There is no pleasure in Ao Jin’s eyes as he eats the meat from my disembodied arm. Despite this, I feel equal measures of disgust and anger rising within the depths of my bones.

I didn’t feel this way when he effectively did this to my meridians and dantian. I didn’t feel this way when he crushed my neck repeatedly, preventing me from moving.

I even wasn’t angry when he trapped all movement except my eyes using the Talisman. At most it was irritation, with some measure of fear.

But now?

There’s something viscerally different from taking something from me I’ve had my entire life. A part of me I had just moments ago.

The severed pieces of my body. And he’s just there, devouring it before me. Watching the Flesh tear from my familiar skin, uncaringly.

I can feel the demonic Ki move faster through my body, feeding off my anger and emotions. I forced myself to calm down and turn as apathetic as possible. Both to buy time and to deny him the gains that he so desperately wants to make happen out of spite.

Demonic Qi, because of its unstable state, is more affected by emotional states than normal Qi (which is also affected). The normal type is just affected less.

So, the more emotionally stable and neutral I can keep myself, the slower this process will go.

In contrast, Ao Jin Is building himself up, forcing himself to dive into the feeling of his actions. Like eating into a Turkey leg, he holds up my forearm and sucks the meat off of it. He seems to have realized I got baited and angered by it.

It comes off in little strips as he searches out the softer pieces of meat underneath the skin. I can feel my anger grow more and more as he purposefully treats my body as flesh to be eaten.

And at that exact moment, he activates his Qi within my body, which devours it quickly before changing it into something else.

Almost before I can react, I can feel my mouth be opened and some form of dust poured inside.

Obviously, I try to get it out by coughing or retching, but the talismans field has restricted almost all my movements and even the little I can bring up is quickly forced back down with his hand.

I can’t describe the helplessness I feel having someone stretch my mouth open past the tearing point and pushing things down it.

Almost immediately, he starts using me as a cauldron and mixing the caustic and dangerous dust within my body.

… fuck this.

That was the final straw.

I honestly thought I’d be able to handle torture and pain.

I couldn’t.

I thought I’d be able to go through humiliation. But I can’t.

I’ve never been put in such a position in my life like this.

And I’ve now lost it.

Things will now be easier for him, but I’m going to make it as difficult as possible.

I have enough mana to continuously and instantly reform myself.

It consumes massive amounts of mana, but I can handle it because of all the taming and healing that have raised my reserves.

Outside of that…. I have enough mana to do one thing and one thing only.

Send continuous waves of weak creatures at him and I.

No layers of instructions, just to attack and kill him. Unfortunately, they’ll likely come at me immediately after, but I can handle that much.

And that’s when I hit them with it.

The birds, bugs, and beasts of the sky.

The bugs, moles, and sightless monsters of the underworld.

And the beast creatures of the jungle.

Of course, this also includes any poison creatures that would accept from that area that can make it over in time.

And I make it an open contract. I have given anything that would possibly want to or could take a contract the opportunity.

This makes it sound so ordered… but it’s a desperate and fierce call out.

And strangely enough, I get an exceptional number of pings back.

½ a second later, the ground shakes, the trees rustle, and there’s a shiver in the air.

He seems to sense something, and as my eyes have adapted to his speed the slightest bit, I can see a light shooting towards my head.

The last thing I see before things go dark and my eyes close are creatures bursting from the ground and leaves overhead.

I’d really prefer not to look around while my head is on the ground. I’d be scared if that helped me to gain some weird ability… like a head with legs.

The next thing that appears in my regrown head’s sight is darkness. Which is weird, because I should be able to see at least something. But strangely, it’s almost as if it is vibrating.

As my eyesight stabilized and I’ve activated my scan, I can see why.

They’re everywhere. They filled the literal air with every kind of creature.

As he keeps the area clear, I can see flashes of light coming from him. I can see his face turn to me in fury as he activates the Qi in me, sending waves of pain down my back.

I immediately send another wave of contracts out to replace any that were lost and more. Reaching farther and wider than before. The sheer number of contracts increases my power further.

I see another light approach my head quickly. Darkness approaches quickly.

He already knows I can do something with creatures. So, there’s no reason to hide any of those cards now. At least for the lower leveled creatures. Next time I wake up, I’ll go further and see if I can try in-depth tactics.

… but that didn’t happen.

Just as I opened my eyes, another flash of light made me close them. The feeling of my head being removed was felt.

I should note that this is not a painless process.

My spinal cord is severed and the last thing I feel is pain across every nerve in my body. Lingering and never fading as it’s the last thing I felt, my brain trying to understand why it can’t get signals from the body… only to repeat it over and over again.

And this is only with just one decapitation.

It’s the same as the next time. And the next. And the next.

Over and over, he takes me out before I can consciously react to his actions or bring in more creatures.

My scan instantly informs me that the creatures are dwindling, but it seems he’s found his solution to me.

Just keeping cutting my head off.

If I didn’t have my scan, I wouldn’t even be able to recognize this. Luckily, it is bridging the gap between what is happening while I’m unconscious and regrowing,

This happens for hours on end, seemingly minutes for me.

But something is happening. The times between unconsciousness are getting shorter. And even within it, there is a growing vestige that I feel a connection to.

Except that stops just as I barely grasp it.

They’ve finally arrived.

The strong, tamed creatures have launched an attack that he couldn’t ignore.

And I’m given a chance to help them.

Time to heal.