Chapter 21: The Prison of Blazing Wrath

A deep rumble of thunder echoed through the air. As the clouds parted, Lei Zhenzi appeared.

"Who goes there below!"

Immortal Master Qingmiao descended on a cloud, cupping his hands in a respectful salute toward Lei Zhenzi. He then withdrew an immortal token from his sleeve to display his credentials.

"I am Qingmiao of the Academy of Occult Arts. I humbly ask for your forgiveness, Great General of the Heavenly Thunder, for my intrusion today. I offer you my respects!"

"An instructor from the Academy of Occult Arts?" Lei Zhenzi glanced at the token, his face etched with suspicion. "Why did I not see you earlier?"

Immortal Master Qingmiao chuckled. "I was leading two disciples to Chizhou to practice their arts today. They went ahead, and I was delayed by some matters. It seems they are young and hot-headed, and unintentionally offended you, Great General. Please, Great Sage, show mercy!"

"I have never seen the Academy of Occult Arts sending students to train in Chizhou in all my time here."

Qingmiao bowed again. "Precisely because they rarely come, their horizons are narrow and their knowledge limited. Their training is incomplete and their methods skewed, which is why I am taking them out to gain experience."

"If you are leading them in training, why only these two? As far as I know, each instructor from your Academy is expected to lead dozens of disciples!"

"This..." Qingmiao paused briefly before answering, "Because these two are my top students."

Lei Zhenzi frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

Qingmiao lifted his head and smiled. "Are they not the top students if they can trade blows with the Great General of the Heavenly Thunder?"

"And what about the Ruyi Jingu Bang belonging to the Victorious Fighting Buddha?"

Qingmiao replied, "That artifact was borrowed by my disciple, Hua Sheng, from the Victorious Fighting Buddha himself. Since the Buddha was willing to lend it, it is clear that this disciple is no man of evil. That they offended you today is entirely due to my lax discipline. I hope the Great General will be lenient and let us continue our journey west."

With that, Qingmiao bowed deeply once more.

"Your disciples from the Academy certainly have some skill! But you must discipline them further. If I encounter them again and they lack proper decorum, I shall see that they suffer for it."

"Indeed, indeed!" Qingmiao pulled Hua Sheng along as they both offered a final, deep bow.

Lei Zhenzi reached out, retrieved his Wind-Thunder Golden Staff, and turned to leave.

Just as Qingmiao and Hua Sheng were about to take their leave, Lei Zhenzi suddenly turned back. "Wait! What of that brazen female disciple from before?"

Hua Sheng thought quickly. "She... she was so ashamed after offending you that she is currently hiding in the woods below, reflecting on her mistakes!"

"Hmph!"

Lei Zhenzi flicked his sleeve and vanished amidst a streak of lightning.

Watching the figure of Lei Zhenzi fade into the distance, Hua Sheng let out a long sigh of relief. He flew down into the forest to retrieve the Ruyi Jingu Bang that had fallen to the ground.

By the time he returned, the guise of Immortal Master Qingmiao had faded, leaving behind Xiao Qi, who was rubbing her eyes with golden-brown hair, looking as if she had just woken from a nap.

Hua Sheng thought to himself that it seemed Immortal Master Qingmiao always preferred to let Xiao Qi emerge during these trips to the Western Chizhou.

Hua Sheng said, "Xiao Qi, you missed a grand show! You were struck by Lei Zhenzi’s lightning and vanished, while I, along with your sisters, fought off the monsters and battled Lei Zhenzi himself."

Mieying looked stunned. "What? You actually fought Lei Zhenzi? And where is he now?"

Hua Sheng joked, "I drove him off."

"Which of my sisters came out to help?"

"Oh, don't mention it—the one with the pink hair holding a teddy bear."

"Little Stick came out? Then you truly hit the jackpot."

Hua Sheng found the description peculiar. "What do you mean by that?"

"Haha! We sisters love to call her 'Stick' because she just stands there like a piece of wood, with no skills whatsoever!"

Hua Sheng shook his head and sighed. "So that's how it is. I thought all your sisters were masters of great power."

Mieying laughed. "Do you remember the second trial of the Heavenly Eye, the Divine Heart Calculation? Tianjiezi called out two numbers, causing two of my sisters to be eliminated. One was my 'Stick' Fifth Sister, and the other was my Fourth Sister—she is truly formidable."

"Your Fourth Sister?"

"You have never met her. She is aloof and dislikes social interaction, so she rarely appears."

Hua Sheng wanted to ask more, but realized they had already been delayed enough and needed to press on. He began to recite an immortal spell, preparing to fly west, when he was suddenly struck hard on the back of the head by Mieying. Seeing stars, he turned around and complained, "Xiao Qi, why are you hitting people?"

"You lecher! My eldest sister told me you were disrespectful to her? Explain yourself!"

"What? What disrespect?" Hua Sheng was utterly bewildered.

"You dared to embrace my eldest sister! Are you not my servant? To be so shameless—are you rebelling?"

Hua Sheng finally realized that Xiao Qi had learned of the incident from the Immortal Master Qingmiao's perspective, and he had to quickly change the subject.

"I was being chased the whole time; I meant no disrespect to your sister. It was forced by Lei Zhenzi."

Mieying cast a suspicious glance at him, pointing a finger at his forehead. "Don't get any ideas in that little head of yours. If I find out you have even the slightest thought about my other sisters, be careful I don't skin you alive!"

It was the Shen hour of the afternoon.

The desert of Chizhou was filled with swirling yellow dust, and the temperature hovered near fifty degrees Celsius. After the battle with Lei Zhenzi and trekking through such sweltering heat, both Hua Sheng and Mieying felt as if they were shedding a layer of skin.

The climate in the northern and southern regions of Chizhou was drastically different. After leaving the storm-drenched rainforest, the sky cleared instantly, leaving not a single cloud to offer shade. Hua Sheng had to conjure a banana leaf to provide cover for them as they flew through the scorching sun. Despite the cooling wind of their high-speed flight, they were still battered by waves of heat, raising the constant risk of heatstroke.

"I'm roasting! This place is truly worse than the Flaming Mountain..."

Mieying grumbled at the desert below. "It was pouring rain over there, and here it's a drought. They really should even it out."

Hua Sheng shook his head. "If the world could truly be evened out, it would be better if the wealth of the rich and poor were distributed that way."

Looking far ahead, in the center of the southern desert, a hazy, blood-red city wall stood amidst the swirling dust. The crimson wall towered into the clouds, looking like a deep red monolith standing at the end of the world.

As they flew closer, they realized it was a rectangular structure, not merely a perimeter wall like a typical prison. It was a deep red cube with no visible windows, reminiscent of a massive, crimson coffin.

This was the legendary Fannu Heavenly Prison, completely isolated from the world. It appeared to have no entrances or exits, sealed tight on all sides. Hua Sheng thought to himself that they would need to find an entry point before they could gain access.

To avoid unnecessary trouble, he and Mieying landed some distance from the prison and approached the towering walls on foot.

Because the prison was so vast, it took them quite a while to reach the base of the fiery red wall. As they neared the foot of the wall, they spotted a figure waving at them from the right side.

It was Taishang Xiaojun!

Hua Sheng and Mieying quickened their pace.

"You've finally arrived; I have been waiting for quite some time!"

Taishang Xiaojun had a bundle at his feet and was holding a bowl of iced mung bean soup, greeting the near-dehydrated pair.

Hua Sheng panted, "You arrived before us, and you have the leisure to drink mung bean soup!"

Taishang Xiaojun conjured two more bowls and handed them to Hua Sheng and Mieying. Mieying grabbed hers and gulped it down, exclaiming, "Oh! Taishang Xiaojun, your skills are not bad! Better than what I can conjure."

"Naturally. A high vision leads to high skill."

Taishang Xiaojun looked a bit smug, pointing to the bundle at his feet. "This luggage was definitely overweight; it was exhausting to carry it all the way... By the way, why are you two so late?"

"We ran into a surprise inspection on the way... by Lei Zhenzi, the Great General of the Heavenly Thunder."

"Oh, you met the Flash?" Taishang Xiaojun immediately gave Lei Zhenzi a nickname. He shook his head. "Though the Flash isn't that fast, and he's not invincible. What was he checking? Were you drinking?"

"Stop joking. I nearly lost half my life."

"Didn't you have Immortal Master Qingmiao protecting you? What was there to fear?"

Hua Sheng wiped the sweat from his brow. "It was indeed thanks to the status of the Immortal Master that we were allowed to pass."

Mieying urged, "Hua Sheng, hurry up and finish that soup so we can get to business."

Hua Sheng drained the bowl in one go, wiped his mouth, and said, "Done. Let's go!"

"Patience! Hear me out first," Taishang Xiaojun said unhurriedly. "I have given this some thought. The three of us can only appear as myself and Hua Sheng. We will try to get close, and if the True Lord Yang Jian is willing to let us meet the Star Lord Daoling, that would be ideal. But that is unlikely. If that fails, the two of us will have to stay and keep the True Lord company. Mieying is clever and protected by her sisters, so it would be fine for her to go in Hua Sheng's place to see the Star Lord."

"Then how will Mieying follow without being discovered?"

Taishang Xiaojun looked Hua Sheng up and down. "Mieying, you can transform into an accessory on Hua Sheng. Like the earrings I wear."

He pointed to the two sword-shaped pendants on his left ear.

Mieying frowned at Hua Sheng. "Hua Sheng is already wearing that iron hoop chain around his neck. He doesn't need more accessories. Besides, he's a man; his ornaments shouldn't be too conspicuous..."

Hua Sheng nodded in agreement.

"Let me think..." Taishang Xiaojun cupped his chin, then pulled back Hua Sheng's left sleeve and pointed at his wrist. "A watch! A man wearing a watch is perfectly fine!"

"That could work!" Mieying agreed readily. She pinched a spell, and in a flash, she transformed into a red-gold watch that settled onto Hua Sheng’s left wrist.

Hua Sheng lifted his wrist to look. Not only was the red-gold casing exquisite, but the dial was crafted from white mother-of-pearl with hand-painted details, and the hands were made of onyx. Most stunning of all, at the six o'clock position, there was a delicately crafted automaton bird.

He couldn't help but marvel, "This watch is beautiful!"

Taishang Xiaojun glanced at it. "Jaquet Droz. Emperor Qianlong loved these. Is this the... 'Bird of Time'?"

"Bird of Time?" Hua Sheng thought that this beautiful timepiece was indeed perfectly suited for Mieying's transformation. The red-gold casing even held a hint of the luster of Xiao Qi's golden-brown hair.

"But I still think a man should wear a Rolex! That's hard currency!" Taishang Xiaojun shook his head.

Hua Sheng slung the bundle over his shoulder. "Enough! Stop talking about your Rolex! How tacky. I think this watch suits me just fine. Now, let’s figure out how to get inside!"

Taishang Xiaojun pointed forward. "Follow me."

Hua Sheng followed Taishang Xiaojun to the red brick wall, which looked no different from the rest.

"This... are we supposed to tunnel through?"

Taishang Xiaojun shot Hua Sheng a look. "Since we decided to come, how could I not have a plan? I've already investigated; the main gate of the Fannu Heavenly Prison is in the middle of the northern side."

Hua Sheng looked around. "Where is the gate?"

Taishang Xiaojun scanned the area, performed a quick calculation with his slender fingers, and reached out to knock on the red brick wall.

The wall emitted a hollow, wooden knocking sound.

Suddenly, the red bricks turned black, and a web of black lines spread out, the color changing like a wave rising hundreds of meters high.

Looking closer, this black area had transformed into a massive, pitch-black gate in the center of the wall.

But the gate was hundreds of meters tall, leaving them wondering how to open it.

Hua Sheng asked, "Are we just supposed to knock on it?"

"Don't just look up. That gate is for when the Emperors and Generals of the Heavenly Court come to inspect; it doesn't open for everyday business." Taishang Xiaojun pointed back. "They only open the side door."

Hua Sheng looked and saw that, sure enough, there was a small door at the bottom right of the massive black gate. It blended in so perfectly with the black gate that it was hard to distinguish.

Looking closer, the door had two beast-mask rings. Taishang Xiaojun walked forward and knocked on the door ring.