Central Region, Great Tang, Divine Capital.
Beyond the deep mountains.
Few knew of this secret land. It housed the judicial prison established by the Tang Court's Heaven's Deputy Office. Ordinary cultivators and unrelated people had no way of approaching it.
"Sister Ali, thank goodness you helped me this time, or that fellow might have escaped."
At the mouth of the gorge, two women were talking.
The speaker was petite, but wore armor and carried a long halberd slantwise across her back.
"I owe you another favor, haha."
"It was nothing."
The other woman was tall. She wore no silken robes or skirts, just loose robes of ordinary cloth, much like the attire of many male cultivators.
Her face was youthful as well.
Unlike the alluring beauty or icy demeanor of most female cultivators, she had a lovely face with a faint heroic spirit between her brows.
Her expression was calm and composed.
"I am a guest elder of the Heaven's Deputy Office, after all. It falls within my duties."
The woman called Ali continued, "By the way, Lü Luo, I'll soon be going to Junping Prefecture with that fellow Daoist from the Wu Clan. Would you like to come?"
"Oh, no, no. There's still so much work to do at the office."
Lü Luo's childish little face actually showed the weathered exhaustion of someone who had been working for years.
"I really envy you sect cultivators, drifting clouds and wild cranes, free to go wherever you want. Unlike us..."
Lü Luo hung her head dejectedly. "The prisoners serve their sentences inside, and we serve ours outside. There's no difference."
"Hehe."
A smile suddenly appeared on Ali's previously expressionless face, as though Lü Luo's cuteness had amused her.
"Be careful," she said. "If your Instructor Yang hears that, you'll get another