The Demonic Grotto lay deathly still; the years passed without a sound.
In the dim, lightless Eternal Purgatory, no seasons changed. Only deathly energy of annihilation drifted through the air year-round, scouring every prisoner's Divine Body and Divine Soul day after day.
Another full year quietly flowed by and vanished amid silent torment.
Exactly one year had passed since the two female Human Race cultivators had been escorted into the Death Demon Cavern.
Twelve whole months of penal labor in Purgatory were enough for anyone to see this prison's cold cruelty clearly.
They had long since mastered the Demonic Grotto's rules of survival, learned the dangerous intricacies of harvesting Other Shore Flowers, and thoroughly understood every aspect of Shiheng's temperament-the powerful man who lived alone in the Chaotic Stone Perilous Lands.
In the labor zone, where every prisoner lived on in numb desperation, suspicious of and scheming against one another, Shiheng was far too unusual.
He lived alone in the Chaotic Stone Perilous Lands year-round, taciturn and unsociable. He formed no cliques, spending his days seated in darkness, silently comprehending laws and tempering his Divine Power.
He never took the initiative to make enemies, nor did he participate in the prisoners' struggles and plundering. His unfathomable strength far surpassed that of every Midgod prisoner in this labor zone.
Yet he also harbored compassion for his own race, maintained humane boundaries, and was fiercely protective of fellow humans.
Over the past year, whenever human prisoners who cultivated diligently and kept quietly to themselves suffered deathly energy backlash, harassment from other races, or crises during their labor, they would invariably receive a little silent assistance without realizing it.
In the two women's eyes, Shiheng was the sole variable in this hopeless Purgatory.
He was the greatest, most secure towering pillar of support,