The Princess Cannot Escape: The Cunning Prince Is Not to Be Messed With

Chapter 88 Imprisonment in the Water Prison

"You have something on your mind."

As he spoke, ignoring Wei Jun's obstruction, Qin Chang'an slowly stepped across the threshold, his expression a mixture of amusement and sarcasm, his eyes fixed on Xiahou Ying, who sat behind the long table.

"This is not a place for you. Wei Jun, see the guest out."

He barely moved his lips, yet his clear, cold voice already reached my ears.

Qin Chang'an's lips stiffened, and he stood still, not moving an inch.

Looking down at Xiahou Ying, who hadn't looked up at her once, she moved her rosy lips slightly, as if trying to shake off the chilling aura that made her feel stiff all over.

Do you want to save her?

"Wei Jun." Xiahou Ying raised his voice slightly, but never looked up.

Seeing his cold and hard attitude, Qin Chang'an's face was ashen, but he only stared at him for a short while before turning away.

After she left the study, the dark-faced guard Pang Ban glanced hesitantly at his master and said in a deep voice, "Master, perhaps, Fang Qinshi..."

"Pang Ban, times have changed, and people are no longer the same." Xiahou Ying said slowly, then stood up and said, "Go to the Imperial Preceptor's residence."

In Fengyun Manor, Yin Quan was imprisoned in a water dungeon in an underground cave. Although it was called a water dungeon, the water only rose at specific times each day. At other times, it was just an ordinary cell.

The person guarding her was none other than the man in black who had kidnapped her that day. Although she had never seen the man's face, she was very familiar with his voice.

Although the man was always shrouded in a thick, black, close-fitting outfit, it did not conceal his strong and upright physique. It was clear at a glance that he had practiced martial arts for many years; every muscle on his body was clearly defined, and even through the thick black fabric, one could make out most of it.

The man remained silent throughout, his breathing unusually shallow, which often gave Yin Quan an extremely eerie feeling.

At first, she was genuinely terrified, but after several days, it became a habit.

She even discovered that the man in black who was guarding her seemed to be cold by nature. Not only did he ignore her, but he was also extremely indifferent to those arrogant manor lords.

After being imprisoned here, Yin Quan felt as if time had been slowed down by someone.

She was surrounded by darkness, and the only sounds she could hear were the intermittent sounds of water, sometimes fast and sometimes slow, and the ethereal echo of water dripping onto the ground. Other than that, she could not feel anything.

The pitch-black environment made her feel somewhat melancholy. For a living person, such darkness is undoubtedly the greatest torment, surpassing any physical torture.

The endless darkness robs one of sight, followed by hearing, smell, and touch, and may even plunge one into self-created hallucinations...

She pursed her lips and sat on the damp ground, hugging her knees.

A cold, sticky, damp smell hung in the air, with a faint odor of decay, though she couldn't quite place it. It seemed to be a mixture of many decaying things—perhaps seaweed, wood, or… animals.

Her head was throbbing with pain, perhaps because she had been in this excessively cold and damp environment for too long, making it impossible for her to even escape reality by sleeping.

Rubbing her forehead, she placed her cold fingers on her temples, feeling the throbbing of the veins in her fingertips. Only in this way could she ensure that she would not break down from being in the darkness for too long.

Suddenly, she noticed a faint, eerie light, the source of which seemed to be the ring on her left middle finger.

Yin Quan's heart skipped a beat. She picked up her left middle finger and examined it closely, finally confirming that the faint light she had just seen was not a hallucination.

The black pearl emitted a faint, ethereal green light, like a wisp of smoke or mist in a piece of jade, both clear and alluring. The shimmering green light seemed alive, swirling and spreading outwards, and upon closer inspection, it appeared to be infused with a deep, rich red, like fresh blood, utterly captivating.

She had initially thought that Xiahou Ying was simply giving her his mother's belongings, but now it seemed that she had indeed underestimated him.

Every single thing he did, no matter how insignificant, was not meaningless; every single word he uttered, no matter how frivolous his sigh, was profound.

Looking at the ring on her finger, Yin Quan pursed her lips, a warm feeling flowing through her heart.

Holding the ring, he lightly kissed the shimmering black pearl. Suddenly, the ring seemed to come alive, spouting out an extremely fine chain of the same antique silver material, which snaked along the curve of her wrist and gently wrapped around it.

Upon seeing this, she was stunned for a moment, and a feeling of boundless amazement welled up in her heart.

Before she could calm down, a faint orange-red light began to swirl along the slippery rock wall in the bottomless darkness.

Yin Quan pursed her lips, tucked her left hand into her sleeve, and tiptoed to the narrow iron window. She quickly spotted a tall, thin figure following the firelight.

The figure was none other than Jiang Huan, one of the three great manor lords.

Behind her, on either side, stood a burly man. Both men were dressed in dark blue tight-fitting clothes, with black rivets embedded in their silver-gray belts, and each had two black leather pouches hanging from their waists. They looked somewhat similar to the leather pouches hanging from Lian Hongling's waist.

Just like when they first met, Jiang Huan was still wearing a gray-white robe. Her black hair, with a few strands of gray-white dye, was tightly tied back and combed meticulously, without even a single stray hair. Under the firelight, it showed a few orange-red halos, making her slightly sallow face appear even paler.

Standing with his hands behind his back before the water dungeon, Jiang Huan kept his eyelids down and his eyebrows raised high. His lips were tightly pursed, as if he were biting something in his mouth, and his face was like a statue carved from stone, completely devoid of life.

The burly man on her left stepped forward and said in a deep voice, "The master has something to say to her alone. You may leave now."

"I'm sorry, without Master Ba's instructions, no one is allowed to speak to the hostages alone. Master Jiang, please return."

The man in black spoke in a low, husky voice, sounding like a venomous tongue spitting out a venomous tongue, emanating a chilling aura.

"Don't refuse a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit!" The burly man's tiger-like eyes glared angrily, and the muscles in his arms bulged.

"Without the instructions of Master Ba, no one is allowed to speak to the hostage alone." The man in black repeated his words expressionlessly, staring directly at the burly man who was almost a head taller than him. His gaze was calm and unwavering, without even the slightest fluctuation.

"Arrogant! You won't know what's what until you've been taught a lesson..."

"Yuan Jiu." Having just stopped the burly man from his rage, Jiang Huan, whose eyelids had been lowered, finally turned her gaze to the man in black.

The man kept his eyes fixed straight ahead, his gaze empty, devoid of any emotion whatsoever, let alone fear. It wasn't so much that he was ignorant of the immensity of the world, but rather that he was utterly devoid of human feelings and desires.

When did Ba Shanyu manage to cultivate such subordinates...?

With a slight shift in her thoughts, she didn't waste any more time looking at the man in black, but instead looked past him at the iron door with only one small window.

“Since it’s Master Ba’s order, I naturally won’t make things difficult for you,” Jiang Huan said slowly, then suddenly her eyes flashed like lightning as she glared at the man in black. A metallic clang rang out, and a thin, hair-like needle, entirely crimson, was embedded precisely in the narrow, dark sword the man held before him.

"Heh, to be able to withstand my Phoenix Blood Needle, you can be considered a hero. I value your talent, and here's the antidote; I'll spare your life for now." With a cold snort, Jiang Huan lowered her gaze, looking down at the kneeling man in black, her words overflowing with contempt. At the same time, two burly men pulled up the chained door made of fine iron. Amidst the clanging of the chains and gears, Jiang Huan saw Yin Quan standing motionless in the darkness.

Walking in without a word, Jiang Huan pursed his lips, his impenetrable gaze sweeping over her, an undisguised look of disgust appearing between his brows, as if he had seen something disgusting and filthy.

Narrowing her eyes, Yin Quan had never had any good feelings towards this arrogant and self-important old woman from the very beginning.

Jiang Huan was somewhat surprised to see no fear or panic in Yin Quan's eyes, and along with that surprise came a deep sense of displeasure that she could not express.

What she disliked most was that clear, transparent, fearless gaze.

That look disgusted her! It horrified her!

"Yuan Jiu, take her away." With a frown, Jiang Huan casually gave the order.

"Wait! I'm a hostage, you can't torture me!" Raising her chin, Yin Quan glared at Jiang Huan, took a step back, and growled.

From the conversation she had just overheard, she learned that this water dungeon belonged to Ba Shanyu, one of the three major manor lords. Thinking about it this way, perhaps this arrogant Manor Lord Jiang did not know what kind of mechanisms and mysteries existed in this water dungeon.

Since she is an important hostage used by these three manor lords to blackmail Gu Lounan, they will never imprison her in just any random place.

She had been imprisoned here for more than two days. Although she didn't know the exact time, she could hear a strange sound every time the river water flooded into the area. The sound was like the whistling of a gale hitting the mountain walls, or the low moan of some wild beast. The emptiness and darkness of the water prison amplified the shocking effect of the sound, making it chilling.

At first, she was a little hesitant, but after two days, she got used to it.

Just now, she heard that sound again. Whether it was because the cell door was opened or something else, the sound seemed even more pleasant and melodious today than before.

Hearing her slightly flustered tone, the middle-aged woman in the gray-white robe turned her body slightly, and her face, which did not show many signs of age, twitched slightly, as if she were smiling.

The light was dim, and Yin Quan couldn't see Jiang Huan's expression clearly. Half of her face was hidden in darkness, and the other half was exposed in the firelight, creating an eerie contrast between light and shadow. The firelight flickered incessantly, stirred by a breeze that seemed to have drifted in from nowhere, making her already pale and taut face appear even more grotesque and terrifying.

"Hostage?" Jiang Huan sneered, glancing at Yin Quan with an even wider smile. She whispered as she approached her, stopping only when she stood right in front of her.

A strange fragrance suddenly wafted into Yin Quan's nostrils, and her vision twitched as the figure in front of her was suddenly split into three.

Oops!

Startled, before she could even think of a solution, she felt a sudden dizziness and collapsed to the ground.

As she fell to the ground, Jiang Huan stood in front of her with his hands behind his back. His slightly upturned lips were as red as blood in the orange-red firelight, like a scimitar stained with blood, dazzling and blinding.