Chapter 50: Mutual Slaughter (1)

How fortunate it is to be born into an official's family, yet it is simply unfortunate that Shangguan Cheng does not possess such good fortune.

As he spoke, Shangguan Cheng kept observing Chang Geque's expression.

Seeing that her expression remained completely unchanged, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although he was the son of an official from Jincheng, he had long been secretly working for the Prince of Chen, so not many people in Jincheng should recognize him.

Just like this time, when His Highness the Prince of Chen sensed something unusual about the Nine Gardens and specifically sent him to investigate.

Chang Geque smiled faintly and found a spot to lean against for a moment. She was not pretending to doze; she was genuinely exhausted.

Yet all of this, in the eyes of Shangguan Cheng, ignited a deep blaze of fury. He was offering her a chance to align with him, yet she showed no appreciation.

His eyes flickered as he noticed the pierced earlobes of Chang Geque. In an instant, a look resembling a venomous snake slithered across his gaze.

A gloomy smile crept up the corner of his mouth.

Since she refused a toast only to drink a forfeit of fine, she could not blame him for being ruthless.

Though Chang Geque leaned against the corner pretending to rest, she was not truly asleep. How could she possibly fail to sense the chilling murderous intent radiating from Shangguan Cheng?

A faint smile surfaced at the corners of her lips.

***

Upon entering the Stone Garden, Feng Shang frowned slightly, while Steward Qin froze in astonishment. "This... someone has entered the dungeon." The secret chamber was what Steward Qin referred to as the dungeon.

"She, how on earth did she get in?" Their Stone Garden's dungeon was not a place just any stray cat or dog could enter.

The mechanism to open the dungeon was exceedingly covert; how on earth did that woman manage to get inside?

Meanwhile, a look of vindication flashed through Feng Shang's eyes.

He had known all along that that woman could not be judged by ordinary standards; there was simply no place she could not reach.

He only wondered what kind of expression she would wear if she found out that after going through such painstaking efforts to escape, she had ended up right inside his own dungeon.

At this thought, a surge of excitement, one that he himself had not noticed, welled up within Feng Shang.

"Open the stone chamber!" A rare hint of a smile flickered deep within Feng Shang's dark, fathomless eyes.

Gazing at the descending night, Steward Qin spoke with a hint of worry, "Your Highness, this place is not like Mobei. The moon has already risen, should we—"

Feng Shang let out a cold laugh, his bewitching and demonic features carrying a haughty and utter disdain. "The people locked in the stone chamber here have been kept for over a decade. If they cannot serve any purpose today, simply chop them up evenly and send the meat to their families to go with their wine."

Thinking of the prisoners locked inside the stone chamber, Steward Qin felt a cold sweat break out on his back, which was immediately followed by a boundless reverence for Feng Shang.

To say nothing else, back in the day, how majestic and domineering the Master of the Poison Sect had been, yet he was defeated by their thirteenth-year-old Ninth Prince.

Immediately afterwards, he was tossed into this stone chamber, locked away for yet another thirteen years.

Throughout this period, the Ninth Prince had never once subjected him to an interrogation.

He still remembered the mocking expression on the face of the thirteen-year-old Ninth Prince back then as he said, "The Poison Sect's secret recipes are never passed to outsiders? This Prince cannot be bothered to interrogate him. Lock him alone inside a secret chamber, release him every three years to live with a group of deaf and mute people for three days, and then lock him up again, until he is willing to speak!"

At this thought, Steward Qin could not help but sigh. Spending three years eating, drinking, shitting, and sleeping in a space no larger than the palm of a hand, how excited one would be to finally see a living person after three years, only for them to be a group of deaf-mutes—the Master of the Poison Sect must have gone mad by now.

As the door of the stone chamber was opened and Feng Shang stepped into the dim, gloomy passageway, Chang Geque, deep inside the stone chamber, suddenly furrowed her brow, her eyes sparkling with a crystalline brilliance.