Chapter 754: The Anomaly of the Great Fang Hu

The battle had just ended, and this fellow had already arrived. If he hadn't been with the army, he couldn't have come so quickly. "Ah, y-yes." Peng Fang was in such pain that his head was covered in cold sweat. "The military towns on the opposite bank of the Yin River have been gathering more and more people over the past few days; I suspect they are about to go to war. Oh, I am not a Jin Tao person, but I have some medical skills, so I was hired to be a military physician."

He Lingchuan smiled kindly: "How do you usually communicate with the God Bilu?"

"His venerable self occasionally summons me in my dreams."

"And in reality?" He Lingchuan chatted with the God Shinan without needing to enter a dream.

"In reality?" Peng Fang looked blank. "I wouldn't know about that; the gods only seek me out at night."

He Lingchuan gave a soft 'hmm' and shook the Punishment Dragon Pillar at him:

"Then pass a message for me: I want to see Bilu. If he wants this thing back, he will have to come find me himself."

Just then, two logistics soldiers walked by. He waved them over, pointed at Peng Fang on the ground, and said: "Carry him down for treatment and keep him detained separately from the other prisoners."

Peng Fang breathed a sigh of relief and was carried back to the city amidst a chorus of thanks.

Just at that moment, several claps of thunder suddenly rolled across the sky, shaking people to their very cores.

He Lingchuan looked up at the sky and saw that at some point, a layer of thin clouds had veiled the night sky, with lightning snakes slithering along the edges of the cloud gaps.

Under his gaze, the night sky flashed with lightning three or four more times in succession.

The blindingly strong light illuminated both the sky and the thin clouds.

"This...?" He Lingchuan's pupils shrank sharply.

He actually saw a colossal, whale-like figure moving slowly above the thin clouds.

The area of the thin clouds was already vast, yet this giant whale almost filled it completely.

He asked the soldier beside him: "Did you see that?"

"The, the clouds?" The soldier was bewildered.

"The thing above the clouds."

The soldier looked carefully for a few moments, then shook his head apologetically: "Commander, I, I didn't see anything, other than the clouds and the lightning."

Could it be an illusion? He Lingchuan stared repeatedly at the cloud layer; the giant object was still there, only it had swum from one patch of thin clouds into another, swaying and rolling.

Meanwhile, a small patch of cloudless night sky was instead a pale red, as if a small piece of canvas had been inadvertently peeled away, revealing the base color underneath.

But against the pitch-black sky, this tiny anomaly was completely inconspicuous.

Pale red? Such a familiar color.

While He Lingchuan was still deep in thought, this small patch of night sky was quickly covered by drifting clouds.

There were footsteps behind him; it was Sun Fuling. He turned back and asked: "Did you see the anomaly in the sky?"

"I saw it." Sun Fuling chuckled softly. "How strange, isn't it a bit early for thunder in this season?"

Hearing this, He Lingchuan looked at her carefully: "Perhaps, spring came especially early this year?"

"That's a good thing." Sun Fuling poked his arm with her finger. "By the way, your business, is it not finished yet?"

"Business?"

She reminded him: "Why did you come out in the first place?"

"Right, right." He immediately remembered. "I was supposed to escort Master Sun home, and I caught a spy on the way!"

He immediately continued his unfinished task, and the two walked toward home while chatting.

As the last bolt of lightning streaked across, He Lingchuan looked up and saw the giant shadow turn and head into the depths of the clouds, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

The sky had long since returned to calm, and only the sound of wind blowing through the trees remained.

The more He Lingchuan looked at the giant object in the sky just now, the more familiar it seemed: wasn't it the red giant shadow from inside the Great Fang Hu? But it had always been roaming in the ocean; why would it appear in the clouds of Panlongcheng? He had a strange thought:

Since the Panlong world was also inside the Great Fang Hu, was the red giant shadow roaming around the Panlong world? Generally speaking, He Lingchuan couldn't see such boundaries, let alone its figure.

But tonight was an exception.

Did something happen inside the pot?

Speaking of which, he had gone to great lengths to snatch back the lid of the Great Fang Hu, making this divine artifact complete again, but he had never known what this meant.

The Great Fang Hu should have changed, right? The corner of the sky that was revealed just now clearly looked like a bug, because he had actually seen the scene outside the Panlong world, even if only for a few short breaths.

Based on his experience in another world, this situation likely represented a system operation error.

Why did the original Great Fang Hu, which had regained its lid, have such a problem instead? This pot always gave him the feeling of a silent living thing; it should have its own will, but it never spoke to him directly.

Now, what mischief was it secretly up to? Sun Fuling saw him looking at the sky frequently: "What's wrong? Is there something good to look at in the sky?"

Now there were only gray clouds, with no stars or moon.

"Nothing." He Lingchuan smiled. "I was wondering, what exactly determines 'Nara'?"

Sun Fuling asked curiously: "What is Nara?"

"Fate." He looked at Master Sun. "'Fate' in the language of the gods."

She didn't take it to heart: "You can think of fate just by looking at the sky?"

"Isn't there a saying, 'My fate is determined by me, not by heaven'." He Lingchuan exhaled a puff of white steam. "But look at the common people, whether it's Panlongcheng or Yuheng City, they all seem to be walking within the shackles of destiny."

Sun Fuling didn't think so: "Even if they jumped out, you wouldn't know. It's impossible for you to personally witness the life of every single one of them."

He Lingchuan wanted to say something but stopped.

How could he not see it? Zhong Shengguang had worked so hard, General Hong had worked so hard, and the soldiers and civilians of Panlongcheng had worked so hard, yet in the end, they hadn't changed the outcome of their destruction.

"So, what exactly determines and changes fate?" Of course, he also thought of himself.

"On the surface, the fate of the weak is determined by the strong. How long a pig in a pigsty lives depends on when the owner wields the knife; how long the state of Xi Ji lasts depends on when we take action. Look, it's gone now." Sun Fuling blinked: "Of course, if you just think about it like that, the answer is too despairing."

"Oh? Master Sun, teach me!"

"This isn't an exam question, where would there be a ready-made answer?" Sun Fuling laughed. "But I think, rather than agonizing over it, it's better to try it yourself. When you succeed in changing fate, whether it's your own or someone else's, you will naturally have the answer."

Changing one's own fate, changing the fate of others; did this "others" refer to Sun Fuling, or the soldiers and civilians of Yuheng City? He remembered what the Qingyang National Master had said about the final fate of the owner of the Heavenly Centipede Bone Flute.

Now she was standing by his side, smiling beautifully, as if all the misfortunes in the world would never befall her.

He Lingchuan pondered for a long time before nodding.

He took one more look at the sky.

Peng Fang was not only detained separately, but medical soldiers also came to reset his joints and set his broken bones. The medicine applied felt cool, and the pain in his injuries was greatly reduced.

Someone else brought steaming hot food, which actually included one meat and two vegetable dishes.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 755 =====