Immortality begins with exchanging talent attributes.

Zhou Yan's mind flashed back to the scene the night before: entering the cell, touching the serious offender, exchanging entries, and cleaning up the traces.

He believed he had cleaned it thoroughly, and he had checked it again last night, so there shouldn't be any problems.

But those were, after all, the Black-Clad Guards.

Who knows what tricks these people have up their sleeves?

Prison warden Liu quickly said from the side:

"Rest assured, sir, that serious criminal has been kept in the deepest part of the death row, and none of us have touched him."

The man in black didn't reply, but instead looked at another colleague behind him.

"Go get it tested."

"Yes."

Another man in black clasped his hands slightly, then turned and walked towards the death row.

Liu, the jailer, changed his expression slightly, and the atmosphere in the torture chamber suddenly became oppressive.

  

No one spoke.

Zhou Yan stood in the crowd, outwardly calm, but his heart was pounding in his throat.

He tried to keep his breathing steady.

Don't panic.

In times like these, it's crucial not to panic.

If he were truly discovered, even if he had mastered the Body Tempering Technique to perfection and possessed the [Copper Skin and Iron Bones], there would be absolutely no way he could escape from these people.

Should we force our way in head-on?

That's not courage, that's courting death.

A moment later, a series of hurried footsteps came from the depths of the passageway.

The man in black who had just left returned to the torture chamber.

His expression was much colder than when he went in.

"grown ups."

He walked to the woman in black and whispered:

"The person is dead."

The sound wasn't loud.

But in this deathly quiet torture chamber, the sound clearly reached everyone's ears.

The person is dead?

The expressions of everyone in the torture chamber changed.

Prisoner Liu's entire fat face froze.

"Dead...dead? This..."

"How did he die?"

The woman in black finally spoke.

The voice was cold and clear, like a winter wind, making the temperature in the entire torture chamber seem to drop several degrees.

The man in black robes who returned said in a deep voice:

"The body was not yet stiff, so the time of death should be between this afternoon and evening."

Although the external injuries were severe, they were not enough to kill him immediately, and there were no obvious signs of poisoning on his body.

His qi and blood were severely depleted, as if something had forcibly drained his life force.

He paused here, then continued:

"Moreover, the security markings in the cell had been tampered with, but the door bolt was intact, clearly indicating that someone had unlocked the door and entered."

As soon as those words were spoken, the color drained from Liu the jailer's face.

Zhou Yan's heart sank as well.

Secret mark?

There were hidden marks in that cell?

He was so focused on making sure there were no footprints or bloodstains around that he didn't even notice this thing.

No.

Perhaps he noticed, but simply didn't recognize him.

Damn.

Zhou Yan showed no outward sign of distress, but his heart had already grown cold.

The woman in black did not immediately become angry; she simply looked at Liu the jailer without saying a word.

Beads of sweat were already forming on Liu Laotou's forehead. When he saw the other man's gaze directed his way, he trembled and immediately turned around, shouting angrily:

"All on-duty jailers, who have approached the death row, outer prison, or the corpse-dragging hole, step forward!"

A commotion immediately broke out in the torture chamber.

Before long, a dozen or so people, including Zhou Yan, emerged from the crowd.

Zhu Asan was among them.

There were also Li Mazi, Xiao Liuzi, and several official prison guards whose names Zhou Yan couldn't recall.

Liu, the jailer, glanced at the faces of the men, then turned to the woman in black, bowed, clasped his hands in a fist salute, and said in a trembling voice:

"These are the guards on duty for the next two nights. If needed, I will immediately send someone to find all the guards on the day shift."

"No! No one is allowed to leave the county jail now!"

Under the firelight, the black-clad guard with the "Cold Noodle Iron Hand" suddenly spoke.

He took two steps forward and whispered something in the woman's ear.

The woman nodded slightly.

Then he turned to Zhou Yan and the others. His face, partially obscured by his hood, appeared somewhat sinister. He spoke in a low voice:

"I ask you, has any of you ever been inside that cell?"

Everyone looked at each other, but no one said anything.

Zhou Yan also looked puzzled, glancing around as if none of this concerned him.

However, upon closer inspection, he noticed something was amiss.

Sun Dian, however, was not among the crowd.

But he clearly saw the other person walk out of the death row cell, so why didn't he step forward?

Something's fishy.

Just as Zhou Yan was hesitating about whether or not to report it, the black-clad guard, seeing that no one had stepped forward, slightly turned his head and chuckled softly:

"Very well! Then don't blame me."

After saying that, he reached for his waist with his left hand, and two streaks of silver light appeared in his hand.

Zhou Yan looked closely and saw that they were two silver needles, each about three inches long.

He walked up to the first person on his left, his tone icy.

"My interrogation needle only asks for the truth. If you tell the truth, the pain will pass quickly; if you lie, your blood and qi will surge upwards, and you will feel like you are dying."

Having said that, he flicked his left hand with lightning speed, and two silver needles instantly pierced the jailer's arm.

"Ahhh~"

The jailer immediately collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony, his limbs twitching as if he were being tortured.

The prison guards around and behind him were so frightened that they trembled and dared not make a sound.

For a moment, the only sound in the torture chamber was the jailer's roar.

"Speak! Did you open the cell door?"

The man in black armor spoke calmly, but it was precisely this calm tone that instilled even greater fear in Zhou Yan and the others before him.

Looking at the jailer who was screaming incessantly on the ground.

As Zhou Yan's face showed fear, his fists clenched tightly under his sleeves, the veins on the back of his hands bulging, and he was completely unaware that his fingernails were digging into his palms, causing thin streams of blood to flow out.

Even if I become a martial artist, what then?

Even if one's Body Tempering Technique is perfected and comparable to the peak of the First Refinement stage, so what?

In front of these "big shots," we are no different from ants, our lives and deaths entirely in the hands of others.

For a moment, Zhou Yan, who believed he had some trump cards because he had been hiding his strength, appeared extremely ridiculous in the face of absolute power and authority.

"My lord, spare...spare me! I...I haven't been there! I...I don't know anything about it."

The jailer wailed, his cries coming in broken, intermittent bursts.

The sinister-looking man in black robes waved his hands once more.

Two silver needles reappeared in his palm, seemingly out of nowhere.

The jailer immediately fainted.

The man's eyes shifted, looking at Li Mazi standing to the side.

Li Mazi's legs suddenly went weak, and he knelt on the ground with a thud, trembling as he said:

"Sir... I don't know anything! Oh, right, I had a terrible stomachache the other day and didn't go on patrol."

It was Zhou Yan; Zhou Yan went on patrol himself.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Yan, who had his head down, felt his heart clench, and a cold light flashed in his deeply hidden eyes.

That damned beast, how dare he cheat me!

In an instant, all the jailers in the torture chamber focused their attention on Zhou Yan.

Zhu Asan, who was standing to the side, was furious upon hearing this and shouted angrily at everyone present:

"Li Mazi, you're slandering me! It's clearly always been the three of you on duty, how come Zhou Yan is patrolling alone?"

Li Mazi knelt on the ground, his face deathly pale, but as if grasping at a straw, he quickly bowed his head and spoke rapidly:

"Your Honor, we have Xiao Liu as witnesses. We were indeed feeling unwell the other day and did not go on patrol. It was Zhou Yan who went on patrol."

Upon hearing this, the guard in black robes glanced around and casually replied:

"Who is Xiao Liuzi?"

Xiao Liuzi, who was standing to the side, also knelt down with a thud, trembling as he said:

"My lord, I am Xiao Liu Zi, I... I can testify."

Before Zhu Asan could say anything more, Liu, the jailer, his face darkening, roared:

"Shut up! With the Black-Clad Guards here, who gave you the right to interrupt?"

Zhu Asan clenched his teeth and his face turned red.

Zhou Yan didn't want Zhu Asan to be implicated as well.

So he turned his head slightly and shook his head at Zhu Asan.

Seeing this, Zhu Asan stomped his foot hard, sighed, and fell silent.

The man in black robes turned around and walked up to Zhou Yan.

He gently twirled the two silver needles between his fingers, their tips gleaming coldly in the dim firelight.

"You're Zhou Yan?"

Zhou Yan bowed his head and clasped his hands in a fist salute.

"Replying to your question, sir, this humble one is Zhou Yan."

"Have you been patrolling the death row cells these past few days?"

"Yes."

Zhou Yan did not deny it.

The man in black armor stared at him and asked again:

"Have you ever been inside that deepest, most heavily guarded cell?"

Zhou Yan's heart sank slightly.

It was bound to happen. If he told the truth, the crime of trespassing into a serious offender's cell would be enough to get him killed.

Not to mention, he even ran into that serious criminal.

He suppressed his tangled thoughts, his face remaining impassive, and whispered:

I caught a glimpse of it from afar during my prison patrol.

The man in black armor sneered.

"Just glanced at it?"

Zhou Yan paused for a moment, then said:

"I am merely a temporary jailer and have no authority to patrol the high-prisoner area."

The man in black seemed unconcerned by his words, simply saying:

"Reach out your hand."

"Please wait, sir, I have something to report."

Zhou Yan hurriedly clasped his hands in greeting.

He knew he absolutely could not let those two needles land on him.

The jailer had only been pricked with two needles, yet he screamed in agony as if his skin had been peeled off.

Although he possessed the "Copper Skin and Iron Bones" and had even reached the first level of training, his opponent was a Xuanyi Guard.

In the eyes of the other party, a martial artist may not be much different from an ordinary person.

Moreover, he actually went inside.

If what the other party says is true, and they're lying, then I'm doomed.

I can't just tell the truth...

You can't gamble.

The hand holding the needle paused slightly, and the man in black robes calmly said:

"What is it?"

"I know there is another person who has been to death row, but he has not stepped forward."

Upon hearing this, the torture chamber fell silent.

"Who?"

……