The dust (mostly powder and grime) settled in the cell.
The young man leaned against the wall, his ragged breathing like a broken bellows. He glanced at Killer A, lying on the ground with a knife through his brow, well and truly dead, then at the black-clad leader curled up nearby, occasionally twitching (for now, Killer B). Finally, his complicated, inscrutable gaze returned to the darkness of the escape passage.
It remained utterly silent, as though the "flying stone" that had turned the tide just moments ago had been an illusion.
But he knew it hadn't.
The person lurking in the shadows had used underhanded means, struck at an uncanny moment, and had an unknown purpose. Friend? He had saved him. Enemy? Why hadn't he shown himself? Or was he simply a... bystander who wanted no part in the cause and effect of it all?
Thoughts raced through the young man's mind, but his strength was spent, and the numbness spreading from the wound in his arm left him unable to think deeply. He couldn't stay here long! If the assassins had found their way in once, they could do it again!
He forced himself to his feet, staggered over to Killer B, and swiftly searched him. Before long, he found a few odds and ends: a small bottle of antidote (he sniffed it to make sure, then swallowed it at once), several pieces of silver, a black token made of unusual material (with "Shadow Sha" carved on the front and a number on the back), and... a few crumpled banknotes.
The young man's gaze flickered at the sight of the banknotes. He hesitated, but in the end tucked them into his clothes. A fallen prince still had to eat.
With that done, he didn't linger. He didn't even bother with the open cell door, instead dragging his weakened body away and quickly disappearing into the darkness at the other end of Block E. Clearly, he wasn't entirely unfamiliar with the layout of the Heavenly Prison; he had his own way out.
Block E fell silent once more. All that remained were two bodies (one soon to become a body), an open cell door, and debris strewn everywhere.
After a while, once he reckoned the prince had gotten far away, a rustling sound came from the escape passage.
Then a figure came tumbling out, crawling in a most wretched state. It was Xu Qian!
His hair was disheveled, his face smeared with dust, and his prison guard uniform torn in several places. One hand clutched his side (where a sleeve arrow had cut him earlier; now he deliberately pressed the wound until it bled more, making it look rather alarming). His eyes widened as he stared in terror at the scene before him—the open cell door, the bodies on the ground, the scattered weapons, and the lingering stench of blood mingled with other strange odors.
"H-Heavens! W-what happened?!" His voice was choked with sobs, and he shook like a leaf, perfectly embodying a low-ranking prison guard scared witless.
He looked around in "panic," then, as if only just coming to his senses, scrambled toward the duty Stone Room, crying out as he ran, "Help! Something's happened! There's been a murder!! Brother Li Xi... Brother Li Xi, he... sob..."
His shrill cries carried far down the silent corridor.
Before long, the clamor of hurried footsteps and shouted orders came closer. Prison guards from the other sections, roused by the commotion, arrived swiftly at the scene, along with Zhou Kang, his face dark as thunder.
When the torchlight fell across the wreckage, everyone sucked in a sharp breath.
Li Xi lay in a pool of blood, his throat slit. Cell E-98 stood wide open, empty. A black-clad man lay on the ground with a dagger through his brow, while another black-clad man was unconscious, his face smeared with some unknown, sticky substance.
"W-what... what happened here?" one guard stammered.
Every eye turned to the only "witness" still standing at the scene (though he was shaking terribly): Xu Qian.
"I... I don't know..." Xu Qian's face was deathly pale, and he stumbled over his words, as though he had suffered a terrible shock. "I... I was on duty over there... then I suddenly heard something over here... it sounded like... like a fight... and there were screams... I... I was scared, so I hid in that passage... later... later, when it went quiet, I finally... finally dared to come out... and then... then I saw this... Brother Li Xi, he... sob..."
As he spoke, he pointed toward the escape passage, then at the bodies on the ground. Finally, he looked at Li Xi's body and began to "wipe away" tears of grief (secretly dabbing at his eyes with a little spit).
His story was half true and half false, and it got him off the hook perfectly. It was only natural that he had hidden because he was afraid; he had come out late because he'd been scared witless. As for the black-clad men and the prince's escape, he "knew nothing" about any of it.
Zhou Kang's face was grim as he silently examined the scene. He first looked at the wound on Li Xi's neck, then at the black-clad man who had been knocked out. Picking up the "Shadow Sha" token from the ground, he studied it, his gaze growing even more inscrutable.
At last, he walked over to Xu Qian, his eyes raking across Xu Qian's face like knives.
Xu Qian's heart gave a thump, but his face remained that of a man still shaken, on the verge of tears. He even swayed "weakly."
"You say you hid?" Zhou Kang's voice betrayed no emotion.
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