65: Chapter 65 Contact with Demonic Beasts, Secret Planning

Hmm!

Chen Ran carried his windproof lantern, his expression calm, and stopped in front of the heavy iron door.

The harsh sound of arthropod limbs scraping against the stone floor from the door crack grew louder and louder.

He raised the lantern.

The dim light projected through the iron bars, illuminating the massive, twisted shadow in the corner.

It was a Spider Yao.

Its size was comparable to several adult water buffaloes, and its body was covered in black fur like steel needles.

Its eight long legs were nailed tightly to the wall by thick, refined steel chains; even the slightest movement caused the chains to jingle.

Even though its Demonic Qi was suppressed by the runes of the Demon Suppression Division, the cold, bloodthirsty aura it radiated still made one feel extremely uncomfortable.

Chen Ran's expression remained calm.

In his mind, the heavenly book of prison suppression flipped slightly.

[Prisoner: Black-Faced Demon Spider]

[Sin: Deep (Devours living humans, consumes essence and blood)]

[Status: Severely injured, sealed, hungry]

[Talent: Sky Net]

Chen Ran took a step forward.

The shadow in the cell shrank abruptly.

Immediately after, two scarlet gazes lit up from the darkness, staring fixedly at him.

This monster seemed to have forgotten who the person in front of it was, its murderous intent fully exposed at this moment.

"Hiss——"

The Spider Yao let out a sharp hiss.

A mass of grayish-white viscous matter sprayed from its mouth, heading straight for Chen Ran's face.

Chen Ran did not even dodge.

With a "pop" sound, that mass of spider silk slammed hard against the runes on the iron bars, and was immediately burned into a wisp of blue smoke by the triggered red light.

A charred, foul smell permeated the air.

Chen Ran looked at the ashes on the ground, calculating in his mind.

Although this thing was imprisoned, its Yao nature remained.

And this was the only Yao Beast he could come into contact with at his current stage.

This excellent "low-risk experimental subject" must be put to good use.

He wanted to try to see if, besides killing, he could extract some good things from the heavenly book of prison suppression in other ways.

There were thousands of prisoners in the heavenly prison; if he could only rely on beheading to obtain rewards, the efficiency would be too low.

Furthermore, many serious criminals wouldn't be his turn to execute as an internal prison guard.

He must find a new method to "farm experience."

Chen Ran put down the lantern and picked up a long-handled iron ladle from the wooden bucket beside him.

The bucket contained an unidentified paste mixed with crushed bones and offal, specifically used for feeding Yao prisoners.

The smell was extremely pungent.

He did not, like the other prison guards, carelessly splash the food in from a distance.

Chen Ran held the iron ladle, steadily passed it through the iron bars, and presented the food in front of the Spider Yao.

The Spider Yao shrank back, its scarlet eyes full of vigilance.

Although these Yao Beasts could not speak human language, their intelligence was no weaker than a three or four-year-old child; they already possessed preliminary cognition.

Chen Ran did not rush it, just held it there.

After a moment of stalemate, the instinct of hunger eventually overcame vigilance.

The Spider Yao tentatively crawled forward two steps, and seeing that Chen Ran had no attacking movements, it suddenly opened its mouthparts filled with sharp teeth and bit down on the food on the iron ladle.

It swallowed extremely fast, without even chewing.

At the very moment it was eating, Chen Ran clearly felt a faint palpitation coming from the heavenly book of prison suppression in his Sea of Consciousness.

It was a very strange sensation.

It was as if an invisible thread had connected him and this Spider Yao together.

Chen Ran's eyes lit up.

There's a way!

He scooped up another ladle of food, this time deliberately pausing in mid-air.

The Spider Yao's gaze immediately followed the iron ladle, and impatient low growls came from its throat.

Its eight legs scraped restlessly on the ground.

Chen Ran slightly turned his wrist, pouring the food on the ground a little further away from it.

The Spider Yao immediately pounced on it, devouring it in large mouthfuls.

The sensation from the heavenly book of prison suppression was one point clearer than before.

Chen Ran's mind became completely clear.

Participation was not just the act of delivering food, interrogating, or executing at that specific moment.

Continuous contact, behavioral guidance, and even emotional control could all deepen this karmic connection.

This was simply discovering a new world.

Before, he only knew how to kill prisoners to drop coins, but now it seemed he could completely treat prisoners as "experience babies" to raise and slowly fleece.

As long as the operation was handled properly, the value a single Yao prisoner could provide would definitely far exceed a one-time beheading.

He looked at the Spider Yao devouring its food greedily, just as if he were looking at a patch of leeks growing vigorously.

Chen Ran retracted the iron ladle, watching the Spider Yao still licking the ground, his brain racing.

From Human Race Martial Artists, he could fleece cultivation power, martial arts experience, and even Cultivation Technique Legacies.

Then what about from the Yao Race?

What was the most valuable thing about monsters?

It was not that bit of impure Demonic Qi, but their innate supernatural abilities.

Take the Spider Yao in front of him, for example.

What was it best at?

Web-spinning, lurking, and that extremely keen perception ability regarding the surrounding environment.

If he could fleece this perception talent...

A wave of heat rose in Chen Ran's heart.

What he lacked most right now was intelligence-gathering ability.

The heavenly prison was a mixed bag of good and bad, and the capital was even more rife with undercurrents.

If he could have an invisible net to help him perceive danger in advance, his survival probability would be greatly improved.

"Cannot be in a rush to kill it."

Chen Ran set the tone in his heart.

This Spider Yao was now a Treasure Trove; he had to keep it to slowly farm participation.

When the karmic bond was deep enough, he would find an opportunity to harvest it; the probability of dropping a talent would definitely be much higher than just hacking it to death.

He picked up the wooden bucket and turned to leave.

The sound of his footsteps echoed in the empty corridor, sounding exceptionally light.

Over the next few days, Chen Ran appeared in front of the Spider Yao's cell promptly every day.

He constantly changed the way he fed it, sometimes giving more, sometimes less, and even deliberately starving it for a meal.

The Spider Yao's attitude toward him gradually changed from its initial ferocity to instinctive gluttony and obedience.

As soon as Chen Ran approached, it would actively crawl to the iron bars and wait.

The karmic sensation in the heavenly book of prison suppression also became thicker and thicker in this day-after-day interaction.

Chen Ran could even vaguely feel the Spider Yao's emotional changes.

Hunger, irritability, satisfaction, fear.

This sense of control made him feel very satisfied.

He was like a patient hunter, tightening the net in his hand bit by bit.

That evening, after feeding the Spider Yao, Chen Ran carried the empty bucket back to the outer rest area.

Several prison guards were warming themselves around a fire basin.

Liu Mingyu was also among them, bragging to people with great animation.

Over these days, the relationship between them had become much closer, and their forms of address had become more casual.

Seeing Chen Ran come over, they immediately stood up and greeted him with beaming smiles.

"Brother Chen, finished with work?"

"Brother Chen, come quickly and warm yourself by the fire; this damn weather, the prison is chillingly cold."

Chen Ran nodded and found a seat by the fire basin.

"I went for a turn in the depths just now; those Yao prisoners are quite well-behaved." Chen Ran casually started a conversation.

An old prison guard rubbed his hands and lowered his voice, saying: "How could they not be well-behaved? Of the monsters that have entered our heavenly prison, few have ever left in one piece."

Liu Mingyu leaned in and said mysteriously: "You just became a full member, so you might not know. The Yao prisoners in our prison aren't just locked up waiting to die."

Chen Ran raised his eyebrows: "Oh? Is there something else to it?"

"The Demon Suppression Division sends people down from time to time to take away a few Yao prisoners." Liu Mingyu looked left and right, his voice dropping even lower, "In name, it's for transfer or interrogation, but in reality..."

He made a throat-slitting gesture.

The old prison guard added: "I heard someone from above let it slip, saying they were taken to do some kind of experiment. Anyway, the Yao prisoners taken away have never been seen coming back."

Chen Ran calmly poked the charcoal in the fire basin.

Doing experiments?

The Demon Suppression Division is using the Yao Race for experiments?

That is an interesting piece of intelligence.

The image of that Spider Yao immediately appeared in his mind.

If the Demon Suppression Division regularly took away Yao prisoners, then the Spider Yao would sooner or later be their turn.

This was not only the Spider Yao's dead end, but also an excellent opportunity for him to harvest Karma.

Borrow the knife of the Demon Suppression Division to kill his own Yao.

Perfect.

He didn't need to do it himself; as long as he did something before the Spider Yao was taken away, once it died at the hands of the Demon Suppression Division, the heavenly book's rewards would still fall to him.

Furthermore, he could take the opportunity to test the bottom line of the Demon Suppression Division.

"Are there any characteristics of the people who take away the Yao prisoners?" Chen Ran asked casually.

Liu Mingyu thought for a moment: "They are all unfamiliar faces, wearing the black clothes of the Demon Suppression Division, but their waist tokens are different from ours. And every time they come, they go straight to the deep prison to take people, never wasting words with us. That group of people always carries a medicinal smell, which makes one feel uncomfortable when smelling it."

Another prison guard nearby chimed in: "Isn't that right? Last time, a brother took an extra look and was glared at by the leader; he had nightmares for several days after coming back."

Chen Ran nodded and didn't ask any more.

Too much talk leads to mistakes.

He had already obtained the information he wanted.

Late at night.

[Stationed in the heavenly prison for one day, reward: one year of cultivation power]

Chen Ran sat cross-legged on the bed in his private residence, circulating the Red Lotus Karmic Fire Scripture.

A surge of energy rose from his Dantian out of thin air, quickly merged into his body, and finally turned into a stream of experience flowing into the Cultivation Technique he was circulating.

True Qi circulated endlessly in his body, but his brain was reviewing the information he obtained today.

The Demon Suppression Division taking away Yao prisoners...

He suddenly opened his eyes.

This kind of action by an official organization would definitely not be on a whim.

Taking people, escorting, handing over; there must be a fixed procedure in the middle.

In other words, the Demon Suppression Division coming to take Yao very likely had a fixed cycle.

Chen Ran's eyes flickered slightly.

As long as he figured out this cycle, he could set up a killing trap in advance.

"Perhaps obtaining a Yao Race talent will be faster than I imagined..."