Chapter 1712: Calamity Heavenly Pearl

He Lingchuan also clapped along with everyone. The capital gates of the Chiyan Kingdom, the palace gates of the Yao Kingdom — both had guardian spirits that could be activated to repel invaders when attacked, serving a major purpose; he had speculated that the sculptures on Panlongcheng's South Gate had such a function as well, but only today was it finally actually installed.

Zhong Shengguang descended the high platform and, taking the opportunity, chatted with several observing foreign guests.

Someone asked why it was specifically today that the Heavenly Pearl was inserted.

Zhong Shengguang smiled and said: "The flood dragon's horn hadn't grown this long yet; the Heavenly Pearl couldn't be inserted."

He only said this one sentence; others seemed to half-understand but didn't dare ask further. But He Lingchuan understood at once:

When the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth is dense, the flood dragon's horn grows. Only when the spiritual Qi is dense to a certain degree can the Black Flood Dragon hold this Heavenly Pearl in its mouth and exert the utility of a gate-guarding god.

From now on, Panlongcheng's defensive capability will rise by at least two levels.

A commoner nearby asked worriedly: "This pearl is very precious, right? Aren't you afraid of it being stolen embedded here?"

Zhong Shengguang casually picked up a tree branch and threw it at the city wall. He didn't throw it directly at the dragon's mouth; the branch landed on the wall top, and in the blink of an eye it moved, turning into a tiny tree person, faceless and mouthless but mobile.

Animation Technique.

Zhong Shengguang had rarely made a move in front of He Lingchuan; this sudden action let He Lingchuan know that Panlongcheng's BOSS's cultivation attainment was indeed not low.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, this crude tree person climbed along the city wall toward the dragon head, and with a *chiliu* extended its branches to dig out the treasure pearl inside the dragon's mouth, moving very fast.

But faster than the tree person's movements was the flood dragon.

It suddenly turned its head, its big mouth opening and closing, *kacha* — a sound — biting the tree person to smithereens!

This move was like a giant crocodile ambushing prey; the commoners below gave a startled "wah" but, coming to their senses, burst into applause.

Amazing, amazing! This flood dragon is practically a living thing; who could dig something out of a living flood dragon's mouth — they'd have to be tired of living! He Lingchuan also knew why Zhong Shengguang hadn't attacked the dragon's mouth directly; this big treasure probably had counterattack ability. On this fine auspicious day, better not brew a tragedy.

Fortunately the flood dragon's big mouth was positioned very high; ordinary people simply couldn't reach it.

After the ceremony ended, people happily dispersed, and the city was full of animated discussion everywhere.

The authorities held such a grand ceremony not simply for lively spectacle, but to boost the confidence of the military, civilians, and visiting merchants, making everyone understand: Panlongcheng is guarded by a divine object, it is extremely safe! He Lingchuan looked at the high-spirited people, clear in his heart that this was an exceptionally serious matter.

Today's Panlongcheng presents a state of external offense and expansion: northward it beats the Xianyou Kingdom until it cannot cope, southward it allies with various small states, eastward it conducts trade with the outside world via the Longchuan Trade Route — truly unprecedented glory. Why does Zhong Shengguang still reinforce the city walls and animate the flood dragon sculptures at this time? This shows Zhong Shengguang judges that the situation behind Panlongcheng is not optimistic, and he has not been dizzy with victory.

Once Bega confirms Panlongcheng refuses to submit, it will immediately press its army to the borders, and the environment around Panlongcheng will immediately deteriorate — if Bega has ten parts of strength, it is currently only using one or two parts against Panlongcheng; everyone knows this.

Why is General Hong fighting for every second on the northwestern front? Precisely to cripple Bega's most ferocious lackey before Bega truly moves, striving to expand Panlongcheng's strategic space as much as possible.

This is called offensive defense.

Zhong Shengguang pulled He Lingchuan back to the government office again, and continued discussing troop deployment matters.

This operation must be fast and covert; He Lingchuan, as the surprise force, must catch the enemy off guard.

After discussions concluded, He Lingchuan couldn't suppress his curiosity: "The Great Expansion Heavenly Pearl seems like an extraordinary treasure; the Wutu Kingdom was actually willing to offer it up?"

"Willing, extremely willing." Zhong Shengguang spoke of this matter with amusement, "Some years ago, the Wutu Kingdom got this treasure from who knows where and collected it; who knew disaster would follow — first a great drought for three years, then the capital was flooded by a once-in-a-century deluge, conflicts with neighboring states resulted in repeated defeats, and the royal family even lost several children."

He Lingchuan was very materialist: "How do they know it was this pearl that caused the calamity? Maybe they were just unlucky themselves, and insist on blaming the pearl."

"The Heavenly Pearl was stolen once, for a duration of a year and a half. During this period, officials and commoners lived comfortably, the country was peaceful, and the royal family stopped losing children. Later the thief was caught, weeping that this pearl brought him several blood-light disasters, his legs even beaten broken." Zhong Shengguang coughed, "After the Wutu King retrieved the pearl, the nightmares started again; on the third day he went to the hunting park and encountered a mudslide, man and horse nearly buried; after being rescued he treated injuries for three days. Then he hurriedly sent the pearl to me, to cement goodwill between the two lands."

His words carried a faint mockery.

"Actually they offered the Great Expansion Heavenly Pearl two months ago, incessantly boasting it was a peerless treasure, the pearl of an Ancient Shadow Dragon. All the strange events above were what I sent people to the Wutu Kingdom to investigate. Zhong Shengguang, being so shrewd, one look at the Wutu Kingdom presenting such a sincere grand gift, knew something abnormal must have a demon behind it — how could he not hurry to investigate thoroughly?"

He Lingchuan scratched his head: "Such a ferocious pearl, we're still keeping it?"

Not afraid of calamity befalling oneself? "The Shadow Dragon's relic is recorded in ancient texts. The Shadow Dragon is an ancient evil dragon; its appearance inevitably brings flood, fire, and heavenly disasters, scorching the living; its greatest hobby is hunting its own kind and devouring dragon pearls. Twice pursued ten thousand li by the dragon clan, finally it still took the Dragon God personally acting to execute it."

Zhong Shengguang is not a person skilled at lecturing, but with just these few dry words, he still let He Lingchuan feel this evil dragon's lawlessness.

Pursued twice by the entire clan, and in the end even requiring the Black Dragon God Venerable to take the field to deal with it — how terrifying must this fellow be? "When General Hong returned, I also asked Lady Lady Lady Mitian to examine this pearl, to confirm the Wutu Kingdom hadn't offered the wrong treasure."

He Lingchuan nodded.

Lady Lady Lady Mitian personally confirmed it; that basically wouldn't be wrong.

"This dragon pearl has two anomalies. First, inside the pearl there actually remains a trace of the Shadow Dragon's malicious intent, or call it baleful Qi. In the hands of the Dragon God or a great power it's one thing, but if a human obtains it, say the Wutu King, unable to rely on their own cultivation to suppress it nor utilize the nation's destiny to suppress it, or the nation is small and its destiny weak and cannot suppress it, then this thing becomes a scourge, baleful misfortune entangling the body, harming others and oneself."

He Lingchuan murmured: "The Shadow Dragon's malicious intent — do you have a way to suppress or expel it?"

This malicious intent thing, he knows it well. Luo Shengjia back on the Shanjing Plain was able to spawn so many wars and tragedies — wasn't it the malicious intent at work? If the malicious intent hadn't been washed clean by the Great Square Pot, he also couldn't rest easy wearing this treasure armor.

"Not me." Zhong Shengguang smiled mysteriously, "It underwent the baptism of Chaos."

He Lingchuan suddenly realized, recalling that gigantic figure in the red sea within the Great Square Pot.