2 Prologue - The Execution (2)

"Your Highness! Your Holiness! Have mercy!" Ignoring the awe-inspiring righteousness of his senior brother Teague, a young man with phoenix eyes and a pretty face fell to the ground, kowtowed in the direction of the viewing platform, and howled, "By the grace of Your Highness! I beg your mercy! The offending song was made by the two masters and then sung by the fourth brother Ingdra. They had undoubtedly committed a mortal sin. Now the masters are dead and have confessed their sins, and the fourth brother has been duly punished and deserves to die. At the time of the crime, I had already completed my apprenticeship, so I am no longer considered a member of the Leeyu Troupe. Your Highness! Please have mercy on me, and spare my humble and worthless little life!"

"Herro! How can you denigrate our masters and brothers like that! You have been a brother to me for so long, but I never thought you would be such a spineless coward! You are betraying our masters' teachings and their spirits in heaven! How could you do this!"

Seeing his second brother behaving in such a disgraceful manner, Teague could not help but feel a surge of shame and anger.

Herro, however, ignored his brother's scolding and simply prostrated himself on the ground, kowtowing in the direction of the viewing platform and begging for mercy.

The Holy Consort snorted coldly, "You are really born great performers! One can speak eloquently and the other can cry bitterly, even I can't help but feel pity. People like you who are clever with words and good at acting, if not punished severely, I am afraid that the millions of soldiers of the Feather Clan will be addicted to sensual pleasures and ruined by your hands!"

After saying these words, she eyed Lord Peacock, who immediately understood and ordered accordingly, "Teague to pluck the tongue, Herro to be scaled alive!" With a wave of his hand, the feather he threw on the execution platform earlier was transformed into a huge plaque with the names of the punishment engraved on it and erected on the top of the platform.

Several torturers swarmed up and pressed the two prisoners hard on the platform.

The Holy Consort waved her slender fingers, a lightning bolt suddenly appeared directly on Teague's head, accompanied by a loud thunder. In a flash, this handsome and robust young man turned into a big fish, with smoke coming out of its head, gills opening and closing, and a python-like fish tail twisting and flapping. Its mouth could not speak, only its chirps and cries could be heard.

One of the torturers stepped forward to hold the fish's head down while the other picked up a golden knife and slit its throat, the wailing ceasing abruptly and the blood gurgling out, instantly staining the execution platform. Teague struggled in unbearable pain, but his body was tightly bound in unbreakable chains, and no matter how hard he struggled, it was in vain. The torturer then began to pull out the gills one by one. With each piece pulled out, the fish's fins, feet and tail twitched and slapped. By the time the last piece was pulled out, blood was already spreading all over the platform. But the torturer wasn't finished yet, he opened the fish's mouth, put his hand in it and ripped off the tongue with one pull.

Teague could not breathe and was on the verge of death. The fish tail swung wildly for a while, then hung lifelessly, the light in its eyes gradually dimmed, and finally it died from suffocation. Fearing that it was not quite dead, Lord Peacock drew his sword and, with a flash of white light, beheaded Teague, tied it to a Sunken Fish Stone, and threw it into the Dead Sea with its body.

Located at the foot of Roxy Mountain, the immortal water of Roxy is unfathomably deep, clear and warm, like a piece of smooth jade, without a single ripple on its surface, flat as a mirror. It is known as the "Dead Sea'' only because there is a River Ruo hidden at the bottom of the water. Any immortal being who touches the waters of the River Ruo will lose their immortal consciousness if they are lucky, or lose their immortality all together if they are unlucky, and from then on they can only drift in the Other World, suffering from reincarnations, life after life, never to return to the Great Roxy Heaven.

Fortunately, the River Ruo is very heavy and is a dark undercurrent under the Dead Sea. Ordinary Roxinians cannot easily reach the river, so the Dead Sea is quite safe. Only those with profound magical power, or with the help of magical objects, such as the Sunken Fish Stone, can reach. And the Sunken Fish Stones and the Fallen Goose Orders have always been in the hands of only the most venerable rulers, so even if any Roxinians wanted to leave the Great Roxy Heaven and go to the Other World through River Ruo, it is not an easy task.

Today, Teague has been beheaded, was tied to a Sunken Fish Stone and thrown into the Dead Sea and River Ruo, his spiritual consciousness erased, his immortality lost, from then on he is forever separated from the Great Roxy Heaven and its people.

"Big Brother!" Little Ingdra, hanging from the tree, had been unconscious due to the loss of blood, but he was awakened from his stupor by the thunder released by the Holy Consort, just in time to witness the tragic scene of Teague's death. His eyes were filled with tears of grief at the sight of his respected brother sinking into the Dead Sea, never to be seen again.

Just then, another thunderbolt was released from the Holy Consort's hand, and the second elder brother, Herro, was turned into a fat-headed, ten-bodied fish. Its scales glittered brilliantly like a neon rainbow, but he barked and whimpered like a little puppy, making it unbearable to listen to.

The torturer spread out Herro's ten bodies, chained to the pole like open fingers, and slowly lifted the fish scales, slicing them off each of his bodies piece by piece. The ten fish bodies quivered together, undulating and tumbling in the sunlight like a colourful tapestry, bloody yet perversely gorgeous. Soon the bright, lustrous scales covered the entire execution platform, glistening in the pool of blood left by Teague. Several of Herro's bodies became messy and bloody, his whimpers gradually weakening…

Ingdra never liked his second brother's character. But they had, after all, studied under the same masters for so long, and seeing him suffer this long and painful "death by a thousand cuts", he could not bear to watch any longer and shouted in a hoarse voice in the direction of the viewing platform, "You are acting against the Will of Heaven! You will be punished for the cruelty and injustice you have done to the mermen performers! "