Chapter 862: Naluotians Suspicions

Chapter 862: Naluotian's Suspicions

What was to come would still come. What was to be faced would eventually have to be faced.

The incense smoke hung motionless in midair instead of dispersing, gradually forming into a human face.

At the same time, Naluotian’s stern voice rang out: “He Chunhua, do you know your crime?”

“Please punish me, Divine Venerable.” He Chunhua had already prepared himself. He lowered his eyes and made no attempt to argue.

After knowing Naluotian for so long, he had at least gained some understanding of the heavenly god’s temperament.

Seeing He Chunhua admit his guilt immediately without making excuses, Naluotian gave a cold snort, its anger easing slightly. “What happened in the Panlong Secret Realm? Tell me everything. Do not omit a single detail!”

Its avatar had failed to return, so Naluotian had no idea what had happened in the mortal realm.

He Chunhua therefore recounted everything he had experienced inside the city, neither embellishing the story nor adding any of his own subjective conjectures.

He knew that when this heavenly god did not want opinions, it was best for others to keep theirs to themselves.

He Chunhua also refrained from mentioning any of his various suspicions regarding He Lingchuan’s actions.

Naluotian listened carefully, interrupting him from time to time with questions.

The detailed account took more than an hour, and He Chunhua himself drank two cups of water before he finished.

As for his injuries, he merely said that he had been wounded by the que beasts. Naluotian did not care and asked no further questions.

“Do you believe He Lingchuan knew from the very beginning that you had already entered the Panlong Secret Realm?”

Anyone who saw the towering pillar of light rising from the Panlong Ruins would naturally assume that was where the entrance to the secret realm lay. Besides, although there had been seasons of mad sand in previous years, plenty of factions had visited the Panlong Ruins before. To say nothing of anything else, He Chunhua himself had brought more than a hundred men into the Panlong Ruins the last time. Once those soldiers returned to the city, there was no keeping their mouths shut, and news had spread everywhere.

Anyone who heard those reports afterward would naturally assume that the pool in the Temple of Mitian was the entrance to the secret realm.

If He Lingchuan had known from the beginning that the secret realm actually began at Panlong’s southern gate, then the upheaval within the Panlong Secret Realm could hardly have been unrelated to him.

He Chunhua answered seriously, “Chuan’er seems to know that he carries a divine seal mark. Inside the secret realm, he stopped me several times from invoking you. I think it’s possible he didn’t know he was inside the secret realm either.”

Naluotian’s voice abruptly rose. “You’re saying my avatar becoming trapped inside the Generous Pot had nothing to do with He Lingchuan?!”

He Chunhua had survived a terrifying night, then spent more than an hour reporting while injured. He was already exhausted, yet he still forced himself to stay alert. “From what we can tell at present, the Generous Pot seemed to have its own purpose in luring the various parties into the secret realm, but that does not prove Chuan’er was involved.”

Naluotian immediately said, “The Generous Pot wanted to use your hands to eliminate the que beasts emerging from the pillar of red light. Several months ago, when chaos erupted in Lingxu City, a precious treasure vanished from the Star-Plucking Tower. I only recently learned that it was connected to the Generous Pot.”

“No wonder strange incidents have been happening throughout the Panlong Desert these past few months.” He Chunhua secretly scoffed.

Only recently learned? Who would believe that? Why didn’t you share such important information with me beforehand?

If He Lingchuan was still He Lingchuan, not Zhong Shengguang and not possessed by one of Panlong City’s heroic spirits, then it was even less likely that he was the mastermind behind everything.

Because his eldest son had no connection whatsoever to the earth-shaking incident at the Heavenly Palace.

“If that’s the case, then whoever is behind this must be targeting the Heavenly Palace, right?” He Chunhua thought aloud. “Cloud Envoy Hé Jing of the Heavenly Palace did indeed die under very suspicious circumstances at the Red General’s cenotaph.”

“Putting up the Hongya Trade Route as collateral and coming to the Panlong Desert to seize the Generous Pot were plans we proposed ourselves. Chuan’er came unwillingly.” He hesitated, then added, “I don’t think it was him.”

Naluotian gave a soft, mocking laugh. “So he escaped divine descent purely because he was lucky?”

He Chunhua lowered his voice and said, “He has always been blessed with good fortune. You know that as well, Divine Venerable.”

“How do you know he didn’t see through your scheme and simply turn it to his own advantage?” Naluotian asked coldly. “Didn’t you say he had already discovered the divine seal mark in his mind?”

“I don’t know.” He Chunhua answered honestly. “There are too many things here that simply don’t make sense.”

What had happened inside the Panlong Secret Realm was far too complicated and extensive for anyone to untangle in such a short time; that was so even for Naluotian.

Through this accident, He Chunhua also realized something.

The god of fate apparently could not predict its own fate accurately either. Otherwise, how could its avatar have become trapped inside the Generous Pot?

He Chunhua hesitated, then asked, “Divine Venerable, didn’t you make... uh, preparations beforehand?” How did we still fail then?

Naluotian fell silent for a moment before answering, “Nearly a year ago, something happened on Mount Xu, and the divine artifact lost from the Star-Plucking Tower was no ordinary treasure. I assumed that if the Generous Pot wanted to refine it, it would not be easy.”

“You mean...?” He Chunhua thought for a moment. “There was room to exploit the situation?”

“Correct. The que beasts you saw inside the Panlong Secret Realm were that divine artifact resisting the Generous Pot. That struggle must have been going on for a long time.” Naluotian spoke slowly. “The divine artifact had been worshiped inside Star-Plucking Tower for almost two hundred years and had long since become familiar with the aura of eternal lamp spirits. So when I sent my avatar into the secret realm, I had it carry an eternal lamp spirit as a medium. In theory, the divine artifact should have accepted it and allowed it to avoid the Generous Pot’s trap.”

“So that’s why.” Understanding dawned on He Chunhua. “That explains why your avatar disappeared after entering the Panlong Secret Realm.” So Naluotian’s avatar had been received by the divine artifact rather than swallowed directly by the Generous Pot.

“Then... didn’t the Heavenly Palace party receive instructions from the gods beforehand?” Why had they not been received as well? From what He Chunhua had witnessed, the Heavenly Palace’s lamp guardians and cloud envoy had instead borne most of the pressure inside the secret realm.

Naluotian gave a disdainful laugh. “Even the gods of Lingxu do not know the divine artifact’s true origins. They believe it and the Generous Pot were originally one object, and that the Generous Pot would have refined it long ago. How could they know there were so many complications inside the pot?”

In short, gaps and errors in their intelligence had caused the Heavenly Palace party to underestimate how complicated the secret realm inside the pot truly was.

“Besides, the Heavenly Palace party entered the city directly just as you did. They were never blocked outside the secret realm to begin with, so why would they require any special reception?”

The Generous Pot had stopped Naluotian’s avatar, which was why the avatar needed the Spirit-Sealing Treasured Lid to receive it specially.

“Even if Hé Jing and the others possessed lamp spirits, the instant they attacked the que beasts, they would naturally provoke retaliation. More importantly, the Spirit-Sealing Treasured Lid has never communicated with humans. During its two hundred years of worship, even the people in charge of Star-Plucking Tower failed to receive so much as a hint of feedback from the divine artifact.”

So that divine artifact was called the Spirit-Sealing Treasured Lid? He Chunhua committed the name to memory. But that raises another question: if even the mighty gods of Lingxu don’t know the secret behind this divine artifact, how had Naluotian learned it?

Just what is going on behind the scenes?

The relationships among the heavenly gods were evidently just as tangled and complicated. Although He Chunhua was curious, he did not ask.

He could sense that Naluotian had no desire to explain.

Besides, even if Naluotian knew the secret of the divine artifact and could somehow communicate with it, had its avatar not still disappeared in the end?

That meant Naluotian had failed too, just like the Heavenly Palace party and the gods of Lingxu.

Judging purely by the outcome, everyone had lost. No one had any right to laugh at anyone else. Naturally, He Chunhua dared not say that aloud.

Now it was Naluotian’s turn to ask questions. “You truly didn’t see who killed Cloud Envoy Hé Jing?”

He Chunhua shook his head. “Bao Guanjie of the State of Baling was closest to him. Then Yuezheng Qing rushed over as well. I don’t know which of them took the Generous Pot.”

“Can someone like Bao Guanjie really kill Hé Jing?” Every cloud envoy is a formidable figure capable of holding down an entire front by themselves.

“By then, only four members of the Heavenly Palace party were still alive. Hé Jing had fought the king of the que beasts and was completely spent. He could barely stand and kept coughing up blood.”

Even a dragon stranded in shallow water could be harassed by shrimp. Besides, Bao Guanjie was a famous general of Baling. He could hardly be called a shrimp.

“I strongly suspect the pot you saw wasn’t the Generous Pot itself,” Naluotian pondered aloud. “The Heavenly Palace lost a treasure and became a laughingstock throughout the world. They must have been nursing their anger for months. Hé Jing’s expedition into the Panlong Secret Realm was not only meant to recover the treasure. He was probably also searching for clues about the thief who caused the chaos on Mount Xu several months ago. Whoever killed Hé Jing may well have been that thief. Looking at it that way, Bao Guanjie doesn’t fit.”

Would a general from Baling really have the nerve to murder a cloud envoy of the Heavenly Palace?

He Chunhua’s gaze flickered slightly. Naluotian believes there’s more to the matter, and that Bao Guanjie is merely someone else’s scapegoat?

“Can you still catch up to the Baling group?”

“We can try, but the chances are poor.”

“This matter involves the death of Cloud Envoy Hé Jing. The Heavenly Palace will not let it go. If you don’t want Beijia’s wrath falling on you, make sure this matter gets pinned on that Bao fellow.”

He Chunhua answered, “Yes.” That was his intention as well.

But something was strange. Naluotian had been furious earlier, yet now it was actually offering him advice.

Since when was this heavenly god so reasonable?

He had expected to lose at least a layer of skin, even if he survived.

Something’s wrong. There must be some special reason behind this.

“You handled the matter poorly, causing my avatar to become trapped and costing me an extremely important ability! Ordinarily, a hundred deaths would not atone for this.” Naluotian’s voice sounded as though it were grinding its teeth. “However, while you were inside the Panlong Secret Realm, I performed a divination and discovered that your thread of fate had actually become clearer. It appears you still have some use.”

Those two sentences made He Chunhua’s heart tighten, then loosen again.

Naluotian had once told him that the worst possible outcome of this journey would merely be losing an avatar.

Over the years, He Chunhua had secretly gathered information and learned that sending an avatar down into the mortal realm consumed enormous amounts of divine energy. If the avatar was destroyed in the mortal realm, the loss became even greater.

Competition within the divine realm was fierce. No heavenly god wanted to suffer such losses for no reason.

But ultimately, an avatar was still merely an avatar. Even if destroyed, it should not damage the heavenly god’s fundamental essence.

That was precisely why Naluotian had been willing to take the risk.

Yet now it said it had lost an extremely important “ability.”

What kind of ability could matter so much to Naluotian?

He Chunhua could feel its surging fury. If Naluotian had not believed he was still useful, that anger would undoubtedly have been vented on him.

He also noticed something else. Naluotian had said its avatar had become “trapped,” not destroyed. In other words, its avatar still existed somewhere in the mortal realm.

He understood at once.

So this was Chuan’er’s true objective!

A heavenly god could only send a single avatar into the mortal realm through its mark. As long as that avatar remained trapped, regardless of the reason, Naluotian could not send down a second one.