One incense stick earlier.
Seven Discipline Hall, Repentance Cliff.
His aura weak, Jin Yue carried a Pardon Order through one stone gate after another, finally reaching a prison a hundred zhang beneath Repentance Cliff.
Through an opening in the prison's iron door, a full ten feet thick, he finally saw that familiar face he had loathed all his life-Zhao Qian.
Yes, the person he had come to find was Zhao Qian.
At that moment, Zhao Qian lay on his back on a stone bed, staring vacantly ahead, his thoughts unknown.
"Zhao... Zhao Qian."
After hesitating for a long time, Jin Yue finally called out.
"Jin Yue, don't bother trying to pry anything out of me. I know no more about Junior Martial Uncle than you do."
Zhao Qian spoke without turning his head.
As he spoke, his vacant eyes remained fixed on the wall ahead.
"I'm not... cough, cough, cough..."
Jin Yue had just begun to explain when he aggravated his injuries and broke into violent coughing.
Hearing those coughs, Zhao Qian suddenly turned his head toward the prison door, the vacancy leaving his eyes as he asked:
"Who injured you so badly?"
Jin Yue did not answer. Instead, he took out the Pardon Order and had the disciple beside him open the prison door.
Amid the clatter of mechanisms, the heavy iron door slowly rose.
Jin Yue stepped into the cell.
"I brought it on myself."
As he spoke, he forcibly suppressed the surging qi and blood within him and slowly slid down against the wall until he was seated. Only then did he let out a long breath and say:
"I should have been on guard back when he kept searching for Su Chan's whereabouts. Then things wouldn't have reached this irretrievable point today."
At these words, Zhao