"Senior, what exactly happened?" Chu Feng asked. He had already realized that Ying Mingchao and the Kong Heavenly Clan seemed to truly have a deep grudge.
"Aren't you the one who asked me why I appeared here? It was all forced upon me by the Kong Heavenly Clan," Ying Mingchao said.
Then, Ying Mingchao told Chu Feng the full story of what had happened.
More than a thousand years ago, that was when Ying Mingchao and Hero City were at the height of their fame.
At that time, Hero City not only had its own territory but had also gained control of several ancient ruins.
Ying Mingchao had just led a group of Hero City's experts out of one of the ruins. Though exhausted at the time, he was in high spirits after successfully obtaining benefits from within.
On a whim, Ying Mingchao decided to take his brothers out for a drink.
As it happened, they encountered the patriarchs of the Kong Heavenly Clan and the Zhou Heavenly Clan.
The two patriarchs eagerly invited Ying Mingchao to visit the Kong Heavenly Clan, claiming that the clan had wine that had been aged for ten thousand years.
Ying Mingchao and his brothers were all fond of wine, and hearing about such fine liquor naturally tempted them. Combined with the hosts' insistence, they made their way to the Kong Heavenly Clan.
But they never expected it to be a trap.
It turned out that the Kong Heavenly Clan and the Zhou Heavenly Clan feared that Ying Mingchao would continue to grow and truly become the overlord of the Hundred Refinements Mortal Realm. They wanted to eliminate him before he fully matured.
By the time Ying Mingchao learned the truth, it was too late. All his brothers had been killed, and he was outnumbered.
Left with no choice, he could only attempt to flee. But the Kong Heavenly Clan and the Zhou Heavenly Clan had long been prepared — they had already sealed off all escape routes. In the end, Ying Mingchao fled into the Bereavement Mountain Range.
But misfortune struck when he triggered a killing formation and was pulled into it. The killing formation's power was immense, more than enough to obliterate him.
With no other option, Ying Mingchao was forced to use a forbidden technique — one that could prevent the killing formation from destroying him.
This forbidden technique was incredibly powerful. After its use, Ying Mingchao's body would disappear. While not truly vanishing, it would allow him to evade the detection of most formations and remain unseen by any gaze.
But being a forbidden technique, it naturally came with severe side effects. The side effect was that he would never be able to move again. Unless the forbidden technique was undone, he would not be able to move even an inch.
Fortunately, Ying Mingchao did not remain trapped in the killing formation indefinitely, because deep within it lay a teleportation array. When he fell to its depths and touched the teleportation array, he was transported here.
However, once he arrived, the side effects fully manifested, and Ying Mingchao became trapped in this place.
"So it seems that as long as one can survive the killing formations, one can reach this place. The trials here really are interesting." Having learned of Ying Mingchao's experience, Chu Feng came to understand Kong Yingyi's design for this place.
Those killing formations were dangerous, but in reality, they were also a shortcut to reaching this palace. As long as one could survive, one could arrive here. But clearly, over all these years, the only one who had managed to arrive alive was this Ying Mingchao.
However, Ying Mingchao was quite pitiful, because having used the forbidden technique, even though he had arrived at the place where his enemy's treasures were hidden, he couldn't take anything — for he could no longer move.
"Logically speaking, after using that forbidden technique, Senior, you shouldn't only be unable to move — you should also be unable to speak, and unable to use your oppressive aura," Chu Feng said.
"That's right. I've been trapped here for a full thousand years. Although the side effects have weakened over time, I still have no way of leaving this place."
"Kid, just think about it — a person trapped in one place for a thousand years, with no one to talk to, unable to even change position when tired, without food or water. How painful that must be."
"Oh, do you have any food? Wine — yes, wine! Kid, do you have any wine?" Ying Mingchao suddenly asked.