Yujin was shoved into the cell once again, his wrists bound tightly by the seastone shackles and a poisoned needle still fresh in his veins.
"Enjoy the rest of your life here!"
The heavy door clanged shut, sealing his fate with another life sentence.
Inside, the other prisoners showed no interest in their new cellmate. They curled up in the corners like broken shadows, silent and unmoving.
In one corner, two figures huddled together. Their appearance had long since crossed the boundary of what could still be called human, hunger having twisted their bodies into something grotesque.
The first prisoner's skin clung tightly to his bones, stretched thin like fragile paper over the sharp ridges beneath. Every rib was visible, as though they might pierce through at any moment.
His cheeks were sunken, his eyes hollow and lifeless, nothing more than two dark abysses devoid of light.
His arms were no more than brittle twigs, veins bulging against his skin, and his fingers had become unnaturally thin, the nails cracked and splintered from starvation.
He looked like nothing more than a walking corpse, with only the faintest breath left to prove he was still alive.
The second prisoner was even more terrifying. His skin had turned a sickly grayish white, carrying an unhealthy sheen that spoke of life slowly draining from his body.
His lips were cracked open, unable to close, revealing broken and incomplete teeth beneath. His gums had shriveled from lack of nourishment, leaving the teeth jutting out unnaturally.
His clothes hung off him in tattered shreds, as if draped over a skeleton rather than a man. They could no longer hide his wasted muscles or shriveled flesh.
When Yujin saw the two of them, a cold dread sank into his heart. He could almost see his own future reflected in their pitiful state.
Gritting his teeth, he tugged hard at the seastone shackles, testing their strength, only to find they were far sturdier than he could have imagined.
"Heh."
The less-starved of the two prisoners, the one who looked like a skeleton himself, let out a mocking laugh when he saw Yujin struggling against the shackles.
Yujin glanced at him but said nothing. He only kept pulling, refusing to stop.
He used up nearly all his strength, but the shackles remained unmoved. Sweat drenched his forehead, his vision beginning to blur.
"Don't waste your strength," the skeletal prisoner rasped. "Once you're locked in here, there's no getting out."
He paused, and a twisted grin spread across his gaunt face. "No, there is one way out. Turn into a corpse, and you'll be thrown into the furnace! Hahahaha!"
Compared to the prisoners in the first level of the Crimson Hell or the second level of the Wild Beast Hell, who at least fought desperately to survive, the ones here in the Starvation Hell had long since lost their sanity.
Anyone still alive here was already mad.
And anyone still sane… had chosen to end it themselves.
Yujin wasn't exactly sane himself. He swung the seastone chains with all his strength, smashing them against the prison door that was also made of seastone.
The harsh clang of metal echoed in the cramped cell, sharp and grating, making the already restless inmates even more irritable.
Especially the one who had remained silent all this time—"the Skeleton."
The Skeleton's voice was hoarse and low, laced with menace. "Kid, are you trying to get yourself killed?"
Yujin had been hammering away for a long time, burning up all his strength, yet he hadn't left the slightest mark on the prison door. His chest swelled with frustration.
He turned around, eyes flashing with defiance, and snapped at the prisoner who had spoken. "Look at you—do you really think you can kill me like this?"
Before the words even finished, the seemingly frail prisoner suddenly moved!
His speed was frighteningly fast. As he raised his leg, a streak of white light shot out, aimed straight at Yujin!
The beam traveled at incredible speed, reaching Yujin in an instant.
Yujin's eyes sharpened. With the reflexes of his three-tomoe Sharingan, he instinctively twisted his body, barely dodging the lethal strike.
The white beam pierced through the bars and slammed into the wall behind him with a dull explosion.
Stone fragments scattered as a deep gouge was carved into the wall.
The tension inside the cell spiked instantly, and even Yujin was shaken.
He hadn't expected this fragile-looking prisoner to be hiding such a deadly move.
Yujin's eyes grew sharper, his body taut, ready for the next strike.
But the Skeleton did not attack again. Instead, he muttered with curiosity, "Observation Haki?"
Another inmate, thin and withered like a stick, disagreed. "No, it doesn't feel like Observation Haki."
"Strange… then how did he dodge it?"
"Doesn't matter how—let's eat him first!"
The two prisoners openly plotted against him, right in front of his face. Yujin couldn't help but laugh!
He launched a punch at the nearest inmate.
But when his fist landed on what seemed like a weak body, it felt as though he had struck a slab of iron.
A crushing rebound force shot up his arm, leaving it numb.
Iron Body!
These two actually knew how to use the Rokushiki techniques!
No wonder this was Impel Down's Starvation Hell, where even the average inmate carried a bounty of over fifty million berries. Any random prisoner here was at least the level of a small-time leader.
The air grew heavy with the tension of a fight about to explode, as the three men in the cell braced themselves for battle.
Just then, heavy footsteps echoed down the corridor, each step pounding like a hammer against the heart.
As the footsteps drew closer, an overwhelming pressure swept through the entire cell, making even the air feel suffocating.
The two skeletal inmates immediately shrank back into the corner like frightened animals, their movements betraying pure fear and submission.
Yujin felt puzzled, but his instincts told him that the person about to appear was no ordinary figure.
Before long, a face appeared at the cell door. It was cold and merciless, with eyes brimming with killing intent so sharp it seemed almost tangible.
It was Shiryu of the Rain.
Shiryu said nothing. He simply stood there in silence, yet his presence alone made the temperature inside the cell plummet.
Slowly, he raised his hand. The blade he held gleamed with a chilling light, ready to strike Yujin down at any moment.
"Shiryu!"
Just as the blade came down, a splash of violet liquid shot toward where Shiryu had been standing.
He swiftly dodged aside, let out a cold snort at Yujin, and then vanished from sight.
Yujin narrowed his eyes at the smoking cell door.
Even Magellan's venom couldn't corrode seastone?
Before he could dwell on it further, another oppressive aura appeared at the doorway.
Beside Magellan, a prison guard held a paper in his hands and began to read aloud:
"The verdict is as follows: harming guards, killing guard beasts, attempted escape."
"Now, transfer from Crimson Hell to Starvation Hell, cell i-31-5."
Once the reading ended, the guard bowed respectfully to Magellan and presented the document.
"The verdict has been delivered! Vice Warden, please confirm!"
Magellan accepted the paper, then turned his towering figure toward Yujin.
"Do you accept the judgment?"
"No."
"No?" Magellan almost thought he'd misheard. "What part do you not accept?"
Yujin's Sharingan spun rapidly, the three tomoe glowing with fury. Facing the nearly five-meter-tall Poison Man, he roared in anger:
"I didn't commit any crime! On what grounds are you locking me up!?"
Magellan looked puzzled as he read Yujin's record on the judgment sheet.
"Seven years ago, for taking part in human trafficking and stealing property from the Celestial Dragons, you were locked up in Crimson Hell."
"Any questions?" Magellan added.
When he heard the reason for his imprisonment, Yujin laughed like a madman.
"Ha—seven years ago I was only seven years old; involved in human trafficking?" Yujin barked.
Magellan snorted coldly.
"Born a bad seed," he said.
Yujin laughed again, fixing his gaze on Magellan.
He spoke each word slowly and clearly.
"When I get out, I'll kill every one of you!"
****
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