My father, Li Shimin, requests Your Majesty to become the Retired Emperor.

"Ah! Ah!"

Screams of agony echoed through the air, and Li Chenggan knew that the jailers of the Dali Temple were torturing the prisoners.

It is said that the jailers in the Dali Temple are cold-blooded animals. So, will these guys torture me?

Just as Li Chenggan was lost in thought, the cell door suddenly opened.

"Go inside! Behave yourself!"

One man was dragged in by two jailers and thrown to the ground.

The man was unconscious, lying face down on the ground, completely unaware of his surroundings.

The two jailers locked the cell door again and left.

Li Chengan looked down and saw that the person who came in was tall, fat, disheveled, and covered in wounds. There were blood bars on his body, one on the left and one on the right. Judging from his age, he was about forty years old.

Li Chengan wondered who this person was, and how he had been imprisoned here, only to find himself in the same cell as him.

He looked closely and realized that the person in front of him was none other than Cheng Yaojin, the Left General of the Army and Duke of Lu.

He quickly pulled Cheng Yaojin into his arms and cried out, "Cheng Yaojin, wake up!"

After a moment, Cheng Yaojin indeed woke up and managed to utter a single word: "Water!"

There was still half a pot of water beside Li Chengqian.

He quickly poured the half-full pot of water into the pot, and after a while, Cheng Yaojin finally regained consciousness.

He slowly opened his eyes: "Your Highness, is it really you?"

Li Chengan helped him sit up and said, "Duke Lu, it's me. What crime have you committed?"

Why were they locked up here?

How did they beat you up like this?

Cheng Yaojin tidied his disheveled hair, sighed, and cursed, "Li Shimin, what a tyrannical and incompetent ruler!"

Back in the day, I, Old Cheng, was the devilish and virtuous emperor, and our Wagang Army numbered in the hundreds of thousands, a formidable force.

Your father's military strength was weak at that time, so he came to me for help.

I, Old Cheng, relinquished my throne, but the Great Virtue Emperor refused to accept it and instead helped your father, the Emperor, conquer the world.

Let him tell me how many times I saved his life.

This time, because I was stationed in Luzhou and fighting against the Tieshan Liao people, I finally managed to free up some troops.

The journey between Chang'an and Tieshan is long.

I traveled without stopping and finally arrived in Chang'an, just as you defeated the army of the Buyeo Kingdom.

I launched a surprise attack from behind and achieved considerable success.

However, your father blamed me for arriving late to rescue him, saying that I deliberately delayed to see him make a fool of himself.

I then argued with him.

To my surprise, he turned on me without hesitation and, in a fit of rage, imprisoned me in the Dali Temple jail.

And then, the jailers beat me up like this.

You tell me, if your father wasn't a tyrant and a bastard, then what was he?

Li Chengan had always known of Cheng Yaojin's great reputation and admired him greatly.

It is said that Cheng Yaojin learned his ultimate skill, the Three and a Half Axe Strike, in a dream, and became invincible throughout the land.

Li Chengan glanced at him and saw that Cheng Yaojin was covered in wounds, both horizontal and vertical, and there were two blood grooves on his face.

Li Chenggan thought to himself that these prison guards were really ruthless; this wasn't just for show, they were really beating people.

Fortunately, it was just some superficial injuries and no bones were damaged.

Cheng Yaojin is a man with a story.

Li Chengan was very interested in him and asked, "Could you tell me your heroic stories?"

Upon hearing this, Old Cheng burst into laughter: "A hero doesn't dwell on past glories. Now I, Old Cheng, am just a prisoner. What's the point of talking about those things?"

"That's not how it works. I'd like to hear the details."