Nine Desolate Records

The dark silver patterns on the sunshade swirled in the night, almost completely concealing Lu Li's aura. He moved along the shadows of the wall, each step landing on the most inconspicuous indentations of the bluestone slabs.

The outline of the city lord's mansion gradually became clear in the field of vision.

Dead silence—that was Lu Li's first impression.

Contrary to expectations of a heavily guarded mansion, the patrols around the city lord's residence were unusually sparse. The gates were tightly shut, and two stone bixie statues cast long shadows in the moonlight, their eye sockets filled with dark red, viscous liquid, as if they might drip blood tears at any moment.

Lu Li stopped at the alley entrance thirty steps from the mansion wall: dark red moss, the same color as on the street, seeped from the cracks in the blue bricks on the wall; the entire mansion lay silently in the night, like a giant beast rotting from the inside.

The old blind man said Yun Jin was in the dungeon. Since he could reveal this information, it means there must be a channel of communication between him and Yun Jin.

Lu Li's gaze fell once again on the old locust tree at the southeast corner of the mansion wall. The abandoned drainage pipe at the base of the tree was the most likely entrance at present. He moved silently to the foot of the tree, parted the weeds and silt that half-covered the pipe opening, and found that the inside of the pipe was dark, damp, and bottomless.

He took a deep breath, tightened the front of the sunshade, and bent down to crawl inside.

The drainpipe reeked of decay, and the ground beneath his feet was semi-solidified silt. Lu Li hunched over and walked forward in the darkness. After about twenty paces, a faint light appeared ahead, along with hushed conversations.

He slowed his pace and moved to the end of the pipe. There was an iron fence, and outside the fence was a stone corridor. Two guards dressed as demon hunters were standing with their backs to him, whispering something.

"...That madman on the third floor of the dungeon laughed all night again last night."

"Didn't Commander Yun go to conduct the interrogation?"

"Interrogate? I think Commander Yun herself has problems. She suddenly appeared three days ago with a transfer order from headquarters to take over the dungeon interrogation, but the number on that transfer order... I secretly checked, it was issued and invalidated three months ago."

"you mean……"

"Shh! Keep your voice down! I'll just say that there are too many strange things happening in the manor right now. The earth veins are moving, the well is making a fuss, and even the city lord is staying indoors... We just need to guard this entrance and not worry about anything else."

Lu Li's thoughts stirred slightly. Yun Jin used a voided transfer order? This meant her infiltration wasn't officially authorized. Her situation was probably more dangerous than she imagined.

The guards' footsteps faded into the distance. Lu Li gripped the Phoenix-Suppressing Dagger in his robes, its crimson blade gleaming faintly, and aimed it at the iron gate's latch. The instant the blade's tip touched the bronze, the latch silently softened and melted through. He gently pushed open the gate and slid out of the pipe.

The corridor was silent. Lu Li moved along the shadows along the wall, following the directions given in the guards' conversation, and crept deeper into the dungeon. The further he went, the colder it became, and the torchlight on the walls flickered more and more uncertainly.

A gray-black mist began to fill the air, a materialized manifestation of fear. Most of the prisoners in the cells on either side huddled in corners, muttering to themselves or trembling silently, enveloped in the mist. Occasionally, those who hadn't completely lost their minds would hear footsteps and lunge at the bars, stretching out their withered hands, their eyes filled with madness.

Lu Li dodged the hands, a subtle tremor emanating from the lock mark on his chest. The accumulated fear here was resonating with the fragments of the prisoner within his body.

Turning a corner, three paths appeared ahead. Each path was dark and deep, its destination unknown. Lu Li stopped, and as he hesitated, a very faint metallic scraping sound came from the depths of the passage on his left—not from chains, but more like the sound of a knife tip scraping against a stone wall.

There are people inside, and they are being very careful.

Lu Li approached quietly. At the end of the passage was a half-open iron door, dim light shining through the crack. He turned sideways and peered through the crack—

A figure stood with her back to the doorway, examining the carvings on the wall. She wore a dark, fitted outfit, her long hair tied up, and her shoulders and back were sharply defined. In her hand, she held a short blade, the tip of which lightly grazed the stone wall, as if she were trying to identify something.

The moment Lu Li's gaze fell upon him, the figure suddenly turned around!

The torchlight flickered across her profile, outlining a clear and sharp silhouette. She appeared to be in her early twenties, her face as cool and serene as the moon reflected in a still pool. Most striking were her eyes—deep within her pupils flowed a strange, liquid mercury-like luster, as if stars were being annihilated and reborn within them.

At this moment, those silver eyes were staring straight at the crack in the door where Lu Li was hiding—no, not staring, but a more direct "insight." Yun Jin's gaze seemed to pierce through the iron door, through the layers of concealing runes on the sunshade, and landed directly on Lu Li.

More precisely, it landed on the pulsating lock mark on his chest, and on the dark blue-green prisoner's essence that had been forcibly sealed within him.

Lu Li felt a chill run down his spine, as if he had been completely exposed. Under the gaze of those silver eyes, he felt that all his secrets were being rapidly read, leaving him with nowhere to hide.

Yun Jin's brows furrowed slightly, and the light in her silver eyes swirled faster. She remained silent.

Lu Li stopped hiding, pushed open the door and entered, then gently closed it behind him.

In the narrow, dark room, the two looked at each other.

A silver light shimmered in her eyes, casting an almost inhuman solemnity upon her cool, aloof face. She spoke first, her voice low but each word clear:

"70% human nature, 30% prisoner's power."

She paused, her silver pupils narrowing slightly:

"And that thing sealed within you... is the Prisoner's Origin. With such deep erosion, you should have lost yourself long ago. Why are you still standing here?"

Lu Li remained silent for a moment. This woman knew far too much, so much that it instinctively made him wary. But the old blind man's guidance, and the precise insight she was currently displaying into the prisoners' power, forced him to take a gamble.

"Because someone made me stand here," Lu Li said slowly. "The blacksmith shop in the north of the city, under the locust tree. The old blind man told me to come to the dungeon to find you."

Upon hearing the words "Old Blind Man," the silver light in Yun Jin's eyes paused slightly. The penetrating insight that seemed to pierce the soul subsided somewhat. The inhuman solemnity on her face faded, replaced by a complex emotion, a mixture of realization and heaviness.

"I see..." she murmured, a hint of weariness in her voice. "He has finally waited for the 'person who was meant to come'."

Yun Jin sheathed her short blade, the silver light in her pupils completely disappearing, returning to a pair of deep black eyes. She looked at Lu Li, her gaze still sharp, but lacking that oppressive sense of insight.

"How can you see through what's inside me?" Lu Li asked, puzzled.

"I have the Eye of Truth." She said calmly, "It's a talent passed down through generations of the Yun family bloodline. It allows me to see through the flow of energy and the pretense of people's hearts. The price is that overuse will damage my eyesight, and in severe cases, it can lead to permanent blindness."

"The old blind man and my father were old friends," she explained briefly, without going into details.

He looked at Yun Jin: "You know what's inside me, and you know about the old blind man. So you should also know why I've come to find you."

"Lock Dragon Well"

She looked at Lu Li again. Although his Eye of Truth was not activated, his dark eyes were still as sharp as knives.

"Your humanity is slowly declining. Every time you use the Prisoner's power, you accelerate this process. And the 'Fear' projection beneath the Dragon-Locking Well is most sensitive to the Prisoner's essence. Once you get close, it may fully awaken, and then—"

"So, I need your help," Lu Li continued, "This is also what the old blind man meant."

Yun Jin remained silent for a moment. The only sounds in the dark room were the crackling of the burning torches and the faint murmurs of prisoners deep in the dungeon.

"I can help you," she finally said, her voice regaining its previous coldness, "but not because of the old blind man's request. It's because..."

She raised her eyes to look at Lu Li, a cold hatred flashing deep within her dark eyes:

"Xun Wenruo's 'Demon-Taming Plan' killed my father. And now, you are both the most crucial 'creation' in his plan and its biggest variable. Helping you is, in a sense, disrupting his scheme."

It was Xun Wenruo again. This name was like a curse, clinging to the fate of everyone associated with him.

"So, what should we do now? Where is the high priest? How can we bypass the watchful eyes of the Turbid Abyss Cult and get into the well?"

Yun Jin took out the simple map from her bosom and unrolled it again in the dim light. Her finger touched a mark at the deepest part of the map:

"The high priest is imprisoned in the 'Soul-Suppressing Chamber,' which is the deepest part of the dungeon. There are six guards on duty at the only entrance, two of whom are spies planted by the Turbid Abyss Cult. Although I temporarily calmed the situation with the abolition order, if I openly bring you, someone with the aura of a prisoner and wanted by the entire city, directly through the main gate, those spies will immediately give the signal, and all the Turbid Abyss Cult members in the dungeon will surround us."

"But when the dungeon was built thirty years ago, an abandoned ventilation shaft was left behind, leading directly to an inspection port at the rear of the Soul-Suppressing Chamber. Apart from a few old craftsmen who participated in the construction, only my father's blueprints marked this shaft. The Turbid Abyss Sect would never have imagined that we would enter from there."

"The Soul-Suppressing Chamber is now a lair of fear projections. What we need is not to confront the High Priest directly, but to obtain from him a method to safely pass through the Well-Border Restriction, especially how to deal with the 'Balance of Cost'."

She looked at Lu Li, her gaze serious:

"To take the Zhenlin Dagger, one must pass the test of the scales and pay an equivalent price. However, the 'price' required by the scales varies from person to person, and it is often the thing you cannot afford. The high priest has presided over the sacrifice for many years and must know the rules of the matter, and may even have ways to avoid or reduce the price."

"We must take advantage of the moment when the connection between the priest and the projection of fear is weakest, usually at the end of midnight or the beginning of 1-3 am. The projection will briefly retreat to the bottom of the well to replenish its power, at which time the priest will regain some of his consciousness, which is also our only chance to question him."

She glanced at a simple hourglass in the dark room:

"There's still half an hour until Chou hour (1-3 AM). Time is tight, but it's enough for us to infiltrate the designated location. The problem is..."

Yun Jin raised her head and looked directly at Lu Li:

"Once we enter the vicinity of the Soul-Suppressing Chamber, your Prisoner Aura will likely trigger the Fear Projection, even if it's in a period of withdrawal. I need you to suppress the fluctuations within you as much as possible, and under no circumstances should you use the Prisoner's power. Can you do that?"

Lu Li felt the throbbing of the lock on his chest, the coolness and warmth of the two daggers in his arms, and the fragile balance he was in.

"I can," he said.

Yun Jin observed him for three breaths, the silver light of her Eye of Truth flashing briefly, as if confirming his condition. Then she nodded:

"Okay. Follow me."

She put away the map, walked to the wall on the other side of the darkroom, and pressed her fingers on several seemingly ordinary bricks in a specific order. The wall slid open silently, revealing a narrow gap just wide enough for one person to pass through, inside which was pitch black.

"No one has walked through this secret passage for thirty years. I don't know what's inside." Yun Jin took the lead and slipped in sideways. Her voice came from the darkness, "Stay close to me and don't touch anything."

Lu Li took a deep breath, glanced one last time at the flickering firelight in the dungeon corridor behind him, then turned and disappeared into the pure darkness.

Behind him, the wall quietly closed, shutting out all light and sound.

Deep within the dungeon, a colossal being stirred slightly from its slumber.

It smelled a familiar scent.

That was the aura of "tyranny".

It also has the aura of a "container".