Viscera Refining

A memorial hall with corpses.

The funeral was kept secret.

In the early morning, Old Man Xiang arrived at the Great Prison, seemingly as usual.

"Old Xiang, why weren't you on duty yesterday?"

"Good thing I was on duty yesterday."

"The higher-ups didn't check, so we just muddled through."

Seeing Old Man Xiang, dressed in a black Embroidered Uniform Guard prison warden uniform, walk over, an old prison guard of similar age lowered his voice.

"Was sick."

"Thanks."

He thanked the old prison guard for his kindness with two words, but continued walking towards the Great Prison on his own.

"Hey!"

The old prison guard didn't think much of it, only feeling that Old Man Xiang was in a bad mood.

Although the news was quiet, everyone had heard of Old Man Xiang's reputation.

He was also quite famous within the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but unfortunately, now that he was old and had lost an arm, he had been assigned to the Great Prison.

"You missed a big event by not being on duty."

"Yesterday, quite a few of those ruffians from the Wild Dog Gang died."

"They say a master couldn't stand the Wild Dog Gang's scum and wiped them out in passing."

"The Prefect is probably busy and dizzy right now."

The old prison guard was quite talkative and didn't stop just because Old Man Xiang seemed uninterested.

Instead, he recounted the events concerning the Wild Dog Gang from yesterday in detail.

Walking and listening, Old Man Xiang's steps paused slightly: "Did the Embroidered Uniform Guard participate in the investigation?"

"It's just a small case, why would the Embroidered Uniform Guard get involved?"

"The Prefect will probably close the case in a couple of days."

"I say, Old Xiang, stop thinking about the Embroidered Uniform Guard." The old prison guard sighed.

Most cases like this end up being Unsolved Cases.

By then, they'll either find a gang fight as an excuse or find some death row inmates to take the blame, and finally handle it beautifully.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard basically won't be involved.

Of course, if the Prefect is very serious and a good official who wants to catch the real killer, then there's still some chance.

Old Man Xiang recalled again.

Aside from the methods of punishment, he hadn't left any other flaws.

All the Living Souls of the deceased had been led into the Venerable Soul Banner, also ruling out secrets being revealed by the dead.

It was just a pity that the bodies were difficult to handle centrally at the time, so they could only be hastily covered up.

Unless it was an old hand from the Embroidered Uniform Guard who was also familiar with King Yama's Three Needles, it shouldn't be that easy to figure out.

By the time the sun was high.

Young prison guards gathered at a table playing dice, moving cheap drinks.

Old Man Xiang and a few old prison guards began distributing food to the prisoners.

Prisoners ate two meals a day, thin gruel in the morning and dry food in the afternoon.

Most didn't have the privilege of single rooms; four or five people shared a cell, with dry straw as bedding.

If a family had Silver and could bribe the prison guards, they could live better.

Those people mostly lived in two-person or single rooms.

There were three large prisons in Liang Capital.

Divided into the Three Talents' Great Prisons.

Heavenly Prison, Earthly Prison, and Human Prison.

The Human Prison held cases handled by the Ministry of Justice, the Earthly Prison was jointly handled by the Court of Judicial Review, the Ministry of Justice, and the Censorate, while the Heavenly Prison held cases personally assigned by the Emperor or a Prince.

Of course, for ordinary people, there wasn't such a distinction; they were collectively referred to as the Great Prison.

Those in the martial world even all referred to it as the Heavenly Prison.

Old Man Xiang was currently in the Earthly Prison, where many prisoners thrown in by the Embroidered Uniform Guard were also held.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard had their own prisons and the Imperial Prison, but those were just transit points.

Anyone who entered the Imperial Prison was basically executed immediately.

Those with smaller crimes were transferred to the Earthly Prison, which was the current Great Prison.

So this Great Prison is the largest prison in the entire Liang Capital, and the people held here are a mixed bag.

"Mealtime."

The old prison guard, carrying a bucket, ladled the thin gruel from the bucket into the porcelain bowls placed at the barred gates.

The prisoners, dressed in dirty uniforms, quickly retrieved their bowls and began grabbing and wolfing down the contents.

There were only two meals a day, and they weren't enough to fill them up.

If they didn't eat, they would have no strength.

Without strength, their status in the prison would drop, and they would be bullied.

So even the proudest people, once they entered the Great Prison, would become like this.

The Venerable Soul Banner was hidden by Old Man Xiang in the inner pocket of his chest lining.

Old Man Xiang searched aimlessly.

As for what he was looking for, it was naturally the death row inmates that the Evil Ghost had mentioned.

If they were people who had died in the last few days, he could also absorb their Living Souls to strengthen the Venerable Soul Banner.

Where in a prison could people not die?

Some committed suicide, while others were beaten to death by other prisoners.

So in one morning, he did gain three Living Souls.

However, they were all people without Skill Seeds.

Tu Shan Jun had originally thought that the people from the so-called Wild Dog Gang could condense Skill Seeds, but after extracting them, they were just some rudimentary boxing and kicking skills.

With the experience of those Qi Condensation Immortal Masters, these things were no different from children playing around.

Tu Shan Jun didn't think much of these rudimentary boxing and kicking skills at all.

Old Man Xiang also realized that the Venerable Soul Banner could absorb souls, but he did not use his Internal Qi to activate it to absorb the souls of his wife and son.

Once they entered the Magic Treasure, who knew what would happen? Perhaps they would be eaten by the Evil Ghost.

He still hoped that his wife and son's souls could return to the Underworld and be reincarnated.

No matter what they were reborn as, it was better than their souls being scattered.

Although Tu Shan Jun hadn't come out, he still had good eyesight.

The people in the prison weren't completely useless; there were many skilled martial artists among them.

There was even a First-Rate Viscera Refining Realm expert locked in a cell.

When Old Man Xiang passed by this cell, Tu Shan Jun activated the Venerable Soul Banner to remind him.

Feeling the vibration from his chest, Old Man Xiang stopped and looked at the disheveled person in the single cell.

Shackled and bound by iron chains, with his Shoulder Blades pierced, the person was now completely an ordinary person with no ability to resist.

Opening the cell and walking in, Old Man Xiang picked up the bowl of gruel.

The disheveled person raised his head, his face covered in stubble, a smile on his lips: "I've seen you before."

"I didn't expect that a one-armed old soldier would actually be a Viscera Refining expert."

"To be able to break through when your Qi and Blood are declining is truly surprising."

The person lowered his voice, only letting Old Man Xiang hear.

Old Man Xiang wasn't surprised; he had just broken through, and his aura wasn't fully contained.

It made no difference to ordinary people, but for people of the same realm, after getting close and taking a look, they could see through most of the truth.

Only after becoming familiar with the aura and being able to freely contain it would others not be able to tell.

"You should know that trouble comes from the mouth."

Old Man Xiang placed the bowl of gruel in the person's hand, and in the end, he did not take his life.

Tu Shan Jun didn't feel regretful either.

If there was food, he would eat it; if there wasn't, it didn't matter. It was up to Old Man Xiang's choice.

In the afternoon, as the sun set.

Old Man Xiang walked out of the prison.

"A Magic Treasure, huh? I know, I'm old."

Old Man Xiang murmured.

If he had obtained this treasure when he was young, he would have killed the people on death row without hesitation.

But now, he hesitated.

Perhaps he felt that being a First-Rate expert was already enough for him to get revenge.

Or perhaps he didn't want to kill other unrelated people anymore.

In short, he didn't make a move.

Although Tu Shan Jun felt a slight regret, he didn't say anything more.

After leaving the prison, Old Man Xiang didn't go home.

Instead, he changed his clothes and went to the Market District.

He used his silver to discreetly purchase information about the butler of the second branch of the Marquis Jing'an Estate.

Because the purchases were spread out, very few people connected the dots.

He didn't need the map of the Marquis Jing'an Estate. Due to his relationship with the Heir Apparent, he had been there many times and was quite familiar with it.

Strapping on his waist knife and taking his silver needles and dagger,

Old Man Xiang returned to the outside of the Marquis Jing'an Estate under the cover of night.

This was his second time coming here.

Last time, he had only taken a quick look before being startled away by the experts inside the estate.

Now that he had reached the Viscera Refining Realm, he was confident he could at least put up a fight.