Chapter 554: Secret Report from Many Years Ago

Even if there seemed to be no one else around, it was better to be cautious. He had already noticed Bai Bai Ziqi's attention on him, although the reason was not entirely clear. "!! How can you be so sure..." The mirror was greatly surprised, and only reacted after a few breaths, "Oh, when did you make a move on him?" It had been staying on He He Lingchuan the whole time, so how come even it hadn't noticed? It was finding it harder and harder to keep up with this master.

"Last night."

He He Lingchuan gave this small hint and did not elaborate further.

He had been capturing fugitives with Bai Bai Ziqi last night, and Cheng Yu was captured by his own hands.

At that time, Cheng Yu was injured and unconscious from the candle spirit's explosion. He He Lingchuan held him in his hand, actually facing two choices:

Use the mirror to suck away his soul, or use the Nightmare.

Using the Soul-Absorbing Mirror was the most straightforward, but it would easily be suspected by Bai Bai Ziqi afterward, as the last person to have contact with Cheng Yu was He He Lingchuan.

Sending out the Nightmare was asking for trouble, as the Nightmare would have to sneak into Cheng Yu's dream and set a trap to kill him. However, the benefit was that Cheng Yu could still wake up after being brought back to Baishajian and say a few words—

Yes, this was He He Lingchuan's requirement for the Nightmare.

The Nightmare only made its move after Cheng Yu's second coma, so Bai Bai Ziqi would naturally recalculate the time he was attacked, and He He Lingchuan would be cleared of suspicion.

So he determined the latter plan almost in the blink of an eye, and then wiped the branch of the Jula Tree containing the Nightmare across Cheng Yu's nose.

At that time, Cheng Yu was already unconscious, making it most convenient for the Nightmare to enter his dream.

Now it seemed that this risky move had been the right one.

After Bai Bai Ziqi captured Cheng Yu, he set up eternal lamps around him; any evil spirit approaching would trigger an alarm.

But the Nightmare had already lurked in Cheng Yu's dream a step earlier, so how could it trigger the alarm? Bai Bai Ziqi had only arrived in Baishajian yesterday and had given He He Lingchuan a show of force.

But he didn't know that he had also been calculated by He He Lingchuan.

After He He Lingchuan finished playing a tune, the fierce tiger Jiao Yu ran over, holding a cloth bag in its mouth, and looked up at him: "The Crown Prince has a gift for you."

He He Lingchuan's spirits lifted, and he jumped down to take the cloth bag: "Many thanks."

Jiao Yu said: "The Crown Prince said this is confidential. I will take my leave."

It didn't dare to look either.

He He Lingchuan patted the tiger's head, turned back into the room, closed the door, and set up a barrier before opening the cloth bag.

"Whoa, finally got it!" The mirror whistled. He He Lingchuan didn't know how it made that sound.

Inside the cloth bag was a box, and only after opening it was there a stack of letters.

This was the last thing Fu Fu Shanyue had promised to send: letters recording the black dragon pattern.

He He Lingchuan had helped him capture Cen Boqing and even threw in the death of Lord Zhongsun Mou, which could be considered exceeding the task Fu Fu Shanyue had entrusted to him, so he deserved to receive the full reward.

These letters were all in the Imperial Study of the Chiyan Monarch, and for others to enter would be a life-and-death ordeal, let alone slowly collecting related items. After Fu Fu Shanyue was promoted to Crown Prince, he had just obtained the power to enter and exit the Imperial Study.

He He Lingchuan looked at what he had in hand and gave a bitter smile: "Stingy, not letting me take even the slightest advantage."

There were a dozen sheets of paper here, with different background styles. Besides a few letter papers, some were even torn from different books.

He He Lingchuan, of course, wanted to read the whole book, but Fu Fu Shanyue only tore out the parts recording the black dragon pattern, likely for the sake of secrecy.

After all, these were things taken from the Chiyan Monarch's private Imperial Study and had their own secrecy.

Placed on top was a silk scroll, which, when opened, was like a long scroll. Because it had been specially refined, the silk surface appeared slightly old, but there was no moth damage or powder falling off.

This was the first time He He Lingchuan had seen so many black dragon patterns gathered together.

He counted them casually, and there were as many as eighteen.

Each pattern was hand-drawn, and the artist had excellent brushwork; every stroke had charm, and even the black dragon's eyes were drawn vividly.

Beside each black dragon pattern, the location and period of the tracing were attached.

The earliest could actually be traced back two thousand one hundred years, to the Yangxing tribe in the Shaha River basin.

Where was the Shaha River basin? He He Lingchuan thought for a long time and gave up.

He would write down the place name first and check it later.

He had no impression of the following addresses either, and the periods were all quite old.

Afterward, he saw the black dragon patterns of the Yuan Nation, two in total.

Further on, He He Lingchuan was greatly shocked again, because the three words "Panlongcheng" appeared right before his eyes!

The last five patterns on this silk scroll all came from Panlongcheng.

More importantly, the artist specifically noted that these five patterns were all traced from the same black dragon emblem in Panlongcheng, just from different periods.

He He Lingchuan quickly converted the time; these five patterns were traced in the 3rd, 11th, 17th, 24th, and... 31st year of the Panlong era! Panlongcheng existed for thirty-two years, so the fragments selected by the artist almost spanned the entire Panlong era.

It was like a microcosm of an era.

Why did he do this? He He Lingchuan pulled the silk scroll to the end to look at the signature.

The artist was named Song Wei, calling himself the True Person of Weishan.

This person claimed that the first ten patterns on the silk scroll were obtained from ancient books or traced from ruins, and only the black dragon patterns of the Yuan Nation and Panlongcheng were measured and drawn on-site while the cities were still there and the people were living in peace, with almost no errors.

In other words, he himself had visited the Yuan Nation and Panlongcheng one after another, and later gathered the patterns he had in hand to make this silk scroll.

Besides the black dragon statue beside the south gate of Panlongcheng, He He Lingchuan had indeed seen black dragon patterns in the streets and alleys. The neighbor's child, Fatty, had several times doodled black dragons on the wall, but his drawing skills were poor, and he had drawn the dragon's head as a dog's head.

He He Lingchuan carefully observed the five patterns of Panlongcheng; at first glance, they were all the same—

Nonsense, they were drawings of the same emblem.

However, Song Wei wasn't so bored as to draw five identical patterns over thirty years to finish the job.

He He Lingchuan calmed his heart to look; these five dragon heads still had subtle differences.

The one from the 11th year of the Panlong era had slightly longer sharp horns and two more whiskers than the one from the 3rd year.

This tiny change was something He He Lingchuan almost needed a magnifying glass to find.

And the change in the pattern from the 24th year of the Panlong era was very obvious; the dragon head looked a size larger than the previous ones, the face was longer, the whiskers were more majestic, and the brow ridges were more prominent.

Most importantly, the sharp horns on its head had actually started to branch!

All the black dragon patterns He He Lingchuan had seen before, including those on this silk scroll, and those he had seen with his own eyes in Panlongcheng and the Yuan Nation, had two bare sharp horns on their foreheads!

Branching out was like deer antlers.

Or rather, like a dragon.

He He Lingchuan took a light breath and went to look at the last pattern.

But to his disappointment, the dragon head did not evolve further; instead, it regressed, the branched horns returned to sharp horns, and the whiskers were missing a few strands.

It was probably about the same as the pattern from the 11th year of the Panlong era.

In these twenty years, it had evolved for nothing, and in the end, it had changed back.

He He Lingchuan went to look at the two black dragon patterns of the Yuan Nation again.

The interval between these two patterns was not long, just half a year to two years.

After the Yuan King accepted the abdication of the previous demon king and ascended the throne, the Yuan Nation only existed for four years, three of which were spent in war. During wartime, border management was very strict, and it was not easy for Song Wei to squeeze into the Yuan Nation. Moreover, the Yuan Nation was probably not as friendly to outsiders as Panlongcheng, so he only drew two.

These two patterns also had slight differences; the dragon head of the second one had also grown compared to the first.

This was very interesting, especially the five patterns of Panlongcheng, which were like time-lapse photography, listing the changes of the same dragon head emblem in different periods.

What was the use of the black dragon pattern, and why did it change?

He He Lingchuan, like Song Wei, did not think this change was brought about by humans, but rather the change of the pattern itself.

In the Yuan Nation, in Panlongcheng, and even in the ancient ruins before that, what reason caused the "growth" of the dragon head?

Song Wei gave his own speculation.

This emblem might be a totem, used to gather the faith of the city people, just like the ubiquitous temples of Between Beijia.

The growth of the dragon head reflected whether people were pious toward it.

Or perhaps, this dragon head was the emblem of some secret immortal organization. With it, the city could receive endless support from immortals. Because all the places where the dragon head emblem had existed were relatively wealthy, as if they had received protection in the dark.

Protection? He He Lingchuan thought for a moment.

He didn't know the situation in the Yuan Nation back then, but the Chapa Plateau that Panlongcheng relied on was indeed rich, having everything from grain, minerals, and timber to medicine, fur, and fish, otherwise it couldn't have supported the Panlong army and people for so many years.

Between Beijia had repeatedly tried to sabotage it in secret, but had never succeeded.

Was it that the dragon head emblem only appeared in wealthy places, or was the local area wealthy because of the dragon head emblem?

Which was the cause and which was the effect? It was hard to say.

Seeing that Song Wei had no conclusion either, he was a little disappointed and continued to look at other materials.

Inside were various letters, book pages, and notes; usually, the paper was yellow and brittle, and would drop powder, so one had to be very careful when flipping through them.

They were all old items, with years behind them.

He He Lingchuan frowned as he read. Fu Fu Shanyue could only find these old items, which just showed that there had been no new progress in the research on the black dragon.

There was even a claim that was very certain, believing that the dragon head might have been left by some immortal sect, used as a channel for immortals to communicate with mortals, directing them to plot for the world.

He He Lingchuan also flipped to a war report sent back by a spy from within the Yuan Nation, which provided a lot of information about the Yuan Nation's Thousand Star City, including what happened in the city recently, what orders the Royal Court issued, the salary and price levels in the city, etc., all summarized in one or two sentences, very concise.

It actually mentioned the black dragon pattern, saying that there was a black dragon pattern opposite the spy's residence, and he observed it all day long, but never saw the emblem glow or produce any power.

But once, the horse pulling goods on the street lost control, and the horse and cart crashed into the wall.

The wall was not thick, and logically, it should have crashed through. However, the horse hit the black dragon emblem head-on, breaking its own bones and tendons, and the cart fell apart, but the black dragon pattern remained intact.

Only then did the spy realize that there was an extremely secret barrier outside this emblem.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 555 =====