Everyone is surprised at what happened and is wondering how strong Judge Cui is. looking at the stunned faces of the guards, it is likely only Judge Tang would know how strong Judge Cui is.
What he performed was likely a true blink or teleportation as he was standing right behind me, just less than a second ago. It was completely different from the <Instant Blink> that I practice.
*pat*pat*
Judge Cui gave his clothes a few pats to get rid of the dust on his clothes and turned around to face us. He then said "Let's go back. We will talk about this later" and just walked back to the cell with the villagers.
Since we have already completely explored the dungeon and it is safe, we do not get back into formation and just walk behind Judge Cui.
When we arrived at the cell with the villagers, Judge Cui asks them with a serious tone, "Why is there a person from the monster race who was tortured in the last cell?"
The eyes of the people in the cell widen in shock and it becomes clear that they do not know anything about this. One of the older women says "Don't know...Mayor missing!"
Judge Tang then sighs and says "let them out, we'll bring them out of this place first."
Ding Sha then uses his sabre to cut open the steel gate and tells them to follow us out.
...
On the way out, Judge Cui explains to us why he killed the tortured man at the back of the cell. "Do you remember what he looked like? He had golden hair and his pupils were yellow. These features are not the local features of the people who reside on this continent. This could mean that he was a person from another continent but the shape of his tongue sold him out.
His tongue was forked like a snake and no human will have such a tongue. Furthermore, when he called us humans, it became clear that he was another species. He should be a snake kin of the monster race." He explains.
"The monster race is our enemy and the armies at the borders are constantly fighting against the monsters. They want to enslave us and farm us like cattle. It is unknown why they want to do this but from the information that our ancestors passed down, they found out from the monsters they caught that humans are one of the most sought after food by them." he makes a frown while saying this.
"We somehow taste so good that all the monsters even rallied together just so they could enslave us and farm us like cattle. Even today, there are still human settlements who the monsters govern like how a person would govern a pig sty. If you ever see a monster inside of the empire, you must do your best to kill it or go to the closest human town or city and inform the settlement." He sternly warns us.
Judge Tang then continues the explanation since me and the guards still have confusion on our faces. Why do we not know if we have an entire race of monsters trying to eat us?
"It is not that this is a secret, but people just forgot about the monsters. If you ask anybody who was alive two hundred years ago, they would still remember the monsters but somehow people just stopped talking about them over the past two hundred years. Only the ruling family, the border armies and those with high positions still remember the monsters today as the monsters had never stepped onto the mainland for around two thousand years already." Judge Tang explains.
Judge Cui then continued saying, "There was also something odd about the monster earlier. While he did not show that he was in pain, I could see that his soul was being constantly burned. I remember in my family's records, there was a sentence that said that these reptilian monster races have high regenerative prowess and he should have healed up enough to escape since it has been more than two weeks since the bandits raided the village and left."
I look towards the room where the monster was and shivered a tiny bit. I have my memories from Earth and I never really felt hostile towards other races, but hearing how they want to eat us...Honestly, I am scared.
...
When we exit the prison and bring the villagers out into the open, the villagers are thankful for being saved and some even shed tears. They had honestly thought they were going to die. That said, the entire village is still wrecked and they will not be able to talk properly for at least a week before they recover from the dehydration.
The villagers started to bow and thank the guards in happiness when a familiar beep was heard.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations Host! You have successfully granted the villagers their wish of escaping from prison. You have obtained the skill <Soul Capture> from the villagers whom you have released.]
(Escaping from prison? The skilled is called Soul Capture? Are they criminals? System did you just award me with an evil skill? Wait, was this what was burning the monster's soul constantly?!)
[Beep!]
[There are no skills that are inherently good or evil. It all depends on how you use them. I Do not know if they are criminals but their wish was to escape from prison. Soul Capture is a skill that forces obedience from its target and will burn the soul if any disobedience is felt.]
It is likely that they are criminals but if the system can allow me to inherit the skill Soul Capture from them, it must mean that they have knowledge of cultivations as the skill requires qi to execute. I should tell everyone once we are alone.
I make a decision and start to gather the villagers. "Everyone come here, you are all dehydrated right now and is weak. You should not stay out in the sun and should go get some rest and drink more water. All of you shall stay inside the mayor's house while we will get you some food." I tell the villagers and make them enter to mayor house under the pretext of recovering their health.
After all the villagers have entered the mayor house, I gather everyone and tell them what I have found.
"We did not investigate earlier due to their worry for the villagers who were abducted and their terrible state of health, but it is possible that they are all criminals that the village had imprisoned."
Everyone makes a face that is full of questions and Judge Tang asks "Shi er, what did you find out?"
I cannot tell them about the existence of the system and that their wish was to escape from prison since they would think that I am insane, so I create a fake story that I had just thought up of.
"I thought about what you said earlier and it does not feel right. We, cultivators, are supposed to be out of reach from the common people and yet someone could imprison a monster race and use a technique to constantly burn his soul. He was also tortured for a long period of time, so there was no way that the villagers in the cell next to his would be unaware that there is a monster there. Furthermore, they were constantly banging their metal cuffs against the floor which would have irritated the hell out of the monster who has to deal with his broken body and his soul being constantly burned." I explained the reasoning behind why I think the villagers are fishy.
"Mmm, there is some logic to your explanation," Judge Cui says in a pondering tone. "We should wait for Sima Di and Mo Di to return. They will watch them from outside of the mayor's house and prepare ourselves to take action if they do anything suspicious." Judge Cui gives an order.