Finding Hake
The castle's underground area was dark, with flickering firelight on both sides of the passageway making the entire passageway appear somewhat gloomy.
As the Small Soldier made his way forward, Liliath took in the entire environment of the underground floor.
After walking for about two or three minutes, the Small Soldier finally reached a spacious hall at the end of the corridor.
The hall was brightly lit, and an exceptionally burly man, shirtless, was tearing at a piece of raw meat from some unknown animal.
The Small Soldier's body trembled instinctively; clearly, he had a strong fear of the burly man, a fear that he couldn't avoid even under Liliath's hypnosis.
"Kid, you didn't use your Storage Space to store this wine, did you?" Upon noticing the Small Soldier's arrival, the burly man looked up at him, his eyes not at all human eyes, but more like those of a bloodthirsty beast.
"No... no... the captain didn't give any orders..." The Small Soldier's legs trembled, and he dared not put down the wine jar he was holding.
"That's good. It seems your captain is quite considerate of you. I hate it more than anything that my things are put into someone else's Storage Space. If I find out you just put my wine into your Storage Space, I'll kill you!" The burly man looked at the Small Soldier with a threatening tone.
He reached out, and the wine jar the Small Soldier was carrying flew out and landed in his hand. He glanced down at the jar, finding nothing unusual, and without even looking up at the Small Soldier again, shouted, "Get lost!"
Liliath frowned at the top of the stairs. The Small Soldier hadn't really observed his surroundings at all; aside from the dimly lit passageway and the burly man's indistinct face, he hadn't seen anything else of value.
We don't know who's imprisoned on that underground level, nor do we know their exact location. We also can't determine if the prisoners possess any information about Hake.
But Liliath knew that if she kept the Small Soldier in place, Small Soldier would likely be killed on the spot. She didn't know how long it would take to wait for the next person to enter the underground, so she had no choice but to control the Small Soldier to turn and leave.
"Wait a minute, don't go yet!" The Small Soldier had just turned around when the burly man's voice came from behind him again. "Come and take this bowl of bones to the Prison Cell for that kid in the Direct Lineage to eat."
As the burly man spoke, he kicked a metal basin beside his feet. It was full of bones that he had gnawed on.
"And these on the ground. Put them all in a basin and take them over!" The burly man pointed to the bones scattered on the ground, then spat into the basin.
Upon hearing the burly man's order, the Small Soldier immediately turned around and walked towards him.
Although Liliath felt nauseous at the sight of the contents of the metal basin, she was also strangely delighted. This meant she had a chance to indirectly contact the imprisoned person, and that she was one step closer to finding Hake.
The Small Soldier bent down at the burly man's table and threw the scattered bones on the ground into a metal basin. Then he picked up the basin and walked in the direction the burly man was pointing.
The location the burly man pointed to was the second one on the left in a six-way intersection.
The Small Soldier carried the basin inside. The fork in the path led to a narrow, dark tunnel. However, the Small Soldier, possessing true god-level cultivation, could still see everything clearly within the tunnel. Liliath was the same; with her special pupils, she was unaffected even in this darkness.
The Small Soldier walked along the dark passage for about twenty minutes before finally seeing a faint glimmer of light.
Liliath saw this and her eyes lit up. She controlled her Small Soldier and leaped several times to reach the location of the light.
It was a metal door, with a slit about the thickness of a thumb and about twenty centimeters long at the top center. That thin ray of light shone through from there.
Liliath controlled the Small Soldier to look into the gap.
It was a cell less than ten square meters in size. On the wall opposite the door, several black chains bound a man in a gray robe.
The man had long hair that completely obscured his face. He was disheveled, with bloodstains or some other kind of stain on his clothes, and a foul, fishy smell emanated from him even from a distance.
Seemingly sensing someone spying outside the gate, the man slowly raised his head, his amber eyes coldly meeting those of the Small Soldier who was watching.
In that instant their eyes met, even Liliath could feel the chilling killing intent emanating from him. At the same time, Liliath also noticed that his pupils were the same peculiar amber color as Hake's. However, she was still unsure if he was Hake, as the probability of someone with the same eye color appearing within the same family was quite high.
"Hake?" she asked tentatively, controlling the Small Soldier.
"You're not a member of the Dees Family, so who are you?" The other person's sudden question startled Liliath. If it weren't for what the other person said next, she would have thought she had been exposed. "If you were a member of the Dees Family, even if you were disrespectful to me, you wouldn't dare to call me by my name directly. You would call me Young Master Hake."
"Hake, is it really you?!" Although the other person's hair had grown longer and his face was obscured, Liliath immediately recognized his voice. Moreover, his own words just now seemed to confirm his identity.
"Were you sent by that guy Belanger to mess with me? If so, save your breath!" the disheveled Hake hissed.
"Hake, this is Liliath. The guy you see has been hypnotized by me," Liliath said quickly.
"What can you prove that you are Liliath?" Hake clearly did not believe Liliath's identity.
"Proof..." Liliath frowned again, but it was understandable that the other party had doubts. "I am who I am, there's nothing to prove! As for whether I'm the real deal, you'll know when you get out."
"You've done a pretty good job imitating her. It seems you've studied Liliath. I really don't know how that guy Belanger found you. He didn't disguise himself like this, probably so he could laugh at me from the shadows, right?" Hake still refused to believe that Liliath was real.
"Hake, time is of the essence. I don't have time to explain anything further. I just need you to listen quietly to what I'm about to say, and then make your own judgment." Liliath didn't intend to waste any more words explaining anything. (To be continued~^~)