Chapter 981: News from the Divine Realm

It sounds simple enough, but He Lingchuan wouldn't agree immediately: "Are there already gods stationed on those two islands?" Only with a temple can there be believers; this minor god was quite ambitious.

"There are. But their influence is weak," Shi Nan replied. "One of the gods there recently fell, and I want to take advantage of this opening to build a temple there."

So, it was going to grab territory. He Lingchuan thought for a moment: "I can build the temple, but you must handle the maintenance later. I will not be stationed in this archipelago for long."

Shi Nan had no objections, then said: "Aside from the two waves of Emperor Flowing Syrup arriving in half a month—there will be three more waves between three months and three and a half months from now! One of them will be quite abundant, and it is not ruled out that two might arrive in quick succession. Beyond that, it is hard to say."

"So frequent?" He Lingchuan's heart skipped a beat.

Either it wouldn't fall for sixty years, or it would fall twice in three years. Now, five waves in over half a year! The frequent appearance of Emperor Flowing Syrup could only mean the Divine Realm was in turmoil, with heavenly gods falling one after another.

Good, very good.

Shi Nan indeed said: "The Divine Realm has been a bit turbulent lately."

Just a bit? "Tell me about it?"

The old woman grinned at He Lingchuan. She only had a few teeth left, the rest were empty gaps, making the smile look somewhat eerie.

"Why are you interested?"

"Who isn't interested in the secrets of the Divine Realm?" He Lingchuan said sternly. "The arrival of Emperor Flowing Syrup means heavenly gods are falling. This turmoil is related to the Heavenly Palace incident that happened in Beijia last year, right?"

Shi Nan chuckled: "Yes, that is an important reason."

But it refused to say more; it had not yet let down its guard against He Lingchuan.

The bilateral relationship was still in the probing stage, both sides full of honeyed words and hidden daggers, while guarding against a stab in the back.

He Lingchuan's brows twitched slightly.

Smart people listen to the subtext and observe the meaning behind the words.

With Shi Nan putting it this way, he understood: the Heavenly Palace incident was only one of the reasons, not the whole, and perhaps not even the primary one.

Then what was the true primary cause of the Divine Realm's turmoil?

Shi Nan pointedly avoided answering.

He Lingchuan noted this down, deciding to probe it another way in the future.

"Let's talk about Naluotian," Shi Nan hesitated for a while before speaking. "There is a small, unreliable rumor in the Divine Realm recently. It seems Naluotian itself has run into some trouble."

"What kind?" Only He Lingchuan knew that Naluotian's avatar had failed to return and had instead turned into the little tree inside the Great Square Pot. But the power of a heavenly god, especially a righteous god, was vast and profound; even losing an avatar should not be an unbearable loss.

It was like the difference between having a large chunk of flesh carved out and having a leg broken.

Therefore, He Lingchuan believed Shi Nan was implying something else.

"How could one know for sure? It wouldn't say so clearly," Shi Nan whispered. "But he missed an extremely important joint council between Lingxu and the gods, and I still haven't heard the reason to this day."

He Lingchuan's eyes flickered, interrupting it: "Did you attend?"

"No." What a rude brat! Shi Nan was slightly displeased. "Do you still want to listen or not?"

"I do, please continue," He Lingchuan smiled. Was it that Shi Nan's rank wasn't high enough to qualify as an observer?

"Also, he has been in seclusion recently, temporarily canceling appointments with several righteous gods. This is very rare, extremely rare."

"That's it?" He Lingchuan was disappointed. "The signs aren't obvious, isn't the inference too far-fetched? Maybe it's just behind closed doors telling its own fortune."

"The Divine Realm hasn't been this turbulent in a long time, and he, as a righteous god, still... to actually choose to be absent and go into seclusion at a time like this!" Shi Nan coughed lightly. "Given Naluotian's temperament, it wouldn't do this without a compelling reason."

Still...? Still what? He Lingchuan felt that what Shi Nan skipped over was the important content.

Shi Nan asked him again: "How should I contact you later?"

He Lingchuan said: "In two months, I will find you again."

He still could not let Shi Nan grasp his whereabouts.

The transaction ended, and Shi Nan left.

The old woman was back on the ground, muttering prayers, not even knowing that a deity had once descended upon her.

He Lingchuan had obtained the intelligence on the Emperor Flowing Syrup and left, feeling equally satisfied, not forgetting to open the temple's doors and windows.

For this precious intelligence, Shi Nan only asked him to build two temples and find a Dragon-Punishing Pillar. The transaction sounded unequal, but in reality, the Dragon-Punishing Pillar cost He Lingchuan nothing, and building temples was just a matter of a few bricks and tiles, a small expense; while for Shi Nan, gathering a few pieces of gossip and intelligence from the Divine Realm took little effort at this stage.

Both sides gained something, and both sides' efforts were within an acceptable range, which was the only way this strange "friendship" between human and god could be maintained.

However, given the nature of heavenly gods, not making an excessive demand already showed sincerity for further contact.

Establishing a relationship meant there would be long-term business in the future. He Lingchuan was well aware of this.

The first time is strange, the second time is familiar; when they met again next time, he and Shi Nan would have more formal communication.

He needed news from the Divine Realm too much, so a greedy and ambitious minor god was the best choice at the moment.

As for building the temples, he entrusted it to Fang Canran upon returning to Platinum Island.

The latter heard this and only said two words:

"Can do."

Thus, He Lingchuan understood that Ling Mountain also had some influence in this area.

￥￥￥￥￥

Yangshan Archipelago, Bone-Stick Reef.

It was called a reef, but the island's area was actually quite large; it just happened to be shaped like a bone stick, narrow in the middle and wide at both ends.

The closest crack in the Earthly Fiend Yin Vein to the northern shipping route of the Yangshan Archipelago was on this island.

On this starry, clear night, a fox bat rode the wind to the sky above Bone-Stick Reef, circled twice as if confirming the location, and then slowly descended.

It chose a landing spot in a depression on the side of the island, where it was all broken reef rock, of unknown depth into the ground.

It was just past the Hour of the Rat tonight, and logically, the Earthly Fiend should be gushing out, but the whole island was clean, with no gray mist causing trouble.

The pits beneath the reef rocks were interconnected, and the fox bat found the target only after checking several:

Beneath a flat white boulder, a pitch-black crack.

The crack was not large, and low; one had to crouch to see it.

But this had no effect on the fox bat. It probed the crack entrance for a long while, confirming that no fiendish energy was emerging from the shadows, before carefully crawling inside.

Only a few insiders knew that this was a surface crack of the Earthly Fiend Yin Vein!

There were only seven such cracks in the entire Yangshan Archipelago. Yet, the dense Earthly Fiend they emitted could turn most of the islands into no-man's-lands.

The fox bat had come on a mission to see what exactly was suppressing or absorbing the Earthly Fiend, preventing it from permeating the archipelago.

In the past, it would fly to Dragon-Spine Island on sunny days to find fruit to eat, so it was quite familiar with fiendish energy. But it was extra cautious when crawling into this earth crack, moving two steps forward and two steps back, prepared to retreat at any moment.

(End of chapter)