Chapter 1121: Toppling the Immortal Alliance from Within Prison
“I might even be able to convert them into followers of the Compassionate True Immortal!”
Watching the countless inmates around him wailing in agony under the torment of the formations, Kou Hong felt a surge of empathy. A new thought began to form in his mind.
“But this is a high-security prison, after all. Pulling this off will require careful planning.”
A glint flickered in Kou Hong’s eyes, and he once again masked his thoughts with the same angry shouts as before.
This time, however, he deliberately made his cries sound intermittent and feeble.
As if he was on the verge of breaking.
Over the next while, Kou Hong used his apparent complete submission to divert the jailers’ attention.
He spent his days fanatically studying the detailed explanations of the arrays while secretly building up his strength.
The gift from the Compassionate True Immortal, that mysterious warm current flowing through him, was none other than the cultivation base that every cultivator dreamed of.
Conventionally, such power was only accumulated through years of arduous training, the very fuel for advancing through the realms. Yet here it was, an inexhaustible spring watering the very roots of his being.
As a result, his power was soaring at an unimaginably terrifying rate.
In no more than half a month, he had broken through to the peak of the Golden Core realm.
This only strengthened Kou Hong's conviction. The incredible miracles happening to him were, without a doubt, a gift from the Compassionate True Immortal!
After all, it had taken him over two hundred years to cultivate from a mere mortal to the mid-stage Golden Core!
Now, he advanced in the blink of an eye.
Kou Hong had assumed that the peak of the Golden Core realm would be his limit. But what followed shattered his understanding of the world and showed him the true meaning of an immortal's divine power!
It was common knowledge that to break through from the Golden Core to the Nascent Soul realm, a cultivator had to absorb a grotto-heaven from the Xuanhuang Realm.
Trapped in the Alliance's Deepest Prison, Kou Hong naturally couldn't meet this condition.
Yet, three days later, something happened that left Kou Hong utterly astounded.
As he circulated his spiritual energy and inspected his body, he was shocked to find the faint, illusory image of a grotto-heaven materializing within his dantian!
Upon closer inspection, Kou Hong confirmed that this apparition was no illusion.
It was real! An entire grotto-heaven was being born inside his body!
It went without saying that this, too, was a gift from the Compassionate True Immortal.
Kou Hong readily accepted this fact. A month later, drawing on the power of this nascent grotto-heaven, he officially broke through to the Nascent Soul realm!
The celestial power surging within him perfectly concealed the fluctuations caused by his breakthrough, leaving the prison guards completely unaware.
Kou Hong stared at his own hands as if in a trance.
The Nascent Soul realm—a level of power he had only dared to imagine in his wildest dreams—had been achieved with such ease.
“Supreme Compassionate True Immortal, I do not know what I, Kou Hong, have done to deserve such favor.”
“I swear I will fulfill your mission, even if it means dying a thousand deaths.”
In the shadows, Kou Hong gazed at the towering structures of the Deepest Prison surrounding him, his resolve hardening into steel.
Even after reaching the Nascent Soul realm, Kou Hong’s power continued to grow automatically each day. But he now focused his attention on breaking the arrays and freeing the prisoners.
“Doing this alone will be nearly impossible. But where can I find allies in a place like this?”
Kou Hong began to covertly observe his fellow inmates, searching for suitable partners.
And so, an unknown amount of time passed.
One day, Li Fan saw the message from Kou Hong and couldn't help but smile faintly.
He simply pretended not to have seen it, offering no reply.
Kou Hong tried a few more times, his hope unwavering, but eventually, he had no choice but to give up.
“Was my judgment wrong?”
“It couldn’t be...”
Just as Kou Hong found himself at an impasse, a new inmate arrived, immediately capturing his attention.
This man wasn't a member of the Federation of All Worlds; he had been imprisoned for violating the laws of the Immortal Alliance.
Judging by his crime, he would likely never see the outside world again.
“You vermin always think you can just die to atone for your crimes,” the escorting cultivator from the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance snarled, his teeth gritted.
“It's not that easy!”
“I'll make sure you can't even beg for death, that you spend the rest of your miserable life rotting in this lightless pit!”
The prisoner remained silent, but his gaze was filled with cold contempt and murderous intent.
Soon, however, under the relentless pressure of the brutal arrays, his defiance turned into screams of agony.
In moments of extreme pain, a person's subconscious words often reveal their truest thoughts.
Kou Hong listened to his new neighbor's cries for several days and concluded that this man could indeed be an ally.
One day, after waiting until the man was tortured to within an inch of his life, Kou Hong quietly sent a message through the array.
The man's eyes snapped open, and he tried to pinpoint Kou Hong's location, but it was a futile effort.
After a brief exchange, Kou Hong learned his name.
Zhang Fu.
His crime wasn't particularly severe; he had merely embezzled a third of the annual profits from the Dan Hall in Moyuan Province.
In the past, even if something like this came to light, a few contribution points and calling in some favors would have been enough to make the problem go away.
But this time, he was unlucky. A sworn enemy of his somehow got wind of it and reported him directly to the Alliance headquarters.
The reaction from headquarters was unusually swift.
Before Zhang Fu even had a chance to pull any strings, an envoy arrived. After a brief investigation confirmed the charges, he was arrested on the spot.
They didn't even follow the standard review process, just threw him straight into the Deepest Prison and sealed him away.
Only then did Zhang Fu realize he had been set up.
He thought his life was over, never imagining he would find a glimmer of hope here.
“Help free the prisoners from the Deepest Prison?”
“That’s a capital offense. I know everyone can be reborn these days, but I heard before I was brought in... the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance has struck some kind of deal with the Rebirth Heavenly Sovereign. Anyone who commits an unforgivable crime against the Alliance loses their chance at rebirth. They die for good!”
“Like those members of the Federation of All Worlds... that’s what happened to them.”
Unaware that his words had sent a violent tremor through Kou Hong’s body nearby, Zhang Fu continued, “Even if I’m trapped here for eternity with no hope of escape, it’s still better than true death.”
“Who knows, maybe one day the Alliance will grant a general amnesty?”
Initially, Zhang Fu refused. He even considered reporting this schemer to the authorities to reduce his own sentence.
But the other man's next words changed his mind.
“In this place, death is a release.”
“If you don't believe me, just look at the others around you.”
(End of Chapter)
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