Chapter 891 The Ears of Otrus

These vents are not conspicuous. They are basically on the back of the statue. They are basically invisible unless you go around them. Moreover, in addition to the vents, you can also see that the stone slab itself is movable, which means that the statue's The base is not solid, but built with an arched structure like a Flaviian amphitheatre.

Zhang Heng moved the stone slab and saw that the space below was very small and could basically only accommodate a child no more than fourteen years old. In addition, Zhang Heng also found some bread crumbs and a bowl of unfinished water inside.

But other than that, Zhang Heng couldn't find anything else, so he went around to the back of the temple, where the priests lived.

The young priest who opened the door to welcome him before has now gone to bed again and entered sleep. In addition to him, there are also two older priests and six followers who do chores living here.

Zhang Heng completed the search of their residence without waking them up, but did not find much, so he later returned to the hall with the statue, opened the bronze door, and left quietly to the temple.

A quarter of an hour later, Zhang Heng stood in front of the temple of Queen Juno.

He was about to repeat his old trick and throw the stones in his hands, but the next moment the temple door suddenly opened by itself.

A woman dressed as a priest came out with a group of children.

Zhang Heng had no time to climb up to the roof. In his haste, he could only roll sideways and directly to the edge of the cliff. When the door was fully opened, he hung his body directly on the cliff and climbed on the rock wall with one hand.

He moved quickly, but because of the suddenness of the incident, something was discovered by the child who stepped out of the door first. The child stopped and looked at the cliff where Zhang Heng was hiding in confusion.

"Priest Vera, I seem to have seen something."

The priestess named Vera glanced in the direction shown by the child and found nothing unusual. Then she said, "That's just the wind. Mosmir, let's leave quickly. You all have to get up early tomorrow."

Mosmir blinked, not thinking that what he saw was wind, but he still obeyed the priestess's words and continued walking forward, while the other children followed behind him.

When the children left, the bronze door did not close immediately, but a male priest walked out from inside. However, compared with the female priest just now, he did not pay so much attention to etiquette. After watching the children leave, He walked directly to the edge of the cliff, unbuttoned his pants, and was about to release the water.

But he didn't expect that what came out first was not his urine, but his blood.

A black shadow with the aura of death came around behind him at some point, slit his neck, and hugged his reclining body so that he would not be able to scream when he died. The male priest reached out and grabbed the murderer's sleeve tightly, as if he wanted to keep the murderer here. However, he only held on for less than a few seconds before gradually losing strength.

After that, Zhang Heng laid the male priest who had turned into a corpse flat on the side. He grabbed the priest's right hand and took a look. There were many calluses on the index finger and thumb of the male priest, and there were also scars on his arms. It was obvious that he had been severely punished before. He has received military training and may even have participated in the war. Rather than being a priest, he is more like a soldier wearing a priest's cloak.

And judging from his appearance and skin, he was probably not born in Rome. Not surprisingly, he was an elite brought by Otrus from the frontier, and he was also one of his most trusted guards.

Zhang Heng knew that this time he had touched the right place.

Speaking of which, Zhang Heng was able to find the hiding place of Ortrus thanks to Klind. If it weren't for the information that Klind revealed when chatting with him in the dungeon that night, Zhang Heng really would not have been able to find this place.

Klind described Ortrus as having witchcraft. He could enter a person's head and know what you were thinking. With his previous experience of being fed drugs, Zhang Hengdang thought that Klind was saying What is happening is the use of Veritaserum by Ortrus.

However, there are big problems with using the plant alkaloids in scopolamine to pry open a person's mouth. First, there is the issue of toxicity. Although I don't know what means Otrus used to neutralize some of the toxicity, it did not completely eliminate the toxicity. With Zhang Heng's physical fitness, drinking that cup of medicinal wine might not be a big problem, but for ordinary people, it would be hard to tell.

In addition, in terms of efficiency, this is not a good way to collect intelligence. Ortrus needs to make the target drink the prepared medicinal wine first, and also find a way to take the target to a place where no one is around before he can start questioning. In this case, he Being able to interrogate seven or eight people in one day was enough. It was impossible for him to know the secrets of both civilians and nobles, as Klind said.

And Zhang Heng didn't think Ortrus would waste scopol on civilians.

He should have other means to collect intelligence, and scopola is more like his special means when dealing with certain emergencies.

In addition, Klind also mentioned that night that Ortrus was in trouble three years ago. The dock workers on the Tiber River were asking for wages, which paralyzed the traffic on the river. Ortrus failed to do such a big thing. Get any news in advance.

Taken apart, these things seem to mean nothing, but when taken together, the answer is readily apparent.

——Otrus is collecting information through the temple.

Temples and baths are probably one of the few places open to both the poor and the nobles, and they are also the two places where people like to discuss secrets. Believers will not hesitate to express their most secret wishes when praying. Likewise, many people like to discuss business and personal matters in the bathhouse.

What made Zhang Heng rule out the bathhouse was what Clinder said about Otrus' embarrassing incident three years ago. Otrus was unable to learn about the dock workers in advance because most of the dock workers were Jews. They either If you believe in Judaism or Christianity, you will not come to the temple to pray to the Roman gods.

At the same time, Zhang Heng is more inclined to the temple. Another reason is that Otrus was sentenced to death by a word from the palace priest. If his father had not finally softened his heart and sent him away, he would have been there. He died when he was four years old. In the end, although he survived, he also lost his status as a prince and could never live in the sun again.

Many years later, he returned to Rome and regained power. Zhang Heng did not believe that he would not take revenge on the priests in the temples. In this way, he could naturally control these temples and transform them into Become your own intelligence gathering place.

The hiding place Zhang Heng found under the stone seat of the Jupiter statue is the best proof, and the group of children taken away by the priestess should be the ears of Otrus.