Chapter 32: Who on Earth Is It?

After trekking through the dense forest for another hour or so, Lin Pianran finally reached the pile of stones.

Time had long since passed, and she rummaged through the stones, searching for the small one from her memories. Fortune favored the persistent; she finally located the small stone wedged between two larger boulders. Suppressing her intense excitement, Lin Pianran stepped forward and gently pressed down on the small stone.

With a series of loud, rumbling thuds and a slight tremor of the ground, a small stone entrance—just wide enough for one person to pass—slowly opened. Looking inside from the outside, it was pitch black and felt somewhat eerie, like the gaping maw of a giant beast waiting to swallow anything that caught its interest. Yet, Lin Pianran felt as if a voice were softly calling to her: *Come in... Come in quickly...*

The voice seemed to possess a magical quality, causing Lin Pianran’s heart to tremble. She knew this might be the mission of her rebirth. Taking a flashlight and a dagger from her dimensional space, she clutched the light in her left hand and the blade in her right, stepping cautiously inside. In her past life, while hiding from the Lin family’s pursuit after being framed by the Princess Consort of Jing, she had accidentally triggered the mechanism and fallen into this very cave. She had been trapped for a full day before luckily managing to escape.

Lin Pianran stepped into the cave and reached inside the entrance to find a mechanism, sealing the stone door shut behind her. The cave contained only a long, narrow, and rugged stone passage. After walking for about a quarter of an hour, she finally found the large cavern from her memories.

The cavern was dim, lit only by a flickering oil lamp on the stone wall that cast a cold, ghostly glow. Faintly, she could see a withered, gaunt figure curled up on the ground. As she drew closer, she realized it was a middle-aged man. His hands, feet, and neck were shackled with heavy, thick chains. He looked pitiful, his face obscured by disheveled, matted hair and a beard. Though he appeared tall and wore only thin, tattered clothing—shivering from the cold—his eyes still burned with a look of composure, tenacity, and courage.

For some reason, Lin Pianran’s nose stung, and tears welled up in her eyes. *How wonderful! He is still alive. As long as he is alive, that is enough!* She had finally found a living soul. He would not end up like the nameless pile of bones she had known in her past life.

Lin Pianran approached him slowly. Hearing her footsteps, the withered figure stirred. He lifted his eyelids, watching her every move with vigilance. They did not speak, only locked eyes in silence. A strange light flickered in his gaze—a mixture of longing and hope.

Lin Pianran smiled at him in a friendly gesture. "I stumbled upon this place by accident. I have no ill intentions toward you."

*This life is truly good!* she thought. *Both of us have the hope of welcoming a brighter future! We will have a different ending! We have both been reborn!*

The middle-aged man glanced at her indifferently, then lowered his head. Seeing his cracked, peeling lips, Lin Pianran kindly handed him a large cup of spiritual spring water. The man hesitated for a moment, then, without a word, took it and drank it in one go. Lin Pianran then took some soft, easily digestible cake from the parcel in her arms and offered it to him.

A look of shyness and gratitude flashed across the man's face. As he accepted it, he whispered, "Thank you." Despite his extreme hunger, he ate with great refinement and composure, neither rushing nor slowing. His manners revealed him to be a man of profound cultivation; even in such wretched circumstances, his spirit remained unbowed.

After giving him several pieces of cake, Lin Pianran stopped feeding him. She pulled a cloak and a thick blanket from her parcel and handed them over. "Wrap yourself in these. They will shield you from the cold and keep you warm." She paused, then asked, "Can you tell me who you are? And why you are imprisoned here? I will certainly find a way to save you!"

The man cracked a smile and spoke a name that sounded like a thunderclap: "I am Wei Zixing."

"Are you the Great General Wei Zixing?" Lin Pianran gasped, her heart racing and her blood boiling with disbelief. Her voice rose in pitch, trembling with overwhelming agitation.

*This is too incredible!* Who could have such audacity? To imprison the Great War God of the Qin Kingdom, a general who had won countless victories, inspired legendary tales, and guarded the borders of Great Qin for decades. He was the protector of the people, a true hero to be revered! For years, it was he and his "Wei Family Army" who had used their flesh and blood to repel the northern barbarians, protecting the people of Qin so they could live in peace.

Wei Zixing was not only an invincible general but also the biological brother of the current Empress Wei Ziying and the uncle most respected by Crown Prince Huo Yuchen. Holding military authority over three hundred thousand frontier troops, he was a man of immense power. Who could have imagined he would be imprisoned in this desolate cave, left to starve and freeze?

*Detestable! Absolutely detestable!* Whoever had done this, she would ensure they paid for their grave sins. Remembering how General Wei Zixing had vanished into obscurity in her previous life, leaving only nameless bones to rot, Lin Pianran’s resolve hardened. She vowed in her heart: *I will save the Great General. I will restore his glory and let him shine once more. He shall not be forgotten, imprisoned, and left to die a wrongful death. He belongs in the sunlight, honored by the world. He once protected the people, so now, I shall protect him!*

It was obvious that a massive, all-encompassing conspiracy lay behind this. She recalled how, after General Wei Zixing went missing in her previous life, the estate of her own parents—the Duke of Protectorate—was framed by treacherous villains. The Emperor had refused them any chance of defense, leading the entire clan to be exiled to the frozen north, where almost all of them perished on the road. Following that, the influence of the Crown Prince and the Empress was systematically dismantled. Within a few years, the Prince was forced to flee the capital, only to be driven to suicide during his escape, while Empress Wei, consumed by grief and despair, took her own life in the palace. Even years after their deaths, they remained burdened by false accusations of treason and chaos, slandered by later generations.

*How unjust this world is!*