Flying Rainbow Swordsman

The Heavenly Prison was perpetually deprived of sunlight, with only oil lamps illuminating the passageways.

Dim and gloomy, it was hard to distinguish between day and night.

When prisoners first arrived, they would scratch marks on the walls to keep track of time. But after being there for too long, or after covering the walls with markings, they lost the will to count the days.

After all, very few people walked out of the Heavenly Prison alive!

Zhou Yi remembered the prisoner sitting in meditation. His surname was Su, and he was said to have once been a renowned literary figure from Jiangnan.

Because he wrote poems that offended the current emperor, the Embroidered Uniform Guard investigated him and somehow found evidence of him abusing a family servant to death. According to the law, he was imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison.

If his family sent silver, he could get an extra spoonful of thin porridge with each meal!

Perhaps one day, when the current emperor died and a new ruler ascended the throne, granting amnesty to the world, he would be released.

"No wonder he has such a good attitude!"

Zhou Yi finished distributing the thin porridge and walked along the prison cells towards the outside.

Sounds grew louder as he approached.

At first, it was a faint murmur, but then it turned into loud shouts and yells. It sounded like they were gambling.

The Fengyang Kingdom had been established for three hundred years, and it suffered from all the common ailments of a dynasty, such as the emperor demanding birthday tributes and the corruption of officials leading to lax military preparedness.

The rules of the Heavenly Prison were no longer as strict as they were during the reign of the founding emperor. Otherwise, a sickly person like Zhou Yi wouldn't have been recruited.

The quota was for over a thousand prison guards, but most of them were phantom employees who didn't exist. The few lieutenants who came to work spent their days drinking and gambling for fun.

Comparing the patterns in history books with the current situation of the Fengyang Kingdom, Zhou Yi thought there was a high probability that the dynasty was about to change.

"Little Yi, you're done delivering food? Come and play a couple of rounds!" The voice of Zhang Zhou, the warden, woke Zhou Yi from his musings.

He saw Zhang Zhou constantly blowing on his palms, as if he could make the dominoes show higher numbers.

Zhang Zhou was a warden in the Heavenly Prison, a low-ranking official and Zhou Yi's direct superior. He had a good relationship with Zhou Yi's deceased father.

Zhou Yi shook his head. Firstly, he was naturally cautious and didn't like gambling, and secondly, he didn't have any money.

The previous owner of his body had spent all the family's money on medicine to nourish his body, but it was all in vain, allowing the soul from Earth to take over the shell.

He stood behind Zhang Zhou and watched for a while. It was a game similar to Pai Gow, with Niu Xiaowei as the banker.

Boring, uninteresting!

Zhou Yi calmed his mind and pondered how to cultivate in the future.

Even with the Dao Fruit of Longevity, he couldn't give up cultivating immortality. What if one day he encountered demonic cultivators kidnapping people, or immortals fighting and destroying a city?

Natural disasters and man-made calamities couldn't be avoided by caution alone.

Longevity was the Dao Fruit, but cultivating immortality was the art of protecting the Dao!

"The memories of the previous owner of this body never mentioned any methods of cultivating immortality. He didn't even know about immortals. He only heard that martial arts were divided into inner energy and body tempering. I'll have to inquire at the martial arts hall for more details."

Cultivating immortality was for the sake of longevity. Zhou Yi already had the Dao Fruit, so he wouldn't abandon the fundamentals and go on adventures to seek immortality.

Therefore, he could only choose martial arts for the time being!

"Should I first earn a lot of money to improve my life? I can't make soap or cement, but I can try making saltpeter for ice storage greenhouses..."

"Or plagiarize some poems and songs. Once I have a reputation, I'll have money..."

"Or at worst..."

"Let's forget about it for now. I have a house in Shenjing, and the Heavenly Prison provides food. I shouldn't cause unnecessary trouble for the sake of money."

Zhou Yi didn't trust the business environment of ancient times. In a purely official-oriented society, having a large sum of money without any foundation or backing was just being a pig waiting to be slaughtered.

At this moment, a clerk came and said something to Niu Xiaowei.

Xiaowei was a prison official in the Heavenly Prison, a ninth-rank official, in charge of ten wardens, and each warden managed ten prison guards.

According to the rules, Niu Su could manage a hundred people. But nowadays, there were too many phantom employees in the Heavenly Prison, and he only had twenty or thirty prison guards under him, who often didn't even show up.

"Brothers, we have a job."

Niu Su threw the dominoes on the table and said, "Lord Lei ordered that the thief who was locked up a few days ago must be interrogated and sign the confession today, so as not to delay the execution."

Lord Lei's name was Lei Hu, and he held the position of Prison Director. Not counting the forbidden soldiers guarding the outside, he could be said to be the highest-ranking official in the Heavenly Prison.

"I'll go, I'll go!"

Zhang Zhou's eyes were a little bloodshot, and the flickering lamplight made him look like a demon.

"My luck is terrible today, I've lost everything. I have to vent my anger on this guy!"

As he spoke, more than a dozen people rushed towards the torture chamber.

Zhou Yi hesitated for a moment, then followed them.

The thief was in cell A-12. They opened the cell door, and inside was a man hanging upside down, his face covered in blood and unreadable.

Zhou Yi followed behind the crowd. Perhaps because he had seen it too many times in his memories, he didn't feel any nausea or vomiting at the sight of the man's miserable appearance.

Zhang Zhou splashed water on the man to wake him up, and without asking any questions, he immediately raised his whip and lashed out.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

With each crack, another bloody welt appeared on the man's body.

The whip was soaked in saltwater, which stung the wounds, causing the man to whimper and scream in agony.

Only then did Zhou Yi see clearly that the man's mouth was empty of teeth, and half his tongue was gone. How could he possibly confess now?

Niu Xiaowei sat upright in his grand chair, leisurely sipping tea, and speaking softly with the scribe responsible for recording.

Around them, a dozen people watched the man suffer, some with expressions of glee, others with indifference, and still others betting on how many rounds the prisoner could endure.

After a long while.

Zhang Zhou grew tired of whipping and picked up a red-hot branding iron, casually pressing it against the man's body.

Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!

A smell of burning flesh filled the air, and the man was barely breathing, only able to emit instinctive groans.

Niu Xiaowei stopped Zhang Zhou from continuing the torture, "Don't kill him!"

The scribe had already finished writing the interrogation record. He picked up the man's hand, and without even using vermilion ink, he pressed a clear bloody handprint onto the confession.

The evidence was irrefutable, a full confession!

Zhou Yi quietly asked the nearby jailer, "Old Ye, what crime did this man commit? He doesn't look like a government official."

"This villain is a martial artist, goes by the name Flying Rainbow Swordsman or something."

"Half a year ago, Yu Province suffered a drought, and many people starved to death. This guy led people to storm the granaries, killed more than a dozen grain merchants, and even cut off the county magistrate's head."

Old Ye said, "The Embroidered Uniform Guard tracked him for nearly half a year, finally caught him, and sentenced him to be beheaded!"

A hero of the greenwoods!

That was Zhou Yi's first thought. In ancient times, droughts led to widespread starvation at best, and cannibalism at worst.

The man opened the granaries and saved countless lives!

Niu Xiaowei took the confession and looked it over, nodding slightly. "A White Lotus Sect rebel, gathering crowds to cause trouble, killing officials and plotting rebellion! Remember to feed him well. Execute him in a month. He needs to be alive, at least."

Zhang Zhou said, "Don't worry, sir, Little Yi is reliable."

"Sir, should we feed him something better?"

Zhou Yi bowed and accepted the order. Looking at the man's miserable state, he had been tortured beyond recognition. It didn't seem like drinking thin porridge would keep him alive for a month.

Niu Xiaowei waved his hand. "No need to bother. This villain has trained his five internal organs and is a top-tier martial artist. He won't die so easily."

Sure enough.

In the evening, Zhou Yi came with a bucket of rice porridge, and the man had already regained his energy, his tiger eyes wide.

His face was covered in black and purple burns, and his body was covered in bloody whip marks, but he didn't look weak. Instead, he exuded a fierce aura.

Zhou Yi didn't dare to get too close. He scooped a spoonful of thin porridge and poured it into the man's mouth, but the man clenched his mouth shut and struggled. Some of the porridge accidentally went into his nostrils.

"Cough, cough, cough!" The man choked and coughed incessantly.

"Hero, I'm just a lowly yamen runner. Please don't make things difficult."

"State... dog... lackey!"

Half of the man's tongue was gone, and his speech was slurred and unclear.

Zhou Yi put down the bucket and went outside to check. The surrounding cells were empty, and the jailers were all playing cards.

He returned to the man's side and clasped his hands in a salute.

"Hero, you risked your life to provide relief to the disaster victims. I admire you immensely. Now that you are imprisoned, you shouldn't give up on yourself. Even if you are on the execution platform, you can still have the strength to curse the court!"

The man heard this and remained silent for a long time before slowly opening his mouth.

Zhou Yi helped the man wipe the rice grains and blood from his face, carefully spooning the porridge into his mouth to avoid getting it in his nose again.