Chapter 313: Trying

The old woman's green eyes burst out with weird light, and Lucien instantly lost consciousness.

When he recovered, he realized that he was lying on a silver platform, like a patient waiting for his surgery or a body waiting to be cut open.

With several clicks, Lucien's wrists, ankles and neck were tied tight to the platform by the silver-gray shackles. Fine needles penetrated his skin, bringing him the indescribable prick and the feeling of numbness.

Lucien did not panic. Instead, he calmly told himself that the old ancient sorcerer was at least of senior-rank. Although his spiritual power had been restrained, as a fourth-circle sorcerer, Lucien would not have been mentally controlled so easily unless the old sorcerer's power way surpassed that of his level.

The two thin tubes like two black tentacles reached out and attached to both sides of Lucien's temple, as if they were alive.

From the magic circles and the magic materials used here, Lucien guessed that the old woman would record the change of his soul by striking him with electricity, therefore, Lucien hurriedly said to the ancient sorcerer, "Lady, are you doing the experiment observing one's change of soul under electric shock? I can be way more useful as your assistant rather than lying here."

Hearing that, the old woman giggled in a creepy way like an owl, "In fact, you're way more useful being my experimental subject. Finding a middle-rank sorcerer isn't easy. Your mutant soul can provide me with precious information for improving my rite."

Seeing that Lucien still wanted to say something, the old woman said a weird word, and then Lucien found it that he could not make any sound, although his mouth was open.

"Little thing... Language is the most useless weapon. My decision can't be changed. The only rule here is my rule." The ancient sorcerer became a bit crazy, "I've read the letter you carried. But the two legendary sorcerers have nothing to do with me. They can't find this place! They can't threaten me! I can't even leave this bloody place. I need to finish my experiment as soon as possible to be more powerful, or I would never get out of this place..."

Lucien tried hard, but he could not pronounce a single word except for the harsh noise in his throat.

Knowing that this was not helping the situation, Lucien thought to himself seriously. The old woman's words were confusing, and she seemed crazy. Communication would not work, unless Lucien could find something that she really wanted.

From her words, it seemed that she was also a sorcerer imprisoned in the Devil's Territory. Maybe she was the third survivor mentioned by the young servant. She probably had been here for a very long time... No wonder she was crazy like this.

But what did she want? Lucien knew basically nothing about this place.

The old woman lifted her magic staff that looked like a black snake and pointed it at Lucien. Then, instantly, tiny and fine silver-colored electric snakes showed up on the shackles and swiftly entered into Lucien's body.

Lucien first felt the burning pain in his wrist and ankles, and then the numbness put Lucien through the great pain.

He wished that the old woman could directly push the electricity to the highest limit, so he could directly pass out.

But, of course, the old female sorcerer would not let it happen!

The electric current slowly became more powerful. The fine little snakes joined together into a whip, lashing Lucien's body and soul.

Lucien had zero strength. What he had was was only faith. His soul started to swell under the stimulation of the power, as if all of his potential had been discovered. The pain was becoming more and more intolerable.

In half-dream, Lucien heard the old woman's voice, "A minute and twenty three seconds... His soul started to change."

"Four minute and ten seconds... He's still hanging in there. There's something... supporting his soul and brain."

"Can faith influence one's soul in the opposite way? Most people say that faith can only contribute to the willpower of a knight."

"Willpower's also from human body, so maybe willpower and soul are somehow connected..."

"Maybe... essentially, all the extraordinary powers are the same. Thanos, Sun King, and the many legendary sorcerers have been trying to see the essence of power. The world is complicated, but also simple. Maybe there is one thing in this world that can form everything."

The old woman sort of forgot her original purpose of conducting the experiment. Her observation went sideways.

After a long time, when Lucien thought that he was going to be trapped in the electricity jail forever, he felt less numb, but soon the bad pain and the feeling of weakness seized him.

"Very good. You're even better as an experiment material than I thought," commented the old woman, which was definitely not something that Lucien would like to hear.

Then, she stared at Lucien carefully with the creepy smile, "When your soul recovers, we can do the following experiment. As long as you can survive, probably you can learn a lot from this."

Lucien realized that he was able to talk now, so he said to the old sorcerer carefully, "Lady, with regards to the researches on human body and soul, I have some pretty valuable information and many new magic spells. I might be able to help you."

"Hmm... A boy is trying to teach me..." the old woman's voice sounded vicious, and she walked back and forth with her walking stick, "You know senior-rank spells? You know how they work?"

"I don't. But I'm from the Congress, where there are lots of legendary sorcerers, archmages, and senior-rank sorcerers. They have done countless researches on studying human body and soul. I can find all the information in the library." Lucien felt that he was slowly recovering from the pain and numbness.

The old woman grinned, but her teeth were almost all gone. Her eyes looked crazy, "So what? You cannot get the high-level information... Can you bring my youth back? Can you help me get out of this place?"

Her mood had gone a bit crazy, so she let the young servant take Lucien back to the cell.

Lucien knew that he could not talk to her when she was crazy. He hoped that she would change her mind later when she calmed down a bit.

He first tried to make sure that he would not be the old woman's experiment subject next time.

...

When leaving the lab, Lucien was still being disturbed by the sequela of electric shock, so he walked very slow, but the young servant did not care, walking quite ahead of him.

Lucien was surprised to find out that the electric shock seemed to have helped with improving the power of his soul, as if he had been taking potions for a month.

He took a deep breath and carefully felt the power in his soul. He realized that the electric shock had stimulated the potential of his soul, which meant that this method could not be applied to magic apprentices or junior-rank mages who did not have a soul strong enough.

When Lucien came back from analyzing his soul, he saw another young servant bringing a tall man out of the cell next to him. The man had blond hair and blue eyes. He was quite good-looking, and the way he walked was very determined.

Lucien guessed that the man was another survivor being used as the old woman's experiment material. But he was not sure, since there were people born here in the Devil's territory, such as the young servant beside him.

Lucien and the man quickly exchanged a look, but neither of them said anything.

...

Click. The iron door was locked from the other side again. Lucien lay in the bed for more than half an hour until he felt a bit better.

Then, he raised his hands and carefully observed the patterns on the shackles, which usually had lots of connections to the magic circles inside.

Lucien knew most of the magic circles for blocking the power of Blessing, and he also had analyzed some. However, when making magic items, almost all the sorcerers would add more magic circles in addition to the core circle for different purposes, such as offering extra support, punishment or sending messages. Therefore, Lucien had to figure out the additional part of the magic circles in order to know the complete inner structure of the shackles, and then open them.

Although the hope was rather dim, especially when Lucien's spiritual power and Blessing had been disabled, he would not give up. He still had his memory, knowledge, as well as his calculation ability.

So, after an hour or so, Lucien had already had some basic ideas with the structure of the shackles. However, for the next step, Lucien had to activate the power of the shackles, so he could be able to see the movement of the magic runes inside!

Lucien was very concerned because he was not sure whether this pair of shackle, when sensing the resistance or the tendency of breaking it from the prisoner, would punish him or directly send the information to the guard.

The second situation was the last thing that Lucien hoped to happen, which might bring Lucien very horrible consequences.

After a second thought, Lucien decided to try. Based on how much the old woman seemed to need her experiment materials, Lucien believed that she would not directly kill or severely injure her prisoners with the shackles.

Making up his mind, Lucien put his right hand on the black shackle around his left hand.

Although Lucien was quite confident with his reasoning, he still had fear in his mind. A crazy sorcerer's behavior was just unpredictable.

Lucien tried to lift the shackle up and pull the fine needles out to awaken his Moonlight Blessing power.

Dark light burst out of the shackle and electric currents went directly into Lucien's body and numbed him again. The pain was hard to describe. At the same time, the weird power from the shackle had dispelled Lucien's Blessing.

When the light disappeared, Lucien closed his eyes out of the torturing pain. Then, he saw the magic runes, patterns and symbols in the darkness in front of his eyes.

Lucien was surprised to find out that the consequence of trying to break the shackles was only physical punishment, and no messages were sent out to the guards. The only problem was that the time given to Lucien was too short and so he only managed to remember a few runes and patterns.

Taking a deep breath, Lucien waited until he felt a bit better. Then, he tried to lift the shackle again...

After many times of trying, Lucien's face had become contorted from the great pain. He bit his lips so hard that they were now bleeding.

Lucien forgot how many times he had tried. Finally, there was a smile on his face—He had got the complete structure of the shackles in his brain!

"Knowledge is power..." Lucien sighed.

At this time, someone knocked at the wall on the left side of Lucien's cell.