The food that the mussel smelled was one of its favorite grilled meat . Tempted by the sweet smell, it could not help but open its sh.e.l.ls . Unfortunately, what came before its eyes was not food, but boiling oil .

It could not hide from the tempting smell the first time . The boiling oil slipped through its sh.e.l.l's opening and burned its flesh . Luckily, it had closed its sh.e.l.ls quickly enough to avoid even greater disasters . Unavoidably, some parts of its soft, supple skin were burned . There were many blisters scattered on its body . Even the slightest movement came as a pain to it .

The mussel had never encountered such brutal torments throughout its whole life . Every second was torture . It started to hope for death .  

It then heard a voice, as cold as ice . "Do you still refuse to confess to your crime?"

Confess? The mussel would never confess . It felt utterly wronged as though living the tragedy of the innocent Dou E [1] . It only wanted to hunt for a musk deer and make a feast for its master . Fond of good food, it ended up hunting more musk deers for its own indulgence . That was when it fell into the ambus.h.!.+

There were three Senior Immortals who wanted to hunt the mussel . They accused it as the mastermind behind the recent ma.s.sacre of the majestic beings . The mussel was not afraid to fight the Senior Immortals to show them its strength, but before it made any move, it was overwhelmed with fear from a foreboding threat .

The mussel was sensitive enough to notice the threatening, ominous aura . It was so strong that it made its sh.e.l.ls tremble . Instinctively, it knew that it was a sign of danger, so it abandoned the fight and quickly ran away .

The three Senior Immortals continued to chase after it; the more the mussel tried to run, the grumpier and hungrier it felt . It could barely stay focused anymore . Hence, the mussel turned around and fought the Senior Immortals head-on . It took advantage of its animal disposition and swallowed them alive . The incident greatly impinged on its consciousness . It sobered up quickly and trembled in fear, knowing that it had swallowed the three Senior Immortals .

Its master had clearly warned that it was not allowed to eat any human being . This was much worse because it swallowed three Senior Immortals alive . It had just got itself into big trouble . When it was still dazed by the trouble that it had just made, another three majestic beings showed up . They were there to seek revenge for their masters .

They verbally abused the mussel by calling it as the sc.u.m of the community . Being greatly impetuous, it began to fight the three majestic beings and ended up swallowing them, too . While it was eating the majestic beings, the four Great Guardians came unexpectedly and witnessed the scene .

The four Great Guardians had great strength, each equivalent to the spiritual power of a Mighty Immortal . The mussel was no match for them, so it was soon defeated and captured .

When it was caught, it was kept in a gla.s.s bottle . The interior of the gla.s.s bottle was very refres.h.i.+ng and comfortable at first . When it finally calmed down, it realized that it had made a huge mistake .

If they only wanted it to make an apology, it would not oppose the idea . Instead, the four Great Guardians accused it as the killer of the recent ma.s.sacre of the majestic beings, claiming that it had committed all sorts of wickedness . It was blamed for the death of the 18 majestic beings, plus the three Senior Immortals . The mussel refused to admit to the accusations . It only confessed to what it had done .

One of the Great Guardians then proceeded to punish the mussel . He got it out from the gla.s.s bottle and tried to inflict pain on the mussel with thunderbolts, swords, and even fire . The torment was to no avail, for the mussel had a high level of cultivation . The simple punishments did not harm it at all .

In the end, one of the Great Guardians, who wore a red robe, offered his bottle gourd . That marked the beginning of the mussel's purgatory suffering . The inside of the bottle gourd was really strange . The mussel was not only physically tortured but also starved . It was completely famished only after a day, so hungry that it wanted to eat its own flesh .

After two days, it started to suffer from blackouts due to the immense hunger .