Nightmare Light

Chapter 258 The Emperor's Experiment

The Dragon Head God once again extended the sacrificial cake to the crowd.

"Mortals, would you like to eat a piece of sacrificial cake?"

Lin Wang looked at the sacrificial cake. Its black surface was porous with honeycomb holes, and in each hole, an eyeball was moving.

He shook his head: "Go on with your story."

"Hmph... my story." Lord Dragon Head snorted, his cooking utensils jingling. "Since you want to hear it... I have plenty of time."

He adjusted his posture: "I am the Lord of the hearth. When mortals pray, they ask me for blessings so that they may have surplus grain at the end of the year. But I am not the Lord of wind, rain, thunder, and lightning, nor am I the Lord of agriculture and animal husbandry."

"The harvest in the fields is not under my control... Hmph, what difference does it make whether I control it or not? There are millions of local deities in the world, and which one dares to say that their land has a bumper harvest year after year? In the end, the good weather in the mortal world is just a natural phenomenon... The immortals have no power to interfere with it."

He raised his left arm, brought a pot close to his face, and examined it from all angles, his brownish-yellow eyes gleaming with mockery.

"Besides... even if the weather is really good, will the poor necessarily have food to eat?"

With a flick of his wrist, he held a pale white kitchen knife in his hand.

Dragon Head Master handed the kitchen knife to Dog Brother: "Are you a descendant of the Ji family? This knife... belongs to one of your ancestors."

"At that time, in order to defend against the Mist Spirits of the North, He built seventeen fortresses in the North."

"The Northern Seventeen Stars?" Dog Brother blurted out, "It's the 40th emperor of the Ji family, Ji Youming!" He was somewhat excited, "They did the right thing! The Northern Seventeen Stars protected the safety of the entire Chu territory!"

"Oh...maybe it is, maybe it isn't." Lord Longshou sheathed his knife and snorted. "When building those fortresses, this emperor conscripted many laborers from many places and also took away a lot of the people's stored grain."

He lowered his body, his huge brown eyes close to Dog Brother's flushed face, staring straight at this descendant of the Candle Clan Emperor.

He said, “Many people did not survive that winter.”

“That child, right there, starved to death in front of my shrine.”

“From that day on, I made a decision—since Zhili cannot guarantee the safety of the people, why should I be expected to serve her!”

The Dragon Head Lord let out a deafening roar, which swept across everyone's head and face like a whirlwind.

He roared and crushed the sacrificial cake in his hand.

The sacrificial cake shattered into a pool of black liquid, which He casually tossed onto the floor.

The black liquid landed and transformed into a large swarm of cockroaches with enormous eyes, which scattered and scurried into the crevices of the surrounding rocks.

"Then how did you get sealed in this tomb?"

“Northerner…you really have a lot of questions.”

"That matter is also related to one of the emperors of the Candle Clan."

"At that time, your mortal world had already evolved... to the late stage of the imperial era."

"At that time, I had been corrupted by the primordial nature, and for a period of time, I wandered aimlessly across the land."

“One day, a mortal emperor found me in the wilderness and invited me to live in the emperor’s palace.”

"At that time, I was in a daze all day, my thoughts were confused, and I wanted to find a place to rest. When I heard the invitation from this mortal emperor, I agreed. He was a mortal, but I was the ruler of the imperial power. I had done this before, temporarily residing in the palace."

"And so I moved into the palace." The Dragon Head tilted his head, a seemingly thoughtful expression on his face. "Back then, those emperors were all a bit strange… they seemed to be conducting some kind of research." "Research?"

"Hmph, who knows? The ridiculous research of mortals... I don't care, or rather, in my muddled state, I didn't have the energy to care."

Lin Wang frowned.

He had a strange, vague intuition—what those three emperors were studying back then must have been very…

No, that's not right!

A thought flashed through Lin Wang's mind. He looked up at the Dragon Head Lord's brown eyes and said, "You lied."

"Oh? Mortal, are you questioning whether an immortal is lying?" The Dragon Lord turned his head, his brown pupils filled with a certain interest. "Do you know? No one has said such a thing to me in over a thousand years."

He added, "More importantly, immortals cannot lie."

“But you are a corrupted immortal.” Lin Wang denied it. “Don’t say things like corrupted immortals can’t lie. This isn’t the first time I’ve dealt with a corruption incident.”

"Ha, clever northerners, just like that northern emperor back then." Lord Longshou laughed, his loud laughter causing the room to tremble a few more times.

A piece of ice fell from the roof and hit Dog Brother on the head. The latter shrank his neck, which startled the Yellow Millet God on his neck, who squeaked.

The big yellow rat, fuming, grabbed Dog Brother's hair: "You scared me!"

"Ouch! It hurts! Stop pulling! Stop pulling..."

The Dragon Head Lord ignored the little farce, raised his head, looked towards the ceiling of the tomb, and showed a thoughtful expression.

A few seconds later, He said, "Those three emperors were conducting a study—they wanted to use the power of immortals or gods to ensure the perpetuation of their imperial power."

"Imperial power forever?!" Dog Brother stopped what he was doing, his face filled with shock. "My ancestors wanted to do something like this?"

“Your ancestor… yes, that Candle Clan member, the Candle Clan Emperor.” Lord Dragon Head repeated the word once, “He was the one with the greatest interest… Of course, that Mist Clan member, that Mist Clan Emperor who always smelled of horse manure, he was also very enthusiastic.”

“But that emperor of the North… Tuoba Shou’an? I think that’s his name.” Lord Long Shou fumbled on his left arm for a while, found a very large cleaver, and held it in his hand. “Ah… I found it, that’s him.”

He held the knife between two fingers, bringing it close to his eyes, a look of reminiscence in his eyes, as if looking at an old friend: "This guy..."

He glanced at Lin Wang again: "You two are indeed alike—both are quite tall, yet very quiet and fond of thinking."

"This emperor of the North was very thoughtful, and he talked to me many times while the emperors were conducting their experiments."

"That big emperor was very clever; he realized that the stability of imperial power had nothing to do with the power of immortals and gods."

Hearing this, Lin Wang frowned: "But don't historical records say that in the beginning, the emperor's power was bestowed by the gods?"

"That's just a force." Lord Dragon Head looked at the knife from side to side. "I am the master of the lives of all people, and the master of imperial power... Can you guess why?"

"Because only when all the people live in peace and prosperity, and the imperial power is secure," the Dragon Head Lord chuckled. "Immortals and gods? Bullshit."

He glanced at Lin Wang: "Of those three emperors, only your ancestor, the emperor of the North, realized this."

"Then why didn't he stop the other two emperors?"

"Hehehe...because I lied to him."

(End of this chapter)