Let Me Explain, Fairy
Chapter 748 - 467 Black Prison

Chapter 748: Chapter 467 Black Prison

Stepping on water turned to ice, the ink robe disappeared.

Staring at the traces Ran Qingmo left on the lake’s surface, Xu Yuan’s eyes lost their complexity and were replaced with a touch of astonishment.

Through spiritual vision, the ice energy was formless.

The ice crystals that formed on the water’s surface seemed to be Ran Qingmo’s named technique, Ice Cloud Step, but what was strange was that under spiritual vision, he could not sense any fluctuation of Origin Qi on the ice crystals.

So...

Was this Dao Charm?

And moreover, it was Dao Charm that did not require the stimulation of an energy mechanism...

Thinking of this, Xu Yuan controlled the expression on his face and took a deep breath in his heart; two words subconsciously emerged in his mind.

Integration Path...

Ran Qingmo was actually about to break through Primordial, and he was taking the path of Integration Path!

Compared to other cultivators who had to fumble through trial and error to find their own breakthrough methods, Xu Yuan, although currently only an Integration Body, had memorized various methods and cultivation ways for cultivators to advance.

Apart from the method of breaking through to Saint Level that his old dad hadn’t given him, he held several methods for the Primordial breakthrough, Mortal Transcendence, not to mention the methods for a Great Grandmaster to break through to Primordial.

As for a Grandmaster breaking through to Primordial, there is a widely circulated proverb in the world,

"When reaching Primordial, one can enter through martial arts and be reborn from a drop of blood, or enter through qi where the soul becomes solid and can leave the body and snatch souls."

When he first crossed over, Xu Yuan took these words seriously, but now he sees that these are just the initial two methods after all.

Whether one enters through qi or martial arts, or any other method, the essence is to integrate the Dao Charm within oneself.

Of course, different methods of breakthrough result in different characteristics gained.

It is somewhat similar to that proverb, but the description in the proverb is somewhat exaggerated.

Among all these methods to break through Primordial, the known hardest path is the Integration Path.

Because Integration Path has some subtle differences from the usual Doa-merging methods of breaking through realms.

Merging with the Dao is integrating the Dao Charm into oneself, while the Integration Path is slowly converting oneself into Dao Charm.

The most significant feature is that the fluctuation of Origin Qi will be replaced by Dao Charm.

For cultivators who break through realms with the method of the Integration Path, because the fluctuation of Origin Qi is concealed, their stealth abilities will be stronger, and they can attach Dao Charm to every single movement without the need for Origin Qi to drive it.

Typical representatives are that elder sister Lou Ji and Luo Bingli, the Semi-Saint powerhouse who ambushed him in Huizhou County earlier.

However, this does not mean that cultivators who follow the Integration Path will necessarily be stronger than those on the Path of Dao-Merging.

As Lou Ji used to say,

’The Path of Dao-Merging and the Integration Path are just two different paths. Whether one is strong or not still depends on the individual. Your maternal uncle and elder brother both entered through Dao-Merging, and there are none among their peers strong enough to suppress them.’

Thinking about this, Xu Yuan looked again at the lonely pavilion standing on the lakeshore.

Based on the spiritual vision just now, the Big Ice Lump should soon break through Primordial, with the resources from the Prime Minister’s Mansion tilted in her favor.

He felt a mix of joy in his heart and finally sighed silently.

He, probably won’t be able to breach her defenses again soon...

...

...

...

Due to the identity of Third Grade official Wang Yuqian, the Assistant Minister of the Ministry of War, they smoothly entered the deepest part of the Prime Minister’s Mansion that outsiders could access, the Glittering Water Courtyard.

It was a complex built upon a huge man-made lake, covering hundreds of acres, with buildings of jade and beauty connected by water walkways, while the lake was dotted with lotus and water lilies, with koi fish swimming amongst them, and one could smell the faint fragrance of clear water.

Here, was where the high-level annual meeting of the Prime Minister’s Mansion took place and the pinnacle of the architectural craftsmanship of the era.

After all, under this lake was the enormous dungeon.

This was a traditional skill of the old Xu Family.

There was a dungeon below Xu Residence in Jingjiang Prefecture, and there was one in the Prime Minister’s Mansion in the Imperial Capital as well.

The difference was that the dungeon below Xu Residence did not have a name, while the one under the Prime Minister’s Mansion had many fine names, one of which was Black Prison, one of the three major prisons of Dayan.

Yes, the Black Prison that held many remnants of the village massacre.

After being led to the Glittering Water Courtyard by the attendant, they were soon guided into a quiet loft, beneath which was a secret passage leading directly to Black Prison.

Looking at the abyss-like tunnel that opened with a rumble in front of him, Xu Yuan suddenly remembered a cold joke Lou Ji had told him before.

Changtian, do you know why the Prime Minister’s Mansion’s routine meetings are held in this exposed courtyard?

Of course, it’s for the convenience of throwing some of those incompetent fools into the Black Prison, hehehehe~

Every year, when the senior officials of the Prime Minister’s Mansion convene for the routine meeting, some people will be taken away to the Black Prison, and this year, the number of people going in should be a bit higher...

After all,

my father has already said,

this year, there will be a major purge within the Prime Minister’s Mansion.

Thinking of this, Xu Yuan gently shook his head and stepped into the Black Prison.

The process of entering the inner court of the Prime Minister’s Mansion was much more complicated than Xu Yuan had imagined.

It was like the underground resistance movements in the movies connecting with each other through secret signals.

Wang Yuqian, that little old man, was in front giving the passwords, then entering layer by layer.

But when you think about it, it really does need to be this troublesome.

After all, he couldn’t use the identity of the son of the Vice Minister of War nor his real identity, and during the time he returned to the inner court, there had to be someone who replaced him, becoming the person brought back to the Wang Residence by Wang Yuqian, the Vice Minister of War.

During this process, there could be no room for error at any point.

Following the guide’s lead, Xu Yuan was actually quite interested in looking around this dungeon.

He had already been to the Imperial Prison, and now he was in the Black Prison; if he visited the Sky Prison once more, he could achieve a title called "Pure Prison Style" in the Cangyuan Chronicles.

Compared to the Imperial Prison, where the smell of blood and decay was everywhere, the narrow and cramped tunnels of the Black Prison in his own home were much cleaner, and the air even had some incense in it.

It’s no wonder since the place was directly under the jurisdiction of my elder sister Lou Ji.

However, after Xu Yuan used his spiritual vision to see through the closed walls engraved with Formation Patterns, this idea was dispelled.

Bloody,

Very bloody.

Because of the powerful life force of high-level cultivators, the methods of torture in this world were far more numerous than in the ancient times of the previous world.

"Drip... drip... drip..."

The three of them walked silently through the narrow corridors of the Black Prison, their footsteps echoing far and wide, no screams, but it was eerie.

When he arrived in front of a sealed prison cell, Xu Yuan suddenly stopped, lifting his eyes to look at the characters on the prison door.

Yin Liulan.

Since it was managed by Lou Ji, the important cells were typically named after flowers.

And if Xu Yuan’s memory served him correctly, this cell named Yin Liulan was holding an old man with white beard and hair.

An old man who acted without reservation, just like a child, with high "swagger."

Named Nameless.

Of course, this person’s real name is definitely not Nameless.

But the Cangyuan Chronicles had taken the title of an old man named Nameless, and players would not know the true name and identity of the character under any of the various endings.

As for why this high-swagger old man was locked up in the Black Prison?

Heh.

According to the plot in Cangyuan Chronicles, perhaps this old man called Nameless could be useful.

After all,

he really was quite powerful.

If there were no major changes, could he maybe be a match for my elder sister Lou Ji?

With these thoughts, Xu Yuan chuckled softly, shook his head, and continued to move forward, but he made a mental note of this location.

When he had time, he could try coming to check it out.

The paths within the Black Prison were intricate and complex, but there was no direct access to the inner court; Xu Yuan and the others entered just to avoid drawing attention under the guise of passing through.

After several more transfers, Xu Yuan finally took off the human skin mask and returned to his own inner court.

Then,

upon pushing open the room door,

he saw himself, Xu Xinyao, asleep on his own bed.