It was then he heard creaking. He was confused at first. After so long of hearing nothing but his own heart, could it be that it was finally giving out on him? Why did the sound of his heart giving up sound so much like whining metal?
Soon, a beam of light cut through the darkness, blinding Virvor. It was so jarring that his irises felt a stinging pain overwhelm them.
Even when Primus came to torture him, he hadn't seen the light. But, somehow, the ceiling above him had disappeared. No… The entire building was gone. The sun… He could see the sun.
Maybe it was only now that Virvor understood that the cage he had been kept in was made of some odd material. A few weeks of torture shouldn't have been enough to shake the mind of a celestial. Even Matriarch Niveus who Dyon had been torturing for more than a hundred years had yet to fully lose her mind yet.
When his eyes finally stopped pulsing in pain, he saw the image of a goddess. Flowing white hair that shimmered with gold, and piercing eyes that made him feel as though he had lost all the bones in his body. He suddenly realized that the blinding light wasn't the sun at all, but rather, this woman instead.
He racked his brain. He felt like he should recognize this person.
"Virvor? My husband has mentioned you before." Madeleine smiled lightly. "You've been through a lot…"
Madeleine sighed, releasing Virvor from his chains.
Zaire rushed forward to help him up. Virvor had tried to do so himself, but he ended up almost falling over himself. Zaire practiced [Inner World: Sanctuary] as well, so did Little Lyla, so in all likelihood, he had put Primus within his inner world.
Looking at the rows of cells, Madeleine frowned. Just who did they keep here and why were the Sapientia so bold as to do something like this?
But, in the next moment, she understood. If the Sapientia kept something like this on their planet, it would have been exposed long ago. Just how many powerful individuals frequented Planet Sapientia? Too many to count…
These cages might be enough to keep Madeleine's divine sense out, but could it keep Dyon's out? That was highly unlikely. Dyon's divine sense was a completely different level and there were very few things capable of blocking a dao expert's senses. And, those materials that could, definitely wouldn't be found in large enough quantity to forge so many cells.
The Sapientia likely used the celestial floors, maybe even the saint floors, in order to store these individuals as a result of this. But, that made these matters more curious.
'Just how many more of these individuals are there? It can't be that every Sapientia City has these, right?'
"Lyla?" Madeleine turned to Little Lyla. This was the convenience of having a True Empath. Sometimes, you didn't have to guess your way through things.
"From Primus' memories, this is the only prison they have." Lyla replied surprisingly. "They wanted to minimize the risk by having a small number of them. Those who that weren't worth keeping were directly killed, and those that were, were held here in order to squeeze them dry of their knowledge.
"The reason they chose the seemingly random middle tier is because Primus has only climbed to the middle tier. The special privileges he has as a key wielder makes it more convenient to hide the secret. He could have climbed higher long ago, but never did. While on the outside that made it easier to keep the Sapientia's outward appearance of being uninterested in power, in reality, it's because it's inconvenient to move the prison in secret."
"This… What are they keeping these people for?"
Lyla frowned. "They're researchers and leaders of their various fields that refused to enter under the banner of the Sapientia Clan. Those that were less useful were killed along with their Clans while those that were worth the effort of maintaining were kidnapped after everyone they had connections with were murdered."
Madeleine grit her teeth.
"Big sister, we have to go, quickly. If we stay here, not only will we be in danger, but the Flaming Lily Disciples will definitely all be killed."
Hearing the sudden urgency in Lyla's voice, Madeleine immediately understood something.
Primus was more intelligent than she gave him credit for. He had thrown a big tantrum about the fact dao experts couldn't appear on the celestial floors when he knew well that they could. He had said those words to make Madeleine lower her guard.
How could the Sapientia leave something like this unprotected? Not only were they in danger, even the unaffiliated spectators were! They Sapientia would definitely move with the thought of killing everyone here!
Madeleine's mental flexibility was still that of a Sapientia. Although her Sapientia blood had been uprooted and removed, her Sapientia blood essence still remained. If Amethyst had burned that away, Madeleine wouldn't be here to stand and speak to Lyla today.
However, this was fine. It was impossible to check an individual's blood essence without their consent the same way it was impossible to take a beast's blood essence even after they had died. Even treasures of the 33 heavens could not do this, though nothing is certain in the martial world.
This aside, Madeleine understood many things at once. The reason they allowed Primus to take control of this area despite the fact he was incompetent? It was precisely because of his abilities as a key wielder. Thanks to them, he could restrict who could and couldn't use the teleportation formations of his territory. Before he had come to the city gates to confront Madeleine, he had definitely barred the use of the teleportation formations.
Unfortunately, though Madeleine could control sealing energy, it was incredibly crude. Firstly because her soul wasn't anywhere near as talented or powerful as Dyon's, and secondly because she didn't have a treasure like The Seal to make the process easy. As a result, while she could lock Primus' cultivation and consciousness, she could not treat him like a slave that was hers to command.
