vrcanaries Chapter 330 Interrogation
Chapter 330 Interrogation
The reverberating sound of the iron gate closing still echoed between the stone walls, and Hu Qing's eardrums were buzzing from the muffled sound.
He slowly opened his eyes, and the blood scabs on his eyelashes cracked into several fine lines as he moved.
The turbid air in the dungeon, wrapped in a musty smell, penetrated into the lungs, and every breath felt like swallowing a handful of rusty iron filings.
When the five fingers of his right hand were inserted into the straw pile, a few dry grass stems made a crisp sound.
Hu Qing fumbled and picked, and when his fingertips touched a relatively dry bundle of straw, he gently pulled it out - the edges of these straws had turned yellow, but at least they were not stained with suspicious mucus.
In the corner, there was a shallow pit that had been scratched out by the previous prisoner with gravel. He laid the sorted bundles of grass on it layer by layer. The movement caused the whip wound on his chest to itch, and cold sweat slid down his temples to his chin.
"Hey, new here!"
The dull thud of chains hitting the ground came from the cell next door. A hoarse voice penetrated the bars, "How many people did you have to kill to qualify for death row?"
The entire corridor suddenly came alive, and many prisoners came out to join in the fun.
After all, everyone here is a death row inmate, and newcomers who haven't been here for a while must be welcomed.
The clanging of shackles rang out from every cell, like the sound of a pack of hungry wolves grinding their teeth.
Hu Qing saw half of a skinny arm sticking out from the cage opposite, and the black dirt embedded in the nails was particularly glaring in the firelight.
"Why are you pretending to be so noble!"
Seeing that Hu Qing didn't answer, the old prisoner diagonally opposite suddenly jumped up, and his right leg, which was tied with an iron chain, scraped sparks on the stone ground.
"That monk behaved like this last time, and he ended up howling like a woman on the rack!"
Hu Qing compacted the last handful of straw, and when he lay down, the back of his head hit a protruding stone slab.
He stared at the cracks in the rocks above his head where water was seeping. The water droplets glowed an eerie blue light in the shadows.
The shouting and cursing outside the cell gradually turned into meaningless noise, coming and going like the tide - the dizziness from excessive blood loss began to erode his mind.
At the end of the corridor, there was the sound of boot soles crunching over gravel, but the jailer never showed up.
A thought suddenly flashed through Hu Qing's chaotic mind: These prisoners made such a big noise and no one cared, which could only mean...
He tilted his head slightly and saw that the old man on the right next to him was scratching the wall nervously with his right hand, which was missing three fingers. The wall was covered with dense, faded bloody fingerprints.
"They are all waiting to die..." Hu Qing moved his lips silently, and the iron shackles made a slight sound when he turned over.
The musty smell of straw mixed with the stench of blood blocked his throat. He curled up and held the stump of his injured left arm against his chest.
The cold air from the stone wall seeped through the thin clothes, but at least the dry straw beneath him still retained a hint of the smell of sunshine.
When many prisoners found that Hu Qing did not respond at all, they all felt bored. The last prisoner who was shouting also fell silent. Hu Qing could hear his own slow heartbeat.
The light spots cast by the air vents had long since disappeared, and in the darkness there was the sound of rats gnawing on bones.
He closed his eyes, and the heavy feeling of fatigue quickly dragged him into the abyss.
Before he completely lost consciousness, he vaguely heard the creaking sound of an iron door opening from deep in the corridor. The sound did not sound like the jailer's leather boots, but more like some kind of metal gears turning.
………………
The sharp whistling sound of the whip tearing through the air pulled Hu Qing out of the chaos, and a burning pain came from his back.
He suddenly opened his eyes and saw three dark shadows standing in front of the prison door. The light of the torch distorted their shadows and cast them on the stone wall, like three evil spirits with bared fangs and claws.
"Playing dead?"
The leading guard swung the blood-soaked whip, and blood splashed on Hu Qing's face, warm and smelling of rust.
Hu Qing subconsciously touched his back, and his fingertips touched a gaping wound. Sticky blood was flowing down his spine.
The shackles rattled as two guards held him up, one on each side.
The guard on the left with a face full of flesh deliberately pinched the broken part of his left arm, and the severe pain made Hu Qing's eyes go black.
"What are you looking at?"
The guard on the right kicked him in the knee and said, "You still want to be the boss after entering the bloody prison?"
When Hu Qing was dragged out of the prison, his bare feet scraped against the wet stone slabs, leaving two dark red bloodstains.
As he passed the cell on the left, a familiar spiritual power fluctuation gave him a shock.
A purple-haired boy sat quietly in the center of the cage, his white clothes already stained brown by blood.
The most horrifying thing was the pair of empty eye sockets, with charred burn marks on the edges.
But Hu Qing would never make a mistake. That handsome face was exactly the young man who sold them the formation plate in the Nanliu Secret Realm!
"What, do you know me?"
The guard noticed his pause and tugged at the chain with a sly grin, "Don't worry, he'll be next."
The iron door of the interrogation room slowly opened in front of him, and the strong smell of blood hit him in the face.
The walls were covered with various torture instruments, one of which was a curved hook that was still dripping with blood.
The iron chair in the middle was polished to a shine, with dark brown blood stains clotted in the dents of the armrests.
"I heard that you are a spy from the Sea Clan?"
The guard leader lifted Hu Qing's chin with the end of his whip and said, "I'll show you what it means to live a life worse than death."
Hu Qing stared at the swaying torches on the wall, the flames dancing in his pupils.
The cold iron chain "clicked" and tightened, and Hu Qing was fixed firmly on the special torture chair.
An iron ring extending from the back of the chair was encircled around his neck, his right wrist and ankle were locked with fine steel shackles, and the stump of his broken left arm was forcibly hooked up by a barbed iron hook, revealing a bloody wound.
"Ask me one last time."
The captain of the guards lifted Hu Qing's chin with the handle of his whip and asked, "What exactly do the Sea Tribe want to do by setting up an array in Deepwater Town?"
"I... am not from the sea tribe..."
With every word Hu Qing spoke, his broken ribs stung, and blood flowed from the corners of his mouth, dripping onto the rusty chair seat.
The captain of the guards suddenly raised his leg and kicked Hu Qing hard on the left rib with his steel boots.
"Click"
With a few crisp sounds, the broken bones pierced into the internal organs.
A blood-red scene exploded in front of Hu Qing's eyes, and a fishy-sweet liquid surged in his throat, but due to the pressure of the neck ring, he could only choke the blood foam in his trachea, making a "ho ho" suffocating sound.
When the red-hot iron was pulled out of the charcoal fire, sparks peeled off the dark red surface of the iron block.
The captain of the guards held it in front of Hu Qing's eyes, and the heat made his eyelashes curl.
"A tough talk?"
The red-hot iron drew a crimson trail in the air. "I want to see which is harder, your bones or this 800-degree iron!"
"I really... am not..."
The moment the branding iron pierced the wound on his left shoulder, the flesh made a burning sound.
The smell of burnt meat mixed with green smoke filled the interrogation room. Hu Qing's pupils suddenly dilated and his muscles spasmed to the point of almost tearing apart.
Severe pain flooded his consciousness like a tide. In the last moment before falling into darkness, he vaguely heard the guard captain's sneer:
"Splash him awake."
A bucket of ice-salt water was poured over his head.
The salt water seeped into the wound burned by the iron, and a new round of severe pain forced Hu Qing to wake up from his coma.