Just then, a dense, hurried rush of footsteps sounded from the other end of the passage, accompanied by the clang of armor.
Xiao Yun whipped around. When he saw who had arrived, a look of wild joy mingled with venomous hatred flashed in his eyes.
Prince Jing, Xiao Jingfeng, and Princess Fenghua, Xiao Fenghua, strode in with a large contingent of fully armed guards from the prince's estate.
"Uncle Prince Jing, Sister Fenghua, you're just in time."
As if he had seen his saviors, Xiao Yun screamed at the top of his lungs:
"Quick, kill this traitor, Zhang Yu!
He's gone mad! He used Demonic Arts to control me and even forced me to kneel.
He's slapping the entire imperial family in the face!
Quick, attack and tear him limb from limb!"
Though he had always been at odds with Prince Jing's faction within the imperial family, they were sworn enemies.
But now, he was certain that in the face of Zhang Yu's "blatant defiance of the imperial family's authority," Prince Jing and Xiao Fenghua would undoubtedly side with him.
This was no personal grudge. It was a matter of the Xiao Clan Imperial Family's honor and dignity.
He refused to believe Prince Jing and Xiao Fenghua would dare stand by and let a prisoner humiliate the imperial bloodline like this.
But the scene he had imagined—Prince Jing and Xiao Fenghua flying into a rage and immediately ordering Zhang Yu's arrest—never came to pass.
Prince Jing, Xiao Jingfeng, and Xiao Fenghua merely glanced at him when they heard his cries, then paid him no further attention.
Instead, all their focus turned to the young man sitting cross-legged in the cell, eyes closed as he regulated his breathing—Zhang Yu.
Xiao Yun froze, then grew even angrier.
"Uncle Prince Jing, Sister Fenghua, what are you waiting for?
Attack already! Are you going to stand there and watch this bastard keep humiliating me?
He's slapping the entire imperial family in the face!"
Xiao Fenghua finally turned to look at him, her gaze cold. "Shut up. Look at yourself. What can you do besides bark like a helpless dog?"
"You!"
Xiao Yun nearly choked on his own breath, his face turning liver-purple.
He had never expected Xiao Fenghua not only to refuse to help him, but to reprimand him instead.
"You..." He still wanted to argue.
"Enough."
Prince Jing, Xiao Jingfeng, spoke, his voice low and imbued with unquestionable authority.
Yet his gaze never left Zhang Yu.
Just then, Xiao Fenghua and Prince Jing, Xiao Jingfeng, exchanged a look. In each other's eyes, they saw unprecedented gravity—and shock.
As core members of the imperial family, and having earned Old Ancestor Xiao Xuan's affection and guidance, the two far surpassed wastrels like Xiao Yun and Xiao Sheng in their mastery of formations.
Xiao Fenghua in particular was exceptionally gifted; her formation cultivation was among the finest of her generation.
The instant they stepped into this area, both had sensed that something was wrong.
A strange, unnerving energy fluctuation filled the air.
The Heavenly Prison's defensive formation, which had once operated like a finely calibrated machine, now seemed to possess a single, supreme "will."
And the source of that "will"... was the young man in the cell—Zhang Yu!
He sat there without moving, yet seemed to have merged with the entire Heavenly Prison formation. He was the formation's eye, its core!
That invisible, vast, suffocating pressure came from his absolute control over this place and its formation.
"Th-this is impossible..."
All color drained from Xiao Fenghua's beautiful face. Her red lips parted slightly, and her eyes brimmed with incredulous shock.
"He... he really has... complete control over the Heavenly Prison's formation?
Th-this is the protective formation of our state! Even Old Ancestor needs the Profound Heaven Array Disk to control it completely!"
Though her estimation of Zhang Yu had risen again and again, and she knew he was no ordinary man—perhaps even hiding a talent for formations—she had never imagined his skill could reach such an unfathomable, terrifying level.
What did complete control over the Heavenly Prison's formation mean?
It meant that within the Heavenly Prison, even a grandmaster would be powerless against him.
Prince Jing, Xiao Jingfeng's face was just as grim. Fine beads of cold sweat had even formed on his forehead.
He understood even better than Xiao Fenghua how terrifying the power—and the consequences—of complete control over the Heavenly Prison's formation would be.
This was no feat an ordinary formation master could accomplish. It required an almost "Dao-like" understanding of formations, along with an absolute affinity for and command over them.
"We underestimated him before..." Xiao Jingfeng's voice was hoarse, tinged with bitterness and deep regret. "No. We were... completely wrong."
He remembered all of Xiao Fenghua's assessments and warnings about Zhang Yu, and how he had once thought his daughter was being alarmist.
Now it was clear that she hadn't been alarmist. He simply... had no idea how deep Zhang Yu's capabilities ran.
He was like a frog at the bottom of a well, gazing up at a divine dragon soaring through the Nine Heavens.
Xiao Fenghua took a deep breath, forcing down the storm raging in her heart, and looked at Zhang Yu in the cell with an utterly complicated expression.
She spoke quietly to Prince Jing beside her:
Before you continue