Let's say that after listening to Guan Ju's muttering along the way, we have already arrived at the ghost prison.

I have been in this world for nearly half a year, but I have never seen such a road in Karishu. When you come to the palace gate, follow the root of the imperial city wall to the southeast corner, enter a sheltered corner gate, and pass through the woods in the palace, you will enter a narrow and long road with old and high black walls on both sides.

On the left side of this corridor is the Forbidden Palace, which is like a mezzanine between the palace and the outside world. However, the trail is gloomy and cold, as if it was abandoned by the spring of Karshu because of its remote location.

After walking in the carriage for half an hour, we reached the end of the corridor, passed through the northeast corner of the forbidden palace, and finally came to the gate of this legendary ghost prison.

It is better to see than to hear, and the scene in front of me shattered all the illusions in my mind about this prison that is known as hell on earth. There were no savage torches, no conspicuous plaques, no entrance in the shape of devil's fangs—and when you walked along the path to the end, you saw a very simple and large stone doorway, with more than a dozen soldiers guarding on both sides.

Those soldiers were also different from the ordinary palace guards and janissaries, each holding a different blade in their hands, all of them looked like torches, stood like green pines, and at a glance knew that they were masters with strong internal strength.

The palace banner escorted me behind me and walked to the door, silently revealing his token as the king of Rongjun. The guards guarding the door did not hesitate, bowed and bowed, and opened two iron doors, one on the left and one on the right.

As soon as the door opened, there was a fishy smell of rust and blood. I was unprepared for the smell and even crouched down and retched. Guan Ju and Pu Jia were startled, so they hurriedly covered their mouths and noses to support me, and smoothed my back again and again.

Miyahata's tone was revealing obvious concern and distress: "I told you not to come earlier, but you didn't listen." Stay here and wait for me. ”

I vomited so much that I pulled the wound in my lower abdomen, and I couldn't speak, but I still managed to straighten up and shook my head stubbornly.

Miyahata sighed softly, and was about to say something more, but saw a man in official uniform walk out of the dark depths of the open door of the ghost prison. When the man saw Miyahata, he piled up the horizontal flesh on his face into a flattering smile, and with both hands he held the agate gold silk belt that was squeezed into the lower body by his fat belly, and shook it deeply towards us.

"Ghost prison officer Jia Xianyun, meet His Royal Highness the King of Rongjun, His Royal Highness Sheng'an."

Gong Wan sighed lightly, and didn't seem to buy it: "Lord Jia has been an official for many years, and he is in charge of the Great Heart Prison, and when I saw him for the first time today, I didn't want to be so kind and pleasant, and the etiquette was thorough." ”

Looking at that Jia Xianyan's half-flattering and half-embarrassed smile, I suddenly remembered that I had heard Hou Ye mention that this Lord Jia was originally a second-grade Shangshu of the Criminal Department, who was slick and slick when he saw the wind, because he believed in the way of self-preservation and never refused to do practical things, so even when the second son of the curtain was in his heyday, he never paid attention to him, and only reused his subordinate Fang Zhiyun, the more skillful principal.

If as Hou Ye said, this person should be a traitorous official with fat brains, why is he now a bitter criminal officer in this ghost prison that does not see the light of day?

"Wechen is ashamed, when the two kings of Huanyu were in turmoil, Wechen's bottom was not very clean. It is said that now that the two have fallen, if it weren't for the fact that His Royal Highness the King of Rongjun felt sorry for Weichen, he begged Lord Lihou to give advice to the emperor and transfer Weichen to this ghost prison on an errand to avoid the limelight. I'm afraid that if the emperor investigates it well, Weichen will only have a dead end. Your Highness's life-saving grace, Weichen... Will always remember. ”

"Lord Jia is really an understanding person, and it is not in vain that this king will run for you." Miyahata's smile didn't have too much warmth, "It's just that this great favor is hard to repay, I don't know if you can think about how to repay it when you are on an errand in this ghost prison?" ”

The smile on Jia Xianyun's face froze, and then he said again and again: "Your Royal Highness the King of the County, rest assured, Fang Zhiyun, who came in first, was unbearable and had already contracted the plague and died violently. ”

"What kind of character is he, and he is also worthy of Lord Jia's mouth?"

"Yes, yes, yes! We're long-winded! Jia Xianyun reacted quickly, and slapped himself twice, "Your Highness, rest assured, those two people who have no surnames are now betting on the bottom, and someone will take care of them day and night, and there will be no peace for a moment!" ”

"This has no head and tail, Lord Jia is really good at laughing." Gong Wan glanced at Jia Xianyun, then raised his head with a smile, "Well, since you mentioned them, take us to have a look." ”

Jia Xianyun heard Gong Hao's words, and then he noticed that I had been hiding behind him, and looked up and down for a long time: "Wei Chen also said that it was the fairy on that road who went down to the earth, and it turned out to be the former crown princess Niangniang-" He saw Gong Wan frowning, and immediately regretted his speech, and said again and again: "Bah, how can that pickled livestock be worthy of Miss Lian, the villain lost his words, Your Highness, you must not be blamed, please ...... the two of you here."

Gong Wan's expression was gloomy, and Jia Xianjun didn't dare to say anything else, and silently led us into the gate of the ghost prison with a lantern all the way.

As soon as I entered the door, I instantly felt a chill on my body. Seeing that I was shrinking slightly, Pu Jia put her cloak on my body again, rubbed her cold hands and hugged my waist.

This coolness is really evil, it is not like the shade of a damp place with the back of the sun, nor is it like the bitter cold of the severe winter ice and snow season, but it is like the slightest chill from the inside out, from the bones and viscera to the skin.

"It's hard to even be a girl..."Jia Xianyu is the best at observing words, and when he saw my pale face, he sneered: "This place is built underground, and there is no sunlight all year round. There are many prisoners who have been tortured but died tragically, and the ghosts are still lingering, so the yin qi is heavier, and you are a nobleman, so you will naturally feel-"

"That's it!" Gong Wan scolded, and echoed strangely in this dark emptiness, "What are you doing talking nonsense, be your errand!" ”

When Jia Xianyun heard this, he shrank again and bowed his head again and again to beg for mercy. It was only in front of me that I could see the light of the fire, which was becoming more and more obvious—it turned out that we had been descending all the way down a wide and high black road for a long time, surrounded by gray and damp stone walls, all the way to the front of the torches.

At the end, I almost screamed - this hellish prison was a huge round pit dug straight into the ground, and the place we were in was counted as the first level, and I felt a sense of weightlessness when I looked at the layers of prison that spread to the hellish abyss beneath my feet.

"Jia Xianyun is right, there is a lot of yin here, do you really want to go down with me?"

I took one last look at the bottomless abyss below, took Miyahata's hand, and nodded firmly.

"Two of you, please come with Weichen."

Jia Xianyun led the way and led me and Gong Wan to the other end of the huge pit. When I arrived at the place, I was surprised to see that there was a huge wheel ladder in front of me. Unlike elevators, this elevator is also straight up and down, but it is controlled by a human shaft. This is a steel straight ladder that is enough to accommodate twenty or thirty people, but I don't know how many death row inmates should be transported day and night.

When we went up the ladder, we saw Jia Xianyun clapping his hands, and the huge ladder moved down at a rapid pace.

"Hold on! I didn't see the nobles here, the dead man who didn't have long eyes! ”

Jia Xianyun only probed out, and if he didn't know the direction, he scolded all the way. Coupled with the noise of the wheels, I didn't think there would be any changes. Before his words dissipated in this dark and empty space, the speed of the wheel ladder immediately eased.

I exchanged stunned glances with Guan Ju and Pu Jia behind me, but I didn't dare to say anything, so I only looked out of the stairs - but I saw the slowly moving up the layers of prison, in addition to the height of the floor and the lower layer of the prison, the firelight was also darker than the layer, giving people an indescribable sense of oppression like falling into the abyss.

In addition to the gradual loss of vision, I even heard the wails of men and women floating around, and these hoarse voices became more and more pronounced, terrible, as if they were in excruciating, unbearable pain.

"Has anyone been tortured here?"

"Even the girl is joking." Jia Xianyun waved at me, still with that disgusting greasy smile on his face, "The ghost prison is not like the Criminal Department, all the people imprisoned here are the heinous Shura Yakshas, what is there to torture." ”

It was Miyahata who sensed my discomfort with these increasingly obvious wails, and pulled me by the hand and said, "You don't understand that ordinary traitors, thieves, kidnappers, murderers and arsons are not locked up here. Below the tenth floor of the ghost prison, most of them are traitors in the rivers and lakes, spies of enemy countries, or people who are hated by their fathers. They are full of evil, they deserve to die, and they are tortured and tortured for eternity, until they go insane, and they are neither human nor ghost. ”

Miyahata's words didn't make me feel any more comfortable, and my feet were weak, so I couldn't help but lean on Guan Ju behind me.

"What kind of people... I mean, what kind of mistake did you make that deserved such torture......? ”

I stared straight at Miyahata, but he stopped talking to me as if he hadn't heard it. I knew that perhaps he didn't know the answer to that question, or maybe he knew that if he told me, it would hurt me more than disgust and fear.

Finally, the ladder slowly touched the ground, and we walked down with trembling steps. In fact, by the thirteenth and fourteenth floors, the creepy screams were no longer clear, replaced by a strong smell of rot and rot.

I didn't want to think about what the smell was coming from, and closing my eyes to keep myself from exhaling was already the limit of what I could do.

The breath of hell, the breath of death.

When I reached the seventeenth floor, it was pitch black. Looking up at the first layer that Shi Cai had just come over, it was already like a star on the Nine Heavens Palace, the light was faint and untouchable.

There was a sudden sound in my ears, but it was Jia Xianyu who struck a match and lit the moldy and wet candles on the candlestick one by one. When the surroundings gradually lit up, he stepped forward again, and the flattering smile on his face looked especially strange in the dim flickering candlelight.

"King Rongjun, I'm afraid you two won't be able to go to the eighteenth floor. Please wait a moment, Rong Weichen will bring two prisoners up. ”