[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-immortal-through-martial-path-i-who-cannot-die-s":3,"chapter-immortal-through-martial-path-i-who-cannot-die-s-immortal-through-martial-path-i-who-cannot-die-s-chapter-80":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Immortal Through Martial Path, I Who Cannot Die Shall Ultimately Be Invincible",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2325298,4549,"Chapter 80: Torturing Inspector Jiang","immortal-through-martial-path-i-who-cannot-die-s-chapter-80",80,"\u003Cp>“Starve him. Don’t give him water,” Chen Guanlou ordered the jailers. “Let him go hungry for a few days.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The jailer Xiao Jin whispered, “Chief Chen, I’ve noticed that Inspector Jiang has been starving often. A few days without food probably won’t hurt him.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Someone who frequently goes hungry has his own ways to endure it—he’s better at handling hunger than others.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I believe he can survive ten or fifteen days without food, but I don’t believe he can last three days without water,” Chen Guanlou said. He’d never gone hungry himself, but he had knowledge—he carried vast information in his mind. Scientific research proved humans could endure starvation, but not dehydration.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What if, after three days, he still can’t produce the money? What then?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What then? How was he supposed to know? He hadn’t been a debt collector in his past life. Jiang Fengyu was a bachelor, living alone in the capital while his family remained thousands of miles away in their hometown.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He couldn’t fly thousands of miles to seize them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We’ll deal with it then!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Warden Wan clearly couldn’t wait. Once Jiang Fengyu was dealt with, he’d have other methods ready to target Chen Guanlou. In truth, Chen’s very existence had reached Warden Wan’s breaking point—he had to be driven out, so Wan could finally catch his breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Fengyu had played his hand brilliantly—and it was truly nauseating to Chen Guanlou.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He couldn’t just sit and wait to be destroyed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The A-Cell Block had one iron rule: money. Money was the root of everything, the standard for everything. What he’d said before was true—the upper echelons hadn’t sent rice funds or salaries in half a year. Every month, the jailers’ pay, bonuses, food, drink, oil, and grain—all of it was earned by the jailers themselves.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing the prison could manage its own finances, the higher-ups grew even more complacent and stopped allocating funds entirely.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the past half-year, lower-ranking officials in the capital had all suffered. Outwardly, they dared not speak, but behind closed doors, they cursed the old emperor’s ancestors eighteen generations deep—he was no good! He was forcing them to steal and corrupt just to survive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The old emperor, obsessed with Daoist cultivation and immortality, grew greedier year by year. Any money in the Ministry of Revenue was siphoned off. Officials’ salaries were delayed, and he merely told them to endure hardship.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When they protested too loudly, he’d occasionally hand out a token amount of rice to silence them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Guanlou was lucky—he worked in the Tianlao prison, where he could demand money from prisoners to solve the prison’s funding crisis. If he’d been posted elsewhere, he’d likely be worrying about having no rice to cook.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He invited Lu Datou to dinner.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing Chen Guanlou’s gloomy face, Lu Datou asked, “Has Warden Wan given you trouble again?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You’ve got good ears.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“In the A-Cell Block, only Warden Wan and you are at odds. Who else would bother you?” Lu Datou tossed a peanut into his mouth and sipped his wine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Speak up—what do you need me to do?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Guanlou toasted him, then ordered two more dishes from the innkeeper, and asked quietly, “What’s Warden Wan’s weakness?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Datou’s face twisted with fear and excitement. “You’re really planning to strike?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Guanlou didn’t confirm it. “Better safe than sorry. We can’t be held hostage forever—we need leverage.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Datou thought for a moment. The food on his plate visibly dwindled. “I’ve never dealt with Warden Wan directly, but I’ve gambled with his brother-in-law at a gambling den.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Real brother-in-law?” Chen Guanlou’s interest spiked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Datou chuckled. “Warden Wan keeps a concubine outside. His wife’s a shrew—he dares not speak of it. This brother-in-law is the concubine’s younger brother. He constantly begs her for money to gamble.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Guanlou’s interest deepened. “What’s he like?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Worse than me. Drinks, eats, whoring, gambling—he does it all. Once he even tried to get a girl for free, owed money to a courtesan, and got beaten up and chased down three streets.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Guanlou understood. He could already picture the man’s face. What surprised him more was that Lu Datou knew his own worthlessness—he admitted it! Rare! Rare!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Has this brother-in-law been using Warden Wan’s name to bully people outside?” Chen Guanlou pressed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Datou nodded heavily. “That kid’s greedy and lustful. He likes to flirt with respectable women. Every time he causes trouble, Warden Wan steps in to clean it up. The kid never learns—he lies low for a while, then slips right back into his old habits.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A vague plan began forming in Chen Guanlou’s mind—he just needed to refine the details.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Thanks a lot, Brother Datou. I knew nothing in the capital escapes your notice.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hahahaha… Brothers don’t need to say thanks.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Datou knew everyone in the capital—the underworld, the scholars, the monks, the gamblers. If you needed information, he was your man. Too bad he was a hopeless gambler—he’d stake even a single copper coin on a game of life or death.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the A-Cell Block, there was Warden Wan—or there was Chen Guanlou. There couldn’t be both. This had to end. No more ambiguity. Otherwise, endless troubles would follow, and he’d be worn down, forced to slink away from the A-Cell Block.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Guanlou didn’t want to leave. So he had to make Warden Wan leave.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Warden Wan had a weakness. Chen Guanlou had none. That was his advantage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Three days passed in a flash.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Guanlou returned to the cell where Jiang Fengyu was held.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Inspector Jiang, have you decided yet?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Fengyu could endure three days of hunger. But three days without water—he felt he was on the brink of death, ready to meet the King of Hell at any moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Chen Guanlou held a cup of water—plain, tasteless tap water. But to Jiang Fengyu, it was more tempting than any fine wine or feast. He crawled to the cell door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Give me water! Give me water!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Where’s the money? Give me the money, and you’ll have water every day.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Give me water! I need water!” Jiang Fengyu’s mind was filled only with water—nothing else registered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Here’s your water!” Chen Guanlou signaled. Jailers Xiao Jin took a damp cotton ball and gently wiped Jiang Fengyu’s lips.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That tiny moisture felt like divine rain. Jiang Fengyu’s thirst grew fiercer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wept. Real tears.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Years as an official—he’d endured every hardship. He thought he’d grown invincible. Yet the jailers, in just three days, without even torturing him, had shattered him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All the suffering and humiliation of his life paled beside these three days.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He now understood: going without water was far more agonizing than hunger—far worse than any torment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I really don’t have money! Do anything you want to me—but I truly have no money!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Then borrow it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I can’t borrow it!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No—you can.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then Xiao Jin pulled out a promissory note as if by magic. “Inspector Jiang, look closely. We’re men of conscience. Three percent annual interest—far better than compound interest. Sign and seal it. This loan is yours. From now on, you’ll live well in the prison—eat, drink, study—and repay it when you’re released.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Si Tong Money Exchange?” Jiang Fengyu leaned closer. It was a money exchange promissory note—only his signature and thumbprint remained.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Exactly. Si Tong Money Exchange. They were very generous when they heard you needed money to survive. For the prison’s sake, they’re not charging compound interest. Isn’t that better than borrowing outside?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Fengyu trembled as he took the note, staring at Chen Guanlou’s teacup. “I’ll sign. I’ll borrow!”\u003C\u002Fp>",1262,"2026-06-20T17:39:56.967Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","6ba5e1109e3cf2d68e562d57de852495b0e910084aee83524905acc8378e2c94","immortal-through-martial-path-i-who-cannot-die-s-chapter-81","immortal-through-martial-path-i-who-cannot-die-s-chapter-79",1000,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fimmortal-through-martial-path-i-who-cannot-die-s-cover.jpg"]