Chapter 12: There Is an Emperor Imprisoned in the Well

Chapter 12: Chapter 12: There Is an Emperor Imprisoned in the Well

...

WHOOSH~~

The whistling sound of rushing air from his rapid descent filled his ears.

Chen Sha felt he had fallen at least a hundred meters.

THUD!

Despite the great height, he landed completely unscathed. Instead, he felt a gentle True Qi, like a cloud of cotton, cushioning his fall.

It was clearly the work of his Little Martial Uncle, Zhou Santong.

Arriving at the bottom of the well, he looked up again, only to see a small point of light no bigger than the mouth of a bowl. He was shaken.

’A hundred-meter-deep well... a straight drop. If it weren’t for Little Martial Uncle’s True Qi protecting me, even with my Grandmaster Cultivation, I’d probably have been crippled if someone pushed me down...’

His admiration grew for his Little Martial Uncle’s Martial Arts, which were rumored to be on par with the top ten experts in the world.

’So this is where my father imprisoned that person?’

Chen Sha tore his gaze from above and scanned his surroundings, asking:

"Where is this person?"

What level of Martial Arts Cultivation must someone have to be personally imprisoned by Chen Canxuan, the number one expert in the world?

So much so that Zhou Santong himself had to build a cottage and a courtyard above to stand guard.

As Chen Sha spoke, the stagnant air at the bottom of the well began to stir!

FWOOSH~~

The light of torches suddenly flared to life on the surrounding walls, as if they were designed to ignite whenever air flowed in from above.

One by one, the torches illuminated the bottom of the well, revealing the truth of the place.

It was a massive, sinkhole-like cavern.

Chen Sha’s gaze was immediately drawn to a scene dozens of meters away at the edge of the stone wall. There, heaps of white bones—sheep, ox, and even tiger and leopard bones—were piled high...

"HAHAHAHA..."

A terrifying laugh suddenly echoed from the bottom of the well, as chilling as a great Demon:

"Zhou Santong, have you come down to spar with me again?!"

Chen Sha immediately looked toward the source of the voice.

The man was pierced by sixteen chains that ran through key skeletal points: his ribs, sternum, shoulders, elbows, arms, and thighs. The other ends of the chains were anchored to the walls of the cavern.

From a distance, it looked as if the man was suspended in mid-air, caught in a spider’s web.

Sixteen chains of unknown material pierced him from all directions.

"Hm?"

The mysterious Demon trapped by the chains noticed Chen Sha and bellowed:

"Who is this boy? That face is so familiar!"

Even from dozens of meters away, Chen Sha could feel the terrifying pressure emanating from the chained man.

But he would not be intimidated. "I am Chen Sha, the current Sect Leader of the Dao Yi Sect."

"Chen Sha, your surname is Chen... Hahaha, so that means Chen Canxuan is your father! No wonder you look so much like him!"

The mysterious Demon’s laughter was deep and low.

Suddenly,

he seemed to have been struck on the head, his body stiffening slightly.

Wait,

He looked at Chen Sha again.

"What did you just say? You’re the Sect Leader of the Dao Yi Sect? Then where is that old bastard Chen Canxuan?!"

"Aged Stone, my Senior Brother has already passed away."

Zhou Santong said grimly, "But even though he has passed, this True Qi Cage he built for you in his lifetime can still hold you until you die, so long as I maintain it!"

"Chen Canxuan is dead!?"

The mysterious Demon was incredulous.

"How could Chen Canxuan possibly die? I’m not even dead, but he is!"

"I don’t believe it!"

"He captured me and imprisoned me here for thirty years! Wasn’t it all so he could take my Cultivation in the Qi Stealing Technique and give it to one of his disciples? And now he’s the one who died first!!"

"What kind of trick is he playing??!"

CLANG~~~

The mysterious Demon was extremely agitated, causing the sixteen chains at the bottom of the well to shake like frenzied dragons.

The very air in the cavern roared.

Waves of tyrannical, greedy True Qi filled the entire space, shooting out in all directions.

’Something’s not right. There’s a problem with this man’s True Qi!’

Chen Sha sensed the terror of the True Qi spreading from the mysterious Demon’s body.

’I can’t let it touch me!’

Just as Chen Sha felt a sense of dread,

Zhou Santong, already prepared, released the vast, ocean-like True Qi from his body. It automatically formed a Qi Wall around the two of them, resisting the mysterious Demon’s True Qi.

He snapped coldly at the mysterious Demon:

"Don’t be so shameless! My Senior Brother was number one in the world. Why would he be interested in your so-called ’Qi Stealing Technique’? Back then, if you hadn’t used your status as the Emperor of Yuan Country to invite one hundred and eight experts from the Jianghu to the Imperial Palace for a martial arts tournament—only to spring a trap and use the Qi Stealing Technique to devour the Power of all one hundred and eight First-class Experts and Grandmasters—you wouldn’t have earned the deep hatred of the entire Jianghu."

"That is what led to my Senior Brother personally storming your Great Yuan Imperial Palace and imprisoning you here."

Chen Sha finally learned something about the mysterious man’s identity.

He looked at Zhou Santong.

"This man... is an Emperor?"

In the Divine Land below the mountain, there were now Three Great Dynasties.

Yuan,

Zhao,

and Jin. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ

Among them, the Yuan Country was the most powerful.

And thirty years ago, his father, Chen Canxuan, had actually imprisoned the Emperor of this strongest Dynasty on their back mountain!

’Was Father’s strength as the world’s number one truly that terrifying?’

’And the Imperial Dynasty below never even tried to rescue him?’

Zhou Santong’s next words, however, explained everything.

He crossed his arms, his beard twitching as he looked at the chained Emperor. "This Aged Stone was a formidable ruler of his generation in the Yuan Country, the previous Emperor of Yuan Country, Ancient Transformation Dragon. I don’t know where he got it, but he obtained one of the most evil Martial Arts in the world—the ’Qi Stealing Technique.’ As its name suggests, it allows him to steal the True Qi of others without any scruples!"

"First, he devised a plan to seize the True Qi Power of one hundred and eight Grandmasters and First-class Experts, instantly becoming a First-Grade ’Great Innate’ level powerhouse. Later, he became completely depraved, even devouring the True Qi of his own imperial guards and his children in the harem."

"Finally, one day, your father personally paid a visit to the Yuan Court, dragged him back to Dao Yi Mountain with one hand, and sealed him here."

"Because this Aged Stone made enemies of everyone, even after your father captured him and brought him to the mountain, the succeeding Emperor had no intention of rescuing him. Besides, with your father dominating the world, that Little Emperor didn’t have the guts to try anyway."

Chen Sha finally understood.

He looked again at the disheveled, burly old man bound by chains, finding it hard to imagine that this man was once an Emperor from the world below, one who had absorbed the Power of one hundred and eight experts.

Thirty years ago, he was already a First-Grade Great Innate.

Thirty years later, although he was trapped here with no one’s True Qi to steal, his progress from daily meditation and practice alone must have been immense.

Zhou Santong stroked his beard and said, "Thirty years ago, this Aged Stone was already the ninth strongest in the world. Now, I’m afraid he’s even more formidable."

But the old Demon on the chains laughed wildly.

"Zhou Santong, for all your high-sounding words, you still can’t explain to this nephew of yours why Chen Canxuan didn’t kill me, but chose to imprison me here instead."

He turned sharply to Chen Sha.

"Your father, of course, looked down on my Qi Stealing Technique. But I have stolen the True Qi of at least three or four hundred experts in my life. When it comes to the sheer volume of True Qi, few in the world could compare to me. He fought me for only ten moves before he couldn’t bear to kill me."

"Do you know what he did to me during these thirty years of imprisonment? He spent ten years figuring out how to make me reverse-cultivate the Qi Stealing Technique. His goal was for me to achieve Great Success in this reverse cultivation so that I could then gift all this Power to one of his Disciples."

"So, Zhou Santong, don’t see your Senior Brother as some divine saint. He didn’t capture me from the Primordial Palace to vanquish some great evil. He just wanted to use me as a ’Human-shaped Pill’ for your Dao Yi Mountain."

Ancient Transformation Dragon’s voice shook the cavern, his resentment soaring to the heavens.

Zhou Santong roared in anger, "You claim my Senior Brother wanted to give your Power to a disciple? Who did he give it to? He’s dead now, and you’re still alive! What kind of bullshit are you spouting? Does that even make sense?"

Ancient Transformation Dragon sneered, "That’s what I can’t figure out either. I simply don’t believe he just died like that!"

"Shut your mouth!"

Zhou Santong bellowed, "This old man is here today to fight you, so that my Little Chen Sha can witness the spectacle of a battle beyond the Grandmaster realm!"