TM CH41

Chapter 41 Prison in the Sea

Gu Yunxing stared at him, his gaze slowly tracing every inch of his face before finally settling on his thin lips.

How could such a beautiful mouth utter such cold and cutting words?

Gu Yunxing: “I thought the Right Protector was someone who isn’t particular about details. Shouldn’t you try to recruit me to your side, so I’d go through fire and boiling water for you?”

Rong Qi sneered. “Then why don’t you try capturing Fang Lian for me first?”

Gu Yunxing: “……”

Rong Qi raised an eyebrow. “You can’t bear it?”

Gu Yunxing pondered for a moment. “It’s not that it can’t be done.”

Rong Qi was taken aback.

“And then what will you do with him?” Gu Yunxing asked. “Will you inject the bone-piercing needle to him again? Do you really think he has what you want?”

Rong Qi understood that Gu Yunxing had no intention of touching Fang Lian at all and was just teasing him. He sneered coldly. “If he doesn’t know the whereabouts of Fang Yuanqing, I’ll just kill him. What’s the point of keeping a useless person?”

Gu Yunxing’s face darkened.

Rong Qi couldn’t see, but he sensed it from Gu Yunxing’s silence.

“You keep claiming you’re not involved in the fight between good and evil, yet deep down, you can’t stand seeing villains cause trouble.” He spoke softly. “Gu Yunxing, isn’t that true?”

Gu Yunxing remained silent for a long time, and the two of them stayed in position, silently facing each other in the dim underground chamber.

After a while, Gu Yunxing asked, “Then, did you bring Fang Lian back?”

Rong Qi was momentarily stunned, then seemed to find the question amusing. “Who would care whether he lives or dies? Naturally, this venerable one left him where he was! If you calculate the distance, he’ll probably make it back after climbing for a day and night.”

Gu Yunxing: “…Really?”

Rong Qi snarled, “Do you think it’s a joke? You didn’t think that just by asking this venerable one to look after him, this venerable one would have to dutifully bring him along, did you?”

Gu Yunxing sighed helplessly at the repeated use of ‘this venerable one.’ He was familiar with Rong Qi’s lightness skill. There was no way he should have arrived so late. It was hard to believe that he wasn’t slowed down by something or someone.

“…Anyway, thank you for sparing his life, Right Protector.”

Hearing this, Rong Qi seemed to choke. After a moment, he said with considerable disgust, “Don’t say it so sickeningly.” He just didn’t want any more trouble on the deserted island!

During the time the two were speaking, the underground seemed to have completely calmed down.

Rong Qi gave him a gentle push. “…Get up first.”

Gu Yunxing collected his thoughts. As he stood, he naturally reached out to pull the other up. After a moment’s hesitation, he kept his hand where it was, using the darkness of their surroundings as an excuse.

Rong Qi didn’t seem to mind. He leaned against the stone wall, his fingers brushing over several scratch marks. Frowning, he said, “This underground chamber feels suspicious. Gu Yunxing, have you noticed anything?” Fang Ruoyao had said that Gu Yunxing had discovered something at the epicenter, which was why he had stayed in the cave so long. Rong Qi was curious to hear what had caught his attention enough to take such a risk.

Gu Yunxing began recounting how he had rescued Fang Ruoyao.

He had arrived only a moment before Rong Qi, but that brief moment had been enough for him to pull Fang Ruoyao out of the cave, and it had also led him to discover a new opening in the far side of the stone wall.

“The entrance must have been blocked by rocks, which were coincidentally shaken down during the earthquake, revealing the opening.”

Rong Qi was surprised. “You mean someone had been here before?”

Gu Yunxing: “I also found strange scratches near the entrance. It looked like someone had left markings, which were then scratched out.”

Rong Qi froze, then touched the stone wall again. “There are scratches here too.”

Gu Yunxing followed his hand and, sure enough, felt the etched lines. “This is different. These aren’t just random marks. It looks more like… a pattern.”

Rong Qi ran his fingers along the lines, finding them smooth and well-defined, nothing like careless scratches. It definitely resembled a pattern. He couldn’t help but ask, “Who would leave a pattern in a place like this?”

For a moment, it felt like the small island had become full of mysteries.

First, there was that freak with peculiar martial arts, then the deliberately hidden entrance to the underground chamber. Now, unknown patterns appeared on the stone wall. All of this pointed to one undeniable truth: someone had been on the island before them.

Gu Yunxing: “There’s a tunnel on the right.”

He pulled Rong Qi by the waist and led him toward it.

The entrance to the tunnel wasn’t large, requiring them to crouch down to get through. Once inside, they found the tunnel widened, allowing them to walk side by side. The height also increased, enough for them to stand fully without ducking.

The tunnel stretched on for quite a distance. Thankfully, there were no forks, though a few places were blocked by fallen rocks, likely caused by the tremors. They walked for what felt like a long time until a faint light appeared ahead.

Rong Qi narrowed his eyes and instinctively raised his hand to shield them from the light.

After a moment of adjustment, Gu Yunxing guided him toward the source of the light.

The tunnel soon came to an end. The area in front of them cleared, and daylight filtered through the leaves above, casting dappled shadows from massive unknown trees onto the scattered stones. Slender waterfalls, like several silver ribbons, appeared and disappeared amidst the greenery, their melodious sound like the music of a zither flowing out.

Both of their faces showed clear signs of surprise.

No one had expected that deep within this desolate and bleak island, such a verdant and hidden place would be concealed.

However, this green sanctuary was quite small. Surrounded on all sides by towering cliffs, it could be crossed in just a few dozen paces.

Rong Qi looked up, and through the dense leaves, he could see the peaks of the mountains above, as though they connected to several other mountain ranges in the distance.

A thought vaguely surfaced in his mind, though he found it hard to believe. “It seems like we’re inside a mountain range.”

Gu Yunxing sighed in admiration. “The wonders of nature are beyond human imagination.”

Rong Qi quickly took a few steps forward, pushing aside tall grasses, carefully observing his surroundings.

His gaze landed on the waterfall, where water, flowing from who-knows-where high up on the mountain, cascaded down to the base, splashing up tiny white foam.

Suddenly, Rong Qi pointed ahead, his voice betraying his shock. “What is that? Gu Yunxing, come look…”

Gu Yunxing followed his finger, his expression changing in surprise.

Behind the waterfall stood an imposing stone door, with layers of intertwined chains crisscrossing it like a massive web. The sight sent a chill down their spines.

The two exchanged a glance, both sensing caution and wariness in each other’s eyes.

Rong Qi silently gripped the cilin in his palm and, without a word, led the way toward it.

“Xixin…” Two carved characters on the stone door caught Rong Qi’s attention, and he murmured them aloud.

Gu Yunxing stared at the characters for a long time, his expression complex and deep. “I never thought the Xixin Prison in the East Sea actually existed.”

Rong Qi nodded. “I heard from Zou Yuchuan that the Xixin Prison holds some of the most vicious criminals in the jianghu. For decades, no one has ever escaped from it, and no one can say for certain whether it actually exists. Over time, people began to believe it was just a legend of the East Sea.”

Gu Yunxing’s gaze sharpened. “Rong Qi, do you know who created it?”

Rong Qi looked at him, puzzled.

Gu Yunxing smiled and reminded him, “Someone who single-handedly captured the leaders of several demonic sects.”

Rong Qi’s eyes widened in shock.

He remembered. It was Fang Yuanqing.

Thirty years ago, Fang Yuanqing had studied the Tianyuan Manual in depth, and after mastering its martial arts, he traveled far and wide, challenging top experts from various demonic sects without suffering a single defeat. In this way, he became famous in the jianghu, his name and his Tianyuan Manual cultivation method spreading far and wide.

After the battles, the demonic sect masters he had defeated disappeared without a trace.

When Fang Yuanqing later became the head of the Wulin Alliance, some had tentatively asked about the whereabouts of those defeated criminals, and it was then that Fang Yuanqing mentioned the ‘Xixin Prison.’

From then on, the jianghu took it as truth, and many rumors about the Xixin Prison began to circulate.

But time passed, and with Fang Yuanqing’s disappearance into the East Sea, the so-called Xixin Prison became a matter of uncertainty.

Gu Yunxing furrowed his brow. “I thought the prison in the sea was just a tool he used to intimidate the demonic sects.” Who could have known that by chance, they would end up here and actually encounter the real Xixin Prison?

“Wrong… it’s all wrong!” Rong Qi’s eyes suddenly lit up with excitement as he thought of something. “Maybe Fang Yuanqing never went to the fourteenth immortal island at all. Perhaps he was always headed to the Xixin Prison…”

Which meant—

“The Tianyuan Manual might be inside!” Rong Qi looked at Gu Yunxing, his eyes shining with anticipation.

Faced with such eager, expectant eyes, Gu Yunxing swallowed the words he had been about to say and silently nodded. “It’s definitely possible.”

This was proving to be easier than expected!

Rong Qi swung his cilin and struck the lock, but only left a few faint marks.

Gu Yunxing: “Made of profound iron. It can’t be broken.”

Rong Qi frowned, thinking for a moment before carefully reaching for the lock again. He slid his dagger into the gap of the lock, listening intently, then gently pushed upward. The lock clicked open.

Rong Qi grinned with satisfaction. Using the same method, he opened the remaining locks.

With a flick of his sleeve, the heavy stone door slowly creaked open, revealing a long flight of stairs leading downward into the darkness.

Rong Qi looked at the scene in surprise. He hadn’t expected that the so-called Xixin Prison would be built underground.

He bent down, about to rush in, but Gu Yunxing stopped him with a firm hand.

Gu Yunxing said, “If the Xixin Prison is real, it may be holding many of the criminals defeated by Fang Yuanqing.”

Rong Qi sneered. “Fang Yuanqing has been gone for over a decade. This is a prison, but without any guards, how long can the prisoners survive? If we go in, we might only end up collecting their corpses.”

Seeing that Gu Yunxing remained unmoved, Rong Qi added, “Don’t worry. We’ve both seen the skills of the freak. I’ll be careful.”

Looking at it now, that mysterious figure with strange martial arts was most likely one of the criminals imprisoned by Fang Yuanqing all those years ago. For some reason, he had managed to escape from the prison.

Rong Qi sneered. “I knew his bizarre martial arts couldn’t have been something he was born with.”

It turned out he was just a defeated foe of the Wulin Alliance.

As he lifted his foot to step forward, Rong Qi suddenly remembered something and raised his chin. “If we do find the Tianyuan Manual, you’re not allowed to stop me.”