Ling Yun looked around and saw that almost all the young and middle-aged men from the Four Mountain Cities had come to this place.
He couldn't help but ask Ya Ya's grandfather out of curiosity:
"Old man, isn't the restriction of Four Mountain City a prohibition against you leaving the mountain? Why do you still need to dig a tunnel?"
Did you know that the mountains are thousands of miles wide, and it would take at least fifty generations to dig a tunnel through them?
And once the tunnel is dug through, will it allow you to leave the mountain?
Upon hearing Ling Yun's question, everyone in Sishan City sighed helplessly.
Grandpa Ya Ya took a deep drag of welding smoke, exhaled heavily, and sighed:
"Alas, young friend, you don't understand. This is our only hope!"
Then he began to explain in detail.
Ten thousand years ago, four great mountains appeared out of nowhere, not only severing the dragon vein of the Zhu Empire, but also draining all the spiritual energy.
None of the great cultivators in the Zhu Clan Empire were able to shatter the four great mountains.
Later, the emperor of the Zhu dynasty set up an altar and offered sacrifices to the mountain god, willing to exchange the lives of the entire Zhu imperial family for the people to leave the mountains.
The emperor of the Zhu dynasty sacrificed his own life at the altar in order to receive a response from the mountain god.
The grain is gone!
I ate all the noodles!
Tongshan Tunnel!
Along with the Nine Syllable Mantra, there appeared mountains of grain and flour as high as mountains.
There was also a chicken and a dog.
It took chickens and dogs a full 100,000 years to finish eating the grain and flour mountain.
Only after finishing the meal can the mountain tunnel be opened.
However, the mountain was too solid, and they were all mortals. In a hundred years, they had only managed to dig a distance of one zhang (approximately 3.3 meters).
Ten years ago, the emperor of the Great Gan Dynasty couldn't bear to see the situation, so he sent monks to help dig the tunnel.
However, they all died suddenly shortly after they came in to help.
"Alas~ What have we, the people of the Zhu family, done wrong!"
Ten thousand years have passed. Even if there were mistakes back then, the punishment should have been enough. Of the 10 billion subjects of the Zhu family, only 100,000 remain.
"Since we're being punished, shouldn't we at least know what we did wrong?"
Grandpa Ya Ya looked up at the sky in fury.
"Back then, our Zhu Empire was prosperous and our martial arts civilization was unparalleled on the Golden Cloud Continent, yet we never waged war against other countries, nor did we slaughter any living beings."
What's wrong with that?
The people of Sishan City knelt in front of the tunnel, weeping all around.
Seeing this, A Bao and the others couldn't bear it and all looked at Ling Yun.
They knew that Ling Yun already knew the whole story.
Ling Yun had indeed deduced the whole story and knew what the four mountains were.
Sigh~
Lingyun's soft sigh caused all four mountains to tremble.
He suddenly flew into the void, looked down at the four great mountains, and said in a deep voice:
"Four fellow cultivators of the Xuanwu Clan, it's been about 100,000 years, hasn't it?"
boom!
Upon hearing this, everyone looked at the four mountains in shock.
Xuanwu!
There were four Xuanwu!
A Bao and the others quickly woke up. When they first saw the four mountains, they felt as if they had seen them before. It turned out that they were four Xuanwu.
But this is just too big.
With a loud bang!
The four mountains trembled simultaneously, then returned to calm after a moment.
An angry, weathered voice came from all directions.
"You are indeed extraordinary to be able to see our true forms. This matter is a feud between my Xuanwu clan and the Zhu clan. Please do not concern yourself with it!"
The people of Sishan City knelt before the mountains, and Grandpa Yaya said in grief:
"Immortal Xuanwu, what exactly did my Zhu clan do wrong? Please let us die knowing why!"
"snort!"
Xuanwu let out a cold snort, instantly causing the people of Sishan City to cough up blood.
"Does the Zhu clan still remember Xuande, whom you executed by slow slicing?"
Xuande?
Everyone looked bewildered. After a long while, a frail-looking young man from Sishan City seemed to remember something and quickly said:
"Xuande was the scholar who was executed by slow slicing back then."
After the prime minister and his associates were exterminated, the founding emperor, in a fit of rage, had all the founding heroes who were related to the prime minister executed.
Later, a scholar named Xuande publicly criticized Emperor Taizu for being harsh and ungrateful, and for massacring meritorious officials.
This enraged Emperor Taizu, who ordered Xuande to be executed by slow slicing.
Back then, in the capital square, in front of hundreds of millions of people, Xuande was executed by slow slicing. Strangely, Xuande's physical body was extremely strong, and it was only with the help of the Emperor's Sword that the execution was completed.
Could it be that Xuande is from the Xuanwu clan?
Upon hearing this, everyone suddenly realized that although 100,000 years had passed, the incident of Xuande being executed by slow slicing was indeed a sensation.
He was the first person in the Zhu family empire to be executed by slow slicing.
"That's right!"
Xuanwu's angry voice reached everyone's ears.
"My son left the Xuanwu Star Region and traveled through the heavens to the Golden Cloud Continent."
When he witnessed injustice, he did not choose to remain silent like others, but bravely criticized the tyranny. What wrong had he done? Yet your emperor had subjected him to the excruciating pain of slow slicing. What terrible mistake had he made that required him to endure such agony?
For 100,000 years you have felt wronged, and you have been clamoring every day about what wrong you have done.
What wrong has my son done! What wrong has such an upright person done!
As if the pent-up frustration that had been building up in his heart for 100,000 years was about to erupt, Xuanwu's emotions became increasingly volatile.
"I will trap your Zhu clan here forever, preventing you from ever cultivating the Dao."
"Don't worry, I won't let the Zhu clan be wiped out. I'll imprison you for ten thousand years! A million years! Ten thousand years!"
"From now on, there will be a blizzard every ten years! A torrential rain every ten years! A severe drought every ten years! A freezing cold every ten years! A scorching heat every ten years!"
"My son was cut three thousand six hundred times by you back then, so I will make your Zhu clan suffer three thousand six hundred calamities."
boom!
The four mountains trembled incessantly, attracting cultivators from all directions to come and investigate.
"roll!"
With a roar, Xuanwu blasted the arriving cultivators to pieces.
It is evident that Xuanwu would find it difficult to overcome the pain of losing a child even after 100,000 years.
Lingchi (death by a thousand cuts) was a punishment inflicted only on the most heinous criminals; it was not only a physical pain but also a torment to human dignity.
Ling Yun understood why the Xuanwu clan hated the Zhu clan so much.
Emperor Taizu was a man who loved his people like his own children and devoted himself to the country.
They also have a cruel, ungrateful, cold-blooded, and ruthless side.
No one is perfect, and Emperor Taizu was no exception. Perhaps Emperor Taizu's decision to execute Xuande by slow slicing was based on considerations of the overall situation and to silence public opinion.
But to treat an upright scholar in this way is truly excessive.
Ling Yun couldn't say anything about this; the people of Sishan City were victims, and so was Xuanwu.
The only one who made a mistake, Emperor Taizu, had already been sacrificed on the altar.
Grandpa Ya Ya straightened his body, looked up at the mountains, and cried out sorrowfully:
“Immortal Master Xuanwu, your son has suffered injustice, and so have the descendants of our Zhu clan. How is your action any different from that of the founding emperor?”
"presumptuous!"
Xuanwu was furious.
Ling Yun gently raised his hand to disperse Xuanwu's energy; otherwise, Grandpa Yaya would have been annihilated.
"Fellow Daoist of the Xuanwu Clan, how can we spare the people of Four Mountain City?"
The Xuanwu remained silent. They knew Ling Yun was extraordinary and that he had the ability to destroy them. The fact that they did not take action to kill them was out of sympathy for their grief over the loss of their son.
They still had to give Ling Yun some face.
"Now everyone go to the altar of Emperor Taizu and curse him for being heartless! Then I will spare the people of Sishan City!"
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