Chapter 1145: KNOCK KNOCK, OPEN UP

“Grandmaster Xiao, why are you here?” The square-faced captain asked the expert in the lead who had a deep gaze and gray hair. He spoke with great respect, but his gaze also landed on the mature-looking lady behind the Grand Stargazer and nodded slightly.

“Captain Fang, how is the situation in the prison?” Grandmaster Xiao nodded expressionlessly and asked in his hoarse voice.

Shang Xia didn’t expect that the square-faced captain was called Captain Fang, and he was trying really hard to stop himself from laughing. [1]

Captain Fang looked at the cell behind him, and he knew what the Grand Stargazer was really asking. He continued, “The people in the prison have been suppressed by the Star Observatory for a long time and they don’t have much inner qi left. Their physical bodies are also greatly weakened. Even if the seals stopped working, it wouldn’t be easy for them to recover in a short period.”

Feeling Grandmaster Xiao’s boring gaze, Captain Fang continued, “Those with Star Robes here didn’t show any strange movements, and True Immortal Liu wouldn’t lower himself to lying...”

Xiao Shengyi snorted once and he ignored Captain Fang and he entered the cell.

Captain Fang quickly made way for Grandmaster Xiao.

The entrance to Liu Jiuzhen’s cell was shoved open instantly as Xin Lu also followed behind. Captain Fang walked in next, and everyone else stayed outside.

“Liu Jiuzhen, why didn’t you try to escape?” Xiao Shengyi questioned unceremoniously as soon as he walked into the room.

Seeing as the person who came was Xiao Shengyi, Liu Jiuzhen wasn’t surprised by the tone he had. He replied frankly, “I can’t escape, and I don’t wish to damage the Star Observatory anyway.”

As he spoke, he didn’t bother looking at Xiao Shengyi. He changed the topic and asked, “How did Xing Xingtian find out where the commander was cultivating?”

Raising his chin, Xiao Shengyi sneered, “if I said that the Camp Commander Xing found it after I worked with him, I don’t think you would believe it anyway. Anyway, there’s no point in lying to you. Tong Yutang sent over several coordinates with suspicious activities and Camp Commander Xing and I looked through them and eventually discovered where Zhuge Xiang went.”

It was the first time Shang Xia heard Tong Yutang’s name in any conversation in the prison, and he quickly perked his ears up. He felt that the truth was about to be revealed.

“Tong Yutang?! It really is him! I knew that he was a scheming bastard! He lost to the commander back then, and he’s still holding a grudge about it!” Liu Jiuzheng gnashed his teeth and spat. However, he quickly became a little more suspicious. “No... Where did he get his hands on those coordinates?”

“That’s too many questions at once.” Xiao Shengyi snorted placidly.

Liu Jiuzhen continued, “Fine, you can ask your question first!”

Both of them seemed to reach some kind of agreement and both sides would answer each other’s question honestly.

Xiao Shengyi was only at the Martial Dipper Realm, but Captain Fang seemed to lower himself greatly when he arrived. From how Xiao Shengyi was speaking to Liu Jiuzhen, their status was about the same, and Liu Jiuzhen also treated Xiao Shengyi with the same amount of respect.

Xiao Shengyi thought for a second before he asked, “Do you know why the suppression disappeared suddenly?”

“Nope.” Liu Jiuzhen responded without hesitation.

A frown appeared on Xiao Shengyi’s face. “Really? Are you and the members of your First Camp not responsible for this?!”

Liu Jiuzhen chuckled softly in response, “Well, this is also too many questions at once. However, I’ll do you a favor and answer this for free. No, we are not.”

The frown on Xiao Shengyi’s face grew deeper. No one knew if it was because he didn’t trust Liu Jiuzhen, or if he was starting to think of other factors.

As Xiao Shengyi and Liu Jiuzhen spoke to each other, Xin Lu, who had taken the chance to inspect the room, returned to Xiao Shengyi’s side and shook her head slowly.

The Stargazer clearly didn’t feel any trace of anomaly among the restrictions placed in the room.

Liu Jiuzhen didn’t seem to care about her and he continued to stare at Xiao Shengyi.

Seemingly having felt his gaze, Xiao Shengyi grunted, “Go ahead.”

Nodding, Liu Jiuzhen continued, “What is Tong Yutang relying on to contend against the commander?”

Xiao Shengyi answered in a low voice, “Tong Yutang has already reached the level of Dao Harmony. He’s a fourth tier True Immortal, and he seems to have interacted with the True Immortals of the Essence Hong and Essence Ming Worlds. He promised that he would awaken the Star Origin Lord after he took on the position of Guard Captain. At the same time, he seems to have some sort of trump card that would allow him to obtain victory even if Zhuge Xiang enters the level of Returning to the Origin to reach the fifth tier of the Martial Void Realm. You shouldn’t ask too much about the trump card, after all, even I don’t know anything about it.”

“Impossible!” Liu Jiuzhen growled. “His cultivation is similar to mine at the second tier of the Martial Void Realm! How did he suddenly...”

Liu Jiuzhen stopped suddenly, and he revealed an uneasy expression. He seemed to have realized something and he turned to Xiao Shengyi again. “Xing Xingtian’s cultivation is also supposed to be at the fourth element of the Martial Dipper Realm at best. He entered the Martial Void Realm suddenly... Both of them had hidden their cultivation realms and from the looks of it... No... The Seventh Camp should also have colluded with them!”

Xiao Shengyi nodded slowly. “You guessed it yourself, and you’re pretty much right...”

No one knew why, but Liu Jiuzhen really didn’t ask about Tong Yutang’s trump card anymore.

However, Shang Xia seemed to make the connection. The trump card might very well be related to the strike across space he experienced back then.

Shang Xia heard from Wen Juxiang that it was an attack unleashed with the combined effort of several high-level experts. Shang Xia guessed that Tong Yutang was the person who led everything, and it probably had something to do with the talismans he made back then.

However... From what he was hearing now, Tong Yutang’s true intention of using the combined attack was to deal with Zhuge Xiang!

Liu Jiuzhen spoke up as Shang Xia was still thinking about the many considerations, “So... That would mean that the Star Ship of the Seventh Camp and the Ruined World...”

Xiao Shengyi muttered, “That’s something the Camp Commander sent out on Tong Yutang’s order. As for those people on it, and why it was destroyed, not even I know what happened. However, because the Star Origin Guards were hell-bent on looking into the matter, Camp Commander Xing was afraid his relationship with Tong Yutang would be revealed. Tong Yutang also came looking for him anxiously after hearing what happened. None of us knew what he discussed, but the Camp Commander revealed his true cultivation level at the Martial Void Realm the next moment and gathered the Camp Commanders and True Immortal Captains for a discussion... Well, you should know the rest.”

Xin Lu, who was standing beside Xiao Shengyi the entire time, took a step forward and spoke suddenly, “Senior Brother Xiao, the suppressive might of the prison is slowly restoring itself.”

Without Xin Lu’s reminder, the Grand Stargazer had already discovered what was happening. He turned to Liu Jiuzhen and muttered, “If you have nothing else to ask, I’m going to leave. I still need to find the reason behind the sudden disappearance of the power of suppression of the Star Observatory on the prison...”

Liu Jiuzhen nodded. “I won’t send you out then.”

When Xiao Shengyi, Xin Lu, and Captain Fang were about to leave, Liu Jiuzhen seemed to have thought of something and he asked, “Actually, did the power of suppression disappear, or did someone damage it?”

Xiao Shengyi hesitated slightly, but he eventually replied, “We can’t be sure at the moment. However, the power of starlight that was drawn over by the Star Observatory had its connection severed from the prison. Even a portion of the power of starlight we gathered in the Star Observatory seemed to have disappeared...”

“So... It’s not that the formation lost its effect, but it’s because it lost the support of the power of starlight?” Liu Jiuzhen wondered out loud.

Xiao Shengyi replied instantly, “That’s probably the reason. I’m going to look for why the connection was severed...”

With a half-mocking smile, Liu Jiuzhen sneered, “Be careful. It can possibly be that there’s a Seventh Order monster trapped in this prison, right?”

Xiao Shengyi snorted in response, “The power of starlight we can draw over isn’t that pure. At the very least, Camp Commander Xing and I aren’t capable of purifying the power of starlight to the point of tempting a Seventh Order expert... True experts at that level won’t bother themselves with us. Otherwise, why would the Star Origin Lord leave the Dao Field?”

Dao Field! They called it a Dao Field again!

That wasn’t Shang Xia’s first time hearing that term. He wondered if that was the reason the Land of Star Origin could be concealed in the void and produce its own spatial barrier...

With his powerful divine soul, Shang Xia could tell that while Xiao Shengyi left Liu Jiuzhen’s cell, the Grand Stargazer and the True Immortal revealed solemn expressions. Both of them seemed to be bogged down with a bunch of complicated thoughts.

It was then that the power of starlight reactivated the grand formation around the prison. The runes activated once again, and the suppressive might returned. Shang Xia’s divine soul couldn’t remain unaffected anymore.

Before it was forced to return, Shang Xia noticed that Xiao Shengyi didn’t bother entering another room. He merely inspected the other cells from the outside with Xin Lu and the other Star Origin Guards.

Shang Xia started to think about many things.

It seemed as though those captured and housed on the third floor had been greatly drained of their inner qi. Even though their cultivation realms could remain the same, they no longer had enough energy flowing through them.

That was probably also why even though the power of suppression disappeared, no one managed to escape!

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

It wasn’t that they didn’t wish to escape... It was because they didn’t have enough inner qi to raise any waves! They didn’t even have time to recover due to how quickly the Star Origin Guards reacted. Their physical bodies were also greatly weakened...

Whatever it was, the entire matter didn’t seem related to Shang Xia.

Logically speaking, even if the Crimson Soul Tablet had been absorbing the power of starlight, his Six Direction Origin should still be affected by the suppressive might of the prison. However... After so many days had passed, not only was he weakened, he even seemed to be growing stronger! Even the growth of his physical body was going quite smoothly...

Shang Xia didn’t bring any essence crystals to recover his inner qi, or any medicine for that matter. The cell didn’t seem to restrict the flow of heaven and earth qi, but with the powerful suppression of the prison, cultivators were unable to replenish their energy anyway.

The more he thought about it, Shang Xia could tell that something was off. There was only one possibility for him to still be growing stronger, and that was because of the support of the Crimson Soul Tablet after it absorbed the power of starlight!

With that came another question. Was he able to transform the power of starlight with the Crimson Soul Tablet into something he could absorb? Would he be able to widen its effects such that he could affect the experts held on the third floor of the prison?

1. Square = 方(Fang) Chinese ☜