Chapter 171: Interrogation

Nakamura Shinichiro lay on the cold ground, screaming hysterically.

"Who on earth are you? Why did you kidnap me!?"

"Do you know who I am?"

"I am Nakamura Shinichiro of Sakura Country! The future Divine Craftsman!"

His voice was hoarse, tinged with a hint of frenzied bluster.

"I advise you to let me go right now, otherwise, once President Xie finds me, you will undoubtedly die!"

Zhou Huai controlled Moria, watching him quietly without saying a word.

In those silver eyes, there was not the slightest emotional fluctuation, resembling two bottomless cold abysses.

As Nakamura Shinichiro looked at Moria's expressionless face, the chill in his heart grew heavier and heavier.

This silence made him feel more terrified than any threat.

He forcefully suppressed the panic in his heart and switched to a persuasive tone.

"Your Excellency, I think there is no enmity between us."

"I can tell that you must have been instigated by someone."

"As long as you are willing to let me go, however much money he gave you, I can give you double! No! Triple!"

Light flashed in his eyes, as if he had grasped the last straw to save his life.

"Money, beauties, as long as you speak, whatever you want, I can satisfy you!"

However, what responded to him was not words.

Instead, it was a foot carrying a strong wind.

Zhou Huai couldn't be bothered to listen to his nonsense anymore.

Moria's figure flashed, and that foot wearing black leather boots, like kicking a ball, fiercely imprinted on Nakamura Shinichiro's face.

"Bang!"

A muffled sound.

"Ah—!"

Nakamura Shinichiro let out a shrill scream, his entire body kicked to roll twice on the ground.

He only felt as if his nasal bone broke in an instant, and warm liquid gushed out from his nasal cavity, instantly dyeing half his face red.

He was merely a lifestyle Professional, and his physical fitness was incomparable to combat-class Professionals.

This kick almost made him pass out on the spot.

By the time Nakamura Shinichiro's wails gradually weakened, Moria took steps and walked up to him unhurriedly.

Looking down from above, the voice was cold.

"Next, I ask, you answer."

Nakamura Shinichiro curled up into a ball, his body trembling uncontrollably due to intense pain and fear.

He looked at those cold leather boots, not even daring to raise his head.

Moria's voice sounded once again.

"What on earth is your purpose in coming to Great Xia Country?"

When this Nakamura Shinichiro appeared in Skyfire City, Zhou Huai felt something was wrong.

Great Xia Country's current forging industry is far inferior to Sakura Country, which is an indisputable fact.

Those forging masters from Sakura Country exuded a sense of arrogance to their very bones, looking down on their peers in Great Xia Country altogether.

Many forging masters in Great Xia Country were dying to run off to Sakura Country.

Yet this Nakamura Shinichiro, being the number one Genius of Sakura Country, did the exact opposite.

Under the nice-sounding pretext of coming to Great Xia Country for academic exchanges and study.

This made no sense at all.

Furthermore, relations between the two countries were becoming increasingly tense, and the dark clouds of war shrouded the border line, likely to erupt at any time.

Risking so much, Zhou Huai firmly did not believe he had simply come to discuss some forging techniques.

Therefore, from the night the banquet ended, Zhou Huai arranged for people from the Eternal Night Guild and Moria to sneak into Skyfire City.

Kidnapping Nakamura Shinichiro was a part of his plan.

Hearing Moria's question, Nakamura Shinichiro's body visibly stiffened.

He lay on the ground, his voice carrying a thick tremor.

"I… I really just came here to exchange and study with your country's forging masters…"

"To promote… promote the relationship between the two countries in the forging circle, nothing more…"

A trace of impatience flashed in Moria's eyes.

"Wrong answer."

"This is not the answer I want to hear."

As soon as the words fell, another kick came.

It kicked fiercely into Nakamura Shinichiro's abdomen.

"Ugh ah!"

Nakamura Shinichiro's eyeballs instantly protruded, veins bulged on his temples, and his whole body arched abruptly like a boiled shrimp.

His stomach churned violently, and even the wine he drank yesterday spewed out all at once.

He felt as if his internal organs had shifted out of place, and the severe pain made him almost unable to breathe.

He lay on the ground, panting heavily, and it took a long time for him to recover.

He raised his face stained with blood and dust, his voice weak and full of pleading.

"I… what I said is true!"

"I really have no other purpose! I beg you, let me go!"

"I beg you!"

Zhou Huai controlled Moria and shook his head helplessly.

It seemed he really wasn't suited for this kind of interrogation work.

Moria's strength was too great after all.

He was truly afraid that he might accidentally kick this important source of intelligence to death.

He did not stay any longer, turning around to walk out of the basement.

Outside the door, Moli was already respectfully waiting aside.

"Master."

Zhou Huai controlled Moria, his voice flat.

"Arrange a few Professionals who know how to torture people."

"Go in and properly serve that Sakura Country person."

He paused, and added another sentence.

"Methods can be used freely, but don't kill him."

"If he's about to run out of blood, find a healer to restore him, and then continue."

Hearing these words, Moli felt a chill down her back and her scalp went numb.

But she did not hesitate at all, immediately bowing to accept the order.

"As you command, Master."

Not long after.

That heavy iron door of the basement was pushed open again with a creak.

Five or six hulking big men walked in successively from outside the door.

Ill-intentioned smiles hung on their faces, and as they walked, they excitedly moved their wrists, making cracking sounds at their joints.

Leading them was a fat man with a full beard.

He looked at Nakamura Shinichiro curled up on the ground, chuckled, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

"Yo, is this the Sakura Country person the Master mentioned?"

"You have to admit, with this tender skin and flesh, he really doesn't look half bad."

"I like it."

The few people behind him also let out a burst of jeers, rubbing their palms together, their eyes filled with cruelty and excitement.

"Brothers, what are we waiting for?"

"Let's do it, let's properly entertain this distinguished guest who has come from afar!"

Looking at these big men like evil ghosts, the blood on Nakamura Shinichiro's face instantly drained away.

Boundless fear completely swallowed him up.

"Y-you… what are you going to do?!"

"Don't come over!!"

"Don't come over!!!"

"Bang!"

The heavy iron door was slammed shut.

From inside the door, muffled, heart-rending screams would occasionally waft out.

…

The next day, early morning.

She walked up to Moria and bowed respectfully.

"Master."

"That person named Nakamura Shinichiro has something he wants to say to you."

The corners of Zhou Huai's mouth hooked into an arc.

Prepared to honestly confess just like this?

Only a day had passed, and he couldn't take it anymore.

And here I thought how tough your mouth could be.

Moria's figure flashed, not taking the door.

Instead, he directly turned into a wisp of ink, seeping into the basement from the shadows beneath the door crack.

When his figure re-condensed inside the basement…

A thick stench of blood and foul aura rushed towards his face.

On the ground, Nakamura Shinichiro's appearance was tragic to the extreme.

His originally neat white robe had long turned into tattered strips of cloth, hanging haphazardly on his body.

All over his body, there was hardly an intact piece of flesh, filled with purplish bruises and fine bloody scratches.

His hair was disheveled, matted into strands by sweat and blood, and his face was swollen like a pig's head, making it almost impossible to recognize his original appearance.

His pants were stained with dried, dark red blood.

It was hard to imagine what on earth he had experienced in the past dozen hours or so.

When he saw Moria's figure emerge from the shadows like a ghost…

In those eyes that were originally filled with fear, a trace of hopeful light actually burst forth.

"Hah… hah…"

An unintelligible sound came from his throat, and using all his strength, he crawled hard towards Moria's direction.

He stretched out his hand that was still trembling slightly, wanting to grab Moria's trouser leg.

"I… I'll talk…"

"I… I'll say everything…"

"I beg you… don't let them… torture me anymore…"

Looking at his dog-like humble appearance, a trace of disgust flashed in Zhou Huai's eyes.

He raised his foot and ruthlessly kicked away Nakamura Shinichiro's outstretched hand.

The voice remained cold.

"Speak."

Nakamura Shinichiro's body trembled violently.

He no longer dared to conceal anything, and said intermittently with a crying voice.

"It's… it's the teacher…"

"It was the teacher who told me to come to Great Xia Country…"

"To find… to find a ruin…"