Chapter 621: Man In The Boulder
The attacks from the stone scorpions were indeed strong. One of them dented the carapace of another, causing the black rune to become dim.
While they possessed strength, they were not intelligent and felt no pain, so they ignored each other’s attacks as they chased after Long Chen relentlessly. They never stopped even though many of their companions crumbled to dust.
In contrast, the siblings were fighting ferociously. Long Chen finished his opponents faster than the two of them combined. In just fifteen minutes, without even lifting a finger, Long Chen had destroyed five stone scorpions by redirecting their attacks towards each other. The final stone scorpion was on the verge of collapse and its black rune was starting to fade.
Long Chen dodged again as the stone scorpion attacked with its tail once more. This time, the tail hit the boulder behind Long Chen, causing it to shake. A crack appeared on the boulder, though it didn’t move much.
He wasn’t sure what the boulder was, but he didn’t want the stone scorpion to destroy it. He flew up into the air and kicked downwards.
“Wind God Kick, Whirlwind Style.” He flew down like a meteor and launched consecutive attacks on the stone scorpion’s carapace.
Crack, crack, crack.
The horrifying sounds filled the cavern as the stone scorpion collapsed from his attacks.
The final stone scorpion chasing after Long Chen was finally destroyed.At the same time, the siblings were also facing off against their final stone scorpion. The two of them only had to fight four scorpions, yet they had taken longer to kill them than Long Chen.
Willow Step was surprisingly effective against the stone scorpions.
“Wind God Kick?” The siblings were already shocked when they saw Long Chen using Willow Step, and seeing the Wind God Kick truly threw them off. They almost got hit by the final scorpion because they were distracted. They quickly used the Soul Dispersing Dragon Claw to finish off the final scorpion.
The cavern was quiet once more.
“Seventh Brother, you’ve cultivated Willow Step and the Wind God Kick?” Long Yue was surprised. She had thought Long Chen was just a child, but now his combat power far surpassed hers. She felt embarrassed.
“The Huangfu family gave me the Willow Step, and I stole the Wind God Kick from Yang Ningfeng. I cultivated them and got some satisfactory results.”
Long Yue was still surprised even though Long Chen explained how he had obtained the techniques. Long Chen could somehow both Willow Step and the Wind God Kick to a surprisingly good degree.
“You are the greatest genius I’ve ever seen in both cultivation and martial techniques.” Long Yue smiled bitterly.
The youth was in awe too. “I, Long Chen, have never looked up to anyone in my life. You are the first. I never thought someone could cultivate two intermediate King-tier martial techniques in just a month.”
Long Chen chuckled. “It still feels weird to call me by my name.”
Having the same name was confusing …
The two of them laughed. The siblings were impressed by Long Chen, and they secretly regarded him as their leader now.
After the stone scorpions were defeated, Long Chen looked at the boulder in the middle.
“The stone scorpions probably used up all of their power, so what is this thing?” The three of them lightly tapped the boulder and saw that it was the same type of stone as the ones that littered on the ground. The only difference was how large and round the boulder was.
“They should all be the same type of rock. I wonder what kind of secret it holds?” the youth said.
Long Chen investigated the boulder for half a day but found nothing. Is this just the nest of the stone scorpions? Just then, he heard something from inside the boulder.
He quickly pressed his ear onto it and heard the sound of knocking from the inside.
Long Chen activated Sight and saw something shocking. There was an empty pocket roughly one meter in diameter in the middle of the boulder! And someone was inside!
Long Chen could see the weakened soul of the person.
“What’s wrong?” Long Yue was curious when she saw Long Chen's actions.
“Someone’s inside, and they are not dead.”
“Impossible. How could there be someone in there? Even if it's true, how could they still be alive after being trapped for so long?” The siblings were staring at the boulder with wide eyes.
“Should we open it up?”
Suddenly, the youth shouted at them, “Sister! I know who it is! It must be him!”
Long Yue was puzzled by how excited the youth had gotten. “Who are you referring to?”
“Sister, have you forgotten what our father told us when he was still alive? When we were very young, our grandfather went missing. At that time, he was at the Fourth Earthly Martial Stage and was as strong as the Martial Overlord. Our father couldn’t confirm it, but he thought that the previous Martial Overlord had imprisoned our grandfather!”
Long Yue realized what he was trying to say. “Xiaochen, are you saying that the man inside the boulder could be our grandfather, Long Shan?”
“Yes!”
“Then we need to break the boulder open. Let’s do it slowly so we don’t injure him.” Long Chen never expected to find something like this, but he wasn’t worried. Using Sight, he confirmed that the person inside was on the brink of death. If they rescued them, they wouldn’t be able to bring the trio any harm.
Long Chen had to admit that their grandfather was really strong if he was still alive after being trapped in the boulder for so many years.
The boulder must’ve been made by someone, but who? And why would they imprison someone in a boulder? Long Chen didn’t know the answer to that.
The three of them acted immediately. Even though the boulder was hard, all three of them had a method to break it open. Long Yue and the youth each had an intermediate King-tier Divine Arm that could chip it open. Long Chen, on the other hand, used his claws, which were as strong as their Divine Arms.
“Why are your claws so hard?” The youth was shocked. He had a feeling that other than his cultivation level, Long Chen had them outclassed in every aspect.
Long Chen smiled and said nothing as they worked together to open the boulder.
Time slowly passed.
“Almost there now …” Long Chen could tell that they were getting closer to the center.
Crack. His claws reached the empty space in the middle, then he pulled out a large chunk of stone. When the dust settled, Long Chen and everyone else saw that there was indeed someone inside the boulder.
Long Chen couldn’t bear to look at the man.
It was an emaciated old man with his skin stuck to his bones. He looked similar to how Jiang Kun looked when he used Corpse Transformation. The old man had long, white hair and his beard covered his entire face. His clothes were almost reduced to nothing too.
Long Chen could barely see a pair of eyes through the messy hair and beard. The old man’s eyes were dim and barely open, a clear indication that he was close to death. But when he saw Long Chen and the other two, a strange vigor filled his eyes.
Long Chen felt a sense of familiarity from the old man due to his bloodline, similar to when he first met Long Yue. He was certain that the old man was Long Yue’s grandfather, Long Shan.
Wasting no time, he took out hundreds of King Crystals from the Primordial Realm and gave them to the elder. The King Crystals could replenish the old man’s strength.
After seeing the King Crystals, the old man perked up instantly. A strange suction formed in the center of his stomach as he absorbed all of them. He separated the hundreds of crystals and distributed them evenly on his nine Martial Meridians.
Long Chen sighed in relief.
The old man could still be saved if he had enough vitality to absorb the power of the King Crystals. The King Crystals started to shine, and their light enveloped the old man. Long Chen stepped back and let the old man refine them slowly. That was when he turned around and saw that Long Yue and the youth were crying.
Now he was even more certain that the old man was Long Shan.
“Grandfather …” Long Yue and the youth never thought they would meet their grandfather here.
To think that their grandfather had been subjected to such torment for so long.
He had been trapped here for thirty years and was barely alive by the time they found him. Long Chen now understood how vile the methods of the Martial Alliance were.
If it wasn’t for Long Chen suggesting that they follow the stone scorpions, the old man would’ve died eventually. But the old man never gave up and used as little energy as possible to live because he had hopes that he would be rescued one day.
Long Chen was impressed by his willpower.
Someone with a weaker will would’ve died long ago.