Chapter 390: The Place of Certain Death

Duan Rong emerged from that tea stall, paced away from the vicinity of the dungeon's front gate, and began to stroll along the market streets surrounding the dungeon, feigning leisure.

As he strolled, he had already released his Divine Sense, shrouding it toward the dungeon side.

In truth, merely looking from this spot, one could see that the dungeon's entrance was quite narrow, and inside, one could vaguely see bunkers standing in great numbers, which was enough to make one feel the danger of this place.

But when Duan Rong's Divine Sense penetrated the thick, high walls of the dungeon and probed the situation inside, he was still greatly shocked; he discovered that he had still underestimated the danger of this dungeon. This place was more than just dangerous; it was fundamentally a place of certain death from which there was no return.

The front gate of the dungeon was already very small and narrow, and after entering, it was still a funnel-shaped area; not only were there Arrow Towers on both sides, but the space overhead between the Arrow Towers and the front gate was also covered by a dense, overlapping net hung with barbs.

Within that funnel-shaped area, there stood two rows of soldiers in heavy armor holding shields. Their black, gleaming chainmail emitted a cold, dark light.

Inside the bunkers nearby, there were also many jailers wearing tight-fitting clothes. These people rested in batches and stood guard in turns, day and night without pause.

In the bunker, only one person was wearing casual clothes; this man was about forty years old and had a long, thin horse-face. He was currently sitting in front of a crude wooden table, on which were placed a dish of almonds and a dish of peanuts.

He sat on a long bench, one leg with a boot stepped on the bench, leaning his body to the side, eating almonds while drinking tea.

This person was clearly the boss near the dungeon's front gate, and Duan Rong's Divine Sense instantly penetrated his dantian.

It was the True Qi Realm First Stage!

Given this person's martial arts realm, coupled with the dangerous terrain of the front gate and those soldiers in heavy armor holding shields, if Shen Mizhi truly dared to raid the prison, she would likely not even be able to charge past this front gate checkpoint and would be finished right here.

It really is the Prefecture City's dungeon! Duan Rong sighed in his heart; he had originally anticipated the danger of this prefecture dungeon, but actually seeing the situation inside still gave him a start.

He stopped at a sugar-figure seller's stall by the street to buy a sugar figure, and while eating it, he continued his investigation.

As his Divine Sense delved further in, every single bunker could be called a checkpoint, and there was only one road for entering and exiting.

However, the several checkpoints further back no longer had True Qi Realm experts sitting in command.

Only after his Divine Sense passed through several checkpoints did he finally see the real prison cells; it was an area of low-lying buildings.

It was not like in movies or television dramas, where a dark building interior was partitioned into cell after cell with wooden bars.

It consisted of individual, small, low buildings, with three stone walls and one side of wooden bars, while the roofs were covered with barbs and iron nails.

These small prison cells were separated by narrow alleys only about a step or more wide, arranged like fish scales.

This area had a total of only forty prison cells, forming a square overall.

Ordinary prisoners were not locked up here at all; they were kept directly in the Surveillance Commissioner Office's prison. Those who could be locked in the Prefecture City dungeon were all major criminals involved in serious cases.

Around this prison cell area, there were also two bunkers and two Arrow Towers. Patrolling soldiers in heavy armor passed through the small alleys from time to time.

Duan Rong had originally intended to use his Divine Sense to check the forty prison cells one by one to find which cell Shen Yanliu was locked in.

But he suddenly discovered that at a certain alley entrance in that square area, there was actually a long bench placed, and a person was lying on that bench.

That person wore a felt hat on his head and was holding a black porcelain wine pot, pouring wine into his throat; he lay there with the brim of his felt hat covering his eyes.

Duan Rong's heart stirred. It was Xiong Yi!

He directly swept his Divine Sense over and focused it in the vicinity of Xiong Yi.

Duan Rong soon discovered that not far from there was a bunker, and beside the bunker entrance, a table was set up where four people were gathered playing mahjong.

Three were in jailer attire, and one was in casual clothes.

Duan Rong's Divine Sense then swept toward this person and penetrated his dantian.

It was another True Qi Realm First Stage realm.

In this square area, counting Xiong Yi and this person, there were actually two True Qi Realm experts sitting in command.

Moreover, there was another person at the dungeon's front gate, which meant that inside this Prefecture City dungeon, there were a full three True Qi Realm experts sitting in command.

For ordinary wanderers of the pugilistic world, this was already a dead zone!

To tell the truth, even for Duan Rong, going in and out of this place would cost him a layer of skin.

If he wanted to bring someone out, he could hardly guarantee whether the person brought out would be a living person or a corpse.

With so many Arrow Towers and arrows flying in chaos, he might be able to protect himself, but it would be difficult to attend to everything else.

Since Xiong Yi was here, Duan Rong could almost be certain that Shen Yanliu was indeed locked in some prison cell not far from Xiong Yi.

Duan Rong's Divine Sense then began to scan the prison cells near Xiong Yi.

He soon discovered Shen Yanliu.

Shen Yanliu wore prison clothes, his hair was disheveled, his face was deathly pale, and his hands and feet were both wearing heavy Iron Chains; he lay on a pile of hay and turned over, perhaps because of the pain, a dull groan escaping his throat.

He was covered in wounds, with bones dislocated in several places throughout his body; clearly, he had suffered extremely severe torture not long ago.

Duan Rong's Divine Sense condensed and penetrated Shen Yanliu's dantian. Just as he had expected, Shen Yanliu's dantian had already been destroyed.

Shen Yanliu himself was also a True Qi Realm expert; if his dantian had not been destroyed, those people would likely not have felt at ease locking him up here.

Those Iron Chains and prison cells were like paper to a True Qi Realm expert, existing in name only.

Duan Rong's Divine Sense scanned the few prison cells near Shen Yanliu again, because he was certain that the case involving Shen Yanliu was of great consequence and that he would definitely not have been the only one arrested.

Sure enough, in this area of prison cells, Duan Rong also discovered Tang Wanhong and Ma Chunmin.

Ma Chunmin was also in prison clothes, but she had not suffered much injury; it was just that her eyes were gray and defeated, like a corpse that had lost its soul.

In the prison cell diagonally opposite Shen Yanliu, Tang Wanhong was also covered in wounds; he lay prone beside the wooden bars, staring fixedly at Xiong Yi, who was lying on the long bench at the alley entrance not far away.

He truly had not expected that his accidental impulse on the street had actually landed him in a trap set for him by Prefecture Master Chen Xun.

When Shen Yanliu first arrived at this Ruyang Prefecture, because of his strong ability to handle affairs and his good relationship with his Colleagues, Prefecture Master Chen Xun had for a time held him in high regard.

But after only a year, Shen Yanliu began to develop his own power and cultivate his own wings.

He tampered with many criminal cases and even set up a Shen Garden outside the city; he used various threats and inducements against the Principals handling cases and the magistrates below, instructing them to fabricate unjust, false, and wrong cases, while he profited immensely from them.

Then, he used the profits to collect beauties and antiques to present to his superiors, paving the way for his further promotion.

Prefecture Master Chen Xun and Prefectural Administrator Yang Ji both began to gradually feel both wary and fearful of Shen Yanliu; more than half of the magistrates under Ruyang Prefecture had been recruited by Shen Yanliu, and he also had dealings with many officials in Shenyun Prefecture.

This person was so well-connected that after Chen Xun and Yang Ji discussed it, they decided to join forces to topple him; if they allowed him to keep tossing about for another two years, he would likely take both of their positions as Prefecture Master and Prefectural Administrator.

However, although Shen Yanliu had laid out a large operation and had many connections, his own tracks were the least clean, and there were simply too many dirty deeds he had handled; the key was to find the evidence.

After repeated planning, Chen Xun and Yang Ji soon locked onto Tang Wanhong.

As the vital point to bite down on to finish off Shen Yanliu, this choice could be called sharp-eyed!

However, how to take down Tang Wanhong was likewise not an easy task.

Chen Xun personally made arrangements and began to investigate everything Tang Wanhong did.

In fact, the trap involving Xiong Yi was not the first one he had set.

It was just that the previous two traps had both ended in failure, and Tang Wanhong had not taken the bait.

Chen Xun did not feel that this third trap was any more brilliant than the previous two.

That day, he had known one day in advance that Tang Wanhong was going to that shop to handle business.

Therefore, that peasant woman, that rascal, and even Xiong Yi, who was feigning sleep by the street, were all carefully designed by him.

That night, after he returned from the Ya Men, a secret agent came to tell him that Tang Wanhong had taken the bait; at that time, he only gave a faint smile.

Because, even if Tang Wanhong had not taken the bait this time, he would have continued to look for opportunities to set traps for him; he had always been very patient, and he had always been very skilled at these kinds of things—among the people he had dealt with, the one who lasted the longest had held out until the sixth trap.

He actually quite hoped to see someone break that record.

To be able to sit as the Prefecture Master of Ruyang Prefecture, he did not know how many people's corpses he had stepped on to climb up.

Shen Yanliu had ability and ambition, but he was a bit ignorant of when to advance or retreat and thought too highly of himself. If he could be like Yang Ji and follow him wholeheartedly, then whenever he moved up a step, he would also let him move up a step.

But if he wanted to step on his head, then he could only send him on his way.

Duan Rong strolled around the streets surrounding the Prefecture City Dungeon, ate a sugar figurine and an Ice Sugar Gourd, and had already seen the inside and outside of the dungeon thoroughly.

After this stroll, he reached a conclusion: even a powerhouse at the True Qi Realm Great Perfection like himself would find it very difficult to bring a prisoner out of the dungeon alive.

This dungeon could be called a place of certain death with no way out!

After Duan Rong left the dungeon, he walked slowly to a teahouse not far from the Prefecture Government Office.

At a seat by the window on the second floor, after ordering a pot of clear tea and a plate of melon seeds, Duan Rong sipped the clear tea and looked out the window.

Not far away was the main gate of the Prefecture Government Office, towering and imposing.

Since that Xiong Yi could guard Shen Yanliu inside the Prefecture City Dungeon, this point alone was enough to show that the person in charge of the Shen Yanliu case was undoubtedly the Ruyang Prefecture Prefecture Master, Chen Xun.

Duan Rong sat there cracking melon seeds, and his Divine Sense suddenly released, enveloping the Prefecture Government Office.

He quickly locked onto Chen Xun, but Chen Xun was busy with various official duties all day, as if the Shen Yanliu case had nothing to do with him at all.

However, Duan Rong was not in a hurry; while monitoring Chen Xun with his Divine Sense, he cracked melon seeds. In this teahouse, unlike near the dungeon, it was not easy to attract other people's attention. In a teahouse, there were plenty of people who would just order a pot of clear tea and sit for the whole day.

Seeing that it was night, the teahouse was closing.

Duan Rong was one of the last few customers to leave.

He sighed; having guarded here for so long and filled his stomach with clear water, he had actually not obtained a single piece of useful information from Chen Xun.

Duan Rong paced to a wonton stall at an alley entrance not far from the teahouse, intending to eat a bowl of wontons before heading back.

The stall owner brought over the steaming wontons; Duan Rong poured a spoonful of chili oil, slurped, and swallowed one, broth and all.

Just as he swallowed it, Duan Rong coughed, as if he had choked.

He had originally planned to go back after finishing this bowl of wontons, but just as he swallowed the first bite, two people suddenly arrived at Chen Xun's study to see him.

These two did not even come together; one came from the left corridor, and one came from the right corridor.

But they seemed to have no qualms about it and walked into Chen Xun's study together.

And Duan Rong immediately recognized one of them, who had a slender build; it was precisely because he recognized this person that he had almost choked.

This person was the one he had followed when he trailed Xiong Yi out in the middle of the night at Shen Garden, and who had met with Xiong Yi in front of the Mountain God Temple by the Official Road.

Upon seeing this person, Duan Rong immediately shouted to the owner of the wonton stall: "Boss, these wontons of yours taste good; give me another bowl."

"Coming right up!" The boss wiped his hands on his apron and responded happily.

Duan Rong did not really want to eat wontons; to tell the truth, the taste of these wontons was truly average. Any random stall on the streets of Xiangu County made them better than this.

However, since that slender person had appeared, it meant Chen Xun and the others were going to talk about Shen Yanliu's matter; he was just finding an excuse to stay at the wonton stall for a while longer so he could listen in carefully.

That slender person was named Li Hong, a guest whom Chen Xun valued quite highly, and the other person who entered with him was the Ruyang Prefecture Prefectural Administrator, Yang Ji.

At the doorway, Li Hong had already bowed to Yang Ji.

When they entered, both wanted to bow to Chen Xun, but Chen Xun raised his hand with a weary look in his eyes, stopping them.

The two understood and each took a seat.

As soon as Li Hong sat down, he looked at Chen Xun and said: "Prefecture Master, I have already gone to investigate the situation in Zhengze Prefecture; Shen Mizhi left without saying goodbye halfway through handling the case."

Chen Xun did not speak, only taking a sip of ginseng tea.

Yang Ji said: "This was expected. With such a major event happening in her family, how could she have the heart to handle someone else's case? It is just that the matters Shen Yanliu committed all occurred since he was promoted to Censor, and for these three years, Shen Mizhi has been inside Changliu Mountain and has had almost no contact with the outside world. The case really cannot implicate her; otherwise, we could just directly ask for collective punishment and save the trouble."

Chen Xun said: "One must still pull out the roots when cutting the weeds; otherwise, it will be a disaster sooner or later!"

Li Hong's eyes flickered, and he said: "Her father is locked in the dungeon; I don't believe she can just watch and do nothing."

Yang Ji said: "The dungeon is not the time to make a move; in my opinion, the execution ground is the key."

Chen Xun glanced at Yang Ji.

Both noticed Chen Xun's look; although it was a very faint glance, they were both people who had followed Chen Xun for a long time and were very familiar with his temperament, knowing that it meant Chen Xun agreed with Yang Ji's opinion.

Li Hong said: "The defense at the execution ground cannot be as impregnable as the dungeon."

Yang Ji said: "Moreover, if it were just Shen Mizhi alone, she would not be worth fearing, but I fear she might gather a group of people. If that were the case, it would truly be a bit troublesome..."

Chen Xun said: "Then we cannot give her time to gather people."

As Chen Xun spoke, he stood up and paced back and forth in the room; he suddenly looked at Yang Ji and said: "Official Yang, I think I must trouble you to make a trip to Shenyun Prefecture yourself. Pull some strings and ensure that the official documents for the review of this case are approved within ten days."

(End of chapter)