Chapter 81: Pebble Hidden Weapon

"By the way, Branch Master, last time we ate you left without settling the bill. Are you putting it on tab, or settling it now?" Mangu asked before leaving.

Lu Yang hurriedly stopped Mangu: "Shut your mouth! As people of the demonic path, eating a meal without paying is only natural and right. Could our Branch Master possibly be the kind of good-natured person who actually pays for his meals?!"

Meng Jingzhou chimed in as well: "Exactly! Before, the Branch Master said it was his treat, not that he was paying the bill. How can you not even tell the difference between the two?!"

Branch Master Chu: "..."

He had to admit that when it came to speaking sarcastically to someone, he was vastly inferior to these three.

Gritting his teeth to suppress the urge to beat them to death, he threw a piece of gold to Mangu: "Keep the change. You three, get the hell out of here!"

Mangu looked completely bewildered. He was just asking for the money normally. Why did Brother Lu and Brother Meng sound so strange, as if they were helping him, yet also helping the Branch Master?

By the time the three of them left, it was already late at night. Looking up at the brilliant starry sky, Lu Yang sighed with emotion.

"Who could have imagined that the stars in the sky are all fake? Unexpected, truly unexpected."

Meng Jingzhou scratched his head: "There isn't really anything unimaginable about it. Since I was a child, my grandfather told me that he would give me whatever I wanted, and that he could pluck even the stars from the sky. When I was seven or eight years old, I pointed at a star and said I wanted that one."

"My grandfather leaped into the universe, and when he came back, he placed a light speck the size of a fingernail into my hand, saying that this was the star. Coincidentally, there was one less star in the starry sky."

"I gestured to my grandfather, saying that stars should be very, very big, even bigger than our courtyard, not this small. Grandfather just smiled mysteriously and said that stars are just this small."

"What happened next?" Lu Yang asked with great interest.

"Next? Next, the people from the Ministry of Justice came over. It seemed to be a high official, who said my grandfather stole natural resources and told him to return the star. My grandfather returned the light speck, and the missing spot in the night sky showed a star again."

"At that time, I felt something was wrong, but I didn't understand what was going on. Over time, it faded and I forgot about it. Hearing this today, I finally know that what I held in my hand back then really was a star."

"As expected of a member of the Meng family, your childhood experiences are just different from ours." Lu Yang shook his head, wondering what he was doing when he was a child.

He remembered now. When he was a child, he was recalling his experiences before transmigrating, reciting ancient poems and the like, such as 'A tower built a hundred feet high, where one's hand can pluck the stars. I dare not speak in a loud voice, for fear of startling the heavenly beings.'

When he was a child, he could only pluck stars in poetry, while Meng Jingzhou could actually pluck stars. That was the gap between them.

Recently, Lu Yang had also considered whether to write a book to make money, like The Wandering Earth or something. But if it were placed in the context of this world, it probably wouldn't be planetary engines pushing the earth, but rather supreme cultivation experts pushing the earth.

The three of them stopped thinking about the stars and the continent. Such matters were too distant for them. With their current cultivation levels, let alone moving stars, even moving large stones took quite an effort.

"Let's rest early. Tomorrow we'll go visit our sect members who are locked up in prison."

The three of them yawned. Once at the Foundation Establishment stage, one could replace sleep with meditation, and the effect was the same, but the three of them preferred to sleep.

Meditation? Wait until the Golden Core stage.

Early the next morning, Lu Yang found Constable Wei. After explaining his intention, Constable Wei very readily approved a permit, allowing Lu Yang to go to the prison to visit the inmates.

As soon as he stepped into the prison, Lu Yang felt his own spiritual energy seem to be shackled, unable to be mobilized in the slightest, and his body became sluggish.

"Is this the Spirit Suppressing Array Constable Wei mentioned?" Lu Yang was surprised, not expecting the Spirit Suppressing Array to be as formidable as Constable Wei had said.

When Constable Wei gave Lu Yang the permit, he had told him to pay attention to the prison's Spirit Suppressing Array. This was a formation specifically designed for cultivators. Within the range of the Spirit Suppressing Array, a cultivator's cultivation would be shackled and they would be unable to use any spells. This was to prevent cultivators from raiding the prison or escaping.

The prison's Spirit Suppressing Array was of a very high level. Even if a Golden Core stage cultivator came, they would be restricted without exception.

When Lu Yang arrived, it just happened to coincide with the changing of the guards' shifts.

The guard on the day shift was yawning, tears even coming out of his eyes, looking completely dazed, as if he hadn't fully woken up yet.

The guard on the night shift, who was about to rest soon, was in a good mood and joked: "Old Zhou, aren't you usually the most energetic one? Why are you so sleepy today? Could you have done something shameful last night?"

Old Zhou opened his mouth very wide and let out a huge yawn before saying: "I don't know what's going on lately, but I always feel like I can't sleep enough. It's hard even getting out of bed in the morning. It's not just me, my wife is the same way. I even washed my face when I arrived, but I'm still sleepy."

The night shift guard laughed: "It must be because of something you did at night that made you not sleep well. See, I'm not sleepy at all."

Old Zhou curled his lip: "You're a cultivator, you're different from me."

The night shift guard waved his hand, not thinking much of it: "I'm only at the first layer of Qi Refining. Whether I can rise to the second layer in this lifetime is hard to say. What kind of cultivator does that make me?"

According to the rules of the prison, the day shift guards were mortals, while the night shift guards were cultivators at the first layer of Qi Refining. A cultivator at the first layer of Qi Refining could ensure they wouldn't feel sleepy at night and wouldn't be negligent.

Cultivators were all unwilling to be suppressed by the Spirit Suppressing Array and become just like mortals, but having only first layer Qi Refining guards watching the prison was clearly not enough, so secret sentries were also arranged outside the prison, guarded by cultivators.

After the shift handover, Lu Yang took the permit and found Old Zhou.

Old Zhou glanced at Lu Yang, conducted a body search, and found that apart from a lunch box, he brought nothing at all, so he let him pass.

As a ruthless figure who had made a name for himself among the loose demonic cultivators in the neighboring counties, Chi Xulong believed that after joining the Demonic Sect, he would definitely realize his grand ambitions, conquer a territory, and become a local tyrant.

Being deeply trapped in prison now could not change his aspirations either.

Since he was in prison, he would first become the prison boss!

The first obstacle standing in front of him was his inability to intimidate others.

He was locked in a cage that even a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator could not break through, and he didn't even have a weapon on hand. The people locked up next door did not hold back their words, either cursing or using sarcasm, making Chi Xulong's teeth itch with anger.

At this time, his cellmate Shen Jinyi came up with a solution. He held a pebble in his mouth, and with a sharp 'pfft' spit, the pebble flew out like a bullet with astonishing power. The damage it caused when hitting someone could well be imagined.

As an assassin, Shen Jinyi was adept at using various items as hidden weapons.

"We are brothers in adversity together, so at this time we must cooperate sincerely and venture forth together!" Shen Jinyi said very loyally, "Once you master this move of mine, you will be invincible in the prison, and we can dominate this place together!"

Chi Xulong was greatly inspired. He worked from dawn to dusk, striving to learn how to launch pebble hidden weapons with his mouth.

Unfortunately, Chi Xulong lacked talent. He possessed nothing but brute strength and had never been able to learn it.

"You need to do it like this: store air in your mouth, spit it out with a sharp 'pfft', and the speed must be fast!" Shen Jinyi was currently demonstrating, trying hard to teach Chi Xulong.

"I know, isn't it just a 'pfft'." Chi Xulong was a bit impatient.

"Wrong, wrong. The way you pucker your mouth is too small. Like this."

"Like this?"

Lu Yang stood outside the cell, looking at Chi Xulong and Shen Jinyi who were puckering their mouths at each other, wondering whether he should speak up to remind them. This kind of scene could easily lead people to misunderstand.

Let's record it with a Shadow Recording Orb first.

(End of this chapter)