Chapter 429: A World in a Mural
Usually, the only thing separating winter from autumn was a good snowfall.
In the fifth month after Xu Qing arrived in the county capital, winter arrived along with the first blizzard. White snowflakes filled the sky, falling to cover all the buildings and streets, and even the hair of the pedestrians. It painted the world silver, and made it seem like everyone in the city had white hair.
The snow fell fast and hard. Outside of the Corrections Division, all the sword pavilions were quickly covered in snow.
In the middle of the snowstorm, Xu Qing emerged in his swordsage uniform and made his way to the Corrections Division. Today was his first shift in Unit C.
A few days after he passed the test by quelling the riot in D-001, he was officially no longer a Unit D jailer. Instead he was a Unit C jailer. That said, he wasn’t planning to abandon his duties in D-132. He would still work part time as the guard of that cell block.
The uniforms worn by the Unit C jailers were no different than those of the Unit D jailers. However, they had a black badge on the collar, shaped like a tree branch. If you likened the Corrections Division to a tree, then the Unit D jailers were the leaves, while those from Unit C were the branches.
As Xu Qing walked down the stairs, he could already sense the glory that came along with that badge. Everywhere he passed, the Unit D jailers clasped hands and bowed, their expressions full of reverence. Xu Qing returned their salutes. Eventually, he reached Level 88. Then he passed Level 89. And finally he reached the stairs that led down to Level 90. There, he took a deep breath, his expression very somber.
Level 90.... Taking a step forward, he continued.
Clicking sounds rang out with each step he took; his footfalls were the only sound to pierce the quiet surroundings. The light that came into the Corrections Division couldn’t reach Level 90, so everything around him was increasingly dark.
Eventually, he reached the final step. There he stopped, looking around at Level 90. Things were different here compared to Unit D.
The humidity ensured that the floor was covered with moss. It really felt like a different world, especially when he looked up. For one thing, though this floor was circular like those above, there were no cell blocks and no doors!
There was only a mural that circled around the entire floor. The mural went from floor to ceiling, and depicted a sun, moon, clouds, rivers, mountains, buildings, and even living things! It looked like an entire world! However, the colors were very drab, making the mural seem dark.
Shaken, Xu Qing suddenly found himself thinking about Sir Inkwell in D-132.
A moment passed, and then Xu Qing stepped closer to the mural to examine it. When he did, his pupils constricted. The mural was so realistic that everything inside of it, including the clouds and rivers, seemed to be moving. It was like there really was a dark world inside the mural, and Xu Qing was standing outside of it, observing.
“Level 90 only has one cell block,” a cold, familiar voice said from behind Xu Qing.
Xu Qing turned and saw a figure emerging from the shadows.
It was a tall, burly old man who pulsed with incredible might. He had cold eyes and emanated a baleful aura that, if you focused on it long enough, would cause the sound of weeping ghosts and howling wolves to fill your mind. It was as if this man had killed too many living things to count, and their resentful souls swirled around him constantly.
“Greetings, Senior Ghost Hand!” Xu Qing said. This was the very same swordsage who had given the training lecture about the most common nonhuman species and their lethal weaknesses. Xu Qing had been his assistant in that lecture, giving him a close-up view of many of the corpses, as well as Ghost Hand killing a few of them personally. [1]
He remembered Kong Xianglong mentioning that Ghost Hand was a jailer. However, in all the months Xu Qing had worked in the Corrections Division, he hadn’t seen him once, which had led him to believe that Ghost Hand must work further down in the prison. As such, seeing him here wasn’t a huge surprise.
Seeing Xu Qing’s respectful bow caused Ghost Hand to look at him with even more approval.
“I remember you. You’re the one who turned the tables on Ailing Ghost by poisoning him. You’ve already been promoted to Unit C? Well done.”
Though Ghost Hand was smiling, his baleful aura was so strong that the smile came across as very sinister. Most ordinary people would be scared witless by him. But Xu Qing didn’t find it unusual. In fact, it seemed normal to him.
When Ghost Hand saw Xu Qing wasn’t reacting much, he liked him even more. Truth be told, the reason he had picked Xu Qing as his assistant during that training lecture was because he had already taken a liking to him.
Walking up to stand next to Xu Qing, he looked at the mural and coolly said, “Unit C jailers are all in the Nascent Soul level. Do you know why?”
Xu Qing thought for a moment, then answered, “Because the Unit D inmates are kept under control in a different way than in Unit C?”
“I thought you were going to say it was because the inmates have stronger cultivation bases.” Ghost Hand grinned. “Unit C convicts do have higher cultivation bases. There are both Nascent Soul and Spirit Trove inmates here. But that’s not the main point. The main point... is that only Nascent Soul jailers can bear the weight of the natural and magical laws that govern the minor worlds here.”
“Laws of minor worlds?” Xu Qing asked, still studying the mural.
“Unit C consists of Level 90 to Level 122. There are thirty-three levels in total. The cell blocks are not like they are in Unit D. Instead, every level has a mural like this. And every mural is a minor world! There are thirty-three minor worlds that form the cell blocks of Unit C!”
Xu Qing’s eyes shone brightly as he realized that his speculation about the mural was correct. After experiencing the Supreme Void World, he knew a thing or two about how minor worlds worked. That said, he was still deeply shaken by what the Corrections Division had done here.
Thirty-three minor worlds make up the cell blocks of Unit C. What about Units B and A? What are they like...?
Xu Qing took a deep breath.
“I’m in charge of World 1,” Ghost Hand continued, “and thus manage the jailers who do the guard work there! Your new assignment is to be a jailer in World 1. However, given that your cultivation base isn’t in the Nascent Soul level yet, you couldn’t sustain the laws of the world. So for now, I’ll take you on a little tour so you know what the place is like.”
Ghost Hand exhaled, sending a stream of black mist to the mural. As the mist spread out, the mural suddenly became very colorful. Instead of being dark and muted, it was now full of life.
“Let’s go.”
Ghost Hand clasped his hands behind his back and stepped toward the colorful mural.
Xu Qing followed Ghost Hand into the mural, in other words, into World 1.
What he saw first was a vast, endless void. Then he noticed a gray land mass off in the distance, covered with what looked like a crimson dome of light. It looked almost like a shell filled with countless spell formation and warding spells. There were millions upon millions of magical symbols that made them up, and altogether they formed an astonishing sealing power that kept the entire landmass tightly shut off.
The magical symbols glittered brightly in a special pattern, making it clear they were in compliance with some sort of special laws.
In addition to the magical symbols, there were four illusory statues situated around the landmass. They were enormous, and were clearly not shaped like humans. Instead, they looked like wild beasts. The head of each statue was just as large as the landmass itself, and were located to the east, south, west, and north. All of them were looking down at the land mass itself. Their gazes converged to make the sun and moon. And as the spell formations and magical symbols glittered, the statues rotated, creating the cycle of night and day.
It was an astonishing scene that left Xu Qing deeply shaken.
“This is World 1,” Ghost Hand said. “The void you see was personally extracted by the first palace lord, and brought here to mask the aura of World 1. You can think of the magical symbols on the dome as the natural and magical laws that govern the world. They were created by the Swordsage Palace. As for the four statues, they are the embodiments of this world’s heavenly dao. And now, leave your personal mark in the spell formation, that way you can go in without being crushed by the laws.”
Ghost Hand stepped forward, passing through the spell formations and sealing marks, and floating down toward the land mass.
Xu Qing quickly performed an incantation gesture and placed his personal mark on the dome, then followed.
As the land mass filled his field of vision, he descended, moving through the clouds. Below, the minor world stretched out in all directions, filled with all sorts of terrain features.
“This world was created in accordance with the first law put in place when the prison was built. Outside living beings are not allowed to reproduce here.”
Xu Qing followed as Ghost Hand led the way down. Looking around the minor world, he saw that it was relatively large, and that the immediate area featured a desert landscape. There wasn’t much spirit energy, to the point that he initially felt like he was suffocating. It was as if his entire body was being restricted by some invisible force. Given the mountainous weight crushing down on him, he doubted that he could use ten percent or even one percent of his full strength.
Thankfully, the spell formations in the dome adjusted quickly, allowing him to relax a bit. That alone gave him a new understanding of how the prison worked.
The climate in the minor world was horrid. From a vantage point high in the sky, it was possible to see sandstorms here and there, all of them filled with the power to scrape flesh from bones. In some places, acid rain fell, and the living beings beneath it howled in grief. In some places magnetic tempests raged, causing heavenly lightning to fall with deadly force.
“There are so many nonhumans and grues imprisoned in the thirty-three worlds that you could never count them. They live in torment in the minor worlds, unable to control their own life or death. After all, the natural laws here are all controlled by the Corrections Division.”
He waved his hand, and the desert landscape changed. Mountains suddenly rose up, and great rivers spread out across the lands. However, he wasn’t finished. He waved his hand again, and the mountains instantly disappeared. Water vapor began to gather, and seawater bubbled up from the land until they were in a huge sea. Mountain-hurling, sea-draining force could be unleashed with the wave of a hand.
Xu Qing looked at it all with a very serious expression.
“Xu Qing, do you know why the prison is so fear-inspiring?” He looked at Xu Qing.
“Because of what it takes away,” Xu Qing replied somberly.
“Exactly. We take away what used to belong to the prisoners. Things that they took for granted become things they can only dream about. And that creates a torment that gnaws at the heart. The principle behind the thirty-three worlds is to use magical laws as prison cells. All Nascent Soul cultivators imprisoned in World 1 are subject to how the world works. They’re still in the Nascent Soul level; we don’t limit their cultivation base. But they are Nascent Soul cultivators from a minor world.
“In the Revered Ancient mainland, a four-flame Foundation Establishment cultivator is roughly equivalent to a Nascent Soul cultivator from a minor world. And a Gold Core cultivator with one heavenly palace is about the same as someone in the mid Nascent Soul level.
“The inmates here are used to being able to call the wind and summon the rain with their techniques in Revered Ancient. But here, they’re much weaker. They’re restrained by heaven and earth, and they can feel it. Because of that, the outside world is a beautiful place they can only dream of seeing. And that is their torment!
“What they once had has been taken away. What they once took to be simple has turned into a longing for extravagance. This is how Unit C works.”
1. Ghost Hand’s lecture was in chapter 401. ☜