Chapter 207

The facts were indeed so.

Just in that terrifying pain torture that lasted for more than half an hour, Gao De's thoughts became clearer than ever before.

He suddenly understood many things.

First, his opposition to Kunxi Ese actually existed after He Xi's death, regardless of how he chose.

Regardless of whether the rune constructs existed, they were the legacy He Xi left to him.

Such precious things, since Kunxi Ese chose to snatch them by force, he wouldn't harbor any fluke, thinking that Gao De wouldn't dare to hold a grudge against him.

Especially after Gao De had already revealed his talent.

If you have a grudge against a person with such talent, what would you do? The answer is obvious.

Therefore, even if he cooperated with Kunxi Ese and handed over the things stored in the Saint Xi En City branch of the Aokenli Chamber of Commerce that He Xi urged him to keep secret, the final outcome wouldn't be much different from the current one.

And the person in front of him who was clearly sent by Kunxi Ese undoubtedly proved this point further.

Being able to use "extorting a confession by torture" on him without any hesitation, Kunxi Ese's attitude toward him was very clear.

From beginning to end, he never intended to let him go, which was why he didn't care about offending him to death.

Secondly, the academy was actually no longer suitable for him.

What he needed was just that systematic basic knowledge.

And under the credit competition of the first academic year of the academy, he had actually mastered all the basic knowledge that a magic user needed to possess.

Learning step by step further was not the path suitable for him.

With the Fengling Yueying, he was suitable for a broader and freer world.

Also, since he chose 【Qingmu Changsheng Jing】, it was destined that he couldn't stay in the academy for long.

Not to mention that there was no piece of land in the academy large enough for him to "plant trees."

Just looking at the rotten situation inside the academy, planting trees in the academy was undoubtedly equivalent to handing the handle to others with his own hands.

"As long as I can escape this prison disaster, I should leave the academy," Gao De had a rough plan for his future arrangements.

But the point was, how to escape the current prison disaster? While Gao De was thinking, the figure under the hooded robe was also thinking.

Was his spell malfunctioning, or was there really someone whose nerves could be thick enough to ignore the torture of 【Agonizing Pain】?

"Haven't you eaten? Continue!" Seeing that the figure stopped casting spells, Gao De bared his teeth, revealing a winner's smile.

The figure with a dark face snorted coldly and turned to leave.

Since he knew 【Agonizing Pain】 was useless against Gao De, if he continued, it would be a waste of effort, not to mention it would fuel Gao De's "arrogance" for nothing.

With the departure of that figure, the dungeon returned to dead silence.

Gao De's legs went soft, and he sat on the ground, panting heavily.

It was true that later on, after his pain tolerance increased to a high enough level, he could almost be immune to 【Agonizing Pain】.

But in the first ten minutes, that pain was something Gao De endured hard with willpower.

To say he wasn't even panting was impossible.

In the top floor of the magic tower, Sairisi Academy Dean Xie Er En sat indifferently on a Green Scale wooden chair.

"Uncle Xie Er," below, Jielika saluted.

Xie Er En's wife came from the Haynes family behind Jielika; more accurately, she was Jielika's aunt.

So she called Xie Er En uncle.

"Jielika, why are you here? Do you have something for me?" Xie Er En asked gently.

In front of the younger generation, he seemed very approachable.

"My friend was taken away by the academy this evening. I want to ask about the specific situation. Did he commit any crime?"

"Oh?" Xie Er En raised his eyebrows in surprise; he really didn't know about this matter.

"What is your friend's name?" he asked back.

"Gao De," Jielika replied.

Gao De sounded a bit familiar.

Thinking for a moment, Xie Er En's excellent memory allowed him to remember who Gao De was.

"Wait a moment, let me ask about the situation. There are many things in the academy, not all of which will go through my approval," he maintained the gentleness on his face and said softly.

After a while, a magic user knocked on the door and walked in, walking to Xie Er En's side to report the situation in a low voice.

Xie Er nodded, dismissed him, and smiled at Jielika: "It was the vice-chairman who brought him back; the reason is that he is suspected of deliberately destroying important academy facilities."

"This is not a small crime; if it is confirmed, he will have to sit in jail for several years."

"How could that be?" Jielika frowned and asked: "What academy facility did he destroy?"

"They said it was the rune workshop."

"Uncle Xie Er, please be sure to investigate this matter clearly. I believe Gao De would not do such a thing."

"If he really did this, I have nothing to say; if not, please don't let people with ulterior motives frame him," Jielika requested.

"Rest assured, I cannot say anything about other places, but at least within the academy, I will not allow such things to happen," Xie Er En said with a stern face.

"Thank you, Uncle Xie Er," Jielika thanked him, and then said: "Gao De is from a commoner background, yet he was able to promote to a 1st-circle magic user at the age of fourteen after entering the academy for one year, with infinite potential."

"And he was deeply trusted by Director He Xi, so he must also have outstanding talent in runology. I even suspect that he has the possibility of becoming a rune constructor."

"Before he promoted, I had already reached an investment relationship with him. In the future, after he grows up, he will inevitably become a help to the Haynes family."

"I understand," Xie Er En nodded.

After Jielika left, Xie Er En frowned, not knowing what he was thinking.

A quarter of an hour later, the vice-chairman walked in with an urgent expression.

"Dean, are you looking for me?" he said respectfully.

"I heard you sent someone to bring that Gao De back?" Xie Er En said straight to the point.

The vice-chairman was startled; he didn't know how Xie Er En knew about this, or why he would care about such a small matter.

But in front of Xie Er En, he absolutely didn't dare to lie, so he hurriedly reported the specific situation one by one:

"When Master Kunxi was breaking the magic array of the rune workshop this afternoon, the magic array of the workshop had an accident and exploded directly, and then Master Kunxi did not find any rune constructs in the rune workshop."

"He suspected that He Xi put the rune constructs elsewhere, but after He Xi died, only his student Gao De might know the whereabouts of these rune constructs."

"That's why he was brought back for interrogation under the name of being suspected of deliberately destroying academy facilities."

"Did you get any results?" Xie Er En said coldly.

"He insists that he doesn't know about the rune constructs," the vice-chairman said.

"Then what do you think?"

Upon hearing this, the vice-chairman's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

He thought carefully for a while before biting the bullet and saying: "I don't know if it's true or false, but Master Kunxi said that this matter is extremely important to you, so I thought it's better to kill the wrong person than to let one go, otherwise it would be bad if it delayed your big event."

Xie Er En said nonchalantly: "I don't care what means you use, what you do, don't do it in the academy; the influence is not good."

As for Jielika's request... it was not within Xie Er En's consideration.

His interests were always the highest priority.

Let alone Jielika, even if Jielika's father came to beg in person, it would be impossible to make him give up his interests.

"I understand," the vice-chairman replied.

Everyone has their own shortcomings.

And Xie Er En's shortcoming, in the vice-chairman's view, was that he was too fond of fame.

Clearly his style of doing things was completely opposite to his reputation in the outside world, but he tried hard to maintain his image.

In the vice-chairman's view, this was completely unnecessary.

As long as you are strong enough, what is the use of empty fame? If you are not strong enough, what is the use of a good reputation? Of course, he only thought about these in his heart and never dared to say them out loud.

Having worked under Xie Er En for so many years, he knew very well that to make Xie Er En satisfied, one must cater to his preferences.

"It's just a pity for a genius," the vice-chairman couldn't help but sigh in his heart. If this hadn't happened, with the talent Gao De had shown so far, in a hundred years, he would inevitably be another powerful magic user.

But now, he could only become a sacrifice.

And this ending seemed to have been destined from the moment Gao De became He Xi's student and gained He Xi's full trust.

Regardless of what choices Gao De would make in this process.

As a pawn in the hands of big shots, he was at the mercy of others.

This is the fate of small characters.

22nd of the Fog Frost Month, early morning.

A carriage drove out of the quiet academy, along the mountain road of Sairisi Mountain, toward Saint Xi Encheng.

The destination was the prison in the royal capital.

Gao De squinted his eyes, looking at the scenery outside through the occasionally raised cloth curtain, calm on the surface, but his heart was sinking slightly.

He understood very well what this represented.

Undoubtedly, Jielika either failed to take action, or even if she did, she couldn't save him.

Gao De didn't feel disappointed.

After last night's torture, he had already thought through this matter and knew that this trip was unavoidable.

Now it seemed that He Xi leaving his legacy to Gao De was actually harming Gao De.

Because He Xi didn't expect that his legacy would be closely linked to the struggle for the throne.

If he had known about this, perhaps He Xi would have had a better way.

Of course, one couldn't blame the old man.

An old man who didn't have much time left and put all his remaining energy into deducing and verifying interference constants and teaching Gao De, how could he keenly perceive these undercurrents?

He just followed his inner emotions and left everything to Gao De, whom he regarded as his last disciple.

Gao De's hands were tightly bound.

It was not an ordinary rope, but an alchemical item.

Gao De could feel that under the restriction of the rope, the flow of magic power in his body was as if it had been filled with lead, sluggish and astringent.

"They really think highly of me..." Gao De looked at the two magic users responsible for guarding him on the carriage.

Although he didn't know their specific levels, they were definitely not just first-circle.

He was just a newly promoted first-circle magic user; could he even escape? They actually put extra alchemical items on him.

Moving forward all the way, passing through one block after another, the carriage finally arrived in front of the magic user prison in the royal capital.

In the world of magic users, prisons are also divided into two types.

One is an ordinary prison, and the other is a magic user prison specially established for magic users to prevent magic users from escaping.

Gao De was pushed off the carriage.

"This is the person the Second Prince wants; watch him closely," the magic user responsible for the escort instructed the prison staff who had been waiting at the door.

"Received."

Afterwards, Gao De was escorted into the depths of the magic user prison.

It was very dark here, and even more humid, never seeing sunlight all year round.

Walking all the way, the cells one after another were also filled with magic users who were all figures in their own right before being imprisoned.

Even Gao De's first-circle magic user level was already at the bottom among these prisoners.

However, he was treated severely.

Not only was he restricted by alchemical items, but he was also specially sent into the most solid cell in the depths of the prison.

Clang!

The cell door was opened, and with a bang, Gao De was thrown directly in, his body hitting the floor heavily, making a dull sound.

Afterwards, the cell door was closed again.

The prison staff went away.

This area became completely quiet, very silent.

This was already the depths of the prison, with very few prisoners, and the light was so faint that it was almost invisible.

Gao De didn't say a word.

Since being pulled out of the dungeon of the Sairisi Magic Tower and brought to the Saint Xi Encheng magic user prison, Gao De had been silent all the way and hadn't said anything.

He opened his eyes wide, trying hard to look at his surroundings.

This prison was very large, and on the walls, one could faintly see a layer of faint black light and some dense patterns.

"Runes," Gao De immediately understood the construction principle of the magic user prison.

It still couldn't be separated from runes.

Using magic-conducting materials as raw materials for building the prison, and then drawing corresponding runes, forming a rune prison that even magic users could do nothing about.

So Gao De was also helpless.

Even if the shackles on his hands didn't exist.

He could only lie silently on the floor.

"Not even a bit of ability to resist," Gao De sighed softly in his heart.

The clearer he saw, the more desperate he felt.

It could be said that after experiencing this time, he had a clear understanding of this world.

A college student soul who had not yet stepped into society and had been the "child of others" since childhood suddenly came to such a world.

Even though the start was a "life-and-death crisis," it didn't actually let Gao De truly change his role and adapt to the rules of this world.

Until now, he finally truly understood the so-called rules and reason.

"What a f***ed up world."

He stared at the pitch-black ceiling in a daze.

Staying in such a dark place that never sees the sun was already a form of punishment itself.

A living person could only look at four walls; after a long time, silence would become the most terrifying torture.

And this kind of torture was something 【Adaptability】 couldn't avoid.

Gao De looked powerlessly at the walls of the ceiling.

Thinking that he had no way or power to change his ending, his gaze became a bit dim.

In silence and quiet, he looked at the runes on the ceiling wall where some lines could be vaguely seen; for some reason, he suddenly became interested.

He tried to see those runes clearly.

But unfortunately, the light in the prison was really too dim.

But Gao De was still trying hard to look.

Some things cannot be changed, but some things can.

Sure enough.

【... Your ability to see in the dark increased by 0.1%】.

Adaptability was making Gao De quickly adapt to this darkness.

The current situation was very desperate, but Gao De didn't sink because of it.

In such a dark, oppressive, and quiet environment, if there was nothing to do, it was easy for psychological problems to arise.

Since that was the case, it was better to change his mindset and treat it as a "leveling ground."

First, improve his dark vision ability through 【Adaptability】, and then study the runes of the rune prison well.

(End of chapter)