A Thousand-Year Lineage

The bright moon hung amid sparse stars.

Zhou Yi dropped into the courtyard and wiped his face, changing from an old man into a middle-aged man.

This was the appearance he usually wore in the Heavenly Prison. With Mana combined with disguise techniques and bone-shrinking arts, even those close to him would not recognize him.

"The matter of the Li family is over."

After three secret interventions, Zhou Yi's existence had already drawn attention. The old monster from tonight had been only a hair's breadth away from the Innate Realm.

"Innate Grandmasters are even rarer than I expected. Perhaps in Fengyang Kingdom... I am the only one? Li Wu roamed freely across Fengyang and Great Yong; aside from Azure Sky King, who also cultivated the Heaven Devouring Demon Art, no one could match him!"

After cultivating for twenty-six years, he had suddenly become invincible among mortals!

Zhou Yi reminded himself that this was a world of immortals and demons.

The Innate Realm was merely the threshold to the Cultivation World. Moreover, he knew no spells and possessed no Mystic Items. Any random cultivator would be more than he could handle.

"By the logic of human nature, those Rogue Cultivators who fare poorly, once they know their Dao Path has no hope, would rather come to the mortal world and lord it over others than remain lowly lackeys in the Cultivation World."

"They say Fengyang Kingdom's Grand Ancestor possessed the powers of ghosts and gods. Perhaps he was a down-and-out Rogue Cultivator?"

"Or perhaps the mortal world is controlled by the Cultivation World, and the rise and fall of dynasties merely change according to the will of immortals!"

Zhou Yi reined in his pride. He had taken a shortcut into the Innate Realm with the Heaven Devouring Demon Art and the prisoners in the prison, gaining only a little ability to protect himself. He absolutely could not act recklessly.

"Watch my words and actions. Cultivate with single-minded focus!"

The next day.

The heavy snow had finally stopped.

Today was New Year's Eve. Shops along the streets had pasted spring couplets and hung red lanterns, creating a richly festive atmosphere.

Not a whisper of last night's attack on the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation's residence had spread, as though the two or three hundred dead had never existed in this world.

The common people knew only what the court wanted them to know!

For instance, the people only knew that Li Wu had died in the Heavenly Prison. As for how much court intrigue had taken place before his imprisonment, that was beyond the knowledge of ordinary people.

Seeing the Li family declining by the day, certain old affairs began to circulate as well. More or less, officials chatted among themselves, nearby servants overheard them, then boasted of them to relatives and friends.

One passed it to ten, ten passed it to a hundred.

There were claims that Chancellor Zhang had feigned weakness on the surface and consulted the Duke Who Pacifies the Nation on everything, while secretly turning Li Wu against His Majesty.

There were claims that the dynasty's meritorious nobles, fighting for military power against officers who had risen from the bottom ranks under Li Wu, had come to blows.

Or that Li Wu's trusted men in the army, seeking promotion and wealth, had thrown themselves under some Chancellor Zhang's banner...

The news was a mixture of truth and falsehood, impossible to distinguish.

In just one year, the incense offerings at Li Wu's shrines had greatly diminished. In another ten years or so, only wild grass would remain to keep him company.

"There is nothing in this world time cannot grind away—except me!"

Zhou Yi arrived at the Heavenly Prison, carrying a bucket to deliver food.

Zhang Yun, the jailer responsible for food delivery, had gone home for the New Year today.

The Heavenly Prison differed from other government offices. During the holidays, jailers could only take turns resting, while Zhou Yi alone was an exception, reporting for duty as usual every day.

All alone, his home was less lively than the prison.

It was not that Zhou Yi had no relatives. His predecessor's ancestral home was Kaoshan Village in Ningshan County, where several hundred clansmen still lived. A few closer blood relatives, such as paternal cousins, were also still alive.

Back then, Zhou Yi had been frail from birth, looking as though his days were numbered.

The Zhou family elders had suggested to Zhou Yi's father that he choose a child from the clan for adoption, lest Zhou Yi die young and leave no one to inherit the jailer's position and the Shenjing residence.

Zhou Yi's father served in the Heavenly Prison and had seen every sort of filth. How could he fail to see through the clan's intentions?

Never mind that Zhou Yi had not yet died—once he agreed to adoption, if Zhou Yi's father later met an untimely death, the clansmen would find a way to make Zhou Yi die young as well.

After several quarrels back and forth, the elders still refused to give up. Zhou Yi's father simply cut off all ties completely!

After Zhou Yi's father died of illness, Zhou Yi inherited the jailer's post. The Zhou clansmen occasionally came to the capital to check on him, waiting for him to die of sickness.

They waited and waited. Zhou Yi outlasted several uncles, and several cousins grew old as well.

That was the complete end of those relatives!

"Old Zhou, just the man I needed. I need to ask you a favor."

Zhu Xiaowei called out, then leaned in and said quietly, "A prisoner came to the Heavenly Prison today. We need your methods for tormenting martial world bandits to give this fellow a proper dose of punishment!"

Zhou Yi asked, "What crime did he commit?"

"What else can an official do? Line his pockets!"

Zhu Xiaowei said, "But this one was especially good at it. His nickname was Three Feet Higher Than the Sky. In three years in office, he squeezed Luyang Prefecture dry. They say he amassed over ten million taels of silver."

Fengyang Kingdom's annual tax revenue was only around ten million taels.

Zhou Yi asked doubtfully, "Civil officials cannot endure many rounds of torture. Why ask me to do it?"

In recent years, whenever there were unruly and unyielding vicious criminals from the martial world, Zhu Xiaowei would ask Zhou Yi to administer punishment. Much of Blood Prison Old Demon's reputation came from this.

Zhu Xiaowei explained, "The court caught the man, but they still have not found where he hid the silver. This bastard's mouth is especially hard, and we cannot use the harshest torture in case he accidentally dies."

"He does not care about his family's lives either?"

Having spent so many years in the Heavenly Prison, Zhou Yi had occasionally seen officials withstand brutal torture. Yet once their parents, wives, and children were dragged in and tortured, few remained unmoved.

The system of collective punishment was naturally cruel, but Zhou Yi rather approved of it.

This era emphasized the clan as one body. If clansmen enjoyed the benefits gained by corrupt officials, they should suffer the punishment alongside them.

"This bastard's family originally farmed for a living. In the famine years, entire villages starved to death. His parents and kin were long gone."

Zhu Xiaowei explained, "He may have a wife and children, but like the silver, no one knows where they are hidden."

"So he had prepared to be caught and imprisoned long ago?"

Zhou Yi's curiosity was piqued. Carrying the bucket, he went to Cell Yi-Seven.

The prisoner lay sprawled on a straw mat. His back was covered in crisscrossing bloody welts, while blood seeping from his buttocks had soaked through his clothes. Hearing the sound, he slowly raised his head.

He had a square, dignified face and an air of righteousness about him.

Zhou Yi opened the cell door and crouched before the prisoner. "A commoner like you rose to become a third-rank official, with hopes of entering the central court one day. Why become a corrupt official?"

The prisoner said nothing and lay back down.

"Over ten million taels of silver. If the court recovers it, even one part in ten reaching the common people would count as atonement for your sins."

Zhou Yi flicked his finger, and Mana transformed into a needlepoint that burrowed into the prisoner's body.

It flowed throughout his body with the blood, its sharp aura slicing across his meridians. This pain from the inside out was even more unbearable than the ultimate punishment of death by a thousand cuts.

Besides, death by a thousand cuts always ended eventually. This strand of Mana would pierce without breaking through, making the torture endless.

Those vicious martial world criminals feared neither death nor torture, yet they could not endure a needle stabbing back and forth within their bodies.

"Ah!"

The prisoner cried out in agony, his body shaking like a sieve, his bloodshot eyes turning crimson.

Zhou Yi struck several acupoints on the prisoner's body to keep him from passing out from the pain. He had to remain conscious and experience the punishment fully.

After a long while.

"Where is the silver?"

Zhou Yi waved his hand and dispersed the Mana. Slowly, he said, "Perhaps you can test the limits of your endurance. The last one was a vicious criminal in the Marrow Cleansing Realm, known as the Human Demon, yet he confessed after only two days."

"Hah... hah... hah..."

After gasping violently for a moment, the prisoner said, "The silver is with the Lu Family. Tell the court to go take it!"

"The Lu Family of Jiangnan?"

Zhou Yi frowned slightly. Among Jiangnan's many great lineages, eight surnames had the longest histories, traceable to the previous dynasty and even the dynasty before that.

There were no thousand-year dynasties in the world, but there were thousand-year lineages!

Among them, the Lu Family ranked within the top three.

"What, afraid?"

Malice flashed through the prisoner's eyes as he spoke bitterly.

"I was afraid too. That was why I could only become a corrupt official!"