Urine smell?

Forest Cat paused, sniffed, and indeed detected a faint scent of urine.

Li Ang, who was leading the way, turned around and said seriously, "It's not me."

Forest Cat's eye twitched; he didn't know how to comment.

Clearly, the source of the urine smell was not any of the brave, high-level (Lv10+) players present, but rather the dark and silent stone corridor ahead.

Stonemason made a gesture, signaling everyone to keep their voices low. He then gently scratched the right side of his nostril with his right index finger.

Living in his nasal cavity was a type of soft-bodied parasitic worm named Super Sensory Lice. Its Special Effect could translate olfactory sensations into direct, though vague, visual imagery.

Previously in the wine cellar, he had relied on this equipment to find the hidden door.

In Stonemason's vision, a hazy cloud of yellow smoke, symbolizing the scent of urine, drifted over from the distance. Upon closer inspection, it was evident that the smell originated from a room on the left side of the corridor ahead.

"It's there."

Stonemason calmly wiped his nose, cleaning away the nosebleed caused by activating the Super Sensory Lice's Special Effect, and pointed ahead.

The players held their breath, treading lightly as they slowly approached.

As they got closer, they saw a faint yellow, mucilaginous streak about two meters wide on the brick floor of the corridor, as if a colossal Slug had once crawled there.

The trail extended from the distant corridor all the way to an ajar wooden door. The iron lock on the hefty wooden door had been violently smashed open, and the same sticky substance clung to it.

The slime itself was odorless; the smell of urine came from inside the room.

Li Ang silently pushed the wooden door open with his stony arm. The flashlight beam revealed a round room. Two cross-shaped wooden stakes stood in the center, and a variety of torture instruments hung on the walls. A half-open steel door stood in one corner.

The trail of yellow slime extended from the doorway to behind the steel door.

Li Ang looked around the room. Judging from the wear on these torture instruments and the grime in the cracks of the brick floor, this torture chamber must have been used frequently, he thought.

There was no mention of this torture chamber in the text left by Lady Lesley.

Considering that the Lesley family had purchased the mansion after William's death and had spent a long time there, it was plausible that the Lesley family were the ones who had utilized the torture chamber, or at least were the most probable users.

Being in the room, the smell of urine became even more intense, almost unbearably pungent for the players, whose Perception Attribute was higher than that of an average person.

With a straight face and steady heart, Li Ang swept the room with a glance, then walked straight up to the steel door and pushed it open with his stony arm.

Behind the steel door was a set of stone steps submerged in water, leading to a spacious, semi-flooded enclosed space.

His teammates hurried over. Li Ang, unhurried, activated Cat's Eye and scanned the space indifferently with the help of his flashlight.

The space was divided into two levels. The upper level consisted of water tanks to the left and right. The lower level had two rows of extremely narrow stone cages, also to the left and right, covered with a layer of metal grating.

This was a water prison.

The water tanks above the prison seemed to be connected to groundwater. Despite years of neglect and lack of maintenance, they still held water.

GURGLE...

The sound of churning water arose from the far end of the reservoir on the upper level of the water prison. It was dull and loud, echoing continuously within the enclosed space, as if some Giant Beast were tossing and turning.

A yellow stream of water poured down like a waterfall from the upper-level reservoir, SPLASHING DOWN LOUDLY.

The smell of urine in the air grew even more intense, as if one were in a dry latrine that had gone uncleaned for millennia, stinging the eyes painfully.

Without a sound, Li Ang drew his modified Triangular Bone Tipped Spear, nodded to his teammates, then lightly leaped onto the metal grating above the stone cell to his left.

Through the metal grating and the water accumulated in the stone prison below, Li Ang could clearly see a human skeleton covered in yellow algae settled at the bottom of the cell. The bottoms of the other cells in the row also held disheveled skeletons.

There was no doubt these bones belonged to former prisoners of the water prison.

Li Ang stepped on the metal grating. Pushing off the wall with his foot, he used his Triangular Bone Tipped Spear to pole-vault lightly and gracefully up to the edge of the reservoir on the upper level, steadying himself on the stone rim of the pool.

The stench was even richer now.

Bending down, Li Ang crossed the gushing stream and moved silently along the reservoir's edge. His teammates followed.

The GURGLING of the water grew louder. As they drew closer, everyone finally saw what it was.

It was a huge mass of reddish-yellow flesh lying supine at the innermost part of the reservoir. It resembled a human, with limbs and a head but no skin. Its body was covered with bits of tattered carpet.

Its head rested against the stone wall. Its two thick, handless arms clutched two grotesquely large kidneys, struggling to press them against its waist and abdomen.

The two kidneys continuously leaked yellow droplets, which drenched the body beneath and dissolved a bowl-sized sore into it, preventing the flesh from healing quickly.

The two remained locked in a stalemate. Aided by the light, Li Ang clearly saw the monster's face collapsing, revealing a human one.

Dong Fengpo!

This fellow was actually still alive, and it seemed the monster had enveloped his body.

Dong Fengpo's eyes were covered with a thick layer of flesh. He seemed unable to move his body; he could only laboriously open his mouth, stick out his tongue, and lick frantically from side to side.

Dong Fengpo's Title was Roc Wing Slash. Its Special Effect allowed him to turn his belongings into various flavors of chicken wings. Consuming these could restore Life Value and heal injuries.

The Title Skill had no cooldown but consumed Sanity Value. Moreover, a chicken wing had to be eaten before the next one could be produced.

The chicken wings could only be consumed by him, lasted only thirty seconds, and couldn't be stored or saved.

In normal circumstances, Roc Wing Slash was an absolutely divine technique in a war of attrition. However, unable to control his body as he was, Dong Fengpo could only use this Title Skill to try and free himself.

He wagged his tongue from side to side. Wherever the tip of his tongue touched the flesh, it suddenly turned into a piece of fried chicken mid-wing. It had a crispy outer layer and a smell and taste far superior to anything from a fried chicken shop—enough to make any neighboring child weep with envy, if one didn't consider the chicken wings' origin.

Before the gazes of the other players, Dong Fengpo, blinded and clearly bloated, fought the urge to vomit. He chewed on the chicken wings painfully and with great difficulty, spitting out the bones before eating the next freshly made wing.

During the lengthy time Li Ang and the others had not come to his rescue, Dong Fengpo had survived by relentlessly eating in this way, staving off suffocation.

Looking at his ashen face, trembling lips, and numb expression, one could only guess how many chicken wings he had consumed.