.
Meanwhile, Meng ZhuGuo bowed and was about to go his way.
"There's no need for me to accompany a low-life like that to the prisons! Hmph!"
LanFen shook her head. "Tsk tsk tsk! Don't make it sound like I desire you to accompany me. Compared to these two, how can you even talk? I fear that if you step on this pathway with that face of yours, even the lanterns might blow out!"
Meng ZhuGuo, "You-."
Lu FengHo had bitten his lower lip to keep from laughing, but Shuǐ ChénLín just bellowed, "Enough!"
"Hmph!" Meng ZhuGuo flung his sleeves after a brief pause. "No reason to stand and argue with a dead man! If you can walk out of the Shuǐ prison on your own tomorrow, I'll kowtow to you three times!" he turned and stormed away.
"Hao! Mark your words!" LanFen replied with a grin, but his statement had made an uneasy feeling settle in her stomach.
Nothing she had ever heard about the Shuǐ prisons was good, and now that they were close, she felt even more anxious
"This way." Lu FengHo gestured towards the path and they began walking.
They went into the plain building that seemed like every other odd building, and on the inside was a large corridor lined with very solid looking doors on each side.
LanFen centered on the first two things that bothered her.
One. There were no guards in the prison.
Two. It was too silent!
Either the Shuǐ sect had no prisoners in here, or the prisoners were too weak to make any sound, or attempt an escape!
She was led to one of the doors. Shuǐ ChénLín produced a bronze key and opened it.
"Bare with it." Lu FengHo seemed mildly apologetic. "The Clan Leaders pressured the Shuǐ Clan into putting you here, because you might try to escape otherwise."
One edge of LanFen's lips lifted in a smile. "Handsome Elder brother, I can imagine how bad it is from your tone."
But the Clan Leaders were right! There's no way she wouldn't try to escape, especially since she wanted to find Shuǐ Elder.
But at the moment, she turned and walked into the dark room by herself, wondering what would happen, once the doors were closed behind her...
.
.
LanFen stepped into the dark prison room, and the instant the door was shut, she felt a powerful array, bear down on her from all sides.
The ropes fell off her and she fell to her hands and knees, coughing up several mouthfuls of blood.
The array kept bearing down, forcing her down flat on her face, causing the bamboo hat to fall off. She couldn't even breath properly!
"How cruel!" She panted. "It's no wonder they generously let the ropes fall off!" The array was deadly enough without the spirit-binding ropes.
This was how they kept powerful prisoners in.
The prison cells were surrounded by a barrier which drained the prisoners. After a night here, they might even be begging for mercy.
She now understood why Meng ZhuGuo had boldly challenged her to walk out of here with her own two feet...
One would surely be considered strong if they could even crawl out of here!
But LanFen wasn't one to lose...
She shut her eyes and began to fight off the effect. She struggled to her knees first, then into the *lotus position.
*Lotus position - cross-legged meditation pose.
She placed her hands on her knees, palm facing upwards, then began channeling her qi and using it to fight off the effects of the barrier.
She lifted her hands and formed two seals. Then she used two fingers to hastily draw a bright purple air tailisman.
The talisman disappeared, but it produced a thin black mist which spread out from her hands till it covered her skin completely and reduced the effect of the array.
Then when she could breathe again, she gulped in lungfuls of wonderful air, coughing a few more times till her breathing had steadied.
Her next hand seal produced a light talisman, which rose up and plastered itself to the ceiling.
It made a dull, yellowish light to fall softly around the dark room.
She wiped her bloody lips with the back of her hand and stood up weakly to walk around and study the walls.
The walls had deep characters carved into them, no doubt to enhance the array and keep people from getting out. She tried touching one wall, but a large shockwave flung her backwards.
She rose to her knees, coughing more blood.
"Not good." She said, as she wiped her mouth again.
Even if she managed to summon her teleportion demon, there would be no way for him to get her out.
She sighed, as she sat down to meditate some more. "One trouble after the other... At this rate, I might actually wind up being executed!"
.
.
Time seemed to pass slowly in the Shuǐ prison.
This was largely because there was no external source of light, so it was impossible to tell the time.
LanFen must have dozed off at some point, and she opened her eyes to find the smiling child looking down at her.
He was a young boy who looked about seven, wearing a set of black robes, with a red vermilion sitting right in the middle of his forehead.
He smiled down at her.
Jun.
"Hm Hm hm." she chuckled softly, realising she wasn't awake and that this was some beautiful, dazzling dream.
Still, she remained lying on her back, afraid to move, for fear that she would wake up.
Since she was here, she might as well allow the warmth of the dream wash over her like a calming river.
"Little Carrot." She called softly. "You have a conscience. You came to visit me today?"
He didn't answer, but just remained smiling.
A tear formed at the corner of her eye, then rolled down the side of her face, getting lost in her hair.
"At least I can see you like this..."
But her tears increased when the boy slowly faded away, and the same vision of the red jewel, floating down into her hand, appeared again.
LanFen forced her eyes opened in the real world, frowning at the darkness around her.
A short while later, someone brought food and pushed it through a small door flap... A bowl of cold, lumpy rice congee.
But LanFen just stared coldly at the bowl...
Even though she was weak from the array and the hunger from days of not eating, seeing the cold congee brought back unpleasant memories.
She refused to touch it.
"Say, shouldn't you eat to build your energy?" the servant said, when he found the untouched food bowl. "I hear the Clan leaders are meeting because of you tomorrow... All *sixteen of them are meeting! This hasn't even happened in our generation!"
*Four ruling clans. Twelve prominent clans.
He continued. "Let me tell you, they're very intimidating. Worse than you've probably heard! You should eat so you won't die from just their aura."
"I don't have an appetite." LanFen replied simply.
The young man seemed to pick the darkness in her voice and backed away. "Tch! Do as you please!" he said, whistling as he left.
But in less than an hour, he returned, with a tray of dishes.
He opened the door this time, but there were six powerful cultivators behind him, obviously there to make sure Xuè Shèngrén didn't try anything.
It seemed like a good escape opportunity for LanFen, but she could barely muster the strength to move, and she refused to summon a demon in the presence of humans...
The servant and the cultivators behind him, were mildly surprised that the prisoner was sitting, instead of lying down, even though the effects of the array were clearly drawn across his features.
'Xuè Shèngrén must really be strong!'
The servant bowed. "Forgive my disrespect earlier!" he knelt before her and set the tray down.
"Ei?! Is it poison?!" She demanded weakly.
Servant, "Young Master Shuǐ insists that you eat something before tomorrow... He personally instructed the kitchen maidens to put this together, hopping it would suit your tastes. Please excuse me!" He got up and bowed to leave.
LanFen eyed the food suspiciously. "Wait! Which 'Young Master Shuǐ' are you referring to?" She only knew two so far, and she wasn't close enough to either to trust them.
But the servant just bowed. "Please excuse me! I was asked not to say!" and he hurried out with the cultivators.
"Hmmmm?" LanFen studied the dishes, which included a bowl of chicken soup, a bowl of beef broth, a platter of fish, and smaller bowls of boiled rice, shrimps, seasoned vegetables, and even a few grapes and apples.
"Too suspicious! Why feed a dangerous prisoner something so grand?!"
She made a few hand seals and a black and gold talisman appeared, with red writing that looked like blood, on either side of the flat paper.
This was the talisman one used to summon demons, and the red writing was indeed blood. Hers on one side, and the demon's on the other.
Unlike other talismans, these ones could not be seized, as they only existed if she made them appear.
"San." LanFen said, as she flung the talisman up. It rose and disappeared in a poof of black smoke, and then a young man appeared.
He looked like a normal human of about twenty, but there was a garish scar on each cheek, which seemed to be emitting dark purplish smoke.
*'San', as she had named him, was a demon she had unknowingly acquired, but he never spoke, so no one knew his name. She had eventually named him 'San', since he was her third nameless demon.
*San - Three
San was considered a weak demon, since he was just the equivalent of a mid blue realm cultivator, but he had the priceless ability to see through most poisons.
Even if he wouldn't be able to identify the poison because of his low level, he would at least know if something was wrong.
He bowed.
LanFen nodded toward the dishes. He stared at the tray, his brown irises jumping from dish to dish. Then he looked back at her and touched a thumb to his chin and bowed his head.
That was his code for 'no poison'.
LanFen, "Ei? Are they 'fattening me up for the slaughter'?" she joked, but as usual, San didn't react. "Eiss, you can go now." She waved him away weakly.
He disappeared, and the talisman reappeared and floated back down.
As LanFen stared at the tray, her stomach rumbled, and her energy dipped further, as if reminding her of her current state.
"Hmph, I guess I should at least eat some of it, so the entire thing won't be completely wasted!"
So she said, but in mere minutes, she had cleared every single dish!
.