Li Shuang looked at the little girl.
The little girl smiled and said, "You are a smart person, and I assume you've already figured it out. Yi Lan is indeed one of us. And we did, at first, intend to scheme against you."
"Now that I think about it, you probably saw through our little tricks a long time ago."
"Li, you haven't suffered any harm, so why don't we shake hands and make peace? If you're truly unhappy, I can personally kill Yi Lan to entertain you, how about that?"
She had the appearance of a child, yet her eyes held a hint of extreme cruelty.
Li Shuang looked at the little girl and suddenly smiled, "Alright."
The little girl was stunned for a moment.
"Aren't you going to kill Yi Lan yourself?" Li Shuang looked at her with a smile, "Go ahead."
The little girl's eyes flickered.
Li's reaction was somewhat unexpected.
She was about to say something.
The skin-covered skeleton lazily spoke, "The last dish has been waiting too long. Everyone, dinner is served."
The skin-covered skeleton waved its hand, the ice melted, and Yi Lan was freed.
She looked at Li Shuang, still somewhat shaken. Li Shuang hadn't even moved, just a glance, and she had been frozen into an ice sculpture.
If the skin-covered skeleton had waited a little longer, she would have been completely frozen into ice shards.
Although she barely clung to life now, her soul felt as if it was being continuously pierced by thousands of ice thorns, without needing Li Shuang to act a second time.
If she didn't find a way out, at most in a short while, she would still be unable to escape the fate of her soul scattering!
"Senior." Yi Lan walked to the little girl's side, a hint of pleading in her voice.
The little girl turned her head away, pretending not to see.
Yi Lan gritted her teeth, a trace of despair flashing in her eyes.
Li Shuang glanced at Yi Lan indifferently, not doing anything for now.
"The eighth dish, making a grand entrance." The skin-covered skeleton's voice suddenly became excited.
The last dish was pushed in front of the four of them.
This last dish was a huge platter.
It was also the only one of the initial eight dishes that was covered.
"Now, let me announce what this eighth dish truly is!" The skin-covered skeleton suddenly lifted the lid.
Li Shuang looked over with some curiosity.
However.
Under the lid, it was completely empty, nothing at all!
No, that's not right!
Li Shuang composed herself.
On the originally empty plate, a line of bloodstains suddenly appeared.
"A pair of hands!"
"A heart!"
"A pair of eyes!"
"A body of blood!"
The skin-covered skeleton looked at the four of them, then revealed a malicious smile, "Oh, this time, the dish seems to be quite bloody."
Li Shuang was puzzled, but the faces of the other three had already turned completely grim.
The little girl whispered, "This last dish will randomly display some blood-written words. As long as you place the items requested by the blood-written words on this plate, the last dish is considered complete. After that, you can freely choose to leave or stay."
To place the items requested by the blood-written words on the plate?
Li Shuang narrowed her eyes.
A pair of hands. A heart. A pair of eyes. A body of blood.
Among these, hands and eyes were relatively easy to deal with.
With the abilities of cultivators, it wasn't difficult to restore them.
However.
If the hands and eyes had cultivated some special secret techniques, abandoning them now would likely mean abandoning the cultivation method as well.
A body of blood.
If one gave up all their blood, as long as they supplemented it with blood-generating elixirs, although they would be severely injured, it shouldn't be fatal.
Only the option of a heart seemed somewhat troublesome.
Cultivators cultivate their Dantian and Sea of Consciousness, so the heart might seem insignificant.
But in reality.
This heart connects to the Sea of Consciousness above and the Dantian below, being the source of all energy.
If one lost a heart…
Perhaps by using certain secret techniques, it might not be impossible to survive.
But a heartless person would henceforth only be a walking corpse, forever estranged from the Grand Dao.
"I didn't kill Yi Lan immediately before for this very moment." The little girl offered a gesture of goodwill, "Take her hands, eyes, heart, and blood and place them on the plate, and the three of us can leave unharmed."
"Senior!" Yi Lan's heart skipped a beat, and her eyes held a hint of pleading as she looked at the little girl.
The little girl's expression was cold, "Your soul is severely damaged, and you won't live much longer anyway. Instead of dying in vain, why not make some contribution to us?"
Yi Lan's face instantly turned pale, and she wanted to resist.
But as soon as she remembered the little girl's true identity, she instantly lost all her strength.
In her mind.
Images of cultivators she had brought to the Gluttony Hell and personally sent to their deaths flashed before her eyes.
Their eyes before death were either venomous, incredulous, or extremely terrified.
Now… was it finally her turn?
Yi Lan was in despair.
Suddenly.
A sharp pain struck.
She lowered her head, somewhat bewildered.
The Meat Mountain acted personally, and in just an instant, her hands were severed.
The Meat Mountain placed her hands on the plate.
The three blood-written words "A pair of hands" slowly disappeared from the bottom of the plate.
"Dig out her eyes." The little girl said expressionlessly.
The Meat Mountain raised its hand and fiercely stabbed towards Yi Lan's eyes.
On the scene, Yi Lan's earth-shattering cries of pain echoed.
Li Shuang stood by, watching coldly.
This Yi Lan was definitely a person whose death was not to be regretted.
But the Meat Mountain and the little girl were no good either.
She was merely weighing in her mind.
What exactly was the little girl's identity?
Did she truly have the confidence to keep them all here?
As Li Shuang pondered.
Yi Lan had already been drained of all her blood.
As soon as the fresh blood touched the plate, it instantly merged into it, leaving no trace.
"A body of blood."
But at the bottom of the plate, these four words slowly disappeared.
Now, only the last three words remained.
"A heart."
"Meat Mountain, what are you waiting for?" The little girl's voice rang out.
"Yes." The Meat Mountain's hand transformed into sharp claws and fiercely plunged into Yi Lan's body.
At this very moment.
Li Shuang suddenly felt a pang in her heart.
She abruptly moved aside.
The next moment.
The Meat Mountain's hand extended from where she had just been.
If she hadn't dodged, the one whose heart was taken would probably have been her!
Li Shuang looked back.
Yi Lan, unable to withstand the continuous injuries, had completely lost her breath by now.
In front of Yi Lan's corpse, another Meat Mountain stood.
And now.
The figure of that Meat Mountain slowly faded until it disappeared.
That Meat Mountain… was just an illusion.
Its true body had long been lurking beside her, ready to launch an attack at any moment.
"Act." The little girl's cold voice rang out, "The Supreme Ice Spirit Root is still nascent. If we dig out this spirit root now, there's still time to transplant it. This Ice Spirit Root is mine!"
As the little girl's voice fell, her body suddenly grew larger, transforming into a young woman in the blink of an eye.
Her aura also surged, finally settling at the peak of the Soul Transformation stage.