At nightfall.
The entire Demon-Suppressing Prison fell silent. Apart from the guards who occasionally made their rounds, no one else moved about.
By the rules, executioners had to stay in their rooms at night. Each room had a chamber pot, and they were forbidden to leave unless it was an urgent matter. Violators would be dealt with according to the Demon-Suppression Bureau's regulations.
Yuanyang Fist: Fifth Layer (11/1600)(+) Golden Bell Shield: Fourth Layer (112/800)(+) Spirit-Eye Qi-Viewing Art: Not Initiated (0/100)(+) Universal Proficiency: 1100
After executing the evil spirit that day, Ning Xiu had earned another 500 points of universal proficiency. He had amassed quite a lot by now, and it was time to spend some.
First, he put 100 points of universal proficiency into the Spirit-Eye Qi-Viewing Art, immediately raising it by one layer. Now Ning Xiu could use some of the art's abilities.
He sat on the bed and began practicing the incantation the white fox woman had taught him. Before long, his pupils rapidly turned white, giving him a rather eerie look.
Spirit-Eye Qi-Viewing Art, proficiency +1
"This Spirit-Eye Qi-Viewing Art really is wondrous," Ning Xiu marveled.
At that moment, he could see large amounts of black and gray murky qi drifting through the room—something normally invisible to the naked eye. The qi was insubstantial and ethereal, sometimes passing through the walls and away, sometimes seeping in through the door.
If his guess was right, this black and gray murky qi was the baleful energy emitted by evil spirits. The Demon-Suppressing Prison held an unknown number of them, and their baleful energy had long since spread throughout the entire prison.
To keep that baleful energy from affecting the people of Chaotian Capital, the prison had probably been built underground for this very reason.
Ning Xiu put all the remaining 1,000 points of universal proficiency into Yuanyang Fist.
Although Yuanyang Fist had already reached the fifth layer and had greatly improved Ning Xiu's blood qi, it still wasn't enough to resist the baleful energy that erupted when an evil spirit died.
Whenever he executed an evil spirit, Ning Xiu still saw all manner of bizarre, uncanny, and horrifying visions. His chest would feel stifled, and his head would ache and throb.
So for now, Ning Xiu's first goal was to train Yuanyang Fist until the blood qi in his body could completely ignore baleful energy.
Once executing an evil spirit no longer gave him visions, there would be plenty of time to improve his other martial arts.
While Ning Xiu was practicing the Spirit-Eye Qi-Viewing Art, an unexpected incident occurred in the Yellow District of the Demon-Suppressing Prison.
A tall, gaunt guard stood amid a pool of blood. Around him lay seven guards in gruesome states: some were missing arms, while others had been decapitated.
Blood had even splattered across the walls, leaving streaks that ran down them.
"I only came to take my niece home. Why did you stand in my way?" The tall, gaunt guard smiled, his eyes narrowing into crescent moons.
Leaving bloody footprints behind him, he walked away with a calm air, as though killing seven people had been no more trouble than crushing a few ants.
Following her scent, he arrived at cell eight in the Yellow District and pushed open the door. "Lan'er, your uncle's here to take you home."
But the cell was empty. Only his niece's familiar scent remained; its owner was nowhere to be seen. The tall, gaunt guard's expression froze instantly.
In the Demon-Suppressing Prison, each demon had its own cell, and they were rarely moved. If a cell was empty, the prisoner had surely already been executed.
At the thought, the gaunt guard slowly opened his narrow eyes, revealing a pair of deep blue irises. The smile vanished from his lips, and his whole being became as cold as an ice cellar, chilling the air around him.
"Lan'er, your uncle came too late..."
Outside the cell, a ring of talismans suddenly appeared on the corridor wall. Then an old Daoist in plain robes stepped out of the wall.
When he saw the gaunt guard and the bloody carnage nearby, the old Daoist shook his head. "I rushed as fast as I could, but I'm still too late. Who are you, and why have you dared to break into the Demon-Suppressing Prison and slaughter its guards? Do you know that's a capital crime?"
Qingying's whole body erupted in green mist. Within it, his appearance changed in an instant.
He transformed into a handsome man with green hair, beast ears on his head, and seven great green tails swishing wildly behind him.
"Oh! A seven-tailed fox demon!" The old Daoist looked mildly surprised.
Human cultivators had many different paths, but each was divided into nine ranks, from first to ninth. Evil spirits were no different.
Take fox demons, for example: a two-tailed fox demon could match an eighth-rank human cultivator, while a three-tailed one could match a seventh-rank cultivator, and so on.
The seven-tailed fox demon before him was at the third rank. Even throughout all of Chaotian Capital, he could be considered a figure of some renown.
"You killed my niece. From now on, the human race will pay for it with ten thousand lives. Make sure the people of the Demon-Suppression Bureau remember that." The fox demon folded his arms as a sudden gust of wind swirled around him, whipping through the corridor.
The old Daoist braced himself against the wall, preparing to counterattack. He intended to wait for the fox demon to make a move before subduing him.
But as soon as the fox demon was enveloped by the swirling wind, he flew toward the other end of the corridor without even looking back.
His escape was smooth and decisive, without the slightest hesitation. Clearly, he had planned it from the start.
The old Daoist froze, then laughed in exasperation. "You little fox! I thought you were so brave, but you drop a threat and run?"
With that, he immediately chased after the seven-tailed fox demon.
The Demon-Suppressing Prison stood right beneath the Son of Heaven's feet. For a fox demon to sneak in and kill several guards was already a grave dereliction of duty.
If they let this demon come and go as he pleased, the Demon-Suppression Bureau would lose every shred of face by the end of the night.
Qingying wrapped himself in wind and surged forward on the gusts, moving at incredible speed. In less than two breaths, he had flown over a hundred zhang.
Fox demons had always been classified by the color of their fur, which reflected the arts they practiced. Green foxes were skilled in wind and often studied the way of wind. Red foxes favored fire and wielded fire arts.
White foxes, meanwhile, were one in ten thousand and could learn any kind of art.
This time, Qingying had relied on his greatest strength—the wind arts' ability to come and go without a trace—to take on a guard's appearance and sneak into the Demon-Suppressing Prison. He had meant to rescue his niece, Bai Ling, who was being held there.
But not only had he arrived too late, the Demon-Suppression Bureau had also discovered him. He had no idea whether he would make it out of the prison alive that night.
As Qingying raced onward, the floor ahead suddenly bulged upward, forming an earthen wall that blocked his way.
Two figures, one black and one white, passed through the wall. Two Daoists appeared in the corridor as if from thin air.
The black-robed Daoist was gaunt as a skeleton. Living snakes dangled from the holes in his ears like earrings, and he held a beast-skull staff. His vacant eyes fixed on Qingying.
The white-robed Daoist was a beautiful woman, tall and broad-hipped, with narrow shoulders and a slender waist. Her proper, loose white robe stretched tightly over her full, upright figure, making her look somehow out of place in it.
With a charming gleam in her beautiful eyes, the white-robed Daoist folded her arms and chuckled. "A handsome fox, too. Lovely. Looks like I've got my winter fox fur sorted out."
"Third-rank Immortal Dao cultivators." Qingying stared at the two who had suddenly appeared and cried out in alarm.
He hadn't expected the Demon-Suppression Bureau to arrive so quickly, much less send two Demon-Suppression Officers of the third rank.
He couldn't gauge the strength of the old Daoist who had just appeared. The man was likely a second-rank Immortal Dao cultivator.
Qingying had thought his speed in the wind arts would let him shake off the old Daoist and escape the prison quickly. But he hadn't expected so many Demon-Suppression Officers to come. He knew there was no way he could leave easily that night.
He immediately spun the wind around his palms and hurled both hands at the black- and white-robed Daoists, desperate to fight his way to a sliver of hope.
Boom!
The entire Demon-Suppressing Prison suddenly shook. Ning Xiu, who had been practicing, quickly stopped his Spirit-Eye Qi-Viewing Art training, lest a lapse in concentration cause him to go astray.
"What's going on?" Ning Xiu looked around the room as the door and wooden bed trembled slightly, deeply puzzled.
Could the Great Shang capital, Chaotian Capital, have been struck by an earthquake?
He hurriedly opened the door and stuck his head out. Guards were already maintaining order in the corridor, shouting, "Go back to sleep! The Demon-Suppression Officers are handling business inside the prison. No one is to leave their room until tomorrow."
At the sound of that, Ning Xiu shut the door. He had a feeling something major had happened in the prison that night.
If the sky fell, someone tall would hold it up. Ning Xiu was only a lowly apprentice in the Champion Camp, not even the lowest-ranking Iron Horse Demon-Suppression Officer. Whatever had happened in the prison, there was no need for him to worry about it.
With the prison shaking again and again, it wasn't a good place to practice. Ning Xiu put away his diligent streak and lay down to rest.
Early the next morning, Ning Xiu hurried out toward the main hall. Everyone was curious about the cause of last night's disturbance.
If he went early to ask the guard who assigned the tasks, the man might have the patience to explain a thing or two.
"Sir, what exactly happened in the prison last night? It was shaking so hard." Ning Xiu lowered his voice as he spoke to the guard holding the roster.
"What could it be? A fox demon sneaked into the prison, and the bigwigs from the Demon-Suppression Bureau caught him. They fought a battle, and now he's locked up in the Heaven District." The guard's expression was indifferent and his tone flat.
It was obvious he was someone who had seen plenty of storms.
"You're Ning Xiu, right? You've executed three evil spirits already. Not bad. Today, go try your hand at cell thirty-six in the Profound District. If you can withstand the baleful energy of the evil spirits there, you'll handle executions in the Profound District from now on. One prisoner there counts for as much as two in the Yellow District."
The Demon-Suppressing Prison was divided into the Heaven, Earth, Profound, and Yellow Districts. Naturally, the evil spirits held in each district posed different levels of danger.
Being allowed to carry out executions in the Profound District was a good thing for Ning Xiu, so he readily agreed.
After saying goodbye to the guard, he arrived at cell thirty-six in the Profound District. The moment he opened the door, he saw a bald, black-maned brute locked inside.
The man had a fierce face and bulging muscles. His hands and feet were bound in chains, yet he still radiated a murderous aura that made people afraid to approach.
"They sent a little yellow-haired boy to execute me? Has the Demon-Suppression Bureau run out of people? Kid, I suggest you get lost while you can. Even tied up, I could eat you alive by accident." The brute glared at Ning Xiu with eyes as big as bells, trying to frighten him off and gain the upper hand.
But Ning Xiu was unusually calm. Instead, he stared back at the brute as if he were an idiot.
"Enough talk. I'll send you on your way." Ning Xiu picked up the goose-wing saber from the wooden table in the cell and swung it straight at the brute's head.
The brute dodged with ease, then reached out and grabbed the back of the blade. With one hand, he swiped at Ning Xiu.
This was the first time Ning Xiu had encountered an evil spirit that fought back, despite having executed three already. As expected of a creature locked up in the Profound District, it was something special.
Ning Xiu stayed calm and struck with Yuanyang Fist, knocking the brute's hand away. Then he jabbed two fingers swiftly at the man's neck, driving them into his throat in one rapid motion.
The Golden Bell Shield was a body-tempering martial art. When cultivated to a high level, it could make one impervious to blades and spears, as well as fire and water.
Ning Xiu hadn't reached that level yet, but with the Golden Bell Shield at the fourth layer, the joints in his fingers were already as hard as bronze and iron, no different from ordinary sharp weapons.
"Guggu!"
The brute clutched his throat, blood pouring through the gaps between his fingers. The sudden pain unleashed his ferocity.
He opened his huge, bowl-sized mouth and bit down on Ning Xiu's shoulder. But the instant his teeth sank in, his roots throbbed with pain. It felt as if he hadn't bitten a person at all, but a stone.
Ning Xiu hooked his fingers and yanked hard, widening the wound in the brute's throat.
At the same time, he plunged the goose-wing saber into the demon's belly, gutting him.
A few breaths later, the man collapsed against the wall and breathed his last.
Killed a demon, gained universal proficiency +800
"This isn't an evil spirit. It's a person." Ning Xiu frowned at the warm blood on his fingers.
He had thought this was another shapeshifting evil spirit, but the other man had actually been human. Why, then, had he been locked up in the Demon-Suppressing Prison?
Ning Xiu hurriedly tore open the brute's clothes. On his chest and belly was a colorful tattoo of a three-headed, glaring evil god, one foot planted on a black cloud and flames spewing from his mouth.
"So it's the Black Heaven Sect. No wonder." Seeing the tattoo, Ning Xiu suddenly understood, and his doubts vanished.
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