Chapter 845: The Last of the Resentment

It turned out that lamp spirits could even disguise themselves.

Under the lamp spirit’s invisibility spell, the four of them advanced at great speed.

This divine technique also concealed their auras, so even though they brushed right past an oncoming beast herd, the beasts never noticed them.

That spared them a pointless battle. Hé Jing had entered the secret realm for one thing only: the Generous Pot.

Even so, despite their invisibility, a few beasts occasionally cast suspicious looks in their direction.

These were leader-class aberrant creatures with exceptionally keen senses. Even though they could neither see nor smell the group, they could still tell something was wrong.

Fortunately, they were all heading east and could not be bothered to stop and investigate.

* * *

He Lingchuan and Qiu Hu’s journey was similarly perilous, but ultimately uneventful.

They likewise passed close by several groups of aberrant creatures, but He Lingchuan had already taken out Mountain Monarch Bo’s snakehide and draped it over the two of them. To the aberrant creatures, they had effectively become invisible.

By coincidence, both groups had chosen to use invisibility or camouflage techniques.

Qiu Hu had almost no curiosity to speak of, yet even he could not help but ask now, “Is He Chunhua really your father?”

“By blood, yes.”

“...”

When He Lingchuan turned his head, he caught the sympathetic look Qiu Hu had failed to hide in time.

The Soul-Stealing Mirror tucked inside his robes also exclaimed, “Well, would you look at that! It’s rare to see you show such genuine emotion!”

Its master was as cunning and calculating as a ghost, yet his break with his father had been so tragic and stirring that even the mirror had felt a tiny bit moved.

He Lingchuan did not explain. He merely smiled faintly.

“I knew long ago that he had used me in the rite of divine recompense. I came back this time specifically to eliminate that hidden danger. You don’t need to worry.”

Qiu Hu was not worried about that. He Lingchuan’s maturity and decisiveness far surpassed those of others his age; otherwise, Qiu Hu would never have chosen him as his lord. “No. I’m worried you’ll go soft.”

“And what would you do?”

Qiu Hu shook his head. “I don’t dare say.”

“Slippery.” He Lingchuan laughed. “Then let me put it another way. If he were your father, what would you do?”

“Cut him down with one stroke,” Qiu Hu answered without hesitation. “If he shows me no humanity, I owe him no filial piety.”

That truly is a very Qiu Hu answer.

“You lost your parents young and never lived with them, which is why you can be so hard about it.” Qiu Hu had always been tough by nature and never cared about his origins, and He Lingchuan likewise had no qualms about poking at the old wound. “What if it were Old Bai, who raised you for so many years?”

Qiu Hu’s lips pressed into a straight line.

After the Rongshan Sect found Qiu Hu as a young child, they had first entrusted him to White Village at the foot of the mountain. Old Bai and Qiu Hu had been as close as father and son. He Lingchuan’s example genuinely made him hesitate for a moment.

But he could not refuse to answer his young master’s question. So as they crept forward, Qiu Hu thought for a while before saying, “If Old Bai dared do this to me, then it would prove he values his own interests far more than mine!”

He Lingchuan thought Qiu Hu had made an excellent point. Whether or not one sacrificed one’s own son through the rite of divine recompense ultimately came down to a choice: did he value his son more, or the benefits brought by the rite of divine recompense?

Everything had value. And in the end, all values could be compared.

That was what it meant to weigh one thing against another.

“And then?”

Qiu Hu’s brow did not even furrow as he continued, “Well, all living beings are like that. How could I demand that he be an exception?” The first instinct of every creature in the world was self-interest. “But!” His voice was low but firm as he said, “My life belongs to me. No one has the right to take it, not even Old Bai. So if he dared do such a thing, first I would repay his years of raising me by sparing his life. Then I would give him a sum of gold and silver to support him in his old age. Finally, I would sever one of his hands as punishment. From that day onward, all ties between us would be cut!”

That was how Qiu Hu would settle everything: the debt of being raised, the affection between father and son, and the hatred of being betrayed.

He Lingchuan smiled. “That’s not a bad solution.”

This kid certainly has resolve.

Emotion might be among the most complicated things in the world, but if a person was willing to wield the knife swiftly and strike hard, even that could be dealt with decisively.

He Chunhua himself was a perfect example.

But what about He Lingchuan?

He was merely a wandering soul from another world. Between him and He Chunhua, there had never been any debt of upbringing, nor any true father-son affection.

Without gratitude or affection, naturally there could be no hatred born from betrayal either.

He Lingchuan simply regarded He Chunhua as an opponent. There was enmity, but no hatred.

On the contrary, after repeatedly risking his life in the monster state and accumulating far more experience, He Lingchuan could now understand He Chunhua’s actions particularly well from the perspective of an outsider.

That man was more resolute and decisive than the vast majority of people in this world.

Those who accomplished great things did not quibble over trifles.

And what were the “trifles” here? They were simply the price that had to be paid.

No matter how much He Chunhua loved this son, no matter how guilty he felt toward the original He Lingchuan, no matter how his conscience tormented him at night until he tossed and turned sleeplessly, when the true moment came to make the sacrifice, he would not hesitate in the slightest.

Was fearlessness in the face of hardship and unyielding perseverance enough to accomplish great things?

No, you also had to be ruthless.

Ruthless toward others, and even more so toward yourself.

In a life-or-death struggle like this, anyone whose only thought was to lie low and preserve themselves would eventually become either someone else’s beast of burden or the price someone else chose to pay. Right before being crushed into the mud, they would still cry out, “Why?” never realizing that their ending had long since been decided and that arriving there was merely the inevitable conclusion.

Qiu Hu asked, “What do you intend to do?”

“If He Chunhua manages to leave the Panlong Secret Realm alive, we’ll talk about it then.” He Lingchuan had more important things to deal with right now. “As far as I’m concerned, he’s already useless.”

All the maneuvering, pretense, and acting He Lingchuan had done with He Chunhua before had been for one purpose: to make him summon Naluotian’s avatar directly inside the Panlong Secret Realm.

Now that He Lingchuan had achieved that, he cursed him out and left, not even bothering to spare him another glance. The place was crawling with aberrant creatures, while He Chunhua had only Zhao Qinghe beside him; whether he survived would be entirely up to fate.

If he did survive, then the furious condemnation He Lingchuan had delivered when severing their relationship would probably stay with him for the rest of his life.

As long as He Chunhua still believed He Lingchuan was his eldest son—or as long as He Lingchuan kept insisting he was the original He Lingchuan and had never been replaced—then “possession by Zhong Shengguang” could no longer serve as an excuse for invoking a god.

“Sacrificing his eldest son for his own selfish desires” would become a thorn lodged permanently in He Chunhua’s heart.

The death penalty could be spared, but punishment while living was unavoidable. If He Chunhua managed to leave the Panlong Secret Realm alive, He Lingchuan hoped this would be the “living punishment” he had to endure from then on: interrogating his own conscience in the dead of night.

Understanding He Chunhua did not mean He Lingchuan liked the man or approved of what he had done.

He wanted He Chunhua to understand deeply what the words “invoking a god has a price” truly meant.

And that price came in every form.

The word “useless” sounded exceptionally cold-blooded. Qiu Hu, however, felt reassured upon hearing it.

The calmer his young master was, the more rational his decisions became, and the more trustworthy those decisions were.

After slipping past another two restless groups of aberrant creatures, the Red General’s cenotaph finally appeared ahead.

All the surrounding buildings had been flattened more than a century ago, leaving the Red General’s cenotaph standing alone in an open patch of land roughly a thirtieth of a hectare in size.

But behind the tomb...

He Lingchuan swept his gaze across the area. His pupils contracted slightly, and he signaled Qiu Hu to hide.

The two of them had patience to spare. They lay motionless in the shadow of a ruined structure for dozens of breaths. When the area ahead remained perfectly quiet, Qiu Hu gestured to him: go over?

The legendary supreme treasure was very likely just ahead.

He Lingchuan gently shook his hand and pointed diagonally behind the cenotaph.

What’s over there?

Using the flashes of lightning overhead, Qiu Hu strained his eyesight to the limit but saw nothing.

I only see a stretch of ruined buildings.

Still, he trusted He Lingchuan’s judgment and remained prone without moving.

Hidden beneath Mountain Monarch Bo’s hide, He Lingchuan looked thoughtful and made another gesture at him: danger.

Qiu Hu’s expression changed slightly. A gust of wind blew toward them from ahead, and he suddenly lifted his nose and sniffed lightly twice.

A faint trace of blood rode on the wind.

He cautiously stuck his head forward and finally noticed a small dark stain in the sand beside the tomb, barely visible in the nighttime gloom.

Blood?

Which unlucky bastard died here? They were only one step away from the Red General’s cenotaph!

But that also confirmed He Lingchuan’s warning. There truly was hidden danger in this open ground.

Still, how long are we supposed to wait?

He Lingchuan was in no hurry, so neither was Qiu Hu. When hunting monsters and beasts in the mountains in the past, he could remain motionless for two days and two nights without eating or sleeping.

Both men regulated their breathing and slowed their heartbeats to avoid being detected by anything nearby.

Several more bolts of lightning streaked across the sky, dyeing the Panlong Secret Realm blood-red.

Hm? Blood-red?

He Lingchuan looked up and was startled to see the firmament above once again filled with lightning and thunder. The giant red figure was still moving through the clouds, but far more slowly than before, and even its turns now seemed somewhat labored.

What’s slowing it down? Naluotian’s avatar?

Yet He Lingchuan saw no trace of Naluotian’s avatar. Instead, a red light flickered within the clouds. Though faint, it did not escape his eyes.

That red light seemed to remain near the giant red figure for a long time without fading.

What happened? He Lingchuan felt an ominous premonition.

Earlier, Naluotian’s avatar had appeared in the firmament, proving that it had indeed charged straight into the trap He Lingchuan had prepared. Yet before the giant red figure even had a chance to show its power, the avatar had abruptly disappeared.

Where the hell did it go?

As a foreign god, could it actually find somewhere to hide inside the Generous Pot’s world?

That had never been part of He Lingchuan’s plan.

If he could not see its final fate with his own eyes, he could not feel at ease.

Where exactly did things go wrong?

And the giant red figure had already been moving across the firmament for a long time, yet the people inside the Panlong Secret Realm could still see it.

That meant the flaw had yet to be corrected.

In other words, the Generous Pot was busy.

It had to maintain the Panlong Secret Realm, contend with the lid of the Generous Pot, deal with the adventuring parties and que beasts running everywhere, and search for the missing Naluotian.

And one should not forget that it also had an enormous and highly intricate Panlong World to maintain.

Perhaps there were other problems He Lingchuan knew nothing about that it also had to deal with in time.

But how could he interfere with what was happening in the firmament?

All he could do was crouch here and worry.

Forget it. The Generous Pot and I each have our own trials to overcome. I should just focus on winning my battles first.

He Lingchuan circulated his energy, regulated his breathing, and forcibly calmed his mind.

This time, when he settled his breath and looked inward, he immediately sensed something different.

For the final time, he felt the emotions of the body’s original owner. There was resentment, satisfaction, lingering attachment, and sorrow. Then, little by little, they all transformed into release.

After all, He Lingchuan had now fulfilled everything he had promised him. Not only had he confronted He Chunhua face-to-face, but he had also cursed him to his heart’s content, finally venting the last of that resentment and unwillingness.

He Lingchuan had also fulfilled his request by sparing He Chunhua’s life, preserving the final trace of affection between father and son.