Chapter 338: Nightmare At Midnigh (1/2)

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Outside, the house was una.s.suming, but through one of the doors and down the stairs was a hidden interrogation room, which could instill fear with its appearance alone. Dried blood tainted the already weathered walls. The floor radiated bone-chilling coldness. The sound of whipping rang and echoed.

Nan Xun made his way to the depth of the room. A man was tied to a pillar. Surrounding him were a few of Nan Xun's confidantes. His most trusted shadowguard brandished a whip. He bowled respectfully when he saw Nan Xun. “This man is difficult to break. I've whipped him for an hour, but he said nothing.”

Nan Xun scoffed and narrowed his eyes at the unkempt man. Without warning, he splashed the barrel of salt water at him.

“Agh!”

“Hm? How does it feel to get salt water in your wounds?” Nan Xun picked up a thin iron rod and lifted the man's chin, forcing him to look up.

The man was a spy who had infiltrated Nan Xun's circle. It'd taken Nan Xun a lot of hard work to finally root him out. He'd been a good looking man, but now all his clothes were tattered, and his once well-groomed hair covered his face messily. The salt water drenched his hair, making it stick to his face, which was covered in b.l.o.o.d.y gashes.

Caught off guard, the man hadn't close his eyes in time. They burned painfully. He gritted his teeth, unwilling to say anything.

Nan Xun smiled sharply and crossed his arms. “It's said that one's fingers are connected to his heart,” he said coldly. “You've been so stubborn. Do you want to know what it feels like to have your heart stabbed?”

The man opened his eyes, which were bloodshot from the salt water. Without a word, he glared at Nan Xun venomously.

The shadowguard frowned and gripped the man's hair, smas.h.i.+ng his head into the pillar. The man m.u.f.fled a cry but didn't say anything. He wasn't going to tell them who his master was.

The shadowguard cursed. “He's not going to talk.”

Nan Xun scoffed, his eyes growing dark. He gave one of his men a pointed look, who handed him a small hammer without missing a beat. Nan Xun felt the weight in his hand, his smile growing colder.

Without a word, he hit the man's toe with the hammer. The nail turned a purplish red immediately as blood rushed under it. It wasn't a pleasant sight, but Nan Xun didn't seem at all affected. Without giving the man any time to recover, he hit the same toe again.

He could hear bones cracking. The man paled, but his pride didn't allow him to break.

Nan Xun didn't want to waste his time on the man. He handed the hammer to his shadowguard. “Go on. Hit him until he speaks.”

He took a step back and looked down at the man.

The only sounds in the room were of hammer hitting fragile bones and the man's pained grunt. When Nan Xun told the shadowguard to stop, the man's feet was a b.l.o.o.d.y mess. A few nails had fallen off. And he was close to losing consciousness.

With a fierce expression, Nan Xun pinched the man's chin and forced him to look at him. “This is your last chance. If you refuse to talk, you'll be in a world of pain.”

The man's face had gone blue, and he was trembling, his face covered in sweat and tears. Finally intimidated, the man sucked in a few breaths and stammered his answer. Finally, Nan Xun understood his motives - to rebuild Tianyu, a destroyed dynasty.

It was a sleepless night. Nan Xun grimly ordered his men to investigate. Soon, he found out that there were a group of people who refused to accept the destruction of the Tianyu Dynasty. They'd been trying to rebuild it ever since, and had created a good number of organizations to do it. Nan Xun scowled. He had a feeling that this was but the tip of the iceberg.

Jun Huang had been sleeping soundly until she felt Nan Xun's absence. What happened earlier in the day put her in a long and unbelievably realistic dream.

She stood over a lawn, her view blurry. She rubbed at her eyes, but it hurt. She sucked in a breath and trembled.

“Go, princess. The army had broken through the city gate. If we don't leave now, we'll never be able to.”

Jun Huang turned to the source of the voice. An old caretaker was dragging a young woman who shared her face. She knew instinctively that the lost looking girl was her, but in the past.

“Go?” muttered the girl. “To where?”

The old caretaker was on the verge of tears. She helped the girl up and made her way through the panicking crowd. “This way. You'll be fine once you flee the palace.”