Chapter 659: The Prisoners in the Depths of the Ghost Prison

Staring at Hu Dian, who looked like a half-dead dog, the crowd couldn’t help but gasp.

‘Gods, he was perfectly fine when he left just now. How did he end up in this half-dead state?’ they thought. ‘And Qin Ya, the one we all thought would die, is not only alive and well—aside from looking a little battered—but he even seems more vigorous than before.’

For a moment, everyone was baffled.

‘Wait a minute… Hu Dian went out to fight that young man, didn’t he?’

“Could it be… that boy is the one who injured Hu Dian?”

A prisoner in the Ghost Prison voiced the question.

At his words, the crowd froze. They could barely process the implication.

‘That boy did this? But he’s just a King! How could he have possibly wounded Hu Dian so badly? It’s completely unbelievable!’

The Prison Guard carrying Hu Dian locked him back in his cell. Seeing that he was still conscious, the other prisoners immediately began sending him messages via Divine Thought, demanding to know what had happened.

“Hey, Hu Dian, what happened to you?”

“Hurry up and talk! Did a Venerable himself make a move?”

“Don’t you dare tell me that boy did this to you.”

As the various Divine Thought messages flooded his mind, Hu Dian’s gaze turned grim. But beneath that grimness lay a profound, hidden terror.

He snorted. “Why don’t you try fighting him and find out for yourselves.”

Seeing Hu Dian refuse to answer, the prisoners’ expressions soured.

At that moment, Qin Ya stepped forward. His tone was cold as he announced, “From now on, I will come to the Ghost Prison every day and choose one person to be my opponent. The terms are the same: whoever can kill me will be allowed to leave the Ghost Prison.”

Fang Tianzheng vouched for Qin Ya’s words, making the crowd eager to try their luck.

But Hu Dian, who had just been carried back in, gave a cold sneer.

‘Hmph. The more excited you are now, the more you’ll despair later.’

‘That boy… fuck, he’s not even human. He’s a monster!’

Ignoring the excited stir among the prisoners, Fang Tianzheng led Qin Ya directly into the depths of the Ghost Prison, to a place that seemed to exist in a separate pocket of Space.

The moment they arrived, Qin Ya was hit by the overwhelming stench of blood.

Seeing Fang Tianzheng approach, a middle-aged Prison Guard immediately went to greet him. He bowed respectfully and said, “Ma Zheng, at your service. Greetings, Mansion Master.”

Fang Tianzheng nodded. “Any progress today?”

Ma Zheng’s expression turned grim. “Reporting to the Mansion Master, we’ve gotten almost nothing. Some of them are just too stubborn; they refuse to say a single word.”

Hearing this, Fang Tianzheng’s brow furrowed slightly.

Qin Ya watched, puzzled. ‘What’s going on here?’

As if sensing Qin Ya’s confusion, the Vice Mansion Master beside him explained, “This is the deepest part of the Ghost Prison. Every person here is hiding a secret. Some have stolen treasures from the Divine Palace and hidden them away. Others are spies for powerful factions, concealed within the Divine Capital. There are even leaders of Evil Cults who have amassed untold fortunes… Each one of them is extremely valuable, so we can’t simply kill them. We have to force their secrets out. But they’re a stubborn lot. Despite trying every method imaginable, we rarely make any headway.”

Hearing this, Qin Ya finally understood.

He followed Fang Tianzheng to a cell.

Inside, a Prison Guard wielded an Iron Whip as thick as a thumb and covered in barbs. He was relentlessly lashing a brawny man who was bound in chains. Every strike tore away a chunk of flesh. Next to the Prison Guard stood a large barrel of saltwater, and every now and then, he would splash a ladleful onto the prisoner.

The sheer cruelty of the torture was enough to make one’s blood run cold.

Yet, there wasn’t a trace of pain on the brawny man’s face. Instead, he let out a delirious laugh, as if the Iron Whip wasn’t striking his own body.

“Speak! Where did you hide Li Tianjue’s concubine?”

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! After asking, the guard resumed the brutal beating.

But the brawny man seemed oblivious, roaring with laughter. “Where is that little bitch hidden? You think I’d tell you sons of bitches? Come on! Do it! A little harder, you piece of shit! You call that hitting someone?”

Seemingly enraged, the Prison Guard heaved the entire barrel of saltwater and drenched the brawny man. Bloody water instantly pooled on the floor. The man gasped sharply, his limbs convulsing, before he erupted into an even more ferocious, crazed laughter.

“Haha! Yes! That’s the stuff!”

“Come on, Little Prison Guard, let your daddy feel that again!”

The Prison Guard grabbed his Iron Whip. SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! He rained down dozens more lashes.

In the end, the brawny man was still laughing, while the Prison Guard himself was seething with impotent rage.

Outside the cell, both Qin Ya and Fang Tianzheng frowned at the scene.

Ma Zheng saw their expressions and reported, “This man’s name is Feiyang. He’s a Cultivator who specializes in harvesting the Yin Essence of women. He has killed no fewer than a hundred female Cultivators this way. Six months ago, he set his sights on the concubine of the Li Family’s Celestial Nobility, Li Tianjue. He managed to capture her, but we discovered him in the act. We pursued and eventually captured him, but by then, the concubine had vanished. According to the Li Family’s unique Life Lamp, she is still alive, merely hidden somewhere by this bastard.”

He finished with a helpless sigh. “But in the last six months, we’ve tried everything and haven’t gotten a single scrap of information out of him.”

Fang Tianzheng asked, “What is the concubine’s Cultivation?”

“She is said to be an Era-Defining King.”

“Hmm… an Era-Defining King can easily survive for decades without food or water. Continue the interrogation. And while you’re at it, make him confess the names of all the women he’s preyed on before. Compile a list,” Fang Tianzheng said flatly, glancing at the brawny man.

Then, they moved on to the next cell.

Before they even reached it, sharp blasts of Qi Force shot out.

Inside this cell, a Prison Guard stood before a short, fat old man. Divine Light swirled around the guard’s body, transforming into razor-sharp Qi Force that flayed the old man’s skin. Each pass of the Qi Force created a spray of bloody mist, but the wounds would then begin to slowly regenerate new flesh, the process visible to the naked eye.

The short, fat old man looked at the Prison Guard with a smile. “Come on, keep going.”

Ma Zheng spoke with resignation, “This old man is Jin Huang, the leader of an Evil Cult. His Cultivation isn’t anything special, but he’s cultivated some bizarre, unorthodox physical body. His regeneration is incredibly fast. Even if we were to sever his limbs, he could regrow them in ten to fifteen days without any Elixirs.”

Hearing this, Qin Ya couldn’t help but marvel. ‘This world is truly full of wonders.’

“And what crime did he commit?”

“This man used the promise of immortality to recruit countless followers across the Divine Country, amassing a huge fortune in the process. He also organized multiple rebellions, which led to riots in several cities. After we captured him, we tried to force him to reveal the locations of other Evil Cult strongholds. But the man is a slippery-tongued liar. He’s always feeding us false information, sending us on one wild goose chase after another. Ugh, he’s a real handful.”