A Hoodlum Named Cheng Shifei, Undefeated Mischief

The Four Great Secret Agents of Dragon Guard Manor had been promoted under the four codenames Heaven, Earth, Black, and Yellow for over a year.

Yet no one would likely have imagined that one of the four positions still remained vacant.

Heaven Rank's First Secret Agent, Duan Tianya.

Earth Rank's First Secret Agent, Gui Hai Yidao.

Black Rank's First Secret Agent, Shangguan Haitang.

As for Yellow Rank's First Secret Agent...

The capital was home to hundreds of thousands of people.

Where there were high-ranking officials and noblemen, there were naturally poor commoners as well.

Where there were honest merchants, there were naturally hoodlums who swindled and cheated.

Cheng Shifei was one such hoodlum.

There was little entertainment in this era. He usually made a living through fraud and deception, and his sole hobby was gambling.

But he had his principles. He never borrowed money; at most, once he had lost all the silver on him, he would leave immediately.

However, when he arrived at the gambling house that day, he ran into his old partner in crime.

His partner looked hurried. Upon seeing him, the man introduced him to the Boss of the gambling house, then turned and left.

Only then did Cheng Shifei learn that his partner owed money to the gambling house and had directly used him as collateral for the Boss.

When the Boss saw that Cheng Shifei could not produce any money and that his partner was nowhere to be found, he simply stuffed Cheng Shifei into a jar and sent him to Donghua Gate of the Imperial City.

Several decades ago, this gate had merely been one of the Imperial City's many gates, but now it had become renowned far and wide.

Because a notorious force was stationed here.

The Eastern Depot!

It turned out that Cao Zhengchun of the Eastern Depot had lost the power in his hands, along with his elite Black-Clad Arrow Squad, and had thus decided to expand the Eastern Depot.

Expansion required manpower.

Where would the Eastern Depot find such manpower?

Naturally, they would select it from among the eunuchs!

However, the number of eunuchs in the Imperial City was fixed. So the Eastern Depot resorted to a few tricks and spent money to buy people.

That was why the Boss of the gambling house had sent Cheng Shifei over: to exchange him for the Eastern Depot's silver.

Fortunately, that day happened to be the Hai Day of mid-spring.

In other words, the first Hai Day of the second lunar month.

According to custom, on this day, the Emperor was to offer sacrifices to the God of Grain and personally till the fields, taking up the plow himself to encourage agriculture and sericulture.

All civil and military officials had to participate.

This was also the first time the current young Emperor had personally taken up the plow, so he attached exceptional importance to it.

To protect the Emperor and the officials, the Eastern Depot, Dragon Guard Manor, the Imperial Guards, and others all had to deploy large numbers of elite forces around the area.

Thus, on this day, both the imperial palace and the Eastern Depot were severely short-handed.

Cheng Shifei was therefore not dealt with immediately. Instead, he was thrown into a prison cell to await processing the next day.

Even so, he had only escaped disaster for one day.

When tomorrow came, his troubles would still be removed, and he would become one of the Eastern Depot's "talents" from then on.

Cheng Shifei panicked, shouting and screaming in the prison cell, throwing tantrums and rolling about, yet no one paid him any attention. Unexpectedly, by sheer coincidence, he smashed through a corner of the wall and discovered a hidden opening.

The tunnel was pitch-black. A grim, icy chill rushed toward him, making Cheng Shifei shudder.

Cheng Shifei gritted his teeth and thought, Whatever lies ahead, could it possibly be worse than my current situation?

If he could not escape this prison, then tomorrow, he would have to bid farewell to his little brother.

He immediately crawled into the hole and made his way deeper inside.

The farther he crawled, the colder it became.

Cheng Shifei sensed that something was wrong, but at that moment, a powerful force of suction erupted from the depths. It seized him and dragged him downward until he slammed into the ground.

"Ow..."

Cheng Shifei was racked with pain from the impact. After crying out miserably, he finally looked around.

Everything around him was dark, with only faint light illuminating the area.

It was an underground cavern, filled with signs of excavation. Dozens of iron chains crisscrossed the cave like a spiderweb.

"Where... is this?"

"This is the Heavenly Prison, specifically used by the Great Ming court to imprison martial arts experts!"

"A ghost!"

The sudden voice gave Cheng Shifei such a fright that he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Hmph!" the voice continued. "I thought Zhu Iron Gallant had sent me food. I never expected it to be some unlucky wretch!"

Hearing this, Cheng Shifei gathered his courage and looked over. Amid several interwoven chains, a human figure flickered in the dim light. Its hair covered its entire body in tangled masses. It was supposedly a person, yet it felt more like a ghost.

"Y-you... who are you?"

The man replied, "I already told you this is the Heavenly Prison. Naturally, I am an expert imprisoned here."

"An expert?"

"Have you heard of Gu Santong, Undefeated Mischief?"

Cheng Shifei was confused for a moment, then his eyes widened in shock. "Undefeated Mischief... Gu Santong! You are the grandmaster who fought Iron Gallant Divine Marquis atop the Heavenly Mountains all those years ago? I heard that you vanished after losing that battle. I never imagined you had been imprisoned here!"

"Imprisoned?"

Gu Santong snorted. "This Heavenly Prison could not even hold that burrowing rat. He dug out a passage and escaped, so how could it hold me? What traps me are the four words behind you!"

Cheng Shifei turned around and saw a stone stele as tall as a man standing behind him, with four large characters carved into it.

Iron

Gallant

Divine

Marquis

It turned out that after Gu Santong lost his duel with Zhu Wushi back then, he had sworn an oath that whenever he saw the four words "Iron Gallant Divine Marquis," he would not take another step forward.

Zhu Wushi had therefore erected this stone stele to trap Gu Santong.

Gu Santong had also kept his oath. He had been imprisoned on the ninth level of the Heavenly Prison for twenty full years without ever leaving.

The first several levels of the Heavenly Prison were merely ordinary cells. Only the ninth level held prisoners whose combat strength was at least that of a Grandmaster. Since ordinary means could not kill them, they were imprisoned here.

They were given neither food nor water, in the hope that they would starve to death.

Yet Gu Santong had stubbornly endured here for twenty years and still had not died.

Zhu Wushi had always regarded him as a grave threat. Thus, every two years, he would send a martial arts expert to test Gu Santong's strength.

If Gu Santong showed any sign of weakness, Zhu Wushi would personally strike and kill him.

Yet over the past twenty years, every expert who entered had never come out.

Not only that, Gu Santong had used this opportunity to learn the martial arts and ultimate techniques mastered by each of those experts.

But after twenty years, no matter how hard Gu Santong persevered, he had reached the end of his rope.

Thinking of this, Gu Santong said, "Kid, come a little closer."

"Huh? What for?" Cheng Shifei did not feel particularly wary of this man bound all over by iron chains. Hearing this, he walked straight up to Gu Santong, completely forgetting how he had gotten down here moments ago.

Gu Santong stretched out a hand and sent a thread of true qi into Cheng Shifei's body. His eyes immediately lit up.

Good, good, good!

When he had seen this young man fall from such a height and get back on his feet almost immediately, he had already noticed that the fellow possessed extraordinary bones.

Only after probing him did he discover that Cheng Shifei truly was an exceptional talent for martial arts.

At the very moment he had reached the end of his life, Heaven had actually sent him such a promising disciple.

Could it be that Heaven truly believed his peerless martial arts should not rot away in the Heavenly Prison?

If that was the case... then he would pass on all his martial arts!

Gu Santong activated his true qi and instantly rendered Cheng Shifei unconscious.

"It begins!"

Zhou Ming immediately stopped what he was doing and watched intently through the mark.