Chapter 1: Divine Chamber
“The Emperor is a tyrant, taxing without restraint, sparing not a single chicken or pig, scraping every last copper. He forces the common folk to sell their children and pawn their wives, leaving starved corpses to litter the wilds. He empties the homes of the poor until they ring hollow, and the roads echo with the wails of the suffering. He drives the people like cattle and sheep, enslaving the masses like dogs and horses. Decrees fall upon the provinces, ordering the excavation of canals. Iron shackles clank, locking the flesh and blood of the innocent. Leather whips howl, driving the commoners to the yellow springs of the underworld.”
“Within two years, forty-nine canals! Cleaving mountains and filling valleys, shattering the tombs of ten thousand families. Breaching dams and cutting off rivers, destroying the fields and homes of a thousand villages. Able-bodied men perish under the pickaxe; the old and weak die in the frost. Thirty million wronged souls wail in the long night; ninety thousand li of white bones lie exposed in the wilderness. The river waters run completely red, all from the blood and tears of the people. The soil and stones reek of blood, soaked in the marrow of the masses.”
...
A low voice recited the chant, the words drifting continuously into Chen Lingxi’s ears.
Chen Lingxi endured the severe pain in his internal organs and opened his eyes.
“I’m not dead yet.” Chen Lingxi took a deep breath, the movement pulling painfully at the blood scabs on his lips.
An earthen wall greeted his eyes.
Enduring the sharp pain, Chen Lingxi turned his head slightly and saw a few crude wooden beds. A few coarse pottery bowls and plates were piled in the corner.
The room was dark and damp, seemingly untouched by sunlight all day. Combined with the bitter winter, it was freezing cold.