Chapter 162: The Arrogant Shen Yinglong

The Northern Wilderness Bear told Jiang Chen that he was merely an ordinary hunter living in peace by the Two Realms Mountain.

The reason he had entered Wangchuan City that day was because his child had fallen gravely ill, and he needed to visit a physician in the city for medicine. To his astonishment, he was framed by Shen Yinglong as a traitor who colluded with the enemy.

During their clash, the Northern Wilderness Bear felt a sudden, strange anomaly in his body—an almost suffocating sensation that led to his defeat at the hands of Shen Yinglong in a single encounter.

That was the whole story from beginning to end. He swore that he had never colluded with the Northern Yan people. In fact, while living near the Two Realms Mountain, he frequently encountered spies who sneaked in from the Northern Yan territory.

Naturally, those people were all eventually eliminated by the Bear, leaving not a single survivor.

Jiang Chen patted the Bear on the shoulder and said earnestly, "Now that the wars between Great Qian and Northern Yan are endless, your family will face trouble if you continue living by the Two Realms Mountain. If you ever need to, come find me in Wangchuan City in the future."

The Bear first nodded, but then suddenly realized that after today, Jiang Chen would inevitably be hunted down by the entire city of Wangchuan. How could he possibly find him here?

"Aren't you planning to run away with me?" the Bear asked, deeply puzzled.

Jiang Chen replied, "I still have very important matters to ask the fellow inside. But rest assured, I have plenty of ways to escape Wangchuan City, and before long, I will return. When that time comes, the Shen family will no longer call the shots in this city."

Half-comprehending, the Bear nodded again. Then the two men slapped hands in a mutual pledge, parting ways as transient acquaintances who had crossed paths by chance.

"By the way, my name is Xutu. I don't like people calling me the Bear."

Jiang Chen joked, "Yet it seems I've already called you Brother Bear many times."

"Others are not allowed to call me that. As for you... suit yourself."

Xutu's massive back slowly vanished into the snowy landscape. Jiang Chen felt a wave of emotion, reflecting on how they had both survived that brutal and bloody fight. If not for the joining of Xutu's formidable combat strength, he probably would have had to contend with those ferocious Northern Yan prisoners of war all night long.

However, one thing was certain: Jiang Chen would never be destroyed by such insidious and crafty schemes orchestrated by Shen Yinglong.

Eliminating those Northern Yan prisoners of war was merely a matter of time—nothing more than the difference between expending a bit more effort or cutting through them as cleanly and effortlessly as slicing vegetables.

Returning to the front of the cell, Jiang Chen saw Shen Yinglong sitting cross-legged on the ground with such composure. This man's mental fortitude and depth of scheming were indeed superior to ordinary people; even in a situation that was thoroughly disadvantageous to himself, he remained entirely calm and unruffled.

In this regard, he was somewhat similar to Jiang Chen, except that Jiang Chen was unflustered despite plunging into a perilous dragon's lair all by himself. Shen Yinglong, however, was able to maintain his composure solely because the entire city of Wangchuan was under his family's control; he had sufficient confidence and backing to contend with Jiang Chen.

"How does it feel to taste the flavor of imprisonment?" Jiang Chen stared at Shen Yinglong, finally finding the opportunity to turn the tables and give him a taste of his own medicine.

"This dungeon itself was funded and constructed by our Shen family. I've been here many times since I was a child. Back then, seeing quite a few interesting instruments of torture, I would ask the jailers to use them one by one on the prisoners."

"Some prisoners couldn't hold out and would honestly confess, while others would surrender and truthfully reveal everything the very moment they caught sight of those cold, gleaming instruments of torture. But I despised the latter, because they had no backbone at all."

"Then I would order the jailers to slaughter all those cowardly good-for-nothings, because they were destined to die anyway, and by helping them find an early release, I suppose I was accumulating merits and doing a good deed."

As Shen Yinglong spoke, he burst into laughter. There was every reason to suspect that this man's inner mind was profoundly dark and twisted. Jiang Chen had finally seen through the true face of this Northern aristocratic scion.

"Shall we talk about this instead? Your Shen family is attempting to sever the Northern Wilderness from the territory of Great Qian, yet you offer no resistance whatsoever to the aggressive and overwhelming Northern Yan army. Aren't you afraid that the Northern Wilderness will once again become meat on Northern Yan's chopping block?"

"Could it be that you have already reached some private agreement with Northern Yan behind closed doors, and they have promised to allow your Shen family to establish a kingdom in the Northern Wilderness after they invade the heartland of Great Qian?"

After Jiang Chen voiced his deduction, Shen Yinglong did not flatly deny it.

That arrogant and conceited Young Master Shen stated without a shred of shame, "We Northern folk and the Central Plains were never of the same lineage to begin with. Breaking away from Great Qian's control to establish an independent nation is the inevitable path for this Northern realm."

"Look at Great Qian as it is now: aged, decayed, approaching its twilight... The officialdom is filled with all manner of parasites who hold sinecures and do no work. Can we rely on them to protect the safety of the Northern Wilderness? The Northern Yan people are about to swallow the entire Northern Wilderness whole, and what has the imperial court done?"

Every word Shen Yinglong uttered was powerful and resonated like a bell, and his criticisms of the Great Qian court were entirely justified, leaving even Jiang Chen with no room for refutation.

The predicament Great Qian currently found itself in genuinely gave people a sense of despair—as if the malady had sunk too deep to be cured and the very heavens and earth were turning upside down.

Yet, choosing to preserve the military strength of the Northern Wilderness, offering zero resistance to the invading enemy, and watching with folded arms as the people of the Northern Wilderness were slaughtered and tormented like beings plunged into hell—that was the profound sin forged by the Shen family.

"You are wrong," Jiang Chen's deep voice echoed through the gloomy corridor.

"Wrong? I, Shen Yinglong, consider myself far more sagacious, formidable, and knowledgeable in the arts of governance than that old emperor who is one foot in the grave. Give me twenty years, and the Northern Wilderness will become a powerful nation whose national strength rivals that of Northern Yan."

"When that day comes, whether it is Northern Yan or Great Qian, I will demand that they send tribute to the Northern Wilderness year after year, exhausting every means to curry my favor. This is what the strong ought to do."

Jiang Chen let out a cold laugh. He had not expected Shen Yinglong to be indulging in such delusional and grandiose dreams.

He spoke bluntly, "Do you know what? You have a fatal flaw. You can never be an emperor, nor can you found a nation. Perhaps you would be well-suited to be a storyteller, because the scene you just painted is indeed quite interesting."

Shen Yinglong abruptly stood up, strode quickly to the cell door, and stared intently at Jiang Chen through the barred ventilation window above.

"You say I have a fatal flaw? Do you have any idea what you are talking about?"

Jiang Chen replied calmly, "You are arrogant, condescending, and blind to everyone else—that is your fatal flaw. When I interacted with you disguised as a jailer, I kept my head bowed the entire time, yet you didn't suspect a thing."

"This shows that you never look people straight in the eye under normal circumstances, nor do you care what your subordinates actually look like. Day in and day out, you walk around with your nose in the air, swaggering about, imagining yourself omniscient, only to end up locked in a prison cell by me. How utterly ridiculous!"

"Tell me how you secretly colluded with the Northern Yan people, or I will kill you right now."