The detective is dead, I did it.

Chapter 124 The Underground Prison of the Association

"Mr. Li Ang————"

"I have a question."

Li Ang looked up and interrupted her.

"Will my sister be tortured in your prison?"

This time, it was Adler who remained silent.

She couldn't answer the question immediately.

The association's prisons have always been presented to the public as humane, civilized, and unlike the bloody and cruel prisons of the old era.

In a way, this isn't exactly a lie.

Unlike the prisons of the Ministry of Public Security, which frequently resort to whipping and torture, the Association's prisons have their own management system.

Each cell is equipped with a weakening barrier, a special rune matrix designed specifically for prisoners. Anyone imprisoned within it will remain in a state of constant weakness and near death under the barrier's influence.

Day after day, year after year, even throwing a punch becomes difficult.

This is not torture. Not by any legal definition.

But it is more terrifying than torture.

She didn't answer. But the longer she remained silent, the clearer the answer became.

Li Ang understood her silence. He had survived this long precisely by understanding other people's silence.

Then, he suddenly smiled. The smile was somewhat calm, yet carried a hint of something unfathomable.

"I understand," he continued. "I'd like to see my sister."

Adler stared at him for a moment, then finally nodded.

"----Can."

She raised her hand and pressed the brass bell on the table. A moment later, there was a soft knock on the door, and a young man in an association uniform entered.

"Take Mr. Leon to the special detention area," Adler quickly wrote a warrant, stamped it with his seal, and ordered, "All interrogation procedures are exempt; it's in my name."

The young man was taken aback.

Even branch managers are required to report to enter the special detention area, and this man in front of him doesn't look like a branch manager at all.

But he quickly came to his senses and respectfully lowered his head.

"Yes."

Li Ang turned and walked towards the door, and Adler's voice sounded behind him.

"Mr. Li Ang."

He stopped walking, but didn't turn around.

"I want to express my gratitude and apologies to you once again." Adler finished speaking and lowered his head slightly, even though the man did not turn around.

Li Ang did not answer, but simply nodded with his back to her, and then followed the young man into the shadows behind the door.

The office fell silent again, with only the distant rumble of steam coming from outside the window.

Adler sat alone in the large chair and suddenly felt that the familiar room was much emptier than usual.

The corridor was long. The young staff member walked ahead, deliberately slowing his pace and occasionally stealing glances back at the man whom the chairman had personally ordered to be exempt from inspection.

He wanted to try to get closer to the other person, but the other person's expression was cold, giving the impression that they were difficult to get along with, so he had to give up on the idea.

Li Ang followed the other person out of the chairman's office, down the spiral staircase they had come up from, through the headquarters lobby, and then turned...

He entered a side corridor that he had never noticed before.

This corridor was much narrower and dimmer than the public area upstairs. Every few steps, a stone slab engraved with runes was embedded in the wall, emitting a faint blue glow.

At the end of the corridor, an iron gate blocked the way.

Two uniformed guards stood at the door, their badges different from those of ordinary detectives.

The staff presented a warrant, which the guard took and verified repeatedly. He then looked up at Li Ang before finally stepping back and pushing open the iron gate.

Behind the door was a downward staircase, and at the end of the staircase was a completely silver-white metal door.

Two uniformed guards still stood beside the door, but instead of checking the young staff member's pass, they focused their attention on Li Ang.

It seems they are using some means to test whether they possess any special abilities, in order to prevent themselves from helping the prisoners here escape.

After the inspection was completed, the silver-white gate opened, and a brand new area appeared before Li Ang's eyes.

Li Ang could feel an invisible pressure pressing down on him the moment he stepped into the area, instantly making his body feel sluggish.

He was merely a visitor, and yet he felt this way; how must the prisoners locked in the very center of the barrier feel? He didn't know.

I dare to think about it in detail.

The person leading the way was no longer the young staff member. The other person stopped outside the silver-white door, indicating that they did not have permission to go any further.

He was replaced by a detective in a black uniform, who had a stern face and didn't say a word from beginning to end, only gesturing with his eyes for Li Ang to follow.

As Li Ang continued to delve deeper, he discovered that the prison was located at least tens of meters underground from the association's headquarters. He wondered how those detectives had managed to dig so deep.

The prison cell doors along the way were numbered, roughly a hundred in total, indicating that each cell housed a vicious criminal.

There was only a small observation window on the door, and it was difficult to see what was happening inside the cell unless you got close enough to look.

Li Ang kept observing his surroundings as he walked.

We didn't see a single prison guard along the way, it seemed the association hadn't deployed many people to this prison.

The detective in black eventually stopped in front of a door.

This door wasn't much different from the others we'd seen along the way, except it had more than twice as many runes as the other cells.

The dense patterns covered the entire door, and even the stone walls around the door frame glowed with a spiderweb-like sheen.

Texture.

The detective in black took out the key, inserted it into the lock, and turned it.

The sound of the three lock cylinders popping open in sequence was particularly crisp in the silence.

Then he stepped back: "You only have ten minutes. I'll call you when your time is up."

He turned and walked a few steps away, stood with his back against the wall, and shifted his gaze to the end of the corridor.

Li Ang pushed open the door and entered the cell. It was a small room with no windows and bare walls on all four sides.

There were no lights in the room; only the faint light provided by the fluorescent stones embedded in the ceiling prevented the room from falling into complete darkness.

And Ktura sat on the only piece of furniture in the room—a simple bed.

She leaned against the wall, her legs curled up, her hands resting on her knees, her fingers hanging loosely. Her long, golden hair cascaded over her shoulders and down her sides, the ends slightly tangled.

He was wearing a gray prison uniform with a large collar, revealing his collarbones in an almost excessively prominent arc. His head was slightly lowered, his chin almost buried in his knees, and he was curled up into a small ball.

The good news is that she has no visible wounds, but the bad news is that she is in an extremely weak state.

This is clearly due to the influence of the weak barrier surrounding the prison.

"Krtura," Li Ang said softly.

Upon hearing the voice, Ketula slowly raised his head, and his eyes lit up instantly when he saw Li Ang.

"----elder brother?"