Chapter 18 The Choice

"This question requires you to find the answer yourself."

"Some things you can't stand to see, yet you worry about success or failure. I can't give you any advice." Even through a thick iron door, Tang Sudong seemed to see through Ye Chuxiao's thoughts.

Ye Chuxiao was silent upon hearing this. Tang Sudong was indeed correct.

What he cared about wasn't whether Tang Sudong regretted it, but whether he would regret it in the days to come if he couldn't suppress certain thoughts in his heart and did something.

He was actually very uncomfortable with both Daheng and Tianluo.

This discomfort and resistance stemmed from his core values and beliefs, deep within his soul.

The solution was either for Ye Chuxiao to lie low for a long time and gradually assimilate into one of the countless beings in this world.

Or to fight back and transform this world into a place he was accustomed to.

From a rational point of view, Ye Chuxiao should, of course, choose the former.

Cultivate, perform meritorious service, be granted the title of Marquis of Ten Thousand Households, and take three wives and four concubines after becoming a more powerful cultivator, enjoying music and pleasure in brothels during his leisure time.

With the resources in Ye Chuxiao's hands, as long as he grew step by step and played it safe, this goal wouldn't be difficult to achieve.

But ah!

Knees that have stood for too long are not easy to bend.

People who are used to speaking loudly find it difficult to whisper.

Ye Chuxiao opened his mouth, wanting to say something more.

Suddenly, the entire dungeon seemed to shake violently.

The Prison Suppression Artifact erupted with unimaginable power in an instant, like a sleeping dragon suddenly awakened by intense stimulation.

Ye Chuxiao was in the dungeon, and even with the seal that had been imbued with the artifact's aura, he was still forced to squat down by this power, leaning against the corner of the wall.

At this moment, there were only two figures in the dungeon, rapidly exchanging blows.

In a short time, they had already fought from the first underground level to the fourth.

They naturally didn't walk down the stairs but directly smashed through the thick rock layers reinforced with molten iron, falling all the way down.

One of the two combatants wielded two short guns, while the other carried a dark greatsword.

The shockwaves from the clashing weapons shattered many of the dungeon's facilities.

After a quick exchange and repositioning, the two stood facing each other.

"I've long heard that the Ministry of Justice's dungeon is lax in its laws and regulations, filled with useless officials. I didn't expect there to be an expert like you suppressing it. It seems the rumors are unreliable. This place is truly tight on the inside and loose on the outside," said the man wielding the black greatsword.

On the other side, the one holding dual guns and wearing bronze armor said, "If it weren't for an expert like you, Dao Xia Yan Po, coming to break into the prison, this dungeon would indeed only need some useless officials."

"Why would an expert like you, who has entered the Realm of Intent, be unable to distinguish between right and wrong? How can you associate with such useless officials?" Yan Po asked.

The armored figure with dual guns said, "What is right? What is wrong? Whether Tang Sudong is right or wrong is not my concern. My duty is to guard the dungeon and prevent the troublemakers on the fifth level from escaping."

"Also, since you've come to break into the prison, you should also be imprisoned on the fifth level."

After saying that, the armored figure shot towards Yan Po with his dual guns like lightning.

The great battle between the two broke out again.

Ye Chuxiao was on the fifth level and couldn't witness the battle firsthand, but he could inexplicably feel two powerful martial intents colliding in every perceivable space.

One was sharp, domineering, and carried an indomitable momentum, while the other was subtle, restrained, and sturdy.

"Finally… finally, a strong person has come to break into the prison. Lord Tang, it seems you haven't fared so badly," Ye Chuxiao said to Tang Sudong behind the door as he leaned against it.

Tang Sudong sighed upon hearing this, without replying.

The two fighting finally moved from the fourth level of the dungeon to the fifth.

Many of the ferocious old demons imprisoned on the fifth level became restless.

They made wild promises, wanting Yan Po to conveniently rescue them from the dungeon.

However, Yan Po instead restrained his blade intent, confining the vast power capable of splitting mountains and severing rivers to the area where his blade was aimed.

This also caused the fight between Yan Po and the armored figure with dual guns to become more 'simple.'

It was just that their fighting speed was very fast.

So fast that it had long surpassed the limits of what the naked eye could capture.

Ye Chuxiao could still only feel two intents colliding deep within the Ministry of Justice's dungeon, but he couldn't see any trace of it.

"The Nine Realms of Cultivation begin with the Foolish Realm, followed by the Bitter Realm, the Capable Realm, the Wonderful Realm, the Transformation Realm, and the Wise Realm. The Realm of Intent, where will manifests, is the seventh realm. Although it is still two realms away from the Nine Realms, it is already at the peak of this world."

"The exchange happening here can be considered the top-level game between Daheng cultivators."

"Of course, the two fighting should both be martial cultivators, so the fighting style appears 'slightly' more direct. If they were talisman cultivators, formation cultivators, or spell cultivators, who are not good at frontal assaults, their methods would be even more ethereal and untraceable." Ye Chuxiao analyzed to himself, in reality, he was just taking a glimpse of the overall situation with his relatively meager knowledge of cultivation.

At this moment, Ye Chuxiao's golden clock was vibrating wildly.

Because it was constantly extracting a large amount of Dao rhythm aura from the aftershocks of the battle.

After two experiments, Ye Chuxiao had roughly figured out that the golden clock's time rewind function was activated using Dao rhythm aura as a positioning coordinate.

And Dao rhythm aura was not Dao rhythm. It was a fragment that had been released during the 'use' of Dao rhythm by someone. It seemed to have some different differences from Dao rhythm.

This led to the golden clock treating Dao rhythm and Dao rhythm aura differently.

A cultivator who possessed Dao rhythm but did not have enough cultivation would only be able to release Dao rhythm aura in a life-or-death situation.

Such as the Yaoren from the Original Truth Sect, or Yue Tingshan.

But there were also strong people like Yan Po and the prison-guarding cultivator with dual guns, whose cultivation had reached the seventh realm and had obviously integrated Dao rhythm multiple times. Dao rhythm aura would naturally flow out with every move they made.

The intense exchange ended abruptly after the light faded completely in an instant.

The artifact suppressing the Ministry of Justice's dungeon seemed to have been completely enraged.

It manifested in the form of a three-headed divine bird, shining and illuminating the entire Ministry of Justice's dungeon with its infinite light-devouring power.

Yan Po also became slow in his movements under the illumination of the three-headed divine bird's divine light.

Boom!

The iron door sealing Tang Sudong exploded at this moment.

Ye Chuxiao was naturally moved to the side in this seemingly frozen space, protected by a stable shield.

An ordinary, withered, yet clean-looking hand grabbed the three-headed divine bird and stuffed it back into the Prison Suppression Artifact.

Ye Chuxiao turned his head, looking in shock at Tang Sudong, who had easily escaped.

This old man, still wearing prison clothes, still had an impressive bearing, and now every strand of his white hair shone with the light of will.

"Brother Yan! Stop!"

"I will not leave the dungeon," Tang Sudong said to Yan Po.

"Using human laws to replace heavenly laws, using human Dao to replace heavenly Dao, this is what you taught me. Now, just because the emperor is muddle-headed and unwilling to defy the heavens, you want to give up?" Yan Po's expression changed slightly upon hearing this.

"The Heavenly Dao is flawed. Even if we seek it elsewhere, it's just robbing Peter to pay Paul. The more we gain from cultivating upwards, the more we lose. Greed, tyranny, indifference, impermanence, selfishness, arrogance, they cancel each other out and promote each other's expansion. Yan Po, my heart is old. If the heavens have feelings, they too will age. If humans are heartless, they can overcome the heavens. I cannot be heartless towards humanity, so I can only be heartless towards myself, heartless towards those like-minded people who once placed their hopes in me," Tang Sudong said.