Lu Yin exclaimed, “Overseer Xin Jiao?”
Lord Piggy made a shushing gesture with his trotter. “Overseer Xin Jiao ordered this to be kept secret! I’ve only told you about it, so please don’t mention anything to Overseer Xin Jiao.”
Lu Yin nodded. “Don’t worry.”
They continued moving forward as Lord Piggy led the way.
They soon encountered another prisoner who had received special treatment. The man’s entire family had betrayed the Human Domain to join the Celestial Beast Empire, but he had been caught at the border warfront. As a result, he had been imprisoned in Gaia’s Swamp ever since. The Hall of Honor hoped to use the man as bait to lure his family out, so the man had been imprisoned for many years now.
Every single criminal in this prison had their own story and motivations. Some were true criminals while others had more complex backgrounds.
Most of the people in Gaia’s Swamp had been locked up for valid reasons, including Shui Chuanxiao.
“This is Shui Chuanxiao, the former commander of the border warfront. He lost his mind and betrayed Endless Weave, resulting in the Technocracy taking control of half of the weave. He’s been sentenced to 10,000 years here,” Lord Piggy casually mentioned.
Shui Chuanxiao had not been isolated from the death energy, and the man looked half dead. He had indeed forsaken Endless Weave, which had led to countless deaths. Regardless of his reason for his betrayal, he had committed an inexcusable crime.
Lu Yin studied Shui Chuanxiao and discovered that the man’s runes still showed the strength of a Cruiser, which meant that he would not die anytime soon. Despite the excessive concentration of death energy present, it seemed to have been processed as it was not as concentrated as the death energy throughout the rest of the swamp. Otherwise, all of the prisoners would have already been transformed like the humans that Lu Yin had seen in Aeternus Nation.
This was something that Lu Yin was quite curious about. “These chains have another function apart from simply being sturdy, don’t they?”
Lord Piggy exclaimed, “Alliance Leader Lu, you’re very sharp! These chains are a part of a sourcebox array and are able to filter the toxic gas so that it’s less concentrated.”
Shui Chuanxiao’s finger twitched, and he slowly looked up. He opened his eyes and met Lu Yin’s gaze.
“Grand Marshal Shui, it’s been a long time,” Lu Yin said.
Lord Piggy felt shocked; did Lu Yin know Shui Chuanxiao?
Shui Chuanxiao hoarsely answered, “I never expected to see you again.”
“You took good care of me at the border warfront in Erudite Flowzone. I never had the chance to thank you,” Lu Yin replied.
Shui Chuanxiao hung his head. “The army has a system. I didn’t take care of you.”
“Do you regret it, Marshal?” Lu Yin asked.
Lord Piggy anxiously interrupted, “Alliance Leader, the rules state that you’re not supposed to talk to the prisoners!”
Shui Chuanxiao smirked. “Regret? If the Human Domain never obtained a unified network, would it have even remained intact?”
Lu Yin’s eyes flickered. When Shui Chuanxiao had forsaken Endless Weave, the network had not been unified throughout the Human Domain, and the proposal to create a universal network had only been approved after Shui Chuanxiao lost Endless Weave. Because of that loss, when Ironblood Weave was invaded, the Outerverse’s eastern weaves had been able to immediately respond. Similarly, the Outerverse had also been able to react quickly when the Sixth Mainland invaded, and both responses were entirely due to the universal network connecting everything together.
If not for the universal network, would the Human Domain still be the Human Domain right now?
Shui Chuanxiao had contributed greatly to the survival of the Human Domain, but he had also done so by betraying Endless Weave. This was a crime that he would never be able to atone for, as human lives could not be priced.
The Sea King had opened the Upper Three Gates in order to let the Fifth Mainland have the possibility of giving birth to Progenitors once more. He had never regretted his actions despite directly inciting the Sixth Mainland’s invasion.
Shui Chuanxiao and the Sea King were quite similar to each other, and Lu Yin shared the same mindset as them. Who cared if there was going to be a civil war? Would he just allow the four ruling powers to kill him? Would he simply allow the Lu family to remain in exile and be destroyed? That was impossible. Lu Yin did not regret triggering a civil war, and he was also willing to bear the consequences of his choices rather than denying his desires.
He was was also certain that he needed Shui Chuanxiao to deal with Aeternus’s plans.
Lu Yin walked away with a mysterious smile on his face.
Shui Chuanxiao bent his head and closed his eyes as he continued to endure his confinement in the darkness of Gaia’s Swamp.
Half a day later, they finished touring the Innerverse region of Gaia’s Swamp.
The area of the prison that lay in the Cosmic Sea held fewer prisoners, but all of the prisoners in this smaller region were far more powerful.
The first prisoner that Lu Yin saw was an Enlighter with a power level of more than 400,000. However, the man’s power level had diminished to less than 100,000, showing that he had been incarcerated for a very long time.
“This man is a deserter from the border warfront, and his desertion caused us to lose a battle. His sentence is 3,000 years of confinement,” Lord Piggy spat disdainfully.
Lu Yin nodded, and they continued walking.
Lord Piggy introduced many prisoners to Lu Yin; one left a strong impression on Lu Yin as they had tried to break into Gaia’s Swamp.
Lord Piggy showed blatant outrage when seeing that prisoner. “A thousand years ago, an overseer came to observe Gaia’s Swamp, and this person accompanied the overseer. He then tried to rescue a prisoner, but fortunately the War- No, I discovered his plan. If not, he would have succeeded. The overseer was in Gaia’s Swamp at that time, so we would have been utterly humiliated if he had succeeded.”
“Aren’t the chains able to withstand an attack with a power level of a million? How could he have possibly succeeded?” Lu Yin asked.
Lord Piggy muttered, “He wasn’t able to break the chains, but that was the final step of his plan.”
Lu Yin was left speechless; how was that considered a near success? He had thought that the prisoner’s chains had been broken.
Since it was so hard to break these chains, then why was the person who was planning the prison break so confident of success? Lu Yin was growing curious.
The chains were different lengths for each prisoner. The stronger the prisoner, the deeper within Gaia’s Swamp they had been placed.
Just a few moments later, Lu Yin saw a prisoner who was calmly looking at him. His surroundings were completely clear of death energy, and his clothes were even clean. In no way did he look like a prisoner. If not for the fact that the man was chained up, Lu Yin would have thought that the man was a guard.
“Who’s that?” Lu Yin asked.
Lord Piggy answered, “He’s someone special: he’s Assistant Warden Master Cha’s father.”
“The assistant warden’s father?” Lu Yin was stunned.
Lord Piggy refused to elaborate any further. “Alliance Leader, where would you like to place Emperor Luo? There are a few locations up ahead, but there aren’t many down below. Moreover, if any future prisoners are sent here, like the Second Nightking, they’ll have to be locked up down below.”
“Take me to the Second Nightking,” Lu Yin said.
Lord Piggy’s ears perked up, and he spoke with clear terror, “The Second Nightking? You want to see him? That’s not easy to do, as he’s difficult to deal with since he was just imprisoned. He hasn’t been affected by the toxic gas yet, so I’m worried that there might be an incident.”
“Don’t worry, Sir Chief Justice badly injured the Second Nightking, so he’s actually quite weak right now,” Lu Yin said.
Lord Piggy reluctantly agreed, “Fine.”
With that, he headed underground.
Lu Yin asked Lord Piggy to stop before they started moving. “Are there still other prisoners up here?”
“Yes, one more person. The battle technique that he learned was too evil, so he ended up being imprisoned here. He’s quite powerful, as he’s only been here for a few hundred years,” Lord Piggy explained.
“Let me go take a look.” Lu Yin headed over. He wanted to observe all of the prisoners near Liu Huang, as the mastermind behind the prison break was definitely one of these people.
Lord Piggy led the way and parted the swamp’s miasma for Lu Yin. Lu Yin soon saw a pale prisoner chained up. The person did not have many runes, and he seemed to have the strength of an Enlighter.
The prisoner suddenly opened his eyes and looked up at Lu Yin. Lu Yin felt that this gaze felt very familiar.
Surprise also flashed through the prisoner’s eyes when he saw Lu Yin. He then closed his eyes and completely stopped looking at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin carefully observed the prisoner. This person’s eyes felt very familiar, and Lu Yin was utterly certain he had seen them before.
“What’s his name?” Lu Yin asked.
“Can,” Lord Piggy answered. “What an annoying name.”
“He’s been here for a few hundred years?” Lu Yin was quite curious.
“Yes.”
“Why was he sent here?”
Lord Piggy answered easily, “He practiced an evil battle technique that’s related to spiritual force, and he killed many people.”
Lu Yin turned to Can. “Have you seen me before?”
Can said nothing.
Lord Piggy softly spoke up, “Alliance Leader Lu, he’s been here for a few hundred years, and given the fact that you’re so young, it’s impossible for him to have seen you before just now.”
Lu Yin frowned. This person’s gaze felt far too familiar, which meant that Lu Yin must have seen it multiple times in the past. Despite that, Lu Yin could not remember anything. Also, it had not been recent, so when had they met?
“I’m Lu Yin,” Lu Yin continued to say.
Can continued ignoring him.
Lord Piggy gave Lu Yin a strange glance. The alliance leader was acting quite weird. This prisoner had been imprisoned here for a few hundred years, so how could he have seen the Alliance Leader before? Oh, during ZENITH, Sir Warden had allowed the prisoners to watch the broadcast with him, so Can might have seen Lu Yin at that time.
“Alliance Leader Lu, should we go?” Lord Piggy asked.
Lu Yin turned around. “Let’s go.”
Lord Piggy swished his tail and led Lu Yin towards the Second Nightking.
They soon reached the lowest level of Gaia’s Swamp, which was where the Second Nightking was being held. As an expert with a power level of more than a million who was comparable to Elder Jiu Shen, the Second Nightking was one of the strongest people in the entire Fifth Mainland, so he would naturally be imprisoned on the lowest level.
The person next to the Second Nightking was Liu Huang.
“Is there someone else down here? He must be a true powerhouse to be locked up next to the Second Nightking,” Lu Yin exclaimed.
Lord Piggy answered, “He’s not bad, not bad.”
Lu Yin smiled. He already knew who the other person was. Although Liu Huang had never been as powerful as the Second Nightking, the swordsman had still attained a power level of a million at his peak. Even the Sword Sect had been ignorant of Liu Huang’s peak strength, as the man had been imprisoned within Gaia’s Swamp by the Hall of Honor in an effort to preserve the Fifth Mainland’s balance.
Despite being imprisoned in Gaia’s Swamp and suffering from the death energy’s corrosion, Liu Huang had still managed to create the Fourteenth Sword that he had named Misery. This was a truly impressive accomplishment that amply showed his incredible talent.
OMA’s Thoughts
Translated By: WQ
Edited By: Neshi/Nyxnox
TLC’ed By: OMA
