In the room.
Right in front of Xie Shen, Deng Bin took out tools like fire tongs, tweezers, and small knives one by one from a hidden compartment in the wall behind him.
As he fiddled with the tools, he said to Xie Shen, "Oh, I forgot to mention: this place doesn't provide food or drink, so people here aren't just tortured—sometimes they starve or die of thirst... only to be revived and starved all over again."
After saying this, he eagerly watched for Xie Shen's reaction.
However, Xie Shen remained completely expressionless throughout Deng Bin's intimidation.
"Hmm?"
This made Deng Bin look at Xie Shen with newfound respect.
Letting out a light, puzzled sound, he couldn't help but praise, "Brother, your mental fortitude is truly impressive. I just wonder how long you'll hold up."
As he spoke, he raised the fire tongs in his hand and struck Xie Shen's chest with them.
Sizzle...
Instantly, the smell of scorched flesh filled the entire room.
A horrifying purplish-black wound appeared on Xie Shen's chest where the fire tongs had burned him.
"How was that?"
Deng Bin was quite pleased with the result.
A flash of madness reappeared in his eyes as he asked Xie Shen with a hint of excitement, "Are you willing to talk now?"
Yet, to Deng Bin's astonishment, even after suffering the burn, Xie Shen's expression remained unchanged.
It was as if...
"You don't feel any pain?"
Deng Bin's eyes widened.
He leaned closer to Xie Shen, narrowing the distance between them. "I can tell—you weren't faking it just now. You really don't feel any pain. How do you do that?"
"Heh..."
Xie Shen let out a light laugh but said nothing.
—After his death and rebirth, although he had lost all his cultivation, the strength of his soul was still comparable to that of a Nascent Soul stage cultivator.
This allowed him to shut off his five senses through sheer willpower alone.
So, as long as Xie Shen wished, he could remain immune to any physical pain... Mere physical torture was utterly ineffective against him.
"You..."
Xie Shen's ability to ignore pain left Deng Bin deeply shocked.
He grew agitated.
Even when facing the mechanical arm earlier, on the brink of being electrocuted to death, he hadn't been as worked up as he was now. "Can you teach me this?"
Without hesitation, Deng Bin knelt on the ground, his attitude utterly humble. "Please, I'm begging you! If you can teach me, I'll do anything!"
Xie Shen's ability to shut off his five senses through willpower was the result of centuries of arduous cultivation in the world of immortal cultivation, not some secret technique or method.
Thus, this ability couldn't be taught to others.
However, Xie Shen didn't outright reveal this.
Seizing the opportunity, he probed Deng Bin, "You're so eager to learn this technique of mine... I'm guessing it's because you'll be tortured just like me?"
"Yes."
To curry favor with Xie Shen, Deng Bin answered honestly. "The torture here rotates... Right now, it's my turn to torture you, but in ten or twenty years, it might be someone else's turn to torture me. Then, after another ten or twenty years, it'll be my turn to torture someone else, and it goes on like this forever, without end."
Xie Shen asked, puzzled, "But what's the purpose of all this?"
"I don't know."
Deng Bin responded eagerly. "All I know is that this place is called the 'Tower,' and everyone imprisoned in the 'Tower' has to endure this endless torture. The longest anyone has been held here, they say, is over two thousand years."
"Two thousand years?" Xie Shen gasped in shock. "Even if people here can be revived indefinitely, wouldn't they go insane after so long?"
Deng Bin said, "They do go insane, but once an insane person dies and is revived, they return to normal."
Good heavens.
Upon hearing this, Xie Shen found it even more unbelievable:
It seemed that the resurrection magic not only helped reconstruct the physical body but also refreshed the mental state of the revived person.
Under the effect of the resurrection spell, the revived person's consciousness remained clear—they couldn't go mad even if they wanted to.
And so, they would endure this endless torture...
It's often said that there is great terror between life and death.
But now, it seemed that for the prisoners in this 'Tower,' living was the true terror, while death was a luxury.
From this, it wasn't hard to see the immense appeal of Xie Shen's "ability to ignore pain" to Deng Bin.
No wonder this person's attitude had changed so quickly and why he answered every question Xie Shen asked truthfully.
Now that he had a means to control the other party, Xie Shen pressed further: "I have another question: If resurrecting someone requires knowing their name first, how did you resurrect me without knowing mine?"
"I used the exhaustive method."
Deng Bin explained. "To resurrect someone, you don't necessarily need to know their name... As long as you know their date of birth or life experiences to an unambiguous extent, you can use the geometric pattern on the ground to resurrect them."
He continued, "For example, when I resurrected you, the conditions I gave were: a male with the surname Xie, born on February 23, 1999, at 1:13 AM... If only one person with the surname Xie was born in that exact minute, then my conditions would be 'unambiguous,' and you could be resurrected, even if I'd never met you before."
"And if the resurrection failed, I'd try another surname, going through the entire list of common surnames one by one."
"After that, I'd change the time to 1:14 AM on February 23, 1999, and continue trying each surname again."
It had to be said.
Although Deng Bin's exhaustive method had a hint of the "foolish old man moving mountains" approach, it was indeed feasible.
With enough time and patience, it was possible to resurrect every human who had ever existed, from ancient times to the present.
In the room.
While Xie Shen and Deng Bin were talking, an electronic display on one of the walls suddenly lit up.
The screen showed a value of [53%].
Seeing this, Deng Bin grew tense. "No, I can't chat with you anymore... If the value on the screen drops below 50%, I'll be in trouble."
"What do you mean?" Xie Shen asked, confused.
Deng Bin didn't answer. Instead, he placed the fire tongs back into the hidden compartment in the room, reheated them, and struck Xie Shen once more.
Instantly, the value on the screen rose from [53%] to [54%].
"See?" Deng Bin explained. "As long as you're being tortured by me, the value on the screen increases... My task is to ensure the value on the screen stays above [50%]. If I fail, I'll be electrocuted to death by the mechanical arm, just like before."
Deng Bin thought for a moment and added, "To complete the task, I need to torture you for about 15 hours a day. For a normal person, enduring 15 hours of this is nearly impossible, so you'll likely be killed once a day."
"And then there's me."
"Since this place doesn't provide any food or drink, I have to kill myself every two days. Otherwise, the hunger and thirst become unbearable."
By this point in the conversation, Xie Shen's entire body was already severely burned by the fire tongs, leaving him almost unrecognizable.
A nauseating smell of scorched flesh soon filled the room.