49 Apocalypse Rules

Chapter 324: Chapter 301: The Prison of Luoying Mansion

The entire nation of Sakura Prayer has been under martial law ever since the night of Guan Tong’s assassination attempt on the Divine Son.

Before, the streets were patrolled by patrol cars from the Sheriff’s Department. Now, they had been uniformly replaced by military armored vehicles, and thermal-imaging drones patrolled the skies 24/7.

According to some online insiders, the upper echelons of Sakura Prayer had purchased a batch of advanced weaponry from the Soloma Empire, and had also imported a significant number of Intelligent Robots.

Sakura Prayer’s official line was that this was to counter the threat posed by Ascenders like Shadow, but anyone with a discerning eye could see it was just an excuse.

If they really wanted to deal with Shadow, hiring a group of individually powerful Ascenders would probably be more effective than all this military hardware.

Then again, other nations weren’t in a position to condemn them. With Sakura Prayer officially declaring that the Divine Son had been assassinated and pushing hard for the Human Federation to issue an all-points bulletin for Shadow, other countries were still hesitant about the whole affair and couldn’t say much about the arms imports.

But what no one expected was that Shadow was, at this very moment, still inside Sakura Prayer’s borders.

He was currently manipulating his Shadow Lines, secretly sending them to investigate Divine Son Mizusawa Chun’s Luoying Mansion.

The mansion had been sealed off since the night of the assassination, and the rest of the Mizusawa Clan had moved to a new residence.

By that logic, nothing important should have been left behind here.

But based on the principle of doing the opposite of what’s expected, Guan Tong had to investigate anyway.

The Barrier Items that had once protected the mansion had been removed, so Shadow slipped inside with ease.

Through his shared senses, Guan Tong felt only a dead silence within, as if there were no living things inside.

He directed Shadow to investigate every room, but they were all empty. In the room that looked like a study, there were no documents or data storage devices of any kind.

’Looks like this mansion really has been completely cleared out.’

After a fruitless search, Guan Tong was about to withdraw Shadow.

But as one of the Shadow Lines slid across a section of the floor, a faint "vibration" was transmitted back to Guan Tong through their connection.

The sensation was extremely faint, but he still caught it.

’Why would there be a vibration for no reason?’

If it were a minor earthquake or some other factor, there was no reason only a single Shadow Line would have picked it up.

’Could it be... ’

Guan Tong immediately redirected multiple Shadow Lines, concentrating them on the area where the vibration had come from.

’Could it be underneath?’

He had already checked all the rooms in the mansion; they were clear.

But those were only the rooms above ground.

What about underground? Could there be a basement or something similar, accessible only through a hidden mechanism?

At this thought, Guan Tong immediately had Shadow turn intangible and phase down through the ground beneath the area of the vibration.

About three meters down, the dirt gave way to a dimly lit room.

’There really is a basement!’

Guan Tong was overjoyed by the discovery.

’Good thing I was cautious enough to send out so many probing Shadow Lines, or I really would have missed this major clue.’

Guan Tong thought, ’Maybe this is also why the Divine Son chose to convert this temple into a mansion.’

Many temples in the Andai Kingdom had been used as prisons in ancient times, so it wasn’t surprising that there would be an underground jail.

The room Shadow had just entered, with three solid walls and one of wooden bars, was unmistakably the style of an ancient jail cell.

And the source of that faint vibration from the floor above...

Through Shadow, Guan Tong saw a person crouched in a corner, repeatedly slamming their head against the wall!

’That was the source of the vibration?’

Guan Tong didn’t quite believe it at first. ’How could a human head be that hard?’

But when he took a closer look at the person on the ground slamming their head into the wall, a chill ran down his spine.

That serpentine figure was no normal human; it was clearly a monster with a human head and a snake’s body.

’A Snake Servant?’

This was undoubtedly a Snake Servant created with Shangyuan Zi’s ability, but why was it locked in an underground jail?

’And why is it banging its head against the wall... Is it no longer under Shangyuan Zi’s control? Should I contact Shangyuan Zi and ask?’

Guan Tong didn’t understand, but he chose to stay calm and have Shadow continue exploring.

He discovered that the space beneath the mansion was vast. It wasn’t just one or a few cells, but an entire medium-to-large-sized prison.

Many of the cells held prisoners. Some held not just one, but groups of people.

Among them were many who weren’t Yingqi People; based on their features, they looked more like Andai People.

After the nation of Sakura Prayer relocated here, the Human Federation’s resolution was to have the few remaining Andai People join Sakura Prayer. But from the looks of it now, Sakura Prayer’s treatment of these people was nothing like how they’d treat their own citizens.

The more Guan Tong saw through the shared vision, the more horrifying it became.

The situation in the prison beneath the mansion reminded him of the one at Yongzhou Base.

Even if they looked different on the surface, their core nature was the same.

Should the need arise, high-ranking figures in Sakura Prayer like the Divine Son would undoubtedly use these prisoners as tools and discard them.

Shadow moved from back to front, sticking close to the walls.

Almost none of the tightly packed cells were empty, and many of the prisoners were covered in wounds, having suffered brutal torture. Guan Tong even recognized someone he himself had interrogated not long ago.

’Is that the Sheriff named Suzuki, the one with the [Profile] ability?’

Guan Tong barely recognized the disheveled, scar-faced woman in one of the cells.

Shangyuan Zi had argued for letting her go at the time, and Guan Tong had agreed. Now, judging by the scars on her face, he knew she had been subjected to a harsh interrogation after her return, just as he’d told Shangyuan Zi would happen—that letting her go wouldn’t lead to a good outcome.

Suzuki’s face was blank, her eyes vacant as she stared at the wall, her thoughts impossible to guess.

Guan Tong had no time to keep observing her; he had a more pressing question now.

’Where are the guards?’

Shadow moved rapidly. Guan Tong was now desperate to find the person in charge here.

He had originally come to the mansion to find evidence, but he’d unexpectedly discovered this underground prison... What could be better proof of the inhumane acts of certain people in Sakura Prayer than the existence of this prison itself?

"...Found them."

After moving a bit further, Shadow discovered the prison’s entrance and exit. It was a stone staircase, wide enough for three people, flanked by a few stone rooms. Inside were several people in very old-fashioned attire.

Seeing the tight-fitting clothes they wore, Guan Tong was reminded of the guard who could use Invisibility during the assassination of the Divine Son.

’That guard, and now these prison guards, are all dressed like Ninja, not in Sheriff uniforms or military fatigues. I’d guess these people are the Divine Son’s—or rather, the Mizusawa Clan’s—private army and personal guard.’

Guan Tong was certain these were the Divine Son’s core, loyal followers. But with the Divine Son supposedly dead, he wondered who was giving them orders now.

’Or could it be that the Divine Son isn’t dead at all?’

Guan Tong couldn’t be sure about that yet.

But now that he had found this prison, he couldn’t just ignore it.

’It wouldn’t be hard for me to kill these guards right now, but they’re just small fry. Killing them would only spook the big fish.’

After a moment of thought, Guan Tong decided to hold his position and wait.

He would have Shadow lie in wait here. Waiting for the Ninja guards’ superior to arrive before making a move would yield a much greater reward.

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