The Champion’s Ring - Chapter 8

The next morning, Chen Yi was woken up by a servant who shook him awake, crying, “Lord! Your mother has been taken by a shadowy criminal. We do not know how the criminal kidnapped our patriarch’s spouse in her sleep with so many of us around. Divine astrologers have been summoned by your father, the chief and our lord, but they were also of no use as the criminal has covered up his tracks well.”

Chen Yi began to postulate on who it could be. He had some thoughts on who it could be, but there needed to be some developments in order to confirm his suspicions.

He decided to consult his father to see what he would say regarding this matter. As he briskly walked to the room in which his father was, he encountered his brother again.Ignoring the feeling of deja vu, he asked his brother whether he had seen their father and if so, what he had said. After Chen Yi  found out that Chen Wei had just been woken up, like him, he decided to bring his younger brother along. Upon finding their father,they asked him if there were any clues as to the identity of the kidnapper. 

Their father, Chen Hao, told them that they only had a ransom letter asking for wealth in order to ensure the safe return of their mother Li Mei. The letter had been signed by someone called Wee Inch. Clues of the person handling the letter were found by using mystical skills. They all pointed to Xi Xiao, one of Li Mei’s personal maids. When Chen Hao asked people to investigate her identity, he was told that she was the illegitimate child of the chief advisor, who had suppressed all knowledge of her existence by flouting his substantial clout in the clan. The spies were also told by her friends that she had been acting awfully suspiciously for the past week, almost as if she was frightened. When they digged deeper, they found her diary showing that she wanted to be recognised within the clan and had finally found a method to do so. Although the diary did not specify how she was going to kidnap Chen Hao’s wife, the evidence was enough to convict her.

After this information was told to the descendants of the patriarch Chen Hao, a few tens of metres below the ground they were standing on, another scene was taking place.A gruesome one, for they had started to torture Xi Xiao using various methods the executioner wished to use to inflict pain towards his feeble victim.

As the torture instruments ,the executioner had ordered to bring, arrived he started by telling the servant to leave and to close the doors and not let anyone near.The servant bowed left.Then as the door closed, he walked over to the metal chains and started up the oven.He then put the chains inside the oven.He walked over to the maid, Xi Xiao.

“I want to know what you have done with the patriarch’s wife.” Xi Xiao started to whimper and then burst into tears. “I am asking you to tell me. If you do so, I will make your punishment less painful, so tell me.TELL ME” he demanded, “this is your last chance!” That was the moment when Xi XIao wiped her tears and said, “I don’t know. I swear I don’t have anything to do with this! I have done nothing wrong. This is a massive misunderstanding!”

The executioner could not take anymore nonsense and he barked “Shut Up!” And then slapped her face. “I gave you a chance to tell me where Li Mei is at, but you missed it and now you must pay for your grave sin.”

TThe executioner took out the chains ,which at this point were piping hot.They were a shade of dull red, and then he started to hit her with the chains. He started off with her legs.He began to whip her legs repeatedly and spoke in a loud angry and anguished tone “ Why did you take her from our patriarch? What has he done to you to deserve this!?!?!”As he kept on whipping her, her once beautiful skin started to break away. Her skin was charred black, and blood oozed out of her legs. She started to lose consciousness but the water was thrown at her, forcibly keeping her awake, during the very painful experience.

RIght after that occurrence, he started to pick up some sharp knives and he started to slice her feet and legs into small cubes of flesh. He told her that if she confessed now and said the location of the patriarch’s wife,she would have a less painful death. She continued to claim and protest his innocence.The executioner had had enough he started to grab all the knives and started to slice at her flesh.

He had started to do very shallow cuts but even though they were shallow, they brought much pain to her. Hot oil was ordered and then continued to slice at her flesh.After he had done around one hundred slices he started to put her in the oil, starting from her feet. Her screams echoed through the walls and hallways.

She was in a greater pain than she had ever been in before. Xi Xiao had screamed, “I am innocent” I swear I am innocent, in my honor.NO, my family’s honor!”

But he couldn’t listen because he was enraged, he was angry at the world for taking his one and only love, the only one he could ever love and had ever loved.

Just as her screams had died down,he took some scissors and used it to cut off some remaining body parts and use it to set an example.Just as he was heading out, he heard someone shouting his name, “The Patriarch! The Patriarch! The patriarch has found evidence that she is innocent! There was a new letter proving she was not the culprit!” As he heard those words, he dropped to his knees for he knew he had condemned an innocent person and made them suffer.

He ordered the servant to keep this a secret that the  interrogation  ever took place and he told the servant to leave and dispose of the body accordingly by giving her a proper burial as being acquitted from a crime you did not commit was definitely a great tragedy.

At that exact moment, certain people received a letter with a seal on their doorstep.Inside the letter were random letters that only those that were meant to receive the letter would know the significance of

“The plan will commence tomorrow at noon. We will meet in front of the patriarch’s residence.Be there promptly.

Wee Inch”