Chapter 86: Ruthless Raymond

Chapter 86: 86: Ruthless Raymond

The Underground Black Site

The room was pitch black, thick with the coppery, suffocating stench of old and new blood. Sitting on the freezing cold floor was a middle-aged man, tightly blindfolded with his hands cuffed ruthlessly behind his back.

The tension in the air was strong and oppressive, a heavy, airless dread that seemed to press against the skin. He was wailing painfully while vomiting blood. He could feel his body acting as if it were being pierced by thousands of needles, the more he shouted, the more terrible the pain became.

"Where did you bring me! Let me out!" the man screamed at the top of his lungs, vomiting another mouthful of blood right away.

The heavy metal entrance door creaked open, and immediately, the sound of powerful, deliberate footsteps echoed in the hollow space. The unseen figure moved closer, heading toward a large steel worktable on the left side of the barren room.

"Who... who are you?" The man on the floor, hearing the footsteps, shivered violently, his heart starting to pound wildly.

There was a sudden pause in the footsteps, followed by a dark, low chuckle. "That’s a surprise. You are quite forgetful, Uncle. Have you forgotten me already?" Raymond’s voice echoed.

He clicked the overhead fluorescent light on and turned to the man on the floor.

"Ray... Raymond," Luke called in shock, his heart racing even faster. "What... what do you think you are doing?" he questioned, his voice revealing his fear.

Raymond moved closer to Luke and ripped the blindfold off, then he went back to sit on the steel folding chair in front of him.

Luke opened his eyes and stared around in horror. The floor beneath him was painted with fresh splatters of his own blood. On the metallic bench near the wall lay a meticulously arranged arsenal of torture instruments, bone saws with jagged teeth, rusted scalpels, heavy steel pliers stained with dark crimson, and iron branding rods.

On the floor beside the bench’s leg rested a massive, iron-headed sledgehammer. His heartbeat grew erratic upon seeing the horrifying display, and he finally turned his terrified gaze to Raymond, who was staring at him with eyes devoid of any human warmth.

"What... what do you think you are doing, Raymond? Come and release me right now!" he shouted, trying to look calm.

Raymond chuckled coldly. His smile darkened, and his gaze completely lacked its usual warmth. He looked terrifying now, the complete opposite of his usual gentle self. The murderous tension radiating from him was so thick it felt as though it was physically crushing Luke’s throat.

"It seems like you are not yet aware of the situation you are in right now," his voice carried the heavy traces of death. He stood up from the chair and moved closer to the steel table.

"If not for my Mum, you could have been long dead already. I have been trying to find a flaw of yours," he said, his fingers lightly trailing over the deadly implements on the bench. "But I couldn’t find any flaw. I knew someone powerful behind the scenes was giving you a hand, but I never expected it would be Halka Kim," he said, finally pausing his hand on a vicious cat-o’-nine-tails modified with sharp, triangular razor blades at the tips.

He held it, staring at the weapon with a dark expression on his face. "Today you delivered yourself to my door. You are very impatient to get what you deserve, and I admire that," he said, and turned to the shivering Luke.

Luke shook his head, instantly terrified when his gaze fell on the bladed whip Raymond was holding. "Let’s... let’s talk this out, Raymond. I... I was just joking. All that I have done was just a joke, I didn’t mean any real harm," he stuttered.

"A joke," Raymond laughed. "How funny. You almost killed me and my whole family. Or are you still thinking I’m not aware of the poisoned mirror you gifted my mother?" he said, his gaze turning colder.

Luke shivered violently. Even though the floor he was sitting on was freezing, cold sweat had already covered his face, and he was now breathing heavily as if he had just sprinted for miles.

"It... it wasn’t me, I didn’t do that," Luke denied. His face was extremely pale. With the horrified expression on his bloodless face, he now looked like a corpse. Perhaps the poison within him was circulating faster due to his frantically racing heart.

Raymond chuckled and violently raised the whip high into the air, then delivered it down onto Luke’s back with vicious force. The razor blades of the whip struck and sank deeply into Luke’s flesh, but Raymond didn’t show an ounce of mercy. He aggressively snatched the whip backward, making it tear through Luke’s skin and muscle like wet paper.

"Ahhhhhhhh! Puh!"

An agonizing scream escaped Luke’s mouth, and he vomited another mouthful of blood immediately. This time the blood was pitch black, no longer red—the ultimate proof that the poison had successfully taken full control over his body.

Raymond’s smile widened upon realizing he was poisoned. His smile turned even darker as he raised the whip again, delivering another brutal lash across his back.

Black blood started oozing out from Luke’s torn body. He looked like he could die at any minute, his breathing became ragged and heavy, and he started pleading.

"I... I’m sorry. I... I will never do that again. I was just being greedy for a while, I won’t ever do that again. I will never do anything like that again, please spare me," his voice was terribly weak, thick black blood trickling down to the floor from his mouth.

Raymond chuckled. "You expect me to let you go after you beg, isn’t it?" he asked, and Luke weakly nodded in response.

"Lucky you," Raymond continued, and walked back to the steel table, putting the bloody whip back in its exact spot.

Seeing Raymond return the whip, Luke breathed out a massive sigh of relief. His vision was becoming blurry as his tortured body finally relaxed.

"I promise I will...." he murmured, but he couldn’t finish his statement when he saw Raymond’s hand wrap around the handle of the huge sledgehammer resting on the left side of the bench. His relaxed body tensed up instantly in panic, and he desperately struggled to scoot backward across the bloody floor.

Raymond lifted the heavy iron hammer with terrifying ease and walked back to Luke.

"I’m not the type to accept apologies from my enemies," he completed his statement, lifting the massive hammer high into the air before smashing it violently down onto Luke’s legs.

CRACK!

"Ahhhh!"

Luke screamed at the top of his lungs, the sound perfectly harmonizing with the crunch of his shattered bones. He vomited mouthfuls of black blood twice in a row. His vision started turning black as his mind could no longer process the extreme, blinding agony.

He could feel his organs burning from the inside as if someone had set a roaring fire within his veins. Between the excruciating torment from his crushed legs and the lethal poison finally taking full effect, his system shut down entirely. He could no longer keep himself conscious and fainted.

Raymond dropped the heavy sledgehammer to the floor with a loud, metallic thud. He stared down at the broken man without a single trace of emotion on his face.

"Drag him away and cut off his tongue. Torture him slowly until he breathes his last," he ordered.

Two men walked in from the outside corridor and dragged Luke’s limp body away.