Otherworldly Desert Dust

"Dark radiation turns the living into Evil Spirits?"

Wu Hen had encountered Evil Spirits before.

Back then, that Evil City where he met his little aunt...

Could it be that the Zai Wu Evil City was actually born here?

He recalled the female prison officer mentioning the Dark Energy Spring Eye just now.

Was the Spiritual Fertile Land he discovered through perception, a place where one could absorb and fuse Spiritual Factors to rapidly increase their cultivation, called the Dark Energy Spring Eye here?

In that moment, numerous questions surged in Wu Hen’s mind, along with a strong premonition that the place where he had awoken might be his little aunt’s homeland, though he didn’t know where she currently was.

Wu Hen was brought to the central square of the town.

Soon, some people in white uniforms brought over a long table and set up a barrier tape, keeping the town’s residents who were there to spectate outside.

The square wasn’t large, roughly the size of a basketball court.

The previous prison combat personnel lined up, with the Prison Director and that female prison officer sitting on temporary seats beside them, and in the center were three individuals in white, who looked like they were the judges and deputy judges of the court.

Although simplistic, Wu Hen hadn’t expected that he wouldn’t be locked in a prison, but rather tried publicly on the street.

"Bai Luobo, you were caught red-handed stealing from the Dark Matter Spring Eye. If you confess now, tomorrow morning we will transport you to the nearest city and imprison you for ten years to provide energy for the city," the presiding judge in white said.

"I thought you said I would have a fair trial, if you are going to convict me outright, let’s not go through these motions," Wu Hen argued on the spot.

"This is Da Xuan soil, all springs here are owned by Da Xuan. Unauthorized mining, possession, absorption, and theft are serious crimes!" the presiding judge said.

"But no one informed me of this. I came here from the True Martial Continent with depleted energy in my body. Naturally, I would collect from a wild Spiritual Spring," Wu Hen made up an excuse.

"Are you a Xuanzhen Practitioner?" the presiding judge asked.

"I don’t know, but in the past, I walked in the otherworldly realms, and picking Spiritual Springs was a normal practice for me. If I don’t understand your local laws, how can you call it theft?" Wu Hen said.

At that moment, the Prison Director also came forward to explain the circumstances of capturing this criminal, who indeed had something similar to True Qi protecting his body.

"Don’t worry, we offer one chance for reform to foreign guests. If you truly were unaware of our laws and this is your first offense, we will not convict you," the Prison Director spoke.

"Then, you need to answer a few questions for us, please answer truthfully. If there is any deceit, we will consider it contempt of our laws and increase your punishment!" the presiding judge said.

"Okay," Wu Hen nodded.

"Is this your first time entering the Cang Chu Divine Realm?" the presiding judge asked.

"Yes," Wu Hen replied.

"Have you ever been lost?" the presiding judge inquired.

"I don’t know," Wu Hen answered truthfully.

For something like being lost, how would a Lost One know? If he knew he was lost, then he wouldn’t be a true Lost One.

Hearing Wu Hen’s answer, the judges and the Prison Director immediately conversed quietly among themselves, seemingly believing this response to be truthful.

"Are you a Desert Dust Life?" the presiding judge asked.

"Yes," Wu Hen nodded.

"Since entering here, has anyone informed you of our laws regarding the Dark Matter Spring Eye?" the presiding judge asked.

"No."

"Is this the first time you have unauthorizedly collected Dark Energy from the spring?"

"Yes."

"Do you know any legal citizens on this land who can vouch for you?" the presiding judge continued to inquire.

Wu Hen remained silent on this question.

He did know an old man, but Wu Hen wasn’t sure if he was a legal citizen.

Additionally, his current predicament was largely due to not heeding the old man’s advice, who explicitly warned him not to roam around or go out at night.

Seeing that Wu Hen didn’t answer this question, the presiding judge didn’t press further.

The three judges consulted for a while, then spoke with the Prison Director.

"We cannot convict you at this time, but we also cannot let you leave. Our temporary court has decided to detain you in the town for now. You will be required to perform community service for the town until someone vouches for you, or your information is verified by our superiors, at which point you will be freed," the presiding judge declared.

"How long will it take for your superiors to confirm? If they don’t confirm, doesn’t that amount to being permanently imprisoned here?" Wu Hen asked.

"Rest assured, if our criminal database has no record of your crimes, you will be exempted. In about a month, we will proceed to the superior city to rest, and you will only need to stay here for a month at most if you are innocent and honest," the presiding judge said.

Wu Hen couldn’t say much, only abide by their laws here.

"So, what am I allowed to do?" Wu Hen inquired.

"This suspect has extraordinary abilities and can use his body as a container to collect dark energy, so let’s have him assist us in mining the dark energy springs," the Prison Director suggested."

"A good suggestion."

Wu Hen was speechless!

Treating me like a drilling rig, huh!

I cultivated to the Spirit Melding realm. I was supposed to conquer the entire universe. I had just awoken, and before I could collect much Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, I was captured by this high-dimensional technological civilization. A cultivator like me should have been commanding the universe, yet here I am, suffering in labor."

However, the strength of this Prison Town did show Wu Hen the capabilities of the Cang Chu Divine Realm’s Human Clan, whether they’re cultivators or cosmic supermen, all serving the cosmic capitalists like cattle. You can absorb Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy, huh? Then act as a humanoid collector..."

"Fine, there is no immediate danger to life, and serving here is as good as serving anywhere else."

"Fortunately, no one here recognizes me; otherwise, a former Human Emperor doing volunteer work in another civilization would be really embarrassing."

Wu Hen still had a good attitude.

Given the circumstances upon waking up, it’s normal for life to be tougher at the beginning.

If I had entered here in my Desert Dust Life Form, these people would have been calling me the Outer Heaven Supreme. They wouldn’t dare treat me like this, and I could overturn this so-called living prison town in minutes. You should know that my true form is a Sixth Rank life!

...

The collar had to be worn.

To suppress Wu Hen’s extraordinary abilities.

Wu Hen specifically observed the people here; most did not have extraordinary abilities, being very ordinary Desert Dust Life, especially those living in the town, belonging to levels like Firefly Light and Night Ghost.

However, as part of the entire Prison Town, each person has a clear job that allows the town to function as a living entity. When these people form a living network, the combat power that erupts from the entire Prison Town is pretty terrifying. Although Wu Hen’s awoken body was frail, not even reaching the First Rank Physique, Holy Cultivation was not for show, to think he couldn’t beat this living town.

After working for a few days, Wu Hen’s strong collection ability impressed the townspeople, and he also won the favor of the town’s management. They hadn’t expected such an efficient foreign guest, whose individual collection effectiveness matched that of the entire town’s workforce.

Remember that the town’s workers were equipped with tools and machines yet still couldn’t match Wu Hen, this super humanoid collector.

Soon the Prison Town received energy supplementation and became noticeably "stronger."

"Prison Director, we really need vegetables and fresh fruits, our children in town are starting to show signs of scurvy, and workers often fall asleep at their posts, afraid that they won’t make it back to the town center before Evil Spirits start to breed!" a uniformed woman said.

This town primarily functions as a prison, so the Prison Director is actually the Mayor, and he needs to make decisions for the town.

"I will figure something out," the Prison Director said.

"It must be resolved quickly!" the woman also said firmly.

"Understood, understood!" the Prison Director waved his hands.

Wu Hen was nearby, enjoying his time out in the open.

Actually, he only worked two hours a day, and the rest of the time he wandered around the town.

Thanks to his impressive performance, the town’s people held him in high regard, occasionally gifting him some delicacies, and the women of the town often invited Wu Hen over for a meal.

Wu Hen was munching on an apple, sitting at a scenic platform in the town.

The Prison Director walked past Wu Hen, glanced at him, and gave a wry smile.

"Our town lacks fresh fruits, and yet you still manage to get some. I, the Prison Director, haven’t tasted fruit in nearly a month; it’s hard to tell who the criminal is here," the Prison Director said to Wu Hen.

"Here, take this if you don’t mind," Wu Hen tossed the half-eaten apple to the Prison Director.

The Prison Director unceremoniously took it and bit into it, intoxicated by the sweet and delicious taste of the apple, giving a sound of enjoyment.

"Old Lie, I’m quite curious, what drives this town?" Wu Hen asked.

Wu Hen still remembered the night he was chased by the giant prison beast like a mole; at that time, the entire town moved like an extremely agile hunting dog, hunting in ways that defied physics!

My homeland also has Mecha.

But compared to such a large prison town, they seemed almost like toys.

If the Emperor Mecha of the homeland also had this powerful drive, their combat ability would have increased to another dimension.

"It’s not really a secret, you didn’t need to wait all these days to ask me. We use a Dark Energy Engine, which is what you collect for us every day," the Prison Director said.

"We call it Spiritual Energy."

"Right, Master Xuan calls it Spiritual Energy; we call it dark energy," the Prison Director said.

"So, you mean there’s a massive engine inside your town that drives the entire Prison City like an Ancient War Beast?" Wu Hen asked.

"Yes, the Dark Engine is one of the cores of the Da Xuan Dynasty."

"I’ve been to some countries before; they use steam, electricity, nuclear power..."

"Oh, we’ve been through all those, but they were eventually phased out. However, these antique engines also have special value to us. If we discover such ancient technological civilizations, we would assimilate them," the Prison Director said.

"But you can’t even afford fruits, while they have long reached fruit freedom."

"You say that, but they’re usually under small universe protection. Once the protection period is over, surviving like humans is already good enough. If we didn’t need to battle the Alien Evil Country, what wouldn’t be free? If we were defeated, many lower-dimensional civilizations would perish..." the Prison Director said irritably.