Honghuang: My understanding is beyond belief. I am the first immortal of Jiejiao.

These things are good, but taking them for a long time can get quite boring.

Upon hearing this, Sun Wukong's ears immediately perked up.

"Oh? There are other foods?"

Lin Zhu's lips curled up slightly, and a rare, almost earthy light flashed in his eyes. His tone also became a little more lively.

"Occasionally, we'll improve the food. For example, some time ago, a wicked dragon violated the heavenly rules and was beheaded at the Execution Platform. Its body was enormous, and its flesh and blood contained essence, so it was a pity to discard it."

The cooks in the Heavenly Prison would select the tenderest and firmest dragon belly meat, process it using a secret method, coat it with specially made spirit wheat breadcrumbs, and deep-fry it in celestial oil controlled by Samadhi True Fire until the outside was golden and crispy, while the inside was juicy and filled with celestial energy. When it came out of the fryer, the aroma could be carried for miles; even ordinary immortals would drool at the smell.

His description wasn't particularly exaggerated, but the words "coated in breadcrumbs" and "fried until golden brown," combined with the fact that dragon meat is already rare, created a strange and tempting image.

Sun Wukong's mouth was practically watering as he listened, his eyes widened like copper bells, his Adam's apple bobbed, and he kept asking questions.

"Dragon meat? Fried? Gulp... When will it be available again? Can I, Old Sun, have a taste?"

Seeing the monkey instantly cast aside all its worries and emotions, leaving only the purest desire for food, Lin Zhu's smile deepened, but he deliberately kept it a secret.

"That depends on whether there are any other unruly dragons or other 'ingredients' that run into us. Alright, Great Sage, you should stay here and rest and recuperate. I will handle the matters outside."

Having said that, he didn't linger any longer and turned to leave the cell, leaving Sun Wukong inside. While savoring the taste of the imperial wine and elixir, he also dreamed of the legendary "fried dragon ribs," scratching his head and cheeks, and began to feel a strange anticipation for this "prison" life.

Sun Wukong was left alone in the spacious and bright Class A cell. After the initial excitement and emotion subsided, his restless nature began to surface. He thoroughly explored the cell, inside and out, even checking the corners and cracks in the bricks, confirming that this "cell," apart from its protective barriers separating the inside from the outside and its exceptional sturdiness, was even more comfortable than some of his caves on Flower Fruit Mountain.

Contrary to expectations, the place was not cold, damp, or filled with rusty torture instruments, nor were there any menacing jailers. Instead, it was clean, dry, and full of spiritual energy, with even sunshine to bask in.

"Hehe, this place isn't too bad, except for the fact that you can't just wander around freely."

Sun Wukong scratched his cheek, his golden eyes darting around.

"This is a hundred times better than the living quarters we were in back then at Tianma Prison and Pantaoyuan! I wonder what the other 'fellow inmates' are like?"

As he was pondering this, he suddenly heard a commotion of laughter and chatter coming from the spacious passageway outside, as if quite a few people were walking in his direction.

The voices were loud and clear, full of energy, and there was more than one of them, with some familiar yet unfamiliar accents mixed in.

"Haha, Brother Niu, you lost that round yesterday. You can't go back on your word about the three jars of imperial wine!"

"Bullshit! It was clearly you, Black Bear, who cheated, secretly using your magic to neutralize the alcohol fumes. Did you think I didn't see it?"

"Brothers, please don't argue. It's just a few jars of wine. I just received my monthly 'cultivation allowance,' which includes ten jars of 'Jade Pool Spring.' I'll share a few jars with you."

"Oh my, Brother Peng is so generous! But you should keep that 'subsidy' for your cultivation. I just won a few 'Ten Thousand Year Yellow Essence Pills' at the wrestling arena a few days ago, which is more than enough to cover the cost of drinks!"

As they spoke, several figures arrived at the passageway outside Sun Wukong's prison. Sun Wukong curiously peered out from the doorway, and what he saw made his monkey eyes widen and his jaw almost drop.

The first person in the group was tall and handsome with a hint of arrogance. He had a bright red divine mark on his forehead, was wrapped in a Hun Tian Ling (a magical ribbon), rode on the phantom of the Wind and Fire Wheels, and carried a Fire-tipped Spear. Who else could it be but Nezha, the Great God of the Three Altars and Seas?
At this moment, Nezha exuded an aura as deep and vast as the sea, far surpassing the young war god in Sun Wukong's memory who had fought him to a standstill by more than ten or a hundred times! The subtle pressure he exuded even made Sun Wukong, who had just advanced to the Great Luo realm, feel a chill in his heart—this was clearly a sign that he had stepped into the half-step Quasi-Saint level!
"Nezha?!"

Sun Wukong blurted out, his voice filled with disbelief.

Nezha was chatting and laughing with a giant man with golden eyes who was twelve feet tall, had two horns on his head, and muscles that were as bulging as a dragon. When he heard this, he turned his head and was stunned when he saw the hairy face of the Thunder God behind the light membrane. Then his eyes burst with surprise and curiosity.

"Sun Wukong? It really is you, you monkey! How did you get in here? And...tsk, that aura, you've reached the Great Luo realm? Not bad!"

Before Sun Wukong could reply, his gaze was drawn to the "fellow prisoners" around Nezha.

Besides the giant man with golden eyes and bull horns, there was a burly man who was eight feet tall, with a face as black as iron and broad shoulders and a thick waist; a lean young man with sharp eyes like an eagle and a shadowy black wing on his back; and two or three other figures with different appearances, but without exception, all exuding a powerful aura that made people take notice.

What shocked Sun Wukong was that these people, including the dark-faced strongman and the winged youth, all exuded magical power that had reached the level of a Great Luo Golden Immortal! Moreover, judging from their friendly and uninhibited conversation with Nezha, they were clearly old acquaintances and equals.

'How... how come so many demon kings and powerful beings at the level of Great Luo Golden Immortals are imprisoned in this nine-layered heavenly prison?' Sun Wukong's heart was filled with shock and disbelief.

Great Luo Golden Immortals, in any realm below, would be capable of founding a sect, becoming emperors and ancestral figures—rarely seen in ordinary times. Yet here they were, clustered together in the depths of the Heavenly Prison, and seemingly...getting along quite well? Perhaps even...forgotten to return home?

What happened next almost made his eyes pop out of their sockets.

A great demon, dressed in brocade robes, with a white face and no beard, who looked like some kind of mink in human form, slowly emerged from a cell next door. His cultivation level was around the peak of the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm.

The demon king was toying with a short halberd that shone with cold light and was covered with runes. The spiritual pressure emanating from the halberd had reached the peak of a top-grade spiritual weapon and was only a step away from being a true acquired spiritual treasure!
As the demon king walked, he took out a jade bottle from his robes, poured out a few elixirs the size of longan, shimmering with crimson light and whose fragrance instantly filled half the passage, and threw them into his mouth without even looking at them. He crunched them with relish, his satisfied expression as if he were eating candy.

Sun Wukong twitched his nose. He had stolen and eaten many of Laozi's pills in the past, and he could tell at a glance that the quality and spiritual energy contained in that elixir were far superior to those made by ordinary children in the Tushita Palace, and even approached some of the most treasured ones!

"This……"

Sun Wukong felt his understanding of the world had been utterly shattered. A Taiyi Golden Immortal, wielding a near-spiritual treasure weapon, eating high-grade elixirs like candy? This wasn't imprisonment; it was clearly a vacation for further study!
The passing jailers, seeing Sun Wukong's dumbfounded and astonished appearance, exchanged glances, shook their heads, and showed a helpless expression on their faces, as if to say, "Another country bumpkin who's never seen the world has arrived."

They deliberately slowed their pace and whispered, but the volume was just enough for Sun Wukong to hear clearly. "Hey, look at this newcomer, he's obviously just 'coming up the mountain' and hasn't seen the 'hard life' in our Heavenly Prison."

A chubby jailer sighed, weighing a juicy, nine-thousand-year-old peach in his hand, radiating rich innate wood essence, his face full of "worry".

"This month's allowance included a basket of nine-thousand-year-old peaches, accompanied by ordinary thousand-year-old imperial wine."

I've been eating this for five days straight, and I'm almost tired of it. I'm really worried it'll run out of stock.

A tall, thin jailer next to him nodded in agreement, took out a small cloth bag from his pocket, opened it, and found dozens of golden pills, their medicinal power solidified as if they were real.

"Who says otherwise! I'm even worse off. I got an excellent rating in last year's year-end assessment, and the prize was these dozens of 'Ten Thousand Year Cultivation Pills.' They say they can replace ten thousand years of hard cultivation, but the taste is like dregs of medicine. I almost threw up after eating them. I had no choice but to share them with the Bull Demon King and the Black Bear Spirit yesterday, since they were short of snacks anyway."

Another jailer chimed in, his tone even more indignant.

"What's that compared to what you guys have! I have a brother who used to work as a furnace attendant in the Tushita Palace. He worked hard for over a thousand years, and the merits and elixirs he accumulated weren't even enough to cover a fraction of the 'cultivation allowance' our brothers in the Heavenly Prison receive for three days! After hearing about our situation here, he insisted on coming to interview for a prison guard position yesterday, saying he'd even do cleaning! I couldn't stop him!"

The fat jailer who spoke first patted his companion on the shoulder and gave a "sad" summary.

"Sigh, try to understand, brother. Who told us that our Nine-Story Heavenly Prison is the poorest unit in the Three Realms? It's a clean and honest government office, so poor that it can barely make ends meet and allow us to cultivate."

Look at that Emperor Zhaosheng, he comes here all the time, supposedly for inspection, but eight out of ten times he just stays and doesn't leave. Isn't it because he's greedy for our simple food? We can only laugh at ourselves; there's probably no one else in the Three Realms poorer than us.”

Sun Wukong.

"..."

He blinked, then blinked hard again. Looking at the disdained nine-thousand-year peach, hearing about the ten-thousand-year cultivation pill being devoured as a snack, and recalling the contrast between "a thousand-year salary in the Tushita Palace equaling a day's allowance in the Heavenly Prison," and the "poverty" that even the Great Emperor refused to leave… even if he were incredibly straightforward, he could now hear the overwhelming, almost overflowing, blatant boasting and Versailles-like sentiment in those words!
'Five hundred years...only five hundred years!' Sun Wukong screamed inwardly, 'The changes in the Three Realms are happening way too fast! The Heavenly Prison...has it become this powerful?!'

If I had known that causing havoc in the Heavenly Palace would result in this kind of treatment, I, Old Sun, wouldn't have bothered fighting in the Lingxiao Palace at all. I would have just committed some crime somewhere, turned myself in, and applied to be imprisoned, wouldn't that have been the end of it?!

He suddenly felt that his former title of "Great Sage Equal to Heaven" seemed to pale in comparison to his current impoverished life in the prison.

Sun Wukong's lively thoughts and shocked expression naturally caught the attention of someone in the distance.

Lin Zhu had finished his work at some point and was leaning against the wall at the other end of the passage, holding a purple-gold gourd with an antique shape in his hand.

He uncorked the gourd, tilted his head back, and gulped down the liquid inside.

The liquid had an indescribable, brilliant golden color, as if it contained the ultimate truths of heaven and earth and immeasurable merits. Even from a distance, Sun Wukong could feel the allure emanating from it that reached the depths of his soul. It was an aura that had an unparalleled attraction to the origin of life and the cultivation of the Great Dao.

Just by catching a whiff of the lingering scent, Sun Wukong felt a barely perceptible loosening and yearning in his newly solidified Great Luo realm!
"Gudong."

Sun Wukong couldn't help but swallow hard, staring longingly at the empty gourd in Lin Zhu's hand, and couldn't help but ask.

"Brother Prison God, what kind of treasure are you drinking...? It smells... so intoxicating!"

Lin Zhu casually put away the empty gourd, smacked his lips, and a look of dissatisfaction appeared on his face.

"The Merit Water. As for the taste... it's just so-so, nothing special, like drinking some kind of golden light."

"Merit... Merit Water?!"

Sun Wukong's voice suddenly rose, almost cracking.

He had heard of this thing's great reputation! Legend has it that it was a supreme treasure formed in the Eight Treasures Merit Pool of Mount Ling in the Western Paradise, condensed over countless years by gathering immeasurable faith and merit! A single drop was enough to make mortals instantly become immortals, and allow true immortals to break through their bottlenecks, containing the wondrous power to seize the creation of heaven and earth!
Its rarity surpasses even the Nine-Turn Golden Elixir and the Immortal Peach Root! It is a sacred object that many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas cannot obtain!

But what did he see now? Lin Zhu was actually holding a gourd and chugging it down like it was water?! A whole gourd?! How many drops must that be? Hundreds? Thousands?

Sun Wukong felt his heart pounding, and he asked in a trembling voice.

"Brother...Brother Prison God, the treatment in this...heavenly prison is...is it really this...this good? Even the merit water is plentiful?"

Lin Zhu glanced at him, her gaze as if she were looking at a delusional fool, and he casually waved her hand.

“What are you thinking about? This thing is extremely rare. I’ve been lucky this year, running around handling several major cases, and I’ve painstakingly accumulated a few hundred thousand merits, which I barely managed to exchange for some. Now, I’m about to receive another ‘income’, so I need to use it quickly. I’m in a hurry.”

His tone was calm, but the words "tens of thousands of merits", "barely exchanged for a little", and "immediate income" still struck Sun Wukong's heart like a heavy hammer.

He understood that this thing seemed to be an important cultivation resource for Lin Zhu, and it was hard to come by. But judging from the other party's "eager to use it up" attitude, the stock was obviously not as tight as he had imagined.

Before Sun Wukong could recover from the shock of "drinking the Divine Water of Merit from the gourd," he saw Lin Zhu pause slightly after saying "I'm anxious." Then, an indescribable, profound aura, like a sleeping dragon awakening, surged out from his body!

It wasn't a violent energy surge, but rather a deeper, more profound sublimation and perfection concerning the essence of life and the understanding of the Great Dao. The light within the passage seemed to distort slightly as this aura spread, and the free-floating spiritual energy in the air spontaneously converged towards the bamboo grove, forming tiny vortices. (End of Chapter)