"What do we do next? Keep watching him?"
Old Bai, seeing Zhou Yi's expression flicker uncertainly, scratched his head and urged impatiently.
"Why not wait until that fellow finds the King of the Azure Heaven's secret manual, then you and I can join forces and launch a surprise attack? Wouldn't it be easy to capture him then? Or maybe you could poison him in advance, leaving him half-dead for an even more foolproof plan!"
Becoming a Martial Arts Grandmaster is the ultimate dream of everyone in Jianghu, even laid-back Old Bai couldn't escape that common yearning.
Tales of the King of the Azure Heaven's rise to power had spread throughout Jianghu: unnoticed before the age of thirty, he acquired supernatural powers, and within a decade, he had attained the Innate Realm.
A Martial Arts Grandmaster, the Southern Alliance Leader, he was peerless in power and influence for a time—with beauties and gold and silver merely bonuses of his status.
"Are you stupid?"
Zhou Yi pointed at his clothes: "I'm a prison guard; there's no need to keep trailing behind him."
"That's true!"
Realization dawned on Old Bai. Watching Zhou Yi walk towards Prison Cell Jia One, he really wanted to ask the name of the divine technique but feared losing one of his few friends.
...
Prison Cell Jia One.
It was empty and spotless, every corner meticulously clean.
After thwarting a prison break and assassination attempt that night, the Jinyiwei combed through this cell, scraping off three layers of wall plaster.
"If the Jinyiwei couldn't find it, is that guy just trying his luck, or does he know something?"
Zhou Yi had seen the pathetic state of the King of the Azure Heaven, most of his bones broken, and even needing help to eat, which was why he couldn't leave the heavy steel rack.
He had probed every part of the rack with his Inner Qi, along with the manacles and chains, all of which were made of solid steel.
There were certainly experts in Inner Qi among the Jinyiwei who must have searched in the same way. It wouldn't be so simple for the King of the Azure Heaven to hide his legacy.
"There must be a method that outsiders couldn't discover..."
A bright idea suddenly flashed in Zhou Yi's mind. He pressed his palm against the rack and let his Inner Qi flow into it, following the Telepathic Secret Technique.
"Devouring Heaven Demonic Technique!"
The King of the Azure Heaven's voice suddenly rang in his ear, following which was a verse of over three thousand words, teaching how to devour and refine others' Inner Qi to make it one's own.
It contained a method to break through to the Innate Realm, extremely crude and straightforward without any profound or subtle mysteries.
With five hundred years of Inner Qi, once activated, it could forcibly draw in the qi of heaven and earth, allowing one to ascend to the Innate Realm quite naturally!
In a serious tone, the King of the Azure Heaven cautioned at the end, "The Inner Qi refined by the Devouring Heaven Demonic Technique is exceedingly bizarre, shortening your lifespan by one year for every five absorbed. With top experts in each generation, the legacy can continue, ensuring enduring wealth and prestige, but descendants of the Cang family must not covet the Innate Realm recklessly..."
"No wonder the King of the Azure Heaven is only in his fifties, and as a grandmaster of the Innate Realm, he already appears so withered and aged!"
Zhou Yi listened to the entire technique and then used the Telepathic Secret Technique once more. Indeed, the King of the Azure Heaven's voice could be heard again.
Listening carefully, he noticed the voice seemed to be quieter this time.
"That person must be a descendant of the King of the Azure Heaven. If he can't find the demonic technique, it's bound to cause trouble."
Zhou Yi pondered for a moment. It was always best to play it safe. The person was risking their life to seek their family inheritance, so he might as well help him out.
It's good business to be accommodating!
Returning to Prison Cell Jia Six, he found Old Bai squatting in a corner, sighing with dejection.
"Who's the girl you're thinking about now?"
The most frequent stories Zhou Yi had heard recently were Old Bai boasting of the beauties in Jianghu: the sixth-ranked beauty on the Rouge List, the transcendent and ethereal Female Sword Immortal, the legitimate daughters from the Jiangnan gentry families...
He had come to realize that Old Bai wasn't in the Heavenly Prison to suffer, but rather to hide from love debts!
"I'm reminiscing about past friends."
Old Bai theatrically raised his hand, his eyes brimming with deep sentiment, he sang the strange and bizarre songs he had heard from Zhou Yi: "Friend oh friend..."
Zhou Yi, unable to stand Old Bai's off-key antics, interrupted: "Stop it! Do you want to know the King of the Azure Heaven's demonic technique?"
"Would Old Zhou really tell me?"
Old Bai's figure flashed, leaving several afterimages in the air, and in an instant, he was at the cell door.
Zhou Yi said, "This technique is called the Devouring Heaven Demonic Technique, it allows one to devour and refine others' Inner Qi, the specific refining method..."
"Hiss! It really is a demonic technique; no wonder the King of the Azure Heaven achieved grandmastery in ten years!"
Old Bai gasped, waving his hand, "It's good enough to know the name. I can use it to brag to others. Don't tell me the content of the technique. I might not be able to resist practicing it."
"Isn't it for bragging to women?"
Zhou Yi looked at him with disdain, although he couldn't help but feel envious; the Longevity Dao Fruit didn't have the effect of enhancing beauty, and his appearance remained rather ordinary.
"The technique has its drawbacks too, absorbing five years of Inner Qi reduces one's lifespan by one year, aging prematurely. Even the King of the Azure Heaven's Grandmaster level couldn't reverse it."
"Then I should definitely not practice it! Being strong is temporary, but being charming is a lifetime affair!"
Old Bai pointed to his face: "In Jianghu, we don't rely on our fighting skills. It's this face that has helped me through countless troubles. That time at the Commandery Prince's mansion, hundreds of swords were pointed at me, but it was the Commandery Princess who personally came to my rescue..."
"..."
Zhou Yi, unable to bear his smugness, grabbed a bucket and ran off.
...
Before he knew it, another month had passed.
Having obtained the Devouring Heaven Demonic Technique, Zhou Yi did not rush to cultivate it, but continued to watch the other man's movements in secret.
One early morning.
Zhou Yi arrived for roll call at the Heavenly Prison, only to find imperial guards on duty outside and Jinyiwei searching inside.
"Old Zhou, someone broke out of prison last night. They say that the prisoner was killed and replaced by someone using the Art of Disguise."
Feng Qiao spoke in a low voice, "School Captain Lu accepted silver from Master Xiao of the Ministry of Punishment. He carried out a midnight interrogation, intending to leave the prisoner crippled, if not half-dead, but to their surprise, the man was an expert!"
School Captain Lu's neck was broken on the spot, and the prisoner killed his way out of the cell, escaping into the night.
"This..."
Zhou Yi didn't know what to say for a moment. From the perspective of his colleagues, he should sympathize, but the arbitrary torture of a prisoner seemed quite wrong.
Unwritten rules are just that, unwritten. If someone truly takes them for right, it can only mean that person has a sinister heart!
"When we mourn later, just send some extra condolence money."
Zhou Yi entered the prison without being searched, as the Jinyiwei guards paid no mind to someone who merely delivered prison meals, especially since he had been doing so for fifteen or sixteen years.
In the end, the matter was left unresolved. The thief had used the Art of Disguise, and his true appearance and age were unknown, so naturally, no wanted notices could be issued.
The presence of Jianghu experts as prisoners had always been a great scourge to Fengyang Country.
In the Divine Capital and its surroundings, things were relatively stable. However, in the territories controlled by the state governments, numerous martial powerhouses occupied the land. Some were as powerful as the King of the Azure Heaven, who had wrought havoc in Jiangnan for more than ten years, while the weaker ones would roam the villages and towns, bullying and dominating the local markets and countryside.
Cultivating martial arts required vast amounts of silver and time, which ordinary people could scarcely afford. As a result, they were exploited and oppressed, without even the right to a commoner's righteous indignation.
The disparity in strength between martial artists and commoners might not be as vast as that between immortals and mortals, but it wasn't something that could be opposed by just three or five people!
"In this Extraordinary World, class divisions have only become more solidified. People can only see the splendor above, never paying attention to the misery at the bottom."
Zhou Yi was not a saint with the world in his heart; he simply sighed at this thought, then went to Prison Cell Jia. He used a secret technique to investigate the punishment column, and indeed, the voice of the King of the Azure Heaven had completely vanished.
"With the final karmic retribution settled within the cell, peace should now return as it was."
During these days of delivering food, Zhou Yi had secretly probed the prisoners in the cell, who had robust Inner Qi, who was slated for execution, and who had no sect or background outside.
Others, upon obtaining the Devouring Heaven Demonic Technique, cultivated it discreetly, cultivating their Inner Qi, while the radical ones recklessly devoured the Inner Qi of Jianghu experts. The former improved slowly, while the latter were pursued and killed.
Whether cautious or reckless, by the law of Jianghu, those who cultivated demonic techniques never met a good end.
Zhou Yi, however, was different. The Heavenly Prison was full of Jianghu experts—what he needed to do was just pick the right targets to devour!
After carefully selecting, he chose Yu Sheng, a first-rate expert as his target.
Yu Sheng could be called a legend in Jianghu who had risen from nothing. As a lad, he was fierce and belligerent; as an adult, he committed burglaries. He didn't gamble or indulge in pleasures with the silver he acquired but used it all for his martial cultivation.
Because of his innate talent, he quickly earned a reputation in Jianghu, known as the Blood Saber Guest.
One who always walks by the river cannot avoid getting wet; he finally fell into a trap laid by the Jinyiwei and was thrown into the Heavenly Prison to await his execution after autumn.
"Whether you die sooner or later, it's all the same. Instead of being executed, why not trade your Inner Qi for a meal of meat and wine? Sounds reasonable, doesn't it?"
Zhou Yi placed his palm over the prisoner's Dantian. The prisoner's Inner Qi gushed out like water from an open sluice, flowing along the meridians all into Zhou Yi's body.
The prisoner was in extreme agony, convulsing violently but unable to make a sound, until his Dantian shattered, and his meridians severed, resulting in his death.
"That's about seven to eight years worth of Inner Qi. The loss in the process was quite severe, but the Heavenly Prison is full of Jianghu experts!"
Zhou Yi felt the Inner Qi in his Dantian had increased by more than fifty percent.
No wonder so many people were keen to cultivate demonic techniques. The feeling of effortless gain was indeed somewhat satisfying!
"Shaved off two years of life..."
Zhou Yi carefully sensed the changes and found that his internal organs had undergone subtle changes. One could say they had matured or aged.
The Longevity Dao Fruit, which had remained silent for more than ten years, vibrated briefly, and the aged organs reverted to their original state.
"So, this is the correct way to activate the Longevity Dao Fruit, cultivating demonic techniques that reduce lifespan but improve one's state rapidly!"
Zhou Yi murmured to himself, disregarding the prisoner curled up dead in the corner, and leisurely proceeded to the next cell.
It was rare for prisoners in the Heavenly Prison to live until their execution day. After their death, their identities were confirmed, but no one pursued the cause of death. Such matters were hard to investigate and not allowed to be investigated. Tracing the source might even involve Emperor Hongchang himself.
Devouring Inner Qi was just the first step of the demonic technique; it required some time afterward for refining and integrating.
Zhou Yi was not in a hurry. Regardless of how slow the integration of Inner Qi was, it was still hundreds of times faster than cultivating the Guiyuan Technique.
The Devouring Heaven Demonic Technique had another feature that Zhou Yi found very satisfactory. Before reaching the level of an Innate Grandmaster, there were basically no bottlenecks. All one needed was to find enough sources of Inner Qi and spend time and effort to refine and integrate them.
"Inner Qi of five hundred years, and Innate Realm shall form itself!"
The Guiyuan Technique and the Five-Tiger Great Strength Fist he previously practiced, one internal and one external, were both upright and majestic cultivation techniques. Regardless of how fast or slow the progression, the many bottlenecks made Zhou Yi very frustrated.
For example, transitioning from external tempering of muscles and bones to internal refining of organs was a challenge Zhou Yi had to figure out on his own. It took him a full five years just to get started.
In the cultivation of martial arts, one needed technique, talent, resources, and the guidance of a renowned teacher. After all, life is finite; one cannot simply rely on time to forcefully break through bottlenecks.
"Inner Qi for five hundred years; that would need about eighty or ninety people..."
Zhou Yi looked at the prisoners in Prison Cell Jia as if they were a herd of pigs ready for the slaughter.
"From now on, we should treat them better; they can't drink slop anymore. With weakened bodies and dissipating Inner Qi, that would be a loss!"
From that day on.
Prisoners in Prison Cell Jia started to drink thick porridge, which even had bits of meat in it. They were, of course, extremely grateful to Zhou Yi.
...
Autumn of the seventh year of Hongchang.
Zhou Yi entered the kitchen to pick up the food bucket and saw that Chef Liu had prepared the food boxes and instructed delivery to Prison Cell Bing Jiu.
"Which noble young master has been put inside again?"
Zhou Yi had grown accustomed to this. Over a decade, he had seen many spoiled young aristocrats come to the Heavenly Prison as if on a vacation. Some even took pride in it.
If a young master from Divine Capital had not been to Prison Cell Bing Jiu to enjoy the special treatment of the Heavenly Prison, they could hardly claim to be top-ranked nobility.
Chef Liu whispered, "I heard it's a side branch of the Li family. As for what he did, I did not dare to ask!"
The Li surname was not uncommon in Divine Capital, and there were certainly wealthy families among them. However, since Emperor Hongchang's accession, the only household that could be addressed as the 'Li family' in the capital was the residence of the Great General.
A relative of Li Wu!