The Prison

The Forbidden Ground was a place taboo to everyone in the Mad Saber Sect. No one was allowed inside except the Sect Master, Taishu Sheng.

Chen Xian had been just one step away from catching Jiang Shuo. He stood at the edge of the wall, fuming and unsure what to do. Before long, the other disciples guarding the Forbidden Ground returned, all with their heads hanging low—they had lost Sun Daoming.

Chen Xian's mood sank even further. Just then, Li Yi returned from the inquiry Chen Xian had sent him on, accompanied by Eldest Senior Brother Shi Gangwei.

When Shi Gangwei heard that someone had used his name to try to sneak into the Forbidden Ground, he immediately sensed something was wrong and hurried over. Seeing Chen Xian, his heart sank. "Second Junior Brother, what happened?"

Chen Xian immediately reported the whole incident of Jiang Shuo and Sun Daoming forcing their way into the Forbidden Ground. "Eldest Senior Brother, Master is inside the Forbidden Ground. Should we find a way to notify him?"

Shi Gangwei lowered his head and pondered for a moment, then shook it. "No one can enter the Forbidden Ground. With Master inside, the two of them can't stir up any trouble. Send more disciples to guard the outside. If Master comes out first, report the situation to him. If those two come out first, kill them on the spot. As for the Hundred Flowers Sect... don't burn bridges with them just yet. Let's see how they respond, then decide what to do."

Shi Gangwei didn't know what the Hundred Flowers Sect was after, so he could only hold his position for now and leave everything to the Sect Master to decide.

Chen Xian nodded in agreement and immediately went to make arrangements.

Meanwhile, Jiang Shuo had no idea of the Mad Saber Sect's rules about the Forbidden Ground. After vaulting over the courtyard wall, afraid Chen Xian might catch up, he kept his head down and plunged deeper into the Forbidden Ground.

At first, he worried he might run into enemies, so he moved cautiously, keeping an especially careful watch along the way. But after walking for a while, Jiang Shuo didn't encounter anyone. The vast Forbidden Ground was eerily quiet, without a soul in sight.

Chen Xian, who had been chasing him, had also gone silent. Jiang Shuo's taut nerves eased a little. He hid in a corner and hastily treated his wounds, then finally had time to survey his surroundings.

Like the other buildings in the Mad Saber Sect, this compound in the Forbidden Ground covered a vast area, yet its layout was extremely simple. It looked very empty.

"This place is called the Forbidden Ground for a reason. I'd better stay on my guard." Now that he was here, Jiang Shuo naturally had to investigate thoroughly.

Each corpse of a Dream Red Pavilion disciple had been missing a bone, which the killer had most likely taken. Jiang Shuo decided to start there.

He began searching the rooms one by one. There was a study, a living room, bedrooms, and everything else one would expect. The furniture and belongings were ordinary; he couldn't find anything amiss.

An hour passed. Jiang Shuo had searched most of the rooms without finding anything, and he hadn't encountered a single person. Now he stood before the last room, panting as he paused to rest.

It was a low, dilapidated house blanketed in dust, tucked into a corner and starkly out of place beside the other lofty buildings. It was probably a woodshed for storing firewood and sundries.

Unwilling to give up this last sliver of hope, Jiang Shuo pushed open the door and went inside.

The room was crammed with broken wooden tables and chairs, chunks of firewood, and several bookshelves against one wall. Dust shrouded the bowls and basins resting on them.

The room was easy to take in at a glance, and there was nothing suspicious. Just as Jiang Shuo was about to leave, something caught the corner of his eye: one bowl on the shelf was spotless and gleaming, as if it were used often.

"This woodshed seems to have been abandoned for quite some time, but there's no stale, musty smell at all. That makes no sense." Noticing one oddity after another, Jiang Shuo's heart stirred. He stepped forward, bent down, and touched the clean porcelain bowl. He tried to lift it, but it wouldn't budge, so he tested turning it left and right.

"Rumble—"

Jiang Shuo twisted the bowl. It turned halfway to the left, and right after, the sound of a mechanism turning came from behind the wall. The bookshelf trembled, then slowly swung outward, scraping against the floor with a grating rasp.

Behind the opened bookshelf was a person-high opening in the wall, with a staircase leading straight down beyond it. Every ten feet, an oil lamp was set into each side of the cave wall. Two lines of dancing flames stretched onward into the unknown darkness.

This had to be a secret place belonging to the Mad Saber Sect. Wary of traps or ambushes, Jiang Shuo descended carefully.

The bare walls and monotonous scenery gave Jiang Shuo the illusion that the cave had no end. It felt as if he were walking through some animal's esophagus, and the sensation made him deeply uncomfortable.

At the end of the cave stood a stone door. When he pushed it open, Jiang Shuo saw a row of rooms before him. Their walls were built of stone, and only the fronts had railings welded from fine steel. Heavy locks and chains hung from the iron doors.

He continued along the corridor beside them. On both sides, the rooms were still exactly alike. Just as Jiang Shuo began to think this was an abandoned prison, he saw someone in the next room.

The other person was a middle-aged man, with heavy shackles on his hands and feet. They clanked loudly whenever he moved. When Jiang Shuo spotted him, the man was curled up on the dry grass in the corner, facing the wall with his back hunched, fast asleep.