Edited by Ea
Yan Tianhen said, “When you retreat from the battle, you will be sentenced to death regardless of whether you are a general or an ordinary soldier. If you are still alive, it shows that there is more to this story.”
The bearded man looked at Yan Tianhen with his lips hooked, and said, “You’ve got some brains, boy. But I really didn’t take part in the last battle. I promised them that I would fight with them and live and die together, but I broke my contract. This is also an indisputable fact.”
“When I was outside,” Yan Tianhen ate the last mouthful of rice and said, “I once saw a group of soldiers passing by the mountain.”
The bearded man was stunned.
Yan Tianhen went on to say, “Some of them were riding on chariots, while others were infantry, with uniform pace and loud marching steps. The entire troop walked for two hours, but no one spoke, and they were well trained and disciplined.”
The bearded man’s eyes suddenly widened. He grabbed Yan Tianhen’s collar and said, “This is my army and my soldiers. Good boy, where did you see them? How are they now?”
Yan Tianhen pointed to the hand holding his collar.
The bearded man realized that he was overreacting and quickly let go of him. He even helped Yan Tianhen fix his collar.
“On a hill outside the Youshan Capital,” Yan Tianhen said, “I couldn’t see their faces clearly nor could I detect life from them, but my friend said they don’t look like Yin soldiers passing by.”
“They’re residual souls.” The bearded man suddenly seemed to relax, leaning against the railing, and there was a strong glint in his dark eyes. He clenched his fist and hit the column heavily, then he lowered his voice with gritted teeth. “Their souls are trapped in this place, and they can never leave.”
Yan Tianhen asked, “Why can’t they leave?”
The bearded man looked at the distance. “One hundred thousand soldiers, none of them survived; the city was destroyed and the country was demolished. In addition, the commander never went to war, and the spiritual aura formed from these conditions was enough to turn that battlefield into a place full of wailing ghosts. The evil spirit array has been formed, and it will not break.”
Yan Tianhen seemed to understand, saying, “They have met the conditions for becoming evil spirits.”
The bearded man slouched, and something glittering and translucent watered his eyes. “They have lingering obsessions in their hearts, and the power of these obsessions have kept their souls from dissipating.” The bearded man wiped his face and said, “They are waiting for me.”
Yan Tianhen looked at the general who was very passionate and was strongly suppressing his emotions. He kindly said, “Look on the bright side — they might be waiting for the enemy?”
The bearded man, “…”
The bearded man moved silently, intending to stay away from Yan Tianhen.
Yan Tianhen saw that he was sinking in his own world, so he didn’t fight it. If this bearded man’s words were true, the news he brought to him could indeed bring him a great mental shock. Yan Tianhen sat back, leaned against the wall, and rested to restore his energy with his eyes closed.
Others couldn’t see it with the naked eye nor could they feel it, but only Yan Tianhen knew that his body was constantly absorbing the evil Qi from this prison.
This was the way he figured out after being locked up here for ten years. Evil Qi could also be used for cultivation, but no one knew what kind of thing they would become at the end of that cultivation. It wouldn’t be a good end, because evil Qi was the filthiest, dirtiest, and most Yin-aligned energy in the world. Yan Tianhen once heard from You Ming that in this world, demonic Qi and spiritual Qi didn’t actually contradict each other because they came from the same origin. They both could be stored in a sparrow spirit and the spirit stone at the same time. It’s just that demonic cultivators absorbed demonic Qi, while human cultivators absorbed spiritual Qi. The demon world contained more demonic Qi, while the human world contained more spiritual Qi.
For demonic Qi and spiritual Qi, there was no distinction between good and bad.
Evil Qi, on the other hand, was an invisible and intangible existence condensed by negative emotions such as death Qi, resentment, sadness, hatred, despair, and so on.
Evil Qi tended to nourish evil spirits. The Fiends that appeared in Ethereal City before were this kind of organism.
But for Yan Tianhen, what he could become afterwards was no longer in consideration. No matter what he wanted to do, he always had to survive first.
The evil Qi entered the body, cold and gloomy, making people feel more despair than demonic Qi. However, for the Yan Tianhen who spent years in this prison devoid of light, when he thought that Lin Xuanzhi was still waiting for him outside, he felt that the evil Qi was not so unbearable. Of course, none of this was noticeable.
Yan Tianhen thought that it would take a while for the bearded general to recover, but he didn’t expect the bearded man to talk to him again before he had absorbed a full round of the evil Qi.
“Hey, kid.” The bearded man raised his chin toward Yan Tianhen and said, “Can you leave Youshan Capital?”
Yan Tianhen opened his eyes and gave him a look. “Are you kidding? I’ve been trapped here for almost a hundred years. It’s a joke to leave the Youshan Capital.”
The bearded man said, “That’s not what I meant. Let’s put it this way, no one can walk out of the gates of the Youshan Capital except Lian Hua Venerable. We are trapped here all our lives, and if we take one step outside, we will go up in smoke with no chance of reincarnation. You are an outsider and are not controlled by the magnetic field of Youshan. It should be no problem to come and leave.”
Yan Tianhen opened his eyes wide and asked, “Then, can I leave the Tomb of Youshan?”
The bearded man shook his head. “As long as you have set foot in the Youshan Capital, you can never leave the Tomb of Youshan. Back then, when that descendent of the Rong family wanted to go into Youshan Capital to have a look, he was beaten up by Lian Hua Venerable and thrown out for fear that he would be trapped here forever once he entered.”
Yan Tianhen lowered his eyes in slight disappointment, but soon, he blinked and stared at the bearded man. “The Tomb of Youshan is the name given to this forbidden area by outsiders. How can you know this?”
The bearded man said, “I used to have a good relationship with Lian Hua Venerable. Sometimes he felt bored and wanted to talk to someone, so he would talk to me about things outside. I also know that tens of thousands of years have passed in the outside world.”
Yan Tianhen became thoughtful.
The bearded man raised his eyebrows at Yan Tianhen and said, “Would you like to make a deal with me?”
Yan Tianhen replied with a straight face, “I don’t want to.”
The bearded man, “…”
He walked from the foot of the wall to the fence, which was quite close to Yan Tianhen. “Don’t refuse me so quickly. I don’t think your cultivation is high. After a hundred years, your spiritual Qi will completely dissipate, and you will die here.”
Yan Tianhen was silent for a moment and said, “Maybe I can escape.”
“Stop dreaming.” The bearded man was very calm as he explained, “This cell is an array, in which it is impossible to use spiritual powers, and even magic treasures have no effect. It is not easy for your tiny body to hold out till now. To tell you the truth, no one has been able to escape from this Youshan Celestial Prison since its establishment.”
“Oh,” Yan Tianhen said.
The bearded man was persuasive, saying, “I’ll help you escape, and you can go see my soldiers for me.”
“No.” Yan Tianhen didn’t even think about it. He moved toward the other side and turned his back to the bearded man. “You and Lian Hua are in cahoots. Neither of you are anything good. Even if I die, I won’t join you. This Prince is a man of backbone.”
The bearded man, “…”
He said, “You ate my meal just now.”
Yan Tianhen replied, “I also told you the news of the ghost soldiers, so we’re even.”
The bearded man had to give up for the time being.
After a while, the bearded man couldn’t resist and said to Yan Tianhen, “Why didn’t you ask this — since I have a good relationship with Lian Hua Venerable and he can still go in and out of the capital freely, why don’t I ask him to find those soldiers for me?”
Yan Tianhen said calmly, “I guess that people in the Youshan Capital can’t see the ghosts or evil spirit arrays outside the capital for some reason.”
The bearded man fell silent.
The young man’s brain was unexpectedly bright.
After that, Yan Tianhen’s days became calm again, but it was much better than before. At least he wouldn’t be dragged out from time to time for a beating. The bearded man would occasionally talk to Yan Tianhen, asking him where he came from, why he came here, and how he provoked Lian Hua.
More often, he was still persuading Yan Tianhen and offered to help him escape. Yan Tianhen did not reveal his background, and even his name was made up casually. However, although he repeatedly refused the proposal from the bearded man, the bearded man didn’t care much about it. He often shared his own meal with Yan Tianhen.
A hundred years passed like this…
Yan Tianhen was immersed in absorbing the evil Qi, repairing his veins and meridians and improving his cultivation every day. Like this, he didn’t feel like the days were passing slowly. However, his thoughts for Lin Xuanzhi were increasing day by day, which made him wish to escape from this dark prison and meet his sweetheart soon. But the time was not yet right, so he must be dormant and patient.
…………
Yan Tianhen was good at hiding his true strength.
In the eyes of outsiders, he was merely a pitiful soul whose cultivation had gradually declined during the hundred years to the Foundation Stage.
But in fact, his broken meridians and Dantian were already repaired by the evil Qi and spiritual herbs. Not only were they completely restored to their original state, but even his cultivation had reached a height that he did not even dare to think about before. Yan Tianhen finished his daily cultivation and was just about to open his eyes when he heard a noise.
“Get up, get up, get up, there’s work coming.”
A few prison guards wished they could beat gongs and drums to wake everyone up.
Yan Tianhen opened his eyes and glanced at the guards.
The guard raised his voice and said, “Count yourselves lucky, a sparrow mine was found in the northwest of Youshan Capital in the shady area of the North Cold Mountain a few days ago. Now the people above have ordered that all the death row prisoners and those who can’t finish serving their sentence in 100 years should go to the mine with Laozi!”
There was an immediate outcry in the prison.
“We don’t even have enough to eat, and there is very little spiritual Qi left in our bodies, yet you still want us to go to North Cold Mountain, which is a barren land full of evil Qi? Do you want us to die?”
“That’s right! There are many big families in the city with lots of subordinates, so why don’t they go by themselves? It’s still understandable for death row prisoners, but my sentence will be completed in 350 years. Why should I go and court death? I won’t go no matter what!”
Hearing this, the prison guard immediately whipped the prisoner from a distance and heard his scream. The man who was lying at the door suddenly flew out behind him, bleeding from his chest and screaming on the ground.
