Defeat the system! Kiss my little monster!

Shen Yu approached and saw Ying Shiqi's figure. He was squatting on a boulder next to him and made a gesture when he saw Shen Yu.

Shen Yu nodded in acknowledgment. He had already changed into his bodyguard uniform before leaving the house, and now he wisely followed behind Ying Shiqi.

Shadow Seventeen jumped off the boulder. Shen Yu glanced at him, and Shadow Seventeen paused for a few seconds before resuming his normal pace.

"Your clothes... are Mu Yuyuan's?"

Ying Shiqi walked ahead with his hands behind his back. He walked with a sharp and imposing aura. At this moment, he deliberately straightened his body and revealed seven or eight parts of Mu Yuyuan's demeanor.

“How else can I fool those guards? I don’t have clothes of the finest quality like Commander Mu’s to disguise myself.” Shadow Seventeen adjusted his mask, his voice changing to sound similar to Mu Yuyuan’s as he spoke. “How about it?”

Shen Yu listened intently to his voice and said, "It sounds quite similar."

"That's fine then." Ying Shiqi walked ahead, and they turned two or three corners, heading towards the pond with a clear purpose.

Shen Yu sensed the guards watching from the gaps in the trees. He lowered his head and asked Ying Shiqi in a low voice, "How is Mu Yuyuan? You took his identity, he probably won't let this go."

“I knocked him unconscious, tied him up, and drugged him, but with his skill level, he should wake up within half an hour.” Shadow Seventeen kept his pace unchanged and emphasized, “We only have this much time at most. If we can’t rescue him by then, we’ll leave immediately and not risk our lives.”

"As long as we're alive, we can always make a comeback." Ying Shiqi was quite philosophical about it. "Don't you think so, little brother?"

Shen Yu: "..."

He didn't know why Ying Shiqi addressed him that way, and the man seemed mentally unstable. Shen Yu didn't ask any further questions. He hummed in response and continued to follow Ying Shiqi forward with his head down.

Upon reaching the edge of the pond, a group of guards emerged from the nearby dense forest. Shen Yu discreetly observed their attire, guessing that perhaps some members of the photography studio had infiltrated their ranks.

Ying Shiqi changed his tone and said, "By imperial decree, the criminal slaves in Tian Shu Pavilion will be interrogated again tonight, and the locks will be opened."

"Yes." Upon hearing this, the guards split into two lines and stepped aside.

Shadow Seventeen took two steps forward and walked to a stone bench built by the pond. He felt around the corner of the old stone bench for a moment and found a hidden protruding point.

Shadow Seventeen inserted the key, and with a click, a slight tremor emanated from the pond. Shen Yu remained standing behind Shadow Seventeen, glancing ahead out of the corner of his eye. He saw the water in the center of the pond crack open, and a thin bridge made of intertwined iron chains slowly emerged from within.

Shadow Seventeen pulled the key out again, walked onto the iron chain bridge, and headed straight for the pavilion in the center of the pond.

Shen Yu followed closely behind, stepping onto the iron chain bridge. After only a few steps, he felt the dampness and ruggedness of it. This so-called bridge was nothing more than three iron chains; without skill or with shallow martial arts, it would be difficult to cross it normally.

Shen Yu frowned slightly. He walked on the iron chain for nearly a minute, and after landing, he smelled the strong incense emanating from the attic.

The fragrance is rich and has a strong covering power. Mixed with the occasional scent of flowers and trees wafting from the pond, it perfectly masks the death and bloodshed within the prison.

"You stay here and keep watch. The rest of you come in with me." Shadow Seventeen gave the order to the guards at the bottom of the pavilion. After he finished speaking, he walked up the steps and led the guards behind him to the top of the pavilion.

The higher you go, the more murky the atmosphere inside the pavilion becomes. It's like sewage mixed with long-rotted dead things, a foul stench that constantly assaults your senses.

Shen Yu's expression remained unchanged. He walked through several floors and stopped at the top. The number of guards on the top floor was more than twice that of those on the lower floors. They stood motionless at the door, their dark eyes staring ahead.

Shadow Seventeen had anticipated this. He took out the token in his hand, which was engraved with the emperor's personal seal of passage: "Bring them all out."

The guards stepped aside upon seeing the token, and Shen Yu and Shadow Seventeen exchanged the password before entering the top-floor pavilion.

Inside the high-rise building was a hidden, gigantic prison, where all those convicted of serious crimes and sentenced to death within the Yue Kingdom were imprisoned. Xuan Lin had likely done this intentionally; he kept these death row inmates in the Kunning Palace, using their screams to threaten and intimidate Wen Yu.

Shen Yu walked through the cells and saw the iron hook and cross hanging in the innermost cell. A corpse, stained with blood, hung there. The executioner's guards were lowering the body and directing the others to take it away and throw it into the water.

Shen Yu's gaze slowly swept over the criminals slumped in their cells. Their prison uniforms were tattered, and the words "death row inmate" were etched on their foreheads. Their limbs, already festering and necrotic, hung limply on the straw. They leaned against the corners of the walls, barely alive, their hair dry and their lips cracked.

Seemingly hearing footsteps in the corridor, these people did not move, but their pupils moved like rusty machines.

Shen Yu's gaze swept over them, but he didn't linger for long before meeting the eyes of several people huddled in the corner.

In that fleeting moment of eye contact, Shen Yu froze. Those faces that he had long remembered as dead reappeared, no longer bright as before, their faces scarred and speechless, as if filled with molten iron.

Their faces and foreheads were all wrinkled and piled up. Although they were about the same age as Shen Yu, they looked hunched over and exhausted.

"Junior brother, let's go together!"

"Junior brother, want to go for a drink? Don't worry, I won't tell Master..."

"You'll only corrupt him! Lanyu, don't listen to your senior brother, he's just greedy... Drinking leads to trouble, don't try to fool our junior brother..."

Shen Yu could no longer remember the relatively peaceful days on Chengyuan Mountain in his previous life; what he could never forget were the disgusting things that were deeply etched in his mind.

Seeing them again now, Shen Yu could barely recall a bit of what his previous life was like.

How difficult it was. Two lifetimes apart, and Shen Yu died twice.

Shen Yu's Adam's apple bobbed. He looked away and said to the guards behind him, "Bring out all the death row inmates from Chengyuan Mountain and escort them to the new prison His Majesty has set up."

"Yes." The guards inside the pavilion received the order, unlocked the iron locks on the cell, and led the person inside out.

Shen Yu stood aside, watching these people stagger past him, and roughly counted the number of Chengyuan Mountain death row prisoners remaining in the pavilion.

There were only thirteen or fourteen people.

Shen Yu lowered his eyes and followed behind the group. As he approached, his gaze suddenly met that of one of the death row inmates.

The woman had dry, disheveled hair, and her eye sockets were cracked and bleeding. Perhaps due to a lack of treatment, the wounds had worsened, and even the whites of her eyes were oozing blood.

Shen Yu met her gaze silently, his eyes indifferent and devoid of emotion. The female prisoner stared at him for two or three seconds, then turned away, only to be forcefully pulled away by the guards behind her.