The Frigid Ice Prison had eighteen levels, each colder than the last, and every sixth level marked a threshold. The difference between the sixth and seventh levels was incomparable, and the same held true between the twelfth and thirteenth!
Bei Li Mo was furious over Yang Kai's vile insults; otherwise, she would never have ordered him thrown into the thirteenth level. Sending him to the seventh had been meant as a mild lesson—throwing him into the thirteenth was outright punishment. If you can't win a fight, you resort to name-calling? This man had absolutely no grace.
No more than a dozen breaths after the order was given, the Stone Demon arrived at Yang Kai's ice cell and peered through the window at him with a look of pity.
Yang Kai wiped his mouth and looked down his nose at the creature. "What do you want!"
The Stone Demon shook his head and sighed, having no intention of engaging in conversation. He simply produced a token, deactivated the cell's restriction, opened the door, and jerked his head at Yang Kai.
Yang Kai bared his teeth in a grin. "That cheap woman wants to see me? Tell her to come crawling over here herself!"
"You're overthinking things!" the Stone Demon snorted coldly, reaching out to grab him.
Yang Kai instinctively tried to dodge, but with the restriction Bei Li Mo had planted inside his body, though his physical frame remained formidable, eighty percent of his strength had been stripped away. He was caught in the Stone Demon's grip before he could escape.
The Stone Demon then dragged him deeper into the prison.
Yang Kai sensed something was off, but his temper was already boiling. Kowtowing was completely out of the question. He twisted his body and barked, "Let me go! This King will walk with you willingly. But you'd best relay a message to Bei Li Mo—unless she comes here to apologize, this King will never forgive her, and he certainly won't give her what she wants."
The Stone Demon merely grunted twice, paying him no heed whatsoever.
Before long, a staircase leading straight down appeared before them. They descended to the next level, didn't stop, and kept going down…
It was then that Yang Kai realized this ice prison wasn't just a single level—there were many, each with a worse environment than the last. He understood immediately. His earlier string of insults must have reached Bei Li Mo's ears; otherwise, he wouldn't be getting transferred deeper. It made sense—since Bei Li Mo wanted him to repair the World Gate, she would naturally be monitoring his every move closely. She wouldn't actually want him dead.
After descending six full levels, the Stone Demon shoved Yang Kai into an ice cell, tossed him inside, slammed the door shut, and turned to leave.
Yang Kai was shivering so hard his teeth chattered. It was far colder here than where he'd been before. The previous spot had been chilly, but with his powerful physique he could fend it off easily and barely felt the cold. This level, however, was something else entirely. In the span of just a few moments, Yang Kai could feel the blood in his veins slowing down. The pervasive Ice Laws surrounding him seeped through every pore like invisible poison, burrowing into his organs without cease.
He hopped up and down in place for a while, but it did nothing to chase away the chill.
Yang Kai flew into a rage, rushed to the window, and launched into another round of curses at the outside world. Moping around in here would only make him colder—at least cursing kept his spirits up, and maybe it would even warm him up…
The Stone Demon guarding the prison watched this and couldn't help but feel exasperated. He thought to himself that this human was really something else. Even the thirteenth level couldn't make him shut his mouth. What on earth had happened between him and the Holy Sovereign? The only question was how long he could hold out—the cold of the thirteenth level was in an entirely different league from the seventh. The Stone Demon estimated that Yang Kai would be completely exhausted within two days at most, and then he'd naturally have no energy left for cursing.
In reality, Yang Kai's resilience and willpower far exceeded his imagination—or rather, the Holy Sovereign had severely underestimated the toughness of this human's body. A full three days later, Yang Kai was still shouting insults. Granted, he would curse for a while and then rest, but lasting this long was nothing short of astonishing.
Over those three days, the Holy Sovereign inquired about the human's condition practically every single day. The Stone Demon couldn't very well hide anything and had to report the truth each time. He could tell from the tone of the female Demon King who delivered the messages that the Holy Sovereign must have been absolutely livid.
On this particular day, Yang Kai had just started a fresh round of cursing when a heavy sigh suddenly drifted over from a nearby cell: "Kid, you've been at it for days now, and it's the same handful of tricks over and over. My ears are about to sprout calluses. Can't you come up with something new?"
Hearing someone actually speak to him caught Yang Kai somewhat off guard.
When he'd first been thrown in here, he'd taken stock of this level's situation. It seemed to hold other Demon Race prisoners as well—all of them at the Demon King rank. He had no idea what crimes they'd committed. There weren't many, fewer than ten in total, but these people paid absolutely no attention to anyone who arrived. They simply sat cross-legged in their respective cells, struggling to endure the cold.
No one bothered with them either. They were left to wither and die on their own. The moment the Demon Energy inside their bodies ran dry, that would be the end.
The one who had spoken seemed to be in the cell diagonally across. Yang Kai peered through his window but couldn't see anyone—the speaker was probably tucked away in the farthest corner. He grinned and said, "Well said, brother! Why don't you try your hand at a few insults too? See if you can bring some fresh material to the table?"
There was a pause before the reply came: "I don't have your nerve."
He genuinely couldn't fathom it. How did Yang Kai have the audacity to hurl such insults at Bei Li Mo? What baffled him even more was why Bei Li Mo hadn't simply shut the man's mouth. Daring to curse a Holy Sovereign like this—when was the last time anyone had done that?
"Worst case, it's just death. What kind of courage does cursing take?" Yang Kai scoffed.
The Demon King said, "Death comes in many flavors. I'd rather not spend my final days being tormented."
From another direction, a second Demon King's voice suddenly chimed in: "Hey, you—stop bothering him. Let him keep cursing."