Are You Human?

Neither Xia Anmeng nor Ye Wuyou could trace such a bizarre loop, much less spot anything unusual.

Naturally, the effects of an anomaly had to be resolved by another anomaly.

The jelly-like skin, now only palm-sized, slowly wriggled along the ground.

Just as Ye Wuyou wondered how this differed from his earlier aimless wandering, it stopped.

They were still in a passage inside the Heavenly Prison, surrounded by darkness.

Unlike the others, Ye Wuyou could see the "anomalies," but seeing was all he could do. He still had no way to communicate with them.

After all, the thing at his feet did not even have a mouth. Asking it to speak really was demanding the impossible.

While he was still pondering what this meant, a soft sound of surprise came from Xia Anmeng within him.

"This is... the boundary of the loop." Xia Anmeng sounded hesitant at first, then certain.

"Didn't you say you couldn't see anything unusual?" Ye Wuyou asked inwardly.

Even as a disembodied soul, Xia Anmeng could not help rolling her eyes. She replied irritably.

"Of course I couldn't detect it under normal circumstances. But we've been standing here for so long, and that thing at your feet just happens to be staying put. If even I couldn't notice it now, all my years would have been wasted."

Ye Wuyou understood what she meant.

It was like adding an auxiliary line to a complicated geometric diagram, suddenly making everything clear.

That actually made sense...

But cultivation was just like mathematics. If you did not understand it, you still did not understand it.

"What do I need to do now?"

Despite possessing a borrowed cultivation realm, Ye Wuyou still had no idea where to begin.

"Shatter this boundary. Use your strongest technique."

Hearing this answer, Ye Wuyou gave serious thought to what techniques he actually knew.

Fine. The same one, then.

The Formless Heart Sutra circulated, his qi reverberating as that same cold, clear sword light shone in the darkness.

Sword Rises with Wind and Thunder!

At the same time, Xia Anmeng, possessing Ye Wuyou's body, watched with wide eyes.

Everything had happened too suddenly before, and Xia Anmeng had not noticed how Ye Wuyou unleashed that strike.

But now, because she was possessing him, Xia Anmeng could clearly sense how the qi flowed through his body.

As Lu Caiwei's master and resident spirit mentor, she naturally knew her disciple's sword technique. Though she had not created it, she had personally given Lu Caiwei plenty of guidance.

Yet this technique required a specific cultivation method and the circulation of qi through specific meridians. Any mistake would injure the user...

But everything Ye Wuyou was doing now overturned her understanding.

How on earth did he learn this technique?!

He was clearly a mortal without any cultivation, yet he could resist the anomaly's corrosion.

He had clearly never cultivated, yet he could unleash the same sword technique as Lu Caiwei.

Even she could not locate that anomalous existence, yet his sword struck as though it had eyes. This went beyond sensing it; he seemed able to see it directly.

Moreover, he could perceive her existence as a soul and identify her cultivation realm with a single remark...

Just who was he...

Was he human, or...

In contrast to Xia Anmeng's astonishment and inner turmoil, the aura surrounding Ye Wuyou briefly faltered.

Although the passage ahead was empty, his sword had unmistakably struck something.

Only...

From the looks of it, that still was not enough.

"Mmh..."

A sleepy murmur reached his ears, then turned into a whisper tinged with pain.

The delicate body on his back trembled. Warm breaths followed, gradually growing more rapid.

Lu Caiwei had awakened.

Ye Wuyou's heart lurched.

Her waking at this moment was hardly good news.

It meant the anomaly's corrosion would continue eating away at her mind.

Lu Caiwei reacted quickly. Perhaps thanks to her keen senses as a third-realm cultivator, she soon realized what had happened.

She slipped off Ye Wuyou's back, only to stumble and fall to the ground.

"The sword... g-give it to me."

Lu Caiwei's pained murmur came from in front of him.

[The little wench wants to play at self-mutilation again. How pitiful. Unaffected by the corrosion, your emotions remain utterly still. You merely watch coldly, looking down upon all living beings.]

Stop fucking rambling.

[Such worldly martial practitioners call themselves cultivators, yet the lingering might of these surviving remnants of the Great Dao can unsettle their minds. You do not understand. You cannot comprehend why they are so frail...]

[The farther you advance, the deeper the corrosion becomes. You sneer, and perhaps out of pity, offer her a way to survive...]

Ye Wuyou's expression briefly froze, but he soon heard the next sentence.

[Simply strip away her five senses, leaving her eyes unable to see, her ears unable to hear, her nose unable to smell, her tongue unable to taste... For the rest of her life, this little lady will have no choice but to depend on you, becoming your puppet and cultivation vessel.]

Shut up. Just shut up.

Ye Wuyou's body trembled slightly. An inexplicable emotion built in his chest, making him unbearably agitated.

Damn it, has this godforsaken place started corroding me too?

Perhaps because he was distracted, Lu Caiwei snatched the sword from his hand with strength that came from who knew where.

In the next instant, sword light flashed.

Clang...

The sword flew several meters away and fell to the ground with a ringing clash of metal against stone.

Ye Wuyou pinned Lu Caiwei with one leg and held her down with one hand, keeping her from moving.

Fear still lingered in his eyes.

Hell... was she trying to slash her own face just now?

A pained whisper came from beneath him.

"L-let... let me go."

Beneath her disheveled black hair was a lovely face drenched in tears. The cool detachment once present in her eyes had vanished, replaced by endless confusion and pain.

"Please, I'm begging you..."

Ye Wuyou's heart gave a faint tremor.

He drew a deep breath, closed his eyes, then opened them again. All the unnecessary emotions had faded from his gaze, leaving only calm.

If the pain of destroying her face could keep her lucid, Ye Wuyou certainly would not stop her, nor would he care.

Between life and death, even the most beautiful flesh was nothing more than a painted skeleton in the end.

But it would not work.

Since nothing could be done now, he might as well strip away her five senses sooner rather than later.

A quiet sigh sounded deep within him.

Xia Anmeng seemed to be asking a question, yet also calling him into doubt.

"Ye Wuyou, are you human?"

The main hall on the first floor of the Heavenly Prison.

Nearly four days had passed since the upheaval in the Heavenly Prison.

The collapse had indeed been severe, but its foundations remained intact. At least the entire prison had not sunk into a crater.

Countless prison guards were gathered here, while others came and went nearby, all bearing injuries to varying degrees.

Their expressions were blank with bewilderment as they silently watched the figures standing at the front.

"Have you finished the count? How many are still unaccounted for?"

The speaker was an old man in black robes standing at the front. He held a shattered mirror, examining it closely.

Though there was no filth on him, whenever the wind blew, a heavy stench of blood drifted relentlessly from his body.

A token hung at his waist, engraved with a single large character.

[Grade A]

"Reporting to Lord Zhao: after counting everyone from the first through the seventh floors, seventeen of our colleagues have died in the line of duty. Another eight remain missing."

Silence briefly fell over the gathering. Only after a long while did the old man sigh softly.

"Have you determined the cause of this incident?"

The guard who had answered paused and swept his gaze through the crowd before continuing.

"Lord Zhao, it was the fiend previously captured by Grade B Squad Five. It deliberately allowed itself to be caught and carried a magical artifact, the Heaven-Turning Mirror, which inverted the order of the floors within the Heavenly Prison. We couldn't send reinforcements immediately..."

Before he could finish, he was interrupted.

"The fiend deliberately let itself be captured? Why not say you were too stupid to notice?"

Zhao Changhe's white hair stirred without wind, and his black robes snapped fiercely beneath his surging aura.

"Where is the captain of Grade B Squad Five?"

"My lord, the captain's name is Lu Caiwei. She is currently missing..."

Missing...

They had searched every floor from the first through the seventh, bringing everyone back, alive or dead, even if only their remains.

Anyone still missing now had fallen into the eighth floor.

None of them could enter the eighth floor except the warden.

Zhao Changhe tossed aside the ruined mirror, his eyes darkening.

The Heaven-Turning Mirror could reverse the order of things. During the prison riot, that meant someone trying to enter one floor might instead step into another.

"I recall that once someone reaches Grade B, they leave behind a life soul... Have them brought up for inspection."

Rows of jade-green glass lamps were brought forward, arranged like a lamp stand.

Each glass lamp separately contained a flickering flame, each representing a life.

Some had already gone dark, but most still shone brightly.

"Lu Caiwei... let me look. Hmph."

Zhao Changhe's gaze swept over the lit glass lamps. Though his expression remained furious, much of the weight pressing on his heart lifted.

She was still alive. Once the warden returned, they could rescue her.

"It's still lit! She's alive! I knew the captain wasn't dead! How could the captain possibly die?!"

The one shouting, seemingly weeping with joy, was a Grade C guard in the crowd below.

He was covered in wounds. A teammate beside him promptly pulled him back and made him shut his mouth.

"Stop yelling. You're fucking embarrassing the captain."

Despite his words, that man had clearly breathed a sigh of relief too.

They had committed a grave mistake in this prison upheaval, and they needed to atone.

If even their captain was gone, how would a few Grade C guards like them get by? They would likely be mocked so badly they could never lift their heads.

Zhao Changhe glanced at them and roared angrily.

"Making a fuss over nothing! Where is your decorum? If Grade B prison guards died that easily, then I say we might as well..."

Before he finished, Zhao Changhe noticed the expressions of those below gradually changing.

Their initial wild joy turned to surprise, then to incredulous shock.

Finally, it became bleak despair.

Zhao Changhe abruptly turned around.

Upon the lamp stand, a jade-green glass lamp slowly went out.