Chapter 2765: Ghostly Autumn Sounds

"Hey! Newcomer! Why don't you speak?"

Although Fengdu's prison was dim and without light, it was still clean. The straw laid on the ground provided some slight warmth, and there wasn't a particularly heavy smell.

After all, the current Governor of Fengdu had a hobby of airing things out.

The talkative prisoner in the next cell was always chattering.

Wang Wei didn't speak.

He used to talk a lot and loved asking questions.

Later, his master said that not speaking could make you appear like an expert.

So he tried not speaking.

He also asked why his master still talked so much.

His master's reply was a smack on the head and the words, "This old man is already an expert, no need to pretend."

Master had a good temper.

Wang Wei still had his clean bald head, and of course, his face was no longer the same face. Prince Zhao personally helped him with the disguise, so no one could see his original appearance.

His neighbor in the next cell leaned against the pile of straw, scratching for lice while nagging, "You've been here for three days! Three days of not speaking, you definitely have something on your mind."

"You know what? Or how about I tell them that next time someone comes in, they should just live across from me—we'll be neighbors. You didn't even say hello."

"Where are you from, tell me?"

"You've shaved your head bald, but you don't look like a monk, and you've grown to look strangely fierce."

"Hey! Bald head! Don't you feel lonely staying in a ghost place like this?"

Perhaps the word "lonely" touched a nerve.

Wang Wei finally opened his mouth: "I've been to the prisons in Qi before, but I didn't feel particularly lonely."

He sat facing the wall, his eyes downcast: "It's not because I'm in prison."

"Then what else could it be! Haha." The talkative neighbor looked quite young and wasn't bad looking. The wounds on his body didn't affect his liveliness at all: "Let's chat a couple of sentences? Chatting won't be lonely."

Wang Wei didn't speak.

The talkative neighbor asked again: "I heard you were personally reviewed by that Old Ghost Gu? How are you still alive?"

They were across from each other.

They could see each other through the dense iron bars covered in runes.

Of course, Wang Wei didn't turn his head to look.

He asked: "Who is Old Ghost Gu?"

"Fengdu Governor Gu Chi!" The neighbor sat up from the straw pile and gestured with his hand: "That old bamboo pole."

"Oh." Wang Wei dully leaned against the wall: "How do you know I was personally reviewed by Old Ghost Gu?"

The ghost messengers of Fengdu didn't talk much. When they brought him in, none of them exchanged words with this neighbor. The ghost prison of Fengdu had eighteen layers, each one different, and all were hung with time-space locks, isolating the inside from the outside. He didn't even know which layer he had been sent to.

He wasn't really that curious how the neighbor got the news. But chatting for a couple of sentences was good; it was really too stuffy here.

The neighbor said carelessly: "I have my own channels!"

Wang Wei didn't speak.

The neighbor waited for a while and had to say: "When you came in earlier, didn't they embroider a three-way flower on the left shoulder of your prison clothes? That's a three-way seal, and people personally reviewed by Old Ghost Gu will have this mark."

Wang Wei tilted his head to look at his left shoulder. It was indeed a flower—he had thought it was a claw. Or at most, a blade of grass. Weren't they just three lines tied together?

He could sew much better than that. He had been sewing clothes since he was a child.

He said: "You also have this three-way flower on your body, so you were also reviewed by Old Ghost Gu. How are you still alive?"

"I asked you first." The neighbor said: "You speak first."

Wang Wei didn't make a sound.

After a long time, the neighbor couldn't stand it: "Ah, I really admire you. You just give me the cold shoulder, without even moving."

Wang Wei didn't speak.

The neighbor said angrily: "My surname is Xiong."

Seeing Wang Wei's lack of reaction.

The neighbor emphasized again: "My surname is Xiong."

Wang Wei said: "Oh, my surname is Jiang."

"I didn't ask your surname! What's so great about having the surname Jiang?" The neighbor was furious: "I'm saying, Old Ghost Gu doesn't dare kill me because my surname is Xiong!"

"Why wouldn't he dare kill you just because your surname is Xiong?" Wang Wei asked.

"My name is Xiong Zidu!"

"Oh."

"Xiong! Zi! Du!"

"Oh, my name is Jiang Li."

Xiong Zidu gritted his teeth: "My dad's name is Xiong Ji!"

"Who is Xiong Ji?" Wang Wei asked.

"I... forget it!" Xiong Zidu considered himself extremely smart, but it was really hard to tell if this bald head was pretending to be silly or truly silly. If he was pretending, he was acting too well!

He swallowed his anger and said with restraint: "You've been to prisons in Qi before, maybe you know Jiang Wuhua? We're quite similar, maybe you can understand?"

"Can you also cook very well?" Wang Wei asked.

Xiong Zidu narrowed his eyes: "Did Jiang Wuhua cook for you?"

"No." Wang Wei shook his head.

Jiang Wuhua indeed hadn't cooked for him, but the Chang Le cakes were truly delicious, and his junior brother had brought them for him!

It was just that Master said this kind of thing should be eaten less, that people from Qi were bad, bad. Later, this kind of food should be checked by the old man first. One check and half of it would be gone.

Xiong Zidu endured again and again: "Anyway, I've already told you the answer. Now it's your turn to tell me—how did you manage to survive at Gu Chi's hands?"

"I don't know," Wang Wei said.

"Boy!" Xiong Zidu jumped up, shaking the iron bars with a clattering sound: "You dare to mess with me! Come out and we'll fight one-on-one!"

"Okay." Wang Wei would never back down from a fight. He rolled up his sleeves and turned around, but stopped in front of the iron bars: "Ah! I can't get out, how can we fight?"

His innocent eyes made it impossible for Xiong Zidu to confirm if this was sarcasm.

"I'll give you one more chance to explain!" Xiong Zidu poked the iron bars with his finger, making a banging sound.

"That old bamboo pole asked me if I was wronged. I said I wasn't. Then he suddenly had something to do and left. I was just brought here." Wang Wei looked at Xiong Zidu: "That's how it is. I'm not lying to you."

Xiong Zidu looked at the serious eyes of this bald head, half believing and half doubting: "Then tell me, why were you caught?"

Wang Wei didn't want to be at a disadvantage: "You tell me first why you were caught."

Xiong Zidu said angrily: "You tell me first!"

But he soon realized that being stubborn was pointless. This bald head opposite him was like a stone, content to stay silent for a lifetime.

Then he pouted: "What else could it be? Fighting with my dad."

Wang Wei didn't ask for specifics.

But he had a strong desire to express himself, probably having held it in for too long: "This person, you see! When they get old and their status is high, they just don't listen to criticism. They think they're right about everything, the only ones in the world. Once their mistakes are pointed out, they can't accept it and can't admit they're wrong, so they just become violently angry."

Wang Wei said 'oh'.

Xiong Zidu looked at him strangely: "For my story, don't you have any thoughts to share after hearing it?"

Wang Wei said slowly: "Don't fight with your dad. You'll miss him a lot later."

Xiong Zidu snorted and waved his hand: "Don't shave your head bald and then try to act like a master—tell me about your situation, tell me about your situation."

Wang Wei said: "One day I was walking on the road and saw someone who looked very much like a mountain thief. He was holding a piece of jade in his hand, so I just snatched it. Later, the Fengdu ghost messengers found me and said that what I snatched was an object from Jiao Wu mountain, so they caught me."

"Wait—" Xiong Zidu sized up Wang Wei's fierce features. It was strange to say, this face was clearly very fierce and evil, but paired with those dull, serious eyes, it didn't make people feel afraid or dislike him. It inexplicably had a bit of a contrasting cuteness. "What do you mean 'looked like a mountain thief'?"

Wang Wei said: "Because he was wearing a mask and said 'this road is mine'."

"Now I understand what you're saying!" Xiong Zidu said: "Since that piece of jade was snatched by you, why didn't you just hand it over? This matter has nothing to do with you—why would they catch you?"

"Why would I hand it over?" Wang Wei said righteously: "Why would something from Jiao Wu mountain be theirs? I snatched it, so it's mine."

Xiong Zidu 'ha'-ed: "Do you know what Jiao Wu mountain is? That's where the Great Chu imperial family rose from!"

Wang Wei didn't understand: "If the Jiao is all withered, can the dragon still rise?"

Xiong Zidu then put his hands on his hips: "Then why were you still caught?"

Wang Wei said in a muffled voice: "There were a lot of them."

"The people who caught you were very few!" Xiong Zidu was very passionate about lecturing: "Chu Tai Zu once cultivated in seclusion on Jiao Wu mountain. After coming down the mountain, he was invincible in the world! You say how important Jiao Wu mountain is? It has historical significance!"

Wang Wei said: "I didn't snatch it on Jiao Wu mountain."

"Hey! You're really stubborn—" Xiong Zidu rolled up his sleeves, just about to unleash his eloquence and teach this insensible bald head a lesson, when he suddenly heard the sound of a heavy winch.

The heavy iron door inside the ghost prison slowly pulled open at this moment. The time-space lock also temporarily stopped, and the light from the sky instantly rushed into the tunnel, filling all the cells on both sides of the tunnel with bright light.

One cell, two cells, three cells... The tunnel, almost endless to the eye, had many cells on both sides. Some were empty, and some were occupied.

But basically, there was no sound.

Only the special identity of Xiong Zidu and the new arrival Wang Wei could still chatter non-stop.

Xiong Zidu pressed his face directly against the iron bars, straining to look towards the end of the tunnel. Under that huge iron door, there was a lone figure standing quietly.

"Hey! Over here!" Xiong Zidu's face bloomed with a smile: "Cousin! You came to see me specially?"

Zuo Guangshu walked along the long tunnel towards the inside, curiously examining this legendary "Fengdu Ghost Prison"—he rarely saw curious eyes.

"It doesn't seem gloomy here," he walked to Xiong Zidu's front: "I escorted a batch of cultivator corpses over for them to research. It was convenient to see Cousin... Who would specially come to this place?"

"Sigh." Xiong Zidu was very enthusiastic: "Come, I just met a new friend—"

Just as he was about to introduce him, he discovered that the one named 'Jiang Li' had already turned back, continuing to sit facing the wall, adopting an aloof posture.

"Forget it, this friend of mine doesn't like to talk." Xiong Zidu said with a smile: "He's a bit cold-tempered."

Zuo Guangshu glanced at the cell opposite. He felt that the back view was vaguely familiar, but he didn't pay too much attention—as a noble young master, he was destined to have no interaction with the prisoners inside the Fengdu Ghost Prison.

Xiong Zidu was a complete outlier that the Chu country had produced in several thousand years.

He dared to pull His Majesty the Emperor's beard since he was little.

At five years old, he swaggered onto the dragon chair and was kicked off by the emperor's big foot...

His deeds were truly endless. Falling into such a situation now could be considered cause and effect.

In the Battle of Heguling, Xiang Longxiang was the commander of the three armies. Han Que led the collapse of the right wing battlefield first, but neither the Xiang family nor the Han family received very serious punishment. Even Han Que's eternal suppression of the Demon Realm was because he himself wanted to atone for his sins.

Considering the public discussion and the court and public opinion in the Chu court at that time, the intention was originally to severely punish the defeated generals. After all, it was a disastrous defeat that almost shook the Chu country's destiny. Except for Zuo Guanglie, who broke through Han Gu Pass brilliantly, almost all the generals in the Battle of Heguling were heavily criticized after the war, and there were clear demands from the court and public.

It was Xiong Zidu who stood out in the court and publicly stated that in the Battle of Heguling, the Emperor should bear the responsibility. The defeat at Heguling was a failure of the Chu court's decision-making. It was the entire court's misjudgment of the situation that led to this war that was bound to be lost, and Xiang Longxiang had already done his best!

So the result was that Xiong Zidu was locked up here.

It had been ten years now...

Zuo Guangshu looked at his cousin somewhat helplessly: "Who can be cold to you? You can talk for a whole day by yourself."

Xiong Zidu laughed heartily: "Those who know me, Guangshu also!"

He asked again: "How is Aunt doing?"

"Quite well." Zuo Guangshu said: "Every day, besides cultivating, she just raises her little ants. Last time she even mentioned you, saying she didn't know how you were living—this time I can tell her you haven't changed much!"

"Make a soundproof array, Guangshu." Xiong Zidu said playfully: "Cousin can't cast spells, let's whisper something."

Zuo Guangshu shook his head: "My visit to see you is limited. We can't have a private conversation."

"Hey! You're the Young Duke of Great Chu, what are you afraid of?" Xiong Zidu egged him on: "Even if you tear down this cell and let me out, what then? Who can do anything to you!"

Zuo Guangshu smiled slightly: "Cousin, we may not be children anymore."

"Then let's reminisce about the past? In the past, you and I—and all of you, digging up bird nests and catching fish, climbing roofs and removing tiles, what happy days!" Xiong Zidu gradually persuaded: "Want to remember a bit?"

"Flowers have a time to bloom again, but people don't become young again!" Zuo Guangshu raised a finger and tapped on the bars, as if it were the lingering sound of childhood, and said with a smile: "Cousin, with ten years of building your reputation and the world knowing your wise name, when you come out, will you reorganize the mountains and rivers?"

"Just today!" Xiong Zidu laughed heroically, holding the iron bars as if he held the world in his hand at this moment: "Open this door for me! Open a new sky for Chu!"

"That person cannot be me." Zuo Guangshu smiled and shook his head: "Goodbye, Cousin. I'll come see you next time—if you're still here next time."

"Hey, you little heartless one, don't leave, let's chat for a while!"

No matter how Xiong Zidu shouted, Zuo Guangshu still left with a smile.

The heavy iron door fell again, isolating everything.

Ten years!

Xiong Zidu leaned back against the iron bars, slowly sitting down, seeming to sigh: "He's much more obedient than his brother."

As a dignified Prince of Great Chu, locked in the Fengdu Ghost Prison for ten years, he had already become accustomed to talking to himself.

What surprised him a little was that the new, rather solitary bald head actually opened his mouth at this moment—"His brother, is he called Zuo Guanglie?"

"You know him too?" Xiong Zidu asked carelessly.

"The chief of the Yellow River, a young general who is famous early. I've heard of him!" Wang Wei looked at the empty wall and said faintly: "I've also seen him several times."

"Not bad, you little bald head, you're keeping a lot hidden." Xiong Zidu said: "It seems I was wrong about you. If you know Zuo Guanglie, you're not idle either!"

"I just know of him, I don't understand him much." Wang Wei was silent for a moment, then said: "Want to chat about this person?"

Xiong Zidu smiled slightly and said meaningfully: "Which aspects do you want to chat about?"

"Any aspect is fine."

"For example?"

"Dao techniques, character, deeds, master... Anything is fine."

"Master?"

"Such a powerful person, his master must also be very powerful, right?"

Xiong Zidu laughed 'ho ho ho': "He's a self-taught genius with no master! He was born different from the crowd. Whatever knowledge from any family, he would learn it as soon as he started, and understand it with a single point. The dao techniques he created renewed history again and again. Which old scholar could teach him? If you must talk about masters, the old duke could count, his dad could count, and my dad could also count. These are the ones who truly passed down skills to him."

Wang Wei was silent for a while: "Those who taught him... were all elders of the family?"

Xiong Zidu just then seemed to remember something: "Oh right! There was also an old monk who kept stubbornly pestering him and wanted to take him as a disciple, I don't know if that counts? I even helped chase him away! Hahaha, Guanglie was so pestered that he said he would just beat him up. Of course, I had to help."

"This story is... surprisingly interesting." Wang Wei said softly: "Can you tell it to me?"

"This story might be long to tell—hey, tomorrow is the start of winter, will anyone come see you? Hahaha, don't be sullen, come, come, come, turn around, and I'll tell you! At that time..."

At this moment, they were each leaning against the iron bars, separated by two cells and a tunnel.

Darkness had already swallowed this tunnel.

The person leaning against the bars was relaxed and slumped.

The person sitting facing the wall was straight and proper.

Two people who would originally never intersect were chatting about a person they both knew.

This was the sound of the last autumn.

The first day of December.

Bald-headed Wang Wei seeks everyone's guaranteed vote.