Chapter 10: 9-story Tower Prison
The old man laughed loudly, with a sly look in his eyes: "Haha, that's a place to make people regret. Let's go!"
Then, everyone left in a hurry, leaving only a circle of silence. On the small building, there were a few rustling sounds.
"Hey! Honey, is there anything unusual in the village tonight?"
"There's nothing unusual. Everything is the same as usual." The young woman's voice was full of teasing and affection, as if she was teasing those who had been forgotten.
"Hey!" The old man grinned, "Okay, I'll talk less and do more. Is that okay?"
"Grandpa, you are so nice!" The young woman's tone was full of tenderness, as if she was cherishing this rare warm moment.
"Hehe!" The old man's laughter still echoed in the small building, full of satisfaction and pride.
At this time, downstairs, Elder Zhan Tai's face was solemn, his eyes flashing with sharp light. He glanced at the small building, sighed secretly, and quickly disappeared into the dark night.
Gradually, Shangguan Jiannan's consciousness became blurred, his pain gradually faded, and his physical fatigue made him fall into a deep sleep.
In his dream, he was surrounded by flames, and his heart was filled with fear and helplessness. His dream was like an endless nightmare, and the light of the raging fire surrounded him tightly, like a trapped beast with nowhere to escape.
Finally, he was awakened. The firelight faded, and the surrounding darkness was filled with a suffocating sense of oppression.
He opened his heavy eyelids powerlessly and found himself in an incredible place. The air here was filled with a pungent smell of burning, and the walls around were full of black burn marks and cracks, like a hell burned by fire.
Shangguan Jiannan's expression suddenly became solemn, as if he was facing not a mountain, but the abyss of hell. "Hanying Peak, ah, Hanying Peak, this hellhole of yours is really awful!" he muttered.
The light coming through the bowl-sized hole in the small door gradually disappeared, as if swallowed by the darkness.
Shangguan Jiannan knew that the long and deep night had arrived.
He had slept too much during the day, and now he couldn't close his eyes no matter what. In this lonely wilderness, he felt so lonely that he wanted to shout.
"How should I spend this long night?" Shangguan Jiannan thought in distress. Just as he was staring with his eyes wide open and feeling upset, suddenly, a miracle happened.
He seemed to hear a strange sound of footsteps, which were like ghosts, coming and going, up and down, clear and blurry.
Shangguan Jiannan felt a glimmer of hope: "Could it be that there is someone else imprisoned in this underground nine-story tower prison?"
He tried to move his body, and strangely, he found that the pain in his body was relieved a lot. So he struggled to stand up.
When he barely moved to the foot of the wall and his hands touched the cold iron wall, his heart sank.
But then he laughed again: "Humph, what does it matter if it's iron or steel? I'm not planning to run away. I just want to talk to that person."
He shouted towards the hole above the iron wall: "Hey! Who are you? Can you talk to me?"
The only response he got was the empty silence and his own echo. Shangguan Jiannan was a little disappointed. He slapped the iron wall so hard that his hands hurt. Then he stopped and listened attentively.
At this moment, he was pleasantly surprised to find a low voice coming from the iron wall: "Who are you, friend?" The voice seemed to come from underground, from the next level of the tower prison.
Shangguan Jiannan excitedly punched the iron wall three more times, then stopped and listened carefully. That's right, the other party heard his voice!
He heard a thin and old voice coming from underground: "Friend, who are you?"
Shangguan Jiannan was stunned, and a faint hope rose in his heart. He shouted loudly: "It's me, old man, Shangguan Jiannan."
The voice sounded again, still with that old tone: "Friend, due to the iron wall between us, you have already answered my question, but I can't hear it at all."
The old man's voice came again: "Friend, is there a small hole in the room you live in? If there is, please don't face the hole opposite, try facing the corner!"
Shangguan Jiannan relied on his memory to find the small hole that once let in a glimmer of light. So he turned around, walked along the wall to the opposite wall, leaned down, and shouted to the corner: "Old man, my name is Shangguan Jiannan, can you hear me?"
"Bitch"? Why did you choose such a vulgar name?
"Hey, old man, don't be so vulgar. My name is Shangguan Jiannan, with the surname Shangguan, Jian as in sword, and Nan as in southern sky! I am not the 'scumbag' you are talking about!"
"Excuse me! Excuse me! Hehe. Little brother, how old are you this year?"
"Ten years old, old man!"
"So, I heard that you are just an ordinary mortal, why are you imprisoned in this nine-story tower prison?"
"This matter is still a little complicated..."
"Hey, take your time."
"Yesterday, I was so hungry that my stomach growled. I wanted to go to the village to get something to eat, but I ran into a scarred servant. He slapped me. Then, a middle-aged man in a long gown walked out of the village."
"What's that person's name?"
"They all called him 'Elder' and treated him with great respect. He was quite nice. He took me into the village, gave me some food, and let me stay in the woodshed. He said the peak master was not in."
"The Peak Master is not here?"
"Yes! He was not there when I came. But he came back last night."
"The Peak Master has returned?"
"correct."
"Where did the Peak Master go?"
"do not know."
"Go on, child."
"He said that the peak master was not here and he could make the decision himself, and told me not to run around at night. I couldn't sleep at the time, so I wandered to a small building, and suddenly I found..."
"Go on, kid."
"Uncle, I really can't go on!"
"Who lives upstairs?"
"The peak master calls her 'baby'. She is a young woman with charm."
"Ah, I see. You found a man upstairs, and that man was not the peak master you met later, right, kid?"
"Old man, how do you know?"
"Don't ask, kid. Just keep talking."
"Later, the peak master came back. He found me before going upstairs, interrogated me, and asked me if I was willing to stay. I said no, so he dealt with me according to the village rules."
"The head of Hanying Peak always keeps his word. Since he has made up his mind to kill you, who would save your life and send you here?"
"It was that young woman's idea."
"Uh...why did she save you? Did you save her first?"
"I don't know. I had no hope of survival, so I thought I'd have a good vent, and then I was a little soft-hearted, and I ended up getting tortured... Ouch!"
"Kid, what's wrong?"
"I haven't eaten for a day, and now my body hurts so badly!"
"They didn't bring you food?"
"I did, but I was in so much pain that I couldn't even stand up!"
"Weren't you able to walk just now?"
"Hehe, because I heard your footsteps, I was so excited that I forgot the pain temporarily."
"Well, kid, we'll have many more opportunities to talk. That's enough for tonight. By the way, how about I teach you a way to relieve the pain?"
"Okay, thank you, old man!"