Chapter 998 Delivering Food (Taking two days off to get an injection!)
Behind the wooden gate, it was dark and quiet.
Ouyang Rong paused for three breaths in front of the wooden gate, then strode inside.
The first two steps were normal, but on the third step, he felt he stepped on a step. He took a few more steps, but it was still a step.
That's when we realized that the initial path was a small staircase.
However, it does not lead to the bottom.
The steps lead upwards.
Ouyang Rong looked slightly surprised, stopped on a step, and looked around.
A few steps away, warm candlelight shone on the steps inside the doorway of a house.
It also made him see things more clearly.
It is indeed an upward staircase.
This means that the secret space where the rumored ten cells are located is at a much higher elevation than the room at the entrance of the water dungeon where Yun Xiangyi often stays.
Does that mean that the room at the entrance to the water dungeon is a low point shaped like the Chinese character "凹"?
When Ouyang Rong stepped onto this upward staircase, he was somewhat surprised.
Anyone who didn't know better would think that pushing open this wooden door meant leaving the water dungeon.
The taciturn young man, carrying a food box, stopped on the stairs by the door. He turned around curiously and glanced at the wooden gate he often used to pass through, opposite the house behind him.
Each time he entered the water dungeon from the outer entrance of the waterfall's curtain of water, he had to walk up a long, downward-facing stone staircase to reach the outside of the room.
As the guardhouse where the female ruler resides is located in such a low-lying area, the construction of this water dungeon is quite strange.
Most importantly, from an architectural design perspective, building prisons like this is redundant and a waste of time.
Moreover, the construction was somewhat wasteful.
For example, every time Yun Xiangyi comes in to deliver vegetarian meals after Ouyang Rong leaves, doesn't she have to walk up this staircase several times?
People may not feel tired, after all, they are fourth-level Qi cultivators, but walking around too much and seeing things can be mentally tiring, especially for those with obsessive-compulsive disorder or germaphobia.
Ouyang Rong frowned slightly.
It's not that I have any objections, but as someone with OCD, seeing these messy buildings makes me instinctively uncomfortable.
No prison cell is built like this.
Furthermore, based on his past experience, there must be something fishy about such an unusual situation.
Although it was just a minor anomaly, it still made Ouyang Rong lower his eyes and ponder, taking it somewhat seriously.
Hmm, could it be that when the Queens of the Palace were digging underground caves in the past, they accidentally dug too much? So they "shrank" a little higher?
Why not take advantage of the situation and continue building those ten prison cells for convicts?
Does this mean that the ten water dungeons must be kept at a certain specified depth underground, neither too low nor too high...?
After a moment, he gently shook his head, temporarily setting aside any further thoughts, picked up the food box, and continued walking upwards.
I climbed the steps and walked into the darkness.
After walking for a while, Ouyang Rong discovered that it wasn't completely dark. There were some eerie lights overhead, appearing from nowhere, shining on the rocks and creating colorful scenes in some places.
The light is very dim; you might not notice it unless you look closely or your eyes are not used to the darkness.
Ouyang Rong only realized it belatedly.
As he pondered, he realized he had reached the end of the stairs.
This staircase has about twenty steps and goes straight up and down.
At this moment, Ouyang Rong walked out of the stairs and found himself standing on a dark platform.
His eyes, now adjusted to the darkness, narrowed slightly, the dim light overhead illuminating a long, dark passageway before him.
Thinking he would have to continue forward, Ouyang Rong took two steps forward and suddenly discovered that there were rows of black doors on both sides of the passageway.
Ouyang Rong was slightly taken aback, slowly stopped, and tilted his head to look at him.
On one side of the passageway, each door was spaced about ten steps apart.
The width of the passageway is approximately five steps apart.
On both sides of the passageway, there are two doors that correspond one to one.
Ouyang Rong stopped in front of the outermost, left-hand "black" prison door.
I looked up and vaguely saw a word.
It was roughly and carelessly carved on the dark wall.
"the ninth of the ten Heavenly Stems".
A, B, C, D, E; F, G, H, I, G.
This character is ranked ninth.
Ouyang Rong turned around and glanced at the "black" prison door across the passageway, above which was engraved the character "癸".
It ranks tenth.
Ouyang Rong looked around and nodded slightly.
If I'm not mistaken, these two cells should be the Ren and Gui cells.
Ouyang Rong didn't go any further inside. At this moment, his gaze was completely drawn to the "black" cell, and he couldn't look away.
Both the Ren and Gui cells were the same; the prison doors were pitch black, resembling a wall, only darker than the surrounding stone walls, which is why the outline of the "door" was visible.
However, after careful examination, Ouyang Rong discovered that the prison door was not made of ordinary stone or wood.
It was a smooth surface, yet with subtle ripples... Ouyang Rong suddenly realized what it was.
This is a water curtain door.
The facade is like a curtain of water of unknown depth.
Just as the waterfall outside concealed the entrance to the water prison, Ouyang Rong and the Yue women of Yutang had to use fans to shield themselves from the rain whenever they entered or left the prison.
At this moment, the two prison doors in front of them were also like this.
The water that formed the prison gate was black, pitch black.
Moreover, the water flow is peculiar, silent and imperceptible, making it impossible to discern whether the black water flows from top to bottom or bottom to top.
Upon closer inspection, one can only faintly see the soft ripples of water, occasionally outlining ripples on the door.
It was already very quiet, but all water has these characteristics, even black water.
Besides that, there's another eerie point that's chilling to think about:
The continuously flowing water curtain landed on the ground at our feet, but instead of overflowing, it disappeared beneath our feet. However, there was clearly no opening at the door below to accommodate the flowing water.
Ouyang Rong looked around carefully but found nothing; at least, he couldn't see anything with his naked eye, and it wasn't convenient for him to squat down and examine it closely at the moment.
At this moment, Ouyang Rong couldn't help but turn his head and look into the depths of the passageway, where he could vaguely see rows of black prison doors.
From a distance, it looks as straight as a black wall.
Every cell door in the water dungeon was made of water.
Ouyang Rong's eyes narrowed slightly.
But why is this water so strange, so incredibly dark?
Also, is this the only black water curtain door? Are there any other cells inside?
A mere water curtain is hardly a barrier; even an ordinary person without Qi cultivation could easily pass through it, at most getting a little wet. How could this, used as the cell door for imprisoning criminals in the water dungeon, possibly hold back the most vicious and heinous criminals?
Ouyang Rong remained silent.
After a moment, he looked down at the food box he was carrying.
However, he now understands why the food boxes are always damp with water stains whenever Yun Xiangyi brings them out after delivering the vegetarian meals.
When delivering vegetarian meals, the food boxes would inevitably pass through these black water curtain-like prison doors, and would naturally get soaked by the black water.
Ouyang Rong stroked the damp wooden box lid, feeling a cold, damp sensation coming from his fingertips.
Perhaps due to the frequent delivery of meals, it has been going in and out of the black water curtain, and the dampness has seeped into the wood of the lid, making it feel somewhat cool to the touch each time.
Furthermore, I don't know if it's just my imagination, but these black water curtain prison doors look somewhat familiar.
He felt like he'd seen it somewhere before, like it had just happened recently, but after thinking about it for a long time, he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Black water curtain... black water curtain...
Ouyang Rong, carrying a food box, stood quietly for a moment in the passageway between the Ren and Gui rooms, his expression lost in thought, momentarily forgetting to move...
After a short while, unable to figure out where this feeling of familiarity came from, Ouyang Rong put it aside for the time being and turned to get down to business.
He put down the two lacquered food boxes and glanced at them.
There are four vegetarian meals here.
This large food container is layered; it can actually be divided into two normal food containers, which can be stacked together when lifted, making it convenient to carry.
Ouyang Rong opened the buckle and disassembled it into four normal lacquered food boxes.
He thought for a moment and glanced at the black water curtain door.
Yun Xiangyi didn't seem to explain how to deliver the vegetarian meal; she simply handed him a copper token.
Then there shouldn't be any major restrictions; just proceed as usual.
Ouyang Rong touched the bronze token, hung it on his waist, picked up a food box, and walked forward.
Following the order, they first arrived at the door of cell number Gui.
Holding the food box in both hands, I tried to touch it to the water curtain.
A sense of resistance came.
It was very faint, like water flowing against the food container, which is normal.
What was unusual was that when the water fell onto the food box, not a single drop splashed up; instead, it smoothly flowed around the box and continued to run down.
Moreover, logically speaking, if the food container is blocking the water flow at the top, there should be a gap at the bottom of the food container to block the water flow.
However, there was no water curtain door; the water curtain falling on the food box had strangely circled the box.
Only the food box was allowed to pass through, but it did not give outsiders any chance to observe the inside of the water prison through the gaps in the barrier.
This black water curtain door is definitely not simple.
Ouyang Rong immediately made a judgment in his mind.
The water curtain submerged half of the food box. He pulled his fingers back as he held the food box, and then simply placed the lacquered food box on the ground and pushed it in with his fingers.
Soon, the food box passed through the black water curtain door without any hindrance.
Just to be on the safe side, Ouyang Rong did not let his palm touch the black water curtain at all.
Once most of the food box had entered the water curtain, he withdrew his hand.
The atmosphere was quiet for a moment.
The outer part of the food container remained completely still.
Just as Ouyang Rong was about to think of another way, the food box under his feet suddenly disappeared.
They were pulled in by the person behind the water curtain door.
Ouyang Rong raised an eyebrow slightly and glanced at the calm, still water curtain in front of him.
He didn't hear anything, and he didn't even see clearly.
Logically, with his mid-level Qi Refining cultivator's perception, he should have been able to detect the movement immediately, but he didn't.
This only proves that this water curtain prison door can isolate all sounds from both inside and outside.
This also means that the prisoners in the water dungeon are currently unaware that the person delivering their meals has been replaced, and they have never even seen the person who delivered the meals.
Ouyang Rong stood at the door for a while.
A short while later, he turned around and walked silently toward the next cell.
First, they were in cell number Ren, then they went to cell number Geng.
Following the order of "甲乙丙丁戊己庚辛癸", we work backwards.
Before long, all eight vegetarian meals were delivered.
Ouyang Rong stood at the door of cell number C, a position quite deep inside the water dungeon.
It turned its head and glanced into the depths of the water prison.
There are two more cells.
But he no longer had any extra vegetarian food to deliver.
He did the same thing to the eight cells he just passed, just like he did to the first cell: he placed the food box on the ground and pushed it into the black water curtain.
The food boxes were all dragged back into the dungeon by the unseen prisoners within the water dungeon within a short period of time.
In cell #J, the food box was retrieved the fastest; it was taken away almost the instant Ouyang Rong pushed it in.
Cell C was the slowest; Ouyang Rong had only waited about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea before the food box was pulled in by a prisoner he had never met before.
However, Ouyang Rong observed carefully and found that the C-class prisoner dragged the food box very slowly, so slowly that it was eerily slow, almost like an ant crawling. He waited for more than ten breaths before he saw that small section of the food box being dragged inside by the C-class prisoner.
Ouyang Rong was curious about who the owner of cell number C was, and whether there was any special reason for it.
Logically speaking, judging from the cell numbering, the occupant of cell number C should be the most dangerous person besides the occupants of cells A and B... even more powerful than the occupants of the cells below.
Ouyang Rong shook his head.
However, it seems that these prisoners and the food delivery person have already developed a good understanding. Yun Xiangyi probably used the same method to deliver food when she came in to deliver it in the past.
Ouyang Rong did not delve any deeper.
The main issue was that he wasn't sure if the bronze token at his waist would allow him to continue inside.
The remaining Class A and Class B cells were both individual rooms located deep within the passageway.
Ouyang Rong stood at the door of cell number C, thought for a moment, and did not leave immediately.
He simply turned around and went back to the door of cell number Gui.
Then he stood at the door and waited silently.
After these prisoners finish their vegetarian meal, they will definitely push the food box out; they can't just leave it in the cell.
Ouyang Rong waited for a moment, and suddenly, a series of clear wooden fish sounds rang in his ears.
At the same time as every night before, a considerable amount of merit was returned to him without fail.
Tonight has completely confirmed his previous guesses.
It was just a vegetarian meal. Although Ouyang Rong was confident that his cooking was not bad, there was no need for such gratitude, to the point that he would receive a nightly reward for his good deeds...
Ouyang Rong was a little embarrassed.
Moreover, it doesn't seem to fit the image of vicious criminals at all.
Ouyang Rong silently glanced at the black water curtain doors on both sides of the passageway.
It is unknown which prisoner it was.
——————
[PS: My appendicitis has recently relapsed, and the doctor recommended surgery. I'm still considering it because I'm a bit afraid of surgery and would like to opt for conservative treatment.]
Xiao Rong wants to take two days off to get an injection and see if it will help.
Hugs to my good buddies~
(End of this chapter)
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