“Little Ye? You’re back from your leave?” Zhao Liang, the prison guard who had been covering Ye Chuxiao’s meal duty, greeted him. There was still a hint of displeasure in his expression.

Distributing meals in the dungeon wasn’t the best position, but the kickbacks were safe, and it didn't violate his conscience. Quite a few people were happy to do it.

“Yes! Thank you for covering for me this past month, Brother Zhao!” Ye Chuxiao said with a smile.

His fate had changed. Ye Chuxiao was certain he wouldn’t be in the dungeon for long, but he didn’t know where the change would come from.

So, he still needed to maintain some semblance of a relationship with his dungeon colleagues for the time being.

“Good that you’re back. About the meal duty…”

“Brother Zhao, please continue to help me with the meal duty! I’ve been cultivating diligently recently and might be away often. I’ll need you to cover for me.” Ye Chuxiao told Zhao Liang.

Zhao Liang had originally been responsible for emptying chamber pots, a dirty and tiring job with no opportunities for kickbacks, a far cry from Ye Chuxiao’s meal duty.

Hearing Ye Chuxiao’s words, Zhao Liang immediately exclaimed with delight, “Cultivating is good! You’re still young, you need to cultivate diligently. If you can cross the Sea of Bitterness, it’ll be a whole different story. I wouldn’t trade it for a captain’s position.”

“Don’t worry about the work in the prison. I’ll cover your meal duty. I’ll continue with my original job; I’ve gotten used to it this past month!”

As he spoke, Zhao Liang’s gaze towards Ye Chuxiao had completely shifted to friendliness.

At this moment, he was quite enthusiastic about continuing to empty chamber pots.

However, people's hearts are easily changed. Perhaps in a few months, his thoughts would be different.

But by then, Ye Chuxiao would undoubtedly be in a different situation.

Ye Chuxiao asked Zhao Liang to help with the meal duty, not only to free up more time for martial arts practice and cultivation, but also to deliberately blur the lines.

In any case, Ye Chuxiao had deliberately poisoned the heretic from the Original Oneness Sect with rotten organ meat. It would be a small trouble if someone were to investigate it.

Zhao Liang replacing Ye Chuxiao for an extended period was practically equivalent to removing Ye Chuxiao from the incident.

After all, according to dungeon customs, although the heretic had died and been removed from the prison roster, his corpse would certainly still be preserved in the ice cellar on the fifth underground level.

This corpse would sometimes be brought to the execution ground to die again.

With Zhao Liang’s help, Ye Chuxiao could openly slack off, find an empty cell during work hours, diligently practice martial arts, and at the same time, train his Qi, attempting to pass the bitter cultivation of a Qi Refiner and cross the Sea of Bitterness again.

Yue Tingshan’s experience couldn’t replace all real practice.

Of course, Ye Chuxiao didn’t fully accept all of Yue Tingshan’s martial arts. He only needed to familiarize himself with some techniques that he didn’t think were necessary to master.

In this way, more than ten days passed, and Ye Chuxiao’s little trouble showed no signs of erupting.

But at the same time, there was no sign of it being resolved.

One day, the bells suddenly rang loudly, and all the prison guards on duty were summoned to gather in the main hall on the first floor of the dungeon.

The head warden of the Ministry of Justice’s dungeon, Baitou Biao, was also standing to the side. Leading the group was a Ministry of Justice official who rarely came here in person.

A high-ranking official from the Ministry of Justice, dressed in a scarlet robe, surveyed the hundreds of dungeon guards, his face showing obvious dissatisfaction.

Several of the dungeon's actual managers were trembling with fear, worried that this official had come to audit the headcount.

Under the urging gazes of his colleagues, Head Warden Baitou Biao had no choice but to step forward, intending to find an excuse to explain and then bribe the official to shut him up, when he heard the official say, “In an hour, a serious criminal will be escorted to the death row on the fifth floor. After he is imprisoned, I’m afraid some arrogant people who disregard the laws of the country will attempt to rescue him.”

“Therefore, I don’t care how you used to perform your duties, but from now on, you all need to be on high alert. If there’s even the slightest mistake, I’ll have your hides.”

“This is not only my intention, but also the intention of the various officials of the Ministry of Justice. If there’s even the slightest mistake, no matter what connections or background you have, it won’t matter.”

“From now on, all past seals are invalid. New seals will be issued after I finish speaking. Each seal will only be valid for six hours. After six hours, you must hand over the seal and get a new one.”

As soon as the official finished speaking, the faces of several captains in the crowd turned ugly.

Turning long-term seals into short-term seals that changed every six hours clearly interfered with their ‘business.’

Moreover, there were actually many ‘unclaimed’ seals within the dungeon.

These were ‘supporting’ benefits, along with the embezzled salaries.

The official’s move was equivalent to directly cutting off two important sources of wealth in the dungeon system.

Zhao Liang stood beside Ye Chuxiao and whispered, “Little Ye! Who do you think they’re imprisoning this time?”

“The last time there was such a big commotion, I heard it was ten years ago, when they captured the vice leader of the Original Oneness Sect.”

Ye Chuxiao shook his head. This change was beneficial to him.

In this way, the matter of his seal being destroyed was temporarily concealed.

As for why the official didn’t directly revoke the original seals and then issue new ones, it was clear that this official also knew that there were many hidden secrets in the dungeon.

Since a serious criminal was about to be imprisoned, it wasn’t appropriate to cause chaos among the clerks in the dungeon system.

Leaving some room for maneuver was better for everyone.

If they really investigated seriously, by the time all the secrets came to light, more than half of the dungeon guards would have to be imprisoned and dealt with.

That would truly cause the entire system to collapse and be unable to function.

“If I’m not mistaken, it should be Tang Sudong. I heard it from the criminal officials I manage.” A voice interjected from the side.

The speaker was a young prison guard who was short in stature but looked very clever.

His surname was Ma, and his given name was Shaokang. He was the only son of the late Captain Ma, and also the adopted son of the current head warden, Baitou Biao. He was responsible for managing visits and purchasing matters in Block A on the second floor of the dungeon, a lucrative position.

Most importantly, Block A on the second floor, which he managed, mainly held criminal officials who had committed offenses.

“Tang Sudong? Isn’t he the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites and Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince?” Zhao Liang said excitedly, his voice even a little ‘loud,’ attracting the attention of some surrounding prison guards.

“What if he’s the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites and Junior Tutor to the Crown Prince? He tried to reform the laws and offended too many people. An old scoundrel in my prison said that the Great Heng Dynasty has been established for a thousand years and is already riddled with problems. The more you do, the more mistakes you make, and the more people you offend, the worse it is for everyone. Officials should go with the flow and know how to play dumb.” Ma Shaokang said.