On the other side, Yue Shi had already followed the clues he obtained to find the abandoned church located in the rear area of Peace Alley.
This building was even more dilapidated than the other houses in Peace Alley. The walls were mottled and peeling, the windows were boarded shut, and the main entrance was tightly secured by a heavy iron chain. It was deathly silent inside, with no sign of life.
Earlier, Yue Shi had learned from one of Zeng San's subordinates that there were "newly arrived transcendents" here.
Just as he stood before the church doors, debating whether to force his way in, the sound of rolling wheels approached from a distance.
He immediately retreated silently into the shadows to observe. A few men in dirty, old overalls appeared, laboriously pushing a heavy sheet-metal cart. A large barrel sat atop the cart as they headed toward the church.
The men came straight to the church doors. One of them pulled out a key, and with a sharp clack, the iron chain locking the doors was undone.
The heavy iron doors were pushed open with a piercing screech of friction. Working together, the men pushed the cart into the church's interior.
Yue Shi seized the opportunity and slipped in behind them, silent and invisible.
An intense, pungent odor immediately hit him—an indescribable stench of rot from spoiled food.
Yue Shi's gaze fell on the cart. It was filled to the brim with a large barrel of slop—a mixture of leftovers and rotten vegetable leaves!
What is this for?
Yue Shi pinched his nose and followed them further in.
The interior of the church had been completely remodeled. While the outside was a wreck, the inside was an entirely different world. The walls and ceiling were reinforced with heavy metal plates and thick rivets, and the floor was covered in rough concrete, completely erasing any trace of the original church.
Beyond the entrance was a narrow corridor. Along both sides, sturdy steel prison cells stood one after another, replacing the original nave where pews would have been.
Still invisible, Yue Shi followed the men with the slop cart, his gaze sweeping over the cells on either side. Each cell was packed with five or six people. These individuals were dressed in rags and covered in filth. Some were curled in corners, some leaned against the walls, and others lay flat on the ground. All were emaciated, their eyes hollow and numb as if their souls had been hollowed out.
The air was thick with a suffocating stench—a mix of excrement, sweat, festering wounds, and rotting food. There were even disgustingly large cockroaches crawling over the prisoners.
The appearance of the men with the cart was like a stone thrown into stagnant water. A morbid frenzy suddenly erupted in the eyes of the numb "prisoners."
No matter what they had been doing a moment ago, they now scrambled to the cold iron bars, reaching out with withered, filthy hands while making guttural, beast-like sounds.
Two of the men grabbed long-handled iron ladles caked in black grime. They scooped ladles of murky slop from the barrel and splashed them into iron troughs outside the bars.
The prisoners immediately used their hands to frantically grab the rare food, desperately stuffing it into their mouths and swallowing greedily as the liquid dripped down their chins.
"Dinner time!" the men with the cart shouted in a flippant, mocking tone. Clearly, the people locked here were not treated as human beings; they were being fed like livestock.
Hearing the commotion, those in the further cells erupted into even louder shouts and scratching sounds. They were obviously starving, having no idea when they would get their next meal.
Only a very few individuals lay motionless in the depths of their cells, whether dead or simply preferring death over touching such filth.
The cart of slop was quickly distributed. The men tossed the ladles back into the empty barrel and gave the cells a perfunctory scan to see if any corpses needed clearing.
After checking the area and finding no dead bodies, they pushed the empty cart back the way they came, humming a tuneless little melody.
Still invisible, Yue Shi stood in the shadows of a corner, pinching his nose and enduring the foul smell. He carefully scanned every cell but found no sign of Zhu Qunqing.
Only after the footsteps of the food delivery men had completely vanished toward the church entrance did Yue Shi move silently toward the depths of the prison.
The final cell held five men who were little more than skeletons. Having just eaten, they were now slumped on the ground, sleeping to conserve energy and resist hunger.
Yue Shi walked up to this cell and looked at a man resting against the iron bars. The man was missing his entire left arm. Though he was disheveled and bearded, he was relatively cleaner than the others. His mental state didn't seem to have completely collapsed; he retained a flicker of lucidity and looked capable of communication.
Yue Shi partially deactivated his invisibility, revealing only his eyes and mouth.
A pair of eyes and a mouth suspended in the dim air looked extremely eerie and terrifying.
He lightly poked the one-armed man's shoulder. The man jerked awake, and seeing this horrifying sight, his pupils shrank in terror. He nearly screamed aloud.
Yue Shi quickly gave him a cold, warning look, signaling him to keep quiet.
After a brief moment of panic, the expression on the one-armed man's face was quickly replaced by a fervent hope. He seemed to see a chance to escape this place!
No matter what kind of monster was in front of him, as long as it could take him away from this hell, he was willing to do anything!
He carefully shifted his body, bringing his head close to the bars. In a hushed whisper, he asked the eyes and mouth, "Who... who are you?"
Yue Shi directly used Raven's Secret Whispers to hypnotize him, asking in a low voice, "Who are you people? Why are you locked up here?"
The one-armed man's gaze grew slightly dazed as he answered truthfully, "We are all the original managers of Peace Alley. The current leader, Zeng San, used despicable means to overthrow the previous leader. Some joined him, but those who refused... were locked up here."
Yue Shi's eyebrows twitched. That seemingly kind and benevolent Old Man Zeng actually had such a history of rising to power?
"Where did Zeng San come from? Was he a subordinate of the previous leader, or an outsider?" Yue Shi asked curiously.
"He was an outsider," the one-armed man said bitterly. "At first, Zeng San said he wanted to join us and settle in Peace Alley. The leader welcomed him. No one expected that after only half a month, Zeng San would betray the leader and take over. His methods were too ruthless; those who resisted were quickly suppressed."
"What kind of methods?" Yue Shi pressed.
A look of terror appeared on the one-armed man's face. "He... he can sing! Different songs possess different supernatural powers. He can attack, defend, and even manipulate people's minds!"
Yue Shi's gaze sharpened. It seemed Zeng San was also a transcendent whose ability was related to sound. Being able to manipulate minds with song suggested he might have a certain degree of mental resistance himself, which would explain why he could ignore Yue Shi's hypnosis earlier.
Furthermore... that strange musical melody that had echoed through the ruins of the Hive likely had everything to do with him as well!
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