The Demon Heaven God's Escape Was Imminent
The aura of the Eleventh Realm flashed across the sky above the capital. Various forces investigated for over a month, with spies throughout the city and even scouring the desolate mountains and wilderness outside the city, but they still could not find the source.
Some say it's a breakthrough by a reclusive old monster, others say it's the emergence of an ancient treasure, and still others say it's a celestial phenomenon. There are many different opinions, and no consensus can be reached.
Ultimately, the matter was left unresolved.
Chen Du didn't care at all.
He continued his patrols, executions, and spiritual practice as usual, living a peaceful and uneventful life.
Until this day, news came from the Divine Prison Bureau: the new Grand Commander was about to take office and would be responsible for guarding the tenth and eleventh floors.
Chen Du has been in the Divine Prison for so many years, and the furthest he has ever reached is the eighth level.
He never set foot on the tenth or eleventh floor.
The elders of the Divine Prison Bureau have said in private that below the tenth level lies a watershed; below that is the true core of the Divine Prison, where it is said that any one of the prisoners held there has once caused a huge uproar in the outside world.
A few days later, the new president arrived.
This person is named Pei Xuandu. He is said to be from the headquarters of the Divine Prison Bureau. He is not old, but his aura is as calm as a deep abyss, and there are faint laws flowing around his body. He is Tenth Realm cultivator.
Chen Du, along with the guards from the first three levels of prison, lined up at the entrance to pay their respects.
He stood at the front of the line, his back hunched, head bowed, bowing along with the others.
Pei Xuandu walked past them, his gaze sweeping over the rows of faces, pausing briefly on Chen Du before looking away.
He didn't say much, just nodded, and walked deeper into the Divine Prison Bureau.
Chen Du retreated to the back of the crowd, raised his head, and squinted at Pei Xuandu's back... Tenth Realms.
But something was wrong; the way that aura circulated was unlike any of the other Tenth Realms he had ever seen.
Normally, the power of laws of the Tenth Realm martial artist is like a surging river, but Pei Xuandu's power of laws is like an undercurrent suppressed beneath the ice, steady yet exuding an inexplicable chill.
He silently noted this unusual feeling in his heart. In the Divine Prison Bureau, there were many guards stronger than the Grand Commander; the position of Grand Commander was not necessarily earned through merit.
He needs to observe, to observe carefully.
The first thing Pei Xuandu did after taking office was to go to the eleventh floor. It was said to be a routine inspection to familiarize himself with the defenses.
He brought several attendants with him, but Chen Du was not originally on the list.
But Chen Du caught up, trailing far behind.
With his current cultivation level of Eleventh Realms and his familiarity with every inch of the Divine Prison's terrain, he was like an invisible shadow, clinging to the shadows of the stone wall and walking through the gaps in the array patterns.
None of Pei Xuandu and his entourage noticed anything.
They made their way through the ninth floor and into the tenth. Chen Du followed behind, his footsteps silent.
The phosphorescent light on the tenth layer was darker than all the layers above it, almost pitch black, and one could only make out directions by the faint light emitted by the array patterns.
Pei Xuandu lingered there for a moment, exchanged a few words with the guardian of the tenth floor, and then continued downwards.
The entrance to the eleventh floor is a massive stone gate, covered with densely packed sealing patterns, which can only be opened with the Grand Commander's exclusive token.
Pei Xuandu took out the token, inserted it into the groove, and the stone door slowly opened.
He stepped inside, with Chen Du following behind. Taking advantage of the last gap as the stone door closed, Chen Du darted inside and disappeared into the darkness behind it.
Several months have passed.
Pei Xuandu held his position as the Grand Commander of the Divine Prison Bureau very firmly.
He inspected each floor daily, handled official business, and conversed with subordinates, behaving politely and gently without revealing any flaws.
But no one knew that every time he walked through those dark corridors, he was silently counting his steps.
It'll be here soon, just wait a little longer.
He went to the key vault three times in the past few months.
Each time, they operate under the guise of "inspecting defense," and each time they stay in the warehouse for an extremely short time.
The key vault contains hundreds of keys, each corresponding to a different seal on a different level of the Divine Prison.
He didn't touch the commonly used keys, but instead rummaged through the dusty old shelves at the very back. Those shelves held some of the oldest keys in the Divine Prison.
One of them was dark gold in color, with the seal patterns of the eighteenth layer engraved on its surface.
He used a pre-prepared fake key to replace the real key, his movements were extremely fast, steady, and precise, without even triggering the monitoring array in the key vault.
Pei Xuandu was already a veteran of the Divine Prison Bureau, and now he had a whole set of demonic methods in his mind, so stealing a key was indeed not difficult for him.
After succeeding, he did not rush to take action.
He waited for months, until the storm had passed and everyone had gotten used to his presence as the new president.
Then, on an ordinary late night, he left his residence alone and headed deep into the Divine Prison.
Passing through the dark corridor on the eleventh floor, past the densely packed sealed cells on both sides, I walked straight into the deeper part.
He stopped in front of an inconspicuous stone wall at the end of the corridor, took out the token, and embedded it into a very hidden groove.
The stone wall silently cracked open, revealing a narrow downward staircase.
The twelfth floor was quieter than any of the floors above, enveloped in a thick, almost impenetrable darkness. Deep within the cell, a blurry figure sat cross-legged, emitting no trace of human presence.
He smirked and gave a cold laugh.
The laughter was soft, yet it carried a sense of catharsis that had been suppressed for countless years.
So what if it's Divine Prison? The day of escape is just around the corner.
This so-called new commander-in-chief is no longer the same Pei Xuandu.
His mind was corrupted and assimilated by a peerless demon suppressed on the eighteenth level, turning him into a puppet.
That demon was also at the Eleventh Realm, cultivating the Demon Heaven Illusion Transformation Laws, which could silently erode the minds of others.
Previously, the demon had been accumulating power in hopes of breaking free.
Now, he has finally found his opportunity.
It took considerable effort to corrupt even a Grand Commander of the Divine Prison Bureau.
However, due to his status as the Grand Commander and his own intention, he finally managed to steal the key to the eighteenth floor over the course of several months.
The Demon Heaven God sneered inwardly; the Divine Prison had imprisoned him for tens of thousands of years.
No matter how powerful you are, no matter how formidable your formation is, he still managed to find an opportunity.
Tens of thousands of years of planning, tens of thousands of years of waiting, tens of thousands of years of Lie Dormant deep within the eighteenth level, accumulating power little by little, eroding the minds of those who approach him.
Finally, he got his wish and became the Grand Commander of the Divine Prison Bureau.
A powerful and resolute commander of the Divine Prison Bureau Division, possessing the cultivation level of the Tenth Realm.
It took him several months to completely assimilate it, leaving no trace.
Then, with the key in hand, the time was ripe.
He passed through the darkness of the twelfth floor and continued down the little-known narrow staircase.
The thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth floors.
The deeper you go, the tighter the seal becomes, the heavier the suppressive force, and even the air becomes viscous and cold.