Chapter 22 Bi'an Gate: Do you think the Prison God statue and Bi'an Gate are just for show? ...

"I want to go out."

To her, the man in blue before her was the only "key" that could unlock the shackles.

Zhou Yaren was in so much pain that sweat beaded on her forehead, and she pressed her pale lips tightly together.

"You don't want to?" the woman scrutinized him. "You can stay here with me forever."

After saying that, the iron locks tightened again, and Lu Bing and the others, who were hanging on the altar, rolled their eyes and kicked their legs, unable to make a sound.

The iron lock embedded in Zhou Yaren's wound tore through his flesh and ground down to the bone. He gritted his teeth, bent his knees, and knelt before the woman, unable to stand upright.

The woman lowered her eyes, looking down at him as if she were a supreme being looking down at the insignificant beings.

Watching him struggle in agony before her, and finally make a choice entirely under her control, severing the inscribed shackles for the sake of his companion's life.

Humans are always so weak, concerned about this and that, unable to withstand the slightest coercion.

Zhou Yaren said in a deep voice, "Indeed, what truly traps you are these people who died unjustly."

The wind blades severed the shackles that bound her, one by one. The woman looked around, her gaze somewhat unfocused. Suddenly, she spoke absentmindedly, "This chain of events, one after another, I wonder how much effort it took."

"So you admit that these people died unjustly because of you."

The woman retorted, "What do I care about their wrongful deaths?!"

Zhou Yaren glanced at the countless gruesome deaths, then gripped the inscribed iron lock that was deeply embedded in flesh and blood. It was these iron locks that imprisoned her here: "Every wrong has its perpetrator, and every debt has its debtor. Isn't this the karma you're bearing?"

If he were to truly break free of her shackles and release her, wouldn't that be a scourge upon the world?!

"The karma I bear?" The woman looked into his eyes, which seemed to see right through him. "Aren't you also—a person burdened with sin?"

Zhou Yaren suddenly opened her eyes wide, and blood from her neck dripped down the iron lock onto the altar.

The woman's tone was nonchalant yet chilling: "Hmm? You're carrying a grievance, aren't you? Want my help?"

Zhou Yaren looked at her incredulously: "Who exactly are you?"

"Me?" The woman's voice rose slightly at the end, then fell low again in a somber tone. She said, "My name is Bai Yuan, the Bai Yuan of 'unjust grievance'."

Zhou Yaren stared in disbelief: "No, Bai's injustice."

"You can't clear your name of this injustice, can you?" Bai Yuan stared intently into his eyes, her gaze so focused it almost seemed tender and affectionate. She told him very gently, "Of course you can't clear your name, because you are burdened with punishment."

The words "crime and robbery" struck Zhou Yaren like a thunderbolt, causing her heart to clench. Images of her past imprisonment flashed before her eyes.

He was imprisoned in a damp, filthy, and foul-smelling death row cell, wearing incredibly heavy handcuffs and shackles, and was subjected to severe torture until his body was covered in wounds.

Those wounds festered and rotted, and he almost rotted away in that perpetual darkness, just like the nightmares that haunted him every night.

But that wasn't a nightmare; it was his real past experience.

All the painful and desperate memories came flooding back; he remembered that he didn't even have a chance to seek justice.

At this moment, someone suddenly told him that he was under a shackle of punishment. Zhou Yaren trembled slightly, and then heard the other person say, "You may never be able to clear your name, but I can help you."

Her voice possessed a captivating magic, like a gentle breeze brushing against the eardrum and flowing into the ear canal, making one irresistibly want to obey her every word: "Let me go, and I can save you."

She said, "I can save you."

A nerve in Zhou Yaren's brain was being violently pulled, as if he were still locked in that dark and damp prison, surrounded by the groans of those barely surviving. Upon hearing those words, he was willing to grasp at this lifeline at all costs.

As Zhou Yaren met that alluring gaze, her pupils gradually dilated.

I can save you—

Large beads of cold sweat slid down his forehead, and the veins on the back of Zhou Yaren's hand, which was gripping the iron lock, bulged.

He used immense willpower to break free, and the iron lock snapped in his hands.

He then flicked his sleeve, unleashing a blood-red wind blade that pierced straight towards Bai Yuan.

At the same time, another hurricane swept up, shoving the four Daoist priests, including Lu Bingfang, out of the altar and shouting, "Go!"

He must not trust this woman to let her go.

Once freed, Lu Bing and the others didn't care about anything else and scrambled to escape.

"You're courting death." Bai Yuan swung the iron chain and crashed it into the incredibly sharp wind blades. The iron chain snapped in two. Just as she was about to attack the people rushing towards the prison gate, she was stopped by Zhou Yaren.

Bai Yuan's eyes were sharp, and with his freed left hand, he punched Zhou Yaren in the ribs, causing her to vomit blood.

Zhou Yaren tried her best to hold her back, each wind blade mixed with bloodlust aimed at the woman's heart, but without exception, they all struck the inscribed iron chains binding her.

"Do you think the statue of the Prison God and the Bi'an Gate are just for show, so you can trap me here forever?!"

Before Zhou Yaren could react to the meaning behind the other person's words, she heard a scream and a roar like that of a wild beast coming from the prison gate.

He turned around abruptly and saw a huge creature leap down from the prison gate and pounce on Master Fang and his companions.

The enormous creature's copper bell-like eyes flashed with a ferocious green light, and its sharp, knife-like claws slashed fiercely at the weak human. One claw was enough to pierce through Master Fang.

Zhou Yaren's expression changed drastically. She swept out with a wind blade, barely managing to deflect the sharp claw.

Master Fang's pupils dilated violently. He had narrowly escaped death from the claws of the Bixie and scrambled to the side, crying out, "Bixie, Bixie!"

They were struck by a terrible evil. The mythical beast, Bi'an, embedded above the prison gate had come to life, resembling an incomparably ferocious beast with claws and teeth like sharp swords. This made the long sword in Master Fang's hand look like scrap metal. Before he could even swing it twice, Bi'an slapped it into pieces.

Lu Bing and the yamen runners drew their swords, but their arms trembled as if they were having a cramp.

The long howl of the Bixie frightened everyone into disarming them. They could hardly hold onto those few inches of iron and could only rely on their survival instincts to run away with their heads in their hands.

Zhou Yaren unleashed wave after wave of wind blades, barely managing to slow down the Bixie's claws aimed at Lu Bing and the others, while his back was already soaked with cold sweat.

Obstructed by the wind blades, the Bixi became even more ferocious, and with a single swipe, it sent the fleeing Heizi flying.

Hei Zi slammed his head against the wall and then crashed down, as if his internal organs had been shattered, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"Hei Zi!" Lu Bing shouted urgently, rushing towards Hei Zi, but the Bi'an had already blocked Lu Bing's head, opening its blood-red maw wide enough to devour a living person alive.

Zhou Yaren tried to rush forward, but countless iron chains entangled him at the last moment, trapping him on the altar.

The beast lunged at Lu Bing, its long, sword-like fangs piercing through Lu Bing's shoulder.

Zhou Yaren's eyes were bloodshot, but Bai Yuan's voice was cold and ruthless: "Do you think you can walk out of this Bi'an Gate?"

Hearing Lu Bing's scream, Zhou Yaren's forehead veins bulged, her pale blind pupils instantly turned bloodshot, the iron chains around her body snapped and exploded, and she rushed forward without hesitation, narrowly snatching Lu Bing back from under the jaws of the Bi'an.

The two rolled around in a ball, and he frantically tried to stop Lu Bing's penetrating wound in the shoulder to prevent him from losing too much blood: "Lu Bing, are you alright?"

"No... ah... it's nothing." Lu Bing was in so much pain that he broke out in a cold sweat, his face turning deathly pale.

At that moment, Zhou Yaren inadvertently caught sight of an inscribed iron lock wrapped around Lu Bing's calf. He was momentarily dazed and vaguely sensed that Lu Bing should have been chewed up by the Bixie just now.

Zhou Yaren turned around abruptly and saw Bi'an furiously shaking off a piece of iron lock wrapped around its fangs.

With a roar, the beast charged towards them. Zhou Yaren didn't have time to think and grabbed Lu Bing, abruptly turning the corner.

The Bixie couldn't react in time and crashed into the hard stone wall. The stone fragments scattered all over the ground, but the stone wall still stood firm, and no one knew how many feet thick it was.

The Bixie turned around in a rage, its eyes wide with fury as it bared its teeth at them. Then, with a few leaps, the ferocious beast swept across, forcing Zhou Yaren and Lu Bing into a corner. It then raised its sharp claws, like a hanging guillotine, crushing the swirling wind blades, intending to tear them to pieces.

However, the next moment, a white light flashed by so fast that it almost blinded Zhou Yaren. The enormous Bixi was thrown out, causing the ground to shake.

Zhou Yaren looked up in alarm and saw the woman standing with her back to them, blocking the way in front of Bi'an. She had removed the shackles that bound her and was dressed in a white robe with her long hair cascading down to her ankles. She did not look disheveled at all.

Bai Yuanqing turned her head slightly, as if repaying a favor, but her tone didn't sound like she owed anyone a favor at all. She said, "Let's go."

“You…” Zhou Yaren was stunned for only a moment before she immediately helped Lu Bing up and rushed toward the prison gate. “Master Fang, take them away quickly.”

Master Fang and the yamen runners hurriedly carried the unconscious Hei Zi. They had only taken a few steps when the ground began to shake violently, as if the entire prison was about to collapse. They almost lost their footing and stumbled as they tried to escape.

However, the corpses along the way suddenly began to contort their faces, their limbs and torsos twisting stiffly, as if they had risen from the dead.

Master Fang was horrified. The yamen runner who was supporting Hei Zi almost knelt down, but he managed to hold on and desperately scrambled out.

At the last moment, Zhou Yaren looked back and witnessed countless wronged souls rise from the dead amidst a bizarre and tragic scene, surging towards the woman with overwhelming resentment...

With a roar like thunder, the Bi'an leaped several meters into the air and pounced fiercely on the woman...

The seven statues of the prison gods surrounding the altar suddenly stood up and also headed towards the woman who had broken free of her shackles...

Inside the prison, demons ran rampant, all targeting her alone, because she was the true prisoner.

Everything arranged here—Gao Yao building the prison, the Bi'an guarding the gate, the inscribed shackles made of dead souls—is all intended to imprison her forever.

Zhou Yaren paused for a moment, a sudden tightness gripped her heart, and an absurd thought of turning back popped into her mind.

Who exactly is she? Why is she trapped here?

She said her name was Bai Yuan, the Bai Yuan in the phrase "unjustly accused".

She said you bear the burden of punishment.

She also said, "I can save you."

Zhou Yaren's mind was in chaos. The phrase "I am not a sinner" was stuck in his heart, a phrase that had left him with nowhere to turn and nowhere to turn.

Surrounded, Bai Yuan seemed to sense something and turned around, his cold eyes seemingly suppressing an extremely complex look of pity.

For a fleeting moment, Zhou Yaren thought it was his imagination.

The next moment, the woman soared into the air, her light and flowing white robes concealing a figure as sharp as a sword, exuding a powerful aura. Her movements were both graceful and resilient, cool yet murderous, her fingers piercing the Bi'an's brow like a long sword.

A deafening roar suddenly erupted from the prison.

Immediately afterwards, Gao Yao's Dharma form was shattered into fragments by several beams of white light, and the hideous and twisted dead soul suddenly exploded. Everything in front of him instantly disintegrated, and a raging flood poured down as if from the punctured sky, instantly submerging the entire prison—the Taiyin/Dao body that was submerged at the bottom of the water was shattered.

Before his body shattered, Zhou Yaren didn't even realize that one of his legs had already taken a step towards the prison.

Does he want to turn back? If so, why?

It couldn't possibly be that they wanted to help her, nor could they possibly want to trap her.

But the flood came suddenly, scattering everyone, and he couldn't hold onto Lu Bing, who was being swept away by the torrent.

A note from the author:

----------------------