Time passed by.
It had been a year since Dudian was imprisoned.
During this year, Dudian gathered information about the entire Thistle Flower Prison through the conversations of other prisoners and prison guards. Whenever he had something he didn't understand, he would ask Black Scar and some other "veterans" in the prison, and he could always get an answer.
Although asking questions might reveal his intention of "escaping from prison", as long as the prison guards didn't find out, it was fine. After all, no one in this place didn't want to escape, but they just couldn't!
After gathering the information, Dudian deeply agreed with the difficulties of escaping.
The first and most crucial difficulty that discouraged 90% of the people from even thinking about escaping was that this Thistle Flower Prison was built at the bottom of a lake!
When Dudian was brought here, he had seen that there were many demonic beasts wandering in the lake. Trying to break through the walls to escape? It was simply a suicidal act!
Moreover, this prison could withstand the pressure of the lake water and the impact of the underwater demonic beasts. Its thickness and sturdiness were naturally extraordinary. The idea of chiseling a hole in the wall was nothing but a pipe dream.
Therefore, no matter how unwilling or eager to leave they were, those who entered here ultimately had to accept their fate.
When Dudian learned about this situation, he also felt a sense of despair. However, a few days after the despair, sitting in the prison cell, he suddenly felt that he had nothing to do. His mind went completely blank, and the prison life became even more painful as a result.
So he pulled himself together and continued to immerse himself in his escape plan.
This time, he started from scratch and considered many possibilities for escaping.
Finally, he sorted them out and divided them into two categories.
External and internal.
"External" referred to methods such as chiseling the walls and breaking the prison cage to escape, starting from the prison itself. However, this path was blocked from the very beginning. Not to mention that he didn't have the tools to chisel, even if he managed to secretly bring out tools from the weekly workshop, by the time he chiseled through the prison, it would be many years later. And the moment he chiseled through, he would perish together with everyone in the prison and be devoured by the demonic beasts in the lake.
Therefore, Dudian gave up on this path.
Since the external approach didn't work, he could only focus on the internal aspect, that is, the prison guards.
Attack the prison guards?
With layers of heavily armed guards outside, the prison guards dared to let them out for work collectively, so they naturally weren't afraid of a riot.
The tough approach didn't work, so Dudian thought of a soft approach.
Bribe the prison guards.
Shortly after having this idea, he gave it up again.
Because he saw a newbie who had just entered the prison try this method, and the result was that the newbie was dragged out by the prison guards, tortured until he was on the verge of death, and then thrown back.
Obviously, bribing was futile. It wasn't that the prison guards weren't greedy, but they had better ways to squeeze out every bit of value from you.
After thinking it over and over again, Dudian also felt that there was nothing he could do.
This prison was like an impregnable fortress, and there was no way to break through it.
Was he going to just grow old and die, or be worked to death in this prison?
Half a year passed.
Dudian suddenly went crazy.
He roared and raved nonsense, and then he attacked, beating the several people in his prison cell half to death.
When the two prison guards who came to deliver food arrived, they saw the people in Dudian's prison cell lying on the ground, barely alive. They also saw Dudian lying on top of them, continuing to punch randomly, looking like a madman. They were immediately enraged, opened the cell, entered with torture sticks, dragged Dudian out of the cell, and threw him into the corridor, punching and kicking him.
Dudian roared, raised his fists, and pounced on the two prison guards.
He was incredibly strong, and the two prison guards were immediately knocked to the ground by him. This scene left the people in other prison cells stunned. No one expected that Dudian, with steel nails piercing his shoulder blades, could still have such fierce strength.
One of the prison guards got up and ran away. Soon, he gathered four or five prison guards and pounced on Dudian, pinning him to the ground.
After a beating, the prison guards dragged Dudian out.
More than an hour later, the prison guards dragged Dudian back, who was on the verge of death, and threw him back into his prison cell.
A few days later, Dudian recovered from his injuries and started roaring again. He knocked down the chubby middle-aged man and others in his prison cell who had just regained some strength. At that moment, the prison guards happened to come to deliver food. Seeing this scene, they immediately shouted angrily and rushed over to stop him.
Dudian roared, overturned the cart, and fought with the prison guards.
The two prison guards couldn't subdue him. One of them was punched until he spat out blood, and the other ran away.
Soon, Dudian was dragged out by more prison guards. After being tortured, he was dragged back. This time, however, Dudian was not locked in the previous prison cell but was imprisoned alone in a separate cell.
"Damn it, this madman crippled those useless guys, and they won't be able to finish their tasks."
"Just assign the tasks to other prison cells."
The prison guards were a bit angry, but they just tortured Dudian and didn't kill him. In fact, they didn't have the right to dispose of the prisoners at will. Torturing him was just a minor matter and was within their scope of power. If they killed him, they would inevitably be questioned by their superiors. Although they could cover it up by giving some gifts, flattering a few words, or relying on other background relationships, it would still be a bit troublesome.
Moreover, they had seen too many people like Dudian who went crazy in prison.
Being locked up in a dark place day after day, those with weak willpower would often become mentally depressed within three to five years. Some would go crazy, and some would commit suicide. Therefore, a situation like Dudian's was not unusual. They just didn't expect Dudian to go crazy so quickly.
However, considering Dudian's age, they understood. No matter how brave and strong he was, he was still just a child after all, and his mental state was inevitably far from that of an adult.
While being imprisoned alone, the prison guards also reduced Dudian's food rations. He often only got one piece of black bread a day.
Dudian's body gradually became emaciated. His eye sockets were sunken, his cheekbones were prominent, and he looked like a skeleton.
Fortunately, although there was a shortage of almost everything in the prison cell, water was abundant.
With water, even in prison cells where food grabbing was intense, it was rare for people to starve to death.
After being imprisoned alone, Dudian still went crazy from time to time, pounding on the steel bars or tearing at the straw mat. As time passed, his symptoms gradually eased. He would only have an occasional outburst, making a scene, talking nonsense, and cursing the people in other prison cells, but the names he cursed were different ones.
The people in these prison cells knew that Dudian was crazy and didn't argue with him. At the same time, they felt sorry for him, as if they saw their own possible future in Dudian.
Gradually, after Dudian's condition stabilized a bit, the weekly work was assigned to him again. After all, the prison didn't support idlers.
Half a year passed again, which was the second year since Dudian was imprisoned.
Dudian's madness became more and more serious. When the prison guards came, they would occasionally see Dudian hitting his head against the wall to harm himself. Sometimes, when they threw bread to Dudian, he would even throw it back and curse them.