Chapter 2202: Natural Disaster or Man-Made?

Du Yun the Chief Envoy still remembered his first meeting with Master Shuangye ninety years ago; back then he looked almost exactly the same as today, his appearance peerlessly handsome, yet his gaze was dark and cold like a black hole — anyone who met his eyes for long felt their heart panic, a chill creeping unstoppably up their spine.

Time showed not the slightest power over him.

Only now Master Shuangye's gaze had become clear and reserved, and his manner toward others was even kindly.

Du Yun the Chief Envoy himself, however, was already white-haired and aged, unable to conceal his old age. The revival of heaven-and-earth spiritual Qi could make living beings strong and healthy, prolonging life, but for him it was a bit too late.

He knew Master Shuangye's background, knew this was a monster, yet on the surface he still observed the proper rites in greeting, not revealing the slightest difference — just as he had for all these past years.

"Master Shuangye."

Master Shuangye and his power were an extremely important balancing force in the Wang Ting court. Without him, the lofty Heavenly Palace would find it hard to directly intervene in the actual affairs of Lingxu City.

Master Shuangye's role became even more prominent after Qingyang was dismissed.

Master Shuangye also returned the salute: "My lord Chief Envoy, what major event has occurred?"

The Heavenly Palace rarely sought him out in the middle of the night.

"News has come from the south: the volcano on the Nantao Archipelago suddenly erupted; the Thousand-Eye Cave has been destroyed."

Even with Master Shuangye's composure, he was moved at this: "How could that be? The Nantao Archipelago is a dead volcano; it has been dormant for four or five thousand years."

"The Nantao volcano did indeed show some movement; the last message I received from Thousand-Eye Cave mentioned the volcano underfoot stirring again, but not violently — it shouldn't have erupted anytime soon. Thousand-Eye Cave sends a report to the Heavenly Palace every three months. 'Thousand-Eye Cave originally planned to complete relocation within three years. What about you — did you receive any abnormal reports?'"

Master Shuangye shook his head: "I had people deliver things there; that was already a year ago. Were there no survivors from Thousand-Eye Cave?"

"There were a few avian demon scouts, and four or five survivors, but none of them were in Thousand-Eye Cave that night. They had gone to the outskirts of the Nantao Archipelago on business, and thus escaped the calamity. Also, there were a few aquatic demons."

Master Shuangye pondered: "Since it is a volcano, eruption is indeed possible."

Thousand-Eye Cave's unique topography, riddled with holes, was outlined by volcanic eruptions very, very long ago.

"But demons and demon puppets sense far more keenly than humans; there are many omens before a volcanic eruption — could they have been completely unaware?"

"The sea demons say that day happened to coincide with a hurricane; the islands and reefs also raised giant waves. They could not move in the shallows, so they had to dive into the deep sea to take shelter; while on the sea surface winds and clouds surged, the avian demons could only land and rest."

A hurricane is the mighty power of nature; before it, most living beings can only retreat. And before a hurricane arrives there are many heaven-and-earth anomalies, which to a certain extent obscured all beings' perception of danger.

"Such a coincidence — the hurricane's arrival and the volcanic eruption just happened to fall on the same day."

A volcanic eruption on the Nantao Archipelago is a once-in-several-thousand-years event, yet it just happened to strike on the day of a hurricane?

Things are abnormal.

Du Yun the Chief Envoy said: "One of the sea demons mentioned that before it dove into the deep sea, it seemed to see a stone-head fish crash into Thousand-Eye Cave's Great Reef Fortress. At the time it thought nothing of it, only assuming the stone-head fish was also caught in the undercurrent, helpless; but in retrospect it felt somewhat suspicious."

The wild waves and rapids stirred up by the hurricane in the shallow sea depths are also quite terrifying.

"Why?"

"The waters near the Nantao Archipelago only have stone-head fish cruising in spring, and even then merely migrating through." Du Yun the Chief Envoy had also asked in great detail at the time. "Moreover that stone-head fish was nearly three zhang long, huge in size, very likely a demonic creature — unlikely to have panicked and blundered into the narrow reef-fortress area."

The reef fortress where Thousand-Eye Cave lies is like an underwater alleyway, everywhere hard rock and sharp coral; giant stone-head fish and whale sharks, such large bulk, have difficulty even turning around, and usually do not venture inside.

Master Shuangye frowned: "Inside Thousand-Eye Cave, is there really no evidence?"

"The volcanic eruption destroyed the entire Thousand-Eye Cave; the corpses found afterward were mostly incomplete, many traces were caused by the reef fortress, making examination very difficult." Du Yun the Chief Envoy said with a grave face, "But we did indeed find over a dozen corpses with clear signs of struggle. One headless corpse had a neck wound inflicted by sharp teeth and brute force. There was also Thousand-Eye Cave's Steward Liu, whose chest suffered severe trauma — should have been wounded by a halberd-like object, his heart gouged out. We also found half a charred corpse; examination confirmed the cause of death was a three-chi deep stab into the back of the neck, blood and fat sucked out, internal organs dissolved. That is to say, he was already dead before being eroded by magma."

Master Shuangye reserved his opinion: "Pardon my bluntness, but the experimental demon puppets inside Thousand-Eye Cave were originally all kinds of bizarre, were they not? Could some have taken advantage of the hurricane to break free and slaughter wildly?"

"Thousand-Eye Cave has multiple Dragon-Blocking Stones set up; once demon puppets accidentally break loose, they would drop the Dragon-Blocking Stones to prevent them from escaping or harming people." Du Yun the Chief Envoy shook his head. "I sent people to inspect; seventeen Dragon-Blocking Stones in total, three lost due to reef fracture, the rest — not a single one was ever dropped."

Seeing Master Shuangye not concede, Du Yun the Chief Envoy could only speak bluntly: "The Heavenly Venerable believes this was done by the Mu Kingdom."

"The Mu Kingdom?" With no outsiders here, Master Shuangye directly raised an objection: "There is no direct evidence showing it was the Mu Kingdom's doing."

"This is a premeditated destruction, handled cleanly from start to finish — how would direct evidence be left behind?" Du Yun the Chief Envoy said. "The Mu Kingdom's southern sea zone has two sea clans, less than two hundred li from the Nantao Archipelago."

Giant stone-head fish, sharp halberd? It does indeed sound like the work of a sea clan.

"And Ling Mountain and the Mu Kingdom have been probing the secrets of demon puppets these recent years; they've already ruined two of our experimental sites before." Du Yun the Chief Envoy said in a low voice. "Thousand-Eye Cave stands isolated in the sea, its location hidden; those Nantao natives don't know it's an experimental site — they only think a sea god lives inside the cave."

Master Shuangye immediately said: "There is another power also very interested in demon puppet research."

"You mean Cang Yan?"

"Cao Wendao and Red Tower were destroyed by He Xiao and the others; he still has a demon puppet master at his side."

"What you say is not without reason, but likewise there is no direct evidence proving this was Cang Yan's doing." Du Yun the Chief Envoy coughed lightly. "The Holy Venerable's intention: the Mu Kingdom's possibility is greater."

Since the Holy Venerable has already decided, what room do subordinates like them have to argue? Master Shuangye then let go of that insistence:

"My lord Chief Envoy summoned me in the middle of the night — for what purpose?"

"Since Cao Wendao's death, Thousand-Eye Cave finally achieved a major breakthrough in demon puppet research, yet at this moment it was damaged; countless precious materials and experimental subjects destroyed in an instant — much work must be redone. You also know how difficult it is to rebuild such an experimental site, how difficult to pick up the original research; hence the gods are enraged." Du Yun the Chief Envoy's face was dark as water. "The Holy Venerable's intention: Ling Mountain and the Mu Kingdom must pay the price!"