Chapter 32: The Secret of Flapping Ears

Next, Su Che and his two companions continued collecting spiritual herbs. Besides the “Earth-Stealing Poison Vines” and “Wind Spirit Herbs,” they wouldn’t miss any other valuable herbs they came across. As for the low-level monsters they encountered, aside from the Red-Tailed Fox, they had no interest in going to the trouble of capturing them.

When night fell, the three chose a cave with a relatively large entrance on the cliff face of the gorge and entered it. There were no monsters inside, and it was dry and tidy. After cleaning it a bit, they prepared to rest.

With the unpredictable dangers of their training journey, they couldn’t just lie down and sleep soundly. Instead, each of them took out a cushion from their Qi Bags and sat in meditation—this was the best way to rest.

On the surface, Su Che was meditating to rest, but in reality, his consciousness had entered the prison space on the first floor of the Black Tower, ready to interrogate “Flapping Ears” together with Lao Hei.

Flapping Ears had been unconscious for three hours and could wake up at any moment.

Slap! Slap! Slap! Lao Hei slapped him a few times on the face, with moderate force. Flapping Ears mumbled groggily before slowly coming to his senses…

“Ah!”

As soon as he regained consciousness, he saw Lao Hei’s terrifying demonic face. Terrified, Flapping Ears screamed and instinctively tried to jump away.

Thud!

But Lao Hei’s huge foot pressed down on his face, sending him back to the ground with a thud.

“Who are you, you monster?”

After all, being a cultivator who had seen many demons and monsters, Flapping Ears didn’t scream like an ordinary person. Instead, he lay half on the ground, moving backward while secretly channeling his internal energy.

Lao Hei smirked darkly and waved his sharp claws in the air toward him. Flapping Ears immediately sensed it, and his internal energy lost control, rushing back to his dantian like a river flowing backward. From then on, he couldn’t move at all, no matter how hard he tried to control it.

“My internal energy is out of control? How is that possible? What’s going on?” Flapping Ears was terrified and cried out in panic.

“I’ll tell you what’s going on!”

Lao Hei stepped forward, pulled him up from the ground, and began beating him mercilessly with punches and kicks.

“Ah! Ugh! Ouch…” Flapping Ears screamed in pain, just like a pig being slaughtered.

Normally, as a cultivator, he should have far greater resistance to ordinary punches and kicks and not feel such pain. But Flapping Ears acted like a frail woman—even the slightest touch from Lao Hei made him scream in agony. It was clearly extremely painful for him.

Su Che could see a dark red thread descending from the gray sky above this layer of prison space, connecting to Flap-Ears’ head. This indicated that as a prisoner, Flap-Ears no longer controlled his own fate—it was entirely in the hands of the Black Tower Prison. However, ordinary prisoners couldn’t see this dark red thread; only Su Che and Old Black could detect it.

While punching and kicking, Old Black used telepathy that Flap-Ears couldn’t hear to say to Su Che, “Master, I can amplify his pain a thousand or ten thousand times. Just a slight poke from me will make him suffer agonizingly… There are countless ways to torture him, but I, Old Black, still prefer the straightforward pleasure of hitting flesh with my fists.”

Su Che remained silent, thinking to himself, “You may enjoy it, but the prisoner’s suffering is…”

It wasn’t out of weakness or false compassion—Su Che was simply reflecting that it was fortunate the Black Tower Prison belonged to him. He hoped he would never end up in such a situation.

Flap-Ears screamed in agony, his cries heart-wrenching. Even Lu Da, who was seriously injured and unconscious, was awakened by them.

“Good heavens! What’s going on?” Lu Da, whose body was completely burned black, lay limp on the ground, unable to move. He could only open his eyes slightly to see a terrifying monster ravaging his accomplice not far away.

“Whose hands have we fallen into? How could there be such a horrible monster…” Already on the verge of death, Lu Da was so shocked that he fainted again.

Despite his muscular build and beard, making him seem like a fierce warrior, it turned out his courage was rather mediocre.

“Ah! Ah… Stop hitting me, stop… Please spare my life, stop…”

Amidst his screams, Flap-Ears kept begging for mercy. The pain he was suffering was beyond description. If possible, he would envy Lu Da for being able to faint and escape such suffering.

The pain had been amplified countless times, reaching deep into his bones and affecting his soul. Before this, Flap-Ears never imagined that simple punches and kicks could surpass any torture he could conceive.

He couldn’t bear it anymore—it was truly unbearable!

Flap-Ears kept pleading for mercy, his screams and roars no longer resembling those of a human.

“Hahaha…” Old Black’s laughter was as terrifying as his appearance. It took some time before he stopped beating him.

“Stop hitting me, stop… Please spare me. I’ll do anything…”

Flap-Ears lay on the ground, his body convulsing uncontrollably. But the most terrifying thing was that he found himself eerily alert—unable even to blur his consciousness to ease the pain.
“Enter my prison, and neither life nor death is in your control! Do you understand?” Old Black roared angrily.
“I understand! I understand! I get it!”
Flap-Ears kept answering obediently as he lay on the ground. In truth, he had no idea what kind of prison this was, and there were too many things he didn’t understand. But the torture he had just endured was simply too horrific; he didn’t dare mention anything else.
“State your name!” Old Black demanded loudly.
“Your Majesty the Demon King, my name is Han Youming,” Flap-Ears replied honestly.
Old Black reported to Su Che through mental communication: “Master, ‘Han Youming’ is indeed his real name. I can sense what’s in his mind—no lie can escape me.”
“I know,” Su Che replied. “Your telepathic ability also comes from the innate traits of the Outer Demons.”
The Outer Demons possess mysterious telepathic abilities, allowing them to penetrate people’s minds and directly grasp the thoughts of any highly intelligent being. They can then craft mental demons to manipulate or even devour a being’s soul…
Old Black inherited the Outer Demons’ telepathic abilities, as well as their versatile transformation and possession skills. Since the prison space also belonged to Old Black, he could easily know what prisoners were thinking.
Old Black continued to interrogate Flap-Ears: “Han Youming, tell me—what was your plan today, working with four others to scheme against the three disciples of Tianxuan Sect?”
“Well…” Han Youming hesitated slightly. This matter involved a secret, and no one could easily confess it.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
His hesitation led to another round of punches and kicks from Old Black. The intense pain that had just subsided struck again. Han Youming screamed in agony, begging for mercy. Only after enduring at least fifteen minutes of unbearable torment was he given another chance to confess.
“I dare not anymore! I truly dare not! I won’t hide anything anymore. I’ll honestly answer every question of Your Majesty the Demon King!” Before Old Black even had to scold him, Han Youming kowtowed frantically on the ground, begging for mercy.
It wasn’t that he lacked backbone—it was simply that even the strongest man couldn’t withstand such unimaginable suffering. Han Youming couldn’t understand why just a few punches could cause such agony. It felt like death would be a mercy, allowing him to end his life swiftly.

Only Su Che and Lao He knew that once prisoners entered Black Tower Prison, it wasn’t just their bodies that were imprisoned—their minds and souls were also cursed, with their spirits and wills constantly being undermined and corroded…
Han Youming explained, “My brother Han Zuo Jing and I have a secret. We need two identity jade talismans and jade plaques belonging to outer disciples of Xuanji Peak of Tianxuan Sect in order to sneak into a restricted area there.”
Lao He roared, “What kind of secret? Explain it to me in detail!”
In fact, through the art of reading minds, Lao He already knew the secret in his heart. This interrogation was merely to subdue the prisoner.
Han Youming said, “Our father used to be an inner disciple of Xuanji Peak. Later, due to bad luck, he died in a battle against demons. Yet, he left us an extremely important secret that could help my brother and me stand out on the path of cultivation and achieve the Golden Dan realm…”
“Get to the point!” Lao He snapped.
“Okay, okay!” Han Youming quickly agreed and then briefly explained, “As an inner disciple, our father was in charge of guarding the restricted area where spiritual herbs were grown. By chance, he discovered a hidden place within that area filled with many precious immortal root herbs. This hidden place was deep inside the mountain, unknown to everyone except my father—it was a natural medicine garden.”
Lao He deliberately asked, “Nonsense! There are countless experts in Tianxuan Sect. If your father, an inner disciple, knew about it, how could the sect’s higher-ups not be aware?”
“No, I’m not lying!” Han Youming, fearing further torture, replied anxiously, “That medicine garden has numerous restrictions. Even those with high cultivation levels can’t probe it with their spiritual senses at will. Moreover, aside from the master of Xuanji Peak, only the disciple in charge of guarding the garden can enter that restricted area…”
Han Youming listed a bunch of reasons, emphasizing repeatedly that only his deceased father knew about that hidden place. Even the master of Xuanji Peak, the Venerable Xuanji, was unaware of it—it was truly an untapped natural cave.
“It was thanks to those naturally growing rare herbs that my father became one of the best among inner disciples, with the potential to surpass others and achieve greatness, eventually becoming a true disciple of Tianxuan Sect,” Han Youming wailed. “It’s a pity he had bad luck and died too early…”
Lao He sent a mental message to Su Che, “Master, everything he said is true. I now know completely about the secret he’s hiding.”

“They need the identity jade talismans and plaques of Mysterious Peak; no wonder they targeted me and Lei Xiao.” Su Che had basically figured out the reason behind this. He thought to himself, “Inside the forbidden area of Mysterious Peak’s medicine garden, there’s actually an undiscovered secret cave filled with rare spiritual herbs… This is great news for me. I just wonder how many of those herbs are left?”
Rare spiritual herbs can be used to refine pills and rapidly improve one’s cultivation level; they can also be converted into faction contribution points to obtain better cultivation techniques or advanced magical artifacts; or they can be sold at the cultivation market for a large amount of spirit stones or other cultivation resources…
That secret medicine garden was like a natural treasure—how could Su Che not be tempted?