Chapter 429: The Activated Wheel of Fate

"Is that so?" He He Lingchuan grabbed the Floating Life Blade, flipped it over, and handed it before his eyes. "Take a closer look." Fu Fu Shanyue did not stand on ceremony with him; he drew the blade from its scabbard and widened his eyes to examine it thoroughly. "The ring pommel is a dragon head; this is very similar. Hmm, but the blade length is different, and the curvature of the blade is different too." It was clearly not the same weapon. "Where did you get this blade?"

He He Lingchuan shrugged. "An heirloom. You should ask my ancestors that question."

How could there be such a coincidence? That the precious blade sent out by King Yuan happened to be in the hands of this obscure kid? Dragon heads were also common decorations for swords and blades; he had seen them plenty of times before. Besides, the ground was littered with swords and blades featuring lion heads or Yazi heads—were they all forged in the same furnace? Fu Fu Shanyue secretly laughed at his own suspicion.

He He Lingchuan asked him again, "What is the Immortality Elixir?"

Fu Fu Shanyue scratched his head. "You can tell what it does just by the name, right? It's only produced in Spirit Void City; I haven't paid attention to anything else."

"You're about to inherit the throne, and you still don't know?" He He Lingchuan hadn't missed a single word just now. "It seems every newly ascended Demon King must consume it, but that means being controlled by the gods. So, will you drink it or not?"

Fu Fu Shanyue seemed to be in a dilemma as well.

"Hey! We'll talk about it when the time comes." Finally, he waved his hand. "Let's head back; it's about to be dawn."

At most, in another two quarter-hours, the east would begin to turn white.

He He Lingchuan had no objections.

They had been busy all night, but with cultivation bases and strange sights to behold, they didn't feel exhausted.

Returning to the camp, the sky had indeed brightened.

The team packed their bags and set off. He He Lingchuan and Fu Fu Shanyue returned to their respective groups, both tacitly keeping silent about what they had seen the night before.

Second Master Shi asked He He Lingchuan, "Were there any strange phenomena in that city last night?"

"It was very quiet, and nothing strange happened." He He Lingchuan shook his head. "We broke in and wandered around; the people in the phantom city snored louder than all of you."

"It's good that there wasn't, it's good that there wasn't." The journey so far had been thrilling, with more accidents encountered than in the past few years combined. Second Master Shi sincerely hoped that the road ahead would be smooth and uneventful.

The caravan continued on its way.

The road became increasingly flat, and He He Lingchuan, riding on the back of a sheep, was unusually silent.

Second Master Shi looked at him several times, noticing that he seemed to be staring blankly into the distance, lost in thought.

He He Lingchuan's mind was filled with the phantom scene of Thousand Star City from last night.

It was clear that the Great Great Great Fanghu, the Divine Bone Necklace, and the Floating Life Blade had all originally belonged to King Yuan. King Yuan even believed that the main reason for Between Beijia's fierce assault on the Yuan Kingdom was the Great Great Great Fanghu.

Unfortunately, that black box had only opened a tiny slit, and it was facing Shao He Jian; neither he nor Fu Fu Shanyue had seen what the Great Great Great Fanghu looked like.

Yet, King Yuan had been desperate to destroy it but couldn't, so he could only keep it helplessly, eventually inviting disaster upon himself.

In other words, "not having it" was important.

As someone from the future, He He Lingchuan naturally knew that after the Great Great Great Fanghu was handed to Zhong Zhong Shengguang, it hadn't been destroyed either, but had been put to other uses. To this day, this treasure was still in the Panlong Wasteland, never taken away by anyone.

Was it that Zhong Zhong Shengguang truly couldn't destroy it, or did he have other plans and uses for it after obtaining it? But this contradicted He He Lingchuan's understanding.

The information he had received from the former Imperial Preceptor of the Yuan Kingdom, Sun Sun Fuping, was that Zhong Zhong Shengguang only held the god-rewarding ceremony after the Panlong Wasteland became a flying enclave and millions of residents were left with no way out. Thus, the Heaven-Covering God bestowed upon him the Great Great Great Fanghu and sent an avatar to descend into the mortal world.

But as seen last night, the Great Great Great Fanghu had been in the mortal world all along, passed from King Yuan to Zhong Zhong Shengguang, and later brought by him to Panlongcheng.

Which version was true? Combining this with what King Yuan had said earlier, a flash of inspiration struck He He Lingchuan, and he suddenly remembered the ghost cubs acting sneakily in Panlongcheng, as well as Wen Daolun's refusal to save his own son.

He even recalled the tribe in the Demon Nest Swamp that had been completely devoured by the God Child.

The dark threads connecting these events were gradually becoming clear.

If it were anyone else, they could only sigh in resignation; after all, the people and events involved had already vanished with the wind and could not be verified.

But He He Lingchuan was different; he had someone he could ask.

He could go back and trace this unknown secret.

However, for now, he had to face another suffocating fact:

King Yuan held the three-piece set of the Great Great Great Fanghu, the Divine Bone, and the precious blade, and in the end, King Yuan was defeated, and Thousand Star City was destroyed.

Zhong Zhong Shengguang also held the three-piece set of the Great Great Great Fanghu, the Divine Bone, and the precious blade, and in the end, Zhong Zhong Shengguang committed suicide, and Panlongcheng was destroyed.

It was practically a curse, with a one-hundred-percent fatality rate.

Now, this three-piece set was in his, He He Lingchuan's, hands.

This curse was clinging to him; how long would it take to take effect?

After seeing King Yuan's ending tonight, his heart felt icy cold.

His own fate seemed to be held by an invisible hand, dragged toward an unknown abyss, or perhaps a predetermined destiny, and these three items were the handles.

Why did King Yuan and Zhong Zhong Shengguang fail?

Without a doubt, they had both faced an invincible enemy—

Between Beijia.

Although he hadn't personally seen the final chapter of Panlongcheng's history, judging by the increasingly frequent and undisguised interference from the Demon Kingdom, the final destruction of Panlongcheng was inseparable from Between Beijia.

Even King Yuan and Zhong Zhong Shengguang had failed; if obtaining the three-piece set meant he would have to face the same enemy in the future, what should he do? What would his end be? Would he meet a tragic end like King Yuan and Zhong Zhong Shengguang, or could he find another way and carve out his own path?

He He Lingchuan had another concern: the existence of the Great Great Great Fanghu was extremely secretive, so how did the Demon Kingdom discover it had fallen into the hands of King Yuan, and then into the hands of Zhong Zhong Shengguang? What method did it use to track the whereabouts of this divine artifact? Most importantly—

According to King Yuan, Between Beijia could definitely find the holder of the Great Great Great Fanghu, no matter the ends of the earth.

The pot was not on his person, but in the current situation, he could barely be considered the pot's—

Holder? He He Lingchuan subconsciously pressed the necklace on his chest.

He didn't want to die a violent death, but this Divine Bone necklace... it couldn't be thrown away!

Thinking back to his strange fate, the two "lowest-of-the-low" fortune sticks he had drawn in succession at the Spirit Water Temple of County Magistrate Lake, plus the secret he had just learned tonight, these things all seemed to be tangled together.

What should he do next?

He could no longer continue to muddle along and travel around; who knew when the gods and the Demon Kingdom would turn their gaze toward him?

Crises always arrive when one is off guard.

To know oneself and the enemy, one must first start by knowing oneself.

He had to find a way to uncover the secret of the Great Great Great Fanghu.

What exactly was this thing, what was its use, and why were even the gods desperately searching for it?

The Demon Kingdom was the land favored by the gods and was also known as the kingdom closest to the gods; perhaps he could find some clues here.

In any case, he was already here. If it was destined that he couldn't escape, knowing early was better than knowing late, and being prepared early was better than being prepared late.

Of course, his connection to the Great Great Great Fanghu was a secret, a secret that must never be known by a second person; he had to keep it tightly guarded!

Two hours ago.

Spirit Void City, Xushan Tiangong.

At the highest point of the Tiangong, the sixteen eternal lamps inside the Star-Plucking Tower burned through the night; no matter the time, the light here was soft and bright.

But people needed rest.

Everything was silent, not even a lamp wick popped; two lamp-guarding envoys stood by the eternal lamps, rubbing their eyes repeatedly.

Both had cultivation bases, but they were not allowed to close their eyes and meditate while guarding the lamps; they could only keep yawning or use peppermint oil inhaled through the nose to refresh their minds.

Tonight seemed especially long; one lamp-guarding envoy couldn't withstand the sleepiness and leaned against a pillar to sleep.

Watching others sleep always felt particularly cozy, and he couldn't hold out any longer. The other lamp-guarding envoy yawned until tears came to his eyes, imagining how satisfying it would be to slap his companion's face, when he suddenly heard a rustling sound.

For the lamp-guarding envoys of the Star-Plucking Tower, this sound was very familiar, but why would it ring out in the middle of the night? He opened his eyes and saw the flames of the eternal lamps surging, while the altar was ablaze with red light.

On the white jade platform in the center of the main hall, the Heavenly Book emitted a fluorescent glow, moving without wind.

This was not silk or satin, but carved from a piece of white jade, only becoming soft as paper at specific times.

The lamp-guarding envoy hurried over to look; on the previously blank Heavenly Book, red characters slowly appeared:

Ten Directions Sympathy, Heavenly Net Agitated.

The lamp-guarding envoy slapped his companion awake. "The divine oracle has descended; go report it quickly!"

His companion woke up in a fright, having no time to scold him; after seeing the Heavenly Book, he ran out of the Star-Plucking Tower.

Less than an hour later, the Star-Plucking Tower was heavily guarded by armored soldiers.

The two lamp-guarding envoys had already been sent far away; only one person stood inside the main hall.

All the eternal lamps suddenly dimmed; the three-inch-long pure white flames were all compressed into bean-sized sparks, swaying precariously.

Fortunately, this scene lasted for less than two breaths before returning to normal.

A massive figure was projected onto the pure white curtains, approaching the depths of the hall and stopping before the altar.

The person in the hall knelt before it, addressing it as Emperor.

The tall and long figure rose, passing over the white jade platform, level with the altar.

A majestic voice rang out: "Why is the Heavenly Net agitated?"

"Reporting to the Emperor, the Heavenly Net Star shone brightly two hours ago, and it continued for more than half an hour. It is just the beginning of the eighth month; by rights, it shouldn't be happening at this time. The last time the Heavenly Net Star flashed..."

"I remember, you don't need to remind me." The Emperor asked, "I want to confirm, does the Holy Venerable believe that the agitation sensed by the Heavenly Net this time originates from—"

Three large characters quickly appeared on the Heavenly Book: Great Great Great Fanghu.

As soon as these characters appeared, a thick sense of ominousness permeated the blood-red color.

The hall fell silent, the atmosphere stagnant.

"Hasn't this thing always been in the northwest of the Yuan Kingdom? You told me it had long since merged with the entire Panlong Desert and could not be taken out at all."

If it could be taken, the Between Beijia Kingdom would have taken it long ago; why wait until now? The Heavenly Book did not respond.

Clearly, even the gods could not answer this question, which was why they had sent down the divine oracle.

The Envoy of All Clouds said, "It was measured that this divine artifact appeared in our country; the location is north of Twilight and east of Mount Xing."

The Demon Emperor was surprised: "It is actually in our country? Was the measurement wrong?"

"It has never been wrong before."

The Demon Emperor's voice held a faint mockery: "It seems there are still people capable of taking it out after all."

No one could answer this challenge.

The Demon Emperor asked again: "The range of 'north of Twilight, east of Xingshan' encompasses the southern part of the Chiyan Kingdom and the Twilight Plains. Can the Holy Venerable not be a bit more precise?"

(End of chapter)