The food that the mussel smelled was one of its favorite grilled meat. Tempted by the sweet smell, it could not help but open its sh.e.l.ls. Unfortunately, what came before its eyes was not food, but boiling oil.It could not hide from the tempting smell the first time. The boiling oil slipped through its sh.e.l.l"s opening and burned its flesh. Luckily, it had closed its sh.e.l.ls quickly enough to avoid even greater disasters. Unavoidably, some parts of its soft, supple skin were burned. There were many blisters scattered on its body. Even the slightest movement came as a pain to it.
The mussel had never encountered such brutal torments throughout its whole life. Every second was torture. It started to hope for death.
It then heard a voice, as cold as ice. "Do you still refuse to confess to your crime?"
Confess? The mussel would never confess. It felt utterly wronged as though living the tragedy of the innocent Dou E [1]. It only wanted to hunt for a musk deer and make a feast for its master. Fond of good food, it ended up hunting more musk deers for its own indulgence. That was when it fell into the ambus.h.!.+
There were three Senior Immortals who wanted to hunt the mussel. They accused it as the mastermind behind the recent ma.s.sacre of the majestic beings. The mussel was not afraid to fight the Senior Immortals to show them its strength, but before it made any move, it was overwhelmed with fear from a foreboding threat.
The mussel was sensitive enough to notice the threatening, ominous aura. It was so strong that it made its sh.e.l.ls tremble. Instinctively, it knew that it was a sign of danger, so it abandoned the fight and quickly ran away.
The three Senior Immortals continued to chase after it; the more the mussel tried to run, the grumpier and hungrier it felt. It could barely stay focused anymore. Hence, the mussel turned around and fought the Senior Immortals head-on. It took advantage of its animal disposition and swallowed them alive. The incident greatly impinged on its consciousness. It sobered up quickly and trembled in fear, knowing that it had swallowed the three Senior Immortals.
Its master had clearly warned that it was not allowed to eat any human being. This was much worse because it swallowed three Senior Immortals alive. It had just got itself into big trouble. When it was still dazed by the trouble that it had just made, another three majestic beings showed up. They were there to seek revenge for their masters.
They verbally abused the mussel by calling it as the sc.u.m of the community. Being greatly impetuous, it began to fight the three majestic beings and ended up swallowing them, too. While it was eating the majestic beings, the four Great Guardians came unexpectedly and witnessed the scene.
The four Great Guardians had great strength, each equivalent to the spiritual power of a Mighty Immortal. The mussel was no match for them, so it was soon defeated and captured.
When it was caught, it was kept in a gla.s.s bottle. The interior of the gla.s.s bottle was very refres.h.i.+ng and comfortable at first. When it finally calmed down, it realized that it had made a huge mistake.
If they only wanted it to make an apology, it would not oppose the idea. Instead, the four Great Guardians accused it as the killer of the recent ma.s.sacre of the majestic beings, claiming that it had committed all sorts of wickedness. It was blamed for the death of the 18 majestic beings, plus the three Senior Immortals. The mussel refused to admit to the accusations. It only confessed to what it had done.
One of the Great Guardians then proceeded to punish the mussel. He got it out from the gla.s.s bottle and tried to inflict pain on the mussel with thunderbolts, swords, and even fire. The torment was to no avail, for the mussel had a high level of cultivation. The simple punishments did not harm it at all.
In the end, one of the Great Guardians, who wore a red robe, offered his bottle gourd. That marked the beginning of the mussel"s purgatory suffering. The inside of the bottle gourd was really strange. The mussel was not only physically tortured but also starved. It was completely famished only after a day, so hungry that it wanted to eat its own flesh.
After two days, it started to suffer from blackouts due to the immense hunger.