First Meeting with the Order Keeper Leaders

After finishing his lunch surrounded by a crowd, Gu Ding let out a burp, then returned to the seat where the trial had taken place, patiently awaiting the verdict.

The Sea Emperor was aware of the discussion between the warden and the Order Keeper; the restrictions on the private room could not prevent him from investigating.

However, after the three Order Keeper Leader arrived at the private room, they added another layer of protection to prevent outsiders from spying on them. The methods of the Strongest King were indeed extraordinary; even the Sea Emperor could not break through them, so it was unknown what the three Order Keeper Leader had discussed with the warden.

Originally, the punishment was a fine of one million points plus a hundred-year confinement. However, the appearance of the three Order Keeper Leader made the outcome somewhat unpredictable. But for some reason, the Sea Emperor had a bad feeling after the three appeared.

Gu Ding didn't have to wait long before the warden and the eighteen Order Keeper reappeared. The Sea Emperor noticed that the auras of the three Order Keeper Leader were still present, though they hadn't shown themselves, and his unease grew even stronger.

Victoria and the eighteen Order Keeper quickly returned to their seats at the long table.

"Gu Ding, our final verdict is in: your punishment is— Capital Punishment!"

Victoria's voice echoed, and everyone present, including the eighteen Order Keeper, froze.

Gu Ding blinked twice in surprise. "The meaning of Capital Punishment is..."

"We will activate the Death Mode in the Confinement Space and then lock you Confinement Space for a day. Whether you survive or not depends on yourself. However, since the Gate of Purgatory was established, fewer than three thousand people have been imprisoned in the Death Mode Confinement Space, including three Strongest Kings of the Tenth Sequence and twenty-eight Conferred King of the Ninth Sequence. Not a single one of them survived after entering. I can only wish you good luck."

Victoria's words silenced everyone present.

"Warden, but..." Belinda stood up, wanting to speak up for Gu Ding, but saw Victoria looking at her with a warning gaze.

"This decision was made jointly by myself and the three Order Keeper Leader."

Hearing this, Belinda could only sit down awkwardly, looking at Gu Ding with some helplessness.

"I want to know why?" Gu Ding also stood up. He hadn't expected this outcome. Logically, his crime should at most be considered manslaughter, and a hundred years of solitary confinement would be a severe punishment, but now it had become the Capital Punishment. This left him somewhat bewildered.

"The Gate of Purgatory have eighteen levels, and there hasn't been a murder on any of these eighteen levels for over three hundred years. If we only consider the Sixth Layer, there hasn't been a murder for over five thousand years. Therefore, this must be dealt with strictly to serve as a warning to others! The video of you being sent to the Confinement Space will be broadcast live to the other levels to serve as a warning to others." Victoria's expression was also very grim. Clearly, making this decision was not the outcome she wanted.

Gu Ding clenched his fists. He hadn't expected that just because the Gate of Purgatory wanted to make an example of someone, they would use him as a scapegoat.

"Gu Ding, don't panic. The reason the warden gave is just a show for others. There's another reason for sending you to the Death Mode Confinement Space. We'll explain it to you in person when you go up to the Ninth Layer of the cafeteria."

An old man's voice suddenly reached Gu Ding's ears, startling him. After taking a deep breath, Gu Ding slowly sat down.

Those who had expected Gu Ding to launch an attack were surprised when he simply sat back down. In reality, they knew that even if Gu Ding did attack, he wouldn't cause much of a stir. Any one of the eighteen Golden Armor Order Keeper could easily suppress him.

The group of Order Keeper, who were originally on edge and ready to take action at any moment, did not expect that Gu Ding would swallow his anger.

"Before the punishment is carried out, I can give you a day of free time to do whatever you want. The formal execution will take place the day after tomorrow morning," Victoria said again. "This sentence is now concluded. You may all leave."

As soon as she finished speaking, Victoria was the first to disappear from the spot, and the Golden Armor Order Keeper quickly dispersed as well. Only Belinda walked towards Gu Ding, saying, "What others can't do, you might be able to do. I personally think you still have a chance to survive. The most important thing is that you can't give up hope."

"Thank you." Gu Ding didn't expect that Belinda, who had always been cold and aloof, would actually offer him words of encouragement at this time.

Thinking of the old voice that had rang in his ears earlier, Gu Ding walked toward the elevator in the cafeteria, attracting the attention of many people who looked at him with some surprise.

The elevator reached the Ninth Layer, and the voice in Gu Ding's ear sounded again, "Room One."

Following the directions given by the voice, Gu Ding pushed open the door and entered room number one.

An elderly man and two middle-aged men sat around a round table, seemingly waiting for him. The aged voice likely belonged to the elderly man.

Gu Ding didn't recognize the three old men, but the Sea Emperor was familiar with them. "Gu Ding, these three are the Order Keeper Leader of the Gate of Purgatory."

Gu Ding was taken aback. He had heard of the three Order Keeper Leader before. They were said to have more authority than the Warden in the Gate of Purgatory, and their cultivation levels were suspected to have reached the Strongest King of the Tenth Sequence.

"Come sit down!" Bygrave pointed to an empty chair next to the round table and smiled at Gu Ding.

Seeing the other person's smile, Gu Ding became even more puzzled. Given the other person's status, such politeness was unusual. Nevertheless, he walked to the round table, sat down, and his gaze fell on Bygrave, the person at the head of the table. "Are you the one who communicated with me telepathically just now?"

"That's right, my name is Bygrave, the Big Beard next to me is Kachipul, and the younger-looking one is Gabriel. The three of us are the Order Keeper Leader of the Gate of Purgatory," Bygrave introduced himself.

"The warden just said that the decision to Capital Punishment me was made jointly by you and her. Why did you do that? I don't think I've offended you at all," Gu Ding questioned.

"To be precise, the warden disagreed with the decision; it was the idea of the three of us." Bygrave's explanation made Gu Ding understand why the warden, who had been siding with him just moments before, would make this decision the next.

"Boss, let me speak," the second brother Kachipul, interjected. "You speak too slowly; it's frustrating to listen to."

"Alright then." Bygrave was still racking his brains, unsure how to begin, but when he heard Kachipul volunteer, he simply let him explain the matter.

"Here's the thing: this Confinement Space is actually a very special place. Under normal circumstances, we can adjust the flow of time within it to punish those who have committed offenses. However, the problem is that, under normal circumstances, due to the special nature of the spacetime rules, cultivation is not possible in the Confinement Space. Moreover, the shortest period of confinement is one hundred years."

"A hundred years is nothing to others. But with your talent, being imprisoned for a hundred years and having your cultivation halted will have a huge impact on your future. So we are considering activating the Death Mode directly. In Death Mode, although the entire Confinement Space is very dangerous, for some reason, the rules of spacetime no longer affect cultivation, and you can still improve your strength inside."

"But wasn't it said that no one survives in Death Mode?" Gu Ding remembered what Victoria had said. Even the Strongest King of the Tenth Sequence had perished there. And there was more than one. If he went in, his chances of survival would probably be very limited.

"In Death Mode, two people actually survived, but there was no official record of it, so the current warden doesn't know either. When they were imprisoned in the Death Mode Confinement Space, one was Third Sequence True God and the other was Fifth Sequence True God. When they came out of the Confinement Space, they had both become the Strongest King of the Tenth Sequence. Later, in less than 100,000 years, they both broke through to the True God Realm and were released by the Gate of Purgatory."

"Of course, those two didn't stay in Death Mode for long, only ten years. At the time, no one expected them to come back alive. And because they were directly teleported to the Eighteenth Level of the Gate of Purgatory ten years later, the people on their original level all thought they had perished. Moreover, the Eighteenth Level itself is extremely sparsely populated, and we deliberately kept the news under wraps, so not many people know about it."

"This time, we're going to put you in Death Mode for a year, because once Death Mode is activated, the shortest possible timeframe is one year, no shorter. Of course, the time in the Gate of Purgatory is one year, but how long you stay in Death Mode is unknown. Because once Death Mode is activated, the rules of spacetime are completely disrupted, instead of the orderly arrangement we had before."

"The Confinement Space is actually a time-accelerated space created by a powerful being with unparalleled supernatural abilities, using a portion of the Space-Time Disordered Land. Once the Death Mode is activated, the rules will change from the original acceleration mode to the same nature as the Space-Time Disordered Land, and anything can happen."

"However, there is one advantage: although the rules of this space have become disordered, it is still an independent existence in the Space-Time Disordered Land, isolated from the outside world by a transparent membrane. Life forms from the outside cannot break in and can only evolve on their own based on the original number of life forms. Moreover, each time the Death Mode of the Confinement Space is activated, it is equivalent to time resetting to zero, and the evolution of all life forms will start all over again."

"So, whether or not you'll encounter a powerful opponent depends, to some extent, on luck?" Gu Ding couldn't help but interject.

"That's right. If we're lucky, time might not jump too far, so the existing life forms won't evolve to be particularly powerful. If we're unlucky and time jumps to a sufficiently distant point, it's possible for god-level life forms to emerge," Kachipul nodded.

"The second brother has basically said everything he needs to say, so we'll give you three more protective charms." Bygrave said, handing three Crystal Cards to Gu Ding. "Crush the Crystal Card, and it contains the effect of each of our three full-force attacks. You can use it when you need to save your life. The reason we didn't make more is because we didn't have enough time; each of us could only make one."

Gu Ding accepted the three Crystal Card without hesitation, saying, "Thank you!"

"That's all we wanted to say. Be careful, and you might still survive." Bygrave gave these instructions before leaving. (To be continued~^~)