Chapter 58: The Mysterious Man

Inside the dungeon of Prince Huai's Mansion.

Liu Jishan lay on a straw mat reeking of foul odors, his gaze staring blankly at the ceiling.

It was a look of utter numbness that only follows extreme despair.

He had been inside this star gate for a full ten days. While others went through missions, he lay here; while others returned to reality, he lay here... One could say he had zero "gaming experience."

The most important thing was that he had just activated the clearing task for the second act, and the primary objective was for him to break out of confinement within six hours. If he failed, he would die...

Break out?

How the hell was he supposed to break out?! This was Prince Huai's dungeon, after all—rife with internal mechanisms and guarded by soldiers; the outer perimeter was watched by eunuchs, and a group of martial arts experts stayed nearby. The probability of him successfully staging a prison break was practically zero.

He truly could not comprehend this: where were his fence-sitter faction teammates? Could they really not tell that a living person was missing? Couldn't they come and rescue him?!

And what about that Chief Clerk Li Yan? Your old man was the one whose ghost stories made me open fire on Prince Huai in the main hall. Now that I've ended up in this state, you dog-fucker aren't going to lift a finger either? Won't your conscience hurt at all?!

What a bunch of absolute morons!

"Hoo~!"

Liu Jishan let out a long, stale breath, propped himself up on the ground with both hands, and forced himself to perk up: "No, I can't just lie here anymore. If I keep lying here, I'm going to lose my life."

During these seven days, the external injuries on his body had mostly healed. Because Er Leng and Lian'er were afraid that Prince Huai might still find some use for this man, they sent him medicine and meals every day just to keep him alive.

What should he do?

Liu Jishan raised a palm that smelled worse than excrement, gently stroked his chin, and his brain raced at high speed.

First of all, trying to brute-force his way out was definitely out of the question. Although he possessed character anomalies and items, they wouldn't be of much use when it came to breaking out of prison. Secondly, the fence-sitter faction lacked items for mutual communication, so he couldn't actively request backup from his teammates...

After careful consideration, Liu Jishan felt that the only possible way out now was for him to proactively request an audience with Prince Huai, expose his identity as a fence-sitter player, lavishly flatter the man, and completely defect to his side.

As for whether Prince Huai would accept him or not, everything would be left up to fate.

In short, this was an extremely risky method. If Prince Huai had no use for him and wanted to reduce the number of fence-sitter players, then there was a good chance he'd still end up on the receiving end of a small blade...

"Bang!"

"Thud!"

Right at that moment, two muffled thuds suddenly echoed down the dungeon corridor, sounding as though a heavy object had fallen to the ground.

"Huh?"

Liu Jishan frowned slightly, stood up with his hair disheveled, and looked cautiously toward the corridor.

"Tap, tap...!"

A flurry of hurried footsteps approached, very light, seeming to be right around him.

"Swish!"

Not knowing what was going on, Liu Jishan instinctively threw himself flat on his back on the floor, habitually playing dead.

With his eyes closed, his ears caught the sound of footsteps growing closer. Before long, two crisp clicks rang out from right outside the wooden barred door.

"Clatter!"

The lock hit the ground.

In an instant, the hair on Liu Jishan's body stood on end and his muscles tensed up, yet he still remained completely motionless.

"Swish!"

A figure appeared beside Liu Jishan, lowered his head, and asked, "Hey, hey, wake up! Are you conscious?"

As he spoke, the figure reached out a palm and poked Liu Jishan's head.

Hesitation, struggle, sheer terror...

Ultimately, Liu Jishan still put on an act and slowly opened his eyes.

What greeted his vision was a mysterious person dressed in night-walker garb, with a masked face. Judging from the contour of his physique, it should be a man.

Damn it, dressed like this, he was a genuine martial arts hero!

Joy surged wildly in Liu Jishan's heart, and he asked tentatively, "You... ?!"

"I'm here to rescue you. Can you walk?" the mysterious man asked at a very rapid pace.

***

Liu Jishan's desperately pounding little heart hammered against his ribs, and he nodded without the slightest hesitation: "I can!"

"Swish!"

The mysterious man immediately retrieved a pill from his waist: "Swallow it. It can restore some of your strength."

Looking at the pill in the other's hand, Liu Jishan hesitated for only a fraction of a second before taking it without hesitation and swallowing it straight down.

No situation could possibly be worse than his current plight; hesitating for even one more second might mean losing his chance at survival.

The pill entered his stomach, and instantly, a warm current flowed through his belly, giving him an immediate sensation of bodily comfort and renewed vigor.

It wasn't poison; this person had genuinely come to rescue him.

With a swoosh, Liu Jishan stood up and lifted the shackles on his hands and feet: "Get these off, they're in the way."

"Swish!"

The mysterious man drew his waist saber and shattered the wooden cangue with two crisp clangs, then issued a low instruction: "We have at most a quarter of an hour to escape. Make sure you stay right behind me."

"Got it," Liu Jishan nodded.

As the words fell, the two of them slipped past the wooden barred door of the cell and moved swiftly through the corridors.

During their escape, Liu Jishan kept observing the surroundings and noticed quite a few unconscious soldiers lying along the route. Judging by their fallen postures and expressions, they should have been hit by some sort of soporific poison gas and caught completely off guard.

This level of observation wasn't particularly outstanding, but it matched the standard of a recidivist who had been imprisoned twice.

Their movements were agile, and before long, they crossed three corridors and dashed right out of the dungeon entrance.

It was currently morning. Although the sunlight was bright, the air still held a damp and chilly bite, and crystal dew hung upon the greenery in the dungeon courtyard.

Yet this feeling was simply too wonderful. Liu Jishan had hardly ever laid eyes on the sun in Prince Huai's Mansion; he took a deep gulp of fresh air—that was the taste of freedom.

"Which way do we run?!" Liu Jishan asked, looking at the mysterious man.

Hiding near the entrance, the mysterious man first glanced around before casting his gaze toward the left side of the prison courtyard.

Following his gaze, Liu Jishan spotted the rear of a side room where a stick of sandalwood incense had been inserted, already burned down past the halfway mark.

"When the incense burns halfway, patrolling soldiers will come by. We won't leave just yet; we'll hide behind the building," the mysterious man dropped those words, paid Liu Jishan no further mind, and sprinted agilely toward the side room.

"He's a professional,"

Liu Jishan muttered internally before immediately following suit.

The two of them hid in the narrow alley between the back of the side room and the enclosing wall, pressing themselves as flat against the ground as possible, not daring to move a muscle.

Now that an opportunity for conversation had arisen, Liu Jishan asked as casually as possible, "Brother, who sent you to rescue me?"

"Ha, Prince Huai," the mysterious man sneered.

"Ha," upon hearing this, Liu Jishan sneered right back: "It was Chief Clerk Li Yan, wasn't it? Are you... a local, or an outsider?"

This question was clearly asking whether he was a native gate-spirit or an external player.

However, the mysterious man did not answer directly, instead asking softly in return: "The second act has begun, and everyone is making preparations to enter the tomb. Without an absolute necessity, who do you think would come rescue you and take this kind of risk?"

Liu Jishan thought about this carefully, but did not reply immediately.

"Prince Huai is a player, and he just woke up," the mysterious man said in a low voice. "The experts here all went to see him. This is the only chance to save you."

Liu Jishan still didn't make a sound, simply staring fixedly at the mysterious man.

"Damn it, are you still going to play dumb with me?!" Seeing him play mute, the mysterious man cursed under his breath, "My mission requires me to rescue you. Who do you think I work for?"

Seeing that the other had denied being Li Yan's man, Liu Jishan's doubts dissipated by a few fractions, but he still spoke up first: "Are you with the imperial court faction?"

"I might as well just slash your throat and be done with it!" The mysterious man raised his steel saber by a small margin, pressing it directly against Liu Jishan's neck.

"Don't, don't, brother, we're on the same side, let's not get excited," Liu Jishan shuddered in fright. "Dressed like that, how was I supposed to know who you really were?!"

"If I were with the imperial court faction, would I come alone to rescue you? Would I wait until now to do it?!" The mysterious man gritted his steel saber-like teeth, speaking word by word: "I'm a fence-sitter!"

"Say no more, long live the fence-sitters!"

Seeing that the other party had broken the ice first, Liu Jishan let out a long sigh of relief: "Comrade, why did you take so long to get here!"

The mysterious man rolled his eyes: "Don't you know what's been happening outside?"

"?! "

Liu Jishan was visibly startled and instinctively asked, "I've been locked up this whole fucking time, how could I possibly know what's going on outside?"

"During the previous act, a player died. Celestial Master Xu led all the civil and military officials to strong-arm Prince Huai at the entrance of the Serenity Hall, only to be counter-killed by Prince Huai in a sudden burst," the mysterious man said in a low voice. "This place was put under strict guard, so there was simply no opportunity to rescue you."

"That loser Prince Huai actually managed to pull off a counter-kill?" Liu Jishan was astonished. "How on earth did he pull that off?!"

"God knows." The mysterious man glanced around and spotted a squad of soldiers crossing the courtyard to enter the dungeon: "No time to talk about it. Once they enter the dungeon, they'll find the drugged guards, so we need to take advantage of this chance and leave immediately. Once we get out of the courtyard, find a place to hide on your own, and we'll regroup inside the princess's tomb."

"Got it," Liu Jishan nodded immediately.

As the words fell, taking advantage of the moment the soldiers entered the dungeon, the two of them vaulted over the high wall and left.

Running along a small garden for less than half a quarter of an hour, shouts echoed from the direction of the dungeon.

"Intruders are breaking out of prison!"

"Liu Jishan has escaped!"

"......!"

The cries quickly merged into a chorus. Crouched in the bushes, the mysterious man looked up at Liu Jishan and said, "We might need disguise to enter the princess's tomb. Let's agree on a passphrase in advance."

Liu Jishan frowned at him: "Brother, my charges in the main hall have already been made official; I've got nowhere to hide right now. Do you have a safehouse? Can you provide me with one...?"

"Like hell I do!" the mysterious man said speechlessly. "My character status is very low; it's already a miracle if I can keep myself hidden. Figure something out yourself."

Liu Jishan wore an anxious expression: "Alright then. I'll come up with a passphrase, and we'll regroup at the princess's tomb."

"Go ahead."

"Um...," Liu Jishan thought carefully for a moment before blurting out, "Prince Huai's old man always hits police stings whenever he gets in a car, and his grandma always meets hooligans whenever she dances!"

The mysterious man's body stiffened abruptly.

"How is it?" Liu Jishan asked.

"Fine passphrase!" The mysterious man nodded heavily: "I've got it memorized. See you later."

"Fence-sitters will win!" Liu Jishan clenched his stinky little fist and said through gritted teeth, "Now that I'm out, the bastard Prince Huai's good days are numbered."

"You bet."

The two bumped fists and fled the scene separately.

***

A moment later, the mysterious man walked into an empty side room and directly pulled off the black cloth masking his face.

He was none other than the useless Prince Huai—Ren Ye, whose old man always hit police stings whenever he got in a car.

"Oh my, you really kept this concubine waiting," a sultry figure appeared, asking with flirtatious allure, "Has Your Highness tested Liu Jishan's depth yet?"

Wearing black, Ren Ye glanced at him: "He came right out and asked if I was Chief Clerk Li Yan's man. When I didn't answer directly, he asked another question: whether I belonged to the imperial court faction."

Tang Feng extended a "jade hand" and picked up a teacup: "I have the Die Ling, which is the exclusive communication item for imperial court faction players. If he were a player of the imperial court faction, he definitely would have used this item to stay in touch with everyone, and he certainly wouldn't have asked it like that."

"Right, so I took a gamble, stated first that I was a fence-sitter player, and he admitted to it as well." Ren Ye gently put down his waist saber: "This guy had contact with Li Yan and is also a fence-sitter player. He's simply the most suitable person to use as a spy."

Er Leng had said that while monitoring Liu Jishan, the man often talked in his sleep at night, cursing Prince Huai with very bizarre phrasing.

The ancients couldn't understand the meaning of those words, but Ren Ye knew the moment he heard them that this was definitely a player from the outside world.

Given this, he had three choices: first, kill Liu Jishan outright to reduce the number of opposing faction players; second, absorb him to become a member of his own faction; third, let him go back and lay an ambush in secret.

After weighing it repeatedly, killing Liu Jishan would indeed effectively reduce one opposing player. That approach was the simplest and most brutal, but it wouldn't bring him much help because enemies were everywhere—adding one or subtracting one didn't really matter.

However, if he chose to put on a show and let him escape, the variables would be massive. In the Qingliang Mansion star gate, no player was a fool. Up until now, everyone had been desperately hiding their identities, and to win, one had to figure out who the opponents were, how many there were, and how the specific factions were divided...

Information was crucial in this game.

Furthermore, letting him go back still left open the possibility of turning him. If the Princess Consort refused to join his faction, Liu Jishan could serve as a backup option.

Therefore, Ren Ye decided to cast a long line and set a hook!