Chapter 427

The iron-blue stars hung high.

The night breeze blew through the courtyard, and the leaves of the newly grown jujube tree rubbed silently.

Su Guishan flicked his fingers, wiped them dry on a towel, and didn't choose to answer directly, instead throwing the question back to Liang Qu.

"How do you think the imperial court views the Huai River Dragon? Why did the Dragon Lord disappear? What kind of strength are the so-called Four Pillars of the Demon Court?"

There's a chance!

Liang Qu felt a joy in his heart.

Su Guishan didn't immediately reject it, which proved he had the intention to reveal it!

Opportunity!

There is a specialty in every trade; the old monk is strong, but he didn't practice in the Huai River area, so he didn't know much.

The toad belongs to the demon race, the angle is different, and many questions are relatively private. Liang Qu couldn't guess the relationship between the fat catfish and the toad, and Liang Qu felt that his relationship with the toad was worse.

Later, when the relationship was exposed, the fat catfish's questions would be equated with his own, and asking on behalf of others wasn't appropriate.

Counting them all, Su Guishan is the person Liang Qu can reach who has the highest status and knows the most about the Huai River Great Lake.

And riding a mysterious turtle to cross the Huai River Great Lake, the scenery is unparalleled, and what he knows is definitely more profound than ordinary people.

After some deliberation.

"The Huai River Great Lake stretches for ten thousand miles, with countless resources. The imperial court must want to obtain them. Unfortunately, whether it's mining or treasure hunting, it requires a large number of people.

And not ordinary people; they must be experts in breath-holding, otherwise even if they obtain them, the development will be limited."

"Hmm."

Su Guishan was noncommittal.

The economic base determines the superstructure.

Grandmasters and Martial Saints don't appear out of thin air.

Like Liang Qu himself, he has servants at home and doesn't need to worry about anything.

Washing his own clothes would be too much of a waste of resources and time; this is the simplest example, which can significantly save efficiency and time.

Mining and treasure hunting, this kind of low-labor work is impossible for Grandmasters, and even at the level of Wolf Smoke experts, going to mine bitterly is already unrealistic. But if Galloping Horse martial artists go underwater, how can they mine?

Wolf Smoke martial artists can calm their breath and not move, holding their breath for an hour; if they move, they can only persist for a quarter of an hour or two.

Galloping Horse is even worse.

Is it possible to dig twice and surface to catch two breaths?

If the mining tunnel is slightly longer, they will die of suffocation if they get lost.

Entering the cave, it's all corpse water.

Human resources are the most valuable resources!

Therefore, for the Huazhu County flood, several great martial artists have to be busy for nearly two months, and if the Ghost Mother Sect comes to make trouble, the imperial court will be furious.

There are many treasures underwater, but there are no human resources to realize them!

"Rather than holding resources that are difficult to use in one's own hands, unable to see or eat, it is better to let the Water Lord who occupies the water rights send spirit monsters to work and develop them on their behalf. The imperial court then trades various processed goods with them to achieve a win-win situation.

From this perspective, the imperial court should be mainly adopting an attitude of cooperation and appeasement toward the Dragon.

It's just a pity that the Dragon doesn't have the strength of the old Dragon Lord and doesn't dare to show its head easily, and it can't figure out that the imperial court killing it would only be a one-time profit, while keeping it would allow for long-term profit.

In fact, the imperial court won't do anything right now; instead, it will wait for the Dragon to transform?

As for the water walking, perhaps there are other ways to solve it? For example, relocating the people in advance?"

Liang Qu said a lot in one breath.

Then he glanced at Su Guishan to observe his reaction.

Su Guishan was calm, opened a crayfish and threw it into his mouth, sucked his fingers, and said leisurely.

"Not bad, continue."

Liang Qu used both his eye-knowledge and ear-knowledge methods, but couldn't feel Su Guishan's attitude to judge whether he was right or wrong, so he had to continue.

"Why the Dragon Lord disappeared and how it disappeared, my strength is shallow, and what I know and hear is really too little, so I have no clue.

And the strength of the Four Pillars of the Demon Court...

In principle, they should be four Heavenly Grandmasters; after all, in the entire Nanzhili, there are only two Martial Saints sitting on the surface.

Although the Huai River Great Lake has a vast water area and space for survival, it shouldn't suddenly have five of them.

But now, I feel they should be Martial Saints, it's true."

"Oh?" Su Guishan was surprised, "Tell me the reason?"

"First, there are two Martial Saints on the surface of Nanzhili, but the actual number is unclear, so I dare not speak rashly.

Second, people go to high places, water flows to low places; there are two Grandmasters in Huaiyin Prefecture, but in other counties, the highest are only Wolf Smoke experts.

Demons are no exception. I learned recently that when the Dragon Lord was alive, many great demons would flow downstream and come to the Huai River Great Lake to develop.

Therefore, although the Huai River Great Lake has ten thousand miles of distance on the surface, it is actually the peak of the entire Huai River's power, so we shouldn't limit our gaze to the Great Lake, but also consider other great lakes.

And... if I'm not mistaken, the Northern Demon King in the Four Pillars of the Demon Court should have come from the sea, right?

In this way, it is quite reasonable for the Huai River itself to develop three to four Wu Sheng great demons, I feel."

Liang Qu's analysis made Su Guishan straighten his expression and put down the chicken leg in his hand.

"I remember you were a fisherman; you haven't read books, right?"

Liang Qu emphasized: "I attended the academy for more than half a year, and I insist on reading books on weekdays."

"Not having attended the academy, having such coherent thinking logic and insights is truly not easy!"

"Attended for half a year, insist on reading..."

"Alright." Su Guishan interrupted Liang Qu's defense, "I'll ask you, how many dragons do you think there are in the world today?"

How many dragons are there in the world today?

Liang Qu was stunned and hesitated: "There are many?"

Su Guishan laughed, shook his head, and held up three fingers.

Liang Qu was shocked.

"Three?"

"That's right, just three!"

"But there are only three, how do they reproduce? Could it be that they are all like the Dragon, all transformed from snakes?"

Liang Qu started a brainstorming session; he knew about functional extinction, so True Dragon reproduction didn't seem likely, so there was only...

"Don't think wildly, I'll tell you straight: these three True Dragons, one in the Huai River, one in the Yellow Shahe, one in the Northern Court's Ehe. Oh right, the ones in the Huai River and Yellow Shahe are gone, so right now, there is only one True Dragon in the world!"

One in the Huai River, one in the Yellow Shahe, one in the Northern Court's Ehe?

The distribution is too balanced...

Liang Qu's brows furrowed.

"Lad, what do you think a dragon is now?"

"Could it be... naturally conceived by the river, a natural spirit object?"

"That's right! Natural spirit object. Have you eaten treasure fish?"

Liang Qu's pupils contracted sharply, and he blurted out.

"True Dragons are treasure fish?"

"Don't get excited, this is just the mainstream inference. We haven't fully figured out how True Dragons appear, but we have determined three points.

First, only great rivers that pass through the Heavenly Mountain have True Dragons; I haven't heard of them in the sea.

Second, one river, one dragon, unless the one from the Yellow Shahe comes to the Huai River as a guest, then it counts as two for the time being.

Third, once a True Dragon passes away, it will reappear within two sixty-year cycles."

"Then what's going on with the Dragon? I heard the Dragon was once a big snake that entered the Long Gong and transformed into a dragon! And has always been trying to become a dragon?"

Su Guishan was quite surprised: "You know quite a lot..."

Liang Qu coughed awkwardly.

"No matter, you learned it from the Dragon People or your white ape friend, right?"

"Great-uncle has a discerning eye!"

"The appearance of a True Dragon, we think there are two ways: one is natural conception, and the other is inheriting the legacy and transforming into a True Dragon! What that Dragon is doing is exactly the second one!

Regarding the imperial court's attitude toward the Dragon, it is actually not much different from what you guessed, just with some slight discrepancies in details.

A Great Lake with a Dragon Lord is indeed much more beneficial to the Great Shun than a Great Lake without a leader.

As long as they lean toward the Great Shun, the Great Shun doesn't care who is the Dragon Lord; it could be the Dragon, it could be my mysterious turtle. Oh, your white ape friend might have a chance in the future, maybe it will work too."

Liang Qu's heart jumped.

"But the Dragon... one is that it transformed into a True Dragon later, there is a problem of water walking, and two, this Dragon has a slight hostility toward my Great Shun..."

"Hostility?"

"In the past, when the Dragon was a big snake, it had unpleasantness with my Great Shun because of the Ghost Mother Sect, that is, the remnants of the Great Qian. Although the past is the past, but... the Dragon is a demon, can you understand?"

Su Guishan emphasized the word "one."

Liang Qu understood.

The territory of the Great Shun is too large, and Martial Saints emerge one after another.

Not to mention anything else, before the Great Shun started, there were many Martial Saints in the family.

If one family is like this, what about the scattered ones?

Plus other Martial Saints coming to group together, combine, and win over, the Son of Heaven has to consider the overall interests, not the gains and losses of one family.

There was unpleasantness before, but if they can make money, they can still put aside their prejudices and make money together.

It just so happens that in a small place, after the Dragon transforms into a True Dragon, it is an even more top-tier individual. If they want to cooperate, they cooperate; if they don't, there's no way even if they hide.

No wonder it has been hiding; it's not just a matter of trust.

There is a grudge!

To be safe, the Great Shun can kill it if it catches an opportunity, and replacing it with another Dragon Lord is even better, which fits their interests.

Su Guishan continued: "Regarding why the True Dragon disappeared, I don't know, or rather, perhaps no one in the entire Great Shun knows.

The Huai River Dragon Lord is the strongest among the three Dragon Lords, the kind that is a grade stronger; only when two great Dragon Lords join forces can they rival it.

By rights, even if the Four Pillars of the Demon Court joined forces to rebel, they wouldn't be its match.

It just so happens that the True Dragon disappeared and even left the Dragon Pearl in the Long Gong, letting the big snake use it to transform into a dragon. We just assume it's dead; whether it is or not depends on whether the Dragon can really transform into a dragon in one go."

Liang Qu nodded, silently digesting the information Su Guishan threw out.

A bit full.

"As for your last question, the strength of the Four Pillars of the Demon Court..." Su Guishan narrowed his eyes slightly, "I want to know, why can you be sure that the Northern Demon King came from the sea?"

Because it looks like a Deng Shiyu, and Deng Shiyu are from the sea.

Liang Qu complained.

"Guessing. I was controlling the flood in Huazhu County and accidentally met a subordinate of the Northern Demon King once. Heavy armor, iron mouth; at the time, I felt it didn't look like a water beast from the Huai River Great Lake."

Su Guishan was surprised: "You saw a subordinate of the Northern Demon King in Huazhu County? Do you have a pen? Draw it for me to see."

Liang Qu went to the kitchen to get a charcoal pen and drew a sketch.

Su Guishan's brows furrowed.

"It really is. The south is the toad's territory, and it's not on good terms with the Northern Demon King. Why would an iron-armored fish run to the south..."

Of course, it was following the Dragon's order to find me.

Liang Qu hurriedly said: "It must be that they are not on good terms, and it was sent as a spy! Preparing to take action against the toad and eliminate dissidents!"

"Spy?"

Su Guishan fell into deep thought.

Liang Qu changed the subject.

"Great-uncle, you haven't finished speaking; are the Four Pillars of the Demon Court Wu Sheng-level experts?"

"Hmm, you guessed right. The Four Pillars of the Demon Court, the Northern Demon King did indeed come from the sea, having been here for more than three hundred years. Not only it, but the Dragon as well; it has been here even longer, more than five hundred years. The Northeast Demon Kings are both sea demon kings.

In addition, the turtle in the west came from the Dongtian Lake in the middle reaches of the Huai River. The only demon king truly conceived by the Huai River Great Lake is the toad in the south."

Liang Qu was surprised.

The toad is so authentic?