"By the way, Branch Master, you left without paying the bill the last time we ate together. Are you running a tab, or do you want to settle it now?" Man Gu asked before leaving.
Lu Yang immediately cut in to stop him. "Shut up! As men of the demonic path, dining and dashing is entirely natural and justified! Is our Branch Master the kind of soft-hearted pushover who actually pays for his meals?!"
Meng Jingzhou chimed in as well. "Exactly! When the Branch Master said he was treating us, he never said he was paying the bill! How could you fail to grasp such a simple distinction?!"
Branch Master Chu was left speechless.
He had to admit that when it came to digging at people and giving them grief, he was thoroughly outmatched by these three.
Gritting his teeth to suppress the urge to beat them to death, he tossed Man Gu a gold ingot. "Keep the change! Now all three of you, get the hell out!"
Man Gu stood there completely bewildered. He had merely asked for the money in earnest, so why did Brother Lu and Brother Meng sound so weird? It sounded as if they were speaking on his behalf, yet also as if they were speaking on the Branch Master's behalf.
By the time the trio departed, it was already deep into the night. Looking up at the brilliant starry sky, Lu Yang could not help but sigh with emotion.
"Who would have thought that the stars in the sky are all fake? Unbelievable, truly unbelievable."
Meng Jingzhou scratched his head. "It's not that hard to believe, is it? Ever since I was little, my grandfather always told me that whatever I wanted, he would give it to me—even if I wanted a star from the heavens, he could pluck it down. When I was seven or eight, I pointed at a star and said I wanted that one.
"My grandfather took off straight into outer space. When he came back, he placed a fingernail-sized patch of light into my hand and told me it was the star. And as it happened, a star was indeed missing from the night sky.
"I gestured with my hands and told him that stars were supposed to be huge, even bigger than our courtyard, not this tiny. Grandfather just smiled mysteriously and said that stars were really just this small."
"And then what?" Lu Yang asked with keen interest.
"And then? Later, people from the Ministry of Justice showed up—it looked like a pretty high-ranking official. They claimed my grandfather had stolen natural resources and told him to return the star. So Grandfather gave the light back, and another star reappeared in the empty patch of the night sky.
"Back then, I felt something was off, but I couldn't figure out what. As time passed, I forgot all about it. Only after hearing the story today did I realize that what I held in my hand back then was an actual star."
"As expected of the Meng family. Your childhood experiences were truly on a whole different level compared to ours." Lu Yang shook his head, wondering what he had been doing in his own childhood.
Then he remembered. Back then, he had been reminiscing about his life before transmigrating, reciting ancient poems like:
*A perilous tower reaches a hundred cubits high,*
*Here one could reach out and pluck the stars from the sky.*
*I dare not speak in a voice too loud,*
*For fear of startling the immortals beyond the cloud.*
In his youth, he could only pluck stars in poetry, whereas Meng Jingzhou had genuinely plucked a star. That was the gap between them.
Recently, Lu Yang had even considered writing a novel to make money, something like *The Wandering Earth*. But if set in this world, instead of planetary engines pushing the Earth, it would probably be cultivation powerhouses shoving the planet along.
The three pushed thoughts of stars and the continent out of their minds. Such matters were far too distant for them. At their cultivation, let alone shifting stars, hauling a massive boulder was already a struggle.
"Let's get some rest early. Tomorrow we're going to visit our fellow disciples locked up in the prison."
The three yawned. Once a cultivator reached the Foundation Establishment stage, meditating could take the place of sleep with the same restorative effect. However, all three of them preferred sleeping in bed.
Meditating instead of sleeping? They could wait until the Golden Core stage for that.
***
Early the next morning, Lu Yang sought out Constable Wei. After Lu Yang explained his purpose, Constable Wei readily approved a visitor's pass, granting him permission to visit the jail.
The moment Lu Yang stepped into the prison, he felt his spiritual energy bound, completely impossible to mobilize, and his body grew sluggish.
*Is this the Spirit-Restricting Array Constable Wei mentioned?* Lu Yang thought in surprise, not expecting the array to be as formidable as Constable Wei had described.
When signing the pass, Constable Wei had warned him to watch out for the jail's Spirit-Restricting Array. It was a formation specifically designed against cultivators. Within its radius, a cultivator's cultivation base was locked down, rendering them unable to use any spells. This was done to prevent outsiders from breaking inmates out and to stop prisoners from staging jailbreaks.
The prison's Spirit-Restricting Array was of very high grade; even Golden Core stage cultivators would be restricted without exception.
Lu Yang arrived just as the jailers were changing shifts.
The day-shift jailer was yawning, tears welling in his eyes. He looked dazed and groggy, as though he hadn't slept at all.
The night-shift jailer, on the other hand, was in high spirits now that he was about to get off duty. He teased, "Old Zhou, aren't you usually full of energy? How come you're this exhausted today? You didn't do something shameful last night, did you?"
Old Zhou opened his mouth wide and let out a massive yawn before speaking. "I don't know what's going on lately. I just can't seem to wake up, and getting out of bed in the morning is pure torture. It's not just me, either—my wife is the same. I even splashed water on my face before coming in, but I'm still dead tired."
The night-shift jailer laughed. "You definitely stayed up doing something funny and didn't sleep well. Look at me, I'm not tired at all."
Old Zhou curled his lip. "You're a cultivator. You're not like me."
The night-shift jailer waved his hand dismissively. "I'm only at the first level of Qi Refinement. It's hard to say if I'll ever break through to the second level in this lifetime. What kind of cultivator does that make me?"
By prison rules, the day-shift jailers were mortals, whereas the night-shift jailers were cultivators at the first level of Qi Refinement. First-level Qi Refinement cultivators could guarantee staying awake through the night without slacking off.
Cultivators were generally unwilling to have their powers suppressed by a Spirit-Restricting Array and be reduced to the level of ordinary mortals. However, relying solely on first-level Qi Refinement jailers to guard the prison was clearly insufficient, so hidden sentries staffed by higher-level cultivators were stationed outside the prison walls.
Once the shift change was complete, Lu Yang presented his pass and approached Old Zhou.
Old Zhou gave Lu Yang a glance and conducted a body search. Finding nothing on him except a food container, he let him pass.
***
As a ruthless figure who had made quite a name for himself among demonic rogue cultivators in the neighboring commanderies, Chi Xulong had believed that joining the demonic cult would allow him to display his grand ambitions, carve out a territory, and become a local tyrant.
Even finding himself trapped behind bars did not diminish his ambitions.
Since he was stuck in prison, he would start by becoming the prison boss!
The first obstacle before him was that he had no way to intimidate anyone.
He was locked in a cell strong enough that even a Foundation Establishment cultivator could not break it, and he had no weapons at hand. The inmates in the neighboring cell showed no restraint with their mouths, doing nothing but hurling curses and mocking remarks, which infuriated Chi Xulong to no end.
At that moment, his cellmate, Shen Jinyi, came up with an idea. Holding a small pebble in his mouth, he gave a sharp spit—*pfft!* The pebble shot out like a bullet with startling power. One could easily imagine the damage it would cause striking a human body.
As an assassin, Shen Jinyi excelled at using all sorts of everyday objects as concealed weapons.
"We are brothers sharing hardship! In times like this, we must cooperate sincerely and carve out a path together!" Shen Jinyi proclaimed with great loyalty. "Once you master this trick of mine, you'll be invincible in this prison! Together, we'll dominate the whole place!"
Chi Xulong was greatly inspired. Working from dawn till dusk, he threw himself into learning how to fire pebbles from his mouth as concealed weapons.
Unfortunately, Chi Xulong lacked the talent for it. Possessing nothing but brute strength, he simply could not pick it up.
"You have to do it like this: gather air in your mouth, and spit it out with a sharp *pfft*! It has to be fast!" Shen Jinyi demonstrated, trying his best to teach Chi Xulong.
"I get it. It's just a *pfft*, isn't it?" Chi Xulong muttered, growing a bit impatient.
"Wrong, wrong! Your lips aren't puckered right—they're puckered too small! Like this!"
"Like this?"
Standing outside the cell, Lu Yang stared at Chi Xulong and Shen Jinyi puckering their lips at each other, wondering whether he should speak up and warn them that this scene was extraordinarily easy to misunderstand.
*Better record it with an image-recording orb first.*
Chapter 81