“His Majesty the Eastern Emperor.”
Whose voice was that?
“Ruoshen, your elder brother only has you left.”
Elder brother? His elder brother? When did he ever have an elder brother?
He tried hard to search his memory for this voice, but he found that his thoughts were shrouded in a thick fog, completely impenetrable no matter how hard he tried.
“Yuan Ruoshen!”
Suddenly, a voice exploded in his mind.
“Yuan Ruoshen, I am very glad to have met you in this life.”
These words echoed in his ears like a warm spring breeze, gently blowing across the fields of his heart. An inexplicable sadness surged within him, causing a heartbreaking agony.
Yuan Ruoshen slowly opened his eyes. The sight before him made him a bit dazed, leaving him unable to distinguish what time or year it was. He had a dream. The dream was incredibly chaotic, like a jumbled jigsaw puzzle where various elements intertwined and entangled with one another, making it hard to tell them apart. Amidst a kaleidoscope of bizarre imagery, he seemed to be in a strange world where the surroundings were blurry and the figures appeared only faintly.
He tried his best to recall the specific scenes from the dream, but his thoughts were pulled by an invisible force, making it impossible to concentrate. He could not remember the scenes in the dream, nor did he know why he had dreamed it. Was it a hallucination right before death?
Like a broken ragdoll, Yuan Ruoshen lay limply on the filthy and bone-chillingly cold ground, as if he had already lost all signs of life. His body was completely soaked in blood. Beneath the tattered fabric of his clothes, those horrific wounds were exposed. These wounds densely covered his entire body, leaving no single spot unharmed. Some were even so deep that the bone was visible, making it unbearable to look at.
However, at this moment, Yuan Ruoshen seemed to feel absolutely nothing of the sharp pain brought by these wounds. His body had become completely numb, as if he had already lost connection with this broken corpse of a frame. All he could feel was his vitality constantly draining from his body like a trickling stream. Each drop of falling blood felt like a countdown to the end of his life, yet he was powerless to do anything. He could only watch helplessly as his own life slowly slipped away on this filthy ground.
Was he going to die?
He did not know how he had exposed himself. Originally, while working undercover in this branch, he had not shown the slightest anomaly. However, just ten days ago, the manager of this branch returned. Upon seeing Yuan Ruoshen, the manager was visibly stunned for a moment. Then, he called Yuan Ruoshen in for questioning.
After coming out from the questioning, Yuan Ruoshen sensed that something was wrong. Therefore, he contacted Yan Lan, planning to leave the following evening. As it turned out, he had been put under surveillance by people dispatched by that manager long ago. Just as he was preparing to leave, he was discovered. Afterward, he was captured. Fortunately, Yan Lan was not implicated.
Following the capture, the manager brought Yuan Ruoshen into the room for questioning again. But Yuan Ruoshen had absolutely no idea what the manager was talking about. That manager had clearly mistaken him for someone else, muttering about something called Suijing and betraying the organization. Yuan Ruoshen calmed down and denied it, stating he was not any Suijing. The manager did not believe him at all.
In the end, the manager locked Yuan Ruoshen up and went to investigate Yuan Ruoshen’s background. The Ranye Organization also had undercover moles on the official side, so it took only three days for Yuan Ruoshen’s identity to be uncovered. He was an official undercover agent, and moreover, the eldest legitimate son of the Yuan family.
The manager was furious, but he did not choose to kill Yuan Ruoshen. Instead, just like how he treated previous undercover agents, he employed all kinds of torturous methods. First, he injected Yuan Ruoshen with a drug. When the effects kicked in, causing excruciating agony, Yuan Ruoshen endured it without uttering a single sound.
The manager was highly dissatisfied with this. To satisfy his perverted psychology of torturing people, he locked Yuan Ruoshen in a water dungeon, and all kinds of torture implements were used on Yuan Ruoshen. Official undercover agents often met with only such a cruel end, where even death was a luxury.
Yuan Ruoshen fainted from the pain an unknown number of times. Every time he passed out, the manager would splash him awake. For seven days, the manager tortured him with alternating methods, during which he also had to endure the onset of the drug’s effects. Yuan Ruoshen’s body had reached its absolute limit, with only a single breath remaining. Only then did the manager leave Yuan Ruoshen locked in the small dark room of the underground water dungeon, and he actively exposed Yuan Ruoshen’s location to lure people to rescue him.
Yuan Ruoshen knew he could not escape. Even if he did get out, he was so severely injured that he could not be cured. He was not afraid of death; he only felt unwilling. Furthermore, there was his grandfather. If he died, how heartbroken his grandfather would be.
An unbearable pain traveled to every corner of his body, waking his already numb frame. It was the poison. It was acting up again.
Yuan Ruoshen’s expression changed. He no longer had any strength left to struggle, yet his body’s instincts still controlled him, causing him to tremble and twitch uncontrollably. Pushed to the limit of agony, Yuan Ruoshen let out a muffled groan. Ultimately, his vision went black, and he swooned into unconsciousness once more.
Yan Qinyu had already searched down to the fourth floor. There was still no discovery on the third floor.
Yan Qinyu’s divine sense swept through room after room, finally scanning a dark, hidden chamber. There were two people guarding outside the secret chamber, while a crowd of people sat in the room opposite, discussing who knew what. The secret chamber was filled with all sorts of torture devices, as well as a filthy pool of water that had turned green.
Yan Qinyu’s divine sense paused. In a corner, he discovered a person covered entirely in blood. That person was incredibly wretched, no longer possessing a human shape, and Yan Qinyu could not see what he actually looked like. Abruptly withdrawing his divine sense, Yan Qinyu panicked. He could only try his best to tell himself that the person might not necessarily be Yuan Ruoshen.
Seeing Yan Qinyu open his eyes, Gu Yun and Yan Lan looked at Yan Qinyu together.
Yan Lan asked, “How is it? Did you find anything?”
Yan Qinyu moved his lips, his voice somewhat raspy, “I-I saw a person on the fourth floor. I don’t know if it’s him.”
Seeing how terrible Yan Qinyu’s expression was, one could easily guess that the person’s situation would not be good anywhere.
Yan Lan took a deep breath and said, “Let’s go take a look first.”
Gu Yun knew the inside story, so he also comforted him, “Yeah, the person you saw might not necessarily be Yuan Ruoshen.”
Hearing this, Yan Qinyu let out a breath, though his expression remained rather unpleasant. Gu Yun’s words did not comfort him, but he did not say much else. He brought the two of them to a concealed spot and then opened a spatial channel.
It was Yan Lan’s first time facing such a scene. He widened his eyes as he watched this happen, extremely shocked.
Gu Yun said, “Don’t be shocked for now. Let’s hurry up and save him!”
Yan Lan calmed himself down, withdrew his shocked emotions, and walked into the spatial channel with Gu Yun. The spatial channel opened right inside the room Yan Qinyu had discovered.
After the three of them emerged from the spatial channel, Yan Qinyu swept a glance over the surroundings and saw the bloody person lying prone in the corner.
“Over there!”
Their steps were hurried as they rushed to the person’s side as swiftly as a gale. When they finally saw the injuries on that person clearly, Yan Lan could not help but gasp in shock. The person was covered in wounds and stained with blood. Beneath the tattered clothing, mangled gashes of flesh and blood were exposed, shocking to the sight.
Yan Lan’s face turned extremely ugly. He widened his eyes, cursing with a face full of fury, “Those beasts!” His voice was filled with rage.
At this very moment, the exact same thought unexpectedly surfaced in the minds of all three people—it absolutely must not be Yuan Ruoshen! Gu Yun’s face was pale. He had an ominous presentiment in his heart. If it really was the Yuan Ruoshen whom Yan Qinyu knew, Gu Yun did not dare to imagine what would happen.
Yan Qinyu calmed his panicked emotions, but his hands were still trembling. He carefully assisted the person on the ground up, and then brushed away the person’s messy hair. A face as pale as paper appeared in the sight of the three individuals.
With a mental boom, Yan Lan collapsed directly onto the ground, sitting limply.
Seeing Yan Lan like this, Gu Yun’s heart gave a sudden thud. Gu Yun hurriedly raised his head to look at Yan Qinyu.
He saw Yan Qinyu’s hands trembling as he brought two fingers together and pressed them against Yuan Ruoshen’s forehead. After a short moment, Yan Qinyu moved his hand away and clenched his fist. He had detected Yuan Ruoshen’s primordial spirit, and Suijing’s primordial spirit was also there.
“I am sorry. I arrived late.”
Yan Qinyu felt Yuan Ruoshen’s breath, which was so weak it was almost imperceptible. His heart tightened violently, as if the entire world had frozen in an instant. The bloodstains and wounds on Yuan Ruoshen’s body pierced his eyes painfully. He completely forgot his identity and abilities as a god. At this moment, he was no longer that omnipotent god, but an ordinary person enveloped by fear and panic.
Yan Qinyu’s mind was completely blank. He simply could not think about how to save Yuan Ruoshen. His heartbeat accelerated rapidly, as if it were about to leap out of his throat, and his hands also trembled uncontrollably, entirely losing their past composure.
Everything before his eyes seemed to overlap with the past life from his tribulations. That time, he had fallen into the enemy’s trap and was cornered. Yuan Ruoshen, who had reincarnated as Lu Xuan, rode in alone to save him. He carried him out through the heavy siege and was also poisoned, collapsing into his embrace riddled with wounds and breathing weakly, just like this current moment.
Yan Qinyu’s voice trembled, his words incoherent, “Your Majesty, do not sleep. Fuyu is back.”
“Yuan Ruoshen… Yuan Ruoshen, I am Yan Qinyu. I am back.”
“Yuan Ruoshen! You are the famous Eastern Emperor Sovereign of the Linxu Realm. You cannot die. Hurry and open your eyes to look at me. I am back!”
Gu Yun immediately snapped out of it and said, “Don’t panic, calm down! You are so powerful; you can save him!”
“Right-right, I can save him!”
Yan Qinyu tried his best to calm down. He had simply let his concern throw him into confusion. He forgot that he was no longer the powerless mortals Duan Fuyu and Anqing.
Because the voices of the three of them were too loud, they drew in the guards watching outside. The people who entered were stunned for a moment upon suddenly seeing three individuals, having absolutely no idea how they had gotten inside.
Subsequently, a piercing alarm resounded through the sky.
“Quick!”
“Someone has broken in! Someone come quickly!”
The people in the opposite room immediately grabbed their weapons and ran inside. The manager arrived as well. They had indeed set up an ambush beforehand.
The manager was also somewhat shocked to see Yan Qinyu and the other two appearing here. The outside was guarded layer upon layer, and they were right across from it. It should have been impossible for anyone to arrive without being noticed.
“How did you get in?”
Not one of the three people paid him any attention.