A bit earlier. Just as Muneto had turned his back to leave, Kenji had entered his second form, broken out of his restraints and tackled the inquisitor into a wall in the blink of an eye, knocking him out cold. Meanwhile, the armed guards stationed here to keep watch suddenly pulled out their weapons and proceeded to stab their own dantians, breaking their cultivation cores crippling them and sending them into violent convulsions of pain until they lost consciousness. Despite some being either dead or unconscious, every single one of the guards remained on their feet, standing still in one place.
During their first escape attempt, Aiko had used the armor sets of the dead prison guards to craft suitable vessels for her ancestors to possess, just in case they were captured again. While she and her fellow disciples made a run for it, they would hide around the royal palace for later use posing as regular suits of armor either by intentionally swapping places with existing armor sets, or by playing dead and reassigned to a new guard after being found. In the event that they succeeded on their first try, the golem ancestors could just self-destruct and return to Aiko via the psychic network, and if they failed to escape, they could be a valuable asset in their next attempt, and that they were.
"So good so far! Now could one of you release me now?" Shinji asked.
At his words, the armor set of the dead guard holding the key to Shinji's restraints opened his cell and freed him without a word. Once freed, Shinji began pulling the nails out of his hands and dropping them on the floor as he limped out of his cage.
*Clang*
"Ouch! Okay, that's a bit better! Great work guys!" Shinji said after he pulled out the last metal spike.
*Clang*
"Thanks for the save! I almost slipped up when I saw him pull out the knife! The pain from all the crotch shots were reminding me of that…! Anyways, how'd you know acting like a pervert would make him back off?" Kenji asked, shuddering upon recalling the time he lost his genitals.
"Just an old trick from our academy days!" Shinji replied.
Ever since being recaptured, Shinji have been secretly discussing their escape plan using code while giving Kenji instructions for what to do while under interrogation, which, due to a history of slip ups, the last of which ending in them outed as spies, mostly consisted of keeping his mouth shut. However, Kenji, after flashing back to his time as a eunuch, attempted to call for help with his eyes, blinking in the wrong frequency. Shinji, understanding the intent behind the unintelligible message, had simply told him to act like he liked the pain to throw the inquisitor off his game.
"Anyways, we need to move before someone shows up! Cuff that guy and let's go!" Shinji told Kenji.
"Cuff him with what? I don't think the regular rope would hold this guy once he wakes up!" Kenji said.
"Don't they have qi suppressing handcuffs? Just use that."
"The only ones I see lying around are bolted to the walls." Kenji asked.
"What? Really?! Nobody has any qi suppressing handcuffs?" Shinji asked, looking to all the surrounding golems filled with limp bodies.
Checking their pockets, some of the golems pulled out a pair of handcuffs.
"Those don't suppress qi!" Kenji said, shutting them down.
"You sure?" Shinji asked.
"If they were, my 6th sense would get blurry when I looked at them!"
"Crap! There goes our back up plan! Is there really nothing we can use!"
Their main plan was to disguise themselves as guards and sneak out of the palace. However, in the event their original plan went awry, they wanted an important person they could use as a hostage to make their way out of the city. They had chosen Muneto because they knew he was a relatively high-ranking individual, and he just so happened to visit on a day where all the guards within earshot wore Aiko's golem ancestors. However, Muneto was a blue core nascent soul. The only reason Kenji managed to take him down was because they caught him off guard. If they grabbed him now and he woke up before they could escape or find something to restrain him with, they might end up being captured by their own hostage instead. However, if they left him here, they would either need a new hostage or change their plan.
"Well, actually, there is something, but I'm not so sure it was meant to be used on humans!" Kenji said, looking off to the side.
Turning his attention to where Kenji was looking, he saw a spiked gridded metal dog cage originally designed for magic beasts of a certain size.
"Would that work?" Shinji asked.
"Bigger question is, will he fit?" Kenji said as he lifted the inquisitor off the ground to go find out.
After just barely cramming the unconscious man inside the spiky dog cage, they found a dirty blanket in a nearby cell to cover it with and then they began putting on Aiko's ancestor golems.
"HEY! YOU! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?" The guard who just rounded the corner shouted as he walked in on two young men stripping down a pair of dead corpses for their armor
*Swish**Thud*
However, before he could take another step, his stomach suddenly started bleeding before he fell to the ground spasming. Soon after, another armor set suddenly appeared as its invisibility enchantments were turned off. Shortly after, a girl with purple hair poked her head around the corner.
"We're leaving, right?" Aiko asked.
Even though they had been separated, Aiko was still connected with her ancestors through a psychic link, hence the moment she heard Kenji and Shinji were making their move, she did so as well. Unfortunately, she wasn't quite as lucky in terms of haunted armor sets near her cell. However, thanks to the element of surprise and the loss of a few ancestor golems, they just barely managed to eliminate all the guards at her cell before they could alert anyone. She then gave her remaining ancestor golem armor some quick upgrades to make it easier to take out any unfortunate souls standing between her and the others, including but not limited to an invisibility enchantment.
"Do you know the plan?" Shinji asked.
"No." Aiko said as she put on a helmet that was too large for her.
*Sigh*
"Your too small! None of the armor sets are your size!" Kenji said as he pulled off Aiko's helmet.
"We were actually planning to come back for you later!" Shinji said with an awkward expression.
"Oh. Okay. So, should I just go back to my cell or?" Aiko asked.
Shinji looked at the upgraded golem ancestor and his eyes lit up with an idea.
"Hm? Actually, no! I think I have an idea!"
Shinji then quickly went over his new plan.
Not long after, Shinji and Kenji disguised as soldiers carrying a covered dog cage walked out of the dungeon, almost immediately getting stopped by a suspicious guard wanting to know who they were and what they were carrying resulting in a hostage situation that quickly caught the attention of the majority of the palace guards.