Chapter 119: Chapter 109: Eternal Purgatory

The sky was dark and the land was dim, mountains draped in snow. A winding official road cut through the ranges and snowy plains.

The blizzard carried fine hailstones, and the wind was like a blade, scraping skin and shaving bone. The cold was piercing.

Three fine horses galloped south along the official road.

Their hurried hooves kicked up clouds of snow that met the blizzard in mid-air, forming a fine, straight plume that trailed behind them.

Feng Bei’s party of four had abandoned their carriage by the roadside. Donning heavy cloaks they had prepared beforehand, they braved the storm.

"Huuuh..."

Exhaling a plume of white, icy mist, Feng Bei rode behind Zheng Xiu, silent for the entire journey.

Zheng Xiu’s feelings were a tangled mess.

’I never thought the nightmare would come true.’

’In the dream he’d had on the night of the first, he and Feng Bei were galloping on horseback; one was full, the other overflowed. He prayed the end of the nightmare wouldn’t come true—that he wouldn’t be slapped into dust by her hand.’

"Your son looks just like you," Feng Bei suddenly said in a strange tone from behind him. "From the left, he looks like you; from the right, he looks like you. He’s the spitting image of you."

"Uh, that’s perfectly normal," Zheng Xiu shouted back, immediately getting a mouthful of snow for his trouble.

"But he looks *too* much like you."

Zheng Xiu was silent.

Feng Bei asked again, "Where have you been all these years?"

"Secluded cultivation, living as a hermit, having a kid," Zheng Xiu replied, steeling himself.

"Twenty years ago... Senior, why did you save me?"

Feng Bei clutched his clothes tightly.

"The wind’s too strong, I can’t hear you! Let’s just ride!"

"..."

The road to Shuzhou was long.

Even if they traveled day and night, the journey was estimated to take ten to fifteen days.

The old stories always claimed legendary steeds could cover a thousand li in a day, but that was just nonsense.

Ancient roads weren’t paved with concrete or asphalt like modern ones. Even the official roads, meant for commerce and military use, were often a mess of mud and potholes from the elements. With loose stones, slick patches of snow, and river crossings to contend with, the terrain was difficult. Covering even a hundred li in a day was considered a good pace.

The night passed in silence.

Daybreak arrived.

The four of them stopped to rest at a small village along the way.

They planned to rest for a few hours before getting back on the road.

While they were stabling their horses, Dou Xie, thinking to himself that this Mighty Man must be the Hidden Master from the legends—the one who could supposedly enter and exit the Darkness seven times—sidled up to him to ask for tips on advancing his Path.

Zheng Xiu glanced at Dou Xie and noticed the injuries on his face had healed considerably.

’Dou Xie was actually a pretty motivated kid. Aside from his stubborn pride, he didn’t have any real flaws.’

After failing to brush him off several times, Zheng Xiu figured, ’What’s the harm? It’s not like a little advice will break him,’ and offered a piece of middle-ground advice.

"Since you’re a ’Scholar,’ you can’t just keep copying others. What you copy will never truly be your own. Try to infuse your own insights into your words, then transform them into a Miracle Technique. Mix in your own emotions, and perhaps you can develop new Miracle Techniques."

"What you say is true, Senior! So... for example?" Dou Xie seemed to understand, yet at the same time, he didn’t. He’d heard the words, but the meaning hadn’t fully sunk in.

Zheng Shan smiled faintly. "I hear you’re one of the Twenty-Eight Constellations?"

Dou Xie wasn’t sure why Zheng Shan had suddenly changed the subject, but he still puffed out his chest and said proudly, "I am!"

"And I’ve also heard that, among the Twenty-Eight Constellations, your power is rather underwhelming?"

Dou Xie was stunned.

"I heard you suffered a crushing defeat at the Immortal Maiden Temple?"

Dou Xie’s face flushed. "That’s... that’s... that’s nonsense!"

Zheng Shan said, "Trash."

Dou Xie was enraged, but recalling the man’s status, he could only scramble to defend himself, explaining how perilous the situation had been and how he’d been caught off guard by his opponent’s Miracle Technique.

After listening patiently, Zheng Shan just smiled, shook his head, and wagged his index finger. "Tsk, tsk. Trash."

Dou Xie babbled on.

"Trash."

"Trash."

"Trash."

Dou Xie was becoming incoherent, his excuses growing feebler.

Finally, Zheng Xiu delivered the finishing blow. "Facts aside, as the lamest of all the Constellations, don’t you have even an ounce of self-awareness?"

It was as if something exploded in his mind. Dou Xie’s vision went black, and he collapsed to the ground, foaming at the mouth.

"Tsk. ’Scholars.’"

Zheng Xiu sneered. "See? Words hold a mysterious power. Do you feel angry? Good. Now try to infuse that anger into your words and unleash it."

...

Near Post Station Feng Bei, Zheng Xiu canceled his Divine Travel. He patted Pingping, whose eyes fluttered open as if waking from a trance.

The drenched Princess of the Dayue Clan from Ancient Persia had just had a strange dream. Blushing furiously, she loosened her restraints, and her legs gave way beneath her.

"Was it useful?" Zheng Xiu asked, curious about her cultivation progress.

Pingping nodded, blinking. "Would you like to hear a tune, Master? A... different kind of tune~"

"Yes, some other time." Zheng Xiu nodded and left the dungeon.

Knowing that her Master had exerted himself all night, Zheng Erniang had ordered the servants to prepare hot water and a virility-boosting soup first thing in the morning.

Without offering an explanation, Zheng Xiu silently endured all the slander and rumors. Over breakfast, he keenly sensed a hidden worry in the expressions of Zheng Erniang and the others. After a few questions, it dawned on him: today his special pardon was over. It was time to return to Heaven-Gazing Prison.

’Three days... it’s already over?’

No wonder a somber mood hung over the Zheng Family estate today. The others didn’t know the specifics, only that their Master was going back to prison, which was hardly a cause for celebration.

Zheng Xiu, however, wasn’t particularly bothered.

Moreover, it was worth noting.

While in the Zheng Family’s dungeon, he hadn’t noticed any changes on his Prisoner panel. However, when he tried to send out his Divine Travel, he discovered its range was only slightly larger than the Zheng estate itself. Without the aid of a Post Station, his avatar couldn’t roam the entire city.

The reason for this was obvious.

Only a handful of people knew about the Zheng Family dungeon. Of those, only four—Bobo, Pingping, Lily, and Zizi—had the concept of it being a ’prison’ implanted into their minds. On a cognitive level, only those four acknowledged it as a ’dungeon’.

If prisons were ranked, the Zheng Family’s dungeon would be considered the lowest grade, barely sufficient to trigger his Prisoner Path. In terms of rank, it couldn’t hold a candle to Heaven-Gazing Prison, one of the four great Celestial Prisons, a place spoken of only in fearful whispers by the common folk.

Ever since discovering this, Zheng Xiu had been trying to find a solution.

’How can I raise the prison’s level without exposing the fact that the Zheng Family has a dungeon?’

Zheng Xiu suddenly felt very busy. His avatar was out ’on a date’ with Feng Bei, while his main body had to cultivate other Paths. On top of that, his new alias, Zheng Baimei, was about to debut. He was juggling multiple tasks; without some serious time management skills, it would be difficult to properly allocate his precious time.

’This won’t be easy.’

However, as soon as the problem arose, a particularly fitting idea had already come to mind.

The only problem was that the plan was incredibly difficult to execute and would require... operating slightly outside the laws of Daqian. No, not outside, more like... rubbing right up against them.

While mentally reciting the laws of Daqian, Zheng Xiu found Qing Shisan to discuss his plan.

「After a secret discussion.」

Qing Shisan puffed away at his long-stemmed pipe, his expression odd. He held up a hand, ticking off fingers as he spoke. "Villainy, murder, arson, the cruel rich, the unjust official, the unfaithful wife, the disloyal husband... Master, are you planning on secretly locking people who fit these descriptions in the Zheng Family dungeon, whipping them a bit, and... teaching them to turn over a new leaf?"

He ran out of fingers before he finished the list.

"Pardon my bluntness, Master, but if you’re truly walking the Merchant Path, you shouldn’t add so many bizarre rules. You’ll just muddle your own principles, end up pulled in too many directions, and achieve nothing."

"Or have you grown tired of the Merchant Path, Master? Do you plan to snatch the job of the Capital City’s Top Divine Hunter, Guo Zifei, and play at being an Official? But the prestige of an Official can’t hold a candle to what you already have!"

"Don’t tell me you actually want to enact Heaven’s justice? To rid the world of evil for the common good?"

Qing Shisan didn’t believe for a second that Zheng Xiu was that kind of man.

Zheng Xiu just smiled. "It seems your Brotherhood has been short on work lately."

Qing Shisan nodded. "That’s true enough."

"Then you ought to find something to do, to stretch your legs a bit."

"But we can’t be *that* indiscriminate."

Qing Shisan seemed to truly regard Zheng Xiu as his master. He wasn’t just blindly agreeing but was earnestly discussing the matter. "We can do this work. It should help us deepen our Path. But we can’t do all of it. At the very least, when it comes to the final ’lesson,’ someone else has to take over. Otherwise, the principles will get too convoluted! I’ll be fine, but I’m afraid it would ruin the other brothers."

"Someone else?"

Zheng Xiu cupped his chin in thought.

Qing Shisan said leisurely, "Ahem, actually, I have a good candidate in mind."

Before Qing Shisan could reveal the answer, Zheng Xiu’s eyes lit up. He met Qing Shisan’s gaze, feeling they were on the same page, and they said in unison, "Scarface Liu!"

Scarface Liu was scheduled to escort Master Zheng back to prison this morning. Zheng Xiu was about to wash up and get dressed, intending to wait with a bit of style for his prison escort. Just then, Qing Shisan called out from a distance, "Oh, right, Master! That... project of yours. Are you going to give it an intimidating name?"

Qing Shisan had a faint feeling that there was a deeper meaning to Zheng Xiu’s plan, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. He just had this sense that Zheng Xiu wanted to build... a true prison.

Zheng Xiu stopped in his tracks. Then he smiled and spoke two words.

"Eternal Purgatory!"