More than an hour later, the cultivators Li Yan and the others who had gone out to gather herbs appeared once again in the prison compound formed by stone houses.
As soon as their group landed, the fierce ghosts ordered Li Yan and the others to line up in the center of the square.
Just as they had taken their positions, Fa Nan suddenly appeared in the compound with two white-robed hanging ghosts.
At the same time, quite a few cultivators from the cells crowded toward the enormous windows and looked at the center of the square.
Yet the expressions in their eyes no longer held the richness they had shown when they first saw Li Yan that day. There was only blankness—or rather, the aura of death.
"Welcome back, everyone. Now, let us see what each cell has harvested this time!"
As Fa Nan spoke, the forked tongue in his mouth continually flicked in and out.
His gaze, however, swept over everyone in the square with amusement before finally settling to his right.
At the end of those rows stood five cultivators.
The moment Fa Nan's gaze fixed there, one cultivator immediately stepped out from among the five.
He first took a gray bottle from his robes, then collected the other gray bottles from the remaining four one by one before walking toward Fa Nan.
He placed four gray bottles on the ground, then respectfully offered the remaining one with both hands as he spoke.
"My lord, we gathered three Otherworld Flowers this time. Two are around three hundred years old, and one is over four hundred years old. Please inspect them!"
His face was filled with fawning eagerness as he spoke.
Fa Nan merely nodded coldly. Without any visible movement from him, the gray bottle in that cultivator's