108: Chapter 108 An Astounding Gift

Gentlemen, you've been startled, startled.

He said, nodding and bowing through the iron bars, "Commander Wang has given orders. You are all men of status, and we cannot neglect you."

"I have specially prepared these dishes and wine for you, just to help you calm your nerves."

As he spoke, he passed several dishes that looked quite hearty and were still steaming hot through the small window at the bottom of the cell door, which was only large enough for bowls and plates.

"Thank you for your trouble," Gao Feng said indifferently, calmly taking the food.

Seeing Gao Feng and the others accept the food without any guard, a trace of imperceptible joy and cruelty flashed in the jailer's eyes.

He hypocritically exchanged a few more polite words, saying things like "just let me know if you need anything," before turning around, humming a tune, and leaving.

"Big Brother, this food..." Wulu's voice was filled with vigilance.

"It's poisoned." Gao Feng's voice had no ripples, as if he were stating the simplest of facts.

"I knew it!" Yue Changkong cursed angrily. "What else can this bunch of despicable, shameless rats do besides these low-class tricks!"

"Then what do we do now?" Gong Qianxue asked anxiously. "They will definitely send people to check on us in a while!"

"Wait." Gao Feng said only one word.

Then, to the astonishment of everyone, he actually picked up his chopsticks, leisurely picked up a piece of roast chicken, put it into his mouth, and chewed it carefully.

"Big Brother!" Wulu was shocked.

"Brother Gao!" Yue Changkong couldn't help but exclaim.

However, Gao Feng just made a "calm down" gesture to them.

As he ate, he secretly activated the Spirit Spring.

The potent poison, which was enough to cause a Fourth-Rank expert to have their intestines rot and stomach burst within seven steps, was instantly enveloped, purified, decomposed, and even converted into the purest energy the moment it entered his body, silently absorbed by his body!

To him, this feeling was not only harmless but rather like eating a highly nourishing medicinal meal.

Seeing this scene, Wulu, Yue Changkong, and the others were completely stunned, their minds going blank.

They couldn't understand how such a monster, immune to all poisons, could exist in this world!

Of course, Gao Feng would not explain the existence of the Spirit Spring.

After finishing, he set the empty plates aside, then took out several small pouches of powder prepared in advance from a mixture of various herbs from his bosom, and quietly applied the powder to his lips and fingernails.

Soon, his complexion began to turn dark blue, and his lips took on a terrifying purple-black color.

After doing all this, he leaned against the wall, closed his eyes, and his breathing gradually became weak.

Another hour passed, and the hour of the Rat had arrived.

The entire Heavenly Prison fell into a heart-palpitating silence.

At this moment, dozens of pitch-black figures, like ghosts in the dark night, appeared silently at the end of the corridor!

They were the last and most elite batch of assassins from the Blood Killing Hall!

The leader was an old man with a thin, withered frame, sinister eyes, and a hooked nose. He was the Deputy Hall Master of the Blood Killing Hall, and his strength was also at the Fourth-Rank Great Perfection!

"Have you dealt with them all?" he asked in a voice as hoarse as a night owl.

"Reporting to the Deputy Hall Master, it is done," a monkey-like assassin replied in a low voice. "We put our Blood Killing Hall's most potent 'Seven-Step Intestine-Breaking Powder' in their food! Even a Peak Fourth-Rank expert would definitely not last an hour! The jailer just went to check, and the people inside have already stopped breathing."

"Very good." The Deputy Hall Master nodded with satisfaction, a flash of cruel sharpness in his eyes. "However, just in case, follow the old rules: chop off their heads for me! Bring them back to report to Young Master Liu!"

"Yes!"

Dozens of assassins, no longer hesitating, crept silently like a wolf pack towards the cell where Gao Feng and the others were held.

They used a special key to open the heavy cell door with practiced ease.

By the dim light of the oil lamp, they saw that the figures inside the cell had indeed fallen to the ground, with black blood flowing from their seven orifices, long since dead.

A relaxed smile of mission accomplished appeared on the faces of all the assassins.

However!

Just as they stepped into the cell, preparing to cut off the heads!

A sudden change occurred!

Gao Feng, who had supposedly been "dead," suddenly opened his tightly closed eyes!

In those eyes, there was not a trace of poisoning! There was only endless killing intent, cold and bone-chilling, as if it could freeze a person's Soul!

"Welcome to Hell."

His calm voice, like a death sentence from the Nine Underworlds, rang clearly in the ears of all the assassins!

"Not good! It's a trap! Retreat!"

The Blood Killing Hall's Deputy Hall Master was a veteran of the Jianghu after all. His reaction was extremely fast. Terrified, he didn't even think; he pulled back to retreat!

However, it was already too late!

"Do it!"

With a low shout from Gao Feng!

Wulu! Yue Changkong! Big Fool!

All the people who had "died from poison" suddenly sprang up at this moment, launching an attack!

The "poisonous blood" on them was just an illusion created by Gao Feng using Spirit Spring water mixed with some non-toxic herbal juices!

And they, with Gao Feng's secret help, had long since neutralized all the toxins in their bodies!

This was a desperate counter-kill, a plan within a plan!

"Puchi!"

Wulu's blade was as fast as black lightning! An assassin who had just stepped into the cell didn't even have time to make an expression of terror before he was slashed in half from head to toe!

"Clang!"

Yue Changkong's spear was as swift as rolling thunder! The poisoned dagger in another assassin's hand was directly knocked away by his spear, along with the entire arm!

And Big Fool was even simpler and more brutal!

His large, fan-like hand grabbed an assassin's head and simply gave it a gentle squeeze!

"Bang!"

That head exploded like a ripe watermelon! Scalding blood and white brain matter splattered all over the cell walls!

This was no longer a battle! It was a one-sided slaughter in a confined space, with no suspense!

Those elite assassins of the Blood Killing Hall, who thought they were the hunters, were completely reduced to lambs waiting for the slaughter at this moment!

Their movement techniques and assassination arts, which they were so proud of, appeared so ridiculous and vulnerable in the face of absolute power and the confined terrain!

"Retreat! Retreat quickly! Get out!"

The Blood Killing Hall's Deputy Hall Master, terrified by the scene before him which resembled a Shura field, was scared out of his wits! He no longer cared about any damn mission; he turned around, wanting to flee this place that filled him with endless fear!

However, a figure faster than him had already blocked his path, as if teleporting.

It was Gao Feng.

"Did I tell you that you could leave?"

Gao Feng's calm voice was like a devil's whisper in the Deputy Hall Master's heart.

"You... who exactly are you?! Why did even the 'Seven-Step Intestine-Breaking Powder' have no effect on you?!" The Deputy Hall Master's body was trembling violently.

"Someone to send you on your way."

Gao Feng couldn't be bothered to waste words with him. He simply threw a punch!

This punch looked ordinary, without any flashy Moves, but it was fast to the extreme! It was also heavy to the extreme! It seemed to compress all the surrounding air into a single point!

The Deputy Hall Master only felt his vision blur, and an irresistible, terrifying force like a landslide and tsunami had already slammed fiercely into his chest!

"Crack—!"

A dense sound of bone shattering, making one's teeth ache!

His entire chest was actually driven inward by this punch! The stark white bone fragments even pierced through his back!

His body, like a kite with a broken string, flew backward, slamming heavily into the dark iron wall of the cell with a dull thud, then slowly slid down like mud.

Until his death, his eyes were filled with endless fear and confusion.

The battle ended quickly.

The deepest part of the entire Heavenly Prison was already littered with corpses and flowing with rivers of blood.

"Big Brother, what do we do now?" Wulu wiped the blood from his face, walked up to Gao Feng, and asked in a deep voice, "We caused a scene in the Heavenly Prison, which is equivalent to open rebellion! Now, there is no way back."

"Who said we have no way back?"

A mysterious smile appeared on Gao Feng's face.

He walked to the corner and tapped gently on a seemingly ordinary bluestone slab.

"Dong, dong-dong, dong."

Three long and two short; this was the secret signal he had agreed upon with Yan Qingyun beforehand.

A moment later.

"Rumble..."

A slight sound of mechanical gears turning rang out. The indestructible wall, built of hard obsidian and reinforced with dark iron, slowly shifted to the side, revealing a pitch-black opening only large enough for one person to pass through!

At the opening, a familiar figure holding a feather fan was looking at them with a smile, like an ink painting, out of place in this bloody land.

"Top Scholar Gao, trust you have been well. It seems my 'after-sales service' was quite timely."

It was none other than the Master of the Heavenly Secret Tower, Yan Qingyun!

"You, how are you here?!"

Yue Changkong and Gong Qianxue both showed expressions of disbelief. They could not understand how Yan Qingyun had managed to dig a tunnel in this heavily guarded Heavenly Prison!

"There is no place in this Wangjiang City that my Heavenly Secret Tower cannot reach." Yan Qingyun waved the feather fan in his hand, looking completely matter-of-fact. "Of course, I must thank Top Scholar Gao for the quite generous 'venture capital' paid in advance."

He said meaningfully.

Everyone then suddenly realized!

So, the one thousand taels of gold that Gao Feng gave to Yan Qingyun did not just buy two pieces of information! It had also bought a life-saving escape route in a desperate situation! Everything, surprisingly, had been within this man's calculations!

In an instant, the eyes of everyone looking at Gao Feng were filled with deep awe and admiration!

"Let's go." Gao Feng did not explain further and was the first to walk into the pitch-black underground passage, which reeked of damp mold. "We don't have much time left."

When the news that the Heavenly Prison had been slaughtered clean spread throughout Wangjiang City like it had grown wings the next morning.

Everyone had gone completely mad!

Upon receiving the news, Commandery Commandant Wang Tong was so enraged that he spat out a mouthful of old blood on the spot and smashed his most beloved antique vase!

He immediately ordered the entire city to be placed under martial law, sealed all four gates, and issued a shoot-on-sight warrant for Gao Feng and the others!

For a time, all of Wangjiang City was in a state of panic, with everyone fearing the wind and every tree appearing to be an enemy soldier!

Countless city guards and Liu Family private soldiers poured into the streets like mad dogs, searching everywhere.

However, just as the entire city was plunged into chaos!

A piece of news that left everyone feeling suffocated and desperate arrived from the capital!

The current Emperor's most favored prince, the immensely powerful Prince Ying, had sent his trusted confidant, Eunuch Wei, to Wangjiang City to "inspect the region"!

And this Eunuch Wei not only brought Prince Ying's personal handwritten order, but was also a peerless Grandmaster whose strength had long since stepped into the Sixth-Rank [Organ Refinement] realm!

That afternoon.

At the south gate of Wangjiang City, a bright red carpet was laid out, the streets were sprinkled with clean water, and yellow earth was spread to pave the way.

All the officials, from the Commandery Governor to the Registrar, without exception, knelt on the ground trembling, greeting this big shot from the capital with the highest protocol.

A purple-gold carriage, luxurious to the extreme and pulled by eight extraordinary, snow-white "Snow-Treading Dragon Horses," slowly drove into the city, escorted by hundreds of fierce-looking Imperial Guards from the capital.

The carriage curtain was gently lifted by a hand that was extremely well-maintained, excessively fair, and even adorned with a jade thumb ring.

Revealed was a middle-aged eunuch with a clean, hairless face, but eyes as sinister as a hawk, possessing an inherent, intimidating air.

He was Eunuch Wei.

His gaze swept casually over the crowd kneeling on the ground.

But this simple glance made everyone feel a chilling coldness from the depths of their Soul!

It was as if they had been targeted by a slumbering, primordial Vicious Beast!

In that instant, they even stopped breathing!

"I have heard that some ignorant little insects have appeared in Wangjiang City recently, daring to oppose the Prince?"

His voice, neither Yin nor Yang, shrill yet filled with majesty, slowly resonated, clearly reaching everyone's ears.

"Rep... Replying to the Eunuch..."

The Commandery Governor, sweating like rain, tremblingly recounted the "crimes" of Gao Feng and the others, adding embellishments and distorting the truth.

"Oh?"

Eunuch Wei listened without any expression on his face.

He simply slowly pulled out a scroll made of bright yellow silk and satin, with jade axes embedded at both ends, from his wide sleeves.

"Announcing, His Highness Prince Ying's decree!"

His voice suddenly rose a few notches, carrying an unquestionable, supreme majesty!

Everyone buried their heads even lower.

"The traitors Gao Pan and others have colluded with the northern rebel army, intending to plot misdeeds in Wangjiang City! They are imperial criminals whose crimes are unforgivable!"

"Order: Everyone in Wangjiang City, from this moment on, is to capture them with all your might!"

"Whoever provides clues will be rewarded with a thousand taels of gold!"

"Whoever can bring back their heads will be promoted three ranks and enfeoffed as a Marquis of Ten Thousand Households!"

"Anyone who dares to shelter or hide them will be treated as accomplices to treason, and their entire family will be executed!"

Boom!

This order, filled with blood and slaughter, distorting the truth and leaving no path to survival, struck the sky above Wangjiang City like a Nine Heavens thunderclap!

Everyone was completely dumbfounded!

They could not understand how a few insignificant martial examination candidates could be linked to "treason"?!

But, no one dared to question it!

Because this was the order of His Highness Prince Ying!

In an instant!

The entire Wangjiang City had turned into a true death cage!

Countless Jianghu factions and bounty hunters, stimulated by the words "enfeoffed as a Marquis of Ten Thousand Households," went completely mad, like sharks smelling blood!

A true net of heaven and earth, with a Sixth-Rank Grandmaster personally presiding over it, was fully spread!

...

In the south of the city, inside a long-abandoned public mortuary overgrown with weeds and scattered with dilapidated coffins.

Gao Feng, Yue Changkong, Wulu, Big Fool, Gong Qianxue, Xu Changqing, and the blacksmith Qin Fang, who was also wanted and rescued by Yan Qingyun, were all gathered here.

Yan Qingyun had already left, his parting words still echoing in everyone's ears: "Top Scholar Gao, the intelligence and tunnels of the Heavenly Secret Tower can only help you this much."

"Ten miles outside the city, that Eunuch Wei has already set up a net of heaven and earth, with sentries every three steps and guards every five steps. Furthermore, countless Jianghu experts have been drawn by the 'Marquis of Ten Thousand Households' bounty, like hungry wolves smelling blood. You... take care of yourselves."

"Sixth-Rank Grandmaster... Marquis of Ten Thousand Households..." Gong Qianxue murmured absentmindedly, the longbow in her hand sliding to the ground with a soft sound that seemed particularly harsh in the deathly silence.

Her face was deathly pale, her voice carrying an uncontrollable sob, "That is a Grandmaster in the Organ Refinement realm... unable to bear the weight of a feather, unable to let a fly land, with internal breath forming a cycle, and True Qi flowing endlessly! We... we aren't even worthy of carrying his shoes, how can we fight?"

"Indeed... Brother Gao..." Even the usually calm and resolute Yue Changkong lowered his head at this moment, the light in his eyes completely dimmed.

His knuckles, gripping the thunderclap spear, were white from excessive force, and his voice was as hoarse as two pieces of sandpaper rubbing against each other, "We are finished."

"This is not a Jianghu vendetta; this is the will of the Imperial Court, the thunderous rage of Prince Ying. We have already been branded with 'treason' and have become national criminals to be executed by all."

He raised his head, his bloodshot eyes filled with deep helplessness and bitterness: "Listen to me, let's break up into small groups and try to break out separately."

"Eunuch Wei's target is you; if we go our separate ways, perhaps... perhaps there is still a glimmer of hope. Even if only one can escape, it's better than being here, trapped like a turtle in a jar, and wiped out in one go!"

"Break out?" Wulu gave a bitter laugh, "Break out to where? Now the whole city is plastered with our portraits, we can't even fly out like a fly! Even if we are lucky enough to get out of the city, facing that Grandmaster and the pursuers covering the mountains and plains, how far can we run?"

These words caused everyone, who had just felt a glimmer of lucky hope, to fall back into an ice cellar.

However, at the moment when everyone was completely swallowed by despair, and even the strength to struggle was about to be lost.

Gao Feng, who had remained silent all along, slowly stood up.

His tall, straight figure in this gloomy and dilapidated public mortuary was like a javelin piercing through the darkness!

There was not a trace of despair on his face; instead, in his deep eyes, reflecting the cold moonlight outside the window, a flame that made everyone feel palpitations, a near-mad flame, was burning!

"Escape?"

He looked around at the crowd, his voice not loud, but like the morning bell and evening drum, striking hard at everyone's heart.

"Brother Yue is right, we cannot escape. In this vast world, there is no longer any place for us to stay."

His voice was terrifyingly calm, as if he were stating a fact unrelated to himself: "Since Prince Ying has branded us with the crime of 'treason,' he will never allow any of us to leave Wangjiang City alive."

"He wants to use our blood and heads to demonstrate his majesty and intimidate everyone who dares to defy him."

"Fleeing separately will only result in us being caught one by one by that Eunuch Wei, like a cat playing with a mouse, and tortured to death. In the end, we will die like stray dogs that no one cares about!"

These words, like a basin of snow water mixed with ice shards, poured heavily over everyone's heads, extinguishing their last shred of fantasy, but also inciting the most primitive ferocity in their bones!

"Then... then what should we do?" Xu Changqing's voice was trembling, "Are we just going to wait here for death?!"

"Wait for death?"

The corners of Gao Feng's mouth slowly curled into a cold and arrogant arc.

He walked to the dusty, dilapidated table, picked up a piece of leftover charred wood, and quickly drew a simple map of Wangjiang City on it.

Then, he used the charcoal to draw a heavy, blood-colored circle on a mountain range outside the city!

"Since they will not give us a way to live."

His voice suddenly turned harsh, every word sounding as if it were squeezed out from between his teeth, carrying biting coldness and murderous intent!

"Then, before we head to the Yellow Springs, we will send that high-and-mighty Prince Ying a gift that he will never forget, one that will pierce his heart with pain—"

"—A shocking gift!"

His gaze turned to the silent blacksmith Qin Fang, his eyes burning: "Master Qin, I ask you, Blood Flame Stone is volatile and fears water; if it encounters a specific catalyst, can it instantly erupt with a hundred times the power of black gunpowder?"

Qin Fang shuddered, suddenly raising his head, a glimmer of shock and realization flashing in his eyes!

As a blacksmith, he knew the characteristics of various Ore Materials like the back of his hand!

"Yes!" He blurted out, his breathing becoming rapid, "Deep within the Blood Flame Stone mine, there must be earthly fire accompanying it, constantly in a high-temperature and high-pressure environment!"

"As long as we can find the 'Fire Marrow' at the core of the mine, and then use 'Cold Crystal Powder' and 'Phosphorus Liquid' as a catalyst, it can instantly trigger a chain explosion! Its power... is enough to raze the entire mountain range to the ground!"

Once these words were spoken, Yue Changkong, Wulu, and the others instantly understood something, each gasping in cold air, their hearts almost stopping!

Gao Feng slowly turned around, his eyes burning with raging flames, scanning everyone present one by one, his voice, filled with endless madness and incitement, resonating throughout the entire public mortuary!

"Blow up his [Blood Flame Stone] mine!"

Boom!

This sentence was no longer lightning, but a nuclear bomb detonating in everyone's minds!

Everyone stared at him, dumbfounded, as if they were looking at a mad demon crawling out of Hell!

Blow up... the Prince's mine?! That was Prince Ying's biggest money bag!

It was his Foundation for recruiting soldiers, buying horses, and associating with court officials!

This... this was no longer just madness!

This was using the most resolute way to brazenly declare war on an immensely powerful prince, and even the entire Great Qian Dynasty!