Seeing Grass Ghost Granny's abnormal behavior, Ying Chen, Elder Guo, and Master Gui immediately realized something was wrong.
Ying Chen tightened his grip again, making Grass Ghost Granny gasp for breath.
"I advise you to cooperate, or my methods will be far more cruel than your蛊虫 (gu worms)!"
"Your蛊虫 can at most inflict physical torture, while I can inflict mental torture!"
"And it doesn't matter if you don't speak, I can still use the Residual Shadow Soul Searching technique to get the information I want from your mind!"
"What? You actually know the Residual Shadow Soul Searching technique?" Grass Ghost Granny's face instantly turned pale, disbelief in her eyes.
The Residual Shadow Soul Searching technique was an extremely sinister and evil art in the Xuanmen.
Those whose souls were searched would show no outward physical damage, but in reality, their internal organs would all rot.
Their brains would suffer extensive damage due to the soul searching, leaving them mad and even less intelligent than animals.
Most importantly, not only would their lifespan be greatly reduced after soul searching, but during the remaining days, they would also endure unimaginable pain!
Especially after their internal organs rotted, their bodily functions would fail one after another, rendering them unable to control even basic bodily functions like eating, drinking, or defecating and urinating.
The thought of such a tragic outcome made Grass Ghost Granny tremble uncontrollably.
However, there was a hint of doubt in her eyes.
How could Ying Chen, a martial arts grandmaster, know the soul searching technique only practiced by Xuanmen cultivators?
Seeing Grass Ghost Granny's disbelief, Ying Chen wasted no more words.
He directly extended a finger and touched the center of Grass Ghost Granny's brow.
Grass Ghost Granny instantly jolted, a deep tremor originating from the depths of her soul, causing her to blurt out without hesitation, "No, no, no, I'll talk, I'll talk!"
Ying Chen snorted, "You refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit!"
"Before you speak, let me remind you: do not attempt to lie or conceal anything. Since I know the soul searching technique, I can detect your emotional changes based on your mental fluctuations. Any lie is futile in my eyes!"
"Do you understand?"
Grass Ghost Granny looked at Ying Chen with deep reverence. In her heart at this moment, Ying Chen was akin to the embodiment of a devil.
She had lost all desire to resist or defy him.
In reality, Grass Ghost Granny did not know that Ying Chen was merely bluffing.
The so-called Residual Shadow Soul Searching technique did exist. However, its effectiveness was extremely poor. It did not directly search for souls as people imagined, but rather used extreme torture to break down the opponent's mental defenses, and then extract the desired intelligence.
Essentially, it was similar to interrogation methods used by modern spy agencies.
If one was lucky, they might obtain the information they desired.
If they were unlucky, the opponent might spout gibberish with no value.
However, the Residual Shadow Soul Searching technique was like nuclear deterrence. Even though everyone knew that no one dared to use it casually, as long as it existed, it was more effective than anything else.
Grass Ghost Granny was clearly intimidated.
She had already begun to cooperate willingly.
"Actually, this matter is a long story. The reason I said I didn't know about the Suo Ming Gu (Lock Life Gu) was not intentional concealment, but because these three words are a taboo in our Sheng Miao Black Witch region!"
Grass Ghost Granny sighed deeply and said.
"Our Black Witches have raised and used Gu for generations, how could we not have heard of such a legendary top-tier Gu worm? But for so many years, no one has truly seen it, at most only in ancient texts."
"A hundred years ago, someone also attempted to cultivate this Gu worm. But how could such a heaven-defying Gu worm be cultivated so easily? In the end, that person cultivated a monstrosity that devoured him completely and injured many people in the village before he was jointly eliminated."
"This shows that the Suo Ming Gu cannot be cultivated by human effort at all. It is highly likely that this Gu was born naturally, with only a few in existence. Having been exhausted a thousand years ago, it has long since vanished into the river of history."
"This is also the consensus of everyone in our Zuwu Sect."
"Since then, no one in the entire Zuwu Sect has ever mentioned this matter again."
"But our silence does not mean outsiders would also remain silent. This heaven-defying Gu worm, possessing extreme allure, ultimately brought disaster upon our Zuwu Sect."
"That was about ten years ago..."
Grass Ghost Granny's eyes gazed into the distance, seemingly lost in memory.
There was also a hint of shame and pain in her eyes, clearly indicating that this memory still left her with lingering fear.
"At that time, someone, just like you, was inquiring about the Suo Ming Gu. However, they were much more aggressive. They directly found our Zuwu Sect's Great Shaman and ordered him to hand over the Suo Ming Gu within a day, otherwise they would flatten the entire Zuwu Sect."
"Our Great Shaman naturally refused, stating on one hand that the Zuwu Sect had no such thing as the Suo Ming Gu and that it had long been lost; on the other hand, he warned that if the other party persisted, the Zuwu Sect would not be merciful."
"At that time, our entire sect had very little contact with outsiders and still operated under the belief that our witchcraft and Gu were invincible. We instinctively believed that by activating our Gu worms, we could make these outsiders cry for their parents and flee in panic."
"An elder in the sect, skilled in using Gu, had just stepped forward to show these outsiders some color. But before the Gu worm could be summoned, there was a 'bang,' and the entire ground and walls shook."
"Then, we saw that the elder's head and more than half of his upper body had vanished! On the wall behind him were splatters of bone fragments and blood!"
"This scene instantly terrified many of us. We had no idea what had happened."
"Until the other party told us that it was called an anti-materiel sniper rifle, usually used against tanks. Today, it was used against us, showing us great respect. And they had not just set up one sniper rifle, but more than ten!"
"This means that all the core figures of our Zuwu Sect were within the range of the sniper rifles! All of them could have vanished, head and body, just like that elder!"
"For the first time, we felt fear, and for the first time, we felt the threat posed by external technological advancements!"
"Then, the other party seemed to feel that their demonstration was not enough, and showed us another weapon."
"That weapon was shouldered, and after pulling the trigger, it fired, instantly flattening several houses in the village!"
"And similarly, there was more than one such weapon. At that moment, we felt like we had arrived in hell. The entire village was engulfed in smoke and fire! Countless adults and children cried and fled, only to be thrown to the ground by the immense shockwave and turned into charred corpses."
"The entire village was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder and the foul odor of blood. That scene, I will never forget in my life!"
"After their performance, the other party took out a watch and placed it in our Great Shaman's hand. They said that when the countdown on the watch finished, the fate of the Zuwu Sect would be the same as those people outside the village."
"They also warned us: do not attempt to resist. If you dare to resist, they would not hesitate to wipe the entire Sheng Miao Black Witch region off the map of Dragon Country."
"That time, not just me, but the Great Shaman as well, we were truly terrified. For thousands of years, we had relied on Gu worms to resist the invasions of one dynasty after another, but in the end, we were defeated by modern technology!"
"That terrifying and immense destructive power made our Gu worms seem so weak and ridiculous!"
"In the end, the Great Shaman relented and revealed the whereabouts of the Suo Ming Gu."
"It was also the first time we learned that the Suo Ming Gu might indeed still exist in this world!"