124: Chapter 124 Ninth Prince Xia Yan, This World is Nothing More Than a Cage

The chessboard was crafted from thousand-year-old warm jade, feeling smooth and warm to the touch.

The pieces were ground from black and white star crystals; holding them felt like clutching two miniature starry skies.

"Little friend, please."

The middle-aged scholar smiled slightly, gesturing for Lin Feng to go first.

Lin Feng didn't stand on ceremony. He picked up a black piece and, without the slightest hesitation, placed it directly on the Tianyuan position of the board!

A single move, domineering and peerless!

Seeking no layout or strategy, he aimed only for the most direct and brutal way to occupy the central palace and overlook the entire game!

Seeing this, a hint of imperceptible surprise flashed in the middle-aged scholar's eyes, followed by a faint smile.

He picked up a white piece and, unhurriedly, placed it beside the black one. It was like spring rain nourishing the earth—silent, yet inadvertently neutralizing the black piece's aggressive edge.

A silent slaughter thus began.

Lin Feng's style of play was bold and expansive, filled with aggression and destructiveness.

Every piece he placed was like the "Life-Slaying Blade" in his hand, aiming straight for the vitals without leaving any room, filled with the dominance of "overpowering ten skills with one strength."

In contrast, the middle-aged scholar's style was as gentle as water. Though he seemed to yield at every step, he was actually like an invisible net, neutralizing Lin Feng's storm-like offensive one by one, trapping him firmly within, and slowly eroding and consuming him.

After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the game concluded.

Lin Feng looked at the board, where his great dragon had been completely slaughtered with no way out, and fell into a long silence.

He had lost.

A total defeat, without any suspense.

"Your play, little friend, has too much Killing Intent."

The middle-aged scholar slowly packed away the pieces, commenting in a gentle voice, "Blindly seeking to kill may bring a moment's satisfaction, but it also makes it easy to fall into an enemy's schemes, ultimately resulting in the loss of the entire game."

"I stand corrected."

Lin Feng replied calmly. He knew that while the other man seemed to be talking about chess, he was actually offering guidance on his life.

"May I ask who you are, Senior?"

Lin Feng finally asked the question that had been weighing on his mind.

To be imprisoned on the seventh floor of the Demon Suppressing Tower and still live with such elegance and ease, this person's identity was absolutely extraordinary.

The middle-aged scholar did not answer immediately upon hearing this.

He simply stood up, walked beneath the gnarled ancient pine, and stood with his hands behind his back. Looking at the only small skylight on the stone wall that let in a glimmer of light, his eyes became distant and weathered.

"Do you know how many brothers the current Emperor had before he ascended the throne?"

"Nine."

Lin Feng answered; this was something the Chief Manager had once told him.

"Then do you know how many survived the brutal 'Nine Dragons Vying for the Throne' forty years ago?"

"Two."

Lin Feng's eyes narrowed slightly. "The current Emperor, and... the Prince of Runan far away in Nanzhou."

"Heh..."

The middle-aged scholar let out a self-deprecating bitter laugh, filled with endless desolation and loneliness.

"The Prince of Runan? Is he even worthy?"

He slowly turned around. In those eyes that had always been as gentle as jade, for the first time, a burst of brilliant light erupted, enough to make the sun and moon pale in comparison!

An indescribable, vast, and majestic surge of terrifying Dragon Qi, filled with imperial dignity, suddenly erupted from his seemingly frail body!

At that moment, he was no longer an elegant scholar, but a sovereign overlooking thousands of miles of territory, holding the power of life and death over billions of souls...

The True Dragon Son of Heaven!

Lin Feng's pupils suddenly constricted to the size of needles!

This Dragon Qi was tens of thousands of times purer than that of the "fake Prince of Runan" he had encountered before!

"The one outside is merely a Puppet, a shadow warrior my Imperial Father propped up to appease the people and to bear all the sins for his precious son."

The middle-aged scholar's voice became grand and majestic, filled with unquestionable dominance.

"And I..."

He spoke each word deliberately, his voice like rolling thunder exploding in Lin Feng's mind!

"Am the true Ninth Prince of Great Xia!"

"Am the one who should have been enfeoffed in Nanzhou, but was imprisoned here for forty years by his own brother..."

"The Prince of Runan, Xia Yan!"

Boom!!!

This world-shaking secret was like a heavy bomb, completely overturning Lin Feng's understanding!

There were actually two Princes of Runan, a real and a fake?!

The "Prince of Runan" outside, who held immense power and even intended to transform into a dragon and rebel, was actually just a double? A Puppet used to draw fire and take the blame?!

While the true Ninth Prince had been imprisoned in this dark Demon Suppressing Tower for forty whole years?!

"Are you surprised?"

Xia Yan withdrew that overwhelming Dragon Qi and returned to being the elegant scholar, a self-deprecating smile on his face.

"Winners become kings and losers become outcasts; it has been so since ancient times. I lost, so I am here. He won, so he sits on that dragon throne."

He looked at Lin Feng, a hint of complexity flashing in his eyes.

"I am curious. How did you, a nameless nobody from a remote prefecture, grow to such a level in just a few short months? And how did you, step by step, throw the pieces laid out by my dear Imperial Brother into such chaos?"

"Within you, there is a power that even I cannot see through. That power does not belong to this world."

Lin Feng's heart jolted.

He knew.

What the other party was referring to was the System.

But the other party didn't know it was the System.

But he did not answer, instead asking calmly, "Since His Majesty has already won, why would he go to such great lengths to set up such a scheme? What exactly does he want to do?"

Upon hearing this, the smile on Xia Yan's face gradually faded, replaced by a deep-seated sorrow and... anger!

"What does he want to do?"

He suddenly smashed his fist onto the stone table, and the chessboard crafted from thousand-year-old warm jade instantly turned to dust!

"What he wants to do is far more insane and terrifying than you can imagine!"

Xia Yan looked up, his eyes burning with raging fire, staring fixedly at the ancient runes on the stone wall that suppressed the entire giant tower. He spoke word by word:

"He wants to... break open the Heavenly Gate!"

...

"The Heavenly Gate?"

Lin Feng's brow furrowed tightly.

This wasn't the first time he had heard this term.

Back then, the Chief Manager of Nanyan Prefecture, Sword Demon Zhang Cheng, seemed to have mentioned it cryptically as well.

"Yes, the Heavenly Gate!"

Xia Yan's voice became incredibly solemn, and a hint of fear, which even he hadn't noticed, flickered in his deep eyes.

"This continent we are on seems boundless, but in reality, it is nothing more than a giant cage."

"Outside the cage is the true 'Upper Realm' of a higher level. There, Spiritual Qi is dense, and the Laws are complete. Martial Artists can easily break through the shackles of the Martial Extremity Realm and glimpse the legendary path of 'Eternal Life'."

"And the only passage connecting our world to the Upper Realm is the 'Heavenly Gate'!"

These words were like a thunderclap, once again exploding in Lin Feng's mind!

He finally understood why the martial arts of this world stopped at the Martial Extremity Realm.

It turned out there was a higher-level world above their heads!

"But what does this have to do with Emperor Xia?"

Lin Feng asked in confusion.

"Of course it has something to do with it!"

A hint of deep-seated hatred flashed in Xia Yan's eyes.

"Since ancient times, the 'Heavenly Gate' has been sealed by an invisible force, cutting off the connection between the two realms. However, the ancestors of our Great Xia Imperial Family once received guidance from a great power from the Upper Realm and learned a shocking secret."

"That is, every three hundred years, the Seal on the 'Heavenly Gate' enters an extremely weak period. At that time, as long as one can gather nine 'Divine Stones' containing the power of the world's Origin and use the dragon veins of the nine provinces as a guide, one can forcibly blast open the Heavenly Gate and gain the opportunity to ascend to the Upper Realm!"

"And those nine Divine Stones are what your Demon Suppression Division calls..."

Xia Yan spoke word by word, his voice as cold as if it came from the depths of Hell.

"The dragon-suppressing stone!"