No matter the character or capability of its host and regardless of whether they were righteous or evil, the magical thing about a Forbidden Item was that its rules applied equally to everyone.
As long as you could fulfill its terms of containment, it would be yours to use.
A steam train that could reach any place you wished to go, a devil stamp that could send letters to any location.
They were like exceptions to the rules of the world, both a treasure and a catastrophe.
Owning one of these things would bring you an unimaginably enormous advantage.
“Teacher,” Qing Chen faced Li Shutong, “During my battle, I continuously used the breathing technique without any interruption.”
Li Shutong looked at him, “You didn’t stop at all?”
It had to be known that breathing was a human instinct. Without a deliberate reminder, instead of the Knight’s breathing technique, your breathing frequency would revert to its instinctive pattern.
Thus, Li Shutong was quite surprised because he had needed more than one year of practice to gradually learn to use the breathing technique at all times.
Only after reaching that point would the knight candidates be allowed to challenge the Life and Death Stages.
Because throughout the process, the breathing technique should never be stopped even just for a moment. Missing a beat would spoil all of your previous efforts.
Qing Chen continued speaking, “Once the battle was over, I felt a very strong sense of calm, as if I was inside an unshakable lake. I think that might be the effect of a large secretion of endorphins.”
“Yes, you guessed right,” affirmed Li Shutong.
Qing Chen asked again, “But after that, my bones and muscles seemed to be undergoing a change. Whenever I moved, there would be a sound of cracking from within my body. What was up with that?”
Li Shutong suddenly gave him a serious look, “Are you sure?”
“I am.” Qing Chen nodded.
Li Shutong began pacing back and forth the prison square in deep ponderation.
He told Qing Chen, “No one in Knights has ever encountered your situation. You obviously have just mastered the breathing technique, but you already possess Qi in your body. You have not passed any Life and Death Stage, but there’s already a sign of your gene lock opening.”
The Life and Death Stages had always referred to a set of eight specific trials.
In the past, there were also knights who sought to find alternative ways.
Since they could obtain the key to unlock the genetic limit by facing crises of life and death while using the breathing technique, would it be possible to replace some stages with equally dangerous, difficult, and painful trials?
Since the ocean had turned into the Forbidden Sea, the predecessor knights kept trying to explore a new path for their successors to take, hoping that they wouldn’t have to tread on the same regrets because of an uncontrollable factor.
But every single one failed.
No matter how they tried, their genetic locks showed no indication of loosening.
But the crackling sound that Qing Chen was talking about was clearly an initial sign of the opening of the genetic lock!
Li Shutong stared at Qing Chen and said, “Get ready, I'm going to take you out to play again. I originally wanted to wait a while longer, but we can go earlier now.”
“Where are we going to? The slum of City 18?” asked Qing Chen.
“No,” Li Shutong smiled, “The place I’m taking you this time, most time travelers currently won't have the opportunity to go.”
Qing Chen realized that because he had shown signs of opening the genetic lock ahead of time, his teacher was in turn bringing forward a certain plan.
…
Countdown 160:40:00.
7:20 in the morning.
In the prison, the noises of inmates slamming on the gates had since disappeared, but Qing Chen instead felt unused to the quiet.
Because of his training, the prisoners also had to obediently stay in their cells for two days.
Then everyone went through two nights of ‘let’s find the spleen’ game and was currently still tensely stuck in a state of anxiety.
For fear that something would happen to them, they were all as well behaved as quails
Qing Chen casually asked Lin Xiaoxiao, “By the way, I'm not being soft-hearted, I’m just wondering if there’ll be any implication by doing this? After all, there are more than 3,000 people here.”
“Actually, this is still nothing. After all, you’re the sole scion of the Knights, what Boss is doing right now isn’t really exaggerated. If Boss Chen was the one in charge, it’ll get even crazier than this,” Lin Xiaoxiao shrugged.
Qing Chen was puzzled. “Who is Boss Chen?”
“The Boss's senior brother, Chen Jiazhang,” answered Ye Wan, “but Boss Chen has disappeared for a long time. It’s said that he hasn’t been able to complete the seventh Life and Death Stage, so he went to search for a place to practice.”
Truth to be told, it was the first time Qing Chen heard the name Chen Jiazhang. He always thought the Knights had no other member.
He looked at Lin Xiaoxiao and Ye Wan and wondered, “Is there anything else I should know that I don't know yet?”
“Yes,” Lin Xiaoxiao replied, “Boss also has a junior sister named Wang Xiaojiu, but she’s still young. She was the apprentice who Boss accepted on behalf of his teacher eight years ago. At present, it seems like she’s just passed the fifth Life and Death Stage.”
“Anything else?” asked Qing Chen with a blank expression.
“No more, no more,” Lin Xiaoxiao cheerfully spoke, “There are some things we can't remember, for now, we'll tell you when we do.”
“You’re too unreliable,” Qing Chen sighed.
Lin Xiaoxiao changed the subject and said, “The prison will definitely return to normal in the future, at least we won’t let them skip multiple meals at once. But you don't have to feel sorry for them. Guo Huchan was right about one thing – except for a small number of people, everyone here deserves a punishment worse than death.”
“Punishment worse than death?” Qing Chen was taken aback. “Are you speaking exaggeratedly?”
“No,” Lin Xiaoxiao shook his head. “Being sent to this prison means you’re a felon. Do you remember the inmate with a red mechanical arm, that bastard whose hair looks like a chicken coop?”
“I do,” Qing Chen nodded.
Lin Xiaoxiao went on, “That bastard killed more than a dozen people outside, and even trafficked the corneas of little children. To say he deserves a punishment worse than death is not excessive. But there’s no death penalty in the current federal law, so they could only sentence him for more than a hundred years, which is totally meaningless.”
“How about people who were used as scapegoats, like Liu Dezhu?” questioned Qing Chen.
“Oh, we’ll gradually sort out this type of case. For example, for Liu Dezhu, we’ll find a way to transfer him to another prison. In fact, Lu Guangyi is also in this situation. If it weren’t for the arrangement of the Qing Family, he would’ve been transferred to another prison much earlier,” Lin Xiaoxiao explained. “You must have discovered it since your memory is so good. Although new prisoners keep coming in, the total number of people has been decreasing.”
Indeed, there were 3,102 people when Qing Chen first arrived in Prison 18, but now there were only 3,009 left.
However, the explanation left Qing Chen even more confused because he noticed Lin Xiaoxiao was deliberately leaving behind those who ‘deserve a punishment worse than death’.
It couldn’t be for the sake of raising Gu1The creation of a potent poison by sealing various venomous insects and animals until they devour one another and leave behind a single survivor in which all the venoms are concentrated, thus producing a new type poison theoretically more deadly than its origins. More mythical than real, stories about it have existed in China centuries ago., right?
When Qing Chen asked about this matter again, Lin Xiaoxiao no longer answered.
1The creation of a potent poison by sealing various venomous insects and animals until they devour one another and leave behind a single survivor in which all the venoms are concentrated, thus producing a new type poison theoretically more deadly than its origins. More mythical than real, stories about it have existed in China centuries ago.
