Chapter 174 - 172: Ascendant - Zuhei
Step. Step. Step.
The staircase that led to the lower levels of the Extreme War Mountain was truly dim, gloomy, and filled with a path of uncertain darkness.
°I wonder how prisoners feel being brought through here?° He thought as he followed behind the skinny demon with eyeless holes. He walked with a lit torch that illuminated the path slightly. Supposedly, using Qi or Astral Force would automatically activate the formations and arrays of this location and obliterate the culprit instant.
That was quite frightening.
Wei Wuyin noticed the faint trace of astral force and spiritual energies that lingered softly across the walls of this narrow corridor. Each strand of astral force and spiritual energy cause him to feel threatened. It was quite terrifying.
"The Hell Layer of War is divided into three levels, with the first level housing all prisoners of the sect." The demon named Eyles explained as he led the way. Elyes was a Knight of Enforcement with a cultivation base at the Third Stage of the Astral Core Realm, and had guarded the entrance of the Hell Layer of War for over three hundred years.
This could be considered a fourth of his lifespan. Therefore, he was quite knowledgeable about the prisoners within, various areas in the three levels, and the inner workings of the sect. He proceeded to explain various things to occupy that long walk downwards.
"The first level has prisoners of all types, but are here for a limited period of time for insubordination as a form of punishment. Those prisoners stay here for a few years, decades, depending on the severity of their insubordination." In the sect, the Power of Authority ruled all. While there were exceptions, there were many incidents of higher-ranking members giving orders or tasks their lower-ranking refuse to do.
Therefore, after a complaint has been filed on either side, the matter is investigated and punishment is then dealt to the party in the wrong. For those who abused their power, their sentences are quite longer than those who were insubordinate. While this overall depended on the situation, the sect truly gave immense power yet restricted it to reasonable limits.
If not, only chaos would exist. But due to these limits, order and understanding was born. This allowed the birth of various factions to grow and develop. It was quite an intriguing concept, both giving power to protect and punish to those of a high ranking.
"Of course, there are those who commit murder due to emotions or assault one with the intent to kill in an unofficial capacity. These individuals have been crippled and brought here to be imprisoned until a certain point or directly executed."
The Power of Authority protected as much as it could be abused. For example, Gu Hao, the Earthly Elite Disciple, could decline any and all Imperial Combat challenges of other Earthly Elites because he was the subordinate of a Sky Noble, unless someone like Wei Wuyin, a Heavenly King, forced a deathmatch through the usage of Imperial Merits.
At that point, they were royally and fully fucked.
However, to offend a Heavenly King was an unlikely situation to begin with, so most would never land in such a situation.
This meant that those Earthly Elites could offend yet no one could get revenge. This type of restricted rule caused quite a few people to act with passion and kill their sworn enemy without caring for the consequences...or try. It was very hard to kill an expert of equal cultivation swiftly, and the Knights of Enforcement will typically descend after a very short period of time.
Truthfully, about 90% of passion related murder attempts ended in absolute failure. This kept deaths down quite a lot in the sect, but there were exceptions, and these were those of higher combat prowess than normal, such as Zuhei, an Intent user!
Wei Wuyin calmly listened to Eyles explanations as they descended. It took an entire hour of walking until they arrived at a leveled room. When he entered it, there were torches lit that dimly brightened the room. It was completely empty, but there were three wide corridors that led to three different directions.
Each one seemed to lead to a different location. He turned to Eyles, and Eyles didn’t pause. He directly chose the center pathway and walked through it. Wei Wuyin followed along as he curiously glanced at the other two corridors.
"The other two corridors lead to staircases that go to the second level and third level." After explaining this, Eyles no longer spoke and his aura became gloomy and dark. They no longer exchanged a single word as they walked forward.
Wei Wuyin quietly inspected the scenery and was quite intrigued. The further he went, the studier the walls seemed, and there was a densely packed sequence of esoteric markings that repeated continuously and consistently. After a few minutes, the walls became steel bars with square cells within.
His eyes swept these shadowy cells and found bodies of various sizes and genders laying in the floor. There were a few that seemed like corpses, listlessly staring at the ceiling with utter helplessness and hopelessness. They seemed to have given up on life.
There weren’t just one or two people per cell, but dozens. They were all shackled by the ankles and wrists, all leading to the center of the cell that limited their movements. Even if they tried to move away to their furthest shackle limit, they could only reach about five meters away from the bars.
There was an eerie silence and a smell of death in the air. Wei Wuyin could sense all sorts of dusky gazes sweep his body, but he was undisturbed. These individuals committed crimes against the sect, and they understood the rules. While some might’ve been unjustly sentenced, this was still something they knew could happen.
Since he was young, Wei Wuyin had a cautious mind when it came to his fate. He never acted impulsively and took everything step by step, using the world’s rules to his favor and never allowing it to shroud his desires. These individuals were born under a grander sky, and their choices led them to this fate. They could only blame themselves.
A flicker of a memory flashed within his mind and a light of gloom suffused those silver irises of his.
"We’re here," Eyles announced.
Wei Wuyin lifted his eyes and caught sight of a prison cell, but this cell was different then the others because it had a single person in it, and this person was shackled by his four limbs and strung up like a frog ready to be dissected.
It was a nude male with exceptionally long and dense silver hair that easily reached ten feet in length. If it was given volume, perhaps it could cover his entire body. He couldn’t see the facial features of this man, but he saw the emaciated body and bloody aura he emitted.
"Zuhei, the Silver Wolf of Slaughter." Eyles slowly said as he regarded the figure that was strung up. Even he felt shocked sixteen years ago when that incident happened, and his heart couldn’t shake the bloody rivers that were made that day.
He couldn’t help but glance at Wei Wuyin, unsure why he felt that this beast that killed everything in its path would be useful. Even to the point where he was willing to go through such sacrifices to meet him.
Wei Wuyin’s eyes lit with a brilliance as he felt the ferocious and bloody aura emitted from this figure. He felt this aura before, and it belonged to Long Chen, but it was far, far more honed and developed. This was bodafide killing intent nourished from profound levels of hatred and loss.
"Open the door, then leave." Wei Wuyin said to Eyles as he walked forward. Eyles did as he was told, with a formation key, he unlocked the cell and the bars lifted vertically upwards and vanished entirely.
Wei Wuyin walked through with ease while Su Mei stayed behind.
"I’ll be waiting for you above," Eyles said before leaving.
When Wei Wuyin entered the cell, the smell of dense blood and death lingered endlessly about, but it was different from the despondent smell from others that originated from one’s shattered hopes and beliefs, but one honed by killing intent.
"Zuhei." Wei Wuyin called out.
"..."
"I-"
"Fuck off." Zuhei’s dry, wild, and cold voice resounded.
Wei Wuyin was completely undisturbed, nodded, and smiled. "From henceforth, you’ll be my claws and fangs."
Zuhei’s body shook slightly. He lifted his head enough that the silver hair that covered his facial features was pushed aside to reveal a set of scarlet eyes that seemed to be a river of blood housing a black moon.
"I said...fuck off."
Wei Wuyin walked forward until he was mere inches away from the strung up Zuhei, his silver eyes locked onto those scarlet eyes. Both their eyes glimmered with boundless light, one was sharp enough to sever worlds and all life while the other was drenched in fresh blood and endless murder. They clashed yet didn’t repel each other!
Wei Wuyun’s smile grew even brighter. It seemed that he made the right choice, he felt this in his heart.
"Are you hungry?"
"..."