The transition from the grand, brightly lit halls of the Law Enforcement Unit to the desolate fringes of the academy was stark and unforgiving.
Enforcers Lin and Feng had escorted Yoriichi in heavy silence to the edge of the academy's borders, where the manicured pathways gave way to jagged, lifeless gray stone. There, waiting at the precipice of a massive, sunken valley, stood Commander Wu. The enforcers bowed deeply, handing over custody before retreating. They did not look Yoriichi in the eye.
Yoriichi stood beside the Dou Huang, gazing down into the valley. There was no vibrant foliage here, no gentle streams. It was a vast, sprawling depression filled entirely with stagnant, ink-black water. The surface was eerily still, reflecting no light, resembling a massive pool of liquid obsidian. A bone-chilling mist hung lazily over the surface, carrying the foul, metallic scent of ancient rot and hidden predation.
"This is the Riverlands," Wu stated, his voice flat, devoid of the thundering pressure from the hall. "The graveyard of arrogance."
Before Yoriichi could fully analyze the perimeter, Wu placed a heavy, vice-like grip on his shoulder. A dense sphere of dark blue Dou Qi erupted from the Commander, expanding outward to completely encapsulate them both in a luminous, waterproof bubble.
"Hold your breath," Wu commanded.
Without waiting for a response, the Commander stepped off the precipice.
They plummeted into the black abyss. The moment they broke the surface, the ambient light of the world vanished, replaced by an oppressive, suffocating darkness. Only the faint blue glow of Wu's Dou Qi barrier illuminated their immediate surroundings.
Yoriichi's eyes, trained to perceive the world with ultimate clarity through the Transparent World, adapted instantly. What he saw in the depths was enough to make an ordinary man's heart stop. The water was thick, almost viscous. Massive, serpentine shadows slithered just beyond the reach of the blue light. He could see the jagged outlines of Razor-Finned Eels and the glowing, crimson eyes of Deepwater Armor Crabs—fearsome Rank 2 and Rank 3 aquatic beasts that ruled this sunless domain.
They sank rapidly for over a minute. Without his Dou Qi to regulate his internal pressure, Yoriichi felt the crushing weight of the depths pressing against his eardrums, sending sharp spikes of pain through his skull. He swallowed hard, forcibly adjusting his jaw to equalize the pressure, keeping his breathing entirely rhythmic and calm despite the agonizing sensation.
Finally, the pitch-black void below them gave way to a faint, sickly yellow luminescence.
Anchored to the uneven, muddy floor of the underwater trench was a small, domed structure. As they drew closer, Yoriichi saw that it was a heavily reinforced stone chamber, surrounded by an intricate web of thick iron cages. The entire structure was enveloped in a shimmering, translucent barrier—an isolation array keeping the crushing millions of gallons of black water at bay.
Wu guided them to a small, circular airlock at the base of the dome. He withdrew a heavy, rectangular jade token from his robes and pressed it against the barrier. The array rippled, and a thick stone door slid open with a heavy, grinding groan.
Wu roughly shoved Yoriichi inside, breaking the shared Dou Qi bubble.
Yoriichi stumbled onto the damp stone floor. The air inside the cell was unbelievably stale, carrying the freezing, biting chill of the ocean floor. Before he could turn around, Commander Wu met his gaze one last time through the narrowing gap of the stone door.
"Sixty days, Xiao Ning," Wu said coldly. "Do not die too quickly."
Clang.
The stone door sealed shut. The array flashed brilliantly for a second before settling into a dim, steady hum. Outside the barrier, Wu's blue aura rocketed upward, leaving a trail of bubbles that quickly disappeared into the black expanse above.
Then, there was only silence. The kind of absolute, crushing silence that makes a man hear the blood rushing in his own veins.
Yoriichi slowly stood up, brushing the dirt from his knees. He examined his new reality. The cell was agonizingly small—no more than ten feet wide. The walls were constructed of thick, moss-covered stone, reinforced by rusted iron bars that partitioned the room into a cage-like structure.
He tilted his head back, looking up. Through the translucent, yellow glow of the array barrier above, he could see nothing but the endless, heavy shade of the black water pressing down on him. The sheer weight of the ocean above felt psychologically suffocating.
His gaze swept the interior and landed on a slightly elevated stone slab in the corner, intended to be a bed. Resting upon the slab were three items: a complex symbol parchment plastered to the stone, a small, dark wooden token, and a rough piece of beast-skin parchment with faded ink.
Yoriichi approached the slab. The symbol parchment was radiating a faint energy—it was clearly the localized core sustaining the water-repelling array. He picked up the beast-skin note and read it in the dim light.
Prisoner,
If you are reading this, your Dantian is sealed. The academy does not provide rations to the condemned.
For food, there are only two options: you hunt, or you starve. The wooden token provided can be used to temporarily open a small rift in the array, allowing you to swim outside the cell to hunt the beasts of the Riverlands.
But remember this absolute rule: the array is a perfect equilibrium. Every single time you use the token to open the rift, a small, unpreventable amount of water will leak inside before the barrier can reseal itself. There is no drain. The water will pool. Your options for going out are strictly limited. Hunt wisely, or drown in your own cage.
Yoriichi lowered the parchment, his expression stoic, though his mind was rapidly calculating the horrifying implications of those words.
So this was why the Riverlands was feared above all else. It wasn't just isolation; it was a brilliantly cruel, psychological torture mechanism. It was an hourglass of death.
If he stayed inside, he would eventually starve or succumb to the freezing temperatures without his Dou Qi to sustain his bodily functions. But if he went out to find sustenance, he would be willingly flooding his only safe haven. One hunt might leave the floor damp. Five hunts might bring the freezing water to his ankles. Ten hunts, and he would have to sleep in standing water, accelerating hypothermia.
Furthermore, hunting meant stepping into the abyss. He was currently nothing more than a physically fit mortal. Outside this dome were countless Rank 2 creatures, perhaps even higher, moving flawlessly in their natural element. A single bite from a venomous creature, a single slip in the dark, and he would be torn to shreds.
Could he just swim up and escape? Yoriichi immediately discarded the thought.
Even with his supreme physical conditioning and lung capacity, the surface was thousands of feet above. The kinetic water pressure alone would crush his mortal ribs before he made it halfway. Moreover, considering Commander Wu's meticulous nature, there was undoubtedly a secondary restriction array placed at the surface of the lake, rendering any attempt at escape absolute suicide.
There was no trick. No hidden loophole. The only way out was to endure for sixty days.
But he didn't even know what to hunt. Does he need to eat meats? Are any edible things are there other than these?
The biting cold of the cell began to violently seep through his academy robes, attacking his unprotected skin. He needed to regulate his core temperature immediately, or his muscles would begin to seize.
Yoriichi carefully set the token and the note back onto the stone slab. He walked to the center of the damp floor and seated himself in a cross-legged lotus position. He closed his eyes, plunging his consciousness inward.
He initiated the rhythmic, oxygen-rich cycle of Total Concentration Breathing, aiming to stimulate his blood flow and generate internal body heat. As his lungs expanded, he simultaneously reached out with his senses, attempting to draw in any trace of ambient worldly energy to soothe his exhausted body.
A heavy, disappointed sigh escaped his lips, misting in the freezing air.
There was nothing.
Whether it was because the thick, black water above completely insulated the environment, or because the array dome purposefully blocked all external energy, the result was the same. The air inside the cell was entirely dead. He could not absorb a single wisp of Dou Qi.
He was truly, completely alone.