Distressed and confused, Long Chen kept thinking of a way to handle the situation since he was all alone here with no possible escape.
Everything depended on him even though he was at his most vulnerable because his laws were blocked for some reason. He could understand why that was though.
It was a prison that supposedly housed the powerful criminals of the Heavenly Realm. They couldn't let them use their powers, so they must have taken precautions, he believed.
Unfortunately, those precautions came at the cost of his own escape chances.
Throughout the night, he kept thinking in the darkness of the cell. He didn't even realize that night was almost over. He only came out of his daze when the lights of his room turned on automatically.
"Hmm? What happened? I didn't touch the wall to turn them on. Are they malfunctioning?" he muttered, confused.
Clank~
Just as he was wondering what was going on, Long Chen heard a metallic sound coming from the direction of the gates.
He stood up and walked toward the door, confused.
"Hmm? Unlocked? I can leave?"
A strange elation filled his heart as he realized that the metallic doors were unlocked. He could see them open a bit.
He wondered if this was his chance to escape. Was there a mistake in the system?
"No. We are in the Heaven. I doubt there could be a mistake like this. That could only mean it's intentional," he muttered, frowning.
He pushed the doors open and stepped out. As soon as he took his first step out, he was able to hear chatter in his surroundings.
Looking to his left and his right, he realized that he wasn't the only person here who was out. There were other cells in his surroundings, and even they were opened. All the prisoners were let out.
Some of the prisoners looked like ordinary humans, while there were quite a few who seemed frightening, making it seem like messing with them was the biggest mistake a person could make.
The place he found himself standing was also pretty fascinating. The hallway itself was ten meters wide, which made Long Chen wonder how big this place actually was.
Moreover, as far as his eyes could see, he saw the corridor, which seemed to be one at least ten kilometers long in itself.
Both sides of the corridor appeared to be made of pure gold with a strange language written on them. He couldn't understand what was written in the walls, but it appeared to be written in the language of the Heavenly Realm.
He looked up, surprised that there appeared to be no roof.
"Strange. They didn't even make a roof here? We still have our cultivation. Can't we easily escape from there?" He wondered as he noticed a beautiful sky above him.
He looked in his surroundings, wondering why no one was trying to escape from the roof.
"Thinking of escaping from the roof?" An old sounding voice fell in Long Chen's ears just as he thought if he should escape through the roof.
"Huh? It's you!" he exclaimed, recognizing that voice. " The person I was talking to last night?"
He turned around, noticing the person who had spoken. "Huh?"
Seeing the person, Long Chen's face twitched.
"Don't tell me you're that person?" He asked, frowning.
When he had first heard the voice, he imagined the person to be an old man with a long white beard and wrinkles all over his face, but it was completely different from his perception.
The person who stood before him wasn't an old man. In fact, he wasn't a man at all. He was only a kid who seemed to be twelve or thirteen years old.
For a minute, Long Chen even wondered if that was actually the same person who was talking to him before. Was he the person whose voice he heard, or was he a random kid that just happened to be there.
If that was the case, then where was the old man? Long Chen looked around to find an old man.
"Ah, there he is," he muttered, noticing an old man in the distance. The man had a long white beard and white hair, which came down to his knees behind him.
The man was dressed in a white robe and looked pretty strong.
"I would advise you against staring at that old man. He doesn't like someone staring at him," The old voice again came, bringing Long Chen out of his misconception.
He looked down, sure that the kid had spoken.
"Your voice... I thought you would be an old man," Long Chen muttered, smiling wryly. "What did you do to end up here despite being a kid?"
"Kid? You're the kid here. This old man is old enough to be your great grandfather," The young boy replied, rolling his beautiful blue eyes.
The young kid had short blonde hair and cute chubby cheeks. He also dressed in a long robe though. The only difference was that the robe which was long for him happened to be tiny for Long Chen.
"So you used some skill to look younger?" Long Chen asked, confused.
"It doesn't matter. You should start walking now. Don't keep standing here.. I'll tell you everything on the way," The boy said, patting Long Chen as he continued walking towards the left of the corridor.
He wasn't the only one though. It was the direction where all the prisoners were going.
Long Chen walked with the kid with a myriad of questions in his head.
"What's your name?" the kid asked Long Chen.
"I'm called Long Chen. You?"
"My name is Zia Uzhi," The boy answered. "As for the answer to your question, people can't leave through the roof because it's just an illusion. What you see above you have the real sky but only an illusion. You'll be badly hurt if you touch the roof."
"It's an illusion?" Long Chen asked, surprised. He looked up, amazed at how realistic the illusion looked.
"That's right. The real roof is pitch black. As for the sky, it's just because of a decorative illusion. When it's night, you see beautiful stars in the sky. And it's the day, you see what you're seeing now," Zia Uzhi answered, smiling. "It's a neat trick."
"Why did you end up in a place like this? What crime did you commit to offend the Heavenly Warriors?" Long Chen asked, walking beside him.
Except for him, everyone else was someone who was caught by the Heavenly Warriors, so it was evident that they had committed some crimes. As for what crimes, that was the question.