Chapter 72
When the night ended and the day began to dawn, Jitang changed into the dark blue clothes worn by his guards in Huanguang Valley and tucked his trouser legs into his long boots.
She looked in the mirror and slowly tied up her long hair.
The duty uniforms are the same for both men and women, both are two pieces, and the color is similar to the faint blue halo emitted by fireflies.
Jitang looked around and felt only irony.
She walked out of the cabin and glanced at the sky. It was still light, as if covered by a thin layer of gray gauze. When she reached the flower stand, she reached out and brushed her hand across the cracked bamboo poles. Her gloomy mood seemed to lighten a little.
The torches in the Fantasy Valley were still on. She came to the entrance and showed the Fantasy Order to her fellow tribesmen guarding the valley entrance.
The other party quickly confirmed his identity, and Jitang followed him inside.
"There's still a vacancy for patrol, you fill it first." The fellow tribesman walked in front, without saying a word. After he finished explaining, he remembered that he hadn't asked Ji Tang's name yet, "What's your name?"
"Jitang."
"Jitang?!"
He turned around suddenly and said in surprise, "You are the young patriarch!" As soon as he finished speaking, his knees went weak and he half-knelt in front of Jitang.
It is true that the Nightmare Clan respects strength, but they value bloodline even more. The purest bloodline of the Nightmare Clan is closely connected to the place of inheritance, and the place of inheritance is like a holy place in the hearts of the clan members. In the eyes of the Nightmare Clan, Ji Tang is the only one who can open the place of inheritance, so it is not surprising that he behaves like this.
Ji Tang used his nightmare energy to lift him up.
He looked at Jitang and saw that her eyes were cold and heavy in the light of the torch. He was stunned for a moment, and when he looked carefully, he saw only gentleness.
The current leader of the Nightmare Clan is Xue Mei, so Ji Tang should no longer be called the Young Clan Leader. However, this title has long been ingrained, not only among his fellow tribesmen, but also among Ji Tang.
Jitang: "You should take me to where I'm on duty."
His attitude changed drastically, almost to the point of groveling. After bringing Jitang to the duty station, he introduced him to the other two members of the clan: "This is the young clan leader. He is here to take duty in our Huanguang Valley and patrol with you."
The other two reacted in exactly the same way, and even bent down to hand over a patrol schedule.
The first column of the schedule contained the patrol officer's name, and the second column contained the patrol hours. Ji Tang pointed to the blank spaces on the schedule and asked, "Are these blank spaces without names filled in the time slots the times I'll be on duty from now on?"
The fellow tribesman who brought her in nodded, "Yes."
Ji Tang saw the other two names on the list, one was Cheng Feng and the other was Cheng Luan. She then looked at the other two of her clansmen and asked, "Are you brothers?"
One of them smiled and said, "We are half brothers. Young Clan Leader, I am Cheng Feng."
Ji Tang silently memorized the appearance of the two men. Cheng Feng was taller than Cheng Luan and looked stronger.
She nodded to the three of them, "The hour of Mao is exactly when I should be on duty."
"Young Clan Leader, don't worry. You're not familiar with this place yet. Let Cheng Feng take you around so you can learn how to use all the torture instruments."
Cheng Feng responded, walked in front of Jitang and made a gesture of invitation to Jitang.
Jitang followed.
The Huanguang Valley is very large, and the mountain passages are intricate and complex.
As they walked, Cheng Feng said to Ji Tang, "Young Clan Leader, do you still remember the way from the entrance of Huanguang Valley to the duty station?"
Jitang had played in the valley since she was little, and knew the routes by heart. Even if Chengfeng didn't take her, she wouldn't get lost there. She didn't mention it, and replied, "I roughly remember it."
Cheng Feng smiled and said, "It's hard to remember the route inside if you don't take duty here. Young Clan Leader, just remember our patrol route. You'll be familiar with it after walking it a few times."
They walked outward along the narrow road from the duty station. When they came to a wider road, Cheng Feng pointed to Ji Tang and said, "The cave directly opposite is the first point that needs to be patrolled. The other caves need to go further north."
Ji Tang: "What do we have to do on duty?"
Cheng Feng took her into the first cave facing her. "The main purpose is to check the conditions of the prisoners in the cave. If they die, we'll note them down and notify people to collect their bodies when we return to our duty station. As for the living ones, we'll torture them one by one. If they surrender, we'll move them from the rack to the cell. If they don't surrender, we'll continue the torture the next day. This will continue every day until they surrender."
He walked into the cave and said, "Young Chief, there's no need to worry. They won't survive even a few rounds of torture."
Ji Tang heard the sound of chains hitting wood. Obviously, the people inside also heard what Cheng Feng said.
Ji Tang: "What will happen to the dead members of the same clan?"
Cheng Feng: "There's a mass grave behind this mountain. Let's move them there first, and then burn them all together when there are more people. Now that the weather is getting warmer, we can burn them more often. Otherwise, if we don't keep them there, they'll start to stink in three days."
Jitang didn't ask any more questions and followed Cheng Feng.
There were more than twenty torture instruments in the cave, and a fellow tribesman was lying on each of them.
Cheng Feng raised his hand and picked up the torch from the stone wall, walked to the first torture device, and placed the torch on his fellow tribesman's arm without hesitation.
His fellow tribesman suddenly let out a scream. He was in unbearable pain and his body suddenly bounced up.
Above him was a wooden board about the width of a person, connected to the rack. It was nailed with densely packed iron nails, each of which had dried, dark bloodstains on it.
His body bounced up and hit the wooden board. The moment he turned his head, the iron nails pierced into his flesh. He let out a second scream, but this scream was very hoarse, accompanied by continuous gasps, and fell heavily back onto the rack.
Ji Tang looked at his twitching body and finally resisted the urge to snatch the torch. When he raised his eyes, he saw Cheng Feng smiling.
Cheng Feng: "I remember him. His clothes were burned to ashes during the first torture. He has been tortured four times so far, and the clothes stuck to the wounds are almost burned away."
He skillfully picked up the bucket of water from the ground and poured it on the man lingering on the rack. "I think you can't stand the fifth torture. You still don't give in?"
Jitang listened carefully and heard a vague sound coming from his mouth, which seemed to be laughter.
Cheng Feng cursed harshly and turned to walk towards the second torture rack.
Ji Tang stopped him and said, "I know how to torture you. I'll do it. You can go back."
Cheng Feng said in frustration, "It's all this guy's fault. He got me so mad that I forgot what I was doing!" He didn't go to the second rack. Instead, he said, "We have a total of 22 caves to inspect. This is only the first one. I'll take you through them one by one. At the very least, you have to learn how to torture."
Ji Tang clenched his hands tightly behind his back and took great effort to force out the word "OK".
Cheng Feng took her to one cave after another. The punishment in each cave was different and extremely cruel.
After going through everything, Cheng Feng and she separated in front of the first cave.
He smiled and said to Jitang: "From now on, it will be hard work for you, Young Clan Leader!"
Jitang: "Okay."
Cheng Feng hummed an unrecognizable tune as he walked towards his duty station.
Ji Tang's tense body didn't relax until she could no longer see Cheng Feng. Waves of fatigue came over her, and she realized belatedly that her back was all wet.
Jitang turned and walked into the first cave.
She heard the sound of chains hitting wood again - those people were afraid, and it was like a conditioned reflex. As soon as they heard someone coming into the cave, they would tremble, and the chains would naturally hit the wood and make a sound.
Ji Tang first walked to the first torture rack. The person on the rack looked at Ji Tang with coldness and hatred. There was no trace of fear in his eyes, but his body trembled instinctively because of her arrival.
The clatter of chains against the rack was the only sound in the cave.
The people on the rack thought they had changed their method of execution, from three times a day to four times a day.
He stared blankly at the iron nails above him that were still dripping blood. He should be dead after this torture.
The expected pain did not subside for a long time. He slowly tilted his head to the side and saw Ji Tang's solemn and serious face.
Ji Tang said nothing, looked carefully at the wound on his body, then took out different external injury medicines from the storage bag and gently sprinkled the powder on the wound.
"Two more people will come to execute you later," Ji Tang said with great difficulty. "I can't use too much medicine, or they'll find out. From now on, I'll come to heal you once a day, but then you'll have to endure two more executions. Can you bear it?"
Ji Tang waited for a moment and saw that the other party was staring at her blankly. He was not fainted, but he didn't say anything.
Jitang: "Can you hear me?"
"...Yes." He said hoarsely.
He thought he had fainted, so he had a beautiful dream that he hadn't had in a long time.
However, he quickly came to his senses and realized that the woman in front of him was someone he had just met and who had come with Cheng Feng.
He looked at Jitang with a wary look.
Seeing that he was silent again, Jitang thought that he was too weak, so he raised his hand and covered him with the nightmare aura.
The nightmare energy easily entered his body. While Ji Tang was healing him, she said, "I'm Ji Tang. I'm on patrol in Huanguang Valley now. I come here every morning to heal you." She lowered her eyes and said, "I can't get you out for now. You can't avoid the two punishments from Cheng Feng and Cheng Luan. Just hold on. I will get you out as soon as possible!"
When he came to his senses again, Jitang had already gone to the torture rack next to him.
His slow brain barely started to work, and after a long time he suddenly remembered the name "Jitang".
"Young... Chief..." Then he burst into tears.
Jitang quickened his pace and quickly healed the injuries of more than twenty of his fellow tribesmen in the cave, then went to the next cave.
She returned to her duty station before the end of her shift and saw Cheng Feng and Cheng Luan sitting on either side of the table. The two brothers had their feet on a thin wooden stool. Their cheeks were red from drinking and they spoke with a lisp.
"Young Clan Leader, hiccup, you're back." Cheng Feng swayed his body and brushed the bench where his footprints had left their marks. "Please sit down!"
Cheng Luan took a wide-mouthed wine glass from the wall side of the table. There was still some white powder from the wall peeling off in the glass. He threw it on the ground and poured wine for Ji Tang.
Ji Tang took it and clinked glasses with the two of them. When they raised their heads to drink, the glass tilted and fell from their shoulders to the ground behind them.
"I see you're all enjoying yourselves, so why don't I take your turn later?" Jitang said, and then he felt something heavy in his hand. Chengluan took the wine jug and refilled Jitang's glass. The mouth of the wine jug touched Jitang's glass. Chengluan had obviously drunk quite a bit, and he couldn't control his strength, so the mouth of the wine jug pressed against the glass, causing a lot of clear wine to spill out.
Cheng Feng said with a pained look, "What a shame! Such good wine! Please pour it carefully!"
Cheng Luan said with a playful smile, "I didn't hold it firmly, I didn't hold it firmly."
The three glasses clinked together again. Ji Tang poured out the wine in his glass and was about to speak when Cheng Feng staggered to his feet, supporting himself on the table. "Young Clan Leader, you, you and my brothers drink together. Keep drinking! I'll go take my turn..."
Ji Tang frowned for a moment, then quickly changed his expression to one of concern, "You've had too much to drink, shall I take your shift?"
Cheng Feng waved his hands, "How can I let the young patriarch do that for me... I, hiccup! I'll be back soon, I'll be back soon!"
Jitang was worried about his fellow tribesmen in the cave, but he couldn't say too much for fear of arousing his suspicion.
Cheng Feng walked away leisurely, and Cheng Luan filled Ji Tang's glass with wine again.
Jitang was annoyed when he saw the drunkard in front of him. He clinked glasses and poured wine perfunctorily, all in one go.
When the jug of wine was empty, Jitang looked at Chengluan and thought he was about to put his eyes into the mouth of the jug, then he raised his hand to take the jug away, "Brother Chengluan."
Cheng Luan scratched the back of his head, "Young Clan Leader calls me brother?" He didn't wait for Ji Tang to say anything, and suddenly burst into laughter, "I never thought that I, Cheng Luan, would be able to be brothers with the Young Clan Leader one day!"
Ji Tang smiled wryly and said, "Brother, there are so many people imprisoned in the cave, but I see there are only three of us on the duty schedule. Is there no one else on duty?"
Cheng Luan leaned against the wall, his head tilted to one side, and looked at Ji Tang and said, "Yes, it's just the three of us. Before you, Young Clan Leader, came, it was just me and my brother! Hiccup, Young Clan Leader, why are you asking this? Are you tired from your shift just now?"
The air was filled with the stench of alcohol. Ji Tang moved back calmly, "I'm not tired, I'm just curious."
Cheng Luan chuckled and said, "Young Clan Leader, don't worry. You...don't be fooled by the number of people imprisoned. There will be more people to go tomorrow!"
Ji Tang immediately understood what he meant, "If all those people die, won't we have nothing to do?"
Cheng Luan shook his head. "How can there be nothing to do? The old ones die, and the new ones will come! Young Clan Leader, cough cough cough, Young Clan Leader, don't worry too much. In here, you won't see a single one surrender in ten days. We just torture them, and it won't be tiring. Anyway, transporting the corpses is not our responsibility, so it can save a lot of trouble!"
Ji Tang forced a smile. "The shifts at the mass graves are the same as ours. Are there so few people?"
"Rotation?" Cheng Luan laughed as if he had heard something funny. He then bowed to Ji Tang and said, "Young Clan Leader, our clan leader is... in need of people right now. How can we assign so many people to this shabby, shabby place like Huanguang Valley?"
"There's no one on duty at the mass grave. At most, we go there every few days to burn the bodies. Oh, and it's hot right now. A few days won't do. Two days will do!"
Ji Tang: "Besides us, where else in Huanguang Valley are we on duty?"
Cheng Luan: "That's not enough, not enough..."
Ji Tang looked at him intently and saw that he had fallen asleep with his head tilted.
Ji Tang threw down his wine glass in disgust, stood up, walked out of the duty point, and turned to go to the mass grave.
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