Backlash Part 1

Chapter 151: How to Plan a Prison Break

Issue number one. Meng Yao is entirely too good at being Principle Torturer. Wen Qing had been silently making a list in her head, not daring to put it on paper, of all of the barriers she needed to get through in order to get Nie Mingjue back to the Allied sects. Oddly enough getting him out of Qishan did not seem so difficult. Wen Qing had already smuggled three people and two bodies before, even if that had not been in and out of Qishan. Still, Wen Qing felt confident she could get five or six cultivators willing to travel with the escaped prisoner with the promise of being safely taken into the allied sects.

She felt she could probably get them enough of a head start for them to get to Dafan. If the Allied sets were there, ready to take Dafan, she felt they had a good chance of success. Dafan did not have a large number of cultivators, but Wen Qing expected many would be on their way once Nie Mingjue's escape was discovered. Wen Qing was not optimistic about being able to conceal his absence for long. She would like to, but right now that was a question for after she found a way to actually get him out of the Flame Palace first.

The problem with getting Nie Mingjue out of the Flame Palace, unfortunately, was not just one problem. It was a series of related problems. Firstly, there were guards. Guards Wen Qing does not think she could bribe, or even easily distract. Before Meng Yao, the Flame Palace didn't have guards. The closest the Flame Palace had come to guards was a cluster of cultivators that served the Flame Palace that liked to loiter outside the front gates. From what Wen Qing could recall they seemed to congregate there to socialize and enjoyed the effect their presence had on whomever passed by. They were not there to be guards and would only be there when they did not have something to do.

After Meng Yao became Principle Torturer he made a lot of changes to the Flame Palace. The addition of guards was one of them. The daily routine of checking that every prisoner was where they were supposed to be was another change. No one had worried much about that in the past. A prisoner might be checked on purely because someone was bringing them food. However, withholding food was very common in the Flame Palace.

Wen Qing was uncomfortably familiar with why. She knew very well what the lack of food, or even just the lack of key nutrients, could do to the mind and body. It was an easy means to either torture, or to make prisoners more vulnerable. Not to mention the sorts of things you could get people to consume in their food and water when you deprived them enough.

Some medicines could be administered in other ways, or required small enough doses that forcing them down was easy. It was still easier if you could get at least some cooperation from the recipient. The adding of drugs to food was not new to Meng Yao, but he had certainly taken it to levels that the previous Principle Torturers had never touched.

In the past denying prisoners food was usually for the purposes of torturing them with starvation. If a prisoner was not being fed they might not have anyone look in on them for days at a time. The isolation and inability to track the days becoming part of the torture. Not that having someone stick their head into a room once a day was much better for the victim, but it certainly made it harder to conceal someone's absence.

Since he took over, Meng Yao has had someone check every resident every day. Always confirming that every resident was where they were supposed to be. The marked attendance was submitted to Meng Yao daily. Another barrier to Wen Qing's plan. Not only did she have guards to get past, but she had a daily attendance check to dodge that would reveal Nie Mingjue's absence.

If it weren't for the fact that Wen Qing had no trust in Meng Yao's moral character he would have made a fantastic ally. She had seen first hand the changes in the Flame Palace. Meng Yao had added back up upon back up to the security of a place that had no record of having anyone escape from it.

Meng Yao seemed to thrive in a position of authority and was simultaneously vigilant of threats to his position. After all, Wen Qing did not really believe in coincidences enough to overlook the convenience of the last Principle Torturer's death. Wen Qing had to watch Meng Yao study in her medical library. Watched his detailed note taking that would have been enviable in a medical cultivator. If only she had not had to watch knowing how he planned to apply this knowledge.

The Flame Palace answers to no one except Wen Rouhan. No outside advisors poke their noses in or express opinions about the Flame Palace's business. The Flame Palace is Wen Rouhan's favourite and Meng Yao his most trusted advisor. They do not need to explain why they want or need anything. They simply receive whatever they ask for. Meng Yao receives whatever he asks for.

Wen Qing does not entertain the idea of bribing or convincing a Flame Palace cultivator to help her. Meng Yao is excellent at stroking egos and... this is the Flame Palace. Who in the Flame Palace would be stupid enough to invite the wrath of the Principle Torturer onto their head?

Wen Qing sat once more, staring out her window vaguely. So she could not secure inside help from the Flame Palace. She needed to somehow avoid or account for the attendance check. She needed to get Nie Mingjue past the guards. There was also the problem of the warded doors that could not be opened from the inside.

Another security measure that Meng Yao had added. The rooms in which residents were tortured could not be opened from the inside. There was no passage token that could be stolen. No code to be taught. When you were in the room with a resident there was always another torturer who stayed outside of the room to let you out.

Wen Qing was never truly alone with a Flame Palace patient. On the off chance that she was not being directly observed, there would still be a Flame Palace cultivator right outside the door. The rooms were not silenced. The sounds carried deliberately to let every resident's screams serve as a reminder to every other resident of the suffering that was coming. So even if she snuck into a room, she would not be able to get out without someone opening the door for her.

Wen Qing took slow measured breaths. She would want to send Wen Qionglin out of Qishan with Nie Mingjue anyway. Assuming she could sneak them in, she could have him let her out. However, if anyone saw him it would be suspicious. Wen Qing has never allowed her youngest didi to be assigned to the Flame Palace. If there was no one else who could come treat a patient there she would do it herself. Wen Qing could not bear the thought of Wen Qionglin being in that place. It had been a looming threat too many times. The threat that if she did not do well, did not do as she was told, her didi could spend some time as a resident.

Wen Qing resisted the urge to lay her head on the desk in front of her in defeat. If Meng Yao had never been Principle Torturer this would still have been a challenge, but all it would have really taken was some cautious timing and a well placed distraction. There would have been no guards. She would have had a token that let her open and close the warded doors to provide medical aid as needed.

As such Wen Qing could not help but feel this myriad of problems all came down to Meng Yao's general existence within Qishan, and that was without the personal obsession that he seemed to have when it came to Nie Mingjue. A light knock on the door pulled Wen Qing from her, admittedly unproductive, thoughts. She got to her feet, making minor adjustments to her robes to make sure she still looked as put together as she tried to be.

Wen Qing cracked open her door. A servant bowed to her respectfully, passing on a message that had been addressed to her in a familiar calligraphy. Words could not express how much she was growing to hate Meng Yao's meticulous calligraphy. Wen Qing dismissed the servant and read through the request. Meng Yao wanted her to arrive earlier than her shift. He wanted her presence while he 'conversed' with an 'important resident'. Wen Qing sighed. In other words he was eager to torture Nie Mingjue, but wanted to make sure the sect leader wouldn't die too quickly.

Wen Qing collected her supplies. After a few minutes of thought she grabbed a few additional bottles. She wasn't certain she'd be able to do much of anything in Meng Yao's presence, but maybe something would present itself.