Chapter 276 - 274: Ferocious
"Iron-Armed Hulv" Du Yang was able to throw his weight around in the first prison block because of his strength and his vicious personality.
Over time, some had tried to resist, but none were his match. He crippled their Martial Arts, leaving them severely injured in a corner to fend for themselves.
If he didn’t have to worry about the Sun-piercing Alliance, he truly would have killed people.
But now, this same Du Yang was being held by the head and slammed against the wall by a newcomer, treated like a helpless chick. The sight was utterly jarring.
Seeing this, Du Yang’s four underlings immediately rushed forward to rescue their boss.
However, these men were only at the Sea of Reincarnation Realm. Chen Yuan extended a hand, unleashing his Profound Celestial Finger Strength, and directly pierced their Dantians.
This was with Chen Yuan holding back, afraid of causing too much trouble. Otherwise, with his power, those four bursts of Finger Strength would have been enough to blast them into pulp.
"You’re courting death, kid!"
Du Yang roared in fury and struggled to charge at Chen Yuan.
But just as True Qi began to surface around his body, a searing burst of Blood Fiend Power erupted from Chen Yuan’s hand, violently suppressing it.
Then, Chen Yuan used his Silk Binding Jade Hand—a technique he hadn’t used in a long time—to crush the man’s arm before grabbing him by the head and dragging him to a nearby wall.
The wall had been reinforced with iron plates. Though not of high quality, they were sturdy enough.
Chen Yuan, expressionless, grabbed Du Yang’s head and began slamming it against the wall, producing a series of loud thuds.
Du Yang’s head visibly began to crack and bleed, the sound of his skull fracturing and caving in filling the air. But Chen Yuan, as if he didn’t notice, still showed no mercy.
With every impact, the hearts of the onlookers skipped a beat.
Many of the Martial Artists present were no pushovers on the outside.
After being thrown in here, they had fought amongst themselves. It took a long time for Du Yang to rise to the top, becoming the boss of this first prison block and establishing a crude sort of order.
But since Chen Yuan’s arrival, he hadn’t said a single word. He just expressionlessly held Du Yang’s head, looking like he was about to smash the prison boss’s skull into a meat pie. The sight would make anyone’s blood run cold.
This silent Chen Yuan was far more terrifying than the outwardly ferocious Du Yang had ever been.
"Spare... spare my life!"
Du Yang begged in terror, all traces of his previous ferocity gone from his face.
He was afraid that if he had spoken a moment later, the next thing he’d see would be his own brains!
This time, Chen Yuan finally stopped slamming his head. Instead, he kicked Du Yang, sending him tumbling away like a rolling gourd.
Chen Yuan walked up to him and looked down, his face devoid of expression. "How long have you been in here? Do you know what goes on?"
Du Yang froze for a second before it clicked. He nodded repeatedly. "I’ve been here for two months. I was in one of the first groups brought in. I know everything about this place.
"Sir, as long as you spare my life, I will be at your beck and call!"
He could tell that Chen Yuan wanted someone useful. As long as he was useful, he could live!
"I heard the Sun-piercing Alliance captured several thousand Martial Artists. Why are there only a few hundred people here?"
Du Yang quickly explained, "The Sun-piercing Alliance’s underground area is massive. We’re only in the first prison block. The entire underground is divided into nine blocks."
Chen Yuan raised an eyebrow slightly. ’So they’re all separated. That makes things a bit more difficult.’
"I’m looking for someone. He’s an old man with a lame leg. In his youth, he was a Peak of Condensing Truth Realm Martial Artist, but his Martial Arts are crippled now. He should have a young girl with him. Have you seen him?"
Du Yang shook his head blankly. "No, I haven’t. With such distinct features, I would definitely know if he was in my block. He must be in one of the others."
Chen Yuan’s frown deepened.
His original plan was to find Zuo Xinglie as soon as he got in, but he hadn’t expected the prison to be divided like this.
If he signaled Bei Tianya without finding Zuo Xinglie first, what would he do if something happened to the old man during the ensuing chaos?
’I don’t care if he dies, but he’d better not take the Emperor’s Qi Observation Skill to his grave.’
Seeing Chen Yuan’s expression darken, Du Yang quickly added, "Sir, it’s not impossible to go to the other blocks.
"The Sun-piercing Alliance isn’t very strict with its supervision. It seems they only care that we stay here quietly, so they don’t pay attention to the exact number of people in each block, or who is where.
"Every time it’s mealtime, they close the main gate to the second sublevel, open all the block doors, and let us get food for ourselves.
"That’s when we can follow others into the different blocks. The people from the Sun-piercing Alliance don’t care.
"Take me, for example. I wasn’t originally in the first block, but the Fifth Prison. There was just a real tough guy there I couldn’t beat, so I ran over to this one."
SMACK!
Chen Yuan slapped him across the face, sending a spray of blood from Du Yang’s mouth, along with a few broken teeth.
"And you’re only telling me this now?"
Du Yang clutched his face and lowered his head, not daring to show even a hint of resentment.
On the outside, he wasn’t part of a bandit gang but a lone robber. His methods were ruthless; after robbing someone, he would slaughter them to the last man. Sometimes, he even moonlighted as an assassin.
Because of this, he was extremely sensitive to killing intent. This seemingly ordinary Martial Artist before him had a restrained aura, but Du Yang could clearly perceive the ultimate killing intent contained within.
The number of Martial Artists who had died at this man’s hands was surely beyond his imagination. This was an existence he absolutely could not afford to provoke.
A slap that knocked out a few teeth was nothing. He was terrified that if he said one wrong word, the man’s next slap would blow his head clean off!
"Tomorrow at mealtime, take me to the other blocks to find someone."
Du Yang nodded repeatedly, then added, "Sir, almost every block has a formidable figure in charge. I run the first block. If we go to the others, it might cause some trouble.
"If you go looking for someone openly, those people probably won’t be very cooperative."
This time, he didn’t dare hold anything back, laying out all the possibilities.
"You don’t need to worry about that."
Chen Yuan waved a dismissive hand and asked, "Since you’ve been here so long, do you know what the Sun-piercing Alliance wants with all these people they’ve captured?"
Du Yang shook his head. "I don’t know. But I’m sure it has nothing to do with finding people who intend to subvert the alliance.
"When I was first brought in, the Sun-piercing Alliance said my sins were overflowing, that I had killed so-and-so and committed countless evil deeds, and that they were enacting justice on behalf of heaven by imprisoning me to atone.
"Pah! As if the Sun-piercing Alliance hasn’t committed its own share of evil deeds! They call *me* utterly evil? How much better are they?
"But the people who came after me were all brought in under similar pretexts.
"Although no one has died, and the Sun-piercing Alliance hasn’t shown any killing intent toward us, being locked up here for so long for no reason has left everyone simmering with rage.
"If we ever get out, we obviously won’t have the power to take revenge on the Sun-piercing Alliance, one of the Seven Alliances of the World.
"But if someone else were to move against the Sun-piercing Alliance, we would definitely kick them while they’re down just to vent our frustration!"
Chen Yuan stroked his chin, a thoughtful look on his face.
’The original story didn’t go into detail about how the Sun-piercing Alliance declined.’
’The Sun-piercing Alliance is far away in You Province, a power in a peripheral region. Most of the time, it just served as a backdrop.’
’I think it was something about the Sun-piercing Sword losing its Commander-in-Chief, then going rampant, making it impossible to create a Divine Artifact Incarnation. In the end, the Murong Family found an opportunity to destroy and absorb them.’
’But in reality, the Sun-piercing Alliance is one of the Seven Alliances of the World on the Jianghu Wind and Cloud Rankings. With tens of thousands of disciples, how could it be so easily swallowed by the Murong Family?’
’Looking at it now, the fall of the Sun-piercing Alliance might be related to what’s happening today. A case of everyone kicking a man when he’s down.’
"Get your injuries treated. Tomorrow, you’ll take me to the other blocks to find him."
Chen Yuan waved his hand dismissively, his expression impassive.
"Should I find a comfortable spot for you, Sir?"
Du Yang asked cautiously.
"We’re locked in a prison. How comfortable can it possibly get?"
Chen Yuan looked at Du Yang as if he were an idiot.
𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞
’Pathetic. Still thinking about being a king in prison. He’ll never amount to anything.’
Chen Yuan then sat down cross-legged and began to cultivate in silence.
The other Martial Artists in the room looked at Chen Yuan with a strange light in their eyes.
They had originally thought that after dealing with Du Yang, Chen Yuan would surely take his place as the boss of the first block and continue to lord it over them.
But to their surprise, Chen Yuan couldn’t care less about being the boss. He just sat there cultivating quietly, wanting nothing to do with it.
Du Yang had some Elixirs on him, all of which he had extorted from other Martial Artists.
After taking some internally and applying others externally, he found a tattered cloth and wrapped it around his head, making him look rather comical.
Although Chen Yuan had fractured his skull and left a large indentation, the injuries weren’t fatal.
He was a Condensing Truth Realm cultivator, after all. And while he wasn’t a Martial Artist who specialized in physical conditioning, he had practiced a Body Refining Technique, so his Life Force was quite strong.
Now, seeing Chen Yuan meditating and cultivating, his eyes narrowed, and a look of fear appeared on his face.
It wasn’t fear of Chen Yuan’s earlier brutality, but fear of what he was doing now.
Several hundred Martial Artists were imprisoned here, their futures uncertain, their fates unknown.
Almost everyone was agitated and irritable, or had fallen into complete despair, lying around like corpses.
Even he, the boss of the first block, was the same, extremely anxious on the inside.
How could being the boss of a prison compare to the freedom of the outside world?
But this man before him? He didn’t seem to care about anything, simply cultivating here in peace and quiet.
’Such behavior means one of two things: either his background is astonishing and he’s confident he can walk out of this prison...’
’...or his mental fortitude and Cultivation are incredible, the kind of person who remains calm even if the heavens fall, steadfast amidst a world of change.’
’But regardless of which it is, a person like that is no ordinary figure. He is absolutely someone I cannot afford to provoke.’