The Fifth Floor

After the initial fervor surrounding the study of "Corpse Liberation Immortal" subsided, the four quickly encountered a practical problem.

Above, or rather below, sat a powerful tiger from the Thunder Sect. Who could sit comfortably there, especially since this tiger was determined to deal with this holdout in Demon-Subduing City?

When two tigers fight, one will surely be injured.

So, should we go somewhere else?

So after Old Chen Sheng told them about it, the group quickly had a short discussion.

"Let's find a different place to suppress the demons, then use the power of the Devil-Subduing Heavenly Soldier and the Prison-Subduing Official to completely cleanse this place and transform it into a Thunder God's Shrine that belongs only to us."

Old Chen nodded solemnly.

"Since we can't rely on the righteous path, we can only rely on ourselves. The Prison-Subduing Official himself possesses the divine authority to suppress and imprison, and with the inheritance of that female heavenly general, although only the Thunder God in this Demon-Subduing City has the divine authority to establish a government office, if the two of you join forces, you might be able to create a fake government office." In this way, even if the Thunder God takes back power, we can hold out until the end.

"Wait, a female general?" Hu Mang asked, "Shouldn't it be a female celestial soldier?"

Old Chen wiped his hand across the Storage Bag, and the female general's corpse reappeared.

However, the skeleton at this time, especially the facial features, seemed to have been smoothed out, with no dark eye sockets or Xiaoyi nose sockets.

Hu Mang looked at Old Chen with a puzzled expression.

"After applying two Ghost Makeup, I ended up looking like this. The wonders of nature are truly astounding," Chen Sheng exclaimed.

So, this Ghost Makeup can't be mass-produced?

Hu Mang was somewhat disappointed; he had been thinking of drawing ten or eight more of her.

"That's not the point. The point is that she's not a female celestial soldier, but a female celestial general. And the Devil-Subduing Heavenly General is on par with Thunder God. Since Thunder God can seize power, then this position of celestial general can naturally resist Thunder God seizing power."

Hu Mang sensed his divine authority but did not detect any higher-level divine authority.

Seeing this, Chen Sheng explained, "Logically speaking, this woman is destined for a life of killing and suppressing evil, her bones are imbued with weapons, and her spirit holds the power of thunder. She is definitely Devil-Subduing Heavenly General. My physiognomy skills are never wrong."

The three of them instinctively looked at the corpse's face—only to find nothing there.

"But the reason why he didn't fully advance to the Heavenly General level might be related to the destruction of the Heavenly Tribulation Imperial Dynasty and the severing of the divine authority."

Hu Mang suddenly remembered the gunshot wound between Lightning Puppet's eyebrows and felt that he was one step closer to the truth of history.

"That's not the point. What I mean is, with your divine authority clearing the way and me using the female general's corpse as the array's core, we have a 30-50% chance of simulating the opening of the yamen."

Chen Sheng then took the body back.

"Indeed, having an elder in the family is like having a treasure," Hu Mang remarked, then pulled out the survey map that he had revised many times.

"So, which place to suppress demons should we choose to establish our residence?"

The Hu Mang swept across a series of marked locations: Fire House Cat Garden, Demon-Subduing Drill Ground, Sha-Subduing Commander's Manor, Evil-Expelling Altar, Demon-Suppressing Mysterious Treasury, Rebirth Shrine, Tempering Treasury, Dark Lightning Puppet-Control Hub ----

Then, several locations were ruled out. The Fire House Cat Garden was out of the question because its formation was broken when he advanced. The Dark Lightning Puppet-Control Hub was even worse; not only was there no formation there, but he had also devoured the Tribulation Eye.

Chen Sheng and Zhou Yu also participated in the discussion. One of them had many strange and unusual abilities, and the other possessed the divine knowledge of the "Prison-Subduing Official." Both of them were qualified to participate in this discussion.

As for Hu, he didn't participate much in the discussion, but instead silently stared at his survey drawings.

After using the Dragon Eye to devour the Tribulation Eye, his plan had a much higher success rate.

He wasn't about to miss out on something as interesting as battling the Thunder God.

If the plan goes smoothly, then this Demon-Subduing City will truly become a mini-map for me to explore.

But now is not the time to say it.

Hu Mang put away his blueprints, looked up and said, "So, you've made up your mind? It's about Tempering Treasury?"

The other two exchanged a glance and nodded simultaneously.

The administrative structure of Demon-Subduing City is quite interesting because it is essentially a city-level prison.

It also has everything that other cities should have, such as the Thunder God's Shrine as a node of the divine path, the patrolling Devil-Subduing Heavenly Soldier, the Prison-Subduing Official who imprison prisoners, various sealing nodes, and places for demon-slaying.

But what a city should have most is actually lacking.

That is the city lord's mansion.

Here, Thunder God is more of Land God and demon-quelling god than a guardian of the city.

Moreover, combining various accounts, this Thunder God "is actually a newly emerged false god, meaning that there was no Thunder God before this."

Only the Thunder God's Shrine.

Therefore, the most likely scenario is that this large prison is directly connected to the next higher level of the Heavenly Tribulation Imperial Dynasty, such as a high-level Thunder Manor or a Divine General's Mansion. It is directly managed by personnel sent by such higher-level units, which is what is known as a "transferred official".

The saying goes, "Prisons remain, officials come and go."

This is why, in such a large city, there isn't even a city lord's mansion or similar administrative body.

The only thing that has any connection to this kind of management institution is the "Tempering Treasury." As the name suggests, it should be the city's military industrial center, storing a large amount of weapons and elixirs—the very treasury where the fire dragon burned it.

However, considering that this Demon-Subduing City has been here for countless years, if there were really this much hard currency, it would probably have been moved away long ago.

Although Old Chen was greedy and not without a penchant for finding bargains, the main reason he chose this place was its terrain.

This is an auspicious burial site within the city, with water outside and fire inside, yin and yang in harmony, and protected by the four elements. It can subdue countless evil spirits and serves as the foundation for the entire city's military forces. It is a superior location for establishing a government office.

These are Old Chen's exact words.

"So, you all go to the Tempering Treasury first. I'll meet up with you immediately after I kill someone for that Jingtu Monk. If you're in danger..."

Hu Mang pointed to the Heavenly Eye in the sky above.

I will arrive in time.

This time was different from before. With two "Prison-Subduing Official" protecting them, Hu Mang didn't think there was much in the city that could harm them.

As long as they don't provoke the local Thunder God.

Moreover, although their relationships were all quite good, he could only get some things done after the Prison-Subduing Official left.

At the top of a charred pavilion, Hu Mang stared expressionlessly at the Demon-Subduing Jail not far away.

In fact, he had secretly opened his eyes once before and discovered a very strange situation.

That means the "Tribulation Eye" here is not on the first, second, or third level. Hu Mang had previously suspected it was on the fourth level, suppressed by that Zhen'ezi.

If that's the case, he can't fight city hall, so he has no choice but to give up.

But after questioning Zhou Yu in detail, he realized something was wrong.

If Zhen'ezi really suppressed the Tribulation Eye, the Prison-Subduing Official "couldn't possibly not have discovered it."

--

According to Rogue Person Yunxiu, after the Three Flowers Gather at the Cauldron and the Five Qi Converging at the Origin, one can naturally comprehend the secrets of heaven.

Of course, according to Hu's own understanding, this is a new form of big data computing.

But the other party has just shed their physical body and embarked on the path of Ghost Immortal.

Without a physical body, one naturally loses the Three Flowers and Five Qi, and without the Three Flowers and Five Qi, one is inferior to oneself, at least in terms of deduction.

If that's the case, neither of these two can compare to himself, who has "opened the Dragon Eye," in terms of understanding the secrets of heaven.

Therefore, Hu Mang thought it was worth a try.

After all, according to his own mother, this "Dragon-Shaped Meridian Diagram" was created by the Shen Household's ancestor, that High Antiquity immortal.

The immortals of Heavenly Gate should be somewhat stronger than the Ghost Immortal of the Azure Mysterious Realm, especially those who haven't yet attained enlightenment.

The Hu Mang's right orbicularis oculi muscle twitched strangely, as if something alive was emerging from beneath its skin.

The next instant, a cold, emotionless vertical pupil was forced out of its original eye socket.

The world was completely stripped away in an instant.

Color, sound, temperature—all vanished.

Once again, the Hu Mang found itself in that desolate world constructed from patterns of calamity energy.

Here, there is no distinction between heaven and earth, only endless tribulation patterns deeply embedded in the void, and countless lines of tribulation hanging down from them.

His vertical pupils suddenly widened.

Those lines of destruction and calamity, as if summoned, transformed into thousands of fine threads of light, frantically drilling into his pupils.

My vision rapidly descended along the line of destruction.

The first level of the Demon-Subduing Prison, the second level of the Demon-Subduing Prison, the third level of the Demon-Subduing Prison, the fourth level of the Demon-Subduing Prison, and the fifth level of the Demon Suppression Prison. Hu Mang's heart trembled—this dilapidated prison actually has a fifth level?!

The sinking came to an abrupt halt.

He landed on the fifth floor.

Here, he saw an indescribable figure.

The Fortune, destiny, and karma surrounding that person were wildly intertwined like billions of threads of light, resembling both a cage and armor.

What made the Hu Mang's pupils shrink even more was—

The other person was casually toying with a ball of light in their hand.

The sphere of light slowly rotated, and with each rotation, it caused the power of the Demon-Subduing Prison to fluctuate.

That is none other than the source of all the calamities that befell this place.

Tribulation Eye!

At this moment, the Tribulation Eye is being held in someone's palm, like a toy.

The man looked up, let out a soft exclamation, and flicked his finger; the next moment, the Tribulation Eye shot directly into the Hu Mang's left eye.

The Tribulation Eye, which had been treated as a toy, crossed the boundary between reality and illusion in the blink of an eye with a flick of the fingertip, heading straight for the Hu Mang like a shooting star.

Before Hu Mang could even react, he felt a cool sensation in his left eye as the Tribulation Eye was firmly embedded in his eye socket.

The next instant, another Dragon Eye burst forth from the depths of the left eye.

At the same time, the entire world of calamity shattered inch by inch, like a mirror.

The abyss of the fifth level, the tangled threads of light, the eerie figure—all these scenes vanished, as if they had never existed.

The Hu Mang suddenly opened its eyes, but could no longer see any extraordinary vision.

He tried to activate the Dragon Eye again, but in the instant that thought arose...

"Boom!"

An unprecedented sense of crisis, like ice water poured over my head, exploded violently in my heart.

This feeling was remarkably similar to the suffocating pressure I felt when I faced Gong Lei directly back then.

But it was ten or even a hundred times more dangerous than before.

Sweat trickled down Hu Mang's forehead, his clothes instantly soaked with cold sweat.

The Hu Mang exhaled a long breath, grinned, and finally uttered a single word—

#!