Night Visit to the Prison

Within the dark, damp prison, the air was thick with mold and a faint scent of blood.

Behind the iron bars, Wang Dong was tightly bound in chains, his face mottled with bruises. Seeing Shen Yuan remain silent, Wang Dong cried out anxiously, "Shen Yuan! Don't agree to this! You can't give up the Inner Sect Test! It doesn't matter even if I'm expelled from the sect—you can't stop here!"

Wang Dong knew full well that the Inner Sect Test was an opportunity Shen Yuan had fought for with his life. If he gave it up, all the bloody battles before this would go down the drain.

Zhao Kun's confidant sneered. "Wang Dong, you're quite loyal. But stealing from the storehouse is a grave crime. Having your cultivation crippled and being expelled from the sect is already the lightest punishment. If Shen Yuan refuses to yield, that is the fate awaiting you."

After saying that, he turned to Shen Yuan, his tone openly threatening. "Shen Yuan, weigh it carefully. Will you continue down your path to the inner sect, or will you watch your friend suffer a miserable end? It all hinges on a single thought from you. You have one day to consider it. At this hour tomorrow, we want your answer."

Shen Yuan's eyes were icy as he stared fixedly at the man.

He knew perfectly well that this was no theft case at all, but a naked trap of coercion. Zhao Kun was confined and unable to act personally, so he was using Wang Dong as a chess piece to force him to abandon the Inner Sect Test of his own accord.

Yet the witnesses and physical evidence were all in place. The storehouse token and the stolen pills had both been found on Wang Dong. On the surface, everything was extremely unfavorable to him.

"I want to speak with Wang Dong alone for a few moments," Shen Yuan said in a low voice.

The confidant frowned, intending to refuse. But upon second thought, Shen Yuan was now the top outer disciple, and his status was no longer what it had been. It would not be wise to push things too far, so he waved a hand and signaled the prison guards nearby to retreat several paces.

"You have the time it takes for one incense stick to burn. You are not allowed to discuss coordinating testimony or retracting testimony."

The confidant withdrew to the prison entrance and watched from afar.

Shen Yuan moved close to the iron bars and lowered his voice. "Wang Dong, tell me everything from beginning to end. How did you get that storehouse token, and how were you caught? Don't leave out a single detail."

Wang Dong's eyes were red-rimmed. The chains around him rattled as he suppressed his agitation and quickly recalled what had happened.

"This afternoon, I was following your instructions and looking for servants I knew from before to ask about the Azure Cloud Sword Formation. On the way, I ran into an old acquaintance who used to work at the storehouse. He said a few healing pills had leaked out from the storehouse and could be sold to me cheaply. I thought you still needed to prepare for the Inner Sect Test, and your old injuries hadn't fully healed, so I went with him. When we reached the storehouse's side courtyard, he handed me a cloth bundle. I had just taken it and hadn't even opened it when a whole group of law enforcement disciples rushed out. The stolen pills were inside the bundle, and somehow, an entry token for the storehouse had appeared in my robes!"

"I have no idea when that token got onto me! I was set up!" Wang Dong's voice trembled with urgency. "The old acquaintance who asked me to go there vanished right after the incident. There hasn't been a trace of him since."

Shen Yuan's brows knitted tightly.

A bundle of pills, a storehouse token that had appeared out of thin air, and an intermediary who vanished afterward. The entire trap had been laid without a single leak. Zhao Kun still had quite a few people planted in the outer sect. Bribing a storehouse servant and framing Wang Dong would not have been difficult.

"What do you remember about that intermediary's face and build? His accent—did he have any distinguishing marks?" Shen Yuan pressed quickly.

Wang Dong tried his best to remember. "Average height. He had a brown birthmark behind his left ear, and he had a habit of raising the pitch at the end of his sentences. He often peddled pills and odds and ends all over the outer sect."

The physical traits had been noted down.

But a description of his appearance alone was far from enough. The man had already disappeared, and there was no material evidence. Empty words carried no weight; it would be difficult to overturn the existing witnesses and evidence.

"Shen Yuan, leave me alone." Wang Dong gritted his teeth, his voice hoarse. "The Inner Sect Test is an opportunity that comes with great difficulty. You absolutely can't be dragged down by me. Even if I'm expelled from the sect, at worst I'll go to a town at the foot of the mountain and do a little business. I can still survive."

Shen Yuan looked at his friend's disheveled state, and his heart felt heavy.

Back in the Servant Compound, Wang Dong had treated him sincerely. He had repeatedly risked himself to gather information for him and had saved him from danger several times. If Shen Yuan watched Wang Dong have his cultivation crippled and be driven from the sect for the sake of his own future, how would he be any different from those who fawned over the powerful and trampled the weak?

But if he directly agreed to give up the Inner Sect Test, he would be falling right into Zhao Kun's scheme. Zhao Kun's goal was to stop him from entering the inner sect. If he compromised today, the other side would only devise even more underhanded schemes without end.

There was only one way to have the best of both worlds: find a complete chain of evidence, expose this framing plot, save Wang Dong, and refuse to give up the Inner Sect Test.

"Stay here peacefully. Don't clash with the guards, and protect yourself. I will find a way to get you out. I won't let you suffer such an undeserved injustice," Shen Yuan said firmly.

"But..."

"No buts." Shen Yuan interrupted him. "I won't give up the test, and I won't abandon you either."

The time it took for one incense stick to burn passed in the blink of an eye.

Zhao Kun's confidant returned. "Time's up, Shen Yuan. It's time to leave. Remember, you only have one day to consider."

Shen Yuan gave Wang Dong behind the iron bars one deep look, then turned and walked out of the dark prison.

By the time he emerged, dusk had already shrouded the entire Azure Cloud Sect. A gust of evening wind left his whole body chilled.

As Shen Yuan walked along the stone-paved paths of the outer sect toward his small courtyard, he sorted through every clue in his mind. The intermediary, the storehouse side courtyard, Zhao Kun's planted men, the token and pills used for the frame-up. All those scattered fragments of information poured into the Martial Arts Heavenly Stele within his sea of consciousness.

"Heavenly Stele, consume Martial Dao Points and deduce the movements of every person involved in this framing incident. Based on the existing clues, reconstruct their full plan and find the flaws and breakthroughs for obtaining evidence."

[Event clue fragment completeness detected: 61%. Deducing the event's trajectory requires 7 Martial Dao Points. Current Martial Dao Points: 42. Confirm consumption?]

"Confirm."

With a hum, 7 Martial Dao Points were instantly deducted. Remaining Martial Dao Points: 35.

Within the Martial Arts Simulation Space, one illusory figure after another appeared, recreating Zhao Kun's confidant, the intermediary, the storehouse servant, and Wang Dong's route that day. Countless possibilities were madly deduced and iterated. In some versions, the intermediary fled the Azure Cloud Sect immediately after succeeding; in others, he hid in the private residence of one of Zhao Kun's old subordinates to evade pursuit; still other versions deduced that the other side would destroy all traces of their exchanged letters overnight.

Countless branches of clues were filtered out by the Heavenly Stele, leaving behind the two routes with the highest probability.

[Deduction Result One: The intermediary with the birthmark did not flee the Azure Cloud Sect. To avoid arousing suspicion by fleeing directly, he will hide tonight in the old residence of Liu Er, who has already been imprisoned. The place is remote and rarely visited, making it suitable for temporary concealment.]

[Deduction Result Two: At midnight tonight, Zhao Kun's side will send someone to Liu Er's old residence to destroy the notes and tokens exchanged in this framing incident, erasing all evidence completely. Once the tokens are burned, there will be no chance to overturn this case.]

Shen Yuan's heart tightened.

Midnight tonight! Destroying the evidence!

He had little time left. If he waited until the tokens and notes were burned, then even if he knew it was a frame-up, he would not be able to produce the slightest solid proof. Wang Dong would never be able to clear his name.

He returned to his small courtyard and shut the gate.

Shen Yuan took out the gray night-traveling short robe Wang Dong had given him earlier and changed into it, circulating the True Subduing Tiger Fist throughout his body.

He could not alert anyone, nor could he seek out the elders. Before he had seized physical evidence, going to Elder Zhang would only alert the snake in the grass, startling Zhao Kun's people and hastening the destruction of the evidence.

He could only investigate Liu Er's old residence himself under cover of night, intercept the exchanged tokens and notes before midnight, and obtain irrefutable evidence.

The night grew darker and darker. The moon was hidden behind black clouds, and heaven and earth were steeped in darkness.

Shen Yuan pushed open the back gate of his small courtyard. His figure melted into the night as he silently made his way toward Liu Er's abandoned old residence in the Servant Compound.