He scratched his head helplessly.
Si Nan also knew that Ye Liuyun was doing all this for his own good, so he could only agree.
Seeing Si Nan fall silent,
Ye Liuyun didnāt speak. Instead, he took off his Lord Hundred Households badge and threw it to Si Nan.
"Catch."
"Hm?"
The originally downcast Si Nan, upon hearing this, instinctively raised his hand and caught the badge.
When he saw clearly that it was the Hundred Households badge, Si Nan couldnāt help but freeze for a moment.
He looked at Ye Liuyun in disbelief.
"You were the first to follow me. Naturally, I wonāt treat you unfairly. But you must also understand, in this world, strength is the foundation of everything. I donāt want the day to come, a few years later, when you donāt even have the qualifications to stay by my side."
If Si Nanās strength kept stagnating like this,
Ye Liuyun couldnāt possibly keep him by his side forever. If you canāt keep up, being eliminated is only natural.
"My lord!"
Clutching the badge in his hand,
Si Nanās expression instantly became exceedingly solemn.
This badge, and the one Shi Sheng will receive later, are completely different in significance.
"Please rest assured, my lord, I will train hard and never let you down!"
"Mm!"
Ye Liuyun nodded in response, without saying more.
A lot depends entirely on self-discipline.
If one doesnāt make the effort, no amount of words from others will matter.
When Shi Sheng returned, he saw Si Nan, who was usually cheerful, wearing an uncharacteristically solemn expression. So, did something happen while I was out?
He only saw Ye Liuyun putting on his official uniform.
Shi Sheng didnāt bother to ask.
After Ye Liuyun finished changing into his uniform, he spoke directly,
"Iām heading out for a bit. You two keep an eye on things here in the Embroidered Uniform Guard."
"Yes, my lord!"
Seeing Ye Liuyun about to leave, Shi Sheng didnāt try to stop him, simply watched him go.
As for Ye Liuyunās destination,
did he even need to guess? Heād been fixated on Purgatory for so longānow that his rank was high enough, of course heād go check it out.
Even if he didnāt get any Talent Entries today, heād at least scout the place out, get his face known around. After all, heād certainly be coming here often in the future.
When Ye Liuyunās silhouette finally vanished from view,
only then did Shi Sheng look away.
He glanced at Si Nan, who was still dazed and absent-minded.
"Whatās up with you?"
"Nothing, Iāve just come to terms with who I am!"
"???"
How come I just left for a little while,
and Si Nanās become all mysterious on me?
"Are you still going to the Imperial Music Bureau later?"
"Go by yourself, Iām going to train!"
With that, he didnāt give Shi Sheng a chance to speak, just left straight away, looking seriousāit didnāt seem like he was joking at all.
"?"
Shi Sheng just stared after Si Nan, a face full of question marks.
What the hell, now youāre going all straight-laced on me.
Usually Iām the one who takes the initiative to train; never seen you this serious before.
"Forget it!"
If heās finally willing to focus on training, thatās a good thing, right?
Shi Sheng shook his head, no longer dwelling on it, and headed back to train as well.
His own cultivation was just one step away from breaking through to Postnatal. Just as Ye Liuyun had said, might as well make use of these days to break through before anything else.
Like Ye Liuyun said,
nothing is more important than oneās own strength.
...
Purgatory was located far from the Imperial City.
There were also heavy guards stationed here.
"Who goes there!"
Seeing Ye Liuyun approach, the guards stationed outside immediately blocked his way.
Even though he was wearing the Lord Thousand Households uniform, theyād never seen Ye Liuyun beforeāthereās no way theyād just let him through so easily.
"Embroidered Uniform Guard Lord Thousand Households, Ye Liuyun!"
Ye Liuyun was not surprised. He simply produced his exclusive Lord Thousand Households badge.
The two guards exchanged glances. One then spoke to Ye Liuyun,
"May I trouble Lord Thousand Households to wait a moment while I go inside to verify your identity."
What needed to be verified, of course, was whether this Lordās identity was genuine.
Ye Liuyun said nothing, just nodded, gesturing for him to continue.
Taking advantage of the moment, Ye Liuyun scanned the area around him.
This place was indeed rather concealed; even the outermost guards were all First-class Martial Artists. It spoke volumes for how secure Purgatory wasāsurpassing even the Imperial Prison.
As Ye Liuyun was inspecting his surroundings,
the guard whoād left quickly returned.
He nodded to Ye Liuyun and bowed,
"Lord Thousand Households, please enter."
This confirmed Ye Liuyunās identity as Lord Thousand Households was genuineānot a fake.
The way was clear, and Ye Liuyun was allowed into Purgatory.
Purgatory was built inside a mountain. The air here was even gloomier and more humid.
Oil lamps burned on the walls, but their light was far from brightāif anything, it made things seem even dimmer.
Ye Liuyun walked onwards.
He passed numerous cells and saw plenty of prisoners.
At a glance, almost every prisoner had one or two blue-grade Talent Entries, with some even having purple-grade onesāquite a few, in fact.
The quality of these prisoners was far higher than those in the Imperial Prison.
This was definitely the right place to come.
The more Talent Entries he checked, the wider Ye Liuyunās smile grew.
If he made his move now and killed all these people, would anyone come looking for trouble?
Ye Liuyun was already scheming in his mind how to kill them all.
If he devoured all these entries, maybe heād be able to stack several red-grade entries in one go.
As Ye Liuyun was pondering,
a slightly aged-looking man came over and sat down facing him.
"You must be Lord Ye, Lord Thousand Households!"
Looks like the guards at the entrance had already reported the arrival of a Lord Thousand Households to Purgatory.
"My name is Chang Liu, a warden here in Purgatory. If Lord Ye has any questions, you may ask me."
......