11 0011 - Speedrun to Hell: Any% Glitchless.
Lu Jing stormed into a large open Hall, filled with large square wooden pillars but no walls, draped in purple see-through silk that swayed in gentle wind from outside.
"Letting her go was a mistake," he growled, frustration radiating from him, scattering the drapes around him.
A woman in mid 40's, serene in her white robes embroidered with blue wisps of cloud, emerged from the shadows cast by the translucent tapestries.
"You're too quick to judge, Son," she chided gently. "The Yu Clan has already faced the Emperor's wrath and the heavens' fury. No emperor, not even ours, would stoop to the barbarity of wiping out an entire clan."
Lu Jing, though still seething, couldn't deny the logic of her words.
"But it's not just any art, Mother," he retorted, his voice losing some of its edge. "It's Soul Slave Art! I could have…"
His mother sighed, her voice carrying the weight of experience.
"The world of cultivation, my son, is vast and teeming with countless paths. Don't cling to one while ignoring the verdant forest stretching before you. Besides," she added, a knowing glint in her eyes, "didn't she mention something about Lu Sheng...backstabbing you?"
The mention of Lu Sheng instantly reignited the embers of Lu Jing's anger.
He was about to leave immediately to look for his fat and lazy brother when a maid suddenly whispered something in his mother's ears.
"Oh?"
"What is it?"
"Ahem! Umm… Lu Sheng is now one of the disciples of Physician Hong?" Lu Jing's mother seemed perplexed upon hearing a message from her maid.
She asked the maid to repeat the message again and looked at her with a sense of confusion. After confirming with the maid that she had indeed conveyed the correct message, Lu Jing's mother appeared deep in thought.
"So? Why are you saying it like I need to take precautions?" Lu Jing didn't understand the tone of wariness in his mother's voice.
"You are not aware, son. Physician Hong is the Clan Patriarch's guest."
Lu Jing still did not understand the hidden meaning. Technically, he understood that his mother was advising him not to take action against the Clan's Patriarch's guest.
However, this concerned his idiot brother Lu Sheng. Why would his brother suddenly gain so much attention? Even if, somehow, through some trick, he gained discipleship, he was lazy.
Physician Hong wouldn't interfere with the internal matters of the clan for a lazy, trash disciple, right?
"Do not approach Lu Sheng for now; let me gather more information," Lu Jing's mother warned.
Lu Jing grumbled but didn't disobey. Although he decided not to take personal action, he had his lackeys, like Lu Zhan. They would take care of this matter in their own way.
_________________________________
"HELP ME!!!!" He screamed internally.
[Who are you talking to?]
The Automated System asked Lu Sheng. He was still tied to his stretcher, left alone in a clean, white marble room by his new Brothers in Discipleship.
That cheerful, crazy girl Ming Mei had also left, saying she would return with healing herbs.
"Stop enjoying my misery and help me get out of this!" Lu Sheng retorted, frustration evident in his voice.
[Are you afraid of treatments?] The Automated System inquired.
"NOO!" he quickly replied. "Don't you dare search my mind?"
[I will not, and I don't need to. You gave away the reason the moment you denied it.]
Lu Sheng's face turned red with embarrassment.
[What is so embarrassing about injections or needles? It's one of the basic fears or phobias. Just be a big boy and close your eyes when you are about to get one, that's it.]
"Don't say it! I... I... you do not understand. This whole Eastern medicine shebang is all about piercing the body with a whole lot of needles until you look like a porcupine," he shuddered, imagining himself pierced with a lot of needles.
*BANG*
The door swung wide open with force. Excitement and joy radiated from Ming Mei and the other disciples as they entered, their faces lit up with happiness as Lu Sheng looked up to see what they were going to do.
*SCREEEEEEEAAAAM*
Lu Sheng screamed with all his strength because they were all holding a bunch of needles in their hands, and he fainted.
__________________________
[Wake up, Host! Wake up!]
Intense heat invaded his nostrils, and a discomforting feeling irritated him awake.
He slowly opened his eyes and found himself upside down, gazing at the same fiery pit he had escaped by groveling at those two Horse Head and Bull Head Guards.
"AAAAA!!! I died?! Again?!" he exclaimed in panic. "How?"
"Oh! You are awake?" The Horse Head Guard's voice reached his ears. "My hands were getting tired; you do enjoy your sleep, even getting cooked over fire."
He saw the reason he was upside down over the fiery pit, the Horse Head was holding him over.
"Please! Have mercy, Senior!" he started begging.
"Why? We sent you to do a task for us, but you are wasting time enjoying fried rice and sniffing women's beds. If you like the scent of women's nether parts so much, down there in the fire, you'll find lots of women. Go smell their burning flesh and enjoy your fetish," the Horse Head Guard said mockingly.
He was not sure how to respond to this; in his laziness, he forgot all about the reason he escaped hell. Yet, here he was, back at hell again just in a day.
"Human, please understand our situation too. We are taking risks too for you, but if you are going to squander this chance, then we should not risk it more for a wasted opportunity on you," the Bull Head Guard came out of the darkness and stood near the Horse Head Guard.
"It's just one day! I haven't even been able to get my foot properly in my new life," he argued. Deep inside, he was kind of angry over the fact that everyone was playing with him, not giving him a simple value at all, a value of a person or an individual.
"That is the mistake. You are not alive; you have no life. You haven't been given a new life; you are still awaiting your punishment, which we delayed in exchange for your promise to help us. If you are going to waste your time smelling beds, then we don't need you," the Horse Head Guard snarled in return, displeased with the spark of defiance in the human.
"You also wasted a precious paper of karma on stupid something 'auto system', you should have written all the women, armies, power, and wealth and you would not have needed to set your foot properly and it would have been faster for us too. You are just wasting our time!"
These words of Horse Head Guard snuffed out all the defiance in him. The gravity of his situation sank in, and he realized the precarious position he was in.
"I... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to waste your time. I'll focus on the task you've given me," he stammered, his tone filled with remorse and dread as his head started to burn.
The Bull Head Guard, seemingly less agitated, spoke with a hint of sympathy, "That's fine; you are also correct. It's only been a day, and you need time to set your foot properly too. But you have to show us your sincerity too, if you keep on smelling beds then we doubt you are sincere, do not take this lightly, or else…" The Bull Head Guard didn't finish his sentence.
"I will! I will! I am committed to our cause! Please have a little faith in me and give me some time," he pleaded.
"Sleep now, human. When you awaken, remember your true purpose." Lu Sheng felt himself succumbing to sleep as Bull Head Guard spoke.
____________________
"AAAAAA!!" He woke up screaming, feeling as if his head was on fire. He found himself still tied and bound but now on a bed.
Various eyes were looking at him, and one of them was massaging his head with a gooey ointment.
"See, didn't I say my ointment would wake up ghosts too?" said the boy massaging the ointment on Lu Sheng's head.
"Stop it right now!" he yelled. He no longer cared; having just returned from hell, he was in no mood to waste any more time on stupid things, especially stupid things of others.
"Please relax, Brother. You are hurt, you need to rest to recover." His yelling didn't deter anyone, as if they were expecting or had gotten used to getting yelled at by their patients.
"NO, let me go!" He yelled again. "Or else, I will keep screaming."
*Sigh*
Most of them sighed as if they hoped Lu Sheng would be cooperative, and with understanding eyes, they looked at each other as if agreeing to something.
"What are you all conspiring?" he asked, realizing that they were unlikely to heed his demands, or perhaps they sensed his unwillingness to agree to their demands.
One of them produced a needle.
Seeing that needle, Lu Sheng's needle phobia resurfaced, and he was about to scream again when one of them gagged his mouth.
"Brother, this is one of my needles. We have a tradition of gifting one of our needles to our new junior, but it seems you have a deep fear of needles. This cannot be acceptable. Let's start the treatment of your fear of needles first," he said, expertly piercing the needle near Lu Sheng's neck. Another one followed suit.
After five needles, they removed the gag from his mouth. Lu Sheng wanted to scream but found he had no strength in his neck, or rather his mouth, to scream at all.
"Now rest." The rest of them pulled out their needles and started stabbing him in various places. Slowly, he began losing all sensation in his body, but a sense of calm spread over him.
They all left after turning him into a porcupine as he feared.
