Chapter 873

Then, He Lingchuan was safe for the time being. The mark in his mind had indeed not been eliminated, but the Heavenly God's clone couldn't come down. So, he had been calculated by He Lingchuan all along!

No, more than that! So Naluotian had also been calculated by He Lingchuan all along! From beginning to end, they had been led by the nose and hadn't jumped out of the trap carefully laid by someone else.

He Chunhua felt a chill in his heart.

That was absolutely not his eldest son, absolutely not! In just one year, Chuan'er couldn't have grown to the point of being so wise as to be nearly demonic!

That meant...

He felt a surge of spirit and took two deep breaths to calm his mood.

Looking at it this way, there must be some connection between He Lingchuan and the Great Fang Hu, otherwise how could he be sure that the Great Fang Hu would trap Naluotian's clone instead of destroying it directly?

In the Panlong Secret Realm two years ago, the Heavenly God clone invited down by Nian Songyu had been swallowed in one gulp by the Black Dragon.

Hmm, could it be that the Heavenly God's clone from back then was also still alive, just trapped in the Great Fang Hu?

Various thoughts came one after another, and with He Chunhua's brain, he felt that this was a tangled mess that couldn't be cleared up.

Naluotian saw his strange state: "What did you think of?"

He Chunhua immediately cast aside his distracting thoughts and didn't discuss these with Naluotian at all. He changed to focusing on one point: "May I ask, Divine Lord, what is my fate line in the future...?"

"The barrier has been opened; in the words of your human world, it is the number of nine-five!"

Nine, nine-five number?!

Gulp, He Chunhua swallowed, finding it hard to believe.

He said tremblingly: "You, you mean?" He had the appearance of an emperor? Naluotian hummed, taking it as a positive answer.

He Chunhua was overjoyed and stood up abruptly, but it affected his shoulder wound, causing him to fall back in pain.

"Thank you, Divine Lord! Finally, I have finally waited for this day!"

This was the fate granted to him by the God of Fate—no, no, this was the destined outcome in the dark!

He had endured humiliation and borne heavy burdens for twenty years!

He had guarded the frontier and defended the country for twenty years!

He knew it! This was heaven bestowing a great mission upon him! With his ancestors watching, his vow to avenge his grievances and bring glory to his family was finally about to be realized!

"Don't be happy too soon!" Naluotian poured a bucket of cold water on him, "Fate is not immutable. If you don't know how to cherish it, it will fall to another family; if you cannot bear this fortune, your whole family will lose their heads again!"

He Chunhua's eyes were red, and the wild joy wouldn't subside: "Please instruct me, Divine Lord!"

"You fought those battles to quell the rebellion in the south well. But what about afterward? Have you thought about it?" Naluotian said lightly, "There is a saying in the human world: even a rotten ship has three pounds of nails; the Yuan King won't voluntarily abdicate to you."

If you fight well, you can become an emperor? Ke Jihai and Zhao Pan were also great generals who led armies; why didn't they seize the throne? Was it because they didn't want to?

The Grand Marshal in the north had been tossing and turning for so many years; could he just watch He Chunhua ascend to the throne? He Chunhua took a few deep breaths, trying to suppress his agitated emotions: "After quelling the southern rebellion, I do have a few ideas. But the military and personnel are not strong enough, and time is not sufficient."

He had only been the Xiazhou Superintendent for a year and a half. Although he had worked hard to manage it, Xiazhou was not a wealthy place, and during the rebellion of Xunzhou Shepherd Nian Zanli, Xiazhou had to keep transfusing blood to Zhao Pan's army on the front line, causing He Chunhua's own strength to improve slowly.

Although He Chunhua had won several great victories in a row, his head was always very clear, and he knew where his weaknesses lay.

With the troops he had now, if he were to go north to fight the Grand Marshal directly, he would probably lose seven or eight out of ten.

Troops, money, food, and talent—these were all things he urgently needed right now.

And what he was most short of was actually time.

Time to cultivate his wings and grow strong.

He subconsciously looked at his shoulder wound; this was something he had deliberately let Zhao Qinghe cut in the Panlong Secret Realm.

Naluotian said slowly: "I have a group of believers, as well as some additional forces, that can be placed under your command. These are far more powerful than the troops in your hands!"

He Chunhua said happily: "Thank you, Divine Lord!"

Gods wouldn't help him for no reason. Especially after his trip to the Panlong ruins had suffered a major setback, and after he had caused Naluotian to lose a clone, Naluotian not only didn't punish him, but the help it gave him was even greater.

This was absolutely abnormal, even after his fate revealed the so-called "emperor's appearance."

Could a Heavenly God really look up to a human emperor?

What had prompted the change in Naluotian's attitude? Was it related to the "extremely important ability" it had lost? Or was it that the divine realm had also undergone changes, making it rely more on the human world?

There must be some hidden situation he didn't know about behind this! But regardless, knowing that Naluotian still needed him, He Chunhua felt settled.

At least for now, he just needed to be overjoyed.

"If I ascend to the throne, you will be the main god worshipped by our country!"

Naluotian wouldn't be fooled by such a distant promise: "After returning to Yazhou, you must conclude a contract with the god Kunsu and have his mark branded on you!"

The god Kunsu? He Chunhua felt as if he had heard it somewhere. The number of gods in heaven was huge, and ordinary people might not know about obscure minor gods. But the word "mark" made his heart jump violently: "Divine Lord, what does this mean?"

"Playing dumb." Naluotian sneered, "Kunsu is a subordinate god under me; whatever contract He Lingchuan signed, you will sign the same contract with Kunsu!"

Naluotian wanted him to voluntarily become the skin of the god Kunsu? He Chunhua's face changed: "Divine Lord, I know nothing about the god Kunsu..."

Currently, he and Naluotian were still in a cooperative relationship; once this contract was signed, it would turn into a superior-subordinate relationship. If the Heavenly God wanted him to die, he couldn't not die, having no power to resist at all.

For a person like him, having his life and death held in the hands of others was truly more painful than anything else.

Was it like this twenty years ago, and like this again twenty years later? "He is loyal to me, at least much more loyal than you. If you offer your life to him, you are offering your life to me." Naluotian said leisurely, "What, are you unwilling?"

This cunning human in front of him wouldn't think that the help it gave was free, would he? He Chunhua swallowed: "How could that be, it's just..."

Naluotian interrupted him: "For your victory, the divine power I consume from now on will be at least ten times what it was before! Not only you, but even I can only win and not lose, otherwise it will be total ruin! If you can't do it, I can only bestow blessings on someone else."

He Chunhua's thoughts raced, and with his decisive temperament, he couldn't answer immediately.

Even if he became the ruler of a country, if his life and death were still in the hands of others, what fun was there to speak of, and what was the point of being supreme? Naluotian softened its tone: "Do you think you are more noble than the vassal demon kings of the Beijia Kingdom?"

He Chunhua was very surprised: "Do they also sign this kind of contract?"

"The life and death of the vassal demon kings are directly held in the hands of the gods of Lingxu!" Naluotian sneered, "Otherwise, how could Lingxu City always control the various vassal demon kingdoms? The Beijia has existed for six hundred years, and the rebellions of the vassal demon kingdoms can be counted on one's fingers; even if there were any, they happened during the transition of power. An important internal cause is that every vassal demon king must sign a contract under the gaze of the gods of Lingxu!"

As for what the content of the contract was, it didn't mention it. He Chunhua guessed that it might not know everything either.

"So that's it! So that's it!" He Chunhua had heard famous scholars discuss this question more than once. Some had also extended it in this direction, believing that the vassal demon kingdoms must have something vital held by Lingxu City.

Although not exactly right, it wasn't far off. The mystery that had troubled the world for hundreds of years turned out to be so simple? It's worthless once explained.

But he also understood that to control people for a long time, the method was always the simpler and more straightforward, the better.

He Chunhua couldn't help but say: "But the vassal demon kings seem to have... always been doing their own thing?"

The relationship between the vassal demon kingdoms and Lingxu City was a model of the current era; the former had considerable autonomy and was not completely subservient to the latter.

This subtle art had fascinated countless political theorists in other regions.

"That's because the contract has detailed regulations; the Heavenly Gods cannot take the lives of the vassal demon kings at will, which is a constraint on both sides. And the gods rarely care about the internal struggles of human kingdoms." Naluotian said, "The contract you sign with the god Kunsu is this kind of contract. As for the terms, you can look at them when the time comes."

He Chunhua nodded: "I understand."

What he was thinking in his heart was why Naluotian didn't sign the contract with him itself.

Was it unwilling, or unable?

Wouldn't it be more reassuring to have someone like He Chunhua in its own hands? Sure enough, sure enough, the news he had secretly inquired about—that gods could only station one clone in the human world—seemed to be true!

(End of chapter)