The Martial Emperor

Chapter 3 - Echoes of the Emperor's Regret

The darkness behind the cliff crevice seemed to breathe. The gentle wind flowing from within felt cold, carrying the scent of ancient earth and something mysterious. Lin Feng stood at the threshold of the dark, his eyes staring straight ahead without a shadow of wavering resolve.

"Feng, listen to me for a second." Zhang Hao pulled Lin Feng’s shoulder, forcing his friend to turn around. "The writing on that stone... 'not everyone may leave'. That is a death warning, not just a decoration! This is no longer an inner disciple mission. We have to go back now, we report to the masters, this is beyond the limit!"

Lin Feng released Zhang Hao’s grip with a slow but firm movement. "Go back? To where? To a place where we have to beg Dan Wuji for our ration of spiritual stones? To a place where you will continue to see the back of the woman who betrayed you?"

"But this is crazy! This place feels wrong!" Zhang Hao’s voice rose, echoing against the cliff walls. He glanced briefly at the dark crevice and the giant statue, the more he observed them, the greater the strange aura felt. "We should not have come here from the start."

"Hao, since I saw this statue from afar, my heart has been beating strangely. Not out of fear, but... something else, like someone is calling me," Lin Feng said in a low voice, almost like a whisper. "I do not know what secrets are buried in there, but one thing I am sure of is that if I turn back now, I will remain trash forever."

Zhang Hao fell silent, seeing the resolve so solid in Lin Feng’s eyes. Although he knew Lin Feng’s temperament well, he never thought his friend would have no interest in stopping even after seeing all this.

Lin Feng continued. "If I enter," he said, pausing for a moment, his face wrinkling in momentary doubt. "I do not know if I am among those allowed to leave or not, everything is indeed uncertain. But if I go back, everything is certain. We will go back to being trash."

Zhang Hao beside him was dazed, there was nothing more he could do now. It was useless to argue at length, he knew Lin Feng would enter with or without him.

"Fine, but if something happens, I do not guarantee we can get out," Zhang Hao whispered finally, surrendering to his friend’s stubbornness.

Just one step after they passed the mouth of the crevice, the world around them suddenly pulsed and spun. The pebble-strewn ground changed into a vast expanse of golden flooring under a bright sky. Thousands of people, ranging from soldiers in silver armor to sect elders who looked powerful, were all kneeling with their heads bowed deeply.

In the midst of them stood a man in black robes mixed with white in several parts. Lin Feng gasped, the man’s face was a mirror of his own, but with an aura so majestic it was as if even the sun bowed to him.

"Long live the Martial Emperor, Ruler of Heaven and Earth!" those thousands of people shouted in unison, their voices shaking Lin Feng’s soul.

The scene vanished as quickly as it had come, leaving Lin Feng and Zhang Hao panting inside the cliff crevice which had returned to darkness. On the stone wall not far from them, they realized there was writing in fading gold ink.

"I have gained the world."

Zhang Hao took a step back, his face deathly pale. "That face... it was you. But how is that possible, we are just lowly inner disciples."

Fear began to creep into Zhang Hao’s eyes. He recalled the writing on the outer stone in his mind, and those words seemed to mock him. Seeing the scene just now, he felt like he did not belong here, he felt he could not go further or he would become part of the group "who are not allowed to leave".

"Feng... I... I feel I should not go any further," Zhang Hao’s voice trembled. "That vision earlier... it belongs to you. Maybe it is true this place is calling you, now I understand why you were so stubborn to continue. This place is calling you, not me. If I recklessly enter, perhaps I am the one destined to 'never leave' like the warning on that stone."

Lin Feng turned to look at his trembling friend. He did not insult Zhang Hao’s fear. "Wait outside and please guard the entrance. I do not know how long it will be, but if in three days I have not come out, return to the sect by yourself." Then Lin Feng threw their mission map. "There is a detour path from down here, it is indeed more dangerous and further, but at least there is no toxic mist. Good luck."

Zhang Hao caught the map. "No, I will wait here until you come out!" Zhang Hao held Lin Feng’s shoulder, this time with deep concern. "But promise me one thing, do not you dare die in there. I do not want to face Dan Wuji and those sect bastards alone. You must return, Feng!"

Lin Feng only nodded briefly with a small smile, then turned to walk into the thicker darkness. The sound of his footsteps echoed, moving away from Zhang Hao who stood frozen at the mouth of the cliff crevice.

A few dozen steps later, the air inside the cave felt increasingly heavy. Gravitational pressure seemed to increase, forcing Lin Feng to regulate his breath. Suddenly, a second vision appeared.

Still in the same majestic courtyard, but the sky was a terrifying blood red. The thousands of people who worshipped the emperor were now lying as corpses overlapping one another in a blanket of blood. Thick red liquid flowed like a river between the carvings of the golden floor. The figure that resembled Lin Feng stood in the midst of the corpses, holding a broken sword. He was no longer majestic, he now looked broken, his shoulders shaking with suppressed sobs.

"Why... why must it be like this?" the figure muttered with a voice full of heart-wrenching regret. "This throne... is just a pile of bones."

The vision vanished, leaving an extraordinary feeling of tightness in Lin Feng’s chest. On the stone wall now was written a word in dull red.

"I lost the world."

Lin Feng fell silent for a moment, rubbing the scar on his eye which began to throb. The feeling of sadness and loneliness from that figure seeped into him as if it were all his own buried memories. However, his feet kept moving forward.

Then ahead was a cave, and naturally, it became darker. A third vision came, this time Lin Feng saw the figure like himself being surrounded. Three silhouettes of men with very strong auras and one silhouette of a woman holding a golden-stringed zither attacked him from four directions. The battle was so fierce that the sky seemed to crack and could collapse at any time.

The figure fought bravely, but cruelty and greed were clearly visible in the eyes of those silhouettes. Somehow Lin Feng could guess they were the people who had previously knelt before him. In the end, a sword pierced the emperor’s chest. He fell in the same place where he was once coronated, in the vast golden-floored courtyard.

Lin Feng felt a sting in his chest, he felt as if the sword had truly pierced him. On the stone wall, words were carved.

"Strength creates betrayal."

"Strength... or the people who desire it?" Lin Feng muttered softly. His emotions were a mix of anger, grief, and vigilance.

Moving further in, the darkness of the cave suddenly turned into a soothing pure white. Lin Feng saw the figure again. This time he did not wear imperial robes, only simple coarse cloth clothing. The figure sat cross-legged in the middle of a white void, his face peaceful and without burden, as if all the blood and tears before had never truly happened.

After that vision ended as quickly as it had appeared, Lin Feng found the last writing on the wall.

"He who lets go of everything, possesses everything. He who holds onto nothing, will never lose anything."

Lin Feng contemplated those words. As someone who had been obsessed with the strength to seek revenge, those sentences felt like both a slap and an embrace. His feelings, which had been turbulent, slowly began to cool and become calm like the surface of a deep lake.

At the end of the cave, a vast room opened up. In the center was a clear lake with a small island at its heart.

However, the sight was gruesome. Scattered around the lake were human bones that had turned black. But what was most shocking was that from every pile of bones grew a Blood Moon Flower with elegance.

The flower petals were bright red as if nourished by the blood of the cultivators who died there. The stems were pitch black and thorny like roses, and the leaves were as clear as glass.

"The flowers... this many?" Lin Feng could not believe it. The success of a mission that had begun to lose hope was now spread before his eyes.

However, as he stepped into the lake area, after only three steps, his head was struck by extraordinary pain. His vision pulsed and there was a strange, very thick cold aura locking his movements.

In the middle of the small island, having appeared there at some unknown time, was a golden throne that looked so magnificent. Sitting upon it was a beautiful woman in snow-white robes. Her face was extraordinarily beautiful, yet the gaze in her eyes was cold as ice and radiated a ferocity capable of stopping a heartbeat.

The woman stared at Lin Feng as if he were merely an ant that dared to enter a god’s palace.

"It has been thousands of years...," the woman’s voice sounded like a sword scraping against a rough stone surface, cold and sharp. "After so long I have waited in silence, finally someone has managed to crawl all the way here. So, should I say welcome?"

Lin Feng was frozen. The pressure from the woman was so great that he felt his bones would crush just by standing there.

"Who is she?"

Driven by a spontaneous urge, Lin Feng intended to draw his sword from his spatial ring, but his survival instinct kept screaming for him to flee from there immediately.