Chapter 151: Framing Ye Fei

While the prison guards were gripped by horror, they discovered that the matter was far from over, as the trail of blood continued to stretch even further.

Some speculated that since the head of the Alligator was found here, following the trail of blood should lead them to the Alligator's body. However, when they traced the blood all the way to the bathhouse, they realized everyone had guessed wrong.

Inside the bathhouse lay yet another unfamiliar corpse. Furthermore, the skin of this corpse had a dark, purplish hue, which were the symptoms of poisoning.

Some prison guards rushed over to Boss Bao and his men's cell. Seeing the headless corpse of the Alligator lying on the bed—having slept in the same cell as Boss Bao and the others for an entire night—sent a piercing chill straight down their necks.

Afterwards, the three corpses were laid out together.

The first was the Alligator. The cause of death was having his entire head neatly severed, which was then carried away and inexplicably discarded in the hallway. One of his eyeballs had been gouged out, with the murder weapon—a poisoned dagger—still stuck in the eye socket, leaving only the headless corpse lying on the bed.

The second was Little Blood. The cause of death was a massive wound on his neck, and he was found lying dead in a pool of blood. Surrounding the deceased were broken daggers, a coil of steel wire wrapped around his body, and a peculiar ring worn on the index finger of each hand.

The third was Da Lian. The cause of death was a dagger plunged directly into his heart. The dagger appeared to be poisoned, and he presumably died from the venom taking effect. Both of the deceased's palms had been severed, and he similarly wore a strange ring on the index finger of each hand, with a coil of steel wire also wrapped around his body. Notably, the poisoned dagger lodged in the dead man's heart had the end of its hilt connected to a piece of steel wire, which was gripped in the deceased's own hand. It appeared as though the man had intended to harm someone, only to accidentally stab himself and succumb to the poison with no hope of survival.

Among the three, the Alligator's manner of death was the most horrifying, which caused everyone present to silently bestow a new title upon Ye Fei in their hearts: the Demon.

The events here had already been reported by the prison guards, and Warden Niu Yutang learned of them shortly after. However, since he had not witnessed the gruesome states of the three deceased with his own eyes, he felt little emotional impact. The only thing that truly surprised him was that Ye Fei's martial arts skills were actually so formidable.

Boss Bao and his crew were Niu Yutang's cash cows for running underground boxing matches, so Niu Yutang was well aware of the Alligator's strength, which was on par with the Cheetah. That Ye Fei could kill the Cheetah meant he could naturally kill the Alligator as well; on this point, Niu Yutang was not surprised. However, Niu Yutang knew the identities of the other two dead men. They were top-tier assassins hired internationally by the Fang Financial Group, possessing immense combat prowess and capable of dispatching characters like the Cheetah in mere seconds.

He had never expected that two international first-class assassins would both be eliminated by this Ye Fei.

Naturally, Niu Yutang held no affection for Ye Fei. Moreover, Ye Fei was unruly and untamable, making him impossible to recruit. On the contrary, eliminating Ye Fei presented a convenient opportunity to establish ties with the Fang Financial Group.

"Alright, take some men and secure Ye Fei first. I'll be right there," Niu Yutang said over the phone before abruptly hanging up, preparing to head to the prison in person to completely eliminate this Ye Fei.

...

"Warden, you're here." A prison guard eagerly sidled up to him with a flattering smile.

"Where is Ye Fei?" Niu Yutang asked with a wave of his hand.

"Ye Fei is in his cell," the guard replied.

"Huh? Didn't I tell you to place Ye Fei under control?" Niu Yutang asked with a frown.

"Hehe... Hehe..." The surrounding guards offered dry, awkward laughs, standing about sheepishly without being able to give a coherent answer.

Almost every prison guard knew that Ye Fei had powerful backers behind him; how could low-level guards like them dare to act recklessly? If anything went wrong, the warden wouldn't be implicated, but minor guards like them would be the ones facing catastrophic consequences. Therefore, instead of arresting Ye Fei, the guards deliberately waited for the warden to arrive and take charge of the arrest. That way, should any accountability be demanded, the tall trees like the warden would take the brunt of the storm first.

"Forget it. Lead the way to Ye Fei," Niu Yutang said with a dark expression.

"Warden, aren't you going to look at the dead prisoners first?" a guard cautiously reminded him.

Niu Yutang's face darkened, leaving him no choice but to change his tune: "Let's go look at the dead prisoners first then! Move."

This time, the group swarmed around Niu Yutang as they walked over, finally coming face-to-face with the three corpses.

The bodies had been neatly arranged together. Whether as a prank or due to someone's sheer carelessness in forgetting to put the Alligator's head back in place, what Niu Yutang saw was a headless corpse, causing him to nearly vomit on the spot.

"Where is the deceased's head? Put it back on immediately!" Niu Yutang roared.

A junior guard hurriedly placed the Alligator's head back onto the neck, making the sight look much more palatable.

Afterwards, a guard explained the circumstances of the three deceased individuals to Niu Yutang, nearly causing him to retch again. Especially when he imagined Boss Bao and the others sleeping in the same cell as a headless corpse all night, with their beds separated by a mere arm's length, a chilling aura surged up from the depths of his heart.

Niu Yutang suddenly felt that as long as Ye Fei lived, he would never know peace.

"Ye Fei must die."

"Let's go, to the cells to arrest Ye Fei," Niu Yutang commanded. Flanked by a crowd of guards holding their firearms nervously, he marched toward Ye Fei's cell.

Meanwhile, Ye Fei was currently inside his cell, chatting and laughing casually with Liang Ji and the others, seemingly completely oblivious to the events unfolding outside.

Outside the cell door, Niu Yutang kicked the door open. Noticing the anomaly with the door lock, he bellowed, "What is going on with this cell door? How did the lock break?"

"Warden, we have no idea either! It was completely fine last night, but today it somehow ended up like this," a guard explained.

"Ye Fei, you committed murder within the prison walls, and now I am taking you away," Niu Yutang declared.

"Warden, whose life have I taken? Could it be the Cheetah and the others?" Ye Fei smiled, his gaze carrying profound meaning. If Niu Yutang intended to use this as a charge, then once they secretly operated an underground prison, the authorities wouldn't be investigating Ye Fei—they would be investigating the prison staff. If Niu Yutang chose not to use this as an official charge, there were no witnesses to what transpired last night, and the surveillance cameras had been shut off, leaving no evidence to prove that Ye Fei was the killer.

"You..." Niu Yutang was left speechless. He understood the implication behind Ye Fei's words: if he tried to pin the deaths of the Cheetah and the others on him, Ye Fei would expose the underground prison operation, and there was no telling who would ultimately suffer the worst of the fallout.

Niu Yutang knew Ye Fei possessed certain resources, and exposing the facility would genuinely cause quite a headache.

"This has nothing to do with the others. I am talking about the three prisoners you murdered last night," Niu Yutang stated. By framing it this way, he was choosing to let the previous matter slide, meaning Ye Fei could no longer use the underground prison as leverage for blackmail.

"Warden, one cannot simply speak carelessly! I was locked inside my cell all night, sleeping peacefully, and I haven't even stepped outside today!" Ye Fei retorted.

"Save the act, Ye Fei. You had a grudge against fierce wolves like them, so you killed the Alligator for revenge. When those two other prisoners stumbled upon it, you killed them to silence witnesses, didn't you?" Niu Yutang argued.

The saying "official documents have two faces, right and wrong depend on what they say" perfectly described Niu Yutang at this moment. The Alligator's death was indeed Ye Fei's act of revenge, so he was right about that much; however, knowing full well that Da Lian and Little Blood were assassins, he deliberately framed them as innocent inmates to paint Ye Fei as a murderer eliminating witnesses.

In truth, all the guards present knew those two inmates were by no means ordinary prisoners. One only had to look at their equipment—the daggers, the spiked rings, and the steel wire—to realize something was deeply amiss with them.

Yet the person standing right before them was the warden himself; who would dare voice such truths out loud?

"Warden, it is true that I had friction with the fierce wolves and their faction, but that alone is hardly sufficient evidence to prove I killed the Alligator! Furthermore, there are surveillance cameras in the prison. I request to review the footage to prove my innocence," Ye Fei said.

"Hmph, I will naturally check the surveillance. What about your cell door? Are you going to tell me you didn't sabotage the lock so you could go out and murder the Alligator and the others?" Niu Yutang was not someone who climbed to the position of warden by being a fool. With just a flip of his lips, he could spin a lengthy narrative out of thin air.

The matter of the door lock was indeed impossible to explain logically, leaving Ye Fei with no choice but to play dumb. "What happened to this door? I have no idea either! Oh my, how did the lock break?"

"Stop pretending, Ye Fei. You cut the lock open from the inside," Niu Yutang asserted. A sudden thought struck him: that door lock was exceptionally sturdy! How on earth had Ye Fei managed to cut through it?

Could it be—Niu Yutang recalled how, a short while ago, the Deep Sea City police had cracked down on a ferocious ring of kidnappers and discovered an ancient tomb, from which they excavated a vast number of ancient treasures, including a legendary sword capable of cutting through iron like mud.

That was it! Back when the kidnappers abducted Zhang Linsheng's daughter, it was Ye Fei who rescued her, and they had emerged directly from that ancient tomb. Perhaps, aside from that longsword, Ye Fei had secretly stashed away another divine weapon capable of slicing through iron like clay.

Niu Yutang's eyes lit up. The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that he had uncovered the truth. Once he eliminated Ye Fei, wouldn't that divine weapon in his possession naturally become his? Ha, ha, ha.

Ye Fei had no idea that in this brief span of a few moments, so many calculations had already raced through Niu Yutang's mind.

He calmly replied, "Warden, I heard that Boss Bao and the others had their cell door securely locked, yet the Alligator still had his head cut off right inside his cell. Even if I managed to break the lock on my own door, I wouldn't have the key to open Boss Bao's cell door anyway. It's not like I can walk through walls!"

"Hmph, no matter how eloquently you quibble, you cannot deceive me. You are the one who killed them. Arrest Ye Fei," Niu Yutang commanded with a dark voice.

A row of guards instantly raised their firearms, aiming them at Ye Fei and pulling the triggers.

Ye Fei's heart sank. Niu Yutang was fully resolved to abuse his authority and forcibly eliminate him by brute force, lacking any evidence whatsoever.