Chapter 1322: Breaking the barrier

"Library?"

"That's right. It's a place which contains books, cultivation manuals, and many more."

"So we can't enter that library?"

"That's not entirely true. We can enter the library, but we can only access the first floor. And that first floor only contains history books and stuff like that. It doesn't have anything that you can use to help yourself." Zia Uzhi explained. 

"So we can't access anything important without becoming an Inner Prisoner?" Long Chen asked, smiling wryly. 

"We do have places we can access. For example, the place we're going to? The main arena? It's the place we can access," Zia Uzhi replied. 

"And from there, we can go to other places like the Training ground, Dark Tower and other such places. We can go inside those places. But yeah, the real fun only begins when you become an Inner Prisoner,"  he further added, smiling.

"Will we ever get there? How far is that place? We've been walking for close to an hour, but the exit isn't at sight."

"We're almost there. It's just that the prison is too big. And our cells happened to be at the wrong end of the prison, which was why it takes us so long to get to the common arena. If we had a room here, we wouldn't even take ten minutes to get there," Zia Uzhi explained. 

"So all those are just cells? How many prisoners are here exactly?" Long Chen asked, surprised. The prison was so big that it could easily house hundreds of thousands of prisoners from what it seemed. 

"Prisoners? I don't think anyone knows the exact number, but if I were to take a guess from what I saw, I think there are at least three hundred thousand prisoners here," Zia Uzhi answered. 

"Three Hundred Thousand?" Long Chen asked, stunned. "So many people?"

"You need to look at it from the right perspective. All of us have a long lifespan, even longer than someone like you can imagine. And we're here for life sentences. So the people who are here have been collected for thousands of years. So if you look at the exact number, it's not that high," Zia Uzhi replied. 

"In fact, I think there should have been even more people. But the Heavenly Warriors only send special prisoners here. As for minor prisoners..."

"Why did you stop? What happens to minor prisoners?" Long Chen asked, frowning. "Are they killed?"

"Killed? Hahahaha, no. Heavenly Warriors don't kill a prisoner as long as their life isn't in danger. Moreover, if they can send big criminals here, why would they kill minor prisoners?" Zia Uzhi asked. 

"Minor prisoners are punished accordingly right there before they're freed. Some of them are even banished to other places, never allowed to return," he continued.

"I still didn't understand one thing. Why would Heavenly Realm make this sect-like place? If it's a prison, why do they have this system of promotion? Why are they fine with their prisoners' growth? Why are they giving the strong prisoners facilities?" Long Chen asked. 

"Who knows? Even I'm not sure about that. Maybe because the Heavenly Emperor wants to be different from the Demonic Emperor? That's why he lets prisoners live an ordinary life even though they're in prison?"

"Demonic Emperor?" Long Chen asked. 

"The Emperor of Demon Realm, which is the biggest enemy of the Heaven Realm. I'm surprised you don't know about him. Even the Immortal World has some knowledge about him," Zia Uzhi responded. 

"In fact, I would say that we are lucky to be prisoners here. Being a prisoner in the Demon Realm is worse than being a prisoner here. If we were prisoners there, we would have been dead long ago, tortured in the most brutal of ways," he further explained, sighing. 

"That might be why the Heavenly Emperor isn't that harsh to us? Maybe because he wants to prove something to the Demonic Emperor?" 

"Also, so what if prisoners get stronger here or have some facility? It's not like they can escape. Also, even if they get strong, they can't get strong enough to threaten the establishment."

As Zia Uzhi explained, Long Chen also nodded. He was also somewhat relieved that the box sent him in the Heavenly Prison and not to the Demonic prison. 

Even though he was stuck at this place, at least he was alive. As long as he was alive, he had a chance of escape. Moreover, he was stuck in the Heaven. Here, he could still get stronger. 

At least until he escaped from here, he could take advantage of this place to get stronger. He could actually learn Heavenly Grade skills from this place. That was something he didn't possess. 

Moreover, if he could absorb even one attack from a Heavenly Warrior before escaping, that was going to do wonders for his cultivation. 

"If someone wants to escape from this place, is there really no other way?" he asked. 

"Escape? As an External Prisoner, I would say you have literally no chance. At night, you will be in your cells and can't even leave that. And in the morning, the only way to leave is heavily guarded. Even if you get past the security, you'll reach the strongest defense of the Heavenly Realm- the Soaring Storm barrier."

"That's also the barrier which prevents anyone from using laws inside this place. As long as the barrier is active, no one can use Laws inside the Heavenly Prison. No one except Heavenly Warriors."

"As long as the barrier is active? So is there a way for us to deactivate it?" Long Chen asked, thinking of a possibility. If he could deactivate the barrier, he could use his Space Law and escape from this place!

"Deactivating the barrier? Only the person who cast the barrier can do that," Zia Uzhi answered. 

"So, in this case, that person would be the Heavenly Emperor?" 

"That's right. I think you can already guess your answer from that. The Heavenly Emperor would never come here. And even if he comes, it won't be to deactivate the barrier to let us escape."

"No one else can do that?" Long Chen asked. 

"Nope. Only he and he alone can."

"So if the Heavenly Warriors wanted to release a prisoner, they couldn't do that?" Long Chen asked. 

"In that case, they would simply use their laws to bring the prisoner out. As I said, the Heavenly Warriors can use their Laws inside."

"So we can't deactivate the Barrier... What about destroying it?" Long Chen asked. 

"Destroying the barrier?" Zia Uzhi asked, blankly looking at Long Chen. 

Ultimately, he burst into laughter. "Hahaha, you can't be serious!"