It was a dungeon, but it was a really nice looking dungeon. Jianmen and Josephine Wong could see the metal bars and doors with magical symbols engraved on them and even active defensive and fortifying arrays on the ceiling, which were no doubt here for the imprisonment of all the hostages and families of the agents under the employment of Lady Vyn. But on the other hand, the rooms behind bars and metal doors seemed quite comfortable - they were not like the rooms in Xianshi Inn with some rooms as spacious as castles or mansions, but they still seemed cozy enough like a big tent or a bazaar with all the necessary furniture and magical air conditioning to not make the “guests” feel too much like prisoners.
“Look for this symbol.” Jianmen showed Josephine Wong a small piece of paper: “It should be written on the door or the wall.”
“I’ll go left, you go right.” Josephine Wong took a look at the piece of paper and nodded.
Both of them were under the protection of a specifically crafted and casted cloaking spell, aiming to counter all of the surveillance spells in this place. Right now unless they started causing a ruckus or started breaking things, none of the people that ran this town could notice them.
The dungeon underneath Jimbo’s Pawn Shop was built like a big maze, with intentionally identical exterior, decorations, lights and even patterns on the wall. Both Jianmen and Josephine Wong also noticed on their own that the ways the bricks were placed on the ground were meticulously arranged so that they not only looked the same as the arrangements in other spots, they also composed a larger and grander pattern where they became a barely noticeable confusion and disorientation array, where if the intruder was not careful they would easily get lost. It was no doubt designed by someone who really knew what they were doing.
But that didn’t matter right now, for one, the intruders were careful and did their homework, not to mention that they were not ordinary power wielders; and for two, the place was not very well maintained and was functioning at a low energy mode, which also greatly limited the effectiveness of these arrays.
Jianmen rushed down one of the walkways floating in the air just inches above the ground. With the dim lighting in the walkway, the orange light from the torches and magical lights on the walls barely lighting the environment up, if anyone should look outside of the metal door or through the metal bars they would have mistaken him for a ghost, which was actually a reaction he kind of wanted to trigger from the hostages here. But unfortunately, all the way here not even one prisoner noticed him - everyone locked in seemed to be mostly either minding their business in the back of their rooms/cells, or they were visibly under the influence of either alcohol or drugs, that they were mostly non-responsive even when Jianmen got intentionally close to them. Along the way, Jianmen also spent some time inspecting the different cells/rooms and sometimes the people inside. Whenever he saw someone he felt that could be useful in creating chaos here, he would place two folded paper sigils on the floor in front of the metal gates or bars.
“Found it.” Josephine Wong said to Jianmen remotely from almost the other side of the dungeon: “Here, at my position.”
“On my way.” Jianmen left a small folded paper sigil at the corner and changed course to head to Josephine Wong’s place.
With the co-location spell they had between each other, both Jianmen and Josephine Wong were aware of each other’s locations all the time. Which also rendered the confusion and disorientation effect of the arrays here meaningless.
The cell/room where Natalie’s family were held was behind metal bars, with barely any symbols carved on them or the walls around so it looked like they were not prisoners of high threat levels.
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“Let’s break out some other prisoners first?” Josephine Wong pointed at some other cells around: “Snitch or not, we’ve gotta protect our informant to the best of our abilities.”
“Yes, of course. I made preparations, just like you.” Jianmen looked at the direction from which Josephine Wong came, and he saw purple paper flowers placed in front of different rooms and cells as well.
“Okay, let’s go.” Josephine Wong snapped her fingers, and some of the paper flowers were instantly lit up in purple flames. When coming into contact with the purple light released by the purple flames, the metal gates and bars with symbols carved on them started smoking and loosening, and shortly, the gates and bars themselves became corroded and rusted as if they just went through thousands of years of time in a mere instant.
“You’re just too graceful.” Jianmen chuckled and clapped his hands: “Now I feel like a troglodyte.”
“Boom!” “Boom!” a couple of low explosive sounds resounded in the dungeon, and later came the loud clunks of metal hitting the floor.
“As long as the job gets done.” Josephine Wong smiled, raised her right leg and kicked the bars in front of her.
“Bang!” the metal door shattered like glass with just one kick, and they could hear the scuffles inside, presumably due to the people in this room scrambling for cover and not understanding what was going on.
Jianmen and Josephine Wong burst into the room - this cell was like a small condo with a balcony, but the scenery outside was just an empty pit painted blue and with some trees, floors and birds drawn on the walls to fake a view.
“Who are you?!” an old man held a dull kitchen knife in his hand, with an old woman, a young boy and a teenage girl behind him: “What do you want?”
Josephine Wong snapped her fingers again and conjured a magical bubble covering the entire cell: “Are you the family of Natalie, Natalie Brown?”