Chapter 1 A Casual Ending

The matter concluded more casually than Ye Chuxiao had anticipated.

The prisoner's jailbreak was classified as an escape.

The jailers swiftly recaptured the prisoner, a testament to the leadership of the Ministry of Justice officials.

Since there were no losses, no one pursued the matter relentlessly.

As for the deeper 'secrets' that could be unearthed, they became a tacit understanding, a shared reluctance to delve too deep.

The only ones who suffered were the jailers of the third level, B district.

They were collectively fined a month's salary.

The swill bucket used to serve food to the prisoners in the third level, B district, contained even less edible food; even the dogs turned their noses up at it.

In the end, the prisoners with some wealth bore the brunt of it.

A closed loop in which no one truly suffered seemed to have been simply achieved.

After the usual three days of morning duty, Ye Chuxiao was rotated to two days of rest.

This was Li Bantou's attempt to curry favor.

The recapture of the Yuan Zhi Cult heretic allowed Li Bantou to realize that Ye Chuxiao was not to be trifled with. Unable to kill him outright, he could only try to mend their relationship.

Although Li Bantou was a jailer foreman, he did not have absolute power over the jailers under him.

On the contrary, he needed the jailers under him to give him face and follow his orders.

The reason he was able to drive Ye Chuxiao's predecessor to a dead end was more due to leveraging power than having such great authority and prestige himself.

Ye Chuxiao, being new and without a firm footing, feigned acceptance after extorting one hundred taels of silver from Li Bantou, acting as if the previous conflict had never occurred.

Everyone achieved a superficial reconciliation. Li Bantou remained the head of the third level, B district, and Ye Chuxiao remained the diligent jailer, delivering food. Everyone had a bright future.

Changing into a clean but often-washed, slightly faded, Hu-style outfit, Ye Chuxiao finally walked out of the Ministry of Justice's dungeon and felt the long-lost sunlight.

Looking up, multiple rainbows hung in the sky, appearing particularly magnificent.

Unknowingly, warm spring had arrived. The ice and snow on the towering Yao Mountain had begun to thaw and melt. The abundant, rushing water flowed to the mountainside, where an invisible force divided it into countless thin streams, scattering them, in varying amounts, into the magnificent, sacred city at the foot of the mountain. The sunlight followed the water, refracting into a colorful rainbow, evenly illuminating the snow-white city walls and vermilion pavilions.

The rainbow that Ye Chuxiao saw was the refraction of light as the snowmelt was evenly distributed.

Looking at the rainbow in the sky, even the rotten, foul smell clinging to him seemed to dissipate somewhat.

After verifying his identity three times at the exit of the Ministry of Justice dungeon, he finally managed to leave the yamen and walk through Dingxing Gate to Changsheng Street.

The blurry scenes in his body's memory suddenly became clear and vivid.

Weaving through the bustling crowd, Ye Chuxiao finally felt a sense of being grounded.

"So, I really did transmigrate!" Looking at the passersby around him, Ye Chuxiao patted his cheeks and cheered himself up.

"The danger hasn't been lifted."

"There are still three challenges I need to overcome."

"First, I'm not the original Ye Chuxiao. The jailer colleagues in the dungeon can't tell the difference, but that doesn't mean the original's younger siblings can't. The Daheng Dynasty has a special Demon Suppression Division dedicated to killing alien ghosts and demons. Demonic possession has many precedents. I can't guarantee that my younger siblings won't report me to the Demon Suppression Division if they notice something amiss."

"Second, my seal has been destroyed. Even though I've secretly collected most of the scattered fragments these past few days, using the opportunity to 'connect with' jailers from other districts, I still can't explain why my seal was destroyed, so I can't reapply for a new seal and cancel the old seal record."

"Finally, there's the trouble left behind by the original Ye Chuxiao. Whether he was manipulated or truly joined the Yuan Zhi Cult and became a heretic, if the mission wasn't completed, will the Yuan Zhi Cult heretics still be lying in wait for me somewhere?"

Thinking of these three immediate problems concerning his life and safety, Ye Chuxiao felt a headache coming on.

In addition to these three pressing issues of life and death, Ye Chuxiao also needed to find answers to his questions about Dao rhythm.

After wandering around the East Market for several hours and spending most of the one hundred taels he had extorted from Li Bantou, Ye Chuxiao finally boarded a public carriage and returned to his home in Xiuhua Ward. No matter what, if he wanted to truly settle down in this world with his current identity, he had to actively face the problems.

He would start with the simplest problem first.

The Daheng Divine Capital implemented curfew. Dusk had fallen, and the urgent closing drum sounded from the corner tower.

Before the six hundred closing drumbeats were finished, anyone without imperial orders or an official title would be captured by the City Defense Division.

In the past, being caught meant imprisonment, but now it was more lenient. Those with money could pay a fine, while those without money would be beaten with a board.

Following his memory, he skillfully found his home in Xiuhua Ward, and knocked on the copper animal ring on the door. After a few breaths, the peeling door was opened a crack.

A little girl with twin buns and a round head cautiously poked half of her head out. Seeing that it was Ye Chuxiao, she seemed to relax slightly.

"Big brother!" the little girl exclaimed happily.

Ye Chuxiao's face darkened: "Chu Yu, I remember telling you not to open the door so casually. You have to ask who's there through the door first, and decide whether to open the door after hearing clearly. Also... it's best to let Chu Qi do things like this."

"That's right! Where's your second brother?"

Ye Chuxiao's strictness seemed very natural.

The little girl, Ye Chuyu, revealed a timid expression, opened the door to let Ye Chuxiao in, and then quickly turned around and said, "Second brother went to Mengxue, he hasn't returned yet."

Ye Chuxiao's face darkened even more: "The closing drums have already sounded, and he still hasn't returned? He's probably out drinking with his classmates again!"

Ye Chuxiao's younger brother, Ye Chuqi, although only fourteen years old, was already a wine prodigy.

Since he started drinking at the age of eight, he had become addicted to alcohol, and had tasted all the lower-priced wines available on the market.

He often stole the silver that his older brother Ye Chuxiao had hidden away to buy wine, and his younger sister Ye Chuyu's pocket money was also often plundered.

There were many cultivation Mengxue in the Divine Capital.

Those with some family wealth would send their children to the various Mengxue to learn the basics of cultivation and determine the future mainstream direction of their cultivation.

Mengxue not only taught literary and martial arts, but more importantly, taught students to identify acupoints and meridians, learn various complex Taoist arts and basic hand seals, and understand many special terms used in cultivation, and so on.

Only by knowing these basic cultivation knowledge could one truly know how to start cultivating, refine one's aura, and temper one's body.

Otherwise, without enough basic knowledge, even if one were given a divine cultivation manual, one would not know where to start, and cultivating until Qi Deviation would be a certainty.

And this was also the special convenience that only existed in the Divine Capital.

Outside the Divine Capital, the children of ordinary families who wanted to cultivate could only sell themselves to wealthy families, or if they had good aptitude and luck, they could become disciples of a certain cultivation sect.

Few could become self-taught.