LWGP - Chapter 231
Chapter 231: Turning the Tables
When your opponent is stronger, you have no leverage, and it seems they can be even more ruthless than you…
In that case, the interrogation leaves no other possibilities.
"To save someone."
"Who?"
"My only relative."
After Wang Jiu answered, she noticed the prince's eyes were calm. He didn't seem eager to judge the truth of her words, suggesting he probably had an item or skill for detecting lies.
Just like when he sat opposite her before, he already had her completely under his control.
"Save someone? How touching. You clearly saved the noble Young Prince, so why did you suddenly leave?"
"I imagine it must have been His Majesty who ordered that Feng Liao to assassinate you."
Wang Jiu fell silent for a moment before saying, "For someone with my unknown origins, it's not entirely wrong for them to operate that way. However, as his uncle, your own operations are what's truly astonishing, Your Highness Prince Xingyun."
Prince Xingyun's eyes narrowed again, and he chuckled lightly. "So clever. Don't you know that clever people die young?"
As the blade pierced Wang Jiu's abdomen and twisted, her brow furrowed slightly, but her disguised boyish appearance remained unchanged. She was incredibly steady, merely watching Prince Xingyun quietly. "Now that you know my origins, there's nothing about me worth exploring. Yet you don't kill me. What's your plan, Your Highness?"
The blade remained in her abdomen. Scalding blood flowed down, dripping from Prince Xingyun's palm.
Prince Xingyun moved a step closer, almost pressing against Wang Jiu. "You're wrong. I think there are far too many things about you worth exploring."
He emphasized the word "exploring," making it sound both ambiguous and frivolous.
But Wang Jiu could see the man had no "sexual interest" in her whatsoever. What could he possibly want? There was likely only one thing.
She didn't speak, but Prince Xingyun pulled out the blade, casually wiping it, and asked nonchalantly, "Do you have anyone you can contact in your original spacetime?"
Here it comes.
Just as I thought. A young man truly dedicated to scheming for profit and building his enterprise.
"I do," Wang Jiu replied.
Prince Xingyun turned the blade. "Won't you recommend an introduction?"
"It requires a medium. Just adding them as a friend is useless."
"A medium, you say? I'll naturally prepare one. I just need you to trade it to her."
As long as he could use Wang Jiu to transfer the medium, add a friend, and sign an agreement, Prince Xingyun would have a stable route for inter-spacetime trafficking.
Enormous profits would come rolling in.
For an ambitious young man dedicated to rebellion, what could be more important than this?
"If I agree, you'll let me go?"
"Of course. Otherwise, what's the use in killing you?"
"Is that so? You were able to block my social private chats after appearing before me, and even silence things like slave contracts, yet you didn't prohibit me from recording videos, nor did you deny your identity as a prince. You've already decided to silence me for good, haven't you?"
Prince Xingyun fell silent. He turned around and sighed softly. "A clever person playing dumb is the highest form of wisdom. Otherwise, it's just being conceited."
Then he switched to a slender little knife and lifted one of Wang Jiu's fingers.
"We're still ten days from the capital. No rush. We'll do one finger a day. You'll eventually come around."
After Prince Xingyun, covered in blood, left the torture chamber, Wang Jiu, her hands now skeletal white, watched his back.
Peeling off fingernails, grinding away skin and flesh, picking out blood vessels—his technique was quite flamboyant.
System: "Humans really produce perverts so easily. This damn man."
He said he'd do one, but when Lao Wang showed no reaction at all, he couldn't resist and ended up flaying all ten fingers with his blade.
And under this terrifying torture rack, Wang Jiu couldn't recover, forced to remain with skeletal fingers.
But she was very quiet, seemingly pondering something.
System: "Have you thought of a way to escape yet?"
Wang Jiu: "No. I'm thinking about which part of me he'll work on tomorrow."
As a prisoner, how can you describe your miserable plight in such a darkly suggestive way?
The System was helpless, but it guessed Wang Jiu had a plan, so it didn't disturb her.
But with her social circle blocked, her own abilities sealed, and no access to resources to increase her strength, what other methods did she have?
Wang Jiu closed her eyes, sinking into complete silence.
Nine days later, in the torture chamber, Prince Xingyun, still covered in blood with more dripping from his hands, frowned. He stared at Wang Jiu, whose body was a mangled mess of flesh and blood with several fingers broken, and fell into deep thought. "Do you not feel pain?"
For so many days, he hadn't seen this woman show any reaction. She was colder than a robot.
Blood seeping from her temple, Wang Jiu glanced at him. "So that's what you suspected. No wonder you took my severed fingers to run experiments."
This man was probably very competitive. Frustrated by repeated failures over the past few days, he had tried every method to torture her. He only left during his cultivation time or when the starship's intelligent butler contacted him for something. The rest of the time was spent on Wang Jiu.
How deeply devoted.
Prince Xingyun smiled, not denying it. His smile was more radiant than the gentlest lover in the world. "Today is the last day. Even if you endure, there's no other way out. However, I might not necessarily kill you. If you acknowledge me as your master, become my slave, and never betray me, it would be better than stubbornly resisting only to die in the end. Then we can get rich together as a community of interests. You won't be at a disadvantage."
These words sounded a bit like a pyramid scheme pitch—incredibly stupid, but very easy for people to fall for.
Wang Jiu still didn't speak, but Prince Xingyun saw hesitation and struggle in her eyes.
"I won't force you. You have three hours to consider."
Prince Xingyun got up to leave. Before he went, he checked the torture chamber. He was still quite cautious with Wang Jiu, eliminating any possibility of her escape.
As soon as he left, the System, which had been missing for several days, came online.
"What now? Are you going to fall here? Don't! That would be so lame. I always imagined you'd go out gloriously on the battlefield, or get beaten to death by a mob."
Thanks a fucking lot.
Wang Jiu didn't even twitch an eyelid. She just said, "I think he should be taking a bath right now."
The starship should have entered the capital's defense line by now, waiting in line for registration and inspection. Of course, Prince Xingyun wouldn't need to appear personally; the ship's intelligent butler would handle it.
Wang Jiu guessed correctly. Covered in blood, the noble Prince Xingyun had naturally gone to take a bath, and the intelligent butler was indeed waiting for its turn to register.
While waiting, its turn came. The butler floated out and was inputting information when it suddenly sensed certain commands in the starship's control system. Startled, it was about to cancel them, but it was a step too late. Boom!
All the attack ports on Prince Xingyun's starship opened, firing at the surrounding ships and the nearby defense tower.
Holy shit!!
The people at the transit station were dumbfounded. Where did this bastard come from? It had been years since anyone was this audacious!
Could it be some bastards from the other two empires who smuggled themselves in?
"Enemy attack!!"
"Prepare to attack!"
"Take them down!"
The intelligent butler wanted to explain and regain control of the ship, but it was immediately captured by an expert from the transit station, who cut off its power supply, causing it to lose control of the starship.
Meanwhile, the seven or eight starships in line before and after Prince Xingyun's were simultaneously attacked. They were likely enraged, and ignoring the transit station's orders, they began frantically firing at the lower left abdomen of Prince Xingyun's vessel.
A deafening roar.
The entire starship shook. Prince Xingyun, who was bathing, had sensed something was amiss the moment his ship opened fire for no reason.
He rushed out of the bathroom, changing clothes on the way, and flash-stepped towards the torture chamber. In just a few seconds, he appeared before Wang Jiu and, without a word, raised his hand to kill her and eliminate any future trouble.
But just as he raised his hand, his expression suddenly changed, and he threw up a block towards the cabin wall…
Boom!
To hide his identity and cover his tracks, Prince Xingyun naturally couldn't be as flashy as the Young Prince and use the empire's best warship. The vessel he chose was high-grade, but far from the level of a warship. Taking fire from several ships at once had already damaged its defensive layer. Under this new attack, the ship's cabin wall was instantly struck by a beam of light.
The cabin wall melted in an instant. In the halo of light, he saw the miserably pathetic Wang Jiu, hanging on the torture rack, lift her head and glance at him. Her eyes… were filled with contempt.
Outside the blasted-open cabin, a massive warship issued a warning.
The voice was Feng Liao's.
He had already flown out of the warship and was now outside the breached hatch, face to face with the disguised Prince Xingyun.
In truth, with Prince Xingyun's strength, he could have instantly killed Feng Liao and Wang Jiu. But doing so would mean completely breaking ties with the empire.
But, right now, he was not Prince Xingyun.
It was no big deal for his false identity to become an enemy of the empire.
If he were actually captured and investigated, that would be the real disaster—this Ma Lisu had to die.
Thus, within seconds, a ruthless look appeared in Prince Xingyun's eyes, and he suddenly struck.
Feng Liao seemed to have anticipated this. His expression changed drastically as he moved to block.
As powerful as Prince Xingyun was, his strike unleashed an average damage of 500,000. That blow far surpassed the attacks from the other starships and the transit station's defense tower.
The light flashed across the dense formation of starships, and almost everyone saw this scene.
At the same time, many bustling streets in the capital were also broadcasting this scene.
After all, the defense line was under attack, and reporting the results of a battle was imperial law. Every citizen had the right to know. So, almost everyone in the capital saw this scene and was instantly shocked.
500,000 average attributes? That would rank among the top thirty experts in the Xingyao Empire.
What is the identity of such a powerful person? Has he gone mad and decided to attack the capital?
"He must have come with a conspiracy and was intercepted by our imperial military."
"That should be General Feng Liao leading the team just now."
"It's over, General Feng Liao probably can't withstand it!"
Sure enough, the next second, they saw Feng Liao being severely wounded, sent flying high into the air, his body mangled and bloody, on the verge of death.
Just as they were horrified, the warship behind them erupted with a brilliant light that reached the heavens.
The empire's strongest priest group, led by Saling.
A top-tier group skill—Grand Art of Life.
Forcibly saving people! Forcibly pulling back HP!
Feng Liao and Wang Jiu, who were about to die, were both enveloped in this light, their rapidly depleting HP forcibly restored.
Damn it, Saling and the empire's number one priest group are here too!
This was a priest group that could keep someone alive even under the attack of a supreme expert with a million average attributes!
Such preparations… Prince Xingyun realized—he had been set up.
Next, an even more powerful expert would probably appear to kill him.
Currently, there were no fewer than ten people in the capital with average attributes higher than 500,000.
A glint flashed in Prince Xingyun's eyes. Before Saling, Feng Liao, and that expert could act, he immediately restored his original appearance and shouted, "Feng Liao, Saling, it is I, this prince! My starship was controlled by a villain. You came at me aggressively, full of killing intent, so I acted in self-defense. If I have injured you by mistake, I am deeply sorry. But I hope you will stand down. I will explain everything to my imperial brother."
His identity was exposed. As the empire's only prince, Prince Xingyun's status was noble, second only to the Young Prince in the line of succession. The military naturally couldn't continue its attack.
Feng Liao was severely injured and had fallen unconscious. Only Saling remained. She exchanged a look with the old man beside her and responded via the starship's broadcast: "Greetings, Your Highness Prince Xingyun. So it was a misunderstanding. However, an investigation is still required. Please refrain from any further actions and cooperate with the empire's inspection."
After speaking, she led her people out.
Prince Xingyun gave a grim look at the unconscious, floating Feng Liao not far away, and at Wang Jiu, who also had her eyes closed.
She had been on the rack the whole time, her social functions blocked, unable to send out any videos. Moreover, he had later used a half-legendary video item to block her recording ability, even overwriting her previous videos. She had no evidence to incriminate him; verbal accusations were useless.
But as long as she was alive, she was a hidden danger.
He wanted to strike and eliminate the problem at its root, but Saling had already spoken… and had even cast a barrier around the two of them.
Sneering inwardly but maintaining his composure, Prince Xingyun flew out.
When the two sides met, the people on the nearby starships realized it was Prince Xingyun's ship that had caused the trouble. They began to discuss it suspiciously, but Prince Xingyun's public image in the empire was excellent, far better than that oafish Young Prince. In a sense, the emperor was cold and ruthless, while his younger brother was extremely approachable. In terms of affability, the latter far surpassed the father and son.
To put it bluntly, if the emperor were to die, the citizens of the empire might prefer the elegant and benevolent younger brother to inherit the throne, rather than the young prince.
Under this filter, the owners of the capital's starships, who had been angry and complaining, lessened their hostility. They even began to think that someone might have framed Prince Xingyun. Otherwise, he'd have to be an idiot to have his ship attack the defense line.
Just as the situation was turning around.
These starship owners suddenly received video broadcasts from their relatives in the capital, along with a bombardment of social private messages.
What's going on?
What's going on? The citizens of the imperial capital wanted to curse someone out too!
Three minutes ago, the broadcast from the transit station had suddenly switched to surveillance footage.
The scene was simple: a torture chamber. There were only two people, and the content was also simple: torture and interrogation.
It was bloody, cruel, and perverse. The interrogation was calm, and the dialogue went as follows.
Prince Xingyun: "Are you really not considering submitting to me and telling me what I want to know?"
Wang Jiu: "A dignified prince, clinging to such meager profits. I now understand why you wanted to assassinate your little nephew."
Prince Xingyun: "Trying to bait me?"
Wang Jiu: "No, I'm just calling you short-sighted and pathetic."
Prince Xingyun: "Do you think I'm reluctant to kill you? By the way, if it weren't for you, my little nephew would already be dead."
Wang Jiu: "And then you'd smoothly become the second in line for succession? If I were you, killing the Young Prince would be a last resort. Either don't act at all, or act with lightning speed to achieve your goal. What's the big deal about a son dying? It's not like your brother, His Majesty, can't have another."
Prince Xingyun: "Then you're just ignorant. Do you think royal bloodlines are so easy to produce? The purer the bloodline, the harder it is to have offspring. But you're right, my dear brother might really be unable to have any more."
After saying this, he chuckled lightly, his smile filled with malice and hatred for his brother.
Wang Jiu looked at him and asked a soul-searching question. "Sorry, I'm a bit curious. How many children do you have?"
Prince Xingyun glanced at her. "I'm not yet married."
Wang Jiu: "A pity. If I were you, and I couldn't get rid of my brother and didn't dare kill my little nephew for fear of retaliation, I'd choose other, more subtle technical methods. High security, not considered a crime, and the goal is still achieved."
Prince Xingyun smiled. "Go on."
Wang Jiu: "Does our Majesty have any concubines? Or other women?"
A glint appeared in Prince Xingyun's eyes. "You mean I should seduce those women and have my dear brother raise my son for me? The Young Prince is such a waste anyway. My son would definitely be more outstanding than him. One day, depose the crown prince, install my son, and I'll control the empire without lifting a finger."
That's not subtle at all.
Wang Jiu: "Huh? You're going too far. I didn't mean that. I was just suggesting you curry favor with your sisters-in-law and have them whisper sweet nothings in his ear for you. How did you come up with such a beautiful dream? Though it sounds like you've been thinking about it for a long time. A pity it's not easy to execute—so, His Majesty has no women?"
Perhaps because days of interrogation had yielded no results, and he had gotten into a deep conversation with Wang Jiu, and had already decided to kill her, Prince Xingyun considered the possibility of her escape. After confirming there were no loopholes, he stopped hiding things. "Perhaps. That Saling and the only daughter of Duke Mi Sa have been rumored to be involved with him. But as you know, some women are really not easy to deceive. Like you, for example."
Wang Jiu also got gossipy. "I've heard these rumors too. So they're true?"
Prince Xingyun chuckled. "I hope you can maintain your uniqueness and not just follow the crowd like those idiots. My brother, you see, is very picky. He looks down on ordinary women."
Wang Jiu: "I think you're pickier than your brother. He looks down on ordinary women; you look down on everyone. Yet you insist on using them to build your good reputation. Isn't that despicable?"
Prince Xingyun: "Then wouldn't you say that them being so easy to deceive is even more despicable?"
Wang Jiu: "I really wish I could record this video."
She had been telling the truth the whole time. He was certain of that.
Prince Xingyun reached out and gently wiped the blood from her cheek, tender and considerate. "Don't overthink it. The video recording in this torture chamber only activates after I leave. Our conversation just now won't be recorded. You have no chance of escape, so you don't need to go to such lengths to bait me into saying these things."
"However, I'm willing to play along with you."
"I have to give you a little hope, so that you can then despair."
Prince Xingyun naturally had a vast network of power in the capital. When he received the video and news from his subordinates, he fell silent.
There were two things he couldn't figure out.
1. How was the starship controlled?
2. How did Wang Jiu record the video?
But those were things for him to investigate later. Right now, he had no other way out—this video would cause his prestige among the empire's common folk to backlash into the negatives.
Those foolish citizens wouldn't think any deeper; they would just attack him frantically.
Riding this trend, his ruthless and heartless brother would not hesitate to arrest, convict, and kill him.
If he hadn't revealed his identity earlier and had instead risked fighting his way out, the situation would be far better than it was now.
But once he exposed his own identity, it was all over.
It was as if he had been completely outmaneuvered.
Just four words—the building is collapsing.
I really didn't expect this.
Prince Xingyun glanced back at Wang Jiu, then turned to Saling and smiled. "Lord Saling, please forgive my offense towards you. Those words were not my true intention."
Saling: "Your Highness is too polite. I am but a mere medical officer. If even Lady Suo Nu is not worthy of your notice, what am I?"
The surrounding troops had already encircled Prince Xingyun. The expert from the capital, who was the second commander of the military, had locked onto Prince Xingyun to prevent his escape.
Prince Xingyun lowered his eyes, a bitter smile on his lips.
The second commander took him into custody, and the heavily injured Feng Liao was also taken away. Just as the other medical officers from the priest group were about to go in and retrieve Wang Jiu, a voice said, "No need. I'll do it."
Standing before the torture rack, Saling coldly regarded the dying Wang Jiu. She didn't seem to be in a hurry to save her.
Or rather, she had no intention of saving her at all.
Wang Jiu's bloodshot eyes looked at her with a faint, ambiguous smile.
Saling found her gaze somewhat irritating, but she still asked, "How did you do it?"
"Come closer." Her voice was weak, like a wisp of wind about to disperse in a forest at night.
Saling recognized the special nature of the rack and knew she was completely incapable of resisting, so she did step forward. Then, a voice laced with the pungent smell of blood reached her ears.
"I'm not telling you."
Hoarse, charming, and with a hint of flirtation.
Then she closed her eyes, lowered her head, and let it fall limply onto Saling's shoulder, passing out just like that.
Saling froze on the spot, her eyes dark and unreadable. She raised her hand, a sharp glint gathering at her fingertips, as she recalled the order Feng Liao had relayed earlier.
His Majesty's order: Kill her.
Her raised hand paused for a moment. She thought about how the Young Prince should have been in the palace for a while now. Perhaps he was arguing, perhaps he was crying and begging, but for their Majesty, only tangible benefits could influence his decisions.
After some thought, Saling took the initiative to contact Emperor Xingyao, using her status to ask whether to kill her or not.
"She might be from another spacetime."
The investigation into those female prisoners wasn't something only Prince Xingyun could uncover.
Emperor Xingyao responded quickly.
"Keep her alive for now."
Saling's brow relaxed slightly. She lowered her hand, picked up the person, and headed back to the city. But before disappearing, she turned back to survey the starship's torture chamber. Besides the surveillance eye, there were no other monitoring methods.
Could it be that Wang Jiu used some means to activate the surveillance eye and secretly record it? But if so, the intelligent butler and Prince Xingyun should have been able to detect it.
Unable to figure it out, Saling had the military conduct a high-level inspection of the starship, and then she disappeared.
She, however, failed to notice the bits of flesh and skin under the rack in the torture chamber, nor did she know about certain severed fingers that had slipped out of the control room and self-destructed.
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