Tang Dynasty Hidden Guards

Xue Wei had no idea that he was facing the most brutal torture in the Tang Dynasty.

In the pitch-black water dungeon, Xue Wei knelt naked on a blue stone slab, holding a bone spur made from his thigh bone, the tip of which was extremely sharp. His expression was focused, and his sharp and deep gaze pierced through the surrounding darkness.

He was surrounded by a gloomy and terrifying water dungeon, filled with skeletons and rotting flesh, and the stinking, slimy liquid had swallowed countless wronged souls.

Beneath Xue Wei was a three-meter-long, one-meter-wide slab of bluestone. For the past year, he had lived on this slab, escaping the corrosive effects of the foul water.

The origin of this stone slab is a mystery. It suddenly appeared three days after he was imprisoned in the water dungeon. When he could no longer hold on, he fainted and woke up to find himself lying on the stone slab.

Xue Wei didn't know who had built the stone slabs for him, nor did he know his own name, which dynasty he lived in, or what crime he had committed.

For a whole year, these questions tormented him to the point of near madness, until he gradually became numb. What good would knowing do? Could he even leave?

There was a fist-sized hole at the top of the water prison, which Xue Wei named Alibaba's Treasure. Today, the treasure was opened, and a fat rat crawled in.

"Brother Rat, come out quickly! I'm a vegetarian and don't kill any living beings. I want to have a chat with you about life!"

Xue Wei muttered to himself, his ears twitching slightly, his gaze scanning every corner of the water prison like a radar.

Six months ago, he noticed a change in his body; his hearing became exceptionally sharp, and he could not miss any slight movement inside or outside the water prison.

In addition, his eyes gradually adapted to the darkness, and he was able to see things in the dark. The pitch-black water prison was clearly visible to him, as if he were wearing night vision goggles.

Xue Wei couldn't understand why his senses had become abnormal. Perhaps it was a physical mutation brought about by the transmigration, or perhaps the six months of darkness had forced his senses to upgrade.

Suddenly, a very faint rustling sound came from behind him. Xue Wei turned around abruptly, and seven steps away, two emeralds the size of soybeans suddenly appeared.

The bone spike shot out like lightning, and a mournful squeal echoed from the water prison as the plump body was pierced by the bone spike.

Xue Wei squinted, stepped forward, and picked up the bone spur. The fat rat, weighing at least a pound, was still dripping with blood. He licked his lips, as if he could already taste the tender and delicious rat meat.

Just then, the faint sound of the door opening in the outer corridor could be heard. Xue Wei reacted quickly, gently put down the rat feast, and leaped up, landing precisely on a wooden stake in the middle of the pool. The stake was surrounded by waist-deep filthy water, thick and viscous, mixed with corpse water and excrement, and smelled extremely foul.

Xue Wei leaped again, landing lightly on the stone steps in front of the prison door, and precisely grabbed a protruding door frame to steady himself.

The stone steps were only ten centimeters wide, barely wide enough for one foot to stand on. On the darkest day of his life, he crawled out of the filthy water, trembling like a leaf, and stood on these ten-centimeter-wide stone steps like a monkey for three whole days.

He didn't close his eyes for three days until despair and fear completely overwhelmed him, causing him to faint. When he opened his eyes again, he saw the blue stone slab.

The bluestone strips, like a beam of light, illuminated the darkest part of his life.

Stepping onto the stone steps, he instantly transformed into a different person. His previous sharpness and swiftness vanished, and he became a prisoner struggling to survive, weak and humbly crawling on the stone steps.

For the past year, he has carefully survived here, exchanging humility and forbearance for a bowl of coarse rice given to him by the prison guards.

There is hope only if we survive.

The small compartment beneath the cell door opened, letting in a dim, yellowish light. The jailer, holding an oil lamp, looked down at Xue Wei, who was crawling on the stone steps, and said, "Still alive!"

Just then, heavy footsteps sounded outside again, followed by a deep voice, "Make way, let me see!"

It's been a year. This is the first outsider's voice Xue Wei has heard since arriving in this era, apart from the jailer's shouts and curses.

He gripped the bone spur hidden behind his back; he couldn't let any opportunity slip by, and if there wasn't one, he would create one himself.

The jailer placed the oil lamp on the ground and stepped aside.

In that instant, Xue Wei caught a glimpse of a middle-aged man in a clean robe walking in. He was slightly overweight. He walked over and squatted down. Through the food delivery compartment, his gaze fell on Xue Wei kneeling on the ground.

But the intense stench in the water dungeon made the man cover his mouth and nose, take two steps back, and frown in disgust.

"Give him a good wash and move him to another spot!"

The middle-aged man didn't look at him again and turned away.

"Wash yourself clean and move to another spot!"

These words made every muscle in Xue Wei's body tremble. A whole year had passed, and when he carved his 360th mark on the wall, the chance to escape the water dungeon finally appeared.

The moment the middle-aged man turned around, Xue Wei snapped off the bone spur behind him and quickly stuffed the tip of the spur into his mouth.

........

Xue Wei still clearly remembers the day he traveled through time.

In his previous life, he was the national fencing club league épée champion, ran a fencing club, loved outdoor sports, and was skilled in rock climbing and parkour.

Two years ago, Xue Wei was struck by a series of misfortunes, including being diagnosed with a terminal illness, the bankruptcy of his club, and the breakdown of his marriage.

He then sold all his possessions and traveled the world climbing mountains to challenge himself. Unfortunately, while climbing Lenin Peak in Kyrgyzstan, he was caught in an avalanche...

When Xue Wei woke up again, he found himself in a dark and damp prison. Beside him was a young man curled up in a ball, trembling all over, with blood flowing from his face, as if he had just been given poisoned wine.

He still clearly remembers the last words the young man, barely breathing, said to him.

"If you go out and see my father, tell him that I hid that item in a secret room in his study, and the mechanism to open it is... under the bed. Please."

The young man's body was carried away, and Xue Wei was also carried away by the jailers like a dead dog. He had no strength to resist and was thrown into a water dungeon that was incredibly smelly, incredibly sticky, and filled with corpses.

No one told him who the young man was, and the man's identity became a great mystery in his mind, but as time went by, he gradually forgot about that mystery.

"Live on! You must live on!"

His strong will to survive and his incredibly tenacious will sustained him for a whole year, right up to this day.

"Splash!" A bucket of cold water was poured over his head, instantly clearing his mind, but his body was already numb and he felt nothing. Several wire brushes scraped and slashed his body, peeling away a thick layer of black skin bit by bit, revealing the true color of his skin.

It took countless buckets of cold water to gradually eliminate the stench emanating from him. The reason was simple: the people who wanted to see him were germaphobes and couldn't stand even the slightest fishy or foul smell.

Most of his matted hair was cut off, and his beard was shaved off by the jailer with a sharp dagger.

Xue Wei was dressed in a coarse hemp prison uniform, his hands and feet shackled, and led to a stone chamber. He glanced at it from afar; the chamber was dimly lit, and the damp, mottled stone walls seemed to be covered with various instruments of torture. A sharp glint flashed in Xue Wei's eyes, and he locked his gaze on a steel whip hanging on the wall.

Upon reaching the door, Xue Wei immediately lowered his head, his gaze returning to one of timidity and servility. He staggered into the stone chamber, stopping less than two meters from the steel whip.

Using the enhanced senses he had developed in the dark water prison, he immediately determined that there were six people inside the stone house, including the two jailers behind him. He clearly and accurately located the six people and calculated the time it would take to kill them.

"Raise your head!" someone coldly commanded.

Xue Wei slowly raised his head and saw a middle-aged man sitting on a stone stool in the center of the stone chamber. The man had a long face and narrow eyes that revealed a sinister and ruthless cunning. He was staring at Xue Wei expressionlessly.

"Kneel down!" a jailer behind him shouted.

Xue Wei was about to kneel down silently when the middle-aged man waved his hand and said coldly, "Untie him."

The jailer stepped forward and unlocked Xue Wei's shackles. This was the opportunity Xue Wei had been waiting for. Just as he was about to reach for the steel whip on the wall, he suddenly heard a mocking remark.

"I never imagined that the dignified Three Masters Young Master would become worse than a pig or a dog. So what if your mother is Princess Taiping?"

His hand stopped abruptly. His mother was Princess Taiping?

The middle-aged man made a sarcastic remark, then took out a gold medal from his pocket and waved it in front of the prison warden; the gold gleamed.

"This is the Emperor's golden token; I'm taking the person with me."

Xue Wei forcibly suppressed the urge to kill and break out. How could he possibly fight his way out of a place where only the Emperor's golden token could take someone away? Besides... it seemed unnecessary.

The mystery that had lingered in Xue Wei's mind for a year was suddenly solved: 'It turns out I'm in the mid-Tang Dynasty, and I'm actually the son of Princess Taiping!'

.........

Xue Wei changed into a worn-out robe, with a black bag over his head, and was led out of the prison. He felt as if he had boarded a carriage.

Along the way, countless questions welled up in his mind: What crime had he committed that even his powerful mother, Princess Taiping, couldn't save him? And now, who had rescued him? What were their motives for doing so?

After an unknown amount of time, the black bag on his head was finally removed.

The light was too bright for him to open his eyes; he had lived in darkness for a long time and was no longer accustomed to strong light.

After a while, his vision gradually cleared, and he found himself in a rather large room, about seventy or eighty square meters. Apart from a huge screen on the wall, there was no other furniture, making it seem very empty. Sunlight streamed in, and countless tiny dust particles floated in the air.

Behind Xue Wei stood two tall, white-clad warriors. Opposite him sat a middle-aged man on a wooden couch. This was the same middle-aged man who had brought him out of prison. The man held a steaming teacup and sipped it slowly, scrutinizing Xue Wei, who had been timid and hesitant ever since he was imprisoned.

He suddenly snorted, "Just a useless piece of trash. I really don't know what my master sees in you?"

The other party's words suddenly made Xue Wei see a gamble: should he return to his true colors or continue to pretend to be weak? Which side should he bet on?

Xue Wei glanced at the huge screen against the wall on the side, and his extraordinary hearing allowed him to detect a very faint breathing sound behind the screen.

Xue Wei took a deep breath, straightened his back, and instantly swept away the feigned humility and timidity he had been putting on.

Xue Wei had completely transformed into another person. His skin was as pale as a freshly painted wall, his eyes were as cold as a wild beast, and he was tall and upright with long limbs. Although he was not particularly robust or strong, every muscle in his body contained powerful explosive force, just like a nimble cheetah.

"puff--"

Xue Wei turned his head and spat out the bone spur in his mouth. The bone spur was as sharp as a steel nail and was precisely driven into a wooden pillar ten feet away. He stared coldly at the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man stared intently at the one-inch-long bone spur on the wooden pillar. He seemed to understand something, and suddenly looked at Xue Wei with horror in his eyes. His Adam's apple bobbed violently, and he couldn't utter a single word.

"Good! Good! Good!"

A cool, clear voice came from behind the screen.