"The pills are refined, but I don't know how effective they'll be this time." He scratched his head, seeming troubled.
Then, he suddenly slapped his thigh. "Right! I just caught a few insects, didn't I? Perfect for testing the medicine!"
With that, he turned his gaze toward Li Fan and the others bound in the air, his eyes shifting between them. "Which insect should I choose?"
Faced with the man’s stare, an inexplicable sense of dread washed over them. They all froze, not daring to move, holding their breaths and remaining silent.
"This one." The robed man contemplated for a moment longer before his gaze settled on one of them. He immediately reached out and made a grasping motion.
Seeing this, the chosen man could no longer maintain his composure. But his struggles were clearly futile, and no sound escaped his lips.
His body flew toward the robed man, shrinking rapidly in size until he had truly become a tiny flying insect, landing in the palm of the robed man's hand.
The insect's head still faintly resembled a human face, its expression one of extreme terror.
As the robed man lightly pinched the human-faced insect, it emitted a frantic, buzzing wingbeat.
But it was all useless.
The robed man held the insect in one hand and a black pill in the other.
The pill was many times larger than the insect itself, yet it was forcibly shoved into the insect’s mouth.
The human-faced insect struggled in agony as it was compelled to swallow the pill.
Its abdomen swelled to many times its original size, becoming a gigantic, bloated sphere.
The insect's aura gradually faded, but its suffering had only just begun.
Once inside its stomach, the pill seemed to be digested and began to shrink in size.
However, a buzzing sound, like that of a swarm of mosquitoes, was suddenly emitted from the insect’s body.
The human-faced insect's body suddenly began to convulse uncontrollably.
Tiny black specks began to burrow their way out from its swollen abdomen one after another.
A closer look revealed that each black speck was, in fact, a newly born flying insect.
After emerging, these new insects did not fly away randomly. Instead, they settled on the body of the human-faced insect and began to greedily devour it.
Soon, the human-faced insect was consumed completely, not even a speck of residue remaining.
The robed man shook his head, a look of regret on his face.
"It seems the test has failed. The potency must have been too strong."
As he spoke, he opened his mouth and inhaled the cloud of black insects into his stomach.
Even though he already heard about the events within the Demon-Refining Pagoda and had prepared himself mentally, Li Fan still couldn't stop his eyelids from twitching violently.
This scene was truly horrifying.
The robed man looked at the remaining pill in his hand, seeming somewhat troubled.
"Should I test this one as well?"
His gaze flickered towards Li Fan and the other two.
All three of them held their breath.
After a long moment, the robed man sighed. "Forget it. They were refined in the same batch. The results should be similar."
With that, he opened his mouth and casually tossed the black pill inside.
Even after swallowing the pill, the man seemed completely unaffected, simply slipping back into his previous deranged state.
He began muttering to himself again, complaining about not having enough alchemical ingredients while completely ignoring the three individuals bound in the air.
Among the three survivors, Li Fan remained silent. Sikong Yi's face was an expressionless mask. The remaining man had already completely broken down.
"I'd have been better off dying at the hands of that Qin Tang. At least that would have been a quick death."
***
Time seemed to lose all meaning within the Demon-Refining Pagoda.
Their survival depended entirely on the whims of the robed man.
An indeterminate span of time passed before the man snapped out of his deranged state once more.
Again, he retrieved two pills from his voluminous robes, though this time they were an eerie green.
"Which insect should I test these on?"
The man hesitated for a moment. Then, his eyes settled on Sikong Yi.
"This one will do!"
Li Fan immediately focused his attention. He wanted to see just what Sikong Yi was relying on that gave him the confidence to lure Li Fan into this deathtrap.
To Li Fan's utter astonishment, Sikong Yi did not employ any means of resistance whatsoever.
After being transformed into an insect and forced to swallow the green pill, he dissolved into a puddle of green liquid.
Sikong Yi was dead!
What's going on? What changed? Did the course of events diverge from my previous life because I followed him?