The Immortal Emperor Returns

Chapter 500 Trapped Like A Vole

“I’M FREE! I’M FREE AT LAST!” the Queen cackled maniacally like an evil witch, her laughter bouncing off the walls of the rock chamber incessantly.

Horrified, the crowd turned their eyes immediately in Chu Xun’s direction.

Chu Xun’s dashing features twisted with agony. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead as he flinched and shivered like a scarecrow. A sickening peal of rattling escaped his throat as he grunted hard against the indescribable pain.

Bang!

Chu Xun collapsed to his knees with such a force that made the ground crack beneath him. Blood trickled out of his nostrils and his mouth.

“Chu Xun…” breathed Gao Mohan, visibly worried.

But Chu Xun could hardly speak. No one but the Queen of Elves knew what pain and agony he was enduring right now.

The size of the little black stone belied the heft of a mountain. Chu Xun could take 50 tonnes, but this rock weighed at least 100 tonnes.

He would have been crushed into a putrid pulp of blood and viscera if not for his extraordinarily sturdy physique afforded by the Ancestral Dragon’s Bone and Blood and the Suan Ni True Blood.

“What have you done to him?!” Weng Xiong demanded furiously.

The Queen quelled her laughter and looked at Chu Xun with interest. “So, he really can take it,” she muttered.

“Release him at once!” Gao Mohan snarled, summoning his power and readying himself for a fight.

“You’re mistaken,” said the Queen placidly, ignoring his belligerence. “It is not I who’s giving him what agony he now faces, but that strange little stone.”

“We need to help him!” cried Gao Mohan.

Shi Yifei and the others hurried to approach Chu Xun.

“No… Stop… Don’t come near…” Chu Xun groaned with great difficulty.

They were barely ten meters away from Chu Xun when the stone in Chu Xun’s grasp emitted another wave of black sparkles, rolling towards Gao Mohan and the others.

The expressions of Gao Mohan and the others turned drastically when they finally realized what it was. The gargantuan gravity crushed down on them, and despite the frantic channeling of their powers to resist it, the staggering gravity forced them all to collapse to their knees.

“Quick… Back away…” Chu Xun cried strenuously.

With an easy wave of her graceful hand, the Queen conjured a wind that whisked Gao Mohan and the others from within reach of the black force field where the staggering gravity pervaded.

Saved, Chu Xun’s companions all panted for breath. They looked at Chu Xun with disbelief. They were already teetering, very close to having permanent internal injuries just by standing at the edges of the strange light’s range. “What about Chu Xun then, who remains at the very center?!”

“What can we do to save him!?” Gao Mohan demanded of the Queen.

The Queen shook her head in silence. It took her several seconds before she finally said, “There’s nothing we can do. Only he can help himself by reaching the Gold Immortal Realm.”

“Gold Immortal Realm?!” Everyone was struck dumb.

“You shameless hag! He came to save you! Why are you doing this?!” the Flaming Qilin lashed out fiercely, ignoring the fact that the Queen was a mother figure to his sweetheart.

“Watch your tone, little Qilin. I’ll have no more of that impertinence,” warned the Queen testily.

“Watch my tone? We came to save you out of kindness and you shoved us into a trap!” snarled the Qilin. He turned to Gao Mohan, “Together! Take her down and get Chu the Devil out!”

Gao Mohan and the others all nodded. The Queen might have saved them just now, but it was nothing compared to her treachery.

“No, please! Flaming Qilin, no!” cried Su Wei’er in panic.

But it was too late; the Qilin was already throwing himself at the Queen, his mouth spewing a jet of lava.

The Queen merely shook her head gently. Her hand rose up effortlessly and she clenched it into a fist tight and fast and the lava jet easily burst open, missing her squarely. Then she pointed at the Qilin charging headlong into her and a powerful force crushed down on him, smacking him right down to the ground like a fly and pinning him there.

“You are all no match for me. Save your efforts,” the Queen said coolly.

Gao Mohan and the others who were just about to back up the Qilin screeched to a halt, their faces fraught with terror. The Queen was an Earth Immortal!

“I have no desire to hurt you, but don’t test me,” growled the Queen menacingly.

Gao Mohan and the others knew better than to make any ill-advised moves. The Queen was definitely a monster in her own right that not even their collective powers could barely lay a scratch on her.

“Why, Teacher?! Why are you doing this!?” Su Wei’er squealed mournfully. She could not believe that the noble, pure, and kind Queen of Elves and her mentor would do something as deceitful as this.

The Queen exhaled wearily. “Silly girl. I’m the Queen of Elves. Surely I cannot allow myself to be incarcerated indefinitely down there? The crisis that you just managed to survive would have been averted if only I were there. Such is the burden and duty I bear as the Queen.”

“But Chu Xun is our friend. It was only because of his help that we managed to stop the coup!” Su Wei’er could still not accept her teacher’s logic.

“And you would rather that I, your teacher, remain here for the rest of my life until my very last breath?” countered the Queen.

“No, but… Teacher, I…” Su Wei’er was at a loss of how to respond. As much as she wished for her teacher to be freed, she could still not accept what her mentor had done.

Even Su Lianyi too could not stomach such deception that went against her own conscience. “Surely there is another way, Your Grace?”

“Don’t you agree with me?” asked the Queen.

“If I may speak the truth, Your Grace.” Su Lianyi got down on one knee. “No one wanted you to be free more than I do, Your Grace. But Chu Xun has delivered our race from ruin and this is definitely not the way to betray him.”

“Betray?” The Queen’s face darkened. “Are you admonishing me, Elder Su?”

“I wouldn’t dare, Your Grace!” Su Lianyi said quickly.

The Queen snorted. Turning to Chu Xun, she said, “Don’t blame me, human. I had to choose you only because you have enough strength and power to withstand the force of this strange rock. There really was no other option.”

Chu Xun struggled against the colossal gravity of the strange stone crushing into him, resisting with every fiber of his being as he channeled all the Hong Meng Immortal Qi he could muster. His insides were practically groaning and screaming in pain and his heart drummed thunderously.

“You wished to know my name just now, didn’t you? I can tell you now. It’s—”

“S-save... It…” Chu Xun spat every syllable bitterly and arduously, the veins on his neck surfacing from the tremendous stress that he looked hideous. “Y-you… Y-you’re not her…”

The Queen hung her jaw, stopped short from uttering her name when Chu Xun cut her off. At last, she said, “Consider this a debt that I owe you. Rest assured that I will repay your friends handsomely for your sacrifice.

“We’re leaving,” she said.

“Your Grace, is there really no other way to save Chu Xun?!” Gao Mohan could not believe that this was the end.

The Queen of Elves scoffed. “Would I have had to wallow here in isolation and despair for one thousand years if I could get out?”

“Chu the Devil! Do something! Where’s your bag of tricks when you need it?!” shrieked the Flaming QIlin desperately, “There must be a way! Think! What do you need us to do!?”

Chu Xun could only manage a laborious grin. The weight cast by this strange rock was really so powerful that even the Queen of Elves’ unfathomable power could not defeat and she was trapped here for one thousand years.

“Wei’er, Elder Su. We’re leaving,” said the Queen.

Su Lianyi and Su Wei’er were at a loss.

“We’re so sorry about this, Chu Xun.”

Amid tears and sobs, they apologized to Chu Xun and obediently returned to the Queen’s side.

“I’d suggest that you come with us,” said the Queen to Gao Mohan and the others.

But they threw only angry and scathing glares at her, ignoring her call.

“Go… Get out of here… I don’t think I’ll be coming… I ask only this: keep my people safe for me… watch over the forces of the Chu Mansion… and I’ll be grateful enou— ARGGGH!” said Chu Xun, as he coughed a mouthful of blood.

“Chu Xun...”

Gao Mohan and the others all cried with anguish and sorrow.

The Queen did not even deign to wait any longer. She strode off with Su Wei’er and Su Lianyi following quietly behind.

Gao Mohan and the others could only say their farewells with the utmost regret.

...

Chu Xun laid all alone in the empty cave chamber, trapped like a vole.

He could not even manage the slightest movement with his finger. He peered at the strange stone in his grasp and muttered aloud, “So… how could it be?”

He had recognized the stone for what it was the moment when the strange gravity force field burst out.

What he held in his hand was actually a Stellar Core. A fragment from the core of a planet.

Fortunately for him, the size of the fragment in his hand was only a small one. An actual full-sized Core could have overwhelmed even Emperor Ao himself.

Back in the alien land when he still reigned as an Immortal Emperor, his very own weapon was forged from a Stellar Core.

Weapons forged with even the smallest bit of Stellar Cores could potentially see their powers enhanced in leaps and bounds. But the dangers of forging weapons using Stellar Cores were so great that only those at the near completion of the Tribulation Transcendence stage could work safely with such materials.

“The Queen of Elves, eh? I’ll not forget this debt, Your Grace.”

Chu Xun was not giving up. He was not one to admit defeat so easily. But the force of the Stellar Core was just too powerful and he knew defeating it would be a very slow and long uphill climb.

But if he could cast a magic formation, that might help alleviate part of the weight that the gravitational force field was bearing down on him.

Yet alas, he could not even move a finger.

And that was exactly where he would start first: by trying to move his finger. This could be a sort of training; a kind of tempering of his divine soul and his physical strength.

Despite his mind still clear and keen, he was no better than someone in PVS since he could hardly even manage the slightest movement.

“ARGGGGHHH!” Chu Xun groaned and grunted as he struggled to crook his finger but only after his face and neck turned fully scarlet and he was fatigued did he finally manage to bend it a little.

Still, it was nevertheless an unequivocal success, albeit a small one, as Chu Xun told himself so.

Time passed quickly in his drudgery and a month flew by quickly. Chu Xun could finally move one finger freely, but only one finger.

There was no one he could complain to. If he could move one finger only after one month’s worth of work, moving his hands would take at least a year.

...

By the third month, Chu Xun was in the course of regaining the movements of his third finger.

Su Wei’er and Su Lianyi came to visit him.

They had come without the Queen’s knowledge.

“Where are Gao Mohan and the others,” Chu Xun asked them.

They told him about how Gao Mohan and the others had declined the Queen’s hospitality after leaving the cave and how they had left forthwith.

Su Wei’er looked pained and sorrowful. Apparently, the Flaming Qilin left without so much as a goodbye to her too.

Deep down inside, Chu Xun exhaled with relief. His prime concern was if the Queen had decided to slay his companions to keep her deceit a secret.

Su Wei’er and Su Lianyi could not stop apologizing to Chu Xun for the present predicament they had landed him in. It was they who had pleaded with him to help free the Queen, only for him to suffer such a betrayal.

But Chu Xun was not called the Devil for no reason. He would not forget this debt, nor would he easily forgive the Queen for this slight. But for now, escaping out of here alive took precedence before seeking revenge.

Before Su Wei’er and Su Lianyi departed, they left him a few jade chests.

They told him about the two prized treasures of the Elf race: firstly, the Arcane Fruits of the Elves that could afford its eater great strengthening of his divine soul as well as huge growth in power. Secondly, the Arcane Spring of the Elves. A bath in the spring would see one’s physical endurance toughened substantially.

And inside the jade chests, they left him were some Arcane Fruits.

Chu Xun’s eyes gleamed coldly. “So the Elves have such a treasure so carefully kept, eh?

“Just you wait, Queen of Elves… I’ll be back.” Chu Xun grinned to himself in secret.

When Su Wei’er and Su Lianyi were gone, Chu Xun went back to his training, flexing his fingers vigorously to regain his mobility.