Ye Wudao watched the two men facing off and edged backward.
The aura rolling off them made his heart pound with fear.
"If you keep making a racket, I'll chop all three of you up and feed you to the dogs!"
Suddenly, the old man on Bed No. 1 spoke in a flat voice.
Yet that single sentence instantly quieted the two men, who had been on the verge of coming to blows.
The middle-aged man sat back down on his bed, while the scar-faced old man returned to Bed No. 7.
For a moment, an eerie atmosphere settled over Cell No. 1.
Ye Wudao stared at the old man on Bed No. 1, his heart filled with shock.
The scar-faced old man and the middle-aged man were probably both martial artists, but the old man on Bed No. 1 had only needed to say one thing to make them fall silent.
What did that mean?
It meant the old man on Bed No. 1 was the strongest in the cell.
At that moment, Ye Wudao found courage from somewhere and went straight to the old man's bed. He bowed and asked, "Would you take me as your disciple? I want to learn the Martial Path from you."
At his words, the scar-faced old man and the middle-aged man with the One-Eyed Dragon tattoo both turned to look at him.
Neither said anything. They simply watched the old man lying on Bed No. 1.
Ye Wudao could feel his heart pounding wildly.
What did he feel at that moment?
A little nervous, a little afraid, and a little hopeful.
He bent forward and waited for the old man's reply.
"Get lost!"
After a long while, the old man quietly spat out those two words.
Standing beside him, Ye Wudao felt a powerful aura bear down on him.
At that moment, he felt as if something heavy had pinned him down, leaving him barely able to breathe.
He looked at the old man in disappointment, then silently returned to his bed and sat down.
The scar-faced old man watched Ye Wudao sit down and gave him a thumbs-up.
"Elder Qin would never take you as his disciple," he said softly.
"Judging by your age, you must be an adult already, right?"
Ye Wudao nodded without saying a word.
The scar-faced old man smiled. "You're eighteen and don't have the slightest foundation in the Martial Path. You've clearly never had anything to do with martial arts."
"For someone your age, it's already a little late to start training."
"But I happen to know a technique that's especially suited to you."
"As long as you're willing to learn, you can reach the Houtian Realm in just a few years."
"Once you reach the Houtian Realm, you still won't be able to take on that old bastard Ye Haipeng, but you'll have no trouble dealing with that good-for-nothing Ye Zhenshan."
"Well? What do you think?"
Ye Wudao looked at the scar-faced old man's smiling face and couldn't help feeling that something was off.
They were strangers who had just met. Why would the scar-faced old man be so kind as to teach him the Martial Path?
But he didn't seem to have any other choice.
The old man on Bed No. 1 and the middle-aged man on Bed No. 2 weren't even paying him any attention.
The middle-aged man had just picked a fight with the scar-faced old man, but after the old man on Bed No. 1 spoke up, he hadn't said another word.
Thinking of how Ye Zhenshan and Ye Mingyuan had sent him to prison, and how he would spend the next fifteen years in this cage, Ye Wudao gritted his teeth and nodded. "I'll learn!"
"Hmph!" The middle-aged man snorted as soon as he spoke, but said nothing more.
Ye Wudao didn't understand what the snort meant. He stood up from his bed and, copying what he'd seen on television, dropped to his knees with a thump and clasped his fists. "Your disciple, Ye Wudao, pays his respects to Master!"
The scar-faced old man laughed heartily and helped Ye Wudao to his feet. "Your master is Hu Lianfeng, known by the nickname Scarface Hu. I'm a Houtian Great Accomplishment expert."
"Now that you've become my disciple, I'll first teach you the basics of the Martial Path."
Ye Wudao nodded and listened intently to Hu Lianfeng.
"The so-called Martial Path is about constantly surpassing the limits of the human body, until the strength of the flesh itself can stand against heaven and earth."
"Martial cultivation has four major realms: Body Tempering, Houtian, Xiantian, and Grandmaster. Body Tempering trains the body, Houtian trains internal force, Xiantian trains qi, and Grandmaster trains the spirit."
"Each major realm has four minor stages: beginner, minor success, great accomplishment, and peak."
"What you need to do now is temper your body. Body Tempering means toughening your muscles, bones, skin, and membranes until your body is as resilient as iron. An ordinary person can complete this in three years, while someone with good talent can do it in one."
"But a prison doesn't have the right conditions, so..."
"I'll teach you the Myriad Calamity Body Forging Art. This Myriad Calamity Body Forging Art treats heaven and earth as a furnace and your body as raw iron."
"A cultivator doesn't need to sweat buckets. They only need to draw spiritual energy into their body with each breath, and their muscles, bones, skin, and membranes will be tempered automatically."
"But your foundation is too shallow. Breathing alone won't be enough. I'll first pass a thread of Hidden Power into you to open your meridians. Once you've nurtured a 'Furnace Seed' within your body, you'll be able to cultivate on your own."
Ye Wudao nodded excitedly. He hadn't expected to learn a cultivation technique in prison.
"Hmph!" The middle-aged man beside them snorted again at those words.
Hearing the snort, Ye Wudao grew more cautious.
There had been more than a hint of mockery in it.
He turned to Hu Lianfeng and asked, "Master, you're helping me so much. Is there something you want me to do for you?"
Though he was excited, he still managed to keep a little sense of reason.
He knew nobody helped a stranger for no reason.
Hu Lianfeng glanced at the middle-aged man but said nothing.
Then his eyes narrowed slightly, and he spoke in a cold voice. "Once you reach the Houtian minor success stage, I need you to help me kill someone."
Ye Wudao pursed his lips. The aura Hu Lianfeng exuded as he spoke frightened him.
It was the aura of someone who wanted to tear a person limb from limb.
He asked in a small voice, "Master, if you can't deal with them at Houtian Great Accomplishment, how could I take them on at Houtian minor success?"
Hu Lianfeng smiled. "I can't deal with them because I can't get out."
"As long as you reach Houtian minor success, you'll definitely be able to deal with that person."
"You weren't sentenced to life imprisonment, were you?"
Ye Wudao nodded. "No, but I was sentenced to fifteen years!"
Then he changed the subject and asked, "Master, who is it you want me to kill?"
Hu Lianfeng replied gravely, "I'll tell you when you reach Houtian minor success."
"Come, hold out your hand. I'll help you condense a 'Furnace Seed.'"
Ye Wudao glanced at Hu Lianfeng and held out his right hand.
Though he still had some doubts, he was desperate to obtain a cultivation technique.
He wanted to test what the system could do and see if it could help him get revenge.
The next second, Hu Lianfeng placed a hand on his wrist.
"Bear with it. It might hurt a little," Hu Lianfeng said softly.
As soon as he finished speaking, Ye Wudao felt a sudden pain in his wrist.
Something shot into his body and raced up from his wrist toward his shoulder.
He could even clearly see a round, swollen object burrowing from his wrist to the back of his shoulder, then vanishing from sight.
"Ugh..."
He gritted his teeth and endured it, forcing himself not to cry out.
The thing only slowed and stopped when it reached his lower abdomen.
Hu Lianfeng raised his brows and smiled. "I didn't expect your body to be in such good shape. You're eighteen, yet your meridians aren't blocked at all!"
"The Furnace Seed is in place. Now I'll teach you the technique. Listen carefully."
"People have four seas: the stomach is the sea of food and drink, the Conception Vessel is the sea of the twelve meridians, the chest is the sea of qi, and the brain is the sea of marrow..."
Ye Wudao listened carefully. The technique was short, only a few hundred words, but obscure and difficult to understand.
Congratulations, Host. You have comprehended the Northern Dark Divine Art!
Yet when Hu Lianfeng finished, a system notification sounded in Ye Wudao's mind.
Hu Lianfeng looked at Ye Wudao's bewildered face and asked softly, "Have you memorized the technique?"
"If you haven't, I'll recite it again."
Ye Wudao shook his head. The system had already told him that he'd successfully comprehended the technique, but he couldn't let that show.
For someone who had never practiced the Martial Path, it was impossible to memorize a whole technique just by hearing it once.
Hu Lianfeng nodded and began reciting it again.
But Ye Wudao didn't listen to a word.
His mind was full of questions. Why had Hu Lianfeng said it was the Myriad Calamity Body Forging Art, while the system told him he'd learned the Northern Dark Divine Art?
According to the system's feedback, the Northern Dark Divine Art could not only be cultivated on its own, but could also absorb other people's power.
However, the Northern Dark Divine Art had two restrictions when absorbing someone else's power.
First, it couldn't absorb power from someone stronger than the cultivator.
Second, the person whose power was absorbed also had to practice the Northern Dark Divine Art. If they practiced another technique, the two powers would clash, destroying their meridians.
He thought of the middle-aged man's derisive snort earlier and suddenly understood.
Sure enough, there was no such thing as a free lunch.
He furrowed his brows and stole a glance at Hu Lianfeng, thinking to himself: Could this old bastard be trying to turn me into a human furnace?
Before you continue