In front of the huge platform, a monk from Jiufeng Mountain stood holding a lightning rope. Thunders kept falling, but he had only raised the lightning rope and had not swung it yet.
"Zhuang Ze, do you admit your guilt?"
The questioning voice did not sound very loud but it spread throughout the Jiufeng Mountain. In Aze's ears, it drowned out the sound of thunder and made him almost deaf.
Aze was hung between two pillars in tattered clothes. He lowered his head to look at the monk from Jiufeng Mountain below, then struggled to muster strength to look around Yashan and the sky. The monks from Jiufeng Mountain, near or far, were all looking at him, but he couldn't find Sister Jinxiu.
"Zhuang Ze, let me ask you again, do you admit your guilt?"
Aze was in great pain. He had neither the strength nor the desire to muster the strength to answer the questions from the monks below, so he just closed his eyes again.
Aze didn't expect that when he returned to Jiufeng Mountain, he would face only one punishment, and that was death. There was only this one, no second choice, and he couldn't even see Sister Jin Xiu.
In fact, it is not entirely true that he will die. According to the rules of Jiufeng Mountain, Aze, who has betrayed the sect, needs to withstand three strikes from Lei Suo, and will then be expelled from Jiufeng Mountain.
The immortal sect has its own rules. Some of the rules involving principles will often not be changed for thousands of years. It may seem a bit stubborn, but it is also because it touches on the most intolerable part of the sect's immortal way.
From Jiufeng Mountain's perspective, they have done their best for Aze and tried every possible way to help him, but now many monks who were optimistic about Aze are inevitably disappointed. From Aze's perspective, Jiufeng Mountain's kindness is hypocrisy and he does not trust them from the bottom of his heart.
Regardless of who is right or wrong, the facts are a foregone conclusion. Even if Ji Yuan was here in person, Jiufeng Mountain would never make concessions to Ji Yuan in this regard, unless Ji Yuan was really willing to break with Jiufeng Mountain and try to take Aze away by force.
But for Aze at this moment, there was no if, he didn't care anymore, because he couldn't even withstand a single whip from the thunder rope, because in essence he had never practiced seriously for a long time, not to mention that the person holding the thunder rope looked at him as if he was a demon.
In Aze's opinion, many people or even the majority of people in Jiufeng Mountain have already believed that his possession by the devil is irreversible, or have already determined that he is possessed by the devil and do not want to let him go and bring harm to the world.
"Zhuang Ze, do you admit your guilt? Are you really a demon?"
At the moment when the person below asked the question again, Aze's eyes suddenly opened, and his eyes were full of bloodshot. The look in his eyes was extremely terrifying, and the people who were preparing to execute the sentence below trembled in their hearts.
Why, why, why, why…
Why do they think I am a demon? Why do they call me that? No, they must have called me that in private for many years, but they never said it in front of me. It’s just that not many people have ever come to Yashan…
At this moment, Aze's divine consciousness seemed to explode on the cliff. Although there was no demonic energy, it was a kind of demonic thought that was pure to the extreme, which was breathtaking and frightening.
"I am—not a demon—"
Rumble, rumble, rumble…
Aze's roar seemed to overwhelm the thunder, and it even made the golden rope on the execution platform tremble continuously. The sound echoed throughout the Jiufeng Mountain, like the howling of ghosts and wolves, and the roar of wild beasts...
At this moment, countless masters in Jiufeng Mountain, whether they cared about Aze or not, turned their eyes to Yashan, but the head master Zhao Yu slowly closed his eyes, turned around and left.
On the cliff, the monk finally came to his senses and swung the lightning rope in his hand fiercely at Aze on the execution platform.
"Snapped… "
"Boom..."
The thunder from the sky also fell at the same time, hitting Aze who was chained to the execution platform.
"ah-"
Aze couldn't feel how much he was hurt, but the pain, the incomparable pain was something he could never imagine. It was the pain of all his perceptions from the mind to the body being eroded. This pain was even more than the whipping of ghosts in the underworld. Even when his body seemed to be crushed, Aze seemed to feel the moment of his family's death all over again.
"Demon—"
"Snapped… "
"Boom..."
The lightning rope fell again, and the thunder struck again, but this time no screams were heard.
Rumble, rumble, rumble…
The entire execution platform was constantly shaking, or rather, the entire suspended cliff mountain was constantly shaking. The birds and beasts in the mountains, which were already very uneasy, seemed to have no regard for the horror of the wind and thunder weather. They either rushed out from all over the mountain or flew away in panic.
"Punishment—"
"Afraid… "
"Click... Boom boom boom... Click... Boom boom..."
Thunderbolts continued to strike, and the entire execution platform was shrouded in terrifying lightning...
Lu Min and his friends all looked in horror at the direction where the lightning was spreading. The former slowly turned his head to look at the cultivator next to him, only to find that the other party also had an expression of disbelief.
"Fellow Daoist, this, this is really just a punishment for a disciple who has committed a serious mistake?"
The monk next to Lu Min remained silent for a long time, not knowing how to answer Lu Min's question.
The lightning lasted for more than ten breaths before dimming. The entire copper pillar of the execution platform looked slightly red, and Aze, who was hanging by two golden ropes, was no longer sure whether he was dead or alive.
But the arm of the cultivator holding the thunder rope was trembling slightly. As an immortal cultivator, his breathing was a little disordered at the moment, and his eyes looked at the person hanging on the golden rope with disbelief.
"This evil creature, this evil demon... is not dead... He, is not dead... Huh..."
The executioner let out a long breath, tightly grasped the lightning rope, and after a long time, he slowly uttered a word.
"I have already been beaten three times... I will wait for your decision..."
After saying this, the monk who was carrying out the execution slowly turned around and left in a gust of mountain wind. However, most of the monks from the Nine Peaks Mountain who were watching the execution did not disperse. Those who had not yet practiced cultivation were even a little overwhelmed with fear.
The executioner flew halfway and turned to speak to Yashan.
"Everyone disperse! Go back to practice."
After these words were heard, all the monks from Jiufeng Mountain left one after another. The only one left on the entire Yashan Mountain was Aze, who was hanging in the air by the execution platform, barely breathing. The entire mountain was filled with frightened birds and beasts.
The birds and beasts on the mountain were not frightened by the thunder. All over the cliff mountain, the birds were abandoning their nests and homes and fleeing far away from the cliff mountain, while the beasts were all running towards the edge of the cliff, and some were wandering anxiously on the edge of the cliff.
"Aze—"
Jin Xiu was shouting in her quiet room. She had just heard the thunder and even faintly heard Aze's screams, but the quiet room was under a spell cast by her master and she couldn't get out at all.
"Master! Master, please let me out—"
A monk from Jiufeng Mountain who was sitting cross-legged in the front pavilion opened his eyes, looked in the direction of his disciple's quiet room, shook his head and closed them again. Based on Aze's terrifying evil thoughts just now, Jiufeng Mountain was afraid that there was no reason for him to stay anymore.
What no one expected was that Aze, who was hung on the execution platform at this moment, did not completely lose consciousness. Although his consciousness was very blurry, he was still conscious.
"Hmm...Hmm...Hmm..."
Every breath was extremely painful, even a thought was the same. Aze couldn't open his eyes and felt as if he was blind and deaf, but he could still feel the fear of the animals in the mountains.
'Why am I not dead yet...'
Not long after this thought arose, a small speck of light slowly floated out from Aze's tattered clothes and slowly turned into a picture scroll.
The scroll was already very damaged, with burn marks all over it. The light on it flickered and was dissipating along with some burnt ash and debris, until the wind blew away all the light. The scroll became like a piece of damaged and burnt paper, which was blown away by the wind from Yashan Mountain, and no one knew where it would drift to.
Although Aze couldn't see, he surprisingly knew what was happening in front of him.
'No, don't go, no... Mr. Ji, I'm not a demon, I'm not, sir, don't go...'
Aze couldn't speak, couldn't move, couldn't see, couldn't hear, but he was roaring in his heart!
…
Jin Xiu was finally released, but it was already the third day after Aze was tortured. But she couldn't be happy, not only because of Aze's situation, but also because she vaguely understood that the sect would not keep Aze.
Jin Xiu was allowed to see Aze once, but only once. She could decide when to meet him and no one would disturb them. It was a very heartwarming thing, but it was also a very cruel thing behind it.
Jin Xiu didn't know how to meet Aze, and she didn't dare to meet him. But she knew how insignificant she was. The sect couldn't change according to her will, and couldn't let her keep dragging it on. She wanted to go find Mr. Ji, but how could she find the mysterious Mr. Ji? How many months? Years? Or decades? She wanted to find Agu and the others, but she couldn't bear to let Aze and Agu see each other for the last time.
So Jin Xiu could only prepare well and do what she could. On this day, she left Jiufeng Cave and came to Ruanshan Ferry, where there were some things that were not available in Jiufeng Mountain.
Candied haws, sugar men, plain noodles, beggar’s chicken…
Many of them were the food that Jinxiu and Aze had agreed to eat together outside in the future, and of course, there were also clean and tidy clothes, both hers and Aze's.
Even though she was shopping, Jin Xiu felt a little numb. The hustle and bustle and laughter of Ruanshan Ferry seemed so far away.
“Girl…Girl!”
Someone waved his hand in front of Jin Xiu. She regained focus and looked forward, responding blankly.
"ah?"
A gentle and beautiful woman stood in front of Jin Xiu.
"Miss, I see you are distracted. You must have encountered difficulties. Do the disciples of Jiufeng Mountain who practice in the holy land deep inside also have troubles?"