All the corpses were disposed of, and the main building returned to its usual appearance.

A dozen or so Headhunters, their wounds bandaged, knelt in a row facing Li Ziyu. Behind each of them stood a High Level Skeleton Warrior. At the slightest sign of trouble, the Skeleton Warriors’ swords would fall without hesitation.

Li Ziyu rested his chin on one hand, leaning back lazily in his chair as he looked down on the Headhunter captives. Liu Xingxing stood by his right side, and the two Catmen had also been summoned.

Having lost a great deal of blood and being heavily wounded, the pale-faced Headhunters had lost their former arrogance and defiance. However, the occasional glance they shot at Li Ziyu was still filled with vicious malice.

’A bunch of desperados,’ Li Ziyu inwardly appraised upon seeing their expressions.

The main hall was silent. After a long pause, Li Ziyu slowly sat up straight. "I shouldn’t have anything you need here. Why did you attack me?"

He wanted to confirm the suspicion in his heart, but the Headhunters clearly had no intention of cooperating. They all kept their mouths shut, not uttering a sound.

Seeing that the Headhunters wouldn’t speak, Liu Xingxing looked at Li Ziyu.

Li Ziyu waved his hand and said, "Randomly select one lucky soul to experience the punishments of the Undead Race."

The moment he finished speaking, a High Level Skeleton Warrior stepped forward, grabbed one of the kneeling Headhunters, and began dragging him outside. The Headhunter’s hoarse screams were useless as he was hauled away. Immediately after, everyone in the main building could hear his blood-curdling shrieks.

When the Skeleton Warrior dragged the Headhunter back in, his four limbs were gone. A Skeleton Undead entered the main hall, carelessly tossed a bundle of bones he was carrying onto the floor, and then turned and left.

Liu Xingxing’s pupils contracted as he stared at the fresh, blood-stained bones.

"B-Boss, isn’t this... inhuman?" Liu Xingxing whispered, unable to bear it.

He wouldn’t have said a thing if they had just killed the Headhunters. After all, they were enemies. There was no psychological burden in killing a foe. But torturing someone by cutting off their limbs... that was a line he couldn’t cross in his heart.

Li Ziyu shot him a sideways glance, his eyes so cold that Liu Xingxing instantly shut his mouth, not daring to say another word.

"Xingxing, you’re talking to me about being humane?"

"Where is there any humanity in this Otherworld? When they attacked me, did they show me any humanity? If I fell into their hands, would they have anesthetized me before they ate me, out of some sense of humanity?"

His voice was calm, almost devoid of emotion, yet his words carried a chill that pierced the heart. Liu Xingxing fell completely silent. He now understood why Li Ziyu had summoned him. It was to make him witness the fate of these men, or perhaps to warn him: if you’re not strong enough, you will be slaughtered at will, utterly powerless to resist.

After Liu Xingxing fell silent, Li Ziyu looked indifferently at the Headhunters below and asked again, "Is anyone going to talk?"

The Headhunters’ gazes shifted to their limbless clansman, then quickly away. They remained silent.

To them, having one’s limbs cut off was no big deal. It was something they did when they captured outsiders. They would string them up and, while their victims were fully conscious, hack off their limbs. The Headhunter Race believed that limbs taken from conscious prey tasted the best.

Not only that, but they would often flay their victims alive or just disembowel them on the spot.

To them, these acts were like a Human slaughtering a pig or a sheep—nothing to be afraid of, no psychological burden. They even found it a bit strange. ’What is this Undead Lord doing? Don’t tell me he eats people, too?’

It didn’t have the intended effect. ’These guys are tough,’ Li Ziyu thought, narrowing his eyes. He then recalled the information he had on the Headhunter Race. They were the Cannibal Race. A cruel punishment like dismemberment was probably something they had seen many times and were desensitized to.

Tch. ’This is getting troublesome.’

"Pick another lucky soul at random. It’s time for some... chiropractic adjustment," Li Ziyu said after a moment of thought.

This time, the Skeleton Warrior didn’t drag the man outside. Instead, it pulled him in front of the other Headhunters and began to press down on his body, slowly and seemingly gently.

But this gentle pressure made the Headhunter let out inhuman screams. At first, his cries were loud, enough to tear his throat raw. But as the Skeleton Warrior’s hands moved slowly down his body, the man could no longer scream. His mouth hung open, but no sound came out. The whites of his eyes rolled up, yet he was unable to pass out. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

What Li Ziyu called "chiropractic adjustment" was less about loosening bones and more about dismantling them. With the Undead’s familiarity with skeletons, they could easily disassemble every bone in a human body. Of course, the process was excruciatingly painful—a fate worse than death.

When the Undead’s hands had passed over the Headhunter’s entire body and released him, he collapsed to the ground like a pile of spoiled meat. His flesh sagged into a nauseating, unsightly heap. Every bone in his body had been disassembled; he now had no skeleton to support him.

The Skeleton Warrior glanced at the kneeling captives, then lightly made an incision in the boneless Headhunter’s upper arm. It pulled out an arm bone, then another. One by one, the bones were removed through the cut and assembled into a complete skeleton on the floor. And the Headhunter, with only his skull remaining inside him, was somehow still not dead.

Upon seeing this, Liu Xingxing turned his head and threw up. It wasn’t just him; even Li Ziyu’s face paled. He fought back the discomfort in his stomach and feigned composure. ’Pulling the bones out of a living person, one by one... just thinking about it hurts!’

The captives still didn’t react. Li Ziyu took a deep breath, suppressed his unease, and gritted his teeth. "Pick another lucky soul."

Another captive was dragged out, but this time, he struggled and shrieked, "I’ll talk! I’ll talk! Don’t touch me!"

*Phew.* ’Finally, one of them broke.’

Li Ziyu breathed a sigh of relief. He had genuinely been afraid that these guys were so tough they wouldn’t talk at all. That would have been a real problem.

Waving his hand for the Skeleton Warrior to release the man, Li Ziyu gestured for him to answer his question.

"The fortress! It’s because of your fortress!" The Headhunter glanced at his horrifically mutilated kinsman, felt the cold gazes upon him, and spoke without any more hesitation, his voice trembling.

They killed and ate people, but this kind of torture—pulling the bones out of a living person one by one without letting them die—was something he had never seen before. It was too terrifying. The thought of it being done to him was enough to make him break down.

"You’ve seen my fortress? Or have you seen something similar?" Li Ziyu leaned forward slightly, his words coming a little faster.

"We haven’t, but others have captured one. They gained a lot of benefits, and we wanted those benefits too." The Headhunter had given up. He had already started talking, so it didn’t matter if he said a little or a lot. He might as well say everything.

He already understood that he and his men weren’t going to live, but at least he could avoid being deboned alive before he died.

He would tell this Master of the Undead everything he knew, praying only for a quick death and no more torture.

Hearing this, Li Ziyu glanced at Liu Xingxing. He understood now. Some Desert Tribes must have captured a Transmigrator City Lord and gained a great deal of resources from it. That was what led the Headhunter Race to target him.