Lanke Chess Edge
Chapter 214: Ill Confess Everything

Content warning: mild depictions of torture (punishment for demonic spirits). Starts from “During this whole process” until the end of the chapter – summary at the end of chapter.

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There was only one inn in the small county of Tingshui, so the inn was also nicknamed Tingshui Inn.

At this time, in the lobby of Tingshui Inn, the group of warriors was in a relaxed mood, and returned to the questions they had been asking Du Heng before.

Li Tongzhou raised a cup of wine in a toast to Du Heng, and asked with some ulterior motives.

“Brother Du, who exactly is this Mr. Ji? We have been through many life and death crises, and have survived many difficulties together, we can be considered friends in adversity. Tell us about him!”

“Yes, Warrior Du!”

“Yeah, that’s right, Warrior Du, tell us about him. It was like this, like how Mr. Ji did it, hoooh…”

A man with a loud voice blew out a breath in an imitation of Ji Yuan’s previous action. It wasn’t quite right, but everyone knew what he meant by it.

“Just with a breath, he turned those terrifying ghost puppets into ashes. That ability is unbelievable! Is Mr. Ji an immortal?”

“Yes, yes! My father once told me, better for us warrior to believe in the blade in our hands than in ghosts and corrupt officials. I always thought those mysterious things were just legends. This time I realized there were worlds beyond what I knew!”

“That’s right, Old Cui, go to the back kitchen and cook some more dishes. I’ll serve you guys some more drinks.”

The innkeeper chimed in with the cheering.

Du Heng was also in high spirits. He couldn’t refuse, nor did he want to. This group of friends was very different from the friends he had gone to fight the tiger with on a whim. Although it hadn’t been very long, they had all traveled together for the past few years, fighting bandits, catching criminals, and even eliminating corrupt officials. This time, they had fought together against a ghost and some evil beings, and had never abandoned each other. They were now true life-and-death companions.¹

Although he wouldn’t talk too much about Ji Yuan’s personal affairs, Du Heng felt that he should able to clarify some things that everyone already knew but hadn’t quite put together yet. Judging from Mr. Ji’s previous actions, he didn’t seem to hide things too much.

“Okay, I’ll tell you about him. Let me be clear in advance: some things when spoken may provoke the gentleman, so I won’t say much. If it’s something I can share, I will naturally do so!”

“Of course!”

“That’s what it should be!”

“Alright!”

“Hey, Mr. Du, tell us quickly, I’ll pour you a drink!”

……

“Ahem~”

Du Heng cleared his throat, then leaned forward and spoke.

“You all know that I sent a letter to the gentleman before winter arrived, informing him about the abnormal situation here, right?”

Everyone nodded. Even the inn staff who hadn’t known about that before subconsciously followed along.

“Then, tell me, how long does it take for a letter to travel from Jin Province to Ji Province, specifically Desheng Prefecture in Ji Province!”

“Ji Province?”

“My goodness, it would take several months!”

The shopkeeper of the inn interjected in an exaggerated manner.

“I once wrote to a merchant in the Capital Prefecture, and it took half a year to arrive!”

Du Heng smiled.

“So, I think that maybe my letter arrived in Ji Province a few days ago, and was seen by Mr. Ji.”

The loud man looked around and couldn’t help but interrupt.

“The journey is so long, but Mr. Ji arrived here in such a short time? He could only have flown over to get here so fast!”

“Ahem… you said it, not me!”

Du Heng coughed and answered mysteriously. Everyone around him suddenly realized. Combined with their experiences over the past few days, their guesses became much clearer in their hearts.

It was a bit that, although Du Heng spoke at length that night, he didn’t reveal the answer to questions of where Mr. Ji lived. The others did not push him.

. . .

The object of discussion, Ji Yuan, didn’t think much about the group behind him. He was ready to deal with this master and disciple pair of evil cultivators, and then concentrate on carefully comprehending the insights he had gained from the previous battles.

The fishing rod on Ji Yuan’s shoulder was actually nothing special. However, with his personality, he preferred to use old objects that he was accustomed to.

Thus, after making another fishing rod, he wrote a few words on it and used some spiritual techniques to make superficial changes to the fishing rod and line — that way, the fishing rod could be rolled up like a ball of wool and tucked into his sleeves.

The excuse he had used to let the Old Turtle watch over the fishing rod, that it was inconvenient to carry, was purely let the old turtle stay there.

At this moment, Ji Yuan was carrying these two evil individuals, He couldn’t return to Ning’an County; he was afraid of contaminating his own land. To deal with these two, he would have to leave it to professionals: professional ghosts and gods.

Jin Province was vast and sparsely populated, and many counties and districts did not have any decent City God Temples. Even some of the City Gods in the prefectural capitals did not reach so deep into the hinterland of Dazhen. Ji Yuan was not familiar with them, so his action of capturing these people up might lead to suspicion and accusations. It would be a long process to resolve the embarrassment, which would be a bit troublesome.

The first solution Ji Yuan thought of was the underworld of Chunhui Prefecture. After all, he had already experienced the interrogation of the serpent demon. From the information that the City God’s underworld officials had conveyed to him before, Ji Yuan recognized their professional ability.

So, after leaving Tingshui County, Ji Yuan directly jumped into the sky, riding the clouds and controlling the wind to disperse the surrounding air currents carrying snow, temporarily creating a windless environment for himself.

Ji Yuan looked at the roast chicken and wine jug in his hand. He had indeed not eaten or drank for several days.

On the plate in his right hand, the roast chicken, which had completely cooled by now, was slowly warmed up again. After a few breaths, it was steaming once more, with a fragrant aroma.

“Not bad, not bad. My heating technique is quite good, I didn’t burn it this time.”

As Ji Yuan was eating roast chicken and drinking Blade Roast wine on the road, people began spreading the news about the fight that happened in Tingqiu Mountain just earlier. To a certain extent, this was equivalent to a confirmation that there was a hidden master inside Dazhen.²

. . .

It was after sunset on the next day. It was already late at night outside of the City God Temple of Chunhui Prefecture. At this time of night, when no one was walking around aside from the night watchman and the night patrol, a gentleman in a white robe was carrying two people on either end of a bamboo pole that curved exaggeratedly under the weight, approaching the City God Temple. It was Ji Yuan, just returning from Jin Province.

When he had approached to a certain distance in front of the City God Temple, Ji Yuan used his spiritual energy to convert between Yin and Yang, and crossed a certain boundary between the Yin and Yang realms. The sight of the Ghost Gate appeared in front of him.

At the sight of this man in a white robe carrying two people over, several ghost messengers at the Ghost Gate stepped forward and asked.

“Who are you, and why have you invaded the underworld realm of Chunhui Prefecture?”

The visitor was definitely not a ghost. The ghost messenger could tell from his heavy footsteps and his internal Qi heat. However, he was obviously not a mortal either.

In order to save some trouble, Ji Yuan directly took out the yin wood plaque that he had retrieved from Hu Yun after returning to Ning’an, and handed it to the ghost messenger.

“This is the wooden plaque of the Lord City God of Chunhui Prefecture. Please inform him that Ji Yuan is visiting!”

As soon as the wooden sign was in his hand, the ghost messenger felt the majestic aura of his own Lord City God preserved within it. He did not dare to neglect his duties. He told Ji Yuan, “Sir, please wait a moment,” and hurriedly entered the underworld.

After the City God of Chunhui Prefecture saw the yin wood plaque, Ji Yuan didn’t encounter any more troubles. After greeting them and explaining the situation, the two demonic cultivators, the old man and the young woman, both had their souls directly extracted and locked in the depths of the torture prison.

During this whole process, the woman was still immobilized, and the old man was still in a coma.

About a day later, the old man’s soul finally woke up under the nourishment of Yin Qi in the underworld. The moment he regained consciousness, he felt the coldness around him, and could hear screams in the distance.

His vision and memory were a little blurry. He tried my best to recall what had happened just before. A master had come to chase him down, the Mountain God was defeated, and then he had no memory of what happened afterwards…

“Am I dead?”

“Haha, that’s right. You’re as good as dead now!”

A voice sounded in front of him, causing the old man to raise his head abruptly. His vision became clear. A tall figure in an official’s uniform with a terrifyingly ugly face stood in front of him. He looked around and saw torture instruments everywhere. Deformed monsters were chained to them all around him, some being whipped and screaming.

“Where? Hehe, he asked himself where he was!”

“Hahahahahaha…”

“Yeah, hehehehe…”

“Hohohoho…”

“Wooahahahaha…”

He was surrounded by sharp and terrifying laughter. Some of it came from the eccentric people who looked like officials, some from those monsters on the torture instruments, who seemed to be cultivators. The old man felt a wave of malicious energy wash over him.

“Hahahaha, aahhhh ahhhhh… Hahaha… Aaaaaahhh…”

A monster who had been laughing just moments before was immersed into a frying pan in the next moment. Alongside a sizzling sound, it immediately let out a shrill scream. But even as it screamed in pain, it still smiled directly at the old man.

All the evil spirits and monsters around him were laughing. They all knew that the old man had committed a grievous sin: he was locked on the copper pillar of the Evil Barrier Platform, and the evil black cloud of energy above his head was so thick. The ghosts and monsters in this hell wanted someone to be as miserable as them — preferably even worse.

The man in official uniform gazed at the old man with a stern expression.

“Where do you think you are?”

The old man’s head was numb. This was probably the legendary Underworld Refining Prison. Not even cultivators dared to come here.

The miserable laughter around the room brought great excitement. Many of the monsters that looked deformed now had actually once been human beings. They were tortured by the officials in the Refining Prison, and no longer held their human form. The old man had heard the rumors, so he immediately came to his conclusions.

“They are… why are they laughing at me?”

The old man asked, trembling.

“Hehe, naturally, it’s because they can see someone worse off than they are. You, an evil cultivator, have committed countless sins. After the immortal removed the talisman from your body, you were so clearly evil…”

The most vicious executioner in Chunhui Prefecture’s Punishment Division gave him a look and said.

“The Punishment Division doesn’t plan to interrogate you. The Master said that a demon like you wouldn’t confess anything. We will just perform thousands of capital punishments. Besides, your cultivator soul is quite solid, so there’s no need to worry about anything. We have a saying in our Punishment Division: ‘a quick death is bliss.’ Hehehehe…you’ll understand soon!”

As the official spoke, the Evil Barrier Platform seemed to be moving, and a dark red region appeared at the front. The wailing of countless long-tongues demons, the withered bones, and the dead souls were getting closer and closer…

Only half a day later, in the depths of the Punishment Division’s prison, the old man was left with only one sentence, aside from his hysterical screams.

“Aaaaaahhh… I’ll confess, I said I’ll confess everything, I’ll confess!”

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Summary: JY brings both the old man and the woman to the Punishment Division of Chunhui Prefecture. The old man wakes up in a torture chamber and Does Not Have A Good Time. Catharsis is had.

1. T/n: ORV flashbacks T_T
2. Lit: rumors of a crouching tiger, hidden dragon