Chapter 41: Finding a Breakthrough

Misfortune and fortune depend on each other. If it weren't for the generous conditions offered by the Grand Marshal, He Chunhua wouldn't hope for the Panlong Desert to disappear.

He was silent for a while and said in a low voice: "Chuan'er, do you think Zhong Commander's thirty-two years of persistence is worth it?"

He Lingchuan thought that since you asked me, you must feel it's not worth it in your heart.

"Not worth it." He pretended to be straightforward, "Panlongcheng still fell, and the Xiluo Nation still perished. After spending thirty-two more years, he didn't change anything."

"For the first twelve years, the Western Luo Nation was powerless to advance west and reclaim its lost territory; they didn't even know that a million soldiers and civilians were still holding out on the Panlong Wasteland. For the next twenty years, the Western Luo Nation tried several times to cede the Panlong Wasteland to the Xianyou Nation in exchange for a temporary reprieve. If I were Zhong Shengguang, I would be absolutely livid to be stuck with a motherland that was so incompetent and constantly held me back!"

"The Xiluo Nation was once famous, with a national destiny of two hundred and seventeen years, which is a rare long-lived country in the world." This continent is rarely peaceful, and most small countries complete the whole set of rise and fall within twenty or thirty years, so the Xiluo Nation has already endured very well. "But when Zhong Shengquan guarded Panlongcheng, the Xiluo Nation had internal and external troubles, the powerful were singing and dancing, the starving people were displaced, and the foreign enemies were attacking endlessly; the twilight bell of the end had already been struck." He Chunhua said this and stopped speaking, stroking Zhong Shengquan's tombstone with a sigh.

Father is thinking of himself, He Lingchuan didn't expose it. Today's Great Yuan Nation is indeed too similar to the Xiluo of the past.

At this time, the clouds broke and the moon came out, illuminating the ruins of the city.

"Commander Zhong, it's very boring to guard here alone, right? I'll accompany you for two more cups." He Lingchuan couldn't help but toast Zhong Shengquan again, "It's a pity, I couldn't pay homage to Red General, couldn't admire the heroic posture of the old man!"

Zhong Shengquan and Red General are both legends. As far as He Lingchuan himself is concerned, he is more curious about the mysterious Red General.

He asked He Chunhua: "There is a living ancestral hall for Red General in the city, but there is no graveyard, not even a cenotaph. Is there a possibility... he didn't actually die in the last battle?"

"General Hong was struck by seven bolts of heavenly lightning summoned at the cost of the Xianyou State Preceptor's life, and he was reduced to ashes on the spot. Soldiers from both sides witnessed it with their own eyes, so there shouldn't be any mistake; otherwise, the morale of Panlongcheng wouldn't have collapsed so suddenly." He Chunhua shook his head. "You are still young and do not know that human strength has its limits."

He Lingchuan was about to speak when two fireworks suddenly flew into the sky from the northeast, exploding into flowers.

That was the agreed signal. He Chunhua saw it and said: "They found it, let's go!"

￥￥￥￥￥

Within two quarters of an hour, everyone gathered at Lady Mitian Temple.

It was in the heart of the entire Panlongcheng, occupying ten acres, with courtyards and pavilions.

It is imaginable that this place should have been a prosperous scene with ancient trees and weaving tourists when the incense was flourishing, but now it has become a large-scale desolate scene after being smashed, looted, and burned for more than a hundred years. The clear springs and lotus ponds had long dried up, and the originally lush ancient trees had turned into withered trees, never sprouting new green again.

Most of the exquisite buildings had been destroyed, especially the magnificent main hall dedicated to Lady Mitian, which was destroyed thoroughly. When the crowd approached the original site, they only saw a few pitch-black wooden stakes lying horizontally and vertically.

Lifting it with his hand, it shattered.

The Lady Mitian statue was a stone carving, and the length of a small arm was enough to catch up to He Lingchuan's height, but it was a pity that the crowd couldn't see its original appearance, because the entire stone statue was cut into seven or eight sections after being pushed down, each section was hacked by blades and axes, and then painted with ink.

The coalition forces hated Panlongcheng and the Great Wind Army, and hated their faith to the bone.

After everyone arrived, Nian Songyu held the glass jar and said solemnly: "This is it!"

He walked around the pool in front of the main hall, and the Three-Corpse Insects in the glass jar also changed direction. No matter which direction he walked to, they all topped the side wall away from the pool! "Pool?" Boss Situ Han asked strangely, "Are you sure it's this pool? If we make a mistake, we can't get more clean water."

The Red Silk Plateau has plenty of water, and the water features in Lady Mitian Temple were also very exquisite, with springs and streams, and as for the pools, there were as many as six.

The pool Nian Songyu took a fancy to was in front of the main hall, with an irregular shape, very much like a wishing pool for people to throw coins. The area was about twenty-six or twenty-seven square meters.

Of course, there were no koi or coins here now.

Sun Fuping walked around the pool and pressed a few times on the edge of the pool: "There are color differences in the layers of the pool edge, as if they were blocked later."

Everyone looked, and it was really true. There were several repairs on the edge of the pool, the workmanship was rough and uneven, and it was far from the original craftsmanship of the pool. It can be seen that the later repairs were just repairs, and they were perfunctory enough.

"There is quite a gap in years between the old and the new. And it was repaired roughly, it doesn't look like the craftsmanship of the Panlongcheng people who worshipped the Lady Mitian God, and it doesn't look like the Xian-Ba coalition forces did it." He Chunhua pondered, "Could it be that this was done by the last team sent by the Baling Nation?"

The favorite grand-disciple sent by Ancestor Zhu Gen couldn't have run thousands of miles specifically to be a mud mason, right?

If this pool was really repaired by them, then they must have had a target.

He Lingchuan was more concerned about why this pool was dug open before.

Sun Fuping said solemnly: "More importantly, why was the pool dug open, and by whom?"

Zeng Feixiong pointed to the scattered stones on the ground and said: "Maybe it was accidentally smashed by falling rocks when the main hall was destroyed."

The temple was looted, and such magnificent buildings and statues collapsed with a bang, even the ground was smashed into a big pit. It was no surprise that a small pool was smashed through. "Perhaps this is the effect the mastermind wanted to fake?" He Chunhua pondered, "Panlongcheng was broken, and the coalition soldiers must have entered the city to loot. The officers couldn't stop them at all. No matter what these soldiers destroyed, it was nothing unusual. If this pool looked like it was destroyed in the looting, the coalition forces wouldn't investigate it carefully, and it could cover up its secret."

"In the panic and the imminent fall of Panlong, who could arrange it so calmly?"

The answer was obvious, Nian Songyu muttered: "Zhong Shengquan, or his confidant. He wanted to open the pool and release the water before the city fell."

If their guess was correct, the deep meaning behind this action was worth exploring.

Decades later, the exploration team of the Baling Nation probably had a similar judgment and repaired the pool again.

Boss Situ Han came up to look and looked troubled: "Everyone's meaning is to put water into this pool? But even if all the spare clean water of our two hundred people is poured in, I'm afraid it won't fill the bottom of the pool."

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 42 =====

(End of chapter)