Autumn gave way to winter.
Time had entered the bitter cold of winter.
The frigid wind howled, and the snowstorm raged.
A heavy snowfall swept across the entire land of Shenjing. As far as the eye could see, everything was wrapped in silver, the snow covering and concealing all.
Under this cold Heavenly Might, many impoverished people fell into misery and hardship, and many more collapsed dead on the streets.
Especially after the upheaval more than half a year ago.
The Black Prison Heavenly Prison, which held the Imperial Dynasty's most heinous criminals, had collapsed.
To rebuild it,
the authorities forcibly conscripted vast numbers of bottom-layer commoners within Shenjing for labor. They moved mountains and hauled stones, pulling and carrying on their shoulders, transporting massive divine materials weighing thousands of jin from several thousand li away to the Soul Mountain Range. Then they expended huge amounts of manpower and resources to carve through the mountains, open passages, and transport the materials near the Black Prison Heavenly Prison, rebuilding it little by little.
Although the rebuilt Black Prison Heavenly Prison was immensely magnificent, an architectural miracle that could be famed for all eternity.
Such forced labor was no good thing for Shenjing's bottom-layer commoners!
It was like the Great Wall and Grand Canal in Zhang Qingyuan's previous life.
Later generations saw only the great achievements of those grand projects, yet could not see the piles of bones beneath them, nor the impoverished livelihoods crushed by oppression within the nation!
Forced labor
was compulsory work forcibly imposed by the authorities.
To do such work,
the commoners and laborers had to bring their own provisions!
Given ancient productivity, if a strong laborer had to bring his own food and be dragged away for three months of grueling forced labor, returning alive after being