Cautiously scaling the perimeter wall, Iyas silently entered the villa’s backyard and, following the tips on the map, found an entrance concealed by shrubbery.
There was a fair amount of soil on the hatch cover. With a gentle sweep, she could clear the dirt off, revealing the passage as a straight staircase going downward.
Taking out a prepared magic lamp, Iyas tiptoed into the villa’s underground.
Written from bottom to top on the walls of the staircase were the words "Safety Passage," meant for emergency escapes.
For Iyas, this was an excellent infiltration route.
Seeing light at the end of the passage, Iyas hugged the wall, while perking up her ears for any approaching people and opened up the intelligence map she had obtained, memorizing the distribution of the personnel and the patrol ranges.
In order to avoid exposing her whereabouts as much as possible, and not risking failure, Iyas had no intention of killing anyone.
On her return, Iyas also intended to retrace her steps as quietly as possible.
The later others noticed the missing slaves, the more advantageous it was for her mission.
As long as she could successfully rescue Hake and escape from Xidelaistra, it would be Iyas’s victory.
Having affirmed her strategy once more, Iyas took a deep breath, stashed the intelligence map into her gauntlet, and sneaked on further.
The Chaoyang Chamber of Commerce’s Slave Auction House was fundamentally divided into three sections.
The first section was the luxurious villa above, which served to conceal the Slave Auction House and entertain the guests.
The second section was the actual first underground level where auctions were held, roomy enough to accommodate a thousand people bidding simultaneously and directly accessible via a special passage from the villa.
The third section was the complex second underground level, used for imprisoning various slaves, caring for their daily living, implementing diverse education, and enhancing their value.
Apart from the newly captured slaves and those determined to be sellable at a glance, most slaves would undergo the auction house’s education to fetch a higher price among officials.
Iyas and Hake, after being brought here, basically went through no education.
In Iyas’s memory, there were only terrible recollections of being confined within a dim cage.
For the auction house, Iyas herself was a prime product that could sell quickly; she didn’t need much time or effort for training, only the absolute minimum of water and food.
Unfortunately, unsold slaves couldn’t always receive the education of the auction house and the treatment no different from ordinary people.
After being trained and still unsold after two or three attempts, the auction house would deem the slave as not as valuable as imagined, then only providing enough food and water to keep them alive, putting them on ice.
Incredibly, the slaves treated this way showed no resistance, but instead subconsciously believed that if they continued to sink lower, they would either die in a corner or be sold to some disreputable individual and endure a miserable life.
Therefore, the educated slaves, after being treated with cold indifference for a while, would actually strive to showcase their charm, doing whatever they could to get bought by someone present.
And these purchased slaves often turned into loyal servants, sincerely serving their masters.
Some people even took a liking to buying such slaves specifically.
They would wait until the final second when no one else was bidding and the auction hammer was about to fall before raising their voice to place the minimum bid and win the slave.
The psychological "satisfaction" of "without me, she would spend her life in a cage" acted like a poison, numbing their senses, making it an addiction they couldn’t get enough of.
Even if they possessed a mountain of slaves, they still relished in this feeling.
Iyas had no idea how the auction house operated or what the regulations were, nor did she understand the notes written on the map, but she knew Hake was in the place where slaves were kept, and going there would lead her to Hake.
However, this auction house had two areas for keeping slaves—one for those who had not been educated and trained, and one for the trained ones.
Through the dimly lit passages, Iyas was heading towards the room where the untrained slaves were kept.
The reason for this choice was purely because it was closer to where she had entered.
Descending the stairs, Iyas carefully avoided every patrol she encountered.
As the informant had said, security here was indeed lax; patrol officers would often yawn and end their rounds, simply returning to their original positions, allowing her to easily avoid their gaze.
This had allowed Iyas to smoothly reach her destination.
Before her was a somewhat worn wooden door, and beyond it lay the place where her brother was kept; Iyas stood in front of the door, overwhelmed with emotion.
At last, the moment to see her brother had arrived, yet she hesitated to open the door.
Iyas had no idea how Hake was faring now and didn’t know whether her brother would reproach her for not coming to rescue him sooner.
Perhaps, after a long time in a cage, Hake had lost the hope of escape and didn’t want to leave his confinement.
Then, how would she persuade him to follow her and leave this auction house?
Regardless, if she let fear hold her back, nothing would come of it.
Even if only a moment sooner, Iyas yearned to see her brother.
A moment earlier might prevent Hake from falling further, which was why she defied Yang Yu’s order and came here.
Iyas could not allow herself to be paralyzed by the fear within.
Grasping her left wrist with her right hand, Iyas resolutely took a step forward and pushed open the room’s door, with cages covered by black cloth coming into her view.
The dim light in the room made her feel dizzy; memories of being imprisoned as a slave surged in her mind, the scene before her indistinguishable from those times.
The creaking sound of the door closing snapped Iyas’s consciousness back from the painful memories. She could no longer control her legs; she moved quickly between cages, peering through the uncovered parts of the black cloth, searching for the familiar petite figure from her memories.
"Hake! Hake, where are you?
It’s me, your sister, Iyas, I’m here to rescue you!
Hake, where on earth are you?"
She passed cage after cage, but no one responded to Iyas.
Nor did she find the small figure from her memories among the occupants of the cages.
Most of the cages were empty; those that did contain slaves mostly held burly men.
Suddenly, Iyas sensed something odd.
She stopped walking through the rows of cages, turned around to look at the cage behind her, and couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat.
Iyas’s instinct told her that whatever was in the cages, it was definitely not slaves.