Rescue (I)

The endless ring of longswords being drawn filled the air as dozens of Blood Prison Guards in the torture hall simultaneously unsheathed the Two-handed Horse-slaying Swords from their backs. The crystals set into the blades activated, and amid their faint humming, the 1.8-meter-long swords were covered in dazzling radiance.

Fire Queen Fainlan and the other two Grand Arbiters of the Great Berlin City-State rose to their feet at the same time. Jolus, whose mood had already been driven to the absolute limit by Leitning's death, angrily roared, "Who are you? How did you get in here?"

This was the Blood Prison, the most heavily guarded prison in the Great Berlin City-State. From the entrance outside to the torture hall on the deepest level of the Blood Prison, there were at least a hundred layers of defensive restrictions and formations. Even Jolus and the other Grand Arbiters would not have been able to force their way in without spending three to five days!

Yet this old man with white hair and beard had actually infiltrated the place so mysteriously!

Thunder erupted. Jolus's body was shrouded in thick lightning. He swung his staff, and the lightning suddenly leaped. Twelve spherical lightning bolts the size of human heads silently emerged from the radiance, quickly circling around Jolus.

The spherical lightning bolts were smooth and lustrous, as if carved from crystal. Within the core of each one, a fist-sized purple-blue rune flickered. These runes emanated a faint divine pressure, clearly sharing the same origin as the characters protruding from the cross that had trapped Yin Xuege.

Allen gave a soft snort, and countless ice crystals suddenly surrounded his body. The ice crystals, like diamond dust, howled as they spun rapidly around him. The temperature in the entire torture hall plummeted, and even the molten steel boiling in the crucible instantly solidified. Amid the ear-piercing cracks, countless tiny fissures spread across the frozen steel ingot in the crucible, and the crucible itself shattered into more than a dozen pieces.

"Don't get agitated, my friends!" Fire Queen Fainlan hurriedly stopped Jolus and Allen from acting rashly. "He's a friend, someone I know. Allow me to introduce him. This is Lord Jiang Rusheng, an elder of the ancient Jiang Lineage from the East!"

After introducing the white-haired, white-bearded old man's identity, Fainlan smiled and extended her right hand toward Jiang Rusheng. "It has been more than a decade since we last met, hasn't it, respected sir? I still remember that back then, on the Australian Continent, you killed that terrifying dark creature and saved me and my companions!"

Jiang Rusheng glanced at Fainlan's outstretched right hand. Instead of following Western etiquette and doing anything to that carefully tended, pale and delicate hand, he clasped his fists and gave her a lukewarm bow.

"Fire Queen Fainlan, it has indeed been a long time. This old man came here because I have something to ask of you!"

His gaze swiftly swept across the torture hall thick with the stench of blood. Jiang Rusheng said calmly, "Of course, this will benefit you as well. It will bring you tremendous benefits! However, news of my arrival here cannot be leaked in the slightest, so I entered without an invitation and infiltrated this place. If I have offended you, please forgive me!"

Allen and Jolus's expressions were both terribly ugly. 'If I have offended you'? You have already offended countless people! Regardless of Jiang Rusheng's background, his brazen infiltration into the deepest part of the Blood Prison was unquestionably a vicious slap across the faces of every leader in the Great Berlin City-State. Did that not count as offending people?

Fainlan withdrew her right hand with slight awkwardness. With great poise, she lifted her long skirt and gave Jiang Rusheng an ancient Western court curtsy. She glanced at her companions, her eyes flashing a warning that they must not act rashly in the slightest, then looked toward Jiang Rusheng with a radiant smile.

"I can understand how you feel. For someone as honored as you to come here, you naturally must have something extremely important to discuss. To someone as transcendent as you, some insignificant rules naturally have no meaning."

She clapped her hands lightly and ordered all the guards to put away their weapons. Then she pointed sternly toward Yin Xuege. "Send this dark Juvenile back to his cell and keep him under strict guard! You have already witnessed his brutality and treachery. Do not give him any opportunity to commit evil!"

The two executioners swiftly took Yin Xuege down from the cross. Several guards swarmed forward and bound him tightly with specially made shackles and fetters, then dragged him savagely out of the torture hall. With Jiang Rusheng's arrival, there was no doubt that this interrogation could not continue.

Jiang Rusheng watched Yin Xuege curiously and asked with a chuckle, "He's only a child. What did he do?"

Jolus and Allen's expressions once again became extremely ugly, and their gazes toward Jiang Rusheng were filled with hostility. No matter how powerful Jiang Rusheng was, no matter what his background was, and no matter whether he had any friendship with Fainlan, as a guest, wasn't he meddling too much? Who Yin Xuege was—did they need to explain that to him?

The corner of Fainlan's mouth twitched as well, but she still lowered her stance and gave Jiang Rusheng an amiable explanation.

"He himself has committed no crime, but there is a problem with his origins. He is a Blood Demon Juvenile. Lord Jiang Rusheng, you should know about the hatred between the Human Federation and those dark creatures. Ever since those terrifying changes occurred in this world, these dark creatures have been acting with increasing impunity. We must deal with them with the utmost caution!"

Jiang Rusheng smiled and nodded, replying in a distinctly unconcerned tone, "I see. A little fellow like this is nothing important. Fainlan, let us discuss serious business instead! I came to find you because there is something extremely important for which I need your help!"

As he spoke, Jiang Rusheng seemingly glanced at Yin Xuege without meaning to. A strange, dim light suddenly flashed through his eyes, as if an extremely thin purple halo had been fitted around his black pupils. His gaze rapidly swept over Yin Xuege from head to toe, and the corners of Jiang Rusheng's mouth suddenly curled upward as he gave a mysterious little smile.

But very soon, Jiang Rusheng withdrew that trace of a smile. He solemnly shook out his broad sleeves, assuming the dignified and austere bearing befitting an enlightened master, as if the person who had just secretly infiltrated someone else's Blood Prison stronghold had nothing whatsoever to do with him.

Bound by heavy shackles and unable to move, Yin Xuege narrowed his eyes and observed the situation along the way through the sliver of peripheral vision between his eyelids. One heavy gate after another, one complex restrictive formation after another—along the way, Yin Xuege's heart sank bit by bit. In the end, his entire body turned cold.

With his current strength, it was utterly impossible for him to escape the Blood Prison! Not to mention him—even the powerful members of the Yin Lineage, such as Yin Jiwu and Yin Jihuang, might not have any chance of escaping after being imprisoned here.

The door to Yin Xuege's cell was opened, and he was thrown inside like a piece of trash. One guard grumbled in a low voice, "Kid, you were lucky today! You won't get such a good opportunity next time! You'll die horribly!"

"He'll certainly die horribly!" a voice brimming with resentment suddenly rang out. Bright, dressed in a white robe and holding a silver cross, strode over with several white-robed men guarding him.

Standing at Yin Xuege's cell door, Bright angrily growled, "Wasn't he supposed to be undergoing punishment? This damned thing—why was he sent back again? Did the three lords not interrogate him personally? Why was he sent back again?"

Behind the observation window in Wumu's cell door, a huge green eyeball rolled around as it peered outside. Wumu's low sigh drifted out. "I really envy you stinking bats. You endured torture, yet your body doesn't look too injured. Unlike us—after taking a beating, our wounds take ages to close!"

Bright glanced at Wumu's cell door and slapped the raised orb on it. A dazzling white light shone inside Wumu's cell. Countless light arrows as thick as thumbs shot wildly around the cell, striking Wumu until he shrieked in agony.

"You bastard! Lord Wumu never provoked you, so why did you launch a sneak attack on me?"

Wumu howled in pain. The high-temperature white light arrows blasted dozens of charred pits into his body, and copious blood kept spraying from the wounds, dyeing Wumu into a bloody man. Wumu cursed furiously through clenched teeth. To him, this really was a disaster from out of the blue. He felt he had suffered the greatest injustice!

"Lowly beast, this is no place for you to butt in!" Bright coldly rebuked him, then looked toward Yin Xuege, who lay on the ground unable to move. "Tell me, why wasn't he punished in the torture chamber? Why was he sent back? He's a Sunwalker! A Sunwalker who can walk freely beneath the sun! He must know about those vampires' schemes!"

"Oh? A Sunwalker?" Jiang Rusheng's voice traveled from far away. "Fainlan, if this old man heard correctly, that child said the little fellow is a Sunwalker? Heh heh, is that the rare constitution among the Blood Demon Clan that can endure sunlight, seen only once in a thousand years?"

The three Grand Arbiters of the Great Berlin City-State, along with Jiang Rusheng, the uninvited guest, had already followed the only tunnel to Yin Xuege's cell. Jiang Rusheng's face was wreathed in smiles, and his smile was brilliantly radiant. Fainlan and the other two wore somewhat stiff, unpleasant expressions, while Jolus glared furiously at Bright, forcing him to lower his head inch by inch until he no longer dared to raise it or speak.

"Close the cell door and keep him under strict guard!" Allen took a deep breath and forced out a smile as he helplessly shook his head at Jiang Rusheng. "He's only an insignificant Blood Demon Juvenile, hardly an important figure! Young people these days are simply too prone to making a mountain out of a molehill!"

Sensing something strange about the three Grand Arbiters, Bright no longer dared to say anything. Even though he desperately wanted to crush Yin Xuege inch by inch with torture, he could only obediently follow behind the three Grand Arbiters as they left the Blood Prison.

What could I do? After drinking too much strong tea, this sleepy pig was wide awake and crawled right out of bed!!!

Please vote for me!!! (To be continued)