The man who arrived at the prison with Gu Ya, a bloodied figure from head to toe, sat in the center of the hall.
His gaze was like two sharp knives, piercing the surrounding prisoners.
Over a dozen corpses lay around him, blood forming small rivers that flowed in every direction.
"Mealtime!!" a roar suddenly came from above the prison. The surrounding prisoners, panicked and terrified, all retreated into their cells, leaving only the man in the vast hall.
Suddenly, a basketball-sized piece of flesh dropped from the prison ceiling! With a "thump," it hit the floor, kicking up dust as high as a person.
Immediately, another large chunk of meat fell, hitting a corpse directly.
Soon, more and more meat chunks were thrown down, ravaging the prison like giant hailstones.
When the "meat hail" stopped falling, the prisoners hidden in their cells swarmed out, like a horde of zombies scrambling for food, crowding around each piece of meat.
Each prisoner tore and gnawed at the half-cooked meat with their bare hands, their expressions ferocious, fearing they wouldn't get a bite.
Gu Ya had never witnessed such a raw and inhumane feeding method, and this scramble for food that trampled on humanity was even more unexpected.
With his excellent eyesight, he saw that human heads were actually among the pieces of meat.
This bloody and brutal scene made Gu Ya feel nauseous.
He had killed countless people, witnessed Adaya's inhumane way of survival, and the demonic acts of the bandits hidden in the Xianxia mountains, but none of it shook him as much as this.
"I will definitely destroy this city of hell!" Gu Ya vowed silently.
The scrawny man who had entered the prison with Gu Ya, his voice insidious, emerged from the shadows behind him: "Kid, it seems you've won the favor of the 'Prison God.' Follow me, we don't belong here."
With that, the scrawny man took the lead.
Gu Ya suppressed his anger and followed the man upstairs.
The man who sat in the center of the hall like a killing god also strode after them.
"Hey, hey, I didn't invite you," the scrawny man complained with disdain.
The god-like man glared slightly with eyes obscured by blood, and the scrawny man dared not speak further.
The three walked along the torch-lit corridor, climbing for nearly fifteen minutes before finally reaching their destination.
The second-floor prison area, located fifty meters high, was noticeably cleaner and tidier than the hellish first floor.
Dozens of torches illuminated the entire hall. The snow-white sea-rock floor was spotless, and even the sea-rock walls, which had stood for countless years, showed no trace of dirt.
"Unless they are welcoming newcomers, female prisoners are generally not sent to the first floor. Don't ask me why, just ask because it's 'God's' will," the scrawny man explained.
Most of these female prisoners were barely clothed, and their meager attire was in tatters. Only a very few women wore complete but worn-out coarse prison uniforms.
This scene only added to Gu Ya's existing anger and annoyance.
"It's even dirtier here than below," Gu Ya muttered fiercely.
"On the second floor, at least you can live with dignity," the scrawny man whispered.
"Dignity? Heh," Gu Ya scoffed.
At that moment, a door in the distance of the hall was pushed open, and Sharon the Flying Snake walked out slowly.
He had changed into a faded black star military uniform, sat down at the dining table, and began to sample the food brought by the female prisoners.
Gu Ya, the other man, and the scrawny man sat down at a table near the door. As soon as they were seated, three female prisoners brought them food.
Gu Ya picked up a piece of meat, sniffed it, and then put it down, getting up to find a cell to sleep in.
The man who was like a killing god, however, followed him without invitation.
The two found a clean cell, and Gu Ya collapsed onto the bed to sleep.
"You're not afraid of me?" the man asked, sitting on the bed beside Gu Ya, staring at the back of his head.
Gu Ya replied coldly, "You can't hurt me."
"Everyone here has been assigned the same mission," the man said in a low voice. "To kill you."
"What makes you say that?" Gu Ya asked, turning his head slightly.
The man spat out a piece of meat from his mouth and said, "It's poisoned."
Gu Ya glanced at it. The meat, mixed with saliva, began to smoke slightly. In fact, Gu Ya had already determined it was poisoned after smelling the food, which was why he hadn't eaten any.
"You won't kill me?" Gu Ya looked at the man and asked.
The man's sharp gaze revealed a trace of calmness, but he offered no reply.
Just then, two naked women entered and said softly to Gu Ya, "God sent us to serve you. If you refuse, God will not grant your request."
"Will this ever end!" Gu Ya roared in frustration. "Tell Sharon the Flying Snake that I've seen through his petty tricks. If he doesn't want a confrontation, he should send me to the third prison zone immediately!"
"Bravo, bravo, bravo." Sharon the Flying Snake entered the cell, applauding and remarking, "Women, food, and poison couldn't stop you. I am very satisfied."
"Since you have no intention of staying here..." Sharon the Flying Snake waved his hand gently, and the two female prisoners left the cell with their heads bowed.
Once they were alone, Sharon continued, "I need you to help me kill a man named 'Wu Yi' in the third prison zone. Tomorrow morning, someone will be waiting for you at the prison gate."
After speaking, Sharon the Flying Snake slowly left the cell.
Having not slept all night, Gu Ya got up the next morning and went to the prison gate.
He followed the prison guard through the same corridor he had come in, reaching the massive hanging gate. Gu Ya then followed the guard and disappeared into the shadows.
After fumbling forward in the darkness for about half an hour, they finally stopped.
When the prison guard lit a torch, Gu Ya saw a bottomless well, two meters wide, at his feet. He had almost stepped into it.
"You can reach the third prison zone by going down here," the prison guard said emotionlessly, turning and walking back into the darkness.
Gu Ya summoned his full exoskeleton armor, turned on the searchlight, and looked down. The well was like a giant abyssal mouth, swallowing the light.
"No matter what is in the abyss, I must explore it for the mission." Without hesitation, Gu Ya activated the jets on his legs and jumped in.
The abyss was bone-chillingly cold. The exoskeleton armor's full light band illuminated the well walls. The walls were pitted and uneven, with shallow chambers every ten meters or so, each containing one or two human skeletons.
The wind noise of the descent lasted for nearly ten minutes. Gu Ya's distance display finally showed data: there were still a thousand meters to the bottom of the well.
Estimating roughly, this well was about three thousand meters deep.
What puzzled Gu Ya was that the deeper he went, the less he felt the heat from the earth; instead, it became cooler.
The humidity reached 95%, and small streams even seeped from the cracks in the well walls.
However, the oxygen content in the air was rapidly decreasing, while the carbon dioxide content was increasing.
If not for the exoskeleton armor's oxygen generation function, it was hard to imagine how humans could survive long-term in such conditions.
As the air pressure reached 144.325 kPa, Gu Ya finally arrived at the bottom of the well.
He maxed out the jets on his legs, the backward force slowing Gu Ya's descent gradually.
The deep water pit below his feet was churned into waves by the jets, surging in all directions.
Gu Ya first surveyed the large chamber at the bottom of the well, then quickly flew towards the exit.
Passing through a narrow rock wall, the view suddenly opened up.
Misty white vapor permeated the area above his head. Countless holographic neon lights were embedded in the tall, smooth walls, quietly emitting dreamlike light.
Looking at these dazzling lights, Gu Ya almost mistook it for another world.
Even more bizarrely, there was not a single person here.
Gu Ya tried to remove his exoskeleton helmet. The thin air and increased pressure made him take a few minutes to recover.
"Alright, let's get this over with."
Putting on his exoskeleton mask again, Gu Ya activated the micro-jets on his knees and calves and sprinted away.
The cave entrance behind him rapidly shrunk and disappeared, the neon lights on either side flashing past.
After running for about ten minutes, Gu Ya stopped in confusion and turned around, only to find the cave entrance was still behind him.
"What? I was running forward the whole time!" Gu Ya exclaimed in surprise.
This time, Gu Ya ran backward. After running for over ten minutes, with a moment of distraction, the cave entrance reappeared before him.
"Something's wrong! There are ghosts here!" Gu Ya realized with great alarm.
But he didn't believe in ghosts or gods; the concept of a "ghost wall" had long been scientifically proven.
Calming himself, Gu Ya summoned his crimson light sword and poked the tip into the wall, creating a shallow pit as a marker while moving forward.
Simultaneously, he activated his [Star Blueprint] to record his path.
When Gu Ya returned to the starting point, the [Star Blueprint] showed that he had been standing still the entire time.
However, the shallow pits he had deliberately chiseled into the wall every three meters had continued to extend inward.
Furthermore, Gu Ya had paid special attention, varying the force of his hand when making the marks, resulting in pits of different depths.
Those deep and shallow pits were indeed made by Gu Ya. Why couldn't the system break through the illusion of the "ghost wall"?
"There is definitely something wrong with this layer of space!"
"Damn it! Whatever spirits or demons you are, you will all die!!"
Gu Ya's face contorted into a fierce expression, and he quickly visualized a lightweight assault mecha in his mind.
The next second, a mecha cockpit surrounded him, and steel and wires gradually softened and enveloped his entire body.