Chapter 871

What precious information this was!

Perhaps this was the direction for his future efforts? He walked a few steps, suddenly feeling his limbs heavy as lead, exceptionally exhausted: General Hong's battle armor placed a huge burden on the body and was not easy to wear.

Besides, the battle with the Naluotian clone was actually extremely mentally draining; he had kept his nerves taut the whole time, exhausting all his calculations.

Now that he relaxed, He Lingchuan couldn't help but yawn.

For a cunning opponent like Naluotian, how could one make it lower its guard and send down a clone? He Lingchuan's strategy was to make Naluotian believe that every step of the Panlong journey was led by itself, making it believe that the greatest danger in the Panlong ruins came from the Tiangong and the Great Fang Hu itself, rather than He Lingchuan.

In a word, he had to make its greed rise and override its vigilance.

And a brilliant hunter sometimes has to appear in the guise of the prey.

He Lingchuan tapped the Divine Bone Necklace:

"Hey, you didn't digest the Naluotian clone, did you? Otherwise, today's hard work would have been in vain!"

Why did he go to such great lengths to set up this trap? Wasn't it to lure the Naluotian clone in and trap it? Trap it, not kill it! A Heavenly God can only have one clone in the human world. Now that Naluotian's clone was trapped in the Great Fang Hu, as long as it was kept in an immortal state, Naluotian's true self would not be able to descend to the human world again.

The quota was occupied.

Therefore, even though He Lingchuan knew the divine mark in his sea of consciousness had not faded, he was not panicked at all.

As long as Naluotian's true self could not descend to the human world, it would have no way to deal with him in the future.

And because the skin could not be transferred and the mark could not be removed by other gods, other gods could forget about having designs on He Lingchuan's skin.

Under the premise that He Lingchuan himself could not erase the divine mark, this was the best compromise.

The Divine Bone Necklace did not respond, as usual.

He Lingchuan wasn't too worried either; although the Great Fang Hu didn't communicate with him, it still followed the rules and was reasonable when doing things. Just seeing how it let human adventurers into the Panlong Secret Realm this time while blocking the Heavenly God clone in the ocean showed that it was indeed silently cooperating with He Lingchuan's plan.

He even said considerately: "When you have time, remember to let me see it with my own eyes. That's reasonable, right?"

Between trapping the Naluotian clone and fusing with the Qianling Precious Cover, the Great Fang Hu must be busy to death right now.

He simply sat on the ground and meditated for two cycles, only then feeling his body slightly recovered and no longer in a hollowed-out state.

Just as he stood up, He Lingchuan noticed a faint light flashing on the ground not far away.

That is?

He walked over and picked up a small yellow seal from the ground. Turning it over, there was a dent on the bottom of the seal, not deep, but very fresh.

"Heavenly King Seal?"

Just a moment ago, True Person Sanshui had used this seal to suppress him, but it was repelled by General Hong's black spear.

He Lingchuan had thought it was a magic tool conjured by True Person Sanshui, not expecting it to be a real treasure.

General Hong's combat power, combined with the Great Wind Army's Yuan Power, hadn't managed to blow this seal up; the personal weapons of ancient great immortals were indeed extraordinary.

It should be worth a lot, right? He Lingchuan wiped the blood and mud off the seal and bowed to the air from afar: "Thank you, True Person Sanshui."

While he was at it, he began to clean up the battlefield, collecting the belongings of the fallen.

They had no use for them here, so they might as well follow him from now on.

He would treat them well.

Afterward, he found True Person Sanshui's token in a stone crevice.

"Oh ho, hit the jackpot!"

This token was carved with three pythons—black, gold, and blue; He Lingchuan knew at a glance that these were the Three River Pythons that had fought him endlessly just moments ago.

It was just that after a great battle, they had all lost their vitality and would need to rest for some time before they could be released again.

This was True Person Sanshui's famous magic tool, which had accompanied its master in the stifling Qianling Precious Cover for thousands of years and still hadn't perished.

The pity was that with the weakening of the world's spiritual energy, the magic tool could not exert its maximum power. Otherwise, those three giant snakes were known as the power of the Sanjiang in their prime; even wearing General Hong's battle armor, He Lingchuan wouldn't have been able to withstand them.

Touching the other dead, regardless of whether they were Baling people, Andong people, or small-fry adventurers, they were all dirt poor and couldn't scrape together ten taels of silver between them, but the Tiangong team was quite wealthy. The gold and silver jewelry He Lingchuan searched from them was worth over seven thousand taels of silver, and there were dozens of magic tools that were temporarily difficult to value.

Sure enough, killing and arson make money fast.

He picked out Zhang Lianhai's candle and asked the Divine Bone Necklace: "Do you want it?"

In the past, the Great Fang Hu had shown interest in the candles and lamp spirits of Envoy Bai Ziqi, but He Lingchuan couldn't handle that back then.

The Divine Bone Necklace didn't refuse anything and swallowed it in one gulp.

He Lingchuan shrugged and continued searching.

He Jing also had a pale white-gold candle. As a Douyun Envoy, his treasures were of a higher grade, so He Lingchuan decided to keep it for himself.

He also dug out the Big Dipper Kui Star Array.

The array tools were well-preserved, but unfortunately, the Kui Star stones had all been exhausted in the battle. This array combined offense, defense, and replenishment; the Tiangong team had relied on it to withstand over a dozen waves of Que Beast attacks, and he had been very envious of it at the time.

Hmm, keep it safe and see if there's a chance to replenish the Kui Star stones later.

He also took off several large-capacity storage rings from He Jing's hands; they were worth a fortune on their own. Inside, there were many supplies, a complete set of small Mountain-Moving Copper Talisman Arrays, and tokens to control several dried corpse demon puppets.

"Rich, rich." He was just short of money; the Tiangong people were all great people!

Then, he discovered another very special corpse.

He Jing had brought four attendants, but only three of them had successfully summoned the Devouring Attendant Ji Beast. The last Ji Beast hadn't come out to fight because its host had taken medicine without permission.

Judging by He Jing's reaction, this Ji Beast should be quite strong, but unfortunately, it hadn't been able to help the Tiangong turn the situation around.

It should still be hidden inside the attendant's corpse on the ground.

He Lingchuan tried to put the attendant's corpse into his storage ring, but failed.

Sure enough, storage rings couldn't hold living things.

He checked the attendant's pulse again and was surprised to find that the attendant's breath was as thin as a thread—he wasn't dead yet!

This was a huge surprise; the attendant's eyes and brain had been scorched by the pale gold candle's flame, and logically, he should have died on the spot. At the time, He Jing had been anxious to urge out the Ji Beast and hadn't cared about this human life at all.

Although the Ji Beast had been in a dormant state, once the host died, it would have no way to draw sustenance. Just like a person who looks for food when hungry, it would also break free on its own to find food when woken up by hunger.

He didn't know if this thing was just sleepy or not hungry, but it hadn't shown its face until He Jing died in battle.

With his brain destroyed, the attendant certainly couldn't wake up, but his body was still lingering on. This might also be the Ji Beast's doing.

A living Ji Beast was still very valuable; how should he handle it? This didn't stump He Lingchuan; he patted the Soul-Capturing Mirror: "Take it!"

The mirror contained its own small world, so taking in a few living things was a piece of cake.

The Soul-Capturing Mirror spat out a few drops of clear water, which turned into foam upon hitting the ground.

He Lingchuan asked curiously: "What is this?"

"True Person Sanshui's blue python!" the Soul-Capturing Mirror accused, "You shoved it to me and didn't care! It's been thrashing around in my small world for a long time!"

It wasn't until True Person Sanshui was gone that it was gone too.

"Can your small world still hold up?" Since following him, the mirror had received many benefits, and its small world should have improved and no longer be so fragile.

"... It's okay, it died quickly." The mirror silently took in the Ji Beast's skin, "Why do you want this thing? What if it wakes up and starts tormenting me again?"

"A toy for Dong Rui." Dong Rui's demon puppets and the Ji Beast had similar effects; seeing this thing should make him laugh until his mouth couldn't close.

Just as he straightened his back, he noticed that the mud, sand, and pebbles on the ground were all turning into black smoke.

Looking around at the buildings, the broken walls and tiles were also turning into mist, drifting in wisps as if summoned, heading toward General Hong's tomb.

The Soul-Capturing Mirror cried out: "This secret realm is going to collapse! No, it's going to dissolve."

Carrying a small world, it had the most say in this.

He Lingchuan walked alone through the ruins. Beside him, a world was falling apart.

The background color of the sky gradually turned into a pale red.

Magical, desolate, spectacular.

This was the doomsday of a secret realm, the final moment of an unknown world; how many people in the world could be lucky enough to witness it?

He Lingchuan understood that the secret realm he, Sun Fuping, Nian Songyu, and others had entered two years ago was also this one.

It had completed the handover between Zhong Sheng and General Hong, served as the battlefield for the Great Fang Hu to refine the Qianling Cover, and was also the trap He Lingchuan used to plot against the Naluotian clone.

It had fulfilled its mission and could now exit the stage.

He Lingchuan closed his eyes, but his heart was thinking:

What about the Panlong world? Was it essentially the same as this secret realm? In what way would it welcome its final curtain call?

￥￥￥￥￥

He Chunhua led his army back to the oasis and ordered people to set up camp.

The military physician came over to help him treat the wound on his shoulder blade.

The tent curtain was rolled up, and He Chunhua gazed at the rising morning sun, saying nothing.

The statue of Naluotian had been hot in his arms the whole time, but he ignored it.

Basins of blood-stained water were passed out, but whether it was the medicine's calming effect or a psychological one, he didn't feel any pain. After the relief of surviving the Panlong Secret Realm passed, his mind automatically replayed his eldest son's soul-stirring scolding.

Was that really Chuan'er? If not, why had he risked his life to save him several times before? If it was, the changes over the past year and a half were too great, weren't they? From a frontier playboy to a pillar of talent in one leap.

The tone of his voice, the way he did things, the look in his eyes—everything was different.

But wasn't this the son every father dreamed of? Achieving great things, having a sense of responsibility, bringing glory to the family.

Chuan'er had grown up after all; it wasn't uncommon for children to suddenly become enlightened and sensible overnight—the so-called "a prodigal son who returns is worth more than gold."

Why couldn't he, He Chunhua, have two good sons? The military physician said softly: "My lord, the wound treatment is finished; it is best to lie still today."

The new day had just begun, but He Chunhua looked exhausted: "You may go."

He chased everyone out.

Zhao Qinghe was sensible; he first helped him sit up, then took an incense burner to light seven sticks of incense, set up a barrier for him, and then fixed the tent curtain to prevent drafts.

He Chunhua sat alone in the tent, pondering for a long time, before taking out the Naluotian statue and muttering a prayer.

(End of chapter)