Chapter 327

Eh, this fish has roe in its belly. Roasting it over the fire, it's crunchy and fragrant!

He expressed his disgust with his actions. Dong Rui was furious but could do nothing about it; after the meal, he found grass leaves and wove himself a mask to wear, finally blocking the lower half of his face. The two had just finished eating when Zhu Xiuer came.

He Lingchuan held up the remaining fish meat and asked it: "Do you want to taste my craft?"

Zhu Xiuer refused. It liked to suck frozen jelly and could eat raw meat, but it hated any cooked food. "Follow me after you finish eating; I'll find you a place to do the experiment."

Dong Rui pointed to the abandoned houses behind the long beach: "Won't this do?"

"If there's another flood, this place will be submerged." Zhu Xiuer said, "You two have also walked underwater once; that city was originally above the water level."

The two had no choice but to follow; Dong Rui couldn't help but ask: "Where exactly are we?"

"This is the Demon Nest Swamp, a no-man's land on the border between Beijia and Fu, but it doesn't belong to any country."

Fu?

The two looked at each other, He Lingchuan let out an "Eh": "Isn't that to the east of Beijia?"

He had slept for several hundred miles?! The Hanhe water had actually sent him all the way here.

He Lingchuan asked tentatively: "You didn't originally live in the Ghost Needle Stone Forest, how did you move to the Demon Nest Swamp thousands of miles away?"

Zhu Xiuer snorted: "Back then, the Baling Kingdom and Panlongcheng were at war, and they burned the flames of war to my territory. I couldn't take it, so I made a move and killed a general of Panlongcheng. Later, Panlongcheng kept coming to cause trouble, and I really couldn't stand the harassment, so I had to move."

Hearing this, He Lingchuan suddenly realized.

Yes, in reality, Zhu Xiuer killed General Nanke of Panlongcheng, which surely wouldn't be tolerated by General Hong. After Panlongcheng won the Battle of Weicheng, they would turn back to deal with it.

Zhu Xiuer's forced move was also reasonable; perhaps it had suffered some secret losses along the way, because it didn't elaborate in detail.

This was completely different from the direction in the dream. In the dream of the Great Fang Hu, because He Lingchuan burned down its underground farm in time, Zhu Xiuer rushed back to the nest, and General Nanke was able to escape; therefore, Panlongcheng and it didn't form a deep grudge, and afterwards, General Hong showed it his muscles, and they restored the previous agreement, so Zhu Xiuer didn't need to move.

From now on, would there be more and more divergences between the dream and historical reality? "I lived in Beijia for a while, felt it was meaningless, so I went straight down the Hanhe, and finally settled here." For an old monster with such a long age like it, it was actually not used to the demon nation life of later generations.

He Lingchuan asked again about the origin of that underwater city: "Was it because the water level rose that the residents left?"

"How could it be that simple?" Zhu Xiuer explained slowly, "This was originally the territory of the Jiana tribe; they lived in seclusion, and at their peak, it was said there were over a hundred thousand people, with strong people emerging in large numbers, and miracles appearing; it was said they also guarded treasures bestowed by gods. Later, demons fell from the sky and killed them all. Decades later, the swamp water level rose and submerged their former home."

She was leading the two away from the abandoned town, but when passing by the tallest building, He Lingchuan saw the statue inside through the open door.

That statue was carved from a single piece of granite, over three zhang high. Finding such a large and well-proportioned boulder in the swamp wasn't easy, and transporting it was even harder.

There were no trees blocking the front of the building, and a ray of sunlight just happened to shine through, illuminating the statue.

So, the building located at the highest point of the entire city was a temple? He Lingchuan let out a long "Eh," his steps faltering as he paced inside.

The interior of this exotic-style temple was spacious; after over a hundred years of wind and water erosion, although moss grew everywhere, most of the white stone floor tiles were flat and complete, sounding like bells and chimes when stepped on, clear and resonant, with echoes everywhere.

The offering table had long since rotted away, and only the small patch of ground in front of the statue was sunken, clearly the result of the long-term kneeling and worship of devout believers.

He Lingchuan stood right here, looking up at the statue.

This was a goddess, with kind eyebrows and eyes, a face full of compassion; her gaze was slightly lowered, looking at the believers sitting below, holding a precious pot in her hand, with a dragon soaring beside her, and stepping on evil ghosts under her feet.

Although covered in vines, it reduced the majesty it once had.

He Lingchuan didn't take his eyes off it, his gaze full of shock.

Zhu Xiuer and Dong Rui also came in: "What?"

"This is the god worshipped by the Jiana tribe?"

"Correct, they believed in the Moon God." Zhu Xiuer said slowly, "This is the Moon God that the Jiana worshipped devoutly for generations; unfortunately, it couldn't protect them from the demons' pursuit of their lives."

Moon God? He Lingchuan was confused for a moment; this was clearly Mitian! The Heavenly God worshipped by the entire Panlongcheng, Lady Mitian.

He had entered and exited the dream so many times, of course he had been to the Mitian Temple. The Mitian God worshipped there was slightly different in appearance and demeanor from this one, but he would never recognize it wrong.

What's more, he had just seen this face in the dream earlier.

General Hong! Although General Hong had an indifferent face, this goddess statue had a face full of compassion, but the features were at least seventy percent similar, especially those iconic tea-colored phoenix eyes.

Thousands of miles apart, the guardian god of Panlongcheng actually had believers in the depths of the Demon Nest Swamp, and had even changed its title? He had to ask Zhu Xiuer: "How much do you know about this Moon God?"

"How would I know?" Zhu Xiuer knocked on the ground, "When I came, this place was long abandoned."

Dong Rui also asked curiously: "Then how do you know the Jiana tribe was exterminated by demons?"

"Strictly speaking, it doesn't count as extermination; they still had some descendants who escaped and moved to the edge of the Demon Nest Swamp to live." Zhu Xiuer's claws touched its round belly, "Before I eat my prey, I like to chat with them and listen to some interesting stories."

Let me say it again, life in the swamp was too boring; it was a great demon that liked to listen to stories.

He Lingchuan, Dong Rui: "..."

They really had to escape as soon as possible.

He Lingchuan's heart moved: "Then do you know in which year the Jiana tribe was exterminated?"

Zhu Xiuer stood still, trying hard to calculate, and it was only after a good while that it said: "Hmm, if the descendants of the Jiana tribe didn't remember wrong, it should be one hundred and seventy-four... no... one hundred and seventy-two years ago today."

One hundred and seventy-two years ago? Wasn't that the seventeenth year of the Panlong calendar? That is, one or two years after the Chifeng mine incident.

While Panlongcheng under Mitian's protection was flourishing, the Jiana people who believed in it were almost exterminated.

The timing was so close; what connection was there between the two? "Have you ever seen the Mitian statue worshipped by Panlongcheng back then?"

"Of course not." Zhu Xiuer was dissatisfied, "Do you think I can walk into Panlongcheng like this? Why, is there any connection between the two?"

"They are too similar." He Lingchuan just answered casually, but Zhu Xiuer was even more casual: "What's strange about that? Many gods don't have just one image or one title in the human world."

So that was it? The two and the spider left the Jiana ruins and walked into the vast jungle.

After walking a few more miles, the terrain gradually rose, and the two were forced to climb to the mountainside.

A large subsidence ahead was actually an irregular sinkhole, with a maximum diameter of about ten zhang, and it was very deep. The rock walls were covered with calamus and small trees.

Zhu Xiuer pointed to this sinkhole and said: "We're here."

He Lingchuan looked around and saw shadows in the forest, all of which were spiders wandering about, knowing that Zhu Xiuer didn't trust them at all.

In the cave spiders' territory, even eels had to obediently pay tribute to them; unless these two had wings, it would be difficult to escape.

At this time, even He Lingchuan couldn't help but miss the benefits of Dong Rui's strange bird.

Dong Rui was also looking up at the sky, wondering if he had the same sentiment.

Just then, Zhu Xiuer raised its front claws and suddenly pushed them down into the sinkhole—

Its movements were extremely fast, and it was a sneak attack from behind, so even He Lingchuan couldn't dodge it.

With a "plop," Dong Rui fell into the water, while He Lingchuan did a flip in mid-air and jumped onto a small tree on the cliff edge.

The water in the sinkhole was very clear, but bottomless.

Dong Rui was splashing in the water, and Zhu Xiuer's figure stood on the edge of the sinkhole: "My children will lead you to the laboratory; everything is ready there, and if you need anything, just tell them. Although the terrain underneath is complex, there is only this one exit; I advise you not to play any tricks, otherwise you will have to watch yourselves being sucked dry bit by bit!"

He Lingchuan and Dong Rui looked at each other, both shivering.

There was indeed a passage by the water, deep into the heart of the mountain, with over a dozen spiders guarding the entrance.

When Dong Rui waded over, He Lingchuan also jumped to the entrance of the cave, without getting wet.

The two walked in, and two small spiders led the way in front.

Dong Rui spat out the water in his mouth: "As expected, it doesn't trust us; hey, do you still have the red potion you stole from me?"

He asked twice, but He Lingchuan didn't answer, only looking around.

The sinkhole wasn't independent, but connected to a karst cave; after walking for a while, there would be forks. However, the small spiders seemed very familiar with this place, leading the way without hesitation.

"Hey, you..." It was just an ordinary karst cave, what was there to look at?

The crevices of the rock walls were covered with soft grass and fungi, and the sound of water could be heard all the way down, which would eventually converge into the sinkhole.

He Lingchuan suddenly opened his mouth: "There is something strange here."

They had been thrown into the sinkhole by a spider demon; Dong Rui said unhappily: "Is there anywhere else that isn't strange?"

The cave didn't let in daylight, but fortunately, the cave spiders had transplanted fluorescent spores into it, which acted as streetlights, making the passage quite bright.

"Touch this stone wall."

Dong Rui reached out and stroked the cave wall; it wasn't very hard, as if it were covered with a very thin layer of soft skin, and the color leaned toward a slight ochre.

Was the stone wall covered in moss? He looked closely, but there wasn't; instead, there were traces of vines having grown on the rock everywhere.

"Strange, there's this kind of stone material?"

And He Lingchuan was busy covering up his shock, having no time to talk.

The small spider leading the way turned a few corners and led the two to a stone room: "We're here."

There were several spider demon guards here, and it retreated.

(End of Chapter)