"Perhaps I could even convert them into believers of the Compassionate True Immortal!"
Looking at the countless prisoners around him howling in agony under the punishment of the formations, Kou Hong felt a surge of empathy, murmuring thoughtfully to himself.
"Still, this is a heavily guarded prison after all. To pull this off, I'll need a long-term plan."
His eyes flickered, and he masked himself once again behind the same furious curses as before.
This time, however, he deliberately made his voice sound halting and weak.
He appeared to be on the verge of breaking.
Over the period that followed, Kou Hong diverted the wardens' attention away from himself through an outward show of total submission.
Meanwhile, he spent each day feverishly studying the detailed breakdown of the formations while quietly building up and raising his strength.
By now, he had also realized what was happening.
The grace bestowed by the Compassionate True Immortal—that mysterious warm current flowing through his body—was none other than the cultivation that practitioners dreamed of.
Under ordinary logic, cultivation could only be accumulated through bitter, ceaseless practice day and night to serve as the driving force behind advancing realms. Yet now, it poured into his body endlessly, like water flowing from a sourceless spring.
Consequently, his strength soared at an unimaginably terrifying pace.
In barely half a month, he had broken through straight to Golden Core completion.
This only strengthened Kou Hong's conviction that the incredible miracles unfolding within him were without question the grace of the Compassionate True Immortal!
After all, it had taken him over two hundred years to cultivate from a mortal to the mid-Golden Core realm!
And now, breakthroughs came in the blink of an eye.
Kou Hong originally assumed that Golden Core completion would be the limit. But what happened next utterly shattered his understanding, showing him the true divine might of a True Immortal!
As everyone knew, advancing from the Golden Core realm to the Nascent Soul realm required devouring a Xuanhuang Realm grotto-heaven.
Given that Kou Hong was locked away in the Nether Prison, fulfilling such a requirement was naturally impossible.
Yet three days later, an event occurred that left him utterly astounded.
When he circulated his spiritual energy to inspect his body, he discovered the faint, illusory apparition of a grotto-heaven emerging in his dantian!
Examining it more closely, Kou Hong confirmed that this spectral grotto-heaven was no illusion.
It was real!
A grotto-heaven was taking shape inside his own body!
Needless to say, this was another gift from the Compassionate True Immortal.
Kou Hong readily accepted the blessing. Drawing upon this nascent grotto-heaven, he officially broke through to the Nascent Soul realm a month later!
All the disturbances sparked by his breakthrough were flawlessly masked by the immortal power surging from within him.
Not a single warden in the Nether Prison noticed.
Kou Hong looked at his hands, feeling as though he were dreaming.
The Nascent Soul realm—a height he had once dared dream of only in sleep—had been attained so effortlessly.
"Supreme Compassionate True Immortal, I, Kou Hong, do not know what virtue or merit allows me to receive such profound favor.
"I will fulfill your entrusted wish, even should it cost me ten thousand deaths."
In the shadows, Kou Hong looked out at the countless towering pillars of the Nether Prison around him, his gaze hardening with resolve.
Even after stepping into the Nascent Soul realm, Kou Hong's strength continued to climb steadily on its own each day. However, his main focus had already shifted to deciphering the formations and rescuing the inmates imprisoned in the Nether Prison.
"Doing this alone will be truly difficult.
"Yet where am I supposed to find helpers inside this prison?"
Kou Hong quietly observed his "neighbors," scouting for suitable allies.
Time passed in this manner.
On this day, Li Fan read the message sent by Kou Hong and smiled faintly.
However, he merely pretended not to see it and offered no reply.
Unwilling to give up, Kou Hong tried several more times, but in the end he had no choice but to abandon the attempt.
"Could I have misjudged?
"That shouldn't be..."
Just as Kou Hong hit an impasse, a newly arrived prisoner immediately caught his eye.
This person was not a member of the Myriad Realms Association, but had been locked up here for violating Alliance law.
Judging by his crimes, he would likely never see the light of day again.
"You vermin nowadays always want to die and be done with it, thinking that wipes away your sins.
"Nothing is that easy!
"I'm going to make you wish you were dead! You'll spend the rest of your life rotting in misery in this sunless Nether Prison!" gritted the Alliance cultivator escorting him.
The prisoner remained silent, but his eyes were filled with scorn and murderous intent.
Soon enough, under the suppression of the brutal formations, all of it turned into agonized screams.
When a person was in extreme agony, the words blurted out subconsciously were always the closest to their truest thoughts.
After listening to his new neighbor's outbursts for several days, Kou Hong determined that he was indeed someone he could work with.
Once the man had been tortured to his last breath on this day, Kou Hong quietly slipped a message through the formation.
The man snapped his eyes open, trying to pinpoint Kou Hong's location.
It was, of course, entirely futile.
After an exchange between the two, Kou Hong learned his name:
Zhang Fu.
His offense wasn't particularly heinous—he had merely pocketed a third of the annual profits from the Moling Province Pill Hall.
In the past, even if an affair like this came to light, one could simply spend some contribution points, pull a few strings, and pay one's way out of trouble to let it blow over.
Unfortunately for him, one of his bitter rivals somehow discovered the embezzlement.
The rival reported it directly to Alliance Headquarters.
And this time, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals Headquarters reacted with abnormal swiftness.
Before Zhang Fu could grease any palms, an envoy from headquarters had already arrived. Following a brief investigation, the evidence proved irrefutable, and he was arrested on the spot.
They didn't even follow the standard re-examination procedure mandated in the past, hauling him straight to the Nether Prison to be locked away.
Only then did Zhang Fu realize he had likely been framed and set up.
He had thought he was doomed for all eternity, never expecting that a turn of events would present itself.
"Help you release the prisoners in the Nether Prison?
"That's a capital offense. Everyone can be reincarnated nowadays, but before I was locked up, I heard the Alliance seemed to have reached some sort of pact with Heavenly Venerable Rebirth. Anyone who commits an unpardonable crime against the Alliance loses the chance at rebirth. They die for real!
"Like the members of that Myriad Realms Association, for instance—apparently that was their fate."
Oblivious to the violent tremor running through Kou Hong's body nearby, Zhang Fu continued, "Living imprisoned here with zero chance of ever getting out is still better than dying for good.
"Who knows? Maybe one day the Alliance will declare a general amnesty."
Zhang Fu didn't agree at first; he even secretly toyed with the idea of turning this schemer in to redeem himself and earn merit.
Yet the words that followed from his neighbor changed his mind completely.
"In this place, death is a mercy.
"If you don't believe me, just look at the people around you."
Chapter 1121