Sir! Don't close the net!

However, Chris Dorf was overthinking things. Li Yili had no intention of escaping. Instead, he stood in the middle of the rushing Teresa Road, not even looking at the end of Teresa Prison on the road to freedom. He just stared at the sky, letting the rushing water wash away the dirt and blood on his body.

Chris Dorf immediately understood what Li Yili meant and couldn't help but sigh.

Even the King in Yellow would want to take a bath.

Despite his feelings, Chris Dorf still felt that Li Yili was taking a risk.

Because the time when we cannot act is approaching.

Chris Dougher, who had quickly returned to the cabin, looked sympathetically at Li Yili, who was standing in the middle of Teresa Road, through the window.

The instant the clock stopped, the Iron Maiden and the strange dogs appeared silently on the banks of the Path of Teresa.

Chris Dorf held his breath.

This was the first time Chris Dorf had ever seen a living person appear before the Iron Maiden.

But nothing happened. The Iron Maiden continued to wander, and the strange dogs around her growled as they circled the Path of Theresa, but showed no intention of rushing into the Path of Theresa.

Is it because of the Path of Teresa?

Chris Dorf thought his idea was stupid.

The Teresa Road is nothing more than a river used to make money.

But Li Yili's next move made Chris Dorf's eyes widen.

Li Yili walked directly out of Teresa's Road.

The filth and bloodstains on my body seemed to have been washed away, but those terrifying Iron Maidens and strange dogs were still on the shore!

Could it be that the King in Yellow can really control these Iron Maidens and strange dogs?

Chris Dougher recalled the rumors the jailer had mentioned with a disdainful tone.

Driven by a strange emotion, Chris Dorf unconsciously moved closer to the window.

The moment Li Yili stepped onto the lawn, the enormous Iron Maiden opened its body and its bizarre tentacles surged out, engulfing everything.

Chris Dorf couldn't help but sigh in disappointment, but before he could turn his head, a yellow figure silently emerged from between the Iron Maiden's tentacles, wandering like a ghost roaming the earth. The bizarre and terrifying Iron Maiden and the strange dogs, just as rumored, seemed to be part of the Yellow King's body, silently surrounding him.

It was clearly more like a hunt for the King in Yellow. The Iron Maiden seemed poised to devour the King in Yellow at any moment, with her tentacles engulfing his body every second. Yet, the only word that came to Chris Dorf's mind was "surrounded."

The only thing he couldn't be sure of was whether those absurd things had become part of the King in Yellow, or whether the King in Yellow had become part of those absurd things that were enforcing certain rules.

That night, someone saw the King in Yellow again.

On the night of the second day, the night of the third day, and the night of the fourth day, Li Yili would always stand in the middle of Teresa Road at the same time, letting the rushing river wash away the bloodstains on her body. Li Yili's clothes became more and more torn, and her wounds increased to the point where a normal person should not be able to stand up long ago.

On the fifth night, Chris Dorf, leaning on his hoe, called out to Li Yili, who was about to enter Teresa's Road to wash off the bloodstains on her body.

"Hey--"

“I don’t plan to escape,” Li Yili paused, then shrugged at Chris Dorf. “This Teresa’s Path is not a path to redemption at all, it’s just a river suitable for bathing.”

"Aren't you going to change your clothes?" Chris Dorf gestured with his chin. "They're practically rags now."

Li Yili looked down and tugged at her clothes. It would have been better if she hadn't pulled them; the strips of cloth that were barely held together by the bloodstains were torn off on the spot.

The claw marks, which were completely unlike anything a strange dog could leave, made Chris Dorf's eyes twitch.

It was just like being attacked by a bear.

What surprised him even more was that despite being so badly injured, Li Yili was still standing there unharmed, planning to take a shower using the Teresa Road.

“Ha…here you go,” Chris Dougher tossed a waterproof bag to Li Yili.

Li Yili reached out and caught the waterproof bag. She opened it and was puzzled by the young man's clothes inside.

“I have no money. Of course, if I could go out, I could get a lot of money.”

"This is a free gift—"

Chris Dougher, holding his hoe, turned around and waved.

"I don't know what you're doing, but stop and go back to sleep."

Li Yili, who was gesturing to the clothes, paused and turned to look at Chris Dorf's back.

"I don't like receiving gifts."

Chris Dorf pushed open the wooden door, stood inside the cabin, and turned to face Li Yili.

“I don’t like giving gifts either, because that’s a right that only gods have.”

"Ha~ You're a follower of Bishop Azavet."

Li Yili tossed her waterproof bag onto the bank, laughed, and walked into Teresa's Path, washing the grime off her body in the rushing river.

"Then I cannot accept these clothes."

Chris Dorf let out a long sigh.

"Then let it be... a tribute offered to the King in Yellow."

Chapter Thirteen: Lying Among Corpses, Gazing at the Stars

Li Yili is not an arrogant person; on the contrary, he is a very thick-skinned person.

With a thick skin, he could break through Valkyrie's aloof demeanor and thoroughly exploit her incurable nature.

He can be emotionally intelligent in exchanging gifts, or he can be ridiculously emotionally insensitive in simply accepting gifts without reciprocating in any way. Of course, it all depends on what the other person is giving him.

Exchanging gifts signifies a further development in the relationship, while simply accepting gifts implies that the person does not intend to take the relationship any further.

Kerry

S. Dorf's gift made Li Yili sense the story behind it, so she was not very willing to accept this somewhat heavy gift.

The suggestion that Chrisdorf was replaced with tribute made Li Yili's situation even more complicated.

Li Yili couldn't tell whether Chrisdorf's high emotional intelligence was genuine or if he truly had that idea.

However, Li Yili still accepted the tribute. After all, Chrisdorf was his only way to contact the outside world. If the relationship became too strained, not only would he not be able to ask for help from the outside world, but he would also probably not be able to get anything from the outside world.

If Chris Dorf were to mutter a few words to a jailer or prisoner who needed his help, he'd be dead.

Just as Li Yili was about to say a few words to ease the tension, the Iron Maiden and the Strange Dog appeared silently on the shore.

Li Yili let out a long breath, raised her arms and shook them up and down, then stepped onto the lawn to face the terrifying Iron Maiden, putting on her yellow raincoat, the edges of which were already tattered.

Before leaving, Li Yili glanced in the direction of the cabin. The door of the cabin was not closed as it had been a few days ago, and Chris Dougher was sitting at the door of the cabin, holding a hoe and looking at him.

His face was reflected in his aged eyes.

Li Yili raised her hand and pulled hard on the edge of her raincoat, wrapping it tightly around herself. Her long, slender shadow, stretching across the ground, trembled slightly, as if she were chuckling in a low voice.

Li Yili felt tired for the first time in a long time, but still couldn't fall asleep. Surrounded by the Iron Maiden and the Strange Dog, she took away the offerings in front of her cell door and turned around.

Li Yili had thought about it carefully.

Although no prisoner has broken into his cell so far, this doesn't mean it won't happen in the future. If other prisoners try to ambush him, that small cell will become his grave. Moreover, Teresa Prison is very large, and if returning to his cell is included in his itinerary, his range of movement will be greatly restricted.

Since that's the case, let's just not go back to the cell. That way, we'll have much more freedom of movement. As for the offerings placed in front of the cell door, we can leave them for a day or two before harvesting them.

In the early stages of their activities, the prisoners would pretend to be jailers, making sure no other prisoners were working in the mine leading to the underground temple before heading deeper to dig for the ancient relics of the gods. Once all the prisoners had left, they would leave the mine and go to the Path of Teresa to wash away the filth on their bodies.

Of course, there are also times when this itinerary is not feasible. After all, the prisoners in Theresa Prison are not only strange in appearance, but also in their biological clocks. The unlocked cell doors mean that the prisoners here do not have a completely uniform activity schedule. However, the biological clocks of the prison guards are very uniform. They patrol in small teams during the day and only a few people patrol at night, which is visibly perfunctory.

The perfunctory management meant that the entire Theresa Prison entered a dangerous gray period, where all behaviors except for those that were absolutely prohibited were no longer restricted. Unfortunately, the absolutely prohibited behaviors did not include harming other prisoners.

Li Yili even felt that this damned public prison was encouraging prisoners to hurt each other.

At this stage, Li Yili does not intend to play the role of a persecuted rookie prison guard who can only patrol at night. After all, his strength is not enough to deal with the prisoners of Teresa Prison in the gray time. It would be embarrassing if he were accidentally bumped into and broken.

So Li Yili's final choice was... to hide, no matter how dirty, dark and damp it was, to find a corner where the prisoners active during the gray time wouldn't go near, and to hide there and wait for the gray time to pass.

Li Yili had considered hiding directly in the underground temple, but the underground temple... in some ways was even more dangerous than Teresa's prison in the Gray Time, at least... it was not a place where he could hide indefinitely at this stage.

Li Yili paused, his eyes taking in the sight of a mountain of bizarrely shaped corpses piled up. The unimaginable stench made his stomach churn. Li Yili still remembered his reaction two days ago when he found this "safe zone" that the prisoners wouldn't approach; he vomited, tears streaming down his face.

And for a moment, he had a mental breakdown, and every cell in his body was urging him to cry out for help.

Of course, he still held back.

Because he was very certain that his cries would not bring salvation, that he would likely be beaten by the jailers, that all his efforts would be in vain, and that he would soon become one of the corpses.

One of the reasons Teresa Prison is called hell is that prisoners die all the time, perhaps from the brutality of the guards, perhaps from fights between prisoners, and those prisoners who are almost like contaminants, after they die... are no different from contaminants.

The prison guards here are not diligent. Even though there is a special garbage dump, they don't bother to drag the prisoners' corpses there. So there are several places in Teresa Prison where prisoners' corpses are piled up, and the one in front of him is one of them.

Even flies wouldn't come near, let alone the prisoners and jailers here.

Therefore, it is much safer than his cell.

"It's so hard to get through..."

Li Yili sighed deeply, wrapped herself in her raincoat, and lay down on her side. The sticky, bubbly texture gave her goosebumps, but she forced herself to endure the disgusting sensation and pulled the surrounding rotting corpses onto her body.

Only at times like this would Li Yili feel grateful for the oversized raincoat that had made him the King of Yellow, even though it couldn't change the disgusting feeling it gave him.

There was little direct contact.

Lying among the bizarrely shaped corpses, Li Yili looked up at the ever-present starry sky and let out a long sigh. She couldn't help but recall Chris Dougher sitting behind the wooden cabin door, watching her.

Why was Chris Dorf's door open?

Why would Chrisdorf advise him?

At that time... if he had asked, would he have been able to get Chris Dorf to take him in? The cabin by Theresa Road would have been much safer and more secluded than this pile of corpses.

Numerous thoughts surfaced in Li Yili's mind; she even envisioned herself and Chrisdorf expanding their business.

"Ha... what am I thinking..."

Chapter Fourteen: Humans, the Invincible Bucket Warrior

The early morning at Teresa Prison was anything but peaceful; it was as if one had entered a grand theater where a bizarre musical was being performed.

The bizarre figures intertwined, and the eerie sounds that seemed impossible to produce from human vocal cords blended and resonated together.

Lying amidst the pile of corpses, Li Yili listened quietly to this "musical movement" that would drive a normal person mad and break them.

Only when the signal for silence was given and the music came to an end did Li Yili rise from the sticky pile of corpses.

After taking off her yellow raincoat and putting on the clean and tidy clothes provided by Chrisdorf, Li Yili walked along the path leading to the cells connecting the various floors, whistling as she walked with her hands behind her back.

Most of the prisoners had obediently retreated to their cells, but a few were still wandering the corridors.