Superion disassembled into the five Aerialbots, who followed behind Optimus Prime and approached Zenith. "It is an honor to meet you, our Creator."
"You're too polite, I didn't really do much." Zenith waved his hands hastily. He looked around and found that the surrounding buildings had long been battered into ruins during the battle.
Especially that shrine. Between the stray plasma blasts from Optimus Prime's blaster and the ricochets bouncing off Po Kong's skin, it was basically dismantled beyond recognition.
Jackie Chan seemed to read Zenith's mind and threw his hands up. "Section 13 will take care of the reconstruction and compensation here."
The Americans handling post-disaster reconstruction in Japan sounded like a myth, but it was surprisingly reasonable.
It was just that the demon seals were scattered all over the world, with one even on the moon. Making such a huge scene every time felt like it would inevitably catch innocent people in the crossfire.
Zenith thought for a moment, a sudden idea popping into his head. "Actually, the reason we're always scrambling is that we're fighting encounter battles. If we could know the locations of the Netherworld portals in advance, along with the corresponding trigram of the demon coming out..."
Jade quickly finished his sentence, "Then we could send them right back the second they pop out!"
"Exactly," Zenith nodded. "That's the optimal solution for fighting the demons."
"But no one knows where the Netherworld portals actually are, and we don't know which demon will appear each time!"
Uncle dragged out his words, "Spells have a time limit. We can't prepare the Chi magic for every single demon all at once."
What kind of question was that? Zenith gave Uncle a weird look, then pulled out a pen and paper. "Who says no one knows? As everyone knows, the opening order of the Netherworld portals is Gen, Xun, Zhen, Dui, Kun, Qian, Kan, Li. The next one is the Wind Demon, Xiao Fung, at the Xun position."
The air froze. Uncle stared at the paper listing the demons' appearance order and pushed up his glasses. "Which ancient tome is this recorded in? Why hasn't Uncle seen it?"
"Is this intel accurate? If we have Uncle prepare the wrong magic, there could be unnecessary casualties." This was Jackie.
"Who is 'everyone'?" This was Jade.
Honestly, Zenith couldn't remember the exact plot developments either, because he hadn't even finished watching *Jackie Chan Adventures* back then. He only knew this order because he casually asked about it while having dinner with the Eight Immortals last time.
"It's guaranteed." Zenith flashed an OK sign. "Haven't you noticed? So far, everything I've interfered with has ended well. Just hurry up and get to work."
Now that he mentioned it, it really seemed true. Jackie thought about it; Zenith gave off a magical vibe of being simultaneously reliable and completely unreliable. Take Optimus Prime right in front of them, for example. At first, bringing a Transformer into this felt incredibly dangerous, but today he had actually been a huge help.
The plan was happily finalized, but to pull it off, they first needed to get the Pan'ku Box from Shendu.
Regarding that, Zenith already had a plan.
Hollow Haven Penitentiary.
Rather than a reformatory, it was actually just a prison. Zenith found the warden, spent a fortune to buy the naming rights, and arranged for a few of his acquaintances to move in as prison guards.
"Yare yare, making me work part-time in a place like this during my rare vacation."
Jotaro pulled down the brim of his hat. Currently pursuing his Ph.D., he had been dragged all the way back by Zenith to guest-star as a prison guard. And the prison's name had been temporarily changed by Zenith to "Stone Ocean."
The Pan'ku Box needed to be within a certain distance to automatically open the portal. Zenith remembered this place quite vividly; he clearly recalled that Xiao Fung's Netherworld portal was located in the laundry room of some prison.
Therefore, this laundry room was the most heavily guarded location in all of "Stone Ocean." Reaching it from the outside required passing through layers of trials.
For example, defeating the warden of each sector.
Under Zenith's design, getting from the "new inmate" block to the core laundry room required passing through at least three main gates. The keys to these gates were held by Jotaro Kujo, Levi Ackerman, and the still-underage Stark.
Of course, Zenith would make sure to tell them to go easy.
Outside Stone Ocean, Valmont and his crew had finally deciphered the location of the second Netherworld portal.
Storming the prison by force was impossible, so the safest way to infiltrate was to let the guards arrest them.
They were far too familiar with this—just rob a bank. Given the formidable track record of Valmont's crew, Jackie Chan and Section 13 conducted a joint operation to capture them. Ultimately, the court sentenced them to fifty years in Stone Ocean Prison.
Valmont and his two goons felt they were professionals at doing time, but Zenith used practical actions to show them that past experience was useless here.
"What are you idiots standing around for? It's not yard time, get back to your cells!"
The guards here had one massive difference from guards anywhere else: they were all heavily armed, carrying AKs loaded with live ammunition. Regardless of whether they would actually shoot, the visual impact was maxed out.
Faced with these carbon-based lifeform pacifiers, Valmont and the others couldn't muster a single rebellious thought, scurrying back to their cells with their tails between their legs.
The prison environment here was actually not bad. It was a small single room with two bunk beds and a table inside, slightly larger than a soft sleeper cabin on a high-speed train.
Valmont, Ratso, and Finn were inside the prison, while Chow and Hak Fu remained on the outside, looking for an opportunity to smuggle the Pan'ku Box in.
"Boss, this prison gives me a really weird vibe."
Ratso looked at the armed guards patrolling outside with a hint of panic. "They look more like villains than we do."
"Just a bunch of mortals. As long as we free Xiao Fung from the Netherworld, these guards won't be a threat at all."
That was easy to say, but looking at the current situation, strolling around the prison to find the Netherworld portal was practically impossible.
It seemed they had to use the old-fashioned method. Ratso reluctantly pulled out a roll of US dollars he had hidden on his person. In prison, this was the only thing that could counter guns.
The power of money was highly effective. Ratso gained limited freedom of movement within the prison. And the first thing he needed to do was liberate Valmont and the others.
They certainly weren't lacking in funds; what they lacked was a way to smuggle the money in. Chow and Hak Fu would take care of all that.
The area of Sector One wasn't large. The layout was like a triple-tiered gourd, and getting to the next sector required passing through a narrow corridor.
A sofa sat by the side of the corridor, and a burly man who looked like someone you absolutely shouldn't mess with sat on it, his cold eyes scrutinizing everyone who tried to pass.
Just as Ratso tried to pass, the burly man moved. He propped his legs up on the table in front of the sofa, holding a cup of coffee. "Inmate 9736, Ratso. You do not have clearance to pass through here."
Jotaro stood at 195 centimeters tall. His solid, muscular build exuded a fierce, intimidating aura even while seated.
"But they can all pass." Ratso pointed at the other people walking through, then sharply noticed that they all had a purple brooch pinned to their chests.
"So you need a ticket. This prison is really interesting."