Chapter 301: Prison Reward Grab, Gathering Unfolds (52k, seeking subscriptions)

"That person is usually most fond of studying various architectural and construction matters. He is a very famous Spirit Artisan, and especially in the field of prisons, he can be called a Grand Artisan. Normally, only Great Cultivators can obtain such a title. The design and division of the various forbidden prisons, absolute prisons, and criminal prisons throughout the Southern Lands are all from his hand!"

"So that's how it is. I have also had the fortune of experiencing a forbidden prison; I never expected it to have originated from this person."

"Uh..."

Facing Du En, who spoke calmly without changing his expression about having been in prison, Tang Wenren felt it was somewhat ridiculous for a moment.

Who put a genius into prison?

And in a forbidden prison, that kind of lowest-level place?

Isn't that used for locking up ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators?

What was the person who locked him up thinking back then?

A series of doubts kept bubbling up in his heart.

Then, he heard Du En continue to ask in a matter-of-fact tone: "Speaking of which, why is it only inviting Golden Core cultivators? Since it was designed and built by such a figure, normally, the targeted cultivation realm should at least be Nascent Soul, right?"

"Regarding this, it is mainly because the newly built prison is a trial prototype. If its reliability can be proven, subsequent issues such as the upgrading and renovation of prisons in various places might be involved, so we want to ensure there are no mistakes!"

"So that's it. It seems this Supervisor Yang is very confident, daring to offer such a high reward; he clearly has sufficient certainty that no one will be able to obtain it."

"That is indeed the case. To obtain it, one still needs to rely on actual ability!"

Du En immediately understood that it seemed it would not be easy to get his hands on it this time.

Indeed, the Southern Pivot City side was very accommodating; it should be considered going with the flow. In short, they created an opportunity for Du En to earn merit.

But, whether he can actually obtain it still depends on his own ability.

When all is said and done, the faction represented by Du En, Meng Changqing's side, and the upper-level collective here at Southern Pivot City are still in a state of great disagreement, deep conflict, and mutual awkwardness.

"Then, please lead the way, Excellency, let us go and test the quality of this new prison."

"Exactly, I am also quite eager to try!"

Tang Wenren was indeed eager to give it a try. It was mainly because life in Southern Pivot City was monotonous, and having finally encountered such a novel and interesting matter, he was naturally quite eager.

Thus, the two of them immediately left together to head toward the location of that prototype prison.

On the way there, one could see many people discussing this matter.

Clearly, having encountered a rare diversion, their desire to talk was quite high.

There were even many Golden Core cultivators who had specifically asked for leave and had been preparing for many days; at this moment, they were high-spirited and vigorous, rushing toward that heavy reward, appearing determined to win.

In other words, Du En was actually cutting it close when he found out about this.

Tang Wenren had originally thought that he would have invited him earlier to ask about the truth of this matter, but he never expected that after waiting and waiting, he still hadn't seen him come by today.

He immediately couldn't help but feel a jolt in his heart, thinking that this side might not know yet, so he hurriedly ran over to pay a visit.

As it turned out, it was true. Du En had been obsessed with his grinding and cultivation, and since there was no rush to finish flipping through the Scripture Depository, he hadn't gone out often, so he often only stepped out of his cave dwelling once every ten days or half a month.

He also wasn't worried about missing anything; after all, he was the key point of these coincidental events, the "dish of vinegar."

It was for this dish of vinegar that the Pivot City side made the dumplings!

Therefore, if he didn't show up, the curtain wouldn't rise.

And so, when the time came, Tang Wenren couldn't sit still.

Without Tang Wenren, there would be Yang Xin, or other people; in any case, there was no need to worry. In fact, he had indeed not guessed wrong.

As for the aspect of prior preparation, there was nothing to prepare, or rather, the grinding and cultivation that Du En did every day to maintain sufficient surplus and continuously accumulate progress was preparation done at every moment!

The walking crowd began to gradually converge, and it was rarely as noisy as a mundane vegetable market. Various voices of conversation kept emerging, passing on various true or false information in this form, appearing exceptionally lively.

Du En actually saw a few Golden Core Assistant Examiners of the Inspection Guard among these people, which made him raise his eyebrows slightly.

Because the crowd was noisy and it was not convenient to speak clearly, he transmitted his voice to ask Tang Wenren: "Can this Inspection Guard also participate?"

"They are all colleagues, naturally they can."

He did not understand why Du En asked this, and answered subconsciously.

Thus, Du En became thoughtful.

Although he had arrived at Southern Pivot City, Du En had not gone to inquire about Assistant Examiner Zhen and Zhen Yu, whom he had known once, regarding their situation.

It was mainly out of consideration for the special nature of the Inspection Guard.

But as it turned out, it seemed he had considered too much. The Inspection Guard seemed quite ordinary here in Southern Pivot City, not the "strangers stay away" and "isolated from the outside" place he had imagined.

However, that was a sensitive place after all. If there was fate later and they happened to meet and chat a couple of times, that would be fine; if they didn't meet, there was no need to go out of his way to inquire.

Thinking this, Du En chatted with Tang Wenren for a few more sentences and then skipped the topic.

They walked all the way and finally arrived at a field in the city with lush green grass.

On the wide field, there was an array formation shrouding it, wrapping up the so-called prototype prison, making it invisible and appearing quite mysterious.

At the moment, several hundred people were gathered here. Looking at them, the lowest were top-tier elites, the proportion of strong top-tier elites was also quite high, and the lowest cultivation was at the Golden Core mid-stage.

It was very clear that those whose strength had not reached this level were just wasting their time coming here, so they all tacitly sighed and gave up.

Even the proportion of those at the Golden Core mid-stage was actually very, very small. Clearly, this tiny portion of people held a fluke mentality, thinking that perhaps they could pick up a bargain.

They all had bright eyes, were fully prepared, and even harbored hidden wariness and hostility toward those around them.

Once here, except for oneself, everyone else was a competitor!

In this prison reward grab, the biggest obstacles, besides the elaborate arrangements of the prison itself, were these colleagues who were also participants!

Since it concerned a heavy reward and huge profit, the competition was naturally fierce, and no one would give it up!

This kind of atmosphere was both enthusiastic and tense, which made Tang Wenren eager to try.

Like a young master from a wealthy family, where had he ever experienced such a scene before? He immediately felt in his heart that he had come to the right place.

He really had to thank Du En for coming; otherwise, he wouldn't have encountered such a grand occasion!

In his secret reflection, as time slowly reached a stage, the participants who were coming had basically all arrived, especially the key person who was already in place.

Therefore, amidst the anticipation of the crowd, a spiritual light screen lit up.

The background was a sealed stone chamber where various arrangements were operating tightly, making people feel awed without knowing why. The main figure was Yang Dong, the Supervisor of the Construction Department.

His face somewhat resembled a goat, the contours of his brows and eyes naturally appearing a bit crafty and cold, yet his gaze was brimming with enthusiasm and confidence; one look was enough to know he likely had a lot to say.

Behind him, apart from the Construction Bureau craftsmen buried in their work and operating the mechanisms in various parts of the stone chamber, there was a group of personnel dressed in solemn black robes, each quite stern and unsmiling, scattered about and conducting some sort of observation and recording, appearing very attentive and earnest.

People from the Prison Justice Bureau!

They were clearly collaborators here, or rather, the client, and their leader was a female Supervisor at the Nascent Soul stage, standing with her hands hanging at her sides behind and to the side of Yang Dong.

"Ahem! Fellow colleagues, since you have chosen to come here at this moment, I presume you have all come for the heavy reward I have put forth, so I need not beat around the bush!"

Yang Dong spoke up, his voice somewhat hoarse and not very pleasant, but it immediately made everyone hold their breath and listen patiently and carefully, as no one wanted to miss key information.

Thereupon, he spoke directly with a strange, irrepressible smirk: "Getting it is actually quite simple; you only need to pass through the new-style prison I have designed and overseen, reach the cell at the very center, and bring one of the 'convicts' inside out of the prison's main perimeter!"

Verifying the quality of a prison is clearly very simple.

Either a convict attempts to break out, or someone comes to break them out.

This time it was a jailbreak scenario—simple and easy to understand, with no extra key information, which left the crowd quite disappointed and immediately caused them to return to a state of noisy restlessness.

Since there was no extra information, who would care about a goat-faced guy like you? It would be much better if it were the beautiful Supervisor standing behind you!

Those who could get time off and had the confidence to claim the reward at this moment basically all had backgrounds, and basically none of them feared Yang Dong, a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator from the Construction Bureau.

Moreover, the law does not punish the masses; if they could use this to provoke Yang Dong into revealing his true colors and accidentally blurting out some key information, that would naturally be for the best!

That is why they were all acting so straightforward and direct in unison now.

Sure enough, seeing this change in the situation, Yang Dong was immediately angered, yet he managed to restrain himself, only unable to stop a somewhat sinister and gleeful look from appearing in his eyes.

Hmph! There is still plenty of time for you to be smug; in a moment, you will know the power of Master Yang!

"Supervisor Yang, please exercise some restraint."

Standing behind Yang Dong, the cold-faced and dutiful beautiful Supervisor An Ruqin reminded him via voice transmission at this moment.

He immediately glanced back at her with some displeasure.

If you didn't insist on standing behind me, how would those thoughts have sprouted in them?!

"It is my duty; this time I am here on behalf of the Prison Justice Bureau to assist with your verification and to evaluate the specific standards of this newly built prison, so I hope for your understanding."

Cold, serious, and meticulous, she transmitted her voice again, causing Yang Dong to withdraw his gaze with immediate sullenness.

Hmph! I won't bicker with you; for now, let me listen to your wails and screams to come!

Yang Dong's eyes were extremely lively and excited; as he cast a spell, the great curtain was drawn back, and the brand-new prison appeared before everyone's eyes.

The cold, high-walled compound loomed over this wilderness, and as various arrangements were activated in order, an invisible flow of spiritual energy swept past the crowd, causing the grass and leaves to flutter in disarray.

Dark clouds gathered in the sky like a swirling vortex, and thunder rumbled faintly, casting gloom over the earth and giving the high-walled compound a thick sense of oppression, as if it were a slumbering primordial beast, naturally causing one to feel palpitations.

"Ah! My divine sense secret technique has been severed!"

Someone couldn't help but scream in pain; they had wanted to take advantage of the gap while the curtain was being drawn to secretly use a secret technique to observe the inside and outside, but their tentacles were ruthlessly severed as a result.

"Hahaha, divine sense secret technique? Ridiculous! If a prison for tooth-grinding cultivators cannot block divine sense, can it even be called a qualified prison?!"

Yang Dong couldn't help but let out a strange laugh and mocked them ruthlessly, leaving that person daring to be angry but not daring to speak; after all, they had indeed suffered a loss, and to stubbornly refuse to admit defeat now would only be self-inflicted humiliation and a laughingstock.

"Hmph! To think it could break my spatial talisman? Damn it!"

Someone felt a heartache so intense they couldn't breathe; they had also wanted to secretly seize the initiative, but the fourth-tier talisman they had spent a high price to acquire was directly destroyed and nullified.

"Gaga-ga! A mere fourth-tier talisman, and you still want to act presumptuously?"

Yang Dong's true nature was gradually exposed, and he immediately retorted directly.

"Didn't you say this was for the Golden Core stage? How can it even suppress a fourth-tier one?"

This person was greatly unconvinced in their heart, and being mocked made them directly furious, so they couldn't help but speak up like this.

Yang Dong replied immediately, aggressive and overbearing: "To lock you Golden Core stage cultivators up tight, don't I have to turn up the intensity? Otherwise, how can I ensure nothing goes wrong? If you didn't even think of this or have this self-awareness, colleague, you had better hurry back to work and stop wasting everyone's time!"

"You! You!"

This person was flushed red with anger; the key was that many people around were showing looks of agreement, which made them even more exasperated, yet they could only restrain themselves, cursing inwardly not to fall for this goat-faced guy's trap!

"Oh my! It's impossible to go through the ground either, what a nuisance!"

Someone hadn't thought about secretly seizing the initiative, but just now, when everyone else's attention was diverted, they secretly tried a secret escape technique, only to find it completely useless; they felt a headache coming on, couldn't help but scratch their head, and complained to their companion via divine sense transmission.

Then, Yang Dong caught the scent and came over: "Little girl, do you think this prison is run by your family, that you can come and go as you please? I'll tell you the truth: whether you go to the heavens or down into the earth, don't even think about sneaking in!"

How can you be so rude, actually eavesdropping on someone else's divine sense transmission?!

As if sensing the anger here, Yang Dong had no grace at all and immediately pursued with cold sarcasm: "It's just divine sense eavesdropping; that's quite normal in a prison, isn't it? Honestly, for you guys who are here with a playful attitude and no self-awareness, I really am not worried at all that you'll be able to run out once you're locked in!"

It was a wide-ranging, all-encompassing, and malicious remark.

In short, before it had even officially begun, Yang Dong had already given everyone a harsh warning, leaving them with gloomy faces and itching with hatred.

"Is this Construction Supervisor Yang always this annoying?"

Du En opened his mouth silently at this moment, asking Tang Wenren.

At this moment, he had slightly concealed his presence, his Ice Breath at the level of mastery, and he had blended into the crowd quite unobtrusively, neither too far nor too close to the prison, conducting preliminary observations.

Tang Wenren was participating in such a thing for the first time and lacked experience; seeing him act this way, appearing very seasoned, he followed suit and blended in as well.

Seeing Du En ask this, he shook his head with a bitter smile and replied silently: "I didn't know he would be like this either, but perhaps this is to make us lose our composure?"

That was very possible, but it felt like it was having the opposite effect, instead making everyone share a common hatred.

Originally, they had been in a state of mutual suspicion and intense competition, with at most a few scattered small groups, but now the atmosphere was beginning to change.

Yang Dong surveyed the entire scene with a sadistic look, not caring at all, and was about to brew his emotions to officially say the word "start."

Then, his gaze swept over, and his heart couldn't help but skip a beat; he turned his head and asked directly: "Supervisor An, what is going on? Where are those two? Where did they hide?!"

In his view, although this model prison was claimed to be for the Golden Core stage, it could actually restrict ordinary early-to-mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivators; only those two people present required strict precautions.

But in the blink of an eye, while he was focused on being acerbic and mocking people, how had they vanished without a trace?!

How was he supposed to target those two main culprits now?

"Over there."

An Ruqin was indeed dutiful, and she pointed out their location immediately.

She had been watching the whole time, neither distracted nor careless, so she naturally noticed Du En and his companion, who had not really intended to hide too deeply.

Yang Dong followed her finger and looked over, only then seeing them, who were keeping a low profile and hiding within the crowd.

Just as he let out a long sigh of relief, he saw the crowd before the arena burst into uproarious laughter; only then did he realize that the event was still being broadcast live, and his old face immediately flushed red, feeling somewhat annoyed and ashamed.

"Hmph! I was just careless! It won't be like this next time!"

"Hahahaha..."

The crowd responded with even louder laughter.

Wawawa!

How preposterous!

He immediately couldn't help but forcibly try to save face: "The genius Tang is naturally difficult to deal with, and Du Youli is even more of an old fox; he's different from you lot, he has a history of being imprisoned, he's experienced and seasoned, which is why he was able to trick me just now—he really cannot be underestimated!"

What is there to be underestimated about that?

An Ruqin and the others could only respond with silence.

Their Prison Administration naturally found out the specific situation much earlier.

It was just a forbidden prison for the Foundation Establishment stage, a very ordinary and common place, and it was over in Nanmo; who knows how many years it had been since it was last renovated, it was probably full of loopholes everywhere—is it worth you talking about it like that?

"Hahahaha! But at the end of the day, a forbidden prison is just a forbidden prison, it can be called a small straw hut for locking up Foundation Establishment cultivators. Du Youli, let me show you what a real prison is!"

Yang Dong was extremely agitated, jumping from one extreme to another, slapping his own face; the people from the Prison Administration found it quite helpless to watch, while the people from the Construction Supervision Department just silently lowered their heads to work.

However, they didn't find it strange; on the contrary, they just felt it was very normal.

Yang Dong had always been this kind of person.

As for the crowd before the arena who had been laughing uproariously, they stopped laughing at this moment, not paying attention to the contradictions in his words, and appeared exceptionally vigilant as they looked around, clearly not having expected that two such big fish would also come to participate.

Not to mention Tang Wenren, no one present dared to truly compete with him, and it was estimated that he was just here to join in the fun this time, as he didn't care for that so-called heavy reward at all.

As for that Du En, Du Youli... their impression of him was actually not good.

Because the previous rectification matter had made them look incredibly miserable, and it was said that this whole affair was triggered by Du En!

And now, he, someone from a small out-of-town city who was currently valued by the sect as a genius, actually wanted to come and compete with them for this bit of resources?

It was simply intolerable!

In short, the atmosphere of them being united against a common enemy directly came to include Du En's side.

Anyway, as long as they competed for the reward properly, could this person really bully others by relying on his status?

They naturally would not give up; after all, a heavy reward moves people's hearts!

However, they couldn't find the person right now.

This made them feel very uncomfortable, with no way to vent their emotions.

(End of this chapter)