Cao Zhengchun showed great loyalty, personally leading the way and not causing any trouble along the way. He even introduced the layout and mechanisms inside the prison, as if he had truly accepted the master and had no other ulterior motives.

　　”It’s useless. These traps can only trap ordinary Grandmasters of the Innate Realm. They’re not very effective against powerful Body Refinement Grandmasters. Gu Santong is such a person. It’s actually easier for him to leave this place than for some Grandmasters.”

　　What does this mean?

　　”What’s truly terrifying about a Grandmaster of the Innate Realm is that they can borrow the power of heaven and earth. But here in this secret chamber, what can they borrow? Without the support of the power of heaven and earth, even if their own power is still there, they are only stronger than a Grandmaster of the Innate Realm and have greater destructive power, but their own defense and physical strength are not much stronger. If they are hit by a poisoned arrow, especially one of those giant crossbow bolts fired from a crossbow bed, they will still be injured.”

　　But a Body Refinement Master is different. He can be brute-forced, and his single-target burst damage is terrifying. He can’t be killed or trapped. Such a monster can’t be trapped by this kind of design and layout. You can trap Zhu Wushi here to death, but you can’t trap Gu Santong. It’s just that he keeps his promise and is unwilling to leave.

　　Cao Zhengchun was secretly relieved. Fortunately, he hadn’t done anything reckless along the way. Although he had been tempted several times, he wasn’t sure he could win and was afraid of provoking the Sword-Eating Ancestor behind Zhang Lingyu to take action, nuke the palace, and change the dynasty.

　　If he remembered correctly, Zhang Lingyu was a master of innate body refinement, even more terrifying than a master of innate body refinement. This guy was capable of killing more than 300 experts with his bare hands, which was far more terrifying than Gu Santong’s record.

　　”elevator!”

　　”???” Eunuch Cao looked at Zhang Weihao with a puzzled expression, but still began to introduce this very unique mechanism.

　　Similar to the bamboo basket elevator at Blackwood Cliff in The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, it was created by the ancients using their wisdom and the principle of pulleys and levers. It is similar to an elevator, but it is mainly controlled by human power and mechanical devices. In other words, without the cooperation of the other side, even if you know the way, you can’t go down (or come up).

　　The reason why the Sun Moon Cult is easy to defend but difficult to attack is mainly due to this.

　　To reach Blackwood Cliff, the headquarters of the Sun Moon Cult and one of the seven forbidden areas in the martial arts world, one must first ascend the stone steps and pass through three iron gates. Before each gate, someone will ask for the password for the night (which is adjusted and changed every night, commonly known as the password), and check one’s waist tag.

　　After passing through three iron gates, you will arrive at a large stone gate. There you will see two lines of large characters carved on both sides. The right side reads “Wen Cheng Wu De” (文成武德), and the left side reads “Ren Yi Ying Ming” (仁义英明). The horizontal plaque is inscribed with four large red characters: “Ri Yue Guang Ming” (日月光明).

　　After passing through the stone gate, you will see a large bamboo basket on the ground, which can hold about ten bushels of rice.

　　To get up the mountain, you have to step into a bamboo basket and signal to the people on the mountain.

　　After three gong strikes, the bamboo basket is slowly raised, manually hoisted up using a winch.

　　Blackwood Cliff is very high. This is already close to the top of the mountain. There are still three winches in the middle, and it takes four times to winch the way to the top of the cliff.

　　Even if you have unparalleled lightness skills, as long as you don’t enter through normal means, even if you can literally step on your left foot and ascend to heaven on the spot, the enemy can easily riddle you with arrows from some watchtowers and checkpoints (there are crossbows that can shoot through horses, as well as cannons). Not to mention that there are many experts and countless traps on Blackwood Cliff. This is why the imperial court has tried many times in the early days, even deploying 30,000 elite troops, but has never been able to defeat the Sun Moon Sect. As long as there is no internal strife, they are in an invincible position.

　　Therefore, the fact that the Sun Moon Cult was not ultimately blacklisted was not because the imperial court was openly cracking down on or restricting any heretical sects.

　　Others are engaged in legitimate trade, with numerous businesses and industries operating within them. Many powerful families have long cooperated with the Sun Moon Cult. Moreover, according to the rules of the martial arts world, while you may fight and make trouble between the legitimate and illegitimate factions, you absolutely cannot arbitrarily seize each other’s goods and disrupt transportation and trade. If you really have no rules, then everyone should just quit and go eat shit.

　　The same applies to the lower three levels of the Heavenly Prison; with no cooperation from the inside, it is virtually impossible for outsiders to break in unnoticed.

　　Cheng Shifei’s success was due to the protagonist’s halo; he accidentally discovered the dog hole and crawled in (the purification room connects to the ninth level of the imperial prison, which should be a secret passage specially arranged by the royal family for escaping in times of crisis; it’s hard for normal people to think of these two places). Zhang Weihao didn’t have that kind of luck or halo, so it would be very difficult for him to enter through normal means.

　　After descending to the ninth floor using the same man-made elevator as the one used at Black Cliff, Zhang Weihao realized that he had underestimated the wisdom of the ancients.

　　He thought the eighth and ninth floors were only one floor apart, about seven or eight meters apart, but it turned out to be at least twenty or thirty meters apart. Even Gu Santong would have a hard time escaping and would be trapped here to death. Sure enough, TV dramas and novels don’t need logic, but the real world still needs underlying logic.

　　Knowing how smelly it was, Zhang Weihao blocked his sense of smell. The moment the cell door was opened, he suddenly felt a huge suction force. This was the Absorption Technique, and the highest level of the Absorption Technique: remote suction.

　　The highly skilled and daring Zhang Weihao did not resist, but deliberately let Gu Santong pull him in. However, Zhang Weihao did not intend to let the other party drain his true energy like that. He directly attacked and fought with the old man who was wearing leg chains and bracelets, was bound hand and foot, had a dirty face, and was covered in filth, reeking of a mad beggar.

　　The two moved quickly. Even though they were chained, Gu Santong was still agile and nimble. He would even use the movement of the chains to create irregular and accidental attacks. In terms of fighting style, he was the most powerful person Zhang Weihao had ever encountered in this life.

　　”The Seventy-Two Hands of Dislocating Bones and Tendons is a unique skill of the Huaiyang School. Moreover, the predecessors incorporated chains into it, creating the Iron Chain Across the River. What a skill!”

　　”Your hand skills aren’t bad either, and you didn’t even use any internal energy. What? Afraid that I’ll drain your power? This time, you old pig has really found me a master.”

　　Because he hadn’t communicated with anyone for a long time, Gu Santong’s pronunciation was now very strange, even somewhat unclear, but his voice was full of energy. As long as his internal energy was still there, there wouldn’t be much difference before he died. However, after fighting for a while, Zhang Weihao still discovered many problems with Gu Santong’s body. He was indeed running out of time and his blood and energy were severely depleted.