Chapter 848: Tail

After a few days of rest, Chen Chen Guanlou officially ended his leave and returned to the Heaven Prison for work.

His return was met with enthusiastic, jubilant welcomes from the prison guards.

But when they saw an extra eunuch trailing beside him, the smiles on everyone's faces froze one after another.

This…

In the eyes of the Heaven Prison people: only eunuchs and official lords are hard to deal with!

All born of dogs, not worth a damn!

Everyone had a lot they wanted to say, but with Eunuch Wang present, they all held their tongues. The warm atmosphere instantly turned cold and cheerless; the welcome ceremony petered out like a tiger's head and snake's tail — utterly improper.

Chen Chen Guanlou looked at him with disgust. "Look at you, you've single-handedly ruined the whole atmosphere. I told you, don't follow me out in the open. Just hide on the rooftop — that's where you belong."

Eunuch Wang snorted coldly, utterly disdainful. He strode into the office ahead of him.

Chen Chen Guanlou: …

The world has been turned upside down!

He's flipped the whole order of things!

He must have a proper talk with the Embroidered Uniform Guard next door — there's no way to run things like this. Get this plague god recalled at once.

Mu Qingshan had business to report.

After being away for so long, he had to let his master know the current state of the Heaven Prison at the earliest opportunity. That was the duty of a private advisor.

"My lord… this…"

He appeared very hesitant. One could never be too careful with strangers!

Chen Chen Guanlou put on a rather indifferent look. "Qingshan, this is Wang Hai, Eunuch Wang. He's been ordered to keep an eye on me. You don't need to mind him — whatever you have to say, just say it. In our Heaven Prison, everything is handled by the rules; there's nothing shady here. Am I right?"

Mu Qingshan: …

He hesitated for a moment. "Perhaps this student should come back later."

"No need. Go ahead. What's the situation in the Heaven Prison while I was away?"

"Reporting to my lord, the three great prisons — Jia, Yi, and Bing — have all been fairly peaceful, and the accounts show no problems. It's just that Jingcheng's public order hasn't been great lately; several major and serious cases have occurred. The Six Doors arrested a batch of criminals, so the Bing-prison is a bit overcrowded."

"The Six Doors have been quite diligent lately!" Chen Chen Guanlou quipped.

Mu Qingshan hesitated, then went on: "They also arrested a group of cult bandits. These cult bandits are rather fierce and a bit hard to keep in line. Once they're in the punishment cells, not a single one behaves. Xu Zhang Yuli is a little worried that someone might come to break them out of prison. He wanted to ask how to handle it."

"What does the Six Doors say? Can't these cult bandits all be sent to the neighboring Imperial Prison?"

"The Six Doors' position is to keep them locked up and not bother with them. They also said that since the Six Doors caught these cult bandits, there's no reason to hand them over to the neighboring Imperial Prison. On top of that, the neighboring Imperial Prison has been quite busy lately too — there's probably no spare cell to hold this batch of cult bandits. Xu Zhang Yuli wanted to ask my lord whether some of the cult bandits could be transferred to the Jia-prison or the Yi-prison."

"That slippery fox Xu Xu Fugui. When there's money to be had, he's more eager than anyone; when there's none, he wants to drop the load and walk away. Where in the world is there such a fine deal? Tell him to manage the Bing-prison properly. If a prison break happens, it'll be his responsibility."

Chen Chen Guanlou didn't bother weighing the pros and cons — he flatly rejected all of Xu Xu Fugui's requests.

They're not important figures; they don't deserve to be held in the Jia-prison.

Inside the Yi-prison is a pack of demons and monsters from noble families. You absolutely cannot let cult bandits mix with that lot — it would cause a huge mess. They can only be held in the Bing-prison. Those martial world scoundrels — the cult bandits can wreak havoc on them all they want; it won't stir up much anyway.

If cult bandits were to mingle with those demons and monsters from noble families, the harm would be endless.

He didn't dare take the risk.

"Nothing else, right?" he asked Mu Qingshan. "If there's nothing, then withdraw. Invite your uncle here — I have business with him."

Mu Qingshan had originally had plenty more to report, but glancing at the atmosphere inside the office and casting a look at Eunuch Wang, he gave up the idea and took his leave decisively.

A moment later, Mu Yiguan Mu was invited over.

Mu Yiguan Mu looked visibly irritated.

He hated dealing with people from the palace most of all — especially a eunuch.

Warden Chen knew perfectly well about this, yet insisted on summoning him — showing no consideration at all.

"My lord has been away for over two months — everything's been fine?" No matter how much he disliked it in his heart, he had to put on a full display of Biao Mian Gong on his face.

"Old Mu, this time I really owe it to your help — otherwise I wouldn't have made it back." Chen Chen Guanlou threw a familiar arm around Mu Yiguan Mu's shoulder, looking like the best of brothers.

Mu Yiguan Mu looked a bit uneasy, squinting as he glanced repeatedly at Eunuch Wang. His worry was written all over his face.

"Don't mind him!" Chen Chen Guanlou said at once. "Just treat him as fart."

"That won't do. This Eunuch Wang is, after all, someone from the palace." Mu Yiguan Mu laughed awkwardly, then whispered: "My lord, what exactly are you trying to do?"

"Slip some drug to the one surnamed Wang."

Plotting in front of the very person to drug him — is that appropriate?

Mu Yiguan Mu's face was full of shock — he'd never seen drugs administered this way; his eyes had been opened.

Chen Chen Guanlou laughed heartily. "Just kidding. Eunuch Wang, you and I have known each other — I certainly wouldn't drug you."

"You're welcome to try."

Eunuch Wang's attitude was one of "go ahead and drug me, face the consequences yourself." Arrogant as could be.

Chen Chen Guanlou gave two dry chuckles, expressing disdain. "Here's the thing — I want to ask you, is there any drug that can make a person fall into a Huan Jing? The kind that feels real — one that can draw out the deepest desires buried in a person's heart."

Upon hearing this question, the disdain on Eunuch Wang's face turned serious. Clearly, he had suffered plenty in the underground palace himself. If not for the sheer number of people and the fact that the goal had been to kill, not to seek fortune, he would likely have suffered even more.

In any case, summing things up so far, Chen Chen Guanlou could basically be certain that he and Zhang Zhang Daohe had suffered the least in the underground palace — relatively speaking, they had been the safest.

The others had all encountered various bizarre experiences beyond imagination. A single Huan Jing killing alone had wiped out countless martial artists.

Hearing this, Mu Yiguan Mu began to ponder. "To make someone Xian Ru Huan Jing, there are drugs of that sort, but they require the cooperation of both the environment and the person. For example, advance hints, advance conditioning. Like fashioning the environment to match the Huan Jing — only then will it take effect."

"Is there any drug that doesn't need advance hints, doesn't need environmental cooperation, and can plunge a person into a Huan Jing in an instant? Say, for instance, I'm in a pit full of corpses — one blink, and I'm in a fairyland. Is there such a drug?"

"No!"

Mu Yiguan Mu said with great certainty.

"Anything that produces illusions requires external cooperation and takes time to work gradually. My lord, the kind you described — one moment it's A, the next instant it becomes B — that doesn't exist. Never even heard of it. If such a thing existed, it wouldn't be called a Huan Jing — it would be called sleight of hand, a martial-world trick, a con, and easily seen through."

Mu Yiguan Mu offered an explanation from a professional standpoint.

Among all existing knockout drugs, there is absolutely none with that effect.

Chen Chen Guanlou nodded in understanding, turned his head and said, "Eunuch Wang, you heard it all, didn't you? Look how diligent I am—came to work first thing in the morning, set everything else aside, and came straight to consult a professional about Huan Jing. You should believe I'm sincere, right?"