Imprisoned, Tears Behind Bars! An Unexpected Meeting with Jing Hongchen!

The officer in the lead was a middle-aged man with a cold, rigid face and eyes as sharp as a hawk's.

He slowly rose from his chair.

He looked White Tiger Lin Qing up and down as he stood straight.

His gaze seemed to want to dissect him from the inside out to see him clearly.

After a few seconds of silence.

He spoke coldly: "Take him down."

Two words, decisive and firm.

There was not a trace of warmth in his voice.

"Lock him in the special detention cell and guard him strictly. Without orders from above, no one is to make contact."

"Yes!"

Two soldiers standing by immediately stepped forward, grabbing White Tiger Lin Qing's shoulders from left and right without ceremony.

The force was great, carrying an air of non-resistance.

[As expected, I have been imprisoned, and I had no intention of resisting.]

The scene switched to a dark, narrow cell with only a small ventilation window high up.

White Tiger Lin Qing was pushed inside.

The iron door behind him slammed shut with a "clang."

Then came the harsh sound of chains turning and locking.

He stood in the center of the cell.

Then he walked silently to the corner and sat down against the cold stone wall.

There was still no expression of panic, fear, or anger on his face.

Only a calmness like a deep pool.

It was as if everything before him—the cell, the imprisonment, the suspicion—had already been within his expectations.

Beside the campfire in reality.

Lin Qing couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth as he watched this, his eyelids jumping along with it.

"No... buddy, your reaction is a bit too calm, isn't it?"

He muttered to himself.

"At least show some anger at being wronged, or frustration that your plan was thwarted?"

This calmness didn't look like an eleven-year-old boy at all; it looked more like an old monk who had seen through the ways of the world.

On second thought, Lin Qing felt relieved.

"True, the personality differences between the different 'me's are really quite obvious."

He recalled the several "parallel selves" he had encountered before.

The two Lin Qings who grew up in Emperor Soul Village were the closest in personality to his current self: cautious.

Sun Moon Lin Qing was a Soul Tool fanatic, rational above all else, and had a bit of the simplicity of a tech geek.

The big profiteer Lin Qing was slick and transparent, getting along well with others, and living a prosperous life on a different track.

Immortal Herb Lin Qing... forget it, that was a tragedy who was trapped for over ten thousand years and finally committed suicide in despair; his personality had been worn away.

And this White Tiger Lin Qing before him was clearly a different style.

He grew up in a branch of the Duke Mansion.

He had seen the infighting among nobles and the coldness of reality early on.

He also harbored a huge ambition to "intercept the protagonist," planning and enduring alone for five years.

This had long since shaped his calmness, rationality, and even a near-ruthless pragmatic personality that far exceeded his peers.

"The influence of environment on personality is really not small."

Lin Qing shook his head and continued to look at the light screen.

He was very curious: after this impossibly calm White Tiger Lin Qing was imprisoned, what would he do?

Was his "path to defecting to the Sun Moon Empire" going to end so bleakly just as it began?

[After being held in solitary confinement for three full days, someone finally came.]

In the dark special detention cell, almost no light could penetrate.

Only the palm-sized ventilation window high up could leak in a bit of dismal daylight.

The air was filled with a smell of mold and rust, mixed together, making it somewhat suffocating.

White Tiger Lin Qing sat on the pile of straw in the corner that was still relatively dry.

He leaned his back against the bone-chilling stone wall with his eyes closed, as if resting his mind, or perhaps thinking.

He showed not the slightest sign of restlessness.

His breathing was steady and long.

It was as if this were not a prison cell, but his own personal cultivation room.

For these three days, apart from the bland water and black bread delivered at set times, no one had come to disturb him.

He knew the other side was trying to wear him down, to erode his will and observe his reactions.

As for him, he used this time to chat idly with Sky Dream Ice Silkworm in his spiritual sea.

At the same time, he silently circulated his soul power to consolidate his cultivation, which had just surged to Soul Power Level 26.

Finally.

On the afternoon of the third day.

"Clack, clack, clack..."

Clear and steady footsteps echoed through the silent corridor outside the detention cell.

The footsteps were neither hurried nor slow, moving from afar to near.

They eventually stopped outside the iron door of the detention cell.

"Creeeak--"

The sound of the rusted iron door was teeth-grinding as it was pushed open.

The light filtering in from outside dispelled the darkness in a small area by the entrance, revealing a figure standing in the doorway.

It was a stout man wearing a high-quality, silver-white robe adorned with intricate Soul Tool patterns.

His expression was stern, his hair combed meticulously, and his entire being exuded the majestic aura of someone who had long held high office and wielded great power.

He simply stood there, saying nothing and doing nothing, yet it was enough to make the surrounding air feel heavy.

"Jing Hongchen?!"

The Lin Qing in reality was exceptionally surprised.

He had seen Jing Hongchen in the recorded last words of Sun Moon Lin Qing.

I didn't expect it to be Jing Hongchen who came to see me.

He had anticipated many possibilities.

It could have been an interrogator from the intelligence department, a high-ranking officer from the garrison, or even a special envoy sent by the royal family.

But he truly had not expected that this busy and highly esteemed Hall Master of Mingde Hall would personally come to this gloomy detention cell.

This weight... was somewhat beyond his expectations.

"You are Lin Qing?"

Jing Hongchen's voice rang out, his tone steady and devoid of joy or anger, as if he were confirming the label on an item.

He stepped into the detention cell.

Behind him followed two silent, sharp-looking guards, who stood watch on either side of the door.

"Yes."

The Lin Qing from the White Tiger Duke Mansion stood up from the pile of straw.

He brushed off the non-existent dust from his body and stood straight.

His movements were neither hurried nor slow, his attitude neither humble nor arrogant.

He showed no fear from being imprisoned.

Nor did he try to curry favor because of the other party's noble status.

Jing Hongchen did not speak immediately.

Instead, he used those eyes that seemed capable of seeing through everything to look the boy before him up and down, carefully and thoroughly.

From his slightly messy yet still jet-black hair to his calm, ripple-free eyes, and then to his back, which was still straight despite being covered in dust.

His gaze was like the most precise scanning Soul Tool.

He was attempting to find a flaw in every subtle expression, movement, and even the rhythm of his breathing.

The room was very quiet.

Only the faint sounds from other detention cells in the corridor outside could be heard.

After a long while.

Jing Hongchen spoke slowly, "Lin Qing, formerly a collateral descendant of the White Tiger Duke Mansion of the Star Luo Empire."

His voice remained steady, but the content he spoke was sharp as a blade.

"Age, eleven years old, Soul Power Level 26 Soul Grand Master, Martial Soul Heavenly Eye, a spiritual-type Martial Soul."

"First soul ring, hundred-year, second soul ring... yet it is thousand-year."

He paused after every sentence, his gaze locked tightly onto the face of the White Tiger Lin Qing.

"In the Star Luo Empire, possessing such talent, you should logically have been prioritized by your clan for cultivation, with a boundless future ahead of you."

"Yet you chose to defect, crossing the long border line, coming alone to offer your allegiance to me, the Sun Moon Empire."

Jing Hongchen narrowed his eyes slightly.

That sharp gaze seemed to manifest into physical needles, piercing toward the youth.

"Now, tell me, why?"

His voice suddenly deepened, carrying an unquestionable tone of interrogation.

"Give me a reason that I can believe."