head. Such a minute action from him brought quite a large amount of comfort and warmth to Emily. At least she had an acquaintance here. Other than Ma Dong, Russell had the best relations.h.i.+p with Emily in the entire a.s.sa.s.sin Family. Being two years older, he was rather caring for this young cousin of his.
The atmosphere of the selection exercise was slightly gloomy, yet everyone who was present was clearly accustomed to it. All of the family members present who were in charge of this training wore chilling black metal masks, and carried metal whips in their hands. They would not spare any strength to deal with unauthorized actions.
This first topic given to Emily was the most basic of the a.s.sa.s.sin Family’s movement combat technique, the Shadow Steps!
This was a set of movements that Emily was familiar with since she was ten years old, as the movements for her Flaming Lotus Dance was born from this.
Although Emily prided herself in this set of movements, she was unable to feel the slightest bit of happiness. This was due to the fact that people here were able to accomplish this while being faster, more accurate and vicious. Furthermore, they had all made changes to the movements, compared to the original unchanged version she had demonstrated. Everyone possessed their own unique traits based on their own understanding of the movements, with her elder cousin Russell being one of the outstanding ones.
Right now, Emily’s compet.i.tive spirit had already ignited. In truth, she was extremely capable in her observation and learning skills, especially in things she had been witnessing since childhood. The cold and cruel environment of the compet.i.tion did not weight down on Emily. After all, she was born in this place and with Russell’s existence bringing a slight bit of warmth, she became more resilient and resolute. Although there was no communication between the two as they were unable to do so, a glance and a faint smile had been more than sufficient for her.
Poison techniques, trapping, tracking. There was an elimination round every three days, with Emily already having eliminated two people by herself. In this cruel and vicious compet.i.tion, Emily had indeed already made prior preparations. Being a member of the a.s.sa.s.sin Family, she was not that weak and frail after all.