Dark King

Prisoners were passionately waiting for the guards to bring them meals. The place trembled from above. At the same time noises came from a very remote distance. Occasionally, sounds of metal colliding were heard.

Prisoners were surprised as the sound isolation was excelent in prison. There had to be an inevitable momentum caused so that the sound had reached inside.

“What’s going on?” The prisoners puzzled and asked each other.

A middle-aged prisoner spoke in an alarmed tone: “It’s a clash!”

“Jailbreak?” The crowd was shocked in surprise.

“Great!”

“Maybe we will have the opportunity to rush out.”

“Most probably its battered outside, so there is no meal delivery.”

Jin and Scar were looking at each other as they heard excited arguments of the prisoners. Jin frowned: “A few days ago while guards were talking, I heard that a senior hunter was imprisoned in the third section. Are they the forces who have come to take him out?”

“Yes, it should be so”, Scar nodded in agreement: “However, it would be very difficult for these people to ascent down to third section. Maybe they can organize large-scale attacks outside the prison. They may even pass the aisle and land on top of the prison. But even if they bribed and bought some of the guards, its still impossible for them to go all the way in and take the prisoner out.”

Several other leaders nodded in agreement. It was not the first time that they had seen such a situation to occur. They weren’t as excited as the other people. Thorn Flower Prison wasn’t called number on prison within the wall for no reason. It was fortress that could stand up to a war!

Dudian opened his eyes but didn’t stand up. He listened to other’s comments while his expression was extremely calm.

…

…

In castle on the Thorn Flower Prison.

Two figures were standing on top of the watchtower. One of them had a telescope and overlooked the invading army of hundreds which was equivalent to a small army.

“Well-trained bunch. They should be planning this for a long time.” Middle-aged man put down the telescope and lightly laughed.

A butler wearing black robes was behind him. He chuckled: “Unfortunately, they haven’t trained their brains…”

“It’s not that they haven’t trained their brains. Well, its just the people who direct and command them do not have brains at all.”

Butler smiled: “They have passed through the border fort. They should be getting here soon. It should be military… Should I got and greet the mice that passed in? ”

Middle-aged man slightly nodded as his eagle-like eyes overlooked the entire battlifield by the lake. He softly whispered: “tiger in the cage.”

“They have yet to taste the thorn of the rose.” Butler said with a smile.

Middle-aged man said: “Is my tea ready?”

“Just waiting for you to enjoy it.” Butler respectfully replied.

…

…

The sounds coming from the outside gradually subsided after a few hours.

Everyone was staring at the iron gate. They were hoping to see a strange person to open it but two prison guards with indiffirent faces went inside. All of the prisoners were disappointed as this riot was unsuccessful and a failure.

This didn’t affect Dudian as he continued to dig the tunnel in the evening.

…

…

It was already three years that Dudian had been in the prison.

Heavy black snow was falling down from the gray radiated clous in the sky. The earth was dyed black. Most of the open-air orchards, farms and gardens were covered before the season so not to be destroyed by this black snow.

The weather was too cold. Prisoners in each cell held together to warm up each other.

It was night time when guards wearing thick cotton-padded jackets came to hastily deliver the food and left.

In ‘black snow season’ the distribution of the food had increased in comparison to other seasons. Dudian also got three black breads. He was slowly eating while the others fall asleep.

After finishing eating and making sure that no one was watching he gently slid the toilet and went into the underground pit.

The sides of the rough pit rubbed his skin. He slid all the way down to second floor of the workplace. He felt that soles of his feet had touched cold lake. At the moment he was standing in the bottom of the prison.

“This pit’s height is 25 meters. There is another layer above our chamber so the lakes height should be somewhere close to 35 meters. Senior hunters and knights of the magistrate are held in that bottom layer. Jin is also a primary hunter who was in the 1st section as me.”

Dudian bent over and took the tool he used to dig. Actually this new tool was the teeth of a monster. After using it, the progress of digging was greatly enhanced.

He would often think that next to the pit senior level hunters on same level as Glenn were imprisoned. Fortunately, his title was only a junior hunter. If it was middle-level hunter then he would be stuck in the bottom section. Although the distance to cutting the wall would be shortened but the criminal law that applied to mid-level hunters was different. Their living conditions were much more strict too.

Scar had told him that on the first section the guard would just nail them with spikes. However, on the other level they would cut off arms and go through different kinds of tortures which were hundreds of times worser than they had gone through. Even if a senior hunter came to this prison, they would be broken and wasted!

Dudian bent down in a difficult position to reach into the water to dig the earty.

Dudian once poured water into the deep pit. The first reason was to soak the soil to soften it. The second reason was the when he was cutting the wall the sound would be substantially eliminated.

Now, he also saved pouring water on his own as the lake water infiltrated out of its own.

A moment later Dudian’s hit a hard object. His heartbeat speed up.

Soon, he exposed the appearance of this hard object. It was a horizontal oval metal. Although he had exposed on a small part but from its oval shape he could deduct that it was a pipe. Its diameter should be big.

However, he wasn’t excited as he saw this oval metal.

Although the system to deliver out the excretion was buried in the bottom of the lake but the pressure to bear was too strong. Its structure would be extremely strong too.

How can I break it open?

Dudian was silent as he was thinking about a method. He cleaned the soil from it and saw that the pipe was began enough for him to walk upright in it.

He grabbed a stone and tapped it on the metal pipe.

Afterwards, he immediately leaned to listen.

His expectations were not proven right. It seems there was a layer of protective layer and beneath it another pipe went along which was the real system for draining wastage and manure.

Dudian grabbed a relatively hard stone and hit the pipe.

Bang! There was a light echo.

Dudian hit a few more times in a row. The stone was crushed but metal pipe was unscathed. Nothing more than a few small dents.

Dudian punched the metal pipe in anger. Because of the rebound his shoulder ached. He picked up the tool and continued to dig along the pipeline.

“The soil at the bottom of the lake is much softer. So the progress would be very fast. Moreover, I wouldn’t have to worry about the sound impact. If I go on full force in about five years before the death penalty I should be able to dig outside the lake.” He was making calculations in his mind as he continued to dig.

Another half a month passed.

Dudian chosen to dig in the opposite direction. Although the possibility was extremely low but there could be a guard at the end of the pipe who would be guarding it. In about half a month’s time he had dug a three-meter long horizontal channel about four or five meters above the bottom of the lake.

He vaguely remember the time when he entered the prison. He had seen the scene from the aisle. The lakes radious was about 300 meters. According to his calculations and his daily schedule in an about a year’s time he would be out.

His only worry was that the mud would collapse and crush the channel. Fortunately, manure pipe was standard and he was making the pit about four or five meters above it so that the surrounding soil was more dry and hard. Probability of being crushed by the mud was low.

Moreover, he would find some hard rocks while digging the channel. Although it was a trouble but in sense it added some security to channel’s stability.

Although digging a tunnel was the most common way to escape from the prison but most people couldn’t think of this method. Moreover they couldn’t just dig out a tunnel.

Even the senior hunters who were in bottom level couldn’t do so. They were tightly guarded by rotating guards. Moreover they had gone through very heavy torture and were weaked than Dudian. After all, their title was enough for administration of prison to take enough action against them.

Even if they had the change, they wouldn’t have tools. In case, if they could go and steal the tools like Dudian did, they still wouldn’t be able to dig a tunnel of few hundred meters. After all, dark vision was an ability which came with Dudian’s magic marks. If there was not vision, it would be impossible to dig a parallel tunnel to pipe.

This escape wasn’t just about ability. It was about courage, firm mind, opportunity, luck and chance. If any of these lacked the difficult to escape would go up.

Bang!

The knife in dudian’s hand poked into a rock wall. However, instead of being damaged the rock suddenly slipped up.