Between autumn and winter, there was only snow.
In the fifth month since Xu Qing arrived in the prefecture capital, winter arrived silently with the fall of the first snowfall.
Wrapped in silver, snowflakes fell on the roofs of the buildings.
On the streets, on the hair of the pedestrians.
While the snowflakes decorated the land, it also made it seem as if there were more white-haired people in the entire city.
The first snowfall came suddenly and heavily.
It fell on the sword pavilions outside the Punishment Department.
In the snowstorm, Xu Qing, dressed in the white Daoist robe of a swordsman, walked towards the Punishment Department in this snowy world.
Today was the day he would be on duty in the C District.
A few days ago, he had finished suppressing the D1 District and passed the promotion test. From that moment on, he was no longer a prison guard of the D District, but a prison guard of the C District.
As for the duty of guarding D123, Xu Qing did not relinquish it. He would be compatible with D123.
The prison guards of the C District wore the same clothes as those of the D District, but there was an additional black badge on their collars.
This badge was in the shape of a tree branch.
If the Punishment Department was compared to a large tree, then the prison guards of the D District would be the leaves, and the C District would be the branches.
Walking down the steps of the Punishment Department, Xu Qing could clearly feel the glory of this badge, because all the prison guards of the D District who saw him all bowed respectfully to him.
Xu Qing returned the greeting and walked to the 88th floor. He passed the 89th floor, and when he stepped onto the steps leading to the 90th floor, he took a deep breath, his expression solemn.
"The 90th floor..." Xu Qing murmured in his heart, his footsteps firm as he slowly walked down.
Tapping sounds came from under Xu Qing's feet.
It was the sound of his footsteps on the steps, echoing in the surroundings. In this quiet environment, it was particularly obvious.
The light from the top of the Punishment Department could not reach the 90th floor, so the world in Xu Qing's eyes grew darker and darker.
When Xu Qing reached the last step leading to the 90th floor, he paused and looked up at the 90th floor.
This was completely different from the D District.
The ground was damp and covered in moss. There was only one floor above, but when Xu Qing looked up, he felt as if he was in a different world from the D District.
Although this place was also ring-shaped, there were no prison cells, nor were there any prison doors!
The entire ring-shaped wall was filled with murals.
These murals covered the entire wall, depicting the sun, moon, clouds, mist, mountains, rivers, buildings, and all living things!
It was a complete world!
However, the colors were dull and monotonous.
Xu Qing's heart trembled. Looking at these murals, he thought of D123's Danqing clan.
After a while, Xu Qing walked towards the mural. After carefully examining it, his pupils shrank.
These murals seemed to be alive. Everything in them was actually changing. The clouds were drifting, the mountains and rivers were changing.
It was as if it was really a dark world, and Xu Qing was standing outside the world, overlooking everything.
"There's only one cell on the 90th floor.
. "
A cold voice with a trace of familiarity abruptly sounded from behind Xu Qing.
Xu Qing abruptly turned around and saw a figure walking out from the darkness.
It was a tall old man. His body exuded an oppressive aura, and his eyes were cold. His entire body emitted a dense baleful aura. If one looked at him for too long, one would hear the wails of ghosts and howls of wolves.
It was as if countless living things had died at his hands, causing countless resentful spirits to surround him, emitting malice toward all living things.
"Greetings, Senior Ghost Hand!"
.
Xu Qing immediately recognized him. He was the instructor who had explained the fatal points of all living things to the newly promoted swordsmen during their secret training.
Xu Qing had been his assistant that day and had seen the old man take out countless corpses. Some were even killed on the spot.
He had heard Kong Xianglong say that the old man was a prison guard. However, Xu Qing had not seen him in the Punishment Department for the past few months.
He guessed that the old man had a deeper level.
Seeing him now, Xu Qing was not too surprised. He bowed respectfully.
The old man glanced at Xu Qing, a hint of admiration in his eyes.
"I remember you. You were the one who poisoned the sick ghost."
..
"You were promoted from the D section so quickly. Not bad."
The old man smiled. However, the baleful aura around him was too heavy. At this moment, his smile also carried a sense of eeriness. If it was an ordinary person, they might have been scared, but Xu Qing was used to it. Instead, he felt that this was normal.
Noticing that Xu Qing's expression had not changed, the old man was even more satisfied. In truth, when he had chosen Xu Qing as his assistant, he had thought highly of him.
He walked up to Xu Qing, looked at the mural, and spoke indifferently.
"The soldiers in the C section are mostly Nascent Soul cultivators. Do you know why?"
..
"Because the method of suppressing prisoners in the C section is different from that in the D section?"
Xu Qing thought for a moment, then replied.
"I thought you would say that the prisoners have deeper cultivations."
The old man smiled.
"It's true that the prisoners in Cellblock C have higher cultivation bases," he said. "There are both Nascent Soul prisoners and Spirit Troopers. But that's not the main point. The main point is … only Nascent Soul soldiers can carry the weight of the natural laws of the Minor World without being crushed.
..
The old man's gaze was still on the mural, his voice echoing in all directions.
"The laws of a small world?"
Xu Qing looked thoughtfully at the mural as well.
"From the 90th to the 122nd floor, they are all in the C section. There are a total of 33 floors."
The old man spoke slowly.
。
"The C section does not have any prison cells like the D section. Every floor has the same mural."
..
"Every mural is a small world!
These 33 small worlds are the cells of the C section! "
..
As soon as Ghostly Hand spoke, Xu Qing's eyes shone with a strange light. He had some guesses when he saw the mural, especially since he had experienced the Void Realm. Therefore, he was not completely ignorant of the existence of small worlds.
However, he was still shocked by the penitentiary's work.
"If the 33 small worlds are the C section's prisons, then what are the B and A sections below … like?"
Xu Qing took a deep breath.
Ghostly Hand's words were still echoing in the air.
"I am the prison master of the first section of the 33 worlds. I lead a group of prison guards from the first section of the C section to guard this world!"
..
"Your position is arranged to be in the first section of the prison. However, your cultivation is not at the Nascent Soul stage, so it is difficult for you to bear the power of a world's laws. I will take you to the secondary world first and let you experience it."
..
As the old man spoke, he exhaled a mouthful of black mist at the mural.
As the mist spread in all directions, the color of the mural came alive wherever it passed.
It was no longer dark, but more colors. In the end, it was colorful and lifelike.
"Let's go."
..
The old man put his hands behind his back and walked toward the mural that had regained its color.
Xu Qing followed behind and stepped into the mural with the old man in an instant. They walked into the first section of the 33 worlds.
What appeared in front of Xu Qing was a stretch of boundless nothingness.
In the depths of the void, there was a gray continent covered in a red eggshell-like shell of light.
There were countless runes formed by formations and restrictions on the continent. There were no less than hundreds of millions of runes. They formed an astonishing seal that enveloped the entire continent and sealed it tightly.
Those runes shone with each other as if they were following some kind of law. At least a million runes were flashing at the same time at every moment, operating eternally.
As the formation seal rotated, four illusory statues appeared around the continent.
These four statues were incomparably huge and looked very different from humans. They were more like fierce beasts.
Their heads were the same size as the continent. At this moment, they were arranged in north, south, east, and west. At the same time, they lowered their heads and stared at the continent.
Their gazes converged and turned into the sun and moon.
As the formation runes shone, the four figures slowly changed their positions, so the sun and moon alternated.
This scene was so vast that Xu Qing's heart was in great turmoil.
"This is the first section. The void here was taken from the Void Zone by the first palace master and integrated into this place to conceal the aura of the first section."
In the void, the old man stood in front and spoke in a deep voice.
"You can see the rune seal on the outer shell as the Maxim of this section, refined by the Sword Holding Palace. Those four statues are the first four Heavenly Bodies of this section."
..
"Now, leave your imprint in the formation so that you won't be suppressed by the natural order after you step in."
..
As he spoke, the old man took a step forward and entered the seal of the formation. He shuttled through and directly descended on the continent.
Hearing this, Xu Qing formed a seal and imprinted his imprint into the light shell formation before walking behind.
As the land became clearer and clearer in his eyes, their figures passed through everything and appeared in the clouds in the sky.
Below them was the mountain range of this small section.
"The moment this section was transformed into a prison, the natural order was set that foreign life forms cannot reproduce."
..
"The old man spoke slowly and continued walking.
As Xu Qing followed, he noticed that this section of the world was not small. The overall landscape was mainly desert wilderness, and the spirit qi was extremely thin. He even felt a sense of suffocation when he first arrived.
It was as if his entire body was bound by an invisible force and suppressed by endless mountains. He could not even exert ten percent of his strength and was restricted by verification.
Fortunately, as the formation of the light shell began to operate, Xu Qing returned to normal in an instant and felt relaxed.
This experience gave him a better understanding of this prison.
At the same time, the climate of this section was extremely harsh. Standing at the highest point, he could see that some places were swept by sandstorms, and the wind inside had the power to cut through bones.
In other places, poisonous rain poured down, and all living things could only wail in pain.
In other places, magnetic storms filled the air, and Heavenly Dao fell, destroying everything.
"In the 33 World Prison, there are countless races and strange beings imprisoned. They suffer in this small world, and their lives are not in their own hands. All the rules here are controlled by my Punishment Division."
.
The old man waved his hand and the desert instantly changed. Mountains rose from the ground, and the landscape became a crisscrossing mountain range.
But this was not the end. He waved his hand again and the mountain range was instantly erased. Endless water vapor gathered, and a large amount of seawater seeped out from the ground. In the next moment, this place turned into a sea.
Moving mountains and overturning seas, all the changes were in his hand.
Xu Qing looked at this scene with a serious expression.
"Xu Qing, do you know why the prison itself is so frightening?"
The old man looked at Xu Qing.
"Because of deprivation."
Xu Qing solemnly replied.
"That's right. Depriving them of what originally belonged to them, turning what they were used to into what they dreamed of but could never have again. The pain caused by this contrast is the most heart-wrenching."
.
"The principle of the 33 World Prison is to turn the laws of the small world into a cage, so that all the Nascent Soul cultivators imprisoned in the first World Prison will be attacked by this world.
.
"Their.
We did not limit their cultivation. They are still Nascent Soul cultivators, but they are Nascent Soul cultivators of the small world. "
.
"The four Foundation Fires of the Ancient Gazing Continent are almost comparable to the Nascent Soul cultivators of the small world. The power of one palace of the Golden Core is almost the same as that of a mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator."
.
"In this way, the prisoners of this world, who are used to being able to summon wind and rain with just one spell in the Ancient Gazing Continent, now have their power reduced sharply. The feeling of being bound by heaven and earth will make them, who know the beauty of the outside world, want more and feel more pain.
.
"What they once had was taken away. The simplest thing that once belonged to them has now become the most extravagant desire."
..
"This is the prison of the Punishment Division's Third District."
The old man looked at Xu Qing and said in a deep voice.
...
The main text is 3400 words. The last 200 words are not collected.
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