Release from Fealty

Another three months passed. For those three months, Chen Cheng had followed Samlet through different forests. Samlet showed no intention of returning to Hematite Mountain.

In the end, they arrived at some nameless mountain forest. Samlet no longer felt like running, so he felled trees and built a house in the woods, living the life of a savage.

At six months old, Chen Cheng could already speak. In fact, a week earlier, once he realized his vocal cords could support every kind of syllable, he had spoken his first true sentence.

Though it had not felt smooth at first, he had been overjoyed to speak a familiar, authentic Huaxia sentence in this strange land. At the very least, he and Samlet spoke the same language, which proved that this was either still Huaxia or a world that shared the same language family.

Although Samlet said he did not know anything when Chen Cheng later asked him about Huaxia and related matters, the odds of belonging to the same language family were, to Chen Cheng, about as slim as the odds of humanity being born on Earth. That he had encountered it was his good fortune.

At least he did not have to learn another foreign language. After all, the thing that had given him the biggest headache back when he entered university at sixteen had been the CET-4 and CET-6 exams. That was also why every paper he wrote while researching Controllable Nuclear Fusion had been in Chinese; when he later applied for the Nobel Prize, Old Ke had helped translate an English version for him.

It was also because of his suggestion that Samlet had brought him to settle down in this nameless wilderness.

After a week of conversation, Chen Cheng had learned that the two of them should be safe here for now.

As for Chen Cheng's knowledge from birth, Samlet had only been surprised at the beginning. Afterward, he had very naturally accepted this aspect of Chen Cheng.

At first, Chen Cheng had thought he possessed some passive buff that forcibly lowered everyone's intelligence, until Samlet later told him that he was the new emperor of a fallen Empire.

Children born of that royal bloodline all possessed various traits of precocious intelligence and extraordinary wisdom. Only then did Chen Cheng understand why Samlet had not been surprised by his early maturity.

Chen Cheng inwardly ridiculed the ancestors of this body. To mythologize imperial authority, they had actually claimed that their newborn descendants were all geniuses. That was completely illogical, all right?

He had been reincarnated with his memories. Otherwise, did they really think everyone was born knowing everything?

After learning more, Chen Cheng discovered that the continent he was on was called the Karmak Continent. The entire continent was divided into the Central Continent and the Four Pole Continents. Only the strongest, most formidable, and most prosperous races could occupy the Central Continent.

Two thousand years ago, his ancestor Thornflower Hops had unified the continent and founded the Thornflower Kingdom on the Central Continent, becoming the supreme His Imperial Majesty.

This was a world of swords and magic, so tales of magical wonders had naturally circulated since ancient times. For example, somewhere on the continent lay an ancient forbidden Codex left behind by the gods. Legend said that whoever obtained it would bring destruction upon the entire world.

The Thornflower Kingdom into whose lineage he had been born was the very kingdom where, two hundred years ago, his great-grandfather had sent people to find the Doomsday Codex, which symbolized death and destruction, and had brought it back to the palace in the name of protecting the world.

It was also because this matter had been exposed that the entire Empire had finally crumbled like a landslide. Nobles and heroes from every side had raised armies and invaded the Royal Capital, ultimately destroying the Thornflower Kingdom that had stood for a thousand years.

Yet although the emperor had committed suicide and the kingdom had fallen, the Doomsday Codex that symbolized death and destruction had never been found. That was why his grandfather, father, and he himself had been hunted without end.

When Chen Cheng learned that his nation had perished for such an absurd reason, he truly did not know whether to laugh or cry.

His great-grandfather's excuse had been a good one, but he should never have broadcast the matter so loudly. A qualified ruler should have made sure that as few people as possible knew of such taboo matters.

Even taking some extreme measures against those involved afterward would not have been excessive in the slightest.

But then Chen Cheng felt that he was overthinking it. After all, he was just a little baby now. In this second life, he had never seen any palace or grand hall—only a haggard couple and a bearded man, followed by endless pursuits. Who knew whether what Samlet said was even true?

It was simply too absurd. A powerful dynasty that had ruled the world for nearly a thousand years had collapsed overnight for such a laughable reason. It was worse than one of those third-rate stories.

Seeing Chen Cheng's face full of disbelief, Samlet grew somewhat anxious. In the days that followed, he often explained to Chen Cheng just how terrifying the Doomsday Codex was.

In the blink of an eye, more than ten years passed. Within Nanmu Forest, a youth nearly six feet tall, dressed in beast-hide clothes, darted through the trees. In his hand was a short, black hollow iron tube, while behind him, a pack of fully grown Level Three Blood Wolves chased him with their jaws wide open.

As the youth rounded a thousand-year-old tree, he spun around and aimed the iron tube at the closest Blood Wolf behind him. A blast rang out. The nearest Blood Wolf's body jerked before it flew backward, its hide suddenly riddled with dense, bloody holes.

After killing the Blood Wolf, the youth did not stop. He continued running while pulling a small box of black powder from the hide pouch at his waist, pouring it into the hollow tube and packing it down. Then he took out several small iron balls and stuffed them into the tube.

Seeing one of their kind die, the Blood Wolves' eyes turned even redder. Several blood-colored blades slashed toward his back, but he used the towering trees of the forest to shake them off. Then, seizing an opening, he turned around and fired another shot.

After several rounds of fleeing and turning back to fire, the Blood Wolves finally grew afraid and abandoned their pursuit of Chen Cheng.

Seeing the Blood Wolves flee, Chen Cheng quickly climbed a large tree, then sat on a branch to rest.

"Old Sam, stop hiding. Come out."

"Hehe, Your Majesty's footwork has improved quite well."

Samlet, dressed in beast hides as well, leaped out from the forest.

"I told you not to call me Your Majesty. And what do you think of my weapon? Isn't it far stronger than bows and arrows?"

Chen Cheng held up the homemade shotgun in his hand and spoke smugly to Sam.

However, Samlet curled his lip and said,

"Your Majesty, this little thing may seem powerful and easy to use, but compared with the secret bows of the regular army, it is not worth mentioning. It is not only slower, but less lethal as well. So, Your Majesty, you should obediently learn martial skills from your servant."

But Chen Cheng disagreed.

"Forget secret bows. Are those something ordinary commoners like us can get our hands on? Ordinary bows are useless against Level Three Blood Wolves, but this plain shotgun of ours, which does not need a mage's blessing, kills one with every shot."

The two had argued countless times over Sam's martial skills and Chen Cheng's technology, so Sam said nothing more this time. He simply went down to skin and prepare the Blood Wolves, intending to bring them back as food.

That night, in a cave within Nanmu Forest, Chen Cheng and Samlet sat around a bonfire, roasting the Blood Wolf meat Chen Cheng had caught that day.

Over those ten-plus years, the two had moved through several mountain ranges and forests, traveling thousands of miles from their original camp. To evade pursuit, Chen Cheng had still never truly left the mountains to see what the otherworld beyond them looked like.

Over the years, they had eaten the flesh of these powerful ferocious beasts in the mountains. This had given Chen Cheng, who had been physically weak in his previous life, a body stronger than that of ordinary people. Though still underage, he already had the height of a grown man. If no one mentioned his age, everyone would have thought he was a youthful-looking adult.

Although he did not understand the qi and martial cultivation Sam spoke of, feeding on the flesh of those ferocious beasts had given him a physique comparable to that of an ordinary Bronze Tier warrior.

The two silently roasted their food. Then Sam spoke.

"Your Majesty, for the great cause of restoring the kingdom, I wish to take you to the City of Chaos."

Chen Cheng remained silent, because Sam had raised this proposal years ago, but he had never agreed.

After learning about this world's martial structure, Chen Cheng had realized that if Sam had not lied to him and his ancestors had truly lost their kingdom because of that so-called Codex, then he could not imagine what virtue or ability he possessed that would allow him to restore it.

Moreover, as an engineering nerd in his previous life, he had no desire to undertake such an earthshaking endeavor. Research had already annoyed him enough in his last life; in this one, he still had to shoulder the great cause of restoring a kingdom. He truly wanted to flee from it all.

He had thought of a villain from one of Master Jin Yong's novels. He did not want to end up becoming a madman like that man.

And if gods truly existed in this world, then perhaps his reincarnation was the gods' way of letting him escape the exhaustion of his previous life. In this life, he should live more easily.

Chen Cheng rose and walked to the wooden rack in the cave. Resting atop it was the divine sword bearing the Thorn Flower, symbol of imperial authority. He took down the sword and walked over to Samlet.

Seeing Chen Cheng approach with the sword in hand, Samlet dropped to both knees and bowed devoutly before him.

Chen Cheng drew the divine sword and rested its blade against Samlet's shoulder.

"I, Brown Hopps, the sixteenth His Imperial Majesty of the Thornflower Kingdom, hereby order Samlet and Brown Hopps to sever their bond of fealty, granting Samlet all the rights of a free man."

After speaking, Chen Cheng sheathed the sword. Samlet remained kneeling there in a daze, before a heaven-shaking sob burst from him.