Of course, Xie Shen had to pay a price for doing this.
After all, he was now in a mortal body. The tremendous recoil force instantly caused a comminuted fracture in his entire right arm.
Even the skin and flesh on his arm sloughed off with that punch.
It was a gruesome sight...
"What was that noise?"
The loud crashing sound from the shattering door quickly woke Deng Bin, who was still deep in sleep.
He opened his eyes and looked at Xie Shen, who had broken through the alloy door with just one punch, his face filled with disbelief. "You... what are you doing?"
Time was tight.
Hearing Deng Bin's voice, Xie Shen just glanced at him, then rushed out of the room without a second thought.
The reason the "Blood Ignition Art" could grant the caster such combat power was because it consumed the caster's lifespan.
This technique couldn't be sustained for long.
So, Xie Shen never intended to rely on this method to escape this prison called the "Tower."
He used this secret art solely to break out of the alloy room and see what the outside situation was like.
—After all, to escape this place, he needed to gather as much information as possible.
After rushing out the door, what greeted Xie Shen was a long corridor also constructed from alloy.
The metal corridor seemed endless.
On both sides were densely packed, innumerable metal doors, from which faint, miserable screams could be heard.
Such a horrifying scene sent involuntary chills down Xie Shen's spine.
Clearly, this prison called the "Tower" held far more than just him and Deng Bin captive.
As for why the managers of the "Tower" did this...
In the corridor, Xie Shen initially wanted to take advantage of his blood and energy not being fully exhausted yet to rush further and observe the situation as much as possible.
But before he could act, he saw several guards holding spheres closing in on him from both front and back.
Due to the enhancement from the "Blood Ignition Art," Xie Shen's senses were exceptionally sharp, far surpassing ordinary people.
He could clearly observe: those guards holding spheres showed no chest movement while running.
As if they didn't need to breathe at all.
These guards likely weren't human...
As this thought emerged in Xie Shen's mind, the prison guards surrounding him had already raised the spheres in their hands.
Hundreds of red beams shot from those spheres, slicing through his body effortlessly like blades, cutting him into countless pieces.
Instantly, flesh and blood splattered across the metal corridor...
...
[Revived subject, surname: Xie, born: February 23, 1999, 01:13.]
Accompanied by the familiar electronic synthesized voice, Xie Shen regained consciousness once again, resurrected on that bizarre geometric pattern.
In the room, the alloy door shattered by Xie Shen's punch had already been completely repaired.
As for the higher-ups within the "Tower," they never showed themselves throughout the entire incident, seemingly indifferent to what had just happened.
They hadn't even reinforced the metal door...
In the corner of the room, Deng Bin stared dumbfounded at Xie Shen, evidently still not having processed everything that had just occurred.
After a long while, he finally spoke. "Just now... how did you get out?"
Xie Shen didn't respond directly, deliberately changing the subject. "The guards inside this 'Tower' are problematic."
"You even noticed that?" Upon hearing this, Deng Bin showed a surprised expression.
Xie Shen detected the implied meaning in his words and followed up, "What, you already knew this secret?"
"It's not really a secret," Deng Bin replied after some thought. "I heard it from others: the guards in this prison aren't actually human. But because they look so much like humans, we privately call them 'pseudo-humans.'"
Pseudo-humans...
Xie Shen frowned deeply. "Those pseudo-humans carry weapons, spheres that emit red light. Do you know what those are?"
"Probably future technology," Deng Bin pondered for a moment. "You were born in 1999, and I was born in 2035. Our birthdays aren't that far apart... So if you don't recognize that weapon, I certainly wouldn't either."
If it's future weaponry...
Xie Shen made a rough estimate in his mind:
Judging solely from the speed, density, and the fluidity with which those red beams cut through human bodies, he would need at least Foundation Establishment stage or higher cultivation to withstand them.
But the problem was, Xie Shen died at least once almost every day in this prison called the "Tower."
And upon death, all his cultivation would dissipate.
So, there was simply no way for him to hide and cultivate within this prison.
Escape seemed impossible.
Lying low and developing his strength was also unfeasible.
This was really...
Xie Shen felt utterly weary.
He asked Deng Bin again, "Do you know exactly how long you've been in this prison?"
"According to the rules, this prison rotates once every 10 to 20 years," Deng Bin calculated. "So I'll calculate based on fifteen years per rotation... Since my first resurrection, I've probably been tortured a total of 6 times. As for me torturing others, excluding you this time, it's been 5 times. That makes 11 times total. So 11 multiplied by 15 equals 165 years."
Xie Shen nodded upon hearing this.
He then asked, "In those 165 years, have you ever seen anyone leave the 'Tower' alive?"
"Never."
Deng Bin stated unequivocally. "And I'm not just talking about actually escaping; not even a theoretical plan has ever been proposed."
"I've been through 11 rotations in the 'Tower,' meaning I've interacted with 11 cellmates."
"Then those cellmates have interacted with countless others."
"All of us, this many people, certainly hope to escape the 'Tower,'" Deng Bin said helplessly. "But on this issue, even after discussing it countless times with others, we still couldn't reach a conclusion... Anyway, I think it's impossible for us prisoners locked inside the 'Tower' to escape on our own. To break out, we'd need cooperation from humans outside the 'Tower.'"
"I think hope is slim," Xie Shen said despairingly after listening to Deng Bin. "After all, you said earlier: someone has been in this 'Tower' for over two thousand years... So if there really were humans outside, it's unlikely there'd be no movement at all for so long."
"True."
Deng Bin agreed. "Others in the 'Tower' think so too... They all believe the people outside the 'Tower' are probably already dead. Maybe due to war, Earth's environment became uninhabitable. Even with resurrection techniques, humans couldn't survive anymore."
The external living environment was hellish.
Humanity headed towards extinction.
Yet staying inside the "Tower" prison meant facing near-eternal torment.
This was an insurmountable dead end for all of humanity.