"Beep—beep—beep—"
A steady, rhythmic sound echoed.
It was both familiar and strange.
"Beep—bzz—bzz—"
Suddenly, chaotic static interrupted the crisp, steady beeping.
The erratic crackling filled Li Ban with a creeping sense of unease and anxiety.
But he still couldn't open his eyes.
Electricity seemed to surge through his body. The agonizing numbness pushed him to the edge of collapse, yet hovered just short of driving him mad.
Li Ban tried to open his eyes, but he couldn't even find a point of leverage to push himself up.
After a long while, Li Ban tried to move again.
It felt like sleep paralysis. He could breathe, but he couldn't twitch a single muscle.
Finally, his fingertips twitched, brushing against soft fabric.
Li Ban realized he was still lying in a bed, not back in a metal Experimental Capsule filled with liquid.
But what was that familiar sound?
"Beep—bzz—bzz—"
The static grew louder, completely drowning out the beeps.
Suddenly, both the static and the beeping vanished.
The world fell silent once more.
The sensation of extreme electricity surging through Li Ban slowly faded.
He clenched his fist, fully regaining control of his body.
His eyes snapped open, and he stared up at the canopy of his own bed.
Li Ban moved his limbs. He felt no discomfort at all.
When he got out of bed and moved around, he realized his body felt... more agile.
Just to make sure it wasn't his imagination, he turned around, grabbed the foot of the bed, and lifted.
"Am I stronger than before?"
It wasn't an exaggerated leap like his strength doubling, but it had definitely increased.
Hearing Li Ban moving around, Liu Mu called out from outside the door, "Li Ban, are you awake? If you are, Lord Du wants to see you."
Li Ban suddenly remembered. Right before he lost consciousness, he had heard someone say Du An had come to the fourth floor.
If Du An hadn't shown up when he did, Li Ban didn't know if he would have been crushed to death by Zhai Liu.
Even though he was still useful to Zhai Liu, the man's sudden attack left Li Ban completely baffled.
The officials and prisoners in the Death Prison all seemed to wear layer upon layer of masks, making it impossible to figure out what any of them actually wanted.
For now, neither Zhai Liu nor Du An was someone Li Ban could afford to provoke. He could only play things by ear.
He hurried to Jingyan Hall as quickly as possible.
This time, Lu Qinghe wasn't there.
Li Ban found Du An in the study, busy reading over official documents.
"Lord Du," Li Ban said, stepping forward to bow.
"Unless you have business there, do not go down to the fourth floor of the Death Prison again," Du An said, not even looking up.
Li Ban was genuinely confused.
It was Du An who had told him to listen to Zhai Liu in the first place.
Yet now, he was forbidding him from seeing Zhai Liu.
"My lord, what if Officer Huo forces me to go—"
"I have already warned them. If anyone tries to take you down to the fourth floor again, tell them to come see me."
Lord Du was taking a much harder stance this time. If only he could also get him out of this whole assassin business.
Li Ban tried to close the distance with Du An. "My lord, earlier... was it you who saved me?"
Du An finally set down his brush. He paused for a moment before replying, "Yes, and no."
Perhaps worried that Li Ban wouldn't heed his warning, Du An continued, "Zhai Liu wasn't trying to kill you, but the man is extremely dangerous. Both of us could be dragged into enormous trouble just by his presence."
"Do not reveal a single detail about him to anyone outside. Otherwise, you will be the first to die."
Du An had just admitted it himself: even he couldn't change Zhai Liu's decisions.
It seemed Zhai Liu really was the underground emperor of the Yu Province Death Prison.
Just as Li Ban was wondering who exactly Zhai Liu was, a rhythmic knock came from the door.
"My lord, I am here." It was Lu Qinghe.
Du An waved a hand, dismissing Li Ban.
As Li Ban walked out, he brushed past Lu Qinghe.
Lu Qinghe shot Li Ban a meaningful look.
'Does Lu Qinghe need something from me too?' Li Ban wondered.
After leaving Jingyan Hall, he went to the front courtyard's training ground to stretch his limbs.
He had realized his strength had increased the moment he woke up.
Whatever ability Zhai Liu had used on him, it seemed to have forcibly altered his constitution.
Li Ban picked up one of the specially made wooden sabers lying on the rack and ran through a saber routine. Just as he finished, he saw Lu Qinghe walking out.
She called Li Ban into the study to help with some tasks, then asked privately, "Did everything go smoothly with the Assassin Hall?"
"I got the wooden token." Li Ban gave Lu Qinghe a quick glimpse of the Identity token he had tucked away. "Do you know how the Assassin Hall's evaluation process works? Am I considered a real assassin now?"
Lu Qinghe gave a wry smile. "To the Assassin Hall, anyone without a copper plaque is just an outer-fringe member. Every mission you take is a test."
Seeing Li Ban tightly grip his token, Lu Qinghe chuckled. "Don't worry though. To ensure you rank up to a copper plaque as quickly as possible, you'll have people helping you."
"Lord Zhai has already stepped in," Li Ban said. "I don't know what he did, but when I woke up, my physical strength and stamina had both improved significantly."
"That was just Lord Zhai using his own unique method to temper your body. The only reason the change feels so drastic is because your foundation was so poor to begin with."
"Lord Du seemed... less than thrilled?" Li Ban asked.
Lu Qinghe fell silent for a moment, her movements slowing down as she organized the room.
"Lord Zhai's existence must be kept strictly confidential. Lord Du is simply worried about exposing his tracks."
Du An had just said the exact same thing.
Zhai Liu was clearly a very dangerous, yet incredibly important man.
Lu Qinghe waved a hand, clearly unwilling to dive any deeper into the subject. "Just act like you don't know anything, otherwise you'll meet a very ugly end. Enough of that, though. How is the Assassin Hall supposed to contact you?"
"The Yongan Pawnshop in Qingcheng County. I'm supposed to go there once every half a month to check for missions."
Prison guards had relatively flexible schedules. Traveling to Qingcheng County twice a month wouldn't draw any suspicion.
Lu Qinghe nodded. "If you receive a mission, inform Huo Jiang immediately. Honestly, he was supposed to be the one to tell you all this, but you went and passed out."
Just as Li Ban was starting to think she had only called him in to discuss the Assassin Hall, she suddenly brought up another topic.
"About the Cyan Silk Algae—"
"I haven't mentioned it to anyone," Li Ban said immediately.
Lu Qinghe tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "Take today and tomorrow to get used to your new physical limits. We'll head out again the day after tomorrow."
Why didn't she just go by herself?
Li Ban instantly went on high alert, but he agreed without missing a beat. "Alright! Do I need to prepare anything?"
"No. But I will need you to go into the water. We need to borrow your right eye's ability."
Superhuman Vision. It really was an incredibly useful support ability.
Leaving the Jingyan Hall study, Li Ban stepped out onto the porch and immediately spotted Huo Jiang practicing his saber drills in the front courtyard.
The man was definitely waiting for him!
He had just woken up and already had back-to-back meetings with three different people. He felt like some high-ranking official.
If it weren't for this sudden assassin mission, his life would actually be quite leisurely right now.
Sighing inwardly, Li Ban hurried over to the training ground.
"You recovered pretty quickly."
Huo Jiang looked Li Ban up and down. For once, he wasn't wearing his usual goofy, fake smile.
"Lord Du called for you—what were his orders?"
"Lord Du forbade me from going down to the fourth floor again," Li Ban answered honestly.
"Nothing else?"
"That was it."
Huo Jiang let out a silent sigh of relief. "Just do as Lord Du says."
He pulled a small box from his robes and handed it to Li Ban. "Absorb this as soon as possible. If you want to rank up quickly, your strength needs to keep pace!"
Li Ban took the box, already having a faint guess as to what was inside.
He popped the lid open, and his eyes instantly lit up.
Sitting inside the box was a Spiritual Rhinoceros Fruit!