The Path Toward Heaven

State Duke Lu had already been prepared for what would happen next.

He had reported this matter to the Emperor, and decided to be the most diligent official from this day on. He sat in Taichang Temple every day drinking tea.

Meanwhile, he had obtained an official position for his son, Lu Ming, in Nanhezhou for a period of three years.

Three years later, if Jing Jiu could come out unharmed, then Lu Ming would return to Zhaoge City; otherwise, he would use the Gu Clan’s connection to send Lu Ming directly to the Green Mountain.

State Duke Lu picked up his teacup and shot a glance at the outside unnoticeably.

That black cloth covered carriage had already vanished.

He sighed in his mind, hoping everything would be all right.

The black cloth covered carriage came to the deep end of Taichang Temple, after passing through a patch of bamboo forest, and continued on a straight path.

The path was covered by the stones the size of goose eggs, and the wheels of the carriage made creaking sounds while rolling.

The noise of the wheels rolling on the path became louder and louder, because the path descended and became a slope, eventually leading to the underground.

The officials here wore the black colored uniforms, with a dragon foot embroidered on it. They looked formidable, and obviously didn’t belong to Taichang Temple.

A few officials used the iron chain to lock the carriage door in front of the cliff wall.

A delicate picture of “Fairy Man on the Flowing Cloud” was carved on the cliff wall, which was probably a founding master of a certain Cultivation sect.

The lighting had suddenly become dimmer, and the surroundings were all dark.

The carriage was slowly dropping down into the underground, like an animal descending into the quagmire, noiseless, but astonishing.

The lower the carriage dropped, the gloomier the energy in the surroundings became. There was no lighting anymore, total darkness.

A few minutes later, the wheels of the carriage touched the ground, making a faint “pah” sound.

Sitting in the carriage, Jing Jiu could sense the gloomy and cold energy in the surroundings and endless darkness, trying to figure out the location and distance silently.

If he needed to escape from here someday, he had to remember all that had happened and the details he experienced this day.

A noise came from outside the carriage. It should be that the wheels pressed on the ground, and it seemed that the ground was covered by a layer of sandy pebbles; but the weight on the wheels seemed too heavy for them.

Along with a few light noises, the formation attached to the carriage had been dismantled, and the locked carriage door was opened.

Even though Jing Jiu was in absolute darkness, his sword sight could still help him see enough around him.

Two puppets appeared in front of the carriage.

Under them was a flat board with eight small wheels underneath, the board being made of the strongest magic gold, and an extremely complicated formation diagram was painted on the board. This was why it was so heavy.

This place was the same as the Sword Jail on Green Mountain, but its energy was even darker and gloomier. Even those Cultivation practitioners of the orthodox sects with determined Dao Heart would be eroded if they lived here; at the very least, their Cultivation would be damaged, and at most, they would go mad. They could even be completely controlled by the dark and gloomy energy. Like the Sword Jail on the Green Mountain, no human stayed here either.

The Sword Jail on the Green Mountain had Dead Dog.

This place had puppets as the guards.

What was this place?

There was a place in Chaotian, where the highly achieved swordsmen of the deviant sects, the devil men of the Underworld, and the monsters of the Snowy Kingdom were locked up. This was the famous Fiend Prison.

Everybody knew the existence of the Fiend Prison, including all the mortals, and even any child three years of age, but few people knew where the Fiend Prison was located.

Even few people in the orthodox Cultivation sects and the imperial court knew this secretive place.

The Fiend Prison was Taichang Temple itself.

Specifically, it was located under Taichang Temple.

State Duke Lu had been the Chief of Taichang Temple for many years. Many people only knew it a noble and easy position, but they didn’t know that this position entailed the absolute trust of the Emperor.

…

…

Jing Jiu was thinking of how he could leave with these two puppets of the magic gold like a real prisoner.

All of a sudden, he sensed a formidable energy arriving from a distance.

This formidable energy came from the extremely powerful spiritual soul. Once it touched down, it could effortlessly break or crush all the intangible existence into oblivion.

Even though this spiritual soul was still not as powerful as that being in the deep end of the snowland, they had a similar Cultivation state nonetheless.

Jing Jiu didn’t look in the direction of that energy, and didn’t make any reaction; it was because he had learned his lesson in the snowland back then. He was still a young disciple of the Green Mountain in the low Cultivation state. No matter how strong his spiritual strength was, he still had no chance of resisting such a force. So what he needed to do right now was avoid being discovered by that being.

He tried his best to maintain his Dao Heart with closed eyes as that energy fell down.

The Awareness Sea caused a huge wave, spreading violently in all directions. It was as if Jing Jiu turned into a small boat in the enormous ocean, and all of his awareness sank to the bottom of that ocean.

That energy soon became the hurricane assaulting heaven and earth. At this moment, it seemed as if Jing Jiu became a feeble leaf in the wind falling down noiselessly, and all of his energy went along with that wind.

He was like a regular Cultivation practitioner being shocked into unconsciousness by the energy.

Gradually, that energy moved away, and that being lost interest in this place.

Jing Jiu knew that that being didn’t recognize him, and therefore wouldn’t try to test him. It was something all the prisoners coming to the Fiend Prison had to experience: being intimidated by the energy.

No matter whether the prisoner was the devil man of the Underworld or the highly achieved swordsman of the deviant sect, they would be mostly destroyed and have a mental break-down after this first encounter and would wake up a long time later.

Afterwards, the Fiend Prison didn’t have to worry about these new prisoners generate getting any ideas of escaping from the prison or committing suicide.

This method was extremely brutal, even cruel; but considering that that being had been suffering in Zhaoge City for so many years…

In a sense, he was in a worse situation than Dead Dog, so Jing Jiu could understand his demeanor.

The two puppets of the magic gold pulled the “unconscious” Jing Jiu out from the carriage and dragged him through the dark tunnel for a long time until he could hear the noises.

Jing Jiu was locked in a cell.

As he opened his eyes, he didn’t try to sense the surroundings of the cell, but looked at the outside of the cell.

There wasn’t a slightest lighting in the dark Fiend Prison, but countless noises echoed ceaselessly amid a place that seemed to have many cliffs.

On the cliffs were many caves located closely to each other, and the treacherous formation diagrams were everywhere here. There must be a great many prisoners locked in those caves.

This was the first level of the Fiend Prison, where imprisoned were the former officials who had a powerful Cultivation state, or the assassins of the Old Ones, or the elders of the deviant sects. After having experienced the assault of that energy, some of them had slowly come back to their senses after a long time, but many of them had been staying in their shattered mental world all this time.

They mumbled something nobody could understand, or sang a song nobody could enjoy; and they had been mumbling and singing for many years.

Hearing the slight noises like the leaves being gnawed at by tens of thousands of insects, any prisoner who had a weaker will power would probably be scared to pass out.

Jing Jiu stood behind the cell door and listened to those noises, his mind calm and peaceful.

Every prisoner in the Fiend Prison had to wear a Source Lock, and there was a formation diagram guarding every cell, and their minds had been shaken up by that energy; so the prisoners basically had no chance of escaping from their cells.

However, these quandaries were nonexistent for Jing Jiu. It was because he had brought two keys with him, and he had already known how to dismantle the formation diagram in this cell beforehand.

He took out the keys to unlock the Source Lock, dismantled the formation diagram, and opened the cell door, and then walked into the darkness.

Since State Duke Lu was in charge of the Fiend Prison, this place couldn’t confine him, like he did in the Sword Jail on the Green Mountain.

His luck wasn’t too bad, no matter whether it was in his previous life or this life.

Yet, he still stayed alert, because in the Fiend Prison, State Duke Lu wasn’t the most powerful person, nor was the Emperor.

Jing Jiu didn’t make any noise; there was no breathing, no energy, no heartbeat, like a ghost moving around in the Fiend Prison.

Nobody would discover his existence, no matter whether they were the prisoners who had woken from the shock rendered by that energy or the sensitive puppets of the magic gold.

There was a broken cliff at the end of the darkness, and some old black vines dropped from the cliff’s edge to the bottom; but Jing Jiu jumped off the cliff rather than climbing down the vines.

If one could see the scene in the darkness, they would be able to see his white cloth flapping with the wind, like a blossoming flower.

In fact, the rims of his cloth and his movements didn’t cause any windy sound.

So it wasn’t a flower flying down, but a cloud.

It was the second level of the Fiend Prison, at the bottom of the cliff.