Chapter 864 - 219: The Ritual
The iron door of the dungeon was opened, and Adis was heavily pushed in from behind, falling to the ground, his knees colliding with the floor, making a crisp sound.
"Stay well inside." The believer who brought him in said lightly, then turned and left.
This was a not-too-big, not-too-small cell. Besides him, there were two other people lying on the grass mat in the corner sleeping. They only opened their eyes to look out when he came in.
After those two believers left, Adis looked around, noticing that this was just a not-too-big, not-too-small cell. The Black God Cult didn’t seem to pay much attention to him, or they wouldn’t have locked him in such an ordinary cell with other prisoners.
If he was not important, then why lock him in here?
After Adis came in, those two people still lay like corpses on the ground without moving. If not for noticing that they looked this way just now, he would have thought they were dead.
Adis coughed twice. Seeing that those two still had no movement, he took the initiative to ask, "Do you know what place this is?"
After a moment of silence, the long-haired man closest to him said flatly, "Can’t you see? It’s a dungeon, holding so many people."
Adis knew it was a dungeon and explained, "I want to know exactly where this dungeon is, under the Black Rope Sect?"
At this moment, another person sat up from the grass mat: "Who can know that? I’m afraid those held here don’t know, and those who knew are already dead. But I guess not. They wouldn’t place such a dungeon under the sacred church; it would be a desecration to them."
"You seem to be a believer too, so, has a new Church come to the city?"
Adis gritted his teeth and said calmly, "That’s exactly why I got caught. I joined the Church during the day and got thrown in here at night. The Black Rope Sect is really domineering."
"You’re talking as if you’re not one of us. The Black Rope Sect’s tyranny isn’t something new." The long-haired man sneered, still lying on the ground. The skin on his shoulders was completely ulcerated, the plague symptoms severe; any ordinary person would not survive, but he seemed quite strong.
Adis looked at him and said, "How can one get out?"
"Get out?"
"Where are you going out? No one coming in here ever goes out alive. Either beaten to death or dying of the plague. If you can’t endure such pain, kill yourself; bash your head against the wall, and all troubles will be gone." The long-haired man turned his head to look over, revealing a demonic, terrifying smile, with clear wrinkles on his face.
Adis couldn’t help but frown, realizing the seriousness of the problem. The Black Rope Sect probably never intended to release him, keeping him here perhaps for some other purpose, otherwise, they would have killed him directly outside.
"Being locked in here might be considered fortunate amidst misfortune, at least not killed outright." Adis said to himself.
The long-haired man snorted coldly, reminding, "Coming in here is no different from death, just waiting to die."
Looking at his condition, Adis said, "The plague symptoms on you are severe; if you don’t get out, you’ll likely die soon."
The long-haired man looked at him like he was an idiot and said:
"I’ll die out there as well unless there’s medicine from the Black Rope Sect to delay the symptoms. But do you think the Black Rope Sect will give me medicine? It’s good they haven’t killed me yet."
Adis hesitated and asked, "Why were you originally locked in here by the Black Rope Sect?"
The short-haired man who sat up from the ground showed an angry expression: "We are all from the Antu Commerce Association; I’m the president of the association, Angisun. At first, we discovered that the raw materials for the medicine produced by the Black Rope Sect were not as expensive as they claimed."
"So we negotiated with them to lower the price and increase production, so more people could avoid dying from the plague."
"But they wouldn’t have it and even threatened us, saying if we continued to disrupt, we wouldn’t have a place in this city."
"But how could we allow such a thing to continue? Every day many people die from the plague; it’s complete folly."
"We reported this to the city government, but they didn’t care. There was no way, so we had to negotiate with other guilds to protest together..."
Adis took a deep breath, hesitated, and said, "Now there is a means to cure the plague. If you could get out, you might still survive."
The small cell immediately fell into silence, even the people in the neighboring cell looked over, evidently eavesdropping earlier.
"Really?" Angisun showed an expression of disbelief, unable to imagine that such a dreadful problem could be remedied so quickly,
"Was it a doctor in the city who developed the remedy?"
Adis shook his head, pointing to his clothes, "Just today, I also joined the All Beings Sect to heal the plague, becoming their believer."
"The plague symptoms on me have indeed greatly improved, although I can’t say whether I’m completely healed."
Angisun frowned, "Another Church. It seems that after the plague, quite a few churches have sprouted up. What price needs to be paid to receive their treatment?"
Adis shook his head earnestly and said, "No price is needed; you just need to become their believer. Compared to the Black Rope Sect’s vampires, they are undoubtedly compassionate and tolerant."
Hearing this, Angisun smiled, "In that case, the situation outside could improve. If the All Beings Sect truly has the ability to cure the plague, perhaps it won’t be long before the plague is eradicated in Du Lan City."
Even in prison, hearing this news, he was sincerely happy.
Adis fell into contemplation and asked back, "What if the All Beings Sect were swallowed by the Black Rope Sect?"
All three fell into silence. If things really developed that way, the outcome was uncertain.
Angisun said gravely, "I know some of what the Black Rope Sect does, it’s horrifying. They wouldn’t hesitate to do anything for their benefit."
"I got news before I came in that every once in a while, the Black Rope Sect performs a ritual, requiring live human sacrifices."
"At first, it was death row inmates in prisons. Later, there weren’t enough, so they secretly established this dungeon."
Angisun seemed to know a lot about the Black Rope Sect, yet wasn’t killed, which seemed a bit strange.