Mu Chen jabbed the junior brother in the side, jolting him awake. He chose the junior brother because this person seemed like he would spill information more easily. Mu Chen knew his type very well. Arrogant and cruel to the weak, but easily frightened by the strong.

“Who are you people? Why have you tied me up? How come I cannot use my spiritual qi?” The junior brother quickly fired off a series of questions the moment he woke up.

“I’ll be asking the questions.” Mu Chen crouched down beside the tied up youth, his kitchen knife in hand. He used the flat side of the knife to slowly caress his victim’s cheek.

Zhao Feng leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, an intrigued expression on his face.

“What do you want? We are disciples of the Nine Demon Gate! You had better release us or our sect will hunt you down and kill you!” The junior brother’s eyes were locked on the knife Mu Chen was holding close to his face.

“Nine Demon Gate? What’s that?” Mu Chen asked.

“Hmph, you don’t even know this? Let me tell you, our Nine Demon Gate is a mighty devil sect! Our sect has nine powerful devil cultivators at the head, which is where our name is derived from!” The youth said arrogantly.

“Oh? How strong are these nine devil cultivators?”

“They are all supreme experts at the Spirit Core realm! I’ll bet you don’t even know what that is right?" The youth said in a mocking tone.

“Hey, my grandfather is also at the Spirit Core realm.” Zhao Feng chimed in, which elicited an annoyed glance from Mu Chen, prompting him to seal his lips.

“Alright, last question. What are you doing here? Your Nine Demon Gate is not located within the Azure Dragon Kingdom is it not?”

“Why should I tell you?” The youth snorted.

“Because if you don’t…then very bad things will happen.” Mu Chen’s voice was gentle and soft, but when the captive youth heard it, an ice cold chill went down his spine.

“I-I’m not scared of you!” The youth stammered.

“Of course not, I am just a harmless person. Wouldn't even hurt a fly.” Mu Chen chuckled.

There was a brief moment of silence as Mu Chen looked right into his captive's eyes. He smiled.

“Did you know? There are 206 bones in the human body, and it is actually possible to break every single one while maintaining the person’s consciousness.” Mu Chen suddenly spoke in a gentle tone.

“W-what are you talking about? W-why are you telling me this?” A feeling of dread was starting to well up in the youth’s heart.

“Did you know? If you stimulate every single pain receptor in every inch of the human body at the same time, it is possible to cause a person enough pain to directly kill them.” Mu Chen had a light smile on his face as he slowly slid the knife down the youth’s body.

“Y-you, d-d-don’t try anything funny!” The youth was nearly shitting himself at this point. He was trembling all over. This captor of his was seriously giving him the creeps.

“Did you know? In an ancient civilization from long ago, there exists a form of mortal torture called death by a thousand cuts. You see, the aim of it was to see how many cuts the victim could handle before they died. The end goal was to reach a thousand cuts. I’ve always wanted to try it on a cultivator. I wonder how many cuts we can make? Ten thousand? Or perhaps a hundred thousand? Maybe...we can start with this area?” Mu Chen had an eerie smile on his face as he brought the knife nearer and nearer to the youth’s crotch.

“Alright! I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you!” The youth screamed in terror as his eyes bulged.

"Please, do go on." Mu Chen said as he spun the knife around with his fingers.

"W-we came here with our eldest senior brother! We are supposed to be looking for a spiritual fruit of some kind. It's name is Dragon Blood Fruit, and is rumored to be almost five hundred years old!”

A spiritual fruit was a fruit that naturally contained spiritual qi, and was also continually nourished by it. Countless species of spiritual plants, herbs and fruits existed in the world, so many that it was almost impossible to count them all. Even now, there are still an unknown number of undiscovered species.

This Dragon Blood Fruit was an Earth ranked spiritual fruit, which was extremely rare and valuable. Similar to techniques, spiritual medicines were also divided into several ranks. Mortal, Earth, Heaven, Saint and Divine. Each rank was divided into low, middle and high.

“Dragon Blood Fruit huh…” A mischievous smile appeared on Mu Chen’s face. “Hey, where is your eldest senior brother now?” Mu Chen asked the captive junior brother.

“I-I don’t know! He only ordered us to keep looking for the Dragon Blood Fruit, then he left for who knows where! I really don’t know anything else!”

“Zhao Feng, have you ever heard the phrase, snatching food from the tiger’s mouth?” Mu Chen turned to Zhao Feng and asked.

“Big brother, you can’t possibly be thinking of-”

“Don’t worry, this eldest senior brother is no tiger. He’s only in the Sea Forming realm at most. He can be considered a large house cat.”

Suddenly, a low groan could be heard coming from next to them. The senior brother slowly opened his eyes.

“What happened? My head hurts like hell.”

“S-senior brother! You’re awake!” The junior brother exclaimed.

“Ah, just in time. Either one of you, tell me any information you have about the Dragon Blood Fruit’s location. If you give me something useful, I’ll make sure you suffer less.”

“Why should we-”

“Did you know?” Mu Chen smiled evilly while playing with his knife.

“Gyahhhhhhhhh!” The junior brother screamed, a look of utter terror on his face.

For the next few minutes, loud, horrifying screams could be heard coming out from that small cave. Even the demonic beasts did not dare to get close.

Inside the cave, the two unfortunate captives lay motionlessly on the ground with their eyes rolled back in their heads. A stream of drool mixed with blood slowly trickled out from their open mouths. It was unknown if they were dead or alive.

Zhao Feng was crouched on the ground with his hand over his mouth like he was about to throw up. Mu Chen wiped the blood off his hands using a piece of torn clothing he had gotten from one of the captives.

“Looks like we’re heading into the core region. Come on, let's go.” Mu Chen threw aside the dirtied rag and walked past Zhao Feng toward the cave entrance.

Zhao Feng took a deep breath and got to his feet, averting his gaze away from the two unfortunate captives.

“Hey, isn’t there rumored to be a Sea Forming realm demonic beast in the core region?” Zhao Feng was slightly concerned.

“Let me worry about that.”

To tell the truth, Mu Chen was a little wary of that Sea Forming realm demonic beast, but he felt that if the two of them combined their strength, they could fend it off, or at least escape. Of course, he wasn't going to run around looking for it. They would be as careful as possible and move silently. On top of that, Mu Chen also had the ability to use spirit sense, so they could escape in advance in the event that he detected danger. All they had to do was be careful, and their lives would be safe.

Mu Chen was only doing this because he wanted the Dragon Blood Fruit. The Dragon Blood Fruit contained a massive amount of vitality; he suspected that if he could use the stone tablet to absorb it, he could finish lighting up the second section. Moreover, if the fruit really was close to five hundred years old, half of it would be enough. He could give the other half to Zhao Feng to increase the level of his body refinement. The benefits were worth the risk.

The pair left the cave and headed straight into the core region. This time, they moved stealthily, taking special care to not cause any commotion. Mu Chen was also constantly sweeping the surrounding 100 meter radius with his spirit sense. Though their pace was slow, they made steady progress.

“Hey big brother, those two said the fruit was likely to be located in the core region, but the core region is huge, how are we going to find one small fruit?”

“The Dragon Blood Fruit is a spiritual fruit that contains a massive amount of vitality and flame attribute qi.”

Zhao Feng listened intently as Mu Chen started to explain.

“As such, The Dragon Blood Fruit will only be able to grow in an environment with a high concentration of flame attribute qi. Tell me, what is the greatest source of flame attribute qi?” Mu Chen questioned.

“The sun?”

“Exactly.” Mu Chen nodded.

“So that means the Dragon Blood Fruit would be able to grow best in a place with high exposure to sunlight! Then the place with the most exposure to sunlight would be…” Zhao Feng’s eyes lit up as he looked up into the horizon. Looming in the distance, right in the center of the core region, was a tall cliff that stretched up to the skies, like a giant stone sword piercing into the heavens.

“That’s right. The highest point!”