Refining the Organs

The corpse lay in the mourning hall.

The death was kept secret; no funeral announcement was made.

At daybreak, Old Man Xiang arrived at the main prison as though everything were normal.

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

"Good thing I was on duty yesterday."

"The higher-ups didn't check the roster, so we muddled through it."

Seeing Old Man Xiang approach in his black embroidered-uniform jailer robes, an elderly prison guard around his age lowered his voice.

"I was sick."

"Thanks."

He thanked the old guard with two words, then headed into the prison on his own.

"Heh!"

The old prison guard gave it no further thought, merely assuming that Old Man Xiang was in a bad mood.

Though the rumors had been muted, everyone had heard of Old Man Xiang's reputation.

He had once been quite famous within the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Unfortunately, he was old now and had lost an arm, so he had been sent to work in the main prison.

"You missed something big by not coming on duty."

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

"They say some expert couldn't stand the Wild Dog Gang's gutter trash and wiped them out in passing."

"I reckon the Prefect is running around like a headless fly right about now."

The old prison guard was a talkative sort. He did not stop just because Old Man Xiang showed little interest.

Instead, he went into great detail about what had happened to the Wild Dog Gang yesterday.

As he walked and listened, Old Man Xiang's steps paused slightly. "Did the Embroidered Uniform Guard take part in the investigation?"

"It's only a minor case. Why would the Embroidered Uniform Guard get involved?"

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

"I'm telling you, Old Xiang, stop dwelling on the Embroidered Uniform Guard." The old guard sighed.

Cases like this were usually unsolved mysteries.

When the time came, they would either blame it on a gang brawl or find a few death-row prisoners to take the fall, wrapping everything up neatly and beautifully.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard would basically never be allowed to intervene.

Of course, if the Prefect was serious and truly a good official who wanted to catch the real killer, then there was still some hope.

Old Man Xiang recalled the matter once more.

Other than his methods of torture, he had left behind no other clues.

All the deceased's Living Souls had been drawn into the Soul Banner, eliminating any possibility of the dead leaking secrets.

Unfortunately, the bodies had been difficult to dispose of in one place at the time, so he could only cover things up hastily.

Unless it was an old hand from the Embroidered Uniform Guard who was familiar with the Three Needles of Yama, it should not have been easy to see through it.

By the time the sun had risen high.

The younger guards gathered around a table, playing dice and moving around cheap liquor.

Old Man Xiang and several older guards began handing out food to the prisoners.

The prisoners ate twice a day. Their morning meal was thin gruel, while the afternoon meal was solid food.

Most were not entitled to private cells. Four or five people were crammed into a single cell, with dry straw serving as bedding.

If their families had money and could bribe the guards, they could live somewhat better.

Those people mostly stayed in double cells or private cells.

Liang Capital had three large prisons.

They were collectively known as the Three Talents Prisons.

The Heaven Prison, the Earth Prison, and the Human Prison.

The Human Prison held cases handled by the Ministry of Justice. The Earth Prison was jointly managed by the Court of Judicial Review, the Ministry of Justice, and the Censorate. The Heaven Prison held cases personally assigned by the Emperor or imperial princes.

Of course, ordinary folk did not bother with such distinctions and simply called them all the main prison.

People of the martial world called every one of them the Heaven Prison.

The place where Old Man Xiang now worked was the Earth Prison, and many prisoners thrown in by the Embroidered Uniform Guard were also held here.

The Embroidered Uniform Guard had its own prisons and imperial prisons, but those were merely transit points.

Anyone sent to the imperial prison was basically executed immediately.

Those guilty of lesser crimes were transferred to the Earth Prison, which was this very main prison.

Thus, this prison was the largest in all of Liang Capital, and its inmates were a mixed bag of fish and dragons.

"Food's here."

Carrying buckets, the old prison guards ladled spoonful after spoonful of gruel from the buckets into porcelain bowls set by the barred doors.

The prisoners in filthy prison uniforms swiftly dragged the bowls back inside, grabbed the food with their hands, and wolfed it down.

They only ate twice a day, and it was nowhere near enough to fill their stomachs.

If they did not eat, they would have no strength.

Without strength, their standing in the prison would fall, and others would bully them.

So even the proudest person, once thrown into the main prison, would become like this.

Old Man Xiang had hidden the Soul Banner in the inner pocket against his chest.

He searched without any particular destination.

As for what he was searching for, naturally, it was the death-row prisoners mentioned by the evil ghost.

If there were people who had died in the past few days, their Living Souls could also be absorbed to strengthen the Soul Banner.

What prison was without deaths?

Some killed themselves, while others were beaten to death by groups of fellow prisoners.

Thus, he gained three Living Souls that morning.

Unfortunately, none possessed skill seeds.

Tu Shan Jun had originally thought that the so-called Wild Dog Gang members might condense skill seeds, but after extracting them, all they had were rudimentary fist-and-kick techniques.

With his experience from those Qi Refinement immortal masters, such things were no different from children playing at fighting.

Tu Shan Jun had no use for such crude fist-and-kick techniques.

Old Man Xiang had also realized that the Soul Banner could absorb souls, yet he had not used his inner qi to activate it and absorb the souls of his wife and child.

Once they entered a magical treasure, who knew what would happen? Perhaps they would be eaten by the evil ghost.

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

No matter what they were reborn as, it would still be better than having their souls scattered to the winds.

Though Tu Shan Jun had not emerged, his eyesight remained sharp.

The people in the main prison were not all worthless. There were quite a few skilled martial artists among them.

There was even a first-class organ-refining expert imprisoned here.

When Old Man Xiang passed this cell, Tu Shan Jun had urged the Soul Banner to warn him.

Feeling the tremor from his chest, Old Man Xiang stopped and looked at the disheveled man in the private cell.

Shackles bound his body, iron chains locked him down, and his pipa bones had been pierced. He was now no more than an ordinary man without the slightest ability to resist.

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

The disheveled man raised his head. Unshaven, with a smile at the corner of his lips, he said, "I've seen you before."

"Who would have thought that a one-armed old guard would be an organ-refining expert?"

"To break through even as your qi and blood decline is truly astonishing."

The man lowered his voice so only Old Man Xiang could hear.

Old Man Xiang was not surprised. He had only just broken through, and his aura was not fully concealed.

It made no difference to ordinary people, but someone of the same realm could see much of his true state with a glance after drawing near.

Only after he grew familiar with his aura and could freely draw it inward would others be unable to see through him.

"Disaster comes out of the mouth."

Old Man Xiang placed the bowl of gruel in the man's hands, but in the end, he did not strike to take the man's life.

Tu Shan Jun did not find it regrettable either.

If there was something to eat, then eat. If there was nothing, it did not matter. It still depended on how Old Man Xiang chose.

That afternoon, as the sun set behind the mountains.

Old Man Xiang walked out of the main prison.

"A magical treasure... I know. I'm old."

Old Man Xiang murmured to himself.

If he had obtained this treasure when he was young, he would not have hesitated to kill the people in the death cells.

But now, he hesitated.

Perhaps he felt that the strength of a first-class expert was already enough for his revenge.

Or perhaps he no longer wished to kill unrelated people.

In any case, he did not act.

Though Tu Shan Jun felt some slight regret, he said nothing.

After leaving the main prison, Old Man Xiang did not return home.

Instead, he changed clothes and headed for the market district.

Using silver, he purchased information about the steward of the second branch of the Marquis of Jing'an's household through scattered channels.

Because his inquiries were spread out, few people connected them together.

He had no need for a map of the Marquis of Jing'an's residence. Because of the Heir Apparent, he had visited many times, and the estate was familiar to him.

Strapping his waist saber to his back and taking silver needles and a dagger, Old Man Xiang returned to the Marquis of Jing'an's residence under cover of night.

This was his second time there.

Last time, he had only taken a hurried look before being driven away by the experts within the estate.

Now that he had reached the organ-refining realm, he could at least put up a fight.