Chapter 785

Several red beams lit up above the three people's heads.

"Watch out—!"

Dan Heng didn't even have time to think; instinctively he knocked Xing down, evading the attack by a hair's breadth.

"Boom! Boom! Boom—!"

Deafening booms erupted in succession, the ground shuddered violently as if a giant hammer were repeatedly striking. Shards of stone and clouds of dust rose sky‑high, instantly engulfing the scene and toppling the mountain‑high stacks of cargo boxes nearby.

"Cough… cough cough!" Xing, shielded beneath Dan Heng, was still choking on the swirling dust, coughing violently, his ears buzzing. By the time they and Han Ya recovered, the dust had cleared, and seven or eight towering mechs had, at some point, surrounded them.

"Situation urgent, Wu Bian, obey! Come quickly to assist!"

Han Ya shouted into the transmitter several times, but received no reply. In the area beyond her sight… Wu Bian, who should have rushed in at the first order, lay sprawled on the ground, and only her urgent voice echoed alone in the Prison of the Silent.

——

The Battle of Twin Cities.

"When did these Buli people slip in? They knocked out Wu Bian early and released these mechs… Looks like there are quite a few infiltrators in the Prison of the Silent."

Victor even wondered whether, aside from Xing and Han Ya, all the other judges in the Prison of the Silent were Buli infiltrators—perhaps they were surrounded by infiltrators? Only the faces hadn't been torn off.

"Seems these Buli have been scheming for a long time; I thought…" Jess twisted his eyebrows, let out a dissatisfied "tsk", "... thought the Buli were just a bunch of brute‑force, beastly, smash‑and‑grab… hmm, beasts. Didn't expect them to be so patient and adept at plotting. To ambush the patrolling Wu Bian without being seen, they must know her patrol routes inside out. Looks like they've been planning this prison break for a long while."

"Now it seems the Buli are clever, and this is only a faction among the Abundant Folk," Professor Heimo Dingge turned his head, his voice unusually solemn, "Looking at the list of major offenders, there appears to be a 'wing‑maker', probably a bird‑like creature? Think about it: the Abundant Folk have never produced a 'Commandant' type of great figure, yet they've been opposing the Celestial Vessel for millennia. To say they're not good at scheming… Jess, you really underestimated them."

Heimo Dingge sprang from his chair: "If they manage to pull off this prison break, the Buli's power will rise again. Though the Celestial Vessel has forces stronger than Hulei, I suspect… Hulei's strength doesn't lie in raw force."

"Then what is it?"

"In war, the general isn't necessarily the strongest fighter in a force," Heimo Dingge said. "If you compare all the Buli to a single army, Hulei would be the one who thinks and schemes the most, the one most fit to become the totemic symbol… the Buli's 'Nest Father' is exactly that."

——

"What's happening? Why are these things moving?" Han Ya, still awaiting Wu Bian's response, added, "Something's off; the guards aren't responding…"

"Fortunately, having dealt with this before, Dan Heng and Xing coordinated, quickly smashing the mechs into scrap. Yet seeing the still‑sparking machines, Han Ya felt uneasy: 'How is this possible? The underworld agents had already cut power to the devices inside the crates per protocol and sealed them externally. Why can these mechs still move?'"

"Just like what we saw in Gong Zao Si, these cargos seem to have lost control, indiscriminately attacking everyone present," Dan Heng said. "People from Dan Ding Si inspected the mechs; they contain an unusual internal structure. Such items appearing in the Prison of the Silent have only one purpose—"

Han Ya said bluntly, "Prison break."

"And those who sent these cargos clearly hoped the Celestial Vessel's strict review would expose their danger to the Tianbo Department and Cloud Riders. What they wanted to ensure was that they would inevitably be delivered into the Prison of the Silent."

Realizing the severity, Han Ya's complexion grew even paler than before: "…If these things began moving while everyone was unaware, the whole prison is now in grave danger. Worse, besides the two of us, a party of visitors just entered the depths of the Prison of the Silent—the emissaries of the Azure Celestial Vessel."

"The target of their visit… might be the very wolf‑shaped mechs sent here. If the beast suppressed at the bottom breaks free… the Luo Fu Celestial Vessel could face a great disaster!"

——

The Funeral of Fuli Lian.

"It's truly a chain of cause and effect; judging by the process, these Buli are indeed clever… at least far smarter than that band of demons."

In the inn's room, Fuli Lian rested a single hand on her cheek, perched by the window gazing at the sky. Decades ago, when she and Xinmei'er and others campaigned against the Demon King, those demons had no such wisdom; they would unabashedly show their fangs to the weak, never concealing their edge—just from that, the Buli are simply far more agile.

"But Lady Fuli Lian, they are so determined to release Hulei—does Hulei even know the situation outside now? Does it know it must face three generals simultaneously? With three generals stationed on the Celestial Vessel, it's hardly the best time to escape, right?" Filien closed the magical tome in his hands, turned to Fuli Lian, "As long as the Tianbo Department secures the passageways and tightens the review of the Star‑sled, Hulei has no chance of escaping."

"But that's the problem," Fuli Lian fiddled with the few small flowers on the windowsill, smiling faintly, "Han Ya also doesn't know the Buli's strategy—whether after the prison break they intend to flee the Celestial Vessel or spark chaos on the spot; that's the question."

"But judging from Jing Yuan's attitude, 'purify the turbid, raise the clear'… all of that was within his expectations. Even if the Buli can cause trouble, they're merely insects trapped in a spider's web; Hulei is at most a larger insect. Even if it escapes the Prison of the Silent's web, it will only fall into an even larger net woven by the generals."

——

A moment ago, Xueyi had led the Azure Celestial emissaries to the bottom of the Prison of the Silent.

"Judge, have we arrived?" Jiao Qiu looked around; though this place was narrower and darker than above, it was empty and barren, "There's no cage here at all, is there?"

"Those who have committed ten evils and the greatest treason are confined at the bottom of the Prison of the Silent, each sealed in an individual pocket realm. Without a decree, they will not be released lightly."