Chapter 107 - 80: Copper Coffin Emerges

Chapter 107: Chapter 80: Copper Coffin Emerges

"This wine really doesn’t suit me."

"It’s too bitter!"

"You aren’t worthy of treating me to White Confucian Wine. You and I can’t be friends. The next time we meet... perhaps the Great Zhou will be no more."

Su Chen left.

In the guise of Xu Ge, he carried the Sword Box on his back, walking on through the wind and snow, continuing toward the Imperial Mausoleum.

He left Long Xuanjun standing alone, utterly dispirited.

The bright moon broke through the dark clouds.

In that instant, under the moonlight, Long Xuanjun’s thick black hair turned white as frost. He stood disheveled and utterly despondent.

His hair had turned white in a single night.

’I never thought... that I would be the one to personally extinguish the last spark of Great Zhou’s vitality.’

Long Xuanjun gave a bitter laugh.

A figure approached through the snow, gazing toward the Imperial Mausoleum. Her eyes were gloomy, filled with confusion as to how this man had slain a Grandmaster of the Second Realm.

’To slay a Grandmaster of the Second Realm with only a First-Grade intent of wind and snow... Even in the five hundred years of Great Yu or the three hundred years of the Heavenly Fall Era, there has never been such a Demon.’

’Who is this man!’

A flash of lightning illuminated her cold, indifferent face. It was the Princess of Qii.

But.

She was not the Princess of Qii.

...

...

「The Imperial Mausoleum.」

Su Chen searched for a long time but found no flaws or openings.

The mausoleum was flooded with Heavy Water and sealed with molten iron. The entire mountain was encased in a slurry, and a thousand guards in Black Dragon Armor patrolled ceaselessly. There were no weaknesses.

However...

’The soil brought by the Yellow-skinned Old Immortal... why did it contain soil from inside the Great Yu Imperial Mausoleum? Could it be that he followed the three waves of First-Grade Experts from the Imperial Capital inside before the tomb was sealed?’

Su Chen couldn’t figure it out.

’Maybe I should go in and take a look?’ Su Chen mused.

Just then.

BOOM!

The earth shook and the mountains trembled.

In the camp near the Imperial Mausoleum, the remaining Imperial Guard were struck with terror.

"What’s happening?"

They didn’t have to wonder for long.

The waters of the Nujiang River surged forth, a veritable tsunami that devoured the land in an instant, swallowing the entire camp and even the Imperial Mausoleum.

"AHHHH!"

"The Nujiang River!"

"The Nujiang River has changed its course!"

Someone roared.

They had barely a moment to think of escape before the waters of the Nujiang River crashed down, swallowing the entire camp, the Imperial Mausoleum included.

In the blink of an eye, the mountain range had become a tributary of the Nujiang River.

Before the vast power of heaven and earth, even a First Grade was no more than an ant.

Only a Grandmaster could preserve their own life against such overwhelming natural power, but they had no strength left to protect anyone else.

It all happened too fast.

In an instant, a thirty-li stretch of the mountain range was submerged by the diverted Nujiang River, transforming into a vast, surging lake.

The thousand guards in Black Dragon Armor, the stationed Imperial Guard, and the First-Grade cultivators—naturally, none survived.

’For the Jinjiang Nu River to cause such a commotion...’

’The Copper Coffin!’

’Has it emerged?’

Su Chen could think of no other explanation.

Only the unsealing of the Copper Coffin that held the Grand Ancestor of Great Zhou could redirect rivers, change the face of the heavens, and create such a massive disturbance.

At the end of the third year of the Great Zhou Xuanlong Dynasty.

The Nujiang River changed its course!

Flooding the land for a thousand li!

Countless cities and villages were swallowed by the flood. The dead and injured were innumerable. Millions of refugees scattered and fled for their lives.

Rumors began to fly.

The Great Zhou has lost its virtue, and the heavens have sent down their wrath! There is Vitality only in a New Dynasty!

「In Jinjiang City.」

The Flame Emperor looked at the ten-zhang-tall Copper Coffin and the three-hundred-zhang-long great snake coiled atop it, his excitement palpable.

"Flame, seventeenth-generation descendant of Great Zhou, respectfully welcomes the Grand Ancestor’s soul back to this world!"

With that said, the Flame Emperor pushed the prepared sacrifice toward the Copper Coffin—it was his most beloved youngest son, the Young Prince, who had been escorted all the way from the Imperial Capital.

"Father! I’m scared!"

The Young Prince’s face was a mask of terror. He didn’t dare approach the great snake and the Copper Coffin, which radiated a chilling aura. He scrambled back, trying to get away.

"Get back there!"

"It is your honor to die for Great Zhou."

The Flame Emperor kicked him into the Copper Coffin.

A bloodcurdling scream echoed from within the Copper Coffin.

Followed by... the sound of chewing.

"What year of the Great Zhou is it?"

A hoarse voice, like the scraping of metal on metal, came from within the Copper Coffin.

Three hundred years had passed.

The Grand Ancestor of Zhou had awakened.

...

「Meanwhile.」

As the Nu River changed its course and monstrous waves churned, the Vermilion Governor came to a halt. He gazed at the distant mountains, where a carriage waited, attended by a graceful figure in a cyan robe.

"Is she the one... the vessel of the Liang Emperor’s Blood?" he asked.

General Lei, who was in the process of executing Princess Consort Mu by a thousand cuts, nodded woodenly.

"Hm?"

An instant later, he realized what was happening, his face paling in horror.

"Governor, you mustn’t!"

"Your Majesty gave no such order!"

This vermilion-robed Governor, who had served since the tenth year of Jianwu and into the first year of Xuanlong, said earnestly, his eyes filled with pity for all the world’s people.

"For the sake of all life under heaven... she must die."