# 317
Chapter 317 – Asking for Death
Lin Qiye glided through the pitch-black night like a ghost. With the suppression of the Town-Ruining Stele weakened, every one of his Forbidden Ruins was unlocked again—Starlight Dancer included.
The open exercise yard was dead silent; virtually every inmate had charged toward the main gate. No one was foolish enough to push deeper into the Purification Chamber.
“…That is?”
His mental perception caught something. He stopped and looked toward a tear in the nearby Mindscape. Through the gap he could clearly see the stele standing inside, its surface now spider-webbed with cracks and three deep gouges. A few more blows and it would probably shatter completely.
So someone really did use a special method to open Master Chen’s Mindscape and managed to wreck the stele this badly. Granted, the monument’s only function is to suppress Forbidden Ruins, but the material itself is extremely hard; ordinary tools can’t even scratch it.
Which means the damage had to come from a relic?
Smuggling a relic into the Purification Chamber isn’t easy. Only special ones like An Qingyu’s Weird Silk—something that can merge with the body—stand a chance, and the relic that did this obviously isn’t in that category. Judging by the wounds, it’s large.
A large relic couldn’t have been brought in by a prisoner… so it was someone already working inside the Chamber?
A rat?
The moment he reached that conclusion his brows knitted, though it wasn’t really surprising. Without inside help, how could Great Xia’s most secure prison ever fall?
And the traitor had to be fairly high-ranking. From now on he’d have to watch every suspicious face twice.
Voices drifted over just then. Lin Qiye spread his perception and found four figures hugging a wall half-squatting, creeping forward like thieves.
One of them was an old “friend.”
“Why are they heading this way at a time like this?” he muttered. After a second’s thought he ghosted after them.
Corner ahead.
“Tell me, Han Jinlong, you sure we can get out through here?” a scrawny man in prison garb asked.
Han Jinlong snorted. “I said we can, so we can! That toilet’s sewer pipe goes straight to the sea. You shrink us with your Forbidden Ruins, Old Zhang smashes the barrier, and the current will flush us right out of the Purification Chamber. And show some respect—my name isn’t for the likes of you to toss around.”
“Respect? Heh-heh…” The skinny man sneered. “With the stele broken, any one of us three can squash a muscle-head like you. You still think you’re the boss? Couldn’t even beat two kids—pathetic.”
Han Jinlong’s face turned livid.
“Since we know the route, he’s useless deadweight,” the bearded man added, killing intent flickering in his eyes.
“Without me you’ll never make it,” Han Jinlong said, forcing calm. “The drainage system here is a maze—one wrong turn and you’ll rot inside.”
The skinny man, the beard, and Old Zhang exchanged glances and gave dry laughs.
“Just kidding, don’t be so uptight. Can’t take a joke?” The beard slapped Han’s shoulder.
Suddenly the beard stiffened, sensing something, and whipped his head toward a patch of darkness, fierce light in his eyes.
“Someone’s there!”
Old Zhang’s expression changed; he swung his hand and a huge sky-blue barrier-palm smashed into the shadows.
Pop!
The palm was shredded by the night and dissolved.
Out of the gloom a youth stepped, calm eyes filmed with shadow, the darkness around him seeming to deepen.
“You!” Han Jinlong’s eyes ignited, teeth clenched.
Lin Qiye swept his gaze over the three and said indifferently, “Whatever you’re planning, I don’t care. I’m just passing through.”
Passing through?
None of them believed it.
“Forbidden Ruins are back and you dare show up in front of me?” Han Jinlong glared venom, longing to flay the boy alive.
His right arm crippled, his throne lost, reduced to a stray dog—because of this kid!
Before the stele failed he hadn’t dared provoke him; somehow the brat could still use Ruins inside. But now everyone could—what difference?
A twenty-year-old—how high could his realm be?
Lin Qiye spared him one glance, as though he were air, turned and walked toward the cell blocks.
The beard, Old Zhang and the skinny man watched his back, hesitating but not moving. In this chaos the smart play was live-and-let-live: escape on your own, don’t invite trouble.
Han Jinlong, seeing the retreating figure, thought the boy feared him. A vicious grin curled his lips. “Changed my mind. Want me to guide you out? Kill that kid first.”
The three’s faces darkened. “Han Jinlong, don’t push it!”
He pointed at Lin Qiye’s back, voice cold: “I mean it. Help me kill him or nobody leaves.”
Seeing he was serious, the three frowned, glanced at Lin Qiye, eyes turning hostile.
They hated being ordered, but without Han the plan collapsed…
So…
Just then the departing Lin Qiye stopped.
He looked back at Han Jinlong, eyes narrowing, black irises glinting with killing intent.
“I’ve changed my mind too…
Since you’re begging for death, I’ll oblige.”