Returning from the Immortal World

Tang Xiu stayed in the prison and met with the inmates for three days. After learning the situation, he finally made up a list of 100 prisoners. Considering Yuan Ye’s request, however, he finally decided to pick some more. His action of 100 prisoners was large already, so picking up 100 or 200 people out of the 1000-2000 prisoners was not much more.

He chose the next batch of people much faster and finally finished the list of 200 prisoners on his fifth day in the prison.

Inside cell no. 18, Tang Xiu read the list in his hand. Then, he looked up to look at Old Anji, Emily, Kathu, Saptanshu. His vision then finally landed on Zhang Xiaohua as he lightly asked, “Have you thought deeply about going back with me?”

Zhang Xioahua was still wearing his previous undisturbed and indifferent expression. Even after he learned that Tang Xiu was going to purchase prisoners from this prison, he was just a bit surprised. He gently raised his hand to hold onto his glasses and calmly said, “There’s not much of a difference between staying here and going out for me, so why should I go out now that I’m used to living here?”

After staying silent for a short while, Tang Xiu shook his head and said, “It’s a pity that your heart has already died even though you’re still young. I won’t force you since you don’t want to go out.”

Zhang Xiaohua spoke no longer, and his eyes fell back on the books he was holding.

Saptanshu wore a scornful look and shouted, “His brain seems to have broken, Boss. He can no longer enjoy the myriad temptations of the bustling outside world. He’s a fool to stay and suffer here.”

A chill gleam flashed in Zhang Xiaohua’s eyes. A white light suddenly flashed out of his index finger and pierced Saptanshu’s right shoulder in a flash.

“Aaargh, shit… My arm!”

Saptanshu screamed and covered his right shoulder with his left arm. He clearly felt that he could no longer lift his arm the moment he got pierced, nor could he feel the whole arm.

Tang Xiu’s eyes sparkled as he could sense a fluctuation of True Essence from Zhang Xiaohua for a fleeting moment.

He’s a cultivator?

Tang Xiu squinted and quickly grabbed Saptanshu’s right arm. As his fingers moved, a thin silver needle was shot out from the guy’s right arm and was caught between Tang Xiu’s fingers.

“You’re a Daoist cultivator, aren’t you?”

With a look of surprise, Zhang Xiaohua immediately smiled and said, “I didn’t realize that since you’re also from China, you should be a cultivator yourself as you were able to make Spectre submit to you.”

Tang Xiu’s feet moved in a flash and he instantly appeared in front of Zhang Xiaohua. His fingers suddenly extended out toward the guy and the two men exchanged dozens of blows in an instant.

“Don’t move!”

Tang Xiu growled and finally sealed Zhang Xiaohua’s arms with his fingers pressed on this guy’s shoulders, but he looked surprised after his primal chaos force surged into Zhang Xiaohua’s body.

“The Glazed Golden Physique, and you’re also a half-step Golden Core?” exclaimed Tang Xiu with a dignified look as he released Zhang Xiaohua’s arms.

Zhang Xiaohua’s face suddenly changed. The moment he was able to move again, his figure instantly jumped back over seven meters. With his back against the wall, he stared at Tang Xiu, “Who the hell are you? How can you see through my physique and strength?”

“I once met a guy with a Glazed Golden Physique before. A pity that this fellow died by the hands of a terrifying person when he had not yet grown up. Your cultivation, however, is nothing but a joke in my eyes, even though you’re only a step away from breaking through to the Golden Core,” said Tang Xiu.

As he finished his speech, a jade bottle appeared in Tang Xiu’s hand out of thin air. He let out a pale smile and said, “This is a Neonate Rupturing Pill I’ve refined in passing—the best auxiliary medicine to break through from the stage of Nascent Soul to the stage of Soul Formation. If you’re willing to submit and leave this place to work under me in the future, you can have this Neonate Rupturing Pill.”

Zhang Xiaohua was struck dumb with amazement, eyes staring at the jade bottle and body slightly trembling. He hadn’t even reached the Golden Core stage, let alone the Nascent Soul and the Soul Formation stage. Yet, the appearance of the Neonate Rupturing Pill still caused a huge wave in his heart.

“Who exactly are you?” Zhang Xiaohua was hardly able to remove his eyes from the jade bottle and looked at Tang Xiu again.

“Never mind who I am. At least, you don’t need to know that for now.” Tang Xiu smiled and said, “All you need to know is if you follow me, you can easily break through in your cultivation in the future, no matter if it’s the Golden Core, Nascent Soul, or Soul Formation stages. You can even get to the extent that you can turn feathers into wings that will make you ascend to the heavens—that is, if you have such an aptitude.”

“Ascending to heaven and become immortal?” exclaimed Zhang Xiaohua in shock. He then shouted, “That’s impossible! Who on Earth can ascend to heaven and become immortal nowadays? I don’t think there’s any cultivator who has reached Nascent Soul stage, no?”

“That’s because you’re ignorant,” sneered Tang Xiu. “I don’t know which school of teachings you hailed from, but I can tell you one thing clearly. There’s nothing impossible in this world for me, Tang Xiu.”

“…Huff… huff…”

Zhang Xiaohua’s breathing turned a lot shorter while countless thoughts swirled inside his head. He had nothing to be concerned about after getting dispirited by the death of his last loved one. Yet, the words that Tang Xiu said shed a new light for him—a sliver of hope that he could progress further.

After a long while, he took a deep breath and asked in a deep voice, “One last question. What are you buying so many prisoners for?”

“To build an army of cultivators,” answered Tang Xiu.

“Hiss…”

Despite having a firm and tenacious mind, Zhang Xiaohua was still shocked and frightened by Tang Xiu’s answer. Forming an army of cultivators? Was this a big joke or something? It was already extremely difficult for a cultivator to reach a decent level of cultivation. Just how many resources would there need to be to form an army of cultivators? Even if all the resources on the whole Earth were added up, would it be enough to be used by all members of this army of cultivators? He thought this was a big NO.

“I’m going with you.” Zhang Xiaohua spoke his piece and his whole being immediately relaxed.

Tang Xiu paced forward a few steps and then said in a deep voice, “I will have to control your life starting today if you choose to follow me. But I can give you a chance to regain your freedom. That is if your cultivation reaches the Perfected Golden Immortal stage.”

“Perfected Golden Immortal?” Zhang Xiaohua shook his head and mocked himself.

Perfected Golden Immortal was nothing but an existence in myths—something impossible to achieve in the present piece of the plane that was Earth. Having such an agreement with this future Boss of his simply felt like a comedy.

****

Late at night, the electric iron gate of labor camp 1319 slowly opened as two bulletproof SUVs headed out of the interior. Tang Xiu, dressed in a prison guard uniform, was sitting in the back seat of the second car with the prison’s Vice-Warden, Sander, next to him.

“Have you arranged everything?” asked Sander, who was feeling restless inside, as he turned to look at Tang Xiu.

“Don’t worry! I think Spectre, Jin Sha, and Xue Sha are enough to deal with the ability users around Augustino.” Tang Xiu nodded and said with a pale smile, “They should be able to drag him out within half an hour. Though I don’t feel that relieved with the people you’ve assigned to bring those inmates outside smoothly.”

“All the forged documents have been stamped with Augustino’s signatures, be it a private or official seal,” said Sander categorically. “Even the other powerful figures in the labor camp won’t dare to obstruct them. Once we get the news that Augustino has been lured outside of labor camp 1319, my men will immediately bring out those 200 convicts. But about the money…”

Tang Xiu hooked his index finger and said, “Give me the notebook.”

Sander handed over the laptop he had prepared to Tang Xiu. After booting it up, he clicked the transfer software and said, “I already gave you my account number. You can take all those men inside once I receive the money.”

Tang Xiu smiled in response and quickly inputted his account number and transferred 400 million dollars to Sander’s Swiss bank account. After the transfer was successful, he shut the notebook down and said, “The money has been transferred to your account. You can check it now.”

Sander made a phone call and received a confirmation that the money had been transferred to his account. He immediately nodded with satisfaction and said, “Working with you is great and enjoyable. Anyways, you haven’t yet dealt with Augustino’s issue, yet you still transferred the money to me. Are you not afraid of any incidents happening?”

“Do you even dare to covet my money?” asked Tang Xiu with a smile.

Sander shuddered inside. He immediately shook his head and answered, “I don’t. And that’s the truth.”

“Relax. Augustino is just a nobody in my opinion.” Tang Xiu smiled and continued, “We have had good cooperation this time, so I’m sure that we’ll have many opportunities to have more dealings in the future. At the very least, your prison has a lot of deaths every year, right? If you take better care of those convicts and reduce the number of irregular and abnormal deaths, that number will be the basis of deals later.”

“I understand,” said Sander without hesitation.

****

Labor camp 1319, Warden’s lounge.

Augustino had already fallen asleep while his loyal ability users were quietly falling in drowsiness outside the door. There were also two of his most trusted confidants standing nearby, standing guard with guns in their hands.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Blood-red light suddenly appeared as two black shadows wrapped around the necks of the two strong men and soundlessly reaped their lives. In the next moment, two resplendent swords tore open the dark space and instantly appeared to pierce those men’s eyebrows and throats.

“Enemy?”

The ability user’s face greatly changed. But at the moment that his figure flashed to the side to escape, a big hand grabbed his neck as though it was a steel pincer. Even a blade of wind hovered and revolved around him.

“Who are you?”

Spectre grinned imposingly, but didn’t answer his question as he directly sliced his neck. As he threw the body to Jin Shi who swiftly caught up with him, the door was easily cut by the wind blade.