Captured

Yi's eyelids slowly opened, they felt heavy, and he had the urge to close them immediately, as though his body was yearning for rest, as for some reason, he truly felt exhausted, but he pushed through and managed to fully open both eyes, looking at the scenery around him as his mind remembered bit by bit how he had ended up here.

'How… Even if an Elt… Abducting a well-known prosecutor like me, and a core disciple of the Myriad-Arm Sect… Isn't that pushing it?' his heart felt genuine panic, Yi maintained his composure nonetheless, but it seemed rather obvious that they were unlikely to leave this place alive, even if Edrick's family was powerful, neither he nor them would want to deal with such a fiasco, it was much simpler to silence and get rid of them and then act none the wiser if someone ended up asking questions.

But would anyone even be willing to do that? If Anoteros covered his tracks well enough, who in their right mind would dare even harbour the shadow of a thought about blaming him? Or even implying that he might be responsible for their disappearances?

'Li said that he was going to leave right after for an adventure… So people will just assume that he went away, even if the registry at the sect's gates doesn't say anything about it- Same for me, who even knows that I came to his residence in the first place? Shit… I should have been more cautious…' unexpectedly, despite his doubts and suspicions, he had been completely fooled by the noble scion, whose behaviour and actions had seemed perfectly reasonable on the surface- At a glance, Edrick was free of everything, as far as everyone was aware, he was just a slightly eccentric guy with multiple wives and a certain penchant for architecture…

Truly, the more the prosecutor thought about it, the more he realised that if he were in charge of finding out what happened to him and Li, that he would have to eventually give up due to a lack of evidence, not to mention that most other prosecutors would be too spooked to take on a job that involved a great cultivation clan, especially the Elt.

So then, he should focus on the situation at hand and try to find a way out.

He felt drowsy, naturally, Yi assumed that it was a result of the drug from earlier that had caused him to blackout, for all he knew, only an hour or maybe even an entire day had passed since then.

His body seemed weightless, suspended off the ground, but there was no pain, as he wasn't just hanging from his wrists by chains anchored into the ceiling, there was also something wrapped around his waist, which allowed him to support himself without having to use any muscles, in fact, the bindings around his wrists, ankles and the rest were actually rather comfortable, far from the rough steel often used in prisons that he had seen before.

That seemed like a strange kindness to extend to them.

As for the room itself, it was also rather bizarre, it looked strangely cosy, the walls weren't made of stone bricks, or if they were, they had been covered by a much less cold-looking material, in fact, the temperature in the room was very good, neither too warm nor too cold.

Yi looked to the side, his vision was a bit blurry, and he was having trouble turning his neck, but he felt confident that Li was similarly held in place to his left, both of them were wearing some sort of wide, ample white cloth, Li's dark hair was down, completely covering his face as he seemed to still be unconscious.

The prosecutor attempted to exert his strength to free himself, but there was no use, he was just too weak at the moment, as if he had exerted himself for hours on end without stopping, everything felt sluggish and weird.

The technique he had cultivated back when he used to be a disciple of the Myriad-Arm Sect was called Tribulation By Man, it was a weapon cultivation technique centered around the Jian, taking inspiration from the tribulations that were said to arise when some cultivators reached certain bottlenecks… This was an event mostly spoken about by the cultivators who used a tiered system.

This technique was perfect for what Yi had aspired to do, as it basically allowed for him to better deliver justice, those targeted by this technique could be singled out for certain things about themselves, naturally, Yi had mostly used it upon criminals, enacting a tribulation upon them for their crimes, naturally, it could be used in other ways... It was a very difficult technique, but one that bore high rewards.

His mastery was not complete, but it was enough for him to be able to manifest some strength from it, even without wielding a Jian.

But as mentioned, his current strength was simply insufficient- He doubted he could even walk right now.

After two hours, he heard a grunt coming from the left.

"Li?"

"Yi?"

There was a moment of silence.

"Li… You sound weird"

"Speak for yourself, are you sure you're Yi?"

Their voices sounded off, and both only realised that it wasn't just the other that did not sound right after a few moments.

"What-"

Just then, the door to this room opened up, and just waltzing in with a satisfied smile on his face was Edrick, who casually pulled a nearby chair and sat down in front of them, crossing his arms whilst leaning back.

"Hello, doing alright? How did you like my cold tea? It was brewed by Jingyi- Though, unfortunately, the drug used had to be sourced from elsewhere, needed to be careful with you two, so I preferred to get some more advanced stuff to make sure you would get knocked out for a while" Anoteros explained with a shrug, Fanqia's alchemy skills were not yet advanced enough for her to brew anything that could reliably knock out anything besides a regular person, and even then, she was not quite confident.

But thankfully, he had Shu to source what was needed, the inner disciple had been far more willing to procure suspicious items like that since he had tasted the pleasures of the flesh with Yaling.

And besides, both were weapon cultivators, even if their techniques might provide some form of increase in strength, they were ultimately not body cultivation techniques, so in essence, they were still very similar to regular persons, especially on the inside.

"But anyway, how do you two feel right now? Weird, right? Did you notice? The hair on both of your heads has grown a fair bit"

As Edrick pointed that out, both Li and Yi realised that this was correct, Li's dark hair had always been somewhat long, but it reached well below his shoulders right now, and the same was true for Yi's platinum blond hair, it had grown and was no longer slicked back against his head, instead reaching down to his jaw, and even the hairstyle was strange, as the hair was cut straight.

Both were somewhat confused, and Edrick only added to it as he stood up and pulled off the white cloth draped over both of them, revealing something most disturbing…