Sin Becomes a God

Chapter 44: Boiling Myself Alive

Seeing Lu Renjia’s maniacal grin, the Russian holding the pressure cooker looked utterly bewildered and muttered to himself, “All he did was glance at my notes, right? Could he have gone crazy because he couldn’t activate the ‘Assassin’s Heart’?” As he spoke, the Russian set down the pressure cooker and reached out to feel Lu Renjia’s forehead. “He’s not running a fever…” Lu Renjia, still in the throes of ecstasy, rolled his eyes and swatted away the Russian’s hand from his forehead. “You’re the one who’s crazy—I’m perfectly fine… Damn it! I figured out how to awaken the ‘Assassin’s Heart’—it’s the third method in your notes…” The Russian’s mouth twitched, and he said in astonishment, “Uh… I think I’d better go find you some medicine…” Lu Renjia grabbed the Russian as he tried to turn and walk away. “I’m serious…” “I’m serious, too…” the Russian said with a wry smile. “What? Don’t you have confidence in your own theory?” Lu Renjia shrugged with a laugh. “You said yourself it’s just a theory… A theory means it’s still just a theory. I thought you’d choose the second method—I even put you in touch with a hypnosis expert, ready to take you back to your childhood in a dream. I never expected you’d pick the most far-fetched one… This is just something I came up with out of thin air; it’s never been proven…” the Russian said slowly. The Russian’s words startled Lu Renjia for a moment, and he immediately thought of the movie *Inception*. Although the other man meant well, Lu Renjia wouldn’t casually let anyone into his mind—after all, he was currently traveling in his physical body,and the “Evil God System” was his greatest secret. Even though he had inherited the memories woven into the identity the “Evil God System” had created for him, what if the other person delved into his childhood memories? Wouldn’t that give him away? “I’m not afraid—why should you be? Rest assured… the world is so wonderful; I wouldn’t risk my life on a whim… Besides, if I can’t obtain the ‘Assassin’s Heart’ and boost my strength within these thirty days, then all that awaits me upon returning to China is death anyway…”Lu Renjia said softly. According to the fabricated memories from the “Evil God System,” the organization he belonged to in China wasn’t exactly a bunch of saints either. As an exchange student, Lu Renjia had been designated as the heir apparent to the next leader, but to become the new leader, he would have to rely on his own strength to kill his rival. And Lu Renjia was using this very excuse to start spinning his tale. “It can’t be that bad, can it? Did your leader actually assign you mandatory tasks? With your talent, if you were in our ‘Brotherhood,’ Sloan would definitely treat you like a treasure…” the Russian joked. Lu Renjia put on an air of unspoken suffering and spoke slowly: “Once you’ve tasted the sweetness of power, who could ever let it go? Your ‘Brotherhood’ selects members primarily based on whether they have the potential to awaken the ‘Assassin’s Heart,’ but things are different on our side…I remember that when I was three years old, I was sold into the organization I belong to now… Two thousand forty-eight orphans were paired up in twos, training in martial arts together… eating together… sleeping together! Before long… we became close friends who could talk about anything… But when I turned five, I was faced with a choice: kill my partner, or be killed by my partner…” “We faced this dilemma every two years. And so… 2,048 became 1,024… then 1,024 was whittled down to 512… until I was the sole survivor… which means… I killed a total of eleven of my best friends! Although I hold the status of heir, to become the leader, I must eliminate the current leader… This is a rule that has been passed down in our organization for a thousand years… If I fail, then the leader of our organization can continue in office, and it will still take twenty-two years to train the next heir…” Having inherited the identity arranged by the “Evil God System,” Lu Renjia delivered these words with great conviction, but to the Russian, they sent a chill down his spine. “That… that’s just too cruel, isn’t it?” “Cruel? Hmph… This world is all about the survival of the fittest. Do you think a three-year-old child has a right to choose? Either be killed, or kill a companion they’ve lived with day and night for two years… So the trauma I suffered in my childhood was no less than Fox’s… The second approach you’re researching definitely won’t work… So the only path left for me is that third one you’ve been fantasizing about…” Lu Renjia said in a low voice. He sighed. He hadn’t expected the other man to have such a traumatic childhood. Just imagine how cruel it must be to kill your own best friend with your own hands—and to have to do it eleven times in a row. “All right… How can I help you? You’ve seen my notes—my reasoning is based on reverse engineering the limits of human free diving… This requires an extremely hot environment to raise the heart rate… The only environments like that are magma or boiling water… You’re not planning to jump into a volcano, are you?” “Get lost! If you want to die, a gun is the easiest way… I’m not masochistic enough to jump into a volcano. The martial art I’ve mastered is the ultimate in strength and yang energy; when I practice, I can release intense heat… That’s why I always need to find an open space whenever I train. And in your theory, doesn’t the human body rely on a hot environment to increase its heart rate? All we need to do is retain the heat released during my training… wouldn’t that create a hot environment I can tolerate?” Lu Renjia explained. Hearing Lu Renjia’s words, the Russian was initially taken aback, then muttered to himself, “I never imagined your Chinese martial arts could be so miraculous! In that case… your body’s heat tolerance must far exceed that of an ordinary person…” As he spoke, a look of excitement flashed in the Russian’s eyes. Unlike Fox, the Mechanic, the Butcher, and the Gunsmith, when the Russian’s “Assassin’s Heart” was activated, he gained analytical abilities fifteen times greater than those of an ordinary person—which is why he was more like a scholar. For a scholar, what could be more exciting than putting one’s own theories into practice? His mind raced. With fifteen times the analytical ability, the Russian immediately grasped Lu Renjia’s meaning. Looking at the pressure cooker in his hand, he laughed, “You must have drawn inspiration from this, right? Leave it to me… Are you ready to face the heat challenge, young man…? Hahaha, I’m confident that with your willpower, you should be able to withstand temperatures exceeding fifty degrees…” The next day, the Russian carried a rectangular iron plate—five centimeters thick and about two meters long, which he’d worked on all night—into the medical room when no one was around. A circular hole the size of a walnut had been drilled into the plate, and an aluminum tube was inserted into the hole. “Get in, kid… I’ve already blocked the inlet to this medicinal bath. Once you’re inside the tub, I’ll cover it with this iron plate and weld it shut… I imagine it’ll be much like a pressure cooker… There… once you’re in the water, you can breathe by holding this aluminum tube in your mouth… What do you think? Aren’t I a genius? Hahahaha…” Once the Russian shed his good-natured facade, he seemed to grow even more deranged. “Um… you’re not going to pour some poison into this tube while I’m breathing, right after the metal plate is welded shut, are you?” Lu Renjia feigned fear. The Russian, however, put on a stern face and snapped, “What do you take me for…? This is my life’s dream. If you can successfully trigger the ‘Assassin’s Heart,’ it’ll prove my theory is correct… At that point, I’ll be the first person in history to create an artificially manufactured ‘Assassin’s Heart’… That’s an honor that’ll go down in history… Are you in or out?” “Plop…” With a splash, Lu Renjia jumped into the herbal bath. The Russian hurriedly covered the entire bath with a rectangular iron plate, then fetched the tools he’d prepared in advance—a welding torch, an electric drill, and others—and welded the plate securely shut over the opening. With the aluminum tube in his mouth, Lu Renjia, sitting cross-legged, submerged himself completely to the bottom of the medicinal bath, which was over a meter deep. Once the opening was covered by the iron plate, the two-meter-square bath was plunged into total darkness. With the Yang Qiao Meridian and Yin Qiao Meridian now unblocked, Lu Renjia had reached the early stage of a first-rate martial artist. The *Nine Yang Divine Art* circulated through his body as smoothly as flowing clouds and water, and the vigorous Nine Yang True Qi seeped into the water through every pore. “Gurgle… gurgle… gurgle…” In an instant, driven by the supremely vigorous and yang-oriented Nine Yang True Qi, the temperature of the originally warm spring water began to rise steadily. The entire pool was now emitting a gentle steam. The Russian standing guard outside the pool had specifically attached a mercury thermometer to the metal plate; watching the numbers on the thermometer jump erratically, he grew extremely anxious. Water at fifty degrees is already hot enough to cause skin burns; if it reaches sixty degrees, it would constitute a seventh-degree burn. At this moment, the reading on the mercury thermometer was approaching fifty degrees. “Miraculous young man from China, can you work a miracle? Whether I go down in history depends on you… If you can hold out for ten seconds under the repairman’s storm of punches… I believe… I believe… you will surely awaken the ‘Assassin’s Heart’!” the Russian muttered to himself. At that moment, the mercury in the thermometer finally broke through forty-nine degrees and reached fifty degrees. Lu Renjia, submerged in the water, truly experienced what it meant to be in the depths of suffering. With the supremely vigorous and yang-oriented Nine Yang True Qi trapped in the water and unable to be released, Lu Renjia could feel exactly what Zhang Wuji must have felt in Jin Yong’s *The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber* when he was trapped inside the Qiankun Yiqui Bag. Either the surging Nine Yang True Qi would burst the “Qiankun Yiqi Bag,” or Zhang Wuji would be roasted alive by the uncontrollable, searing heat of the Nine Yang True Qi. Compared to Zhang Wuji’s accidental mishap, Lu Renjia was undoubtedly setting himself up for disaster. As time ticked by, with every exhalation through the aluminum tube, Lu Renjia’s breath resembled scorching steam. Watching the thick steam billowing from the aluminum tube and hearing the sound of a bellows being pumped, the Russian stared intently at the mercury thermometer. “It’s getting close… it’s almost sixty degrees… once it reaches sixty degrees, you’ll have exceeded the human body’s limit… just a little more… just a little more…” “Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump…” Submerged in the water, Lu Renjia could hear only the drum-like sound of his own heart, which was racing at over three hundred beats per minute. Blood surged through his veins like boiling water, and his skin turned a deep crimson. Soaked in the spring water infused with the Nine Yang True Qi, Lu Renjia—who felt as if he were in the midst of both water and fire—sensed that his previously blocked Yang Wei Meridian and Yin Wei Meridian were beginning to loosen. If these two meridians were unblocked, combined with the Yang Qiao Meridian and Yin Qiao Meridian he had broken through earlier during the repairman’s storm-like barrage of punches, he would have unblocked a total of four of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians. at which point he would enter the mid-stage of the first-tier martial artist realm—a level of cultivation identical to that of Feng Xifan in the film adaptation of *The Deer and the Cauldron*. “Faster… faster… give me faster…” Lu Renjia roared furiously as the Nine Yang True Qi he had accumulated over the past few days surged out of his body all at once. “Gurgle… gurgle… gurgle…” Bubbles began rising continuously from the spring water. The Russians standing guard outside were thrilled, as the thermometer pressed against the metal plate had already soared to seventy degrees. “Congratulations to the Qualified Candidate for whose heart has surpassed the limits of the human body. The Qualified One’s physical attributes: Internal Energy (mid-tier martial artist), Reflexes 40 (forty times that of an ordinary person), Strength 50 (fifty times that of an ordinary person), Speed 45 (forty-five times that of an ordinary person), Comprehension 3 (three times that of an ordinary person), Heart has surpassed human limits—has obtained the E+ skill ‘Heart of the Assassin’ (Mastery Level). Overall evaluation: E-tier martial artist.” When the icy voice of the “Evil God System” echoed in Lu Renjia’s mind, he—who had been in dire straits—was overcome with elation. “Damn… I really did make the right choice. I never expected that ‘Assassin’s Heart’ at the ‘Mastery’ level would actually be an E+ skill. So if I upgrade ‘Assassin’s Heart’ to the ‘Command’ level, doesn’t that mean I’ll get a D-level skill? I’ve really hit the jackpot…” Lu Renjia thought to himself, overjoyed.