“Well aren’t you a hot potato,” he thought. “The fact that Li Xu handed you off to the Left Dharma Protector means that the original orders came from higher up. And the only person with a status high enough to give orders like that would be Duke Deathcrier. And the only person who can order Duke Deathcrier around is the heavenly king himself.
“The Bai Clan has a bounty on this kid’s head, but the heavenly king sent him here....” The old man didn’t dare to ponder the matter any more deeply. Sighing, he realized that he couldn’t afford to offend this newcomer. After all, according to the rumors, he had reviled his own clan, and even gone so far as to kidnap his own father.
Not only did he have profound levels of patience, but he was completely and utterly vicious....
“Welcome to Cellblock D of Devil Penitentiary, Fellow Daoist Bai Hao. Come, come, let me show you around.” Forcing a smile onto his face, he led Bai Xiaochun toward the northernmost of the four tunnels. “Although Devil Penitentiary exists inside of a stone turtle statue, it's actually very large inside. Five unique dimensions exist here, namely Cellblocks A, B, C, D, and the Supermax Cellblock.
“The Supermax Cellblock is run by the exalted warden himself, and is the core of Devil Penitentiary. Normally, no one ever gets inside without being summoned.
“As far as the other cellblocks go, the prisoners get locked up in them depending on how important or dangerous they are. The most important prisoners go to Cellblock A. All of the prisoners here are dangerous and vicious people, but the prisoners in Cellblock D are almost like children compared to the others.
“Every cellblock has a group of roughly a hundred guards, with ten captains and a deputy warden. I'm the deputy warden of Cellblock D.
“Of course, Warden Li Xu is in charge of the the four deputy wardens....”
Sun Peng led him directly to Cellblock D and began to show him around. He had already decided that since Bai Hao had been delivered to him, and he couldn’t get rid of him, that he might as well treat him well. After all, with so many people in Cellblock D, having an extra guard around wouldn’t hurt anything.
Of course, he wouldn’t go beyond what was necessary.
Eventually, Sun Peng led Bai Xiaochun to an area in the middle of the Cellblock D part of the prison, a sprawling square, in the middle of which was a glowing door.
The door emanated intense pressure, and occasional rumbling sounds.
Surrounding it were ten areas that Sun Peng explained were the barracks where the ten teams of guards resided. As for the glowing door, it was the actual entrance to the cellblock.
The ten barracks all looked exactly the same, constructed from green limestone, but decorated in colorful fashion. However, perhaps because they were located in the middle of Devil Penitentiary, Bai Xiaochun found them particularly sinister.
Still depressed over the matter of the teleportation portal, Bai Xiaochun sighed and thought to himself, “Ai. I can’t believe I'm actually becoming a prison guard.”
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Chapter
623: Facing The Facts
Sun Peng assigned Bai Xiaochun to Squad 9. Then, just like Duke Deathcrier and Li Xu, he hurried away.
The captain of Squad 9 didn’t see Deputy Warden Sun Peng very often, but considering that the man was his direct superior, he quickly picked up on the unspoken hints he had given regarding Bai Xiaochun’s status.
The captain was a burly man who appeared to be about forty years of age. He almost immediately recognized this fair young man as the recently famous Bai Clan rebel, and realized he needed to pay special attention to him. In fact, he even transmitted orders to the guards under his command, explaining who Bai Xiaochun was.
Bai Xiaochun could see how the captain and the other guards of Squad 9 reacted when he smilingly told them his name. They sized him up, and although they weren’t extremely cold, they were by no means warm and welcoming. Bai Hao had been a popular topic of conversation recently, and therefore, all of them had at least some impression of him. They knew that he was a vicious fellow who had reviled his clan, and was the type who shouldn’t be provoked. After seeing him in person, though, he didn’t seem to match up to the rumors.
Before Bai Xiaochun’s arrival, Squad 9 had consisted of a total of eleven people: ten guards and the captain. But now there were twelve. There were no women, only men, and all of the other guards seemed middle-aged, with cultivation bases in Core Formation.
The fact that even such a group of low-ranking guards was so powerful further showed how important Devil Penitentiary was.
When Bai Xiaochun realized that the group was not being very welcoming, he felt a bit awkward.
To try to smooth things over, the captain quickly assigned him quarters in the barracks.
“Why don’t you rest up a bit, Bai Hao?” he said. “The truth is that we aren’t very busy here in Devil Penitentiary. The squad doesn’t really know much about you now, but there will be plenty of time later for you all to get to know each other.” With that, he left. As far as he was concerned, the situation wasn’t very complicated. When dealing with a fiendish killer that you couldn’t get rid of, the best thing was to try to get along with him, but not get too close. One just had to be careful not to treat him too coldly.
Bai Xiaochun already had a good impression of the captain. At the least, he was better than Duke Deathcrier or Li Xu.
His quarters weren’t very large, and contained only a bed and a chair. It was a simple room, but it had a remarkable spell formation that was connected to the stone turtle statue, giving it exceptional defensive capabilities.
After looking around, he sat down cross-legged and frowned.
“Ai. How cruel the twists of fate. Here I am, a prison guard....”
The events of the past two days had been quite complicated. The Bai Clan patriarch had attacked, then Duke Deathcrier showed up. After that, the teleportation portal plan failed, and now he was a prison guard.
“Ah, whatever. If I’m a guard, I'm a guard. The most important thing now is to keep myself safe.... Plus, I need to get on the good side of my squad.... If I can get them to like me, they’ll probably be a lot of help to me later.
“I still don't know why the giant ghost king saved me, but at least I'm in a pretty safe situation, at least for the moment. How long will that last though…?” He sighed, and eventually his thoughts turned to deva souls, whereupon he gritted his teeth angrily.
“It's all the fault of that Granny Red-Dust!! And Chen Hetian!! Well, whatever. Might as well forget about the teleportation portal. The best thing to do is increase my cultivation base and figure out another way to get back to the Great Wall.... I already have four deva soul clones. All I have to do now is get a metal-type deva soul, and I can step into the Heaven-Dao Nascent Soul stage!” When all was said and done, Bai Xiaochun felt very nervous. It was like he was walking along the edge of a cliff; the slightest misstep could lead him to a disastrous fall.
However, there was nothing he could do about the situation. The teleportation portal wasn’t an option, and therefore, unless he simply gave up on the Heaven-Dao Nascent Soul idea, that meant he only had a bit over a thousand years before he ran out of longevity. Then, his dream of living forever would be impossible to realize.
If he wanted to live forever, then he had to walk along that cliff. If he wanted to get home, he simply had to grit his teeth and keep going.
Actually, up to this point in his life, his cultivation had always gone quite smoothly, whether it was in the Spirit Stream Sect, the River-Defying Sect, the Starry Sky Dao Polarity Sect, or the Great Wall. It was only after entering that sepulcher in the Wildlands that he finally experienced the feeling of being stuck in place, with the shadow of death looming larger behind him.