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The ancient palace was entirely black and ten thousand feet tall, like a towering mountain.
Even after countless years, it was perfectly intact in stark contrast with its ruined, desolate surroundings.
Su Yi stood before the palace, hands behind his back.
The night was dark as ink, and baleful energy hung in the air like fog, enveloping the skies. It was an imposing sight.
A long time ago, Su Yi had come here with Cui Longxiang.
But back then, he’d come to help suppress the most vicious malevolent entities suppressed in the bottommost floor of the Bureau of Adjudication.
Before long, Su Yi flipped his palm, and a bronze box floated into view.
He opened it, revealing a bronze key shaped like a weaver’s shuttle.
After opening the box, he saw the strange and contorted Dao Markings on the shuttle-shaped key.
Su Yi removed it from the box, then proceeded toward the gateway.
An enormous, lifelike bronze Xiezhi statue stood here, looking powerful and imposing.
As Su Yi inserted the key into a hole at the statue’s base, a low rumbling filled the air. It almost seemed as if the massive bronze statue were awakening.
Immediately afterward, the rivets spaced across the tightly shut palace doors burst with light, shining like stars and spreading their radiant glow.
Upon closer inspection, the rivets formed a strange and mysterious formation diagram.
Su Yi didn’t find this the least bit strange. He walked right up to the gate, stretched out his hand, and formed a seal.
Kch kch kch!
Streaks of blue profound light swayed like lotuses, drifting onto the rivets of the massive palace gate. An unbelievable scene followed.
The seal covering the gate wriggled, transforming into a lotus-shaped vortex.
Su Yi nodded to himself. The formation is as it was. No one has destroyed it.
However, just as he was about to step into the lotus-like vortex, he sensed something and whipped around.
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A group appeared in the distance, not far away.
When he saw the yellow-robed elder of the ancient Qu Family, Qu Mingwei, as well as Third Elder Cui Weizhong, Su Yi’s eyebrows rose. Despite himself, he was a bit surprised.
He'd seen Cui Weizhong’s portrait earlier that night, at the Pawnshop of the Heavens. He naturally recognized him.
However, he wouldn’t have guessed Cui Weizhong would appear here now, much less with Qu Mingwei!
However, it was the three people accompanying them who really drew Su Yi’s attention.
Their auras were visibly strange.
“Don’t be nervous, my young friend. We’ve only come here tonight to have a look around the ruins of the Bureau of Adjudication. So long as you cooperate, your life absolutely won’t be at risk,” laughed Qu Mingwei. “But if you don’t cooperate, well, don’t blame us for our poor manners.”
“Really?” asked Su Yi.
Cui Mingwei snorted coldly. “Killing a small fry like you would be as easy as turning over our hand. Why would we bother deceiving you?”
Su Yi thought it over. “Then how should I go about cooperating?”
The tall, thin man in gray suddenly said, “Come with us. When we leave, we’ll naturally let you go.”
Su Yi nodded. “Alright.”
Despite himself, Qu Mingwei was surprised. “Weren’t you quite arrogant at the Cui Family’s Northview Pavilion today? You even dared challenge Tantai Chi. Why is it that you’re this meek without Cui Chang’an and Xue Huaning to rely on?”
His tone was rife with mockery.
Su Yi said casually, “That was then, and this is now.”
Qu Mingwei laughed disdainfully, but he couldn’t be bothered to make any further trouble for such a small fry.
“Let’s go.” The man in gray was obviously out of patience. He led the way into the lotus-shaped entryway.
The others followed. Everything blurred, and they found themselves within a massive hall.
The walls were inlaid with lamps that remained lit even after the passage of countless years. Their mottled light dispersed the darkness of the hall’s interior.
As far as the eye could see, everything was empty, with no furniture whatsoever. The sight was extraordinarily desolate.
“Weren’t the ruins of the Bureau of Adjudication once a world-famous prison?” Qu Mingwei felt a bit confused.
Except for Su Yi, all of them were here for the first time.
“I heard seniors of the Cui Family say that the true prison is beneath the palace, in a purgatory-like hidden realm divided into three layers,” said Cui Weizhong. “In ancient times, the first floor was for those who’d committed crimes unworthy of death, yet heavy enough to warrant severe punishment.
“The second floor was for the condemned. When their appointed days came, their executions were carried out before the bureau’s bronze Xiezhi statue.
“The third floor was for the most heinous of offenders: Emperors of the heretical path, the most wicked of evil spirits, yao and demons who brought disaster to the populace, and their ilk.”
Here, Cui Weizhong paused before continuing, “But the Bureau of Adjudication collapsed a long time ago, and the prison is no longer in operation.”
Here, the tall, thin man in gray interjected, “No, there are still a few terrifying entities imprisoned on the third floor.”
Cui Weizhong was stunned, but then, he nodded. “There are indeed rumors that say just that, but even in the Cui Family, only a select handful know the reality of the prison’s current situation.”
The man in gray asked, “Do you know where the prison’s entrance is?”
Earlier, he’d used his divine sense to survey their surroundings, but he couldn’t find an entrance.
The others looked at Cui Weizhong too.
He hurriedly shook his head. “This is a core secret of the Cui Family; only the family head and the patriarch know it.”
The man in gray frowned, then said to his companions, “Use your secret abilities to search for it.”
“Yes, sir!” Both of them immediately got to work.
The man was big-boned and dressed in beast-skin robes, with a spear across his back. He looked mighty and indomitable.
The woman was petite and dressed in black. Her long hair was tied into a ponytail, and a dark gauze veil covered her face. Only her sharp, icy gaze was visible.
Both of them used their secret abilities to search the empty, desolate hall.
Su Yi stood there, watching in silence.
After a while, both the man in beast skins and the woman in black returned. Neither had been able to locate the entrance.
The leader, the man in gray, furrowed his brow.
Suddenly, he looked at Su Yi. “What did Cui Chang’an send you here to do?”
“To take a look at the third floor,” Su Yi said casually.
The group was stunned.
Qu Mingwei said irritably, “You little whelp! You obviously know how to enter the dungeons, but you refused to be honest about it. You’re clearly in need of a beating!”
He raised his hand to slap Su Yi across the face, only for Cui Weizhong to stop him just in time.
Cui Weizhong tried to dissuade him. “Fellow Daoist, nothing can happen to the boy tonight. We still need him to go back and report to Cui Chang’an!”
Qu Mingwei’s expression shifted erratically, and he glared sinisterly at Su Yi. “Well? Hurry up and lead the way!”
In these Emperors’ eyes, a Spiritual Incarnation Realm cultivator like Su Yi was no different from an ant, entirely unworthy of their notice. They naturally couldn’t be bothered to concern themselves about him.
Su Yi laughed, then gestured to his feet. “The entrance is right here.”
The group was stunned.
They then watched as Su Yi’s hands formed seals, and a lotus of misty light condensed in the air. Its petals drifted to the ground, and ripple-like fluctuations arose on the mirror-smooth black floors.
When they saw this, the Emperors couldn’t help but exclaim to themselves.
Even with all their power, earlier, they hadn’t discovered anything at all amiss. This alone was proof of how wondrous the power sealing the ruins of the Bureau of Adjudication was.
Fortunately, we didn’t kill this Su kid right off the bat. Otherwise, I’m afraid we would have had to give up on tonight’s operation.
“So, the family head didn’t just entrust you with the key! He seriously taught an outsider like you the secret method to unlock the prison!?” Cui Weizhong was furious. “That’s obviously against the rules!”
Su Yi almost couldn’t help but laugh. A traitor like you still cares about the Cui Family’s rules?
Meanwhile, misty light circulated across the floor, and the power of the formation spread, forming a vortex-like entryway.
“Let’s go.” The man in gray was already out of patience, so he led the group right in.
Su Yi planned to follow at the rear of the party, only for Qu Mingwei to rebuke him coldly. “What are you doing? Keep up!”
There was no doubt about it: he was worried Su Yi would try to run away.
Su Yi glanced at him, but said nothing. He just walked on in.
The first and second floors of the underground secret realm were completely empty save for endless prisons, all of which had already fallen into disrepair.
However, when the group reached the third floor, their breathing stopped. All of them looked shocked.
The third floor was like an independent world shrouded in darkness, the air permeated with a bone-piercing chill.
Just standing here, they felt as if they were standing in a barren wasteland.
Even more shockingly, enormous bronze pillars stood in the distance, towering into the heavens. There were about a hundred of them.
Each of the pillars was a thousand feet tall and covered in blood-colored chains as thick as dragons.
Furthermore, numerous figures with terrifying auras were imprisoned upon the pillars.
Even from extremely far away, their dangerous, vicious aura smacked the new arrivals right in the face.
Qu Mingwei and company were Emperors, but even they felt their hearts palpitate in terror.
The world was gray and overcast, and the bronze pillars towered into the heavens. Blood-colored chains imprisoned vicious, terrifying entities.
The scenery of the secret realm of the third floor of the Bureau of Adjudication was unquestionably unsettling.
Su Yi took this scene in too, looking a bit dazed.
Countless years have passed, and it's obvious that many of the vicious creatures imprisoned here have died. The ninety-nine Armillary Sash Demon-Suppressing Pillars are more than half empty.
However, although the ten-or-so fiends that remain aren’t dead yet, it seems they have little hope of escaping alive.
However, this was still only the outer perimeter of the third layer. The most heinous offenders weren’t imprisoned here.
Suddenly, the man in gray leading the group looked excited, and he muttered, “I can sense the patriarch’s presence! Wonderful! He really is alive even after all these years of confinement!!”