Chapter 1963

Su Xiao roughly understood the information about the Moon God World: there are three great empires—the Dawn Empire, the Ximoro Empire, and the Lothdan Empire—and aside from these three, all other small countries are vassal states.

Amazingly, these three empires, which often wage war against each other, actually worship the same deity—the Moon God.

Even more amazingly, the depictions of the Moon God passed down in the three empires are completely different: the Dawn Empire portrays the Moon God as a goddess, the Ximoro Empire as genderless, and the Lothdan Empire as a strong male figure.

As a result, each empire believes the others are foolish heretics, thinking only their own faith is orthodox, while the others are mere fabrications.

What's more interesting is that the followers of the three empires, when praying, can more or less feel the presence of the Moon God; if devout enough, they may even receive gifts from the Moon God, and these people are called Moon Apostles—i. e., transcendent beings.

Heaven knows what the "Moon God" actually is; the Dawn Empire's believers pray: "My goddess, please protect me."

Meanwhile, in the Ximoro Empire, the prayer is: "To the supreme genderless god, thank you for bestowing food upon us."

In the Lothdan Empire, it's even more exaggerated—the style shifts abruptly, and the Moon God directly transforms from a goddess into a male deity.

If the Moon God has emotions, perhaps all three empires would have been destroyed by It, or maybe one might remain?

Su Xiao currently doesn't care about the Moon God's image, nor which of the three empires is truly the fool; what he wants to know now is how to escape this prison deep underground.

Because Su Xiao's reincarnation mark is already quite high, and the Reincarnation Paradise has issued a hunting mission, the combination has given him a relatively high initial status within the Moon God World.

Although he is now a prisoner, his original identity was commander of the Ninth Unit; the Ninth Unit generally does not go to the front lines to fight, with only a few thousand official members, responsible in wartime for gathering intelligence, assassinating enemy officials, etc. —in other words, the so-called intelligence and assassination unit.

In short, Su Xiao was originally the leader of the intelligence and legitimate killers; now, however, the Ninth Unit no longer exists, and there are many reasons for this.

For example, the three empires have entered a ceasefire, making the Ninth Unit's wartime role significant, and thus its privileges greater.

Now, as peace approaches, those legitimate killers and intelligence agents who have developed mental issues from killing must either be dealt with or sent to remote areas, away from crowds, for once they go mad, it's no longer just a matter of killing a few civilians.

They are experts in assassination, steam explosions, anti-tracking, and criminology, having fought in wars for over a decade; each is an executioner and a latent killer, killing a person as easily as slaughtering a chicken.

Civilians are safe as long as they don't provoke them, but once slightly provoked, their lives may be forfeit in the next moment.

Excessive privileges, combined with the dangerous nature of the Ninth Unit, led to the unit being dealt with immediately after the war ceased by the Dawn Empire; the current Ninth Unit is effectively no different from being disbanded.

The Dawn Empire actually doesn't want to do this, but it can no longer avoid it; a female officer merely came to deliver a message to the Ninth Unit, never having been to the front lines, and upon returning, she fell into depression, because what she witnessed in the Ninth Unit shattered her worldview, leaving an indelible shadow in her otherwise strong heart.

Precisely for this reason, the Dawn Empire's three major powers—the Holy King, the Moon Goddess, and the Eagle Marquis—joined forces to eradicate the Ninth Unit.

And Su Xiao, as commander of the Ninth Unit, was temporarily imprisoned due to his excessive military achievements.

"Not a bad status, with position, but unfortunately no real authority."

Su Xiao sat in a nearly fully sealed cell; this kind of opening—being thrown into jail—he's somewhat used to; after a moment's thought, he chose to first inquire about the locations of Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang, Am, Bennie, and Bahar.

Bennie currently doesn't know where she is; her description is: that place is a tavern, inside which people are drinking and reveling wildly.

Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Ignoring Bubu Wang and Bahar are within the Dawn Empire's territory; as for Am, it is currently swimming in the sea, also unlucky, having been transported to the sea, temporarily unable to return; its original words were: "The sea has no edge," Su Xiao isn't in a hurry, just letting Am swim slowly, resting on a frozen lump of ice when tired.

In the cell, Su Xiao took out the Soul Walker dagger from his storage space; without making any noticeable movement, his handcuffs clanged and fell onto the metal bed.

Su Xiao moved his wrists, standing before the metal door about one meter behind him.

At the same time, above the secret prison, on the surface.

This is a three-story European-style building, its exterior walls showing weathering marks, with a few small stalls by the street; civilians in hemp clothing walk on the stone-paved road, and since it recently rained, the road is full of mud prints.

On the surface, this appears to be a custom clothing shop; in reality, it is official state property, mainly intended to conceal the underground secret prison.

The secret prison holds three people in total, namely:

Skin-Peeler Alan Lu, a transcendent, whose ability is to peel off others' skin to disguise himself as that person; charged with treason and murder, he has repeatedly impersonated officials of the Dawn and Ximoro Empires, causing direct or indirect economic losses up to 26.8 million gold pounds (1 gold pound ≈ 9.7–10.2 RMB).

t17.2229·Filomena (formerly a military rank designation), a transcendent, steam bomb expert, who indirectly or directly caused 15,680 deaths; charged with treason and multiple murders, formerly Deputy Commander of the Ninth Unit, female.

Ninth Unit Commander·Kukurin Bai Ye, a transcendent, who indirectly or directly caused 175,300 deaths (based on known figures); charged with treason, special-grade murder, attempting to organize multiple military units to mutiny, espionage, illegal possession of ultra-dangerous weapons, trafficking in dangerous weapons, etc., totaling 76 serious crimes.

At this moment, behind the counter on the first floor of the clothing store, a middle-aged man with a receding hairline, dressed neatly, wearing gold-chain glasses, stood behind the counter; he is the shop owner, named Frank.

Frank behind the counter picked up his pocket watch, glanced at the time, then raised his hand to touch his forehead; his gradually receding hairline filled him with inner sorrow, and moreover, a month ago, two new customers came to his clothing store.

Originally, the Skin-Peeler Alan Lu in the underground prison had made Frank anxious; now it's worse, as two even more ruthless individuals have arrived; compared to these two new fiends, Alan Lu is at most a small-time swindler, and all should be sent to ordinary prisons.

"Ah~ Sleep's gotten worse, and there's that damn hair growth secret recipe."

Frank let out a long sigh, unsure if it's an illusion, but he constantly feels the ground beneath his feet might explode at any moment; the two from the Ninth Unit suddenly jumped out, wanting to devour him alive.

Ding ling~

The doorbell chimed crisply, interrupting Frank's thoughts, startling him into a shudder; seeing the four men and one woman enter the clothing store, he furrowed his brows—these are people from Lune Fee Palace.

Among the visitors, two soldiers in armor walked at the rear, each wearing a heavy sword at their waist; the armor clinked and clanged as they moved.

As for the three in front, two male individuals wore black military uniforms with long hems, while the sole female wore a long dress; judging by their attire, they appear to be socialites or similar.

"Chief Minister Sir, is this the secret prison?"

The socialite among the three spoke; in fact, she is a direct subordinate of the Moon Goddess, Imperial Flower·Sonia.

"Yes, Miss Sonia, this is the secret prison, existing for 200 years, with no one having escaped so far."

The taller male officer spoke, politely smiling at Sonia; after showing his documents to Frank, Frank led the three down to the basement.

After passing through at least five hidden doors, they boarded a somewhat worn-out lift to descend underground.

Creak~

After a harsh scraping sound, the lift stopped; Frank stepped forward, producing six bunches of keys.

Layer by layer, steam doors were opened; before each door stood 2–3 guards; initially, Sonia was shocked—just imprisoning three criminals, is such a long passage and so many steam doors really necessary? Even if the prisoners are "heinously evil," it wouldn't warrant such extravagance.

When Frank opened the eighth steam door, Sonia sighed softly.

"Chief Minister Sir, how much does this place cost annually? Just imprisoning three criminals—it's not like we're holding monsters; this is unnecessary expenditure."

Sonia spoke while moving forward.

"No, Miss Sonia, those imprisoned here……are monsters!"

As the tall, thin officer's words faded, the ninth steam door opened.

Pfft~

Steam surged forth, two figures emerged with the steam door's opening, and fell with a thud.

A man in gray hemp clothing, holding a short dagger, stood inside the steam door, blood dripping from the blade's tip; meanwhile, in the rear passage, there were three shattered steam doors, and seven unconscious guards, covered in bloodstains.

"Chief Minister…Sir, this person—is he not a guard?"

Sonia spoke, already sensing something was wrong.

"Absolutely not."

The magistrate swallowed, his face slick with cold sweat as he slowly stepped back.

"Then... what should we do?"

"Run!"

The magistrate turned and fled, Sonia froze for a moment, then turned and ran as well.