Finally Dead

Half a month later.

Niu Xiaowei mentioned while playing cards that Su Wenhao had died in the Imperial Prison.

Rumor had it that when he died, there wasn't a single unbroken bone left in his body.

"In our line of work, remember to be careful what you say!"

Niu Xiaowei instructed, "Especially you, Little Yi, don't chat idly when delivering food to prisoners. Vice Minister Liu told me to tell you, don't listen to what you shouldn't hear, and don't say what you shouldn't say!"

"This one understands."

Zhou Yi felt a lingering fear in his heart; this was truly a great lesson.

Fengyang Kingdom wasn't a society ruled by law; a person's life, death, honor, and disgrace all depended on the whims of those above.

A single poem, a single sentence, could become a fatal crime!

For example, Zhou Yi had sent wine and meat to Wei Chang, even calling him a hero, with many words of praise. If someone with malicious intent reported it to the court, the lightest punishment would be exile, and the heaviest would be being considered an accomplice of Wei Chang.

At that time, the Dao Fruit of Longevity would also turn into nothing!

"Don't stick your neck out for anything!"

Zhou Yi warned himself that he would inevitably see more injustice and unpleasantness in the future, and he must learn to be indifferent.

Just stand by and watch, don't ask, don't interfere, and definitely don't try to save anyone!

Mingling in the mortal world, yet standing apart from it.

Zhou Yi understood the key, transforming into a faceless food deliverer in the Heavenly Prison, only showing a smile to prisoners who had paid him silver.

After all, a prison guard's monthly salary was only five qian of silver, not even enough to listen to a song at the Spring Breeze Pavilion.

The better the prisoners ate, the more silver Zhou Yi could skim off each month; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call them his providers!

This day.

The Heavenly Prison received a new prisoner, said to be the leader of rebels from somewhere in the south.

Dark, skinny, with a face full of sorrowful wrinkles, he didn't look like a general who commanded tens of thousands of men at all, but rather an old farmer from the fields.

The appearance of the old farmer general added some liveliness to the Heavenly Prison.

Niu Xiaowei and several jailers took turns torturing and interrogating him in various ways, and in just a few days, the old farmer was no longer human.

The old farmer didn't have Wei Chang's steel bones, but his endurance was even better. All kinds of torture were used in rotation, such as finger squeezers, branding irons, barbed whips, heavy shackles... yet he didn't let out any screams.

Each time the torture ended, the old farmer spat out blood and still had the strength to curse.

"Dog officials!"

"If you have the guts, continue! If Grandpa begs for mercy, I'll take your surname!"

"..."

Zhou Yi stood by and listened, and suddenly felt that this person was still more like a general.

The general was imprisoned for a few days before being sent to the Execution Grounds for beheading. Dozens of others were beheaded on the same day, from generals to squad leaders. The sprayed blood covered the execution ground.

The onlookers cheered loudly; they only wanted to watch the excitement and didn't care why these people were being beheaded!

Zhou Yi stood by the edge of the execution ground, watching the general's head roll far away, his eyes still open, staring fixedly at the executioner, without any surrender.

In the evening.

Zhou Yi returned to his small courtyard and practiced his cultivation as usual.

After more than half a year of cultivation, the Return to Origin Skill had accumulated hundreds of strands of internal energy in his dantian, and the technique was completely mastered.

"Heaven and earth are vast and endless, uniting is primordial energy, mixing and returning to oneness... Damn it, why can't my heart calm down!"

The image of the old farmer always appeared before Zhou Yi's eyes, hearing him say that several prefectures in the south had suffered severe droughts for years, with starvation everywhere, and people eating their own children. The court's disaster relief grain was all embezzled by officials.

People eating each other!

Three simple words, terrifying to think about, behind them were countless human tragedies.

"People, if they have too much empathy, their lives will be too tiring!"

Zhou Yi shook his head, if he didn't vent the frustration in his heart and continued to cultivate the Return to Origin Skill, it was very likely that his internal energy would go awry and he would become possessed.

"How should I soothe my mind?"

After thinking it over, he finally figured out a way.

In his previous life, many people also experienced excessive work and life pressure. To avoid falling into depression, they would vent their emotions by cursing at fake people or hitting fake people, which was said to be effective.

"The people I want to curse are too taboo; if anyone hears me, I'll be dead. But I can write it down!"

Zhou Yi bought a brush, ink, and blank books, and wrote in simplified characters from his previous life, so even if someone saw them, they wouldn't recognize them.

"How should I write?"

After pondering for a moment, he began to write: Chongming, year thirty-nine, month of Gui Mao, day of Wu Chen...

"Today I watched the beheading of a rebel general, and I feel very uncomfortable. This dynasty is rotten from top to bottom."

Zhou Yi frowned slightly, feeling that something was off. He was writing a diary to curse people, so he didn't need to be so serious. So, he changed his writing style.

"Chongming Emperor is no good, vainly seeking immortality. It would be great if he died from taking pills one day.

Writing this, I have to criticize the alchemists in the palace for being unprofessional. They use cinnabar, mercury, and gold, guaranteeing Chongming Emperor's ascension to heaven.

Perhaps the alchemists really know their stuff? After all, this is a cultivation world, and it's normal for rogue cultivators who have no hope of immortality to come to the palace to enjoy themselves.

Then I'll curse Chongming Emperor, may his eight princes have eight different fathers!

Thinking like this, I immediately felt happy and refreshed, and continued to practice my skills.

Let's set a small goal: a century of cultivation!"

Half a month passed.

Zhou Yi opened his journal and began to write again.

"Today, that playboy surnamed Long was imprisoned again for murder, allegedly deliberately setting a fire that killed many people.

This guy is still arrogant in the Heavenly Prison. Just because there was too much salt in a dish, he actually had the guards beat me and the cook.

Zhou will remember this!

It's not over!

Surnamed Long, Zhou is waiting for you in the Heavenly Prison..."

Zhou Yi still didn't feel comfortable after writing this, so he wrote several hundred more words scolding Chongming Emperor before moving on.

Another month passed.

Zhou Yi opened his journal and wrote down what he had seen during the day.

"The New Year is only a month away, and they still won't let people have a good time.

Everyone knows the rebellion is fabricated. The court officials have all acquiesced to it, and they beheaded three hundred members of the Zhenguo General's family.

I heard that the rebel army has reached Yu Province, only a few hundred miles away from Shenjing. Instead of sending troops to suppress them, the court is still fighting internally.

Fengyang Kingdom is finished!

Writing this, I have to scold Chongming Emperor a few times..."

Chongming, year forty.

"Today I learned something new. Someone can use disguise to transform from male to female, and no one can distinguish the true gender.

This lecher sneaks into women's boudoirs, committing crimes everywhere.

As a result, there was also a master of disguise in the Brocade Guard, who disguised himself as a beautiful woman to wait for the lecher to take the bait, and finally captured him alive.

I'm writing this down because I've discovered a new way to vent my anger, such as adding some croton powder to the lecher's food.

Does that seem a bit perverted?

It's all the fault of that damn emperor..."

Zhou Yi fed the flower thief several packets of croton powder and obtained the art of disguise. When he gets older in the future, he can disguise himself as an old man to prevent his colleagues from discovering anything unusual.

The outside world is in chaos and extremely dangerous. Where else is safer than hiding in the Heavenly Prison!

Chongming, year forty-two.

One hundred and fifty thousand rebel troops besieged Shenjing, led by the man known as the Eight-Armed Heavenly King.

The officials were terrified, and the dynasty was unstable.

Zhou Yi thought that the change of dynasty was coming today, and prepared a lot of food and vegetables, hiding them in the cellar of his house, enough to hide for half a year.

As a result, the Eight-Armed Heavenly King suddenly died.

The Imperial Guards took the opportunity to rush out of the city gates, defeated the rebel army, and lifted the siege of Shenjing.

"Human power cannot defeat destiny. Fengyang Kingdom's luck is not yet exhausted!"

Zhou Yi wrote this down in his journal, naturally ending with a scolding of Chongming Emperor.

"The world is in chaos, and the damn emperor still wants to collect birthday tributes. I heard that some states and prefectures have collected taxes up to Chongming year one hundred and twenty..."

Three years passed, and Zhou Yi saved five hundred taels of silver. He found a cheap martial arts gym and began to practice martial arts body-tempering techniques.

In these turbulent times, the Heavenly Prison is not so safe anymore.

Martial arts body-tempering is not only good for fighting, but also for running fast!

Chongming, year forty-five.

A special prisoner came to the Heavenly Prison, the damn emperor's eldest son, the former Crown Prince.

"How can there be a Crown Prince for forty years? No wonder he rebelled.

The Crown Prince seems to have a gentle nature, not like the damn emperor's seed."

Unfortunately, it didn't succeed. Rumor has it that a martial arts grandmaster protects the dog emperor. The Eight-Armed Heavenly King didn't die suddenly back then, but was assassinated..."

Zhou Yi, as usual, cursed the dog emperor a few times, feeling quite cheerful.

The Return to Origin Skill already had five years of cultivation. When fully activated, it could shatter bluestone bricks with a palm strike. According to the standards of the martial world, it would be considered unranked.

Wei Chang was right back then. It's difficult for ordinary people to achieve much by cultivating inner energy.

The body-tempering method Zhou Yi learned from the martial arts gym was called Five Tiger Strength Fist. Just from the name, you could tell it was a common, mass-produced technique, far inferior to the profundity of the Return to Origin Skill.

In three years, he had already reached the Great Accomplishment stage of the Skin and Membrane Realm, with the strength of a fierce tiger in both arms.

Blunt weapons like clubs and sticks had their power reduced by more than half when hitting him, making him worthy of being called a third-rate expert.

The forty-sixth year of Chongming.

Zhou Yi returned from the Spring Breeze Pavilion and took out his book to curse Emperor Chongming.

"Dog emperor..."

After writing three words, he suddenly didn't know how to continue cursing. No matter what words or phrases he came up with, he found that he had already written them before.

Zhou Yi flipped through the book, the frequency of writing diary entries decreasing.

At first, he would write one every half month, then he wouldn't write for a whole month, and later it became once every two or three months.

In the recent diary entries, he rarely wrote about unjust and tragic cases, the entire thing being filled with curses against the dog emperor. However, the tragic cases in the Heavenly Prison had never decreased.

"The more you see, the more indifferent you become!"

Zhou Yi muttered to himself, as time and experience accumulated, his emotional threshold seemed to be getting higher and higher.

"That's not right, I never get tired of the young ladies at the Spring Breeze Pavilion!"

The diary had reached a point where there was nothing left to curse.

Emperor Chongming had also completely given up, not attending court for more than thirty years, hiding in the Shangyang Palace to cultivate immortality and practice Daoism.

Zhou Yi helplessly wrote in the end.

"Why isn't the dog emperor dead yet?"

From then on.

Zhou Yi wrote one sentence every day, cursing Emperor Chongming to die soon.

Early morning.

A thin mist lingered, and a waning moon hung in the sky.

Zhou Yi moved and dodged in the courtyard, his fists striking the air, the sounds continuous and uninterrupted.

Bang bang bang!

It sounded like a large cowhide drum, or muffled thunder rolling.

In the cold winter months, Zhou Yi was only wearing thin, short clothes.

After a few rounds of punches, Blood Essence boiled and overflowed from his body, turning into rising heat.

"Ha!"

Zhou Yi exhaled a long breath at the end of his practice, turning into a three-foot-long white mist that condensed and didn't dissipate in the air.

"The Five Tiger Strength Fist has been cultivated to the Tendon Tempering Realm, making me worthy of being called a second-rate expert. But I've never fought anyone, and I don't know any weapons, so I only have superficial strength!"

Zhou Yi had grown into an adult. Since five years ago, his figure and appearance had not changed in the slightest.

Having truly experienced the wonders of the Dao Fruit of Longevity, Zhou Yi put down his last bit of worry and completely became an unremarkable Heavenly Prison guard, too lazy to care about the court or the martial world.

Hundreds or thousands of years would pass, and Zhou Yi would remain unchanged. The Fengyang Kingdom would be long gone!

Returning to the house.

Zhou Yi put on some makeup, making his skin look dull and his face look a little pale and sickly.

Now that he was twenty-seven years old, staying in the dark and damp Heavenly Prison for a long time would easily lead to premature aging, so this appearance was normal.

He went straight to the morning market.

Zhou Yi found a stall and sat down, asking the proprietress to bring him tofu pudding and fried dough sticks. Suddenly, he heard the sound of a bell.

Melodious, deep, and with a lingering echo!

Dong, dong, dong...

Nine times in a row, the originally bustling morning market suddenly fell silent.

All the common people looked up at the direction of the imperial palace, such a uniform action, as if they had rehearsed many times and waited for a long time.

Zhou Yi continued to eat his tofu pudding with his head down, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, feeling that it was a hundred times more delicious than usual.

"The dog emperor is finally dead!"