"This incident left seventeen dead or wounded, with another eight missing. Presumably, they fell into the eighth level of the Heavenly Prison during the chaos. We were unable to rescue them."
In the dim corridor, Zhao Changhe, his beard entirely white, respectfully reported to the man before him.
"Were there any survivors?" The man's voice was calm and gentle.
He looked to be only in his forties and wore a long white robe, though dust had long since stained it gray.
With a feather fan and a scholar's headscarf, his face was unremarkable, yet an air of graceful refinement surrounded him.
Here in the Heavenly Prison, his attire seemed rather out of place. He looked less like a jailer than a small-town schoolteacher.
Zhao Changhe hesitated, a rare occurrence for him, but still answered the man truthfully.
"Prison Warden, among the eight missing is Grade B jailer Lu Caiwei. We checked earlier, and her life lamp has already gone out..."
The man's expression did not change. He merely walked forward in silence.
Zhao Changhe, who had already attained Grade A, looked somewhat nervous.
As a Grade A figure in the Heavenly Prison, Zhao Changhe knew a great deal.
For instance, he had vaguely heard that Lu Caiwei, the gifted young woman the Prison Warden had personally recruited years ago, had once belonged to a powerful lineage in another country.
If that were all, it would have been nothing.
The crucial point was that their Prison Warden's surname was also Lu...
A relative? A niece? Or an illegitimate daughter?
That certainly left plenty of room for speculation.
"My lord, are you going to the eighth level now?"
Lu Qingshan nodded slightly, then stopped before the door and looked at Zhao Changhe.
"A great deal happened on the road during this trip to the capital. Even my return was delayed considerably."
He sighed and said,
"Otherwise, I should have returned several days earlier, and none of this would have happened."
"Though perhaps that is not necessarily true."
Zhao Changhe lowered his head and listened quietly, offering not a single word.
"On the first level of the Heavenly Prison, take those from the Zhang Family and the Lin Family out and behead them."
"On the second level, do not spare those from the Sword Sect or Miaoyin Mountain either."
"On the third level..."
Lu Qingshan's voice was calm and gentle, like a schoolteacher's, the sort of voice that could lull students to sleep.
Yet Zhao Changhe grew increasingly alarmed.
One faction after another was named, each name deciding the life or death of those people.
And Lu Qingshan, who made all these decisions, spoke with casual indifference, like a judge presiding over life and death.
Zhao Changhe acknowledged the orders, but question after question surfaced in his mind.
What exactly happened during my lord's trip to the capital?
And why did these factions insist on provoking Lord Lu?
"I will go down and take a look first. Old Zhao, remember to buy me some White Sugar Cake from the shop in the Eastern City later, then pick up two Baked Flatbreads from the Cheng Family Bakery next door. I suddenly have a craving."
"Yes, Lord Prison Warden."
Only after Zhao Changhe had completely left the corridor did Lu Qingshan raise his hand and slowly press it against the stone wall.
Light flowed, and the "door" that had remained entirely unscathed even when the Heavenly Prison collapsed finally opened slowly.
"Alive or dead, the remains must be brought home in the end..." Lu Qingshan murmured to himself, then stepped inside.
But a moment later, he frowned.
Inside the cells, the anomalies suddenly changed their demeanor.
The white, jelly-like skin that had been struggling so hard to squeeze out paused for a moment, then began squeezing all the way back in. It looked utterly comical.
The Legless Man, who had remained kneeling on the floor for ages, froze briefly, silently rose, and walked back into his cell.
He even thoughtfully shut the door himself.
The Mute Woman, who had still been clinging to Ye Wuyou's thigh, now seemed uncertain as well.
In the end, she silently rose, trembling, and greedily rubbed herself against Ye Wuyou's leg a few more times.
Only after Ye Wuyou kicked her away did she silently return to her cell.
The cell doors closed one after another, and all the anomalies remained obediently inside.
It was as though they had never been the horde of demons running wild earlier.
Ye Wuyou's gaze was calm as he looked toward the far end of the corridor.
The "door" to the Heavenly Prison's eighth level had finally opened.
Only...
"I have entered formlessness and sought my true self," Ye Wuyou said for no apparent reason.
The dim candlelight suddenly brightened, as though the flames leaped higher with the newcomer's arrival.
At last, at the other end of the corridor, a figure slowly emerged through the light and shadow.
The man in the long gray robe walked to the side of a cell and slowly stopped. Rather than rush to do anything, he first made an effort to pat the dust from his clothes.
Dust drifted down in clouds, and the long gray robe regained a little of its original white.
Lu Qingshan looked into the cells, sweeping his gaze over the anomalies.
Every anomaly his gaze touched remained quiet.
It was as though he could see them too.
And indeed, he could. Lu Qingshan glanced into the only cell whose door stood wide open and saw Lu Caiwei lying unconscious inside.
Finally, after surveying the entire place, he looked ahead, his gaze settling on Ye Wuyou.
He sensed a similar aura on Ye Wuyou.
"Did you do this?" Lu Qingshan's gaze indicated the empty cell.
The anomaly inside was gone.
Then was Ye Wuyou, standing before him, a human or an anomaly?
"What if I did? What if I did not?" Ye Wuyou took a light step forward and answered indifferently.
Lu Qingshan remained impassive. He merely extended a finger, pointed at Lu Caiwei lying unconscious inside the cell, and said,
"She is still alive, so I can allow you a few more words."
Ye Wuyou smiled faintly, his eyes calm. His gaze settled on the other man, studying him as he spoke.
"The Prison Warden? A mere fifth-realm mortal, and you think yourself worthy of my breath?"
Lu Qingshan was taken aback at first, then could not help laughing.
Ye Wuyou seemed quite displeased by his laughter. He frowned slightly, but soon relaxed again and spoke with serene self-satisfaction.
"Since I first achieved formlessness and found my true self, a paltry fifth realm, however many mysteries you possess, has been no more than grains of sand beneath my fingertips."
Lu Qingshan listened silently, then said quietly,
"One sentence left."
Ye Wuyou drew a light breath, then narrowed his eyes and looked ahead.
His gaze was not directed at Lu Qingshan.
It was directed behind him.
Ye Wuyou, who could see through everything, chuckled.
"A mere shell on the brink of death. Without the great Dao remnant on you, what ability could you possibly have to oppose me?"
At last, that sentence was finished.
Lu Qingshan's figure became a blur, like a white rainbow piercing the sun.
Ye Wuyou, who had already found his "true self," suddenly suffered a devastating blow and flew away like a meteor, like a cannonball.
Rumble!
A deafening crash erupted as Ye Wuyou's entire body was driven straight into the dungeon wall.
After the crash subsided, every anomaly in the cells remained perfectly quiet and motionless.
Lu Caiwei was carried suspended in the air, while Ye Wuyou, already drenched in blood, was dragged along the ground.
In the candlelight, all that remained was the sight of Lu Qingshan's retreating back.
Before you continue