Inside the prison cell of the Great Iron Plants …
The prison cell had a history of almost a hundred years. It had been established together with the Great Iron Plants almost on the very first day it was born. In the past hundred years, too many workers had been caged in this place, tortured, and butchered as sacrifices to make an example of them and to maintain the Immortal Cultivators' tyranny.
The black iron torture devices were stained with blood and suspicious liquids. Although they were so lackluster that they could barely be seen, the intense stink of blood was still lingering in the air. It was the moaning of the wronged souls who had been caged in this place for a hundred years.
At this moment, the prison was like a rotten can that was filled with over a hundred people. Every single one of them was covered in injuries, bleeding from their seven apertures, foaming at the mouth, and lying weakly on the ground like mud. If it wasn't for the weak pant in their chests, they would simply be no different from a dead person.
They were the backbone of the riot of Nepenthe.
Holding a cluster of rusted shackles, Xu Zhicheng crouched in a corner. His chest was almost frozen, as if it were pressed by a thousand kilograms of rock.
But there was still the last vigor in his widened eyes that was blossoming stubbornly and refused to die out for a long time.
"Brother Zhicheng —"
Beside him, a short and stout man who looked like a stone pillar was slightly less injured than him. While taking care of him, he said in a low voice, "Elder Meng and Stone didn't … didn't make it. They were carried away by the cultivators just now. We have completely lost this battle!"
Xu Zhicheng stared at the spiderweb-like cracks above the cell. These cracks were reflected in the depths of his eyes, like two flowers slowly blooming. He did not seem to have heard his companion's words. After a while, he said, "Old Four, I just closed my eyes for a while. Guess who I dreamed of?"
"Old Four", the stout man, was slightly dazed. He asked, "You dreamed of Xiaobao and Xiao Qi?"
"No, the two boys of my family are always in front of my eyes the moment I open my eyes. Why would I need to see them in a dream?"
Xu Zhicheng grinned and struggled to smile. "I dreamed of your father."
"What?" The stout man was stunned.
"I dreamt of your father and my father. Aren't they sworn brothers?"
Xu Zhicheng said weakly, "Fourth Brother, do you remember a long, long time ago, when we were still young? When those two old guys were still alive, we used to be real leather. We stole leather strips and steel balls from the factories to make slingshots, and we would especially hit the buttocks of the young ladies. We would beat whoever wore fancy clothes. Once, someone even reported us to our family. In the end, your father and my father joined forces to arrest us. Of course, we ran away. We ran to several factories and climbed up and down the pipelines. In the end, we were still caught by them. It was a good beating. We were beaten so badly that our buttocks were almost gone.
"When the two old guys were tired of fighting, they would sit together and drink with a smile, while the two of us would lie on the ground and rub our buttocks. We couldn't even sit still, and we couldn't even cry. Do you remember?"
"Old Four" was dazed for a long time. Every wrinkle on his face was replaced with joy. He was amused and said, "Of course I do. How can I forget that? Now that I think of it, my buttocks still hurt! "
"Hahahaha!"
Xu Zhicheng said with a smile, "However, after the two old guys taught us a lesson, they each gave us a carefully polished slingshot the next day, which even came with rails and scopes. It was a hundred times better than the slingshots of all the kids in the factory. They also forbade us from hitting people or windows with the slingshots in the future and only asked us to go to the forsaken mines around the Great Iron Plants to shoot 'Dihuzi'."
"Did that happen?"
"Old Four" smiled even more brilliantly. "I'm not as good as you when it comes to slapping the buttocks of young ladies, but when it comes to hunting 'Earthworms', you are far from my match, Brother Zhicheng!"
"That's right. When did you not hunt dozens of 'Earthworms' and roast them on the fire with a string of iron wires? They were so delicious! They were chewing so hard that their mouths were full of grease. Those cans of meat paste were truly incomparable! "
Xu Zhicheng slightly closed his eyes, with tears flashing at the corner of his eyes. "Old Four, do you remember where your slingshot went later?"
"Old Four" shook his head. "It's been too many years. Who can remember it?"
"Yes. I lost my slingshot, too."
Xu Zhicheng licked his dry lips and said in retrospect, "But I will never forget the taste of the roasted 'Dihuzi' for the rest of my life. The oil … I really want to enjoy it again. It's a pity that the Great Iron Plants have been expanded more than ten times in the past decades, and all the mines and tunnels have been looted. It's been a long time since we found any 'Dihuzi', right?"
"Exactly."
"Old Four" said, "The kids nowadays are not lucky enough to have any 'Earthworms' after living for decades. It's really … Well, Brother Zhicheng …"
"Old Four" was not sure what Xu Zhicheng meant exactly.
After talking about his father, the slingshot, and the 'Earthworms', Xu Zhicheng, the Grand Guardian of Nepenthe, was silent for a long time before he coughed softly and said, "Old Four, speak from the bottom of your heart. Do you regret following Brother Zhicheng on this path?"
'Old Four' shook his head quickly without any hesitation. "I don't regret it. I've never regretted it! It's truly impossible to live in the hands of those f * cking Immortal Cultivators. We will be killed whether we fight or not. At the very least, we have dragged so many Immortal Cultivators down with us!
"Old Four has lived his entire life, but he never thought that he could fight the Immortal Cultivators to his heart's content before his death. It will be worth it even if he dies a hundred times!
"Brother Zhicheng, I know what you're thinking. Just rest assured. We've seen this coming a long time ago. None of us will blame you. Even if we have to go back in time, we'll still do it with you and kill the Immortal Cultivators!"
Xu Zhicheng smiled. "Well said. Kill the Immortal Cultivators! I know that nobody will regret it. I have never regretted it, but I'm talking about something else — Nepenthe. Do you regret establishing Nepenthe with me? "
"Old Four"'s unconcerned smile was frozen. After hesitating for a long time, he managed to say, "There — there's nothing to regret. What's done has been done. At that time, we did not have a second choice at all. Now that the opportunity came, we had to seize it. If we did not, we would be stomped on like mud even if we lived another five hundred years!
"No, no, no!"
"But I am more or less regretful. No, I should say that I am scared."
The cracks in Xu Zhicheng's eyes turned into flashing ripples as he mumbled, "I seem to have slept for a very, very long time, but I did not have any dreams or nightmares. It was not until I woke up that I realized my fear.
"It's been … a long, long time since I thought of my father and my mother.
"It's also been a long, long time since I thought of my childhood. It's really weird. We lived such a hard life when we were young. We had nothing to eat or play with, and we had to work for the adults in the factory every day. But now that I think of it, I don't remember the hardships and tiredness anymore. I only remember the happy things.
"There's also my two boys, who were as wonderful as us when we were young. I thought that the Serenity Arts could help me completely forget the pain of losing them, but I did not forget the pain of losing them. On the contrary, I almost forgot the happy times when I was with them.
"Thankfully, when I was about to completely forget everything, someone woke me up in time and woke all of us up. It was so close. We were so close to forgetting everything. We were so close to forgetting how to make a slingshot and how to shoot 'Land Huzi'. Fourth Brother, you haven't forgotten it yet, have you?"
"No. Even though it happened decades ago, I still remember it clearly."
"Old Four" said in delight, "Brother Zhicheng, you don't understand. Shooting 'Earthly Tiger' is not just about eyesight and hearing. There is a trick that I haven't taught for decades. Today … today, I will tell you!"
Old Four leaned to Xu Zhicheng's ears and whispered for a moment. The more Xu Zhicheng listened, the bigger his eyes bulged. He was greatly enlightened. "Great. You are truly something. Old Four, you are so naughty. You are so naughty!"
The two old men who were more than fifty years old burst into laughter at the same time. The other prisoners in the cell were all confused.
"Old Four —"
Xu Zhicheng laughed for such a long time that dirty tears were flowing out of his face. He then asked, "Your daughter and your grandson have both escaped, haven't they? Is there any news about them?"
"Yes. They have all escaped. There is no news about them. They shouldn't have been caught by the Immortal Cultivators."
"Old Four" said, "Nowadays, no news is the best news. We have stalled them here for such a long time. It should be enough for them to escape to the depths of the underground world, where the Immortal Cultivators are too lazy to capture them. What happens next will depend on their luck!"
"That's good. That's good. Rest assured. Although it is not easy to live, as long as we grit our teeth, we will not die so easily even if we are killed. Our ancestor persisted below the ground for ten thousand years. Maybe those children can persist for another ten thousand years. Who knows?"
Xu Zhicheng sighed and said, "Old Four, none of us have forgotten our father and the good days in the past. Your children have escaped safely, too. So, who says that we have lost the battle? In my opinion, we have won. At the very least, our children will no longer be enslaved and tortured by the Great Iron Plants, right? "
"Old Four" was stunned for a moment. Then, he slapped his thigh and grinned. "That's right, Brother Zhicheng. We have won. Our children will never be enslaved by the Great Iron Plants or tortured by the Immortal Cultivators again!"
Having received the answer that he wanted to hear, Xu Zhicheng closed his eyes in satisfaction and sang something indistinctly.
The younger workers did not know what he was singing. Only the people of "Old Four's" generation vaguely remembered after a long time that the melody seemed to be a nursery rhyme that their parents had hummed for them a long, long time ago.
The lyrics had long been obliterated in the river of time, but the familiar melody was still deeply buried in everybody's heart.
Huala!
The door of the black iron cell was opened violently, and a cold voice barged in. "Everybody, get out!"
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