Chapter 1266: Hidden Last Words!

He Lingchuan jumped onto the stone bed and reached out toward Dong Rui.

Dong Rui hurriedly handed over the stone slab.

He Lingchuan reached out and pressed lightly twice on the spot where Qu Yu had originally sat, then placed the stone slab on top and made a slight adjustment—

Ling Guang had been stretching its neck, staring the whole time, and at this moment, it blurted out:

"It's aligned!"

It was a perfect fit.

Sure enough, this stone slab had been shaved right off the stone bed! Everyone's spirits were suddenly lifted.

He Lingchuan moved the stone slab aside and used fluorescent spores for illumination. The three people and two monkeys, with ten eyes between them, all crowded close to the stone bed. Even the Eyeball Spider jumped down, wanting to see what secret was written on it.

However, even after their eyes grew sore from staring, the stone bed remained blank.

Dong Rui refused to give up; he reached out and stroked Qu Yu's seat back and forth several times, but he couldn't feel any traces of characters.

"I've been played by a dead man!" He was so angry he wanted to curse.

Such a thick sense of frustration! When Miao Zhantian rushed in back then and saw the playful writing Qu Yu had left on the wall, was he in this same state of mind? "Where exactly is it wrong?" No matter how clever He Lingchuan was, racking his brains at this moment was of no use.

Fu Liushan then said: "If the secret were written on the stone bed, once the Heavenly Demon moved his remains, it would be exposed. Not to mention, the opponent was that Miao, that Miao Zhantian."

Dong Rui nodded repeatedly: "Makes sense, makes sense."

Seeing the writing left on the wall, if Miao Zhantian's temper had been even slightly worse, he would have dismantled Qu Yu's remains to vent his anger. If Qu Yu wanted to keep his little secret, he couldn't take that risk.

The Divine Bone Necklace was quiet; clearly, there was nothing here that it wanted to eat. This fellow might know every moment of history, yet it wouldn't give He Lingchuan a single hint.

Perhaps some facts are destined to be covered by the dust of history and cannot be revealed to the world.

He sighed with regret and decisively gave up: "Forget it, there are too many secrets from the ancient era; it doesn't matter if I know one less. The last words on the stone couplet are already a great harvest!"

The others also straightened their backs, preparing to leave.

Dong Rui, in particular, quickly adjusted his mindset, rubbing his hands together: "Forget it, the Crystal Mountain is still waiting for me!"

He had never seen a Heavenly God's remains so well-preserved! Thinking that he could perform a whole bunch of experiments, and that the Divine Bone and Divine Blood he had been gouged for by He Lingchuan could be replenished, he was grinning from ear to ear.

It wasn't that the Immortal's final words weren't interesting, just that they couldn't compare to the visible, touchable remains of a Heavenly God.

He Lingchuan had intended to jump off the stone bed, but when he looked back and saw Qu Yu's remains stuffed in the corner looking somewhat stifled, his footsteps paused involuntarily.

Regardless of how he had been in life or what his character was like, at the critical moment, in order to protect the most important secret of the human world, he had faced death with a smile.

For this point alone, he was worthy of respect from later generations.

So He Lingchuan gently and nimbly moved his remains back to their original position and bowed: "Sorry for the disturbance."

Let Immortal Minghui continue to sleep here in peace.

It was unclear if He Lingchuan had accidentally bumped it while moving him, but the left hand of Qu Yu's remains, which had originally rested on his knee, suddenly slipped, and his index and middle fingers extended forward, pointing at the stone bed.

*Click! * It sounded like jade striking jade, crisp and echoing.

Right before He Lingchuan's eyes, small characters suddenly floated up one after another on the surface of the empty stone bed, just like shallow grass drifting up from the bottom of the water.

"Whoa! There it is, there it is!" Fu Liushan exclaimed, "There are words!"

The three people and two monkeys immediately crowded around, and Dong Rui also marveled: "This dead ghost is truly cunning!"

Just looking at the final words left on the wall, others would probably think Immortal Minghui was naturally bold and free-spirited, never knowing he had just as many tricks up his sleeve. It was useless for a later arrival to just put the stone slab back on the bed, no matter how perfectly it fit; they had to move Immortal Minghui's remains back to sit properly to trigger the backup plan he had left behind.

Anyone capable of treating Immortal Minghui's afterlife affairs this way at least harbored good intentions toward him.

The Heavenly Demon, having been played by him, would not act this way.

This effectively prevented the secret from being known by the Heavenly Demon.

As for whether the Heavenly Demon would destroy or take away his remains in a fit of rage, that was beyond Immortal Minghui's control. At that time, the Heavenly Demon was attacking, and events were rushed; that he could arrange these interlocking steps after escaping back to the secret chamber while heavily injured was already no small feat.

The rest could only be left to luck.

This trick of Immortal Minghui's before he died was a game he had played with his fellow disciples in the Great Return Sect during his youth, called "Zen Setting"—using a sleight of hand to hide objects under a statue; if you didn't put the statue back in its original place twice, you couldn't find the item.

Qu Yu had originally thought that whoever could find this underground palace would likely be one of his own sect members. The last words he left behind would have a certain chance of being handed over to his sect.

Yet he didn't know that after his death, the world would undergo drastic changes, and the Great Return Sect would struggle to manage the oasis, having no more energy to come out and find him. This secret wasn't uncovered until three thousand years later by He Lingchuan.

This later arrival didn't know the Immortal's old tricks; he had moved Qu Yu's remains back to their original position purely out of respect.

In this regard, it was hard to say whose luck it really was—He Lingchuan's or Qu Yu's.

The Soul-Absorbing Mirror in He Lingchuan's embrace chuckled: "Treat good with good, treat evil with evil! Master, your karmic retribution has come truly fast."

Karmic retribution wasn't exactly a positive term, but He Lingchuan had no time to argue with it now; his attention was entirely on the stone slab.

This was the second hidden final letter, the secret Qu Yu had risked his life to protect? The stone slab stated that Heavenly Demon essence blood was like a deadly poison to the world's plants and ordinary small demons, triggering mutations. Qu Yu had discovered that Heavenly Demons often abducted humans and demons to trigger various kinds of deformities.

What were these Heavenly Demons trying to do? Qu Yu had originally thought the Heavenly Demons wanted to trigger some puppet weapons to use against the Immortal disciples; after all, the number of Heavenly Demons was far smaller than the Immortal clans of this realm, and they were at a disadvantage in terms of numbers.

The Heavenly Demons used demons for experiments, so he used Heavenly Demons for experiments—a fair exchange.

However, he later learned from a captive that some Heavenly Demons were very interested in the so-called "God-Descending Art," which was why they captured large numbers of humans, demons, and some Immortals for experiments.

What was the significance of such experiments?

Qu Yu already knew that Heavenly Demons, like Immortals, had many organizations, and each organization's goals, methods, and means were different. Some organizations did this, some did that, and they weren't necessarily in communication.

Even if other Immortals knew, they might not take it to heart. But Qu Yu, out of his own interest, had dissected nine hundred and ninety-eight Heavenly Demons—a small portion of which he had killed himself, while the rest were sent by other Immortals—and he had truly discovered a thing or two.

First, the puppets triggered by Divine Blood could maintain long-term bodily activity even after death and wouldn't rot as quickly as ordinary corpses—as long as their heads weren't severed.

If conditions permitted, preserving them for a thousand years wasn't a problem.

Today is my birthday, and the whole family is going out for lunch at noon~ In a rush to leave, I haven't checked the main text very carefully; if there are any typos, please leave a comment.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1267 =====