Chapter 124: I’ll Take You Out

Yun Jiao and Captain Jiao were locked inside a pitch-dark underground prison. Since the place was meant for detaining ghosts, it wasn’t made to be comfortable—the yin energy around was strangely thin, and the whole cell glowed faintly with the light of restraining formations etched into the walls.

Jiao Hengyi was immediately filled with guilt. He turned to Yun Jiao and said remorsefully,

“It’s all my fault for implicating you, Fellow Daoist Yun.”

If he hadn’t smashed those bottles, they wouldn’t have attracted the ghost wardens. He had acted in anger, and now both of them were caught.

“Forget it,” Yun Jiao said indifferently. “You didn’t do anything wrong. Those bottles needed to be destroyed anyway.”

There might have been a more methodical way to release the captured life forces, but the people of West City couldn’t wait any longer—that was why she hadn’t stopped him.

Jiao Hengyi was deeply moved. His old eyes suddenly grew hot, almost to the point of tears. What a good comrade! Even after being dragged into this mess, she didn’t blame him. He sniffed and forced himself to focus.

“Then what should we do now?”

“First, find a way back to the human realm,” Yun Jiao said. “We’re still alive, and staying long in the Underworld won’t end well.”

“But this is a ghost prison—look at all these arrays! And we’ve been bound by sealing curses; we can’t even move…”

“Eh?”

He trailed off in shock—because Yun Jiao suddenly stood up. The glowing seal mark that had been visible on her forehead fizzled out with a zzzt, disappearing completely.

“Y-you… you can move?” he stammered, utterly dumbfounded.

“Hm?” Yun Jiao blinked at him, looking puzzled. “This kind of curse is meant to restrain ghosts. We’re not ghosts. Of course we can move.”

“…Huh?” Jiao Hengyi froze. That… actually made perfect sense.

“But then why can’t I move?”

“Oh!” Yun Jiao suddenly remembered something and reached behind him, yanking off a yellow talisman.

“I put a Paralysis Charm on you earlier. I was afraid you’d give yourself away.”

Jiao Hengyi: “……”

Why do I feel like I’m being silently judged by my own teammate?

Once the talisman was gone, the curse mark on his forehead vanished as well. He stood up, testing his limbs. Sure enough, he could move freely again. Yun Jiao, meanwhile, was already studying the formation carved into the cell door.

He looked at it but couldn’t make sense of the runes. “So, Fellow Daoist Yun,” he asked, “is this also a formation meant to trap ghosts? Meaning we, as the living, can walk straight out?”

“Not that simple,” Yun Jiao said flatly, giving him a look of mild exasperation. Honestly—are you so used to copying homework that you can’t solve new problems on your own?

“This array may be powered by yin energy, but it’s still a proper, solid formation. Without breaking it, neither the living nor the dead can get through.”

“Oh.” Jiao Hengyi nodded and peered into the darkness. When they had first been brought here, he’d seen many other cells—but now, from the inside, he could only see pitch-blackness. Probably another effect of the formation.

“This is a dual formation,” Yun Jiao murmured after examining the walls. “It completely isolates the cell from the outside. We can only break out from here. A dual formation usually has two cores, but I can only find one. That means the other must be hidden somewhere nearby. Captain, you look for it.”

“Right!” Jiao Hengyi immediately began feeling along the walls inch by inch. After a while, he reached the far right corner and his face brightened.

“Found it! There’s a fluctuation here.”

He formed a quick hand seal, unraveling the concealment—and sure enough, another formation circle appeared.

“I’ll count to three,” Yun Jiao said crisply. “We break them at the same time. You destroy the core beneath you.”

“Understood.”

“Three… two… one—break!”

The two formations dimmed at once. Yun Jiao saw another array appear before her, while Jiao Hengyi found the core sigil beneath his feet. He didn’t hesitate—slammed a fist down, shattering it. Yun Jiao’s formation flickered and went dark.

With a creak, the cell door slowly swung open.

“It’s open!” Jiao Hengyi said joyfully. As expected—no formation can withstand Fellow Daoist Yun.

“Where to now?”

“Let’s get out of the prison first,” Yun Jiao replied as she stepped outside. “If we move quietly, the gate wardens will be easy enough to deal with—just as long as we don’t run into that scar-faced man named Xi…”

But as she took her first step out, the scene before her shifted—rows of prison cells, and directly across from her, leaning casually against a cell door, that same scar-faced man in blue robes grinning wickedly.

Yun Jiao: “…”

Jiao Hengyi: “…”

“Well, well,” Xi Teng drawled with a smirk. “Didn’t think you two actually had some skill.”

The two of them froze. Jiao Hengyi’s face went white, while Yun Jiao, still wearing her perfectly serious expression, calmly stepped backward, returned inside the cell, and—slam!—shut the door.

Jiao Hengyi: “……”

Xi Teng: “……”

Did she think he was blind? Going back inside won’t help now!

(‵o′)凸

“You two, get back here!” Xi Teng barked, striding over in exasperation. He yanked open the cell door, grabbed both of them by the collars, and dragged them out. Feeling the surprising weight in his hands, he frowned slightly but didn’t dwell on it.

“You two just died, huh? Why are your soul bodies so heavy?”

He hauled them down the corridor a good ten meters before finally setting them down. Seeing them flinch back instinctively, he glared.

“What are you panicking for? I’m taking you out!”

Both of them blinked. Jiao Hengyi stared at him like he’d gone mad.

“Y-you’re… letting us go?”

“Yeah.” Xi Teng nodded, looking utterly disdainful—as if saying, I’m in a good mood, so you’d better not waste it.

“Why?” Jiao Hengyi blurted. After all, they’d been caught because of him. What kind of logic was this?

Yun Jiao, however, seemed to realize something. “Because of those jade bottles,” she said.

Xi Teng’s brows furrowed, the movement pulling the scar across his face into a more menacing shape. He snorted. “That’s right. I’ve hated those damned bottles for a long time. You two smashing them saved me the trouble, so I’ll be generous today and let you go.”

“Who put those bottles there in the first place?” Yun Jiao asked before she could stop herself.

His expression darkened further, irritation flashing in his eyes. “You’re a newly-dead ghost. Why the hell do you care? Ask too much and you’ll end up scattered to dust.” Then he turned and barked, “Move it! I’m not waiting all night.”

He strode ahead, and the two had no choice but to follow. Fine, they thought, getting out comes first.

The prison’s layout was a labyrinth—twisting corridors and endless turns. Having someone lead the way seemed like a blessing at first.

Until…

“Wait, didn’t we already pass this corridor?”

“This three-way junction—we’ve seen it four times now.”

“Wasn’t that our own marking? How did we end up back here?”

“Hold on, that’s the way back—why are we turning that way again?”

“Wait a second… isn’t that the same cell we were locked in before?!”

“……”

The two exchanged exasperated looks at the scar-faced man who had been “leading” them for half an hour yet still hadn’t found an exit.

“Uh, Friend Ghost?” Jiao Hengyi finally couldn’t take it anymore. “Be honest—do you actually know the way?”

They’d only taken about ten minutes to get in, including the trip through the city. How could it take half an hour to get out?

“Nonsense!” Xi Teng’s face flushed, though he stubbornly denied it. “Of course I know the way! It’s just… this prison’s layout is too complicated. Yeah. Too complicated.”

“……” Sure, keep digging that hole.

“Forget it! I give up.” Yun Jiao sighed, rubbing her forehead. “Let’s just stay here.”

“Stay here? For what?” Jiao Hengyi asked blankly.

She looked at him, dead serious.

“For dinner.”

Jiao Hengyi: “……”

Xi Teng: “……”

What the hell?!

(End of Chapter)