Chapter 43: 42 Seeking a Person

42 Seeking a Person

The two walked down along the stairs.

Once the Judge descended the stairs, he stopped speaking, his footsteps silent. Tang Zhao could see the blurry silhouette when he looked up, but when he looked down, he could barely sense the man's presence.

The gloom was unsettling, and the silence added to the oppression. Tang Zhao held onto the wall, walking downward bit by bit, able only to listen to the sound of his own heartbeat as he counted silently.

This staircase was very long, slanting downward as if it were going to the center of the earth. After walking for a while, water stains gradually appeared on the walls, and water seeped out from the base of the walls.

As Tang Zhao walked, he felt discomfort in his ears and couldn't help but open his mouth, letting out an "ah" sound.

The Judge, in front, heard this and said, "Circulate your Internal Energy; that can alleviate it."

Tang Zhao said, "I don't know how." As he said this, he felt his own voice sounded muffled and was not very clear.

The Judge grabbed his hand, channeled a wisp of Internal Energy through his pulse point, and said, "Circulate it now." As he spoke, he recited a few lines of the formula for circulating energy.

Tang Zhao immediately followed his instructions to circulate his Internal Energy, which flowed ceaselessly within his body. In a moment, the nausea vanished, his hearing and vision returned to clarity, and he cupped his hands, saying, "Many thanks, Senior."

Having just gone through Sun Sheng's interference, the relationship between the two had grown closer; they no longer deliberately targeted each other, seemingly having turned from enemies into friends.

The Judge was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "Thanks for what? I haven't even taught you yet, how did you already know how to do it?"

Tang Zhao was stunned and said, "Didn't you just pass the formula to me?"

The Judge said, "Is that formula something a person can learn? It's all just obscure, pretentious literary nonsense. Could you have understood it if I hadn't explained it?"

Tang Zhao was speechless, thinking: What was there not to understand? Wasn't it quite plain?

It was far inferior to the Mysterious Technique.

The Judge grabbed his pulse point again. Upon probing, he found the breath circulating, already having formed a cycle. It was clear that he had not only learned it but had immediately mastered it. He let go of him and said, "People are born with differences in talent; some are just clever... but can't you be a little less excessive?"

Tang Zhao heard the indignation in his tone and thought: This is due to cheating, not a failure of skill.

After walking for a while, a stone door finally appeared at the end of the tunnel.

The stone door was wide and thick, with a spider relief carved in the center; the relief was ferocious and lifelike.

The Judge told Tang Zhao to stop and walked toward the stone door himself.

He ignored the spider, tapped and knocked around the door, and suddenly pushed with his hand—

"Ah—"

A scream pierced his eardrums!

Tang Zhao's whole body jolted, and he retreated a few steps.

He saw the masked man holding the door leaf, having opened only an imperceptible crack. Someone inside was screaming, the sound drilling out through the gap.

Tang Zhao had never heard such a miserable scream in his life. In truth, by the time the scream reached his ears, it was already at the end of its strength, and the volume was not piercing, but the pain seeping into the scream was like a sharp blade, stabbing straight into the depths of a person's Soul.

The screaming gradually stopped, and he heard someone above say in a sinister tone, "Are you a bit clearer now? Have you remembered anything?"

There was a burst of panting and groaning, with no one else speaking.

"Oh, worthy of being a Knight-Errant of the Jianghu, a real hero. But in the dungeon of my Black Spider Villa, the one thing we don't lack is heroes. We are exactly the ones who deal with heroes here. Hahaha—"

Another scream rang out, and Tang Zhao's hair stood on end.

Only then did he have a real concept of a "dungeon." A dungeon was not just a place to imprison people; whatever was in the Imperial Court's great prisons was here too, and it would only be more cruel.

Was the Judge here to save someone? Then he should just save them.

It was just that he understood less and less: what did saving someone have to do with him? Why did he have to drag him here?

The interrogator said again, "Good, it seems you are determined to be stubborn to the end. Are you counting on someone to rescue you?"

Tang Zhao's heart tightened, thinking: Do they know someone is coming to break into the prison and have already prepared for it?

The man continued, "Don't talk about how my place is an Eighteen Levels of Hell that you can enter but never leave; even if there were some daring fool who dared to come, you wouldn't live to see that day. Do you think our patience is very good? In another day or half a day, if you still don't spill, we won't bother keeping a piece of trash like you. Do you know where the heroes before you went?"

A sound of dragging arose, as if some heavy object was being pulled across.

Tang Zhao felt a subconscious chill in his heart.

A sound of ceramic colliding, as if pots and pans were clattering, and then someone let out an "Ah—" exclamation.

This sound was not as painful as the scream, but it was filled with terror.

"See that? Put in the day before yesterday. Oh, he's still alive, look, he's still moving. We have to wait for the darlings to eat for a few more days before he can breathe his last. Finally, turning into nourishment, it can be considered a contribution to our villa. I see you are fatter than him, so you should be able to feed several more. I'll use the biggest one to hold you..."

Tang Zhao did not know what was happening inside, but he felt green in the face. Suddenly, he felt something cool on his face; it was the Judge placing an object on him.

He reached out to touch it; it seemed to be a Mask.

Before he could feel it carefully, the stone door opened with a boom, and the Judge had already rushed in.

The Judge did not pull Tang Zhao when he went in, and Tang Zhao naturally would not follow, so he just stood behind the door.

A series of noisy fighting sounds came over; a fierce battle had begun behind the door. By this time, Tang Zhao was already accustomed to it, and while waiting, he adjusted the Mask.

He knew the Judge's intention: once they entered the door and encountered people from the Black Spider Villa, it would not be appropriate for him to show his face.

The Judge was a fastidious person, and it was quite comfortable to be around him as long as they hadn't torn off the mask of civility.

After a while, the fighting sounds stopped, and he heard the Judge say, "Come in."

Behind the gate was a Stone Chamber, with thick walls on all four sides, dark and damp, but only about ten feet in circumference and less than ten feet high, looking just like a coffin.

Several people were lying on the ground, and one was hanging on the wall, all of them covered in blood and gore, especially the one hanging, who had hardly any good flesh left. Tang Zhao instinctively turned his head and saw another Time Jar lying on the ground.

It was an extra-large pottery jar, gray and unremarkable in color. At this moment, it was overturned on the ground; the inside could not be seen, only a little bit of sauce-red liquid flowed out, with tiny, fuzzy black dots crawling in it.

Ugh—

Tang Zhao felt another wave of nausea and turned his head away again.

On the other side of the Stone Chamber, against a wall, jars were stacked densely in layers, each about the same size, enough to stuff a person inside. At the seals of the jars, most were seeping with sauce-red stains.

What kind of hellish place is this!

"Kid."

The Judge was at another exit of the Stone Chamber, his clothes unruffled, not at all like he had been fighting, and said, "Now you are needed. Keep your eyes wide open; find the person I am looking for, and I will send you back."

Tang Zhao said, "Who exactly are you looking for?"

The Judge said: "I am looking for a person. Do not ask me his age or what he looks like; I do not know either. I only know he is a person like you, carrying things related to a Sword Guest. Just open your eyes wide and look; tell me if there is anything suspicious."

Tang Zhao frowned, thinking: Isn't this too much of a farce? You don't know the person, you don't know the items, and you expect me to just guess blindly? I would be surprised if you could find anyone.

Although his Inspiration is strong and he can see unusual things, he might not necessarily recognize someone who also has Inspiration.

In any case, when he looked at Wei Zhangle, he did not see anything different.

Since they were still cooperating, he suppressed his look of disapproval and carefully looked around the surroundings; the Judge had already said: "If they are not on this level, there are still Prison cells below."

The door opposite led to the Prison, and just as the two were about to leave, they heard a person behind them say: "Knight-Errant... save me..."

Tang Zhao turned his head; it turned out to be the blood-covered person who had been tortured making a sound.

The Judge acted as if he did not Listen, but the person behind them gathered a breath from somewhere and shrieked loudly: "I am Liu Qiguang, a steward of the Golden Mountain Firm. I have always been kind to others and have never done evil. I still have wealth at home. If the Knight-Errant is willing to save me, I am willing to offer a heavy treasure worth a thousand gold!"

The Golden Mountain Firm is a very famous merchant firm; Tang Zhao had just heard of it at a banquet not long ago.

That person shouted again: "I have been here for quite a few days; I can help you find whoever you are looking for... Great Hero, I know quite a lot..."

The Judge turned his head back, suddenly flicked his finger, and with a *chi* sound, the person's voice stopped abruptly, and his head drooped down.

Tang Zhao said in surprise: "Dead?"

The Judge said: "If he were beyond saving, it wouldn't hurt to give him an end. Since he can still shout and scream, it seems he still has some strength; I might be able to use him later. I just performed Acupoint Sealing to let him save some energy."

Tang Zhao nodded and asked again: "You also performed Acupoint Sealing on Sun Sheng before, right? But how was he able to attack later?"

The Judge snorted and said resentfully: "He is a notorious bandit who has been caught and dragged around by others; he is best at escaping and struggling for his life. It is normal for him to know some methods to unseal acupoints."

Judging by his tone, Tang Zhao did not think this was normal; it was clear that Sun Sheng's escape had made him lose face, so he asked again: "Then why didn't he use Acupoint Sealing when he hijacked me? That way I wouldn't have been able to struggle."

The Judge said: "Of course he wouldn't; Acupoint Sealing is not something any Tom, Dick, or Harry can learn."

Tang Zhao said: "He cannot perform Acupoint Sealing but can unseal it; is this skill hard to learn but easy to break, making it useless?"

The Judge said unhappily: "What do you mean it's useless? People who want to learn this skill would line up for several streets and still not get a turn. If you help me find the person, I could teach you some of the basics."

Tang Zhao thought: The pie is getting bigger and bigger! But what should I do if I really cannot find the person?