Chapter 304: Sea Deity Island's Trump Card

That General Kujou Sara might have run into trouble, huh.

Luo De's foot had just landed when Leidian Zhen's voice came to mind.

Hmm, I've figured it out.

Without Leidian Zhen reminding him, Luo De realized the problem as soon as he arrived here.

Over at Sea Deity Island.

An existence with an extraordinary aura appeared.

Moreover, the weapons and equipment of the Sea Deity Island soldiers have been completely renewed, utterly unlike what Luo De saw when he was here before.

Tsk, again the Foolish Ones.

That extraordinary aura, Luo De is extremely familiar with it.

Duotuolei.

Who knows why this madman personally came here and openly chose to support the rebel army, openly challenging Inazuma's Electro Archon.

This doesn't match the Foolish Ones' usual style.

Luo De furrowed his brow slightly.

He finally understood why, without the intervention of the three Commissioners, negotiations with Kujou Sara's side were still so troublesome.

An Executive alone wouldn't cause such a situation, little one; there must be other reasons.

Leidian Zhen, as the previous Electro Archon, views problems from a more comprehensive angle than Luo De.

Plus, considering what happened earlier in Inazuma.

Even though she slumbers in the Oneiric Euthymia, she still has some understanding of how things transpired.

Upon detecting Duotuolei's aura in the Sea Deity Island camp, she immediately analyzed: "The Foolish Ones are not comparable to Inazuma's internal forces, especially after the Vision Hunt Decree; Ying's side no longer treats the Foolish Ones with such leniency. Xiao Kujou is Inazuma's shogunal general, and given her awareness of Ying's stance, she would certainly not abandon suppressing Sea Deity Island just because an Executive arrived, even if that Executive is very strong."

Who should we go find?

Kujou, or Duotuolei?

Even if the strongest fragment of Duotuolei shows up now, Luo De isn't afraid of him.

At Xiao Kujou's place.

A negotiation standoff has already arisen; since it isn't due to that Executive, there must be external factors causing Xiao Kujou to hesitate, unwilling to continue talks.

Leidian Zhen said that, pondered briefly, then added: "I know, it's probably something over at Sea Deity Island."

What thing?

Luo De stopped his steps and gazed toward the distant island that, even hundreds of li away, still reveals its splendid colors.

Could Sea Deity Island still have some trump card to threaten the shogunate?

Great Sun Palanquin.

The thing hidden beneath Sea Deity Island.

Leidian Zhen's voice grew grave: "If that thing were detonated, it could blast half of Inazuma into the sky. If Sea Deity Island uses it as a trump card to threaten Xiao Kujou, given Xiao Kujou's position, with Ying and the Divine Maiden not stepping forward, she truly cannot make a decision."

Great Sun Palanquin?

Luo De narrowed his eyes, recalling it.

The Abyssal Palace where the White Night Kingdom's ancient Sea Deity Island ancestors once lived—once an underground nation—has its ruins buried directly beneath the Coral Palace on Sea Deity Island.

The Great Sun Palanquin is the Abyssal Palace's energy device, possessing a terrifying reserve capable of bringing day and night changes to that subterranean nation; if detonated, Leidian Zhen says it could blow up half of Inazuma, which is hardly baseless speculation.

You spared Sea Deity Island back then because of this, right?

Luo De recalled the Oluobasi eastern invasion from back then.

Back then, the people of Sea Deity Island burned, killed, and looted on Eight Brews Island, even slaying a shogunal general; afterward they were let off lightly, not only granting Sea Deity Island military authority and independence, but also giving them the means to rebel again later.

Luo De had never been able to make sense of this before.

He had thought perhaps Oluobasi and Leidian Zhen had reached some agreement, after which they willingly sacrificed themselves, or that Leidian Zhen was truly a saintess, unwilling to witness Sea Deity Island's populace suffer.

But now, upon hearing Leidian Zhen's explanation,

Luo De's doubt in his heart was finally resolved.

In other words, she fears that the Sea Deity Island people, in a dead-fish-net-breaking scenario, would directly detonate the Great Sun Palanquin and utterly destroy Inazuma.

"Why didn't you just seize control of the Great Sun Palanquin back then?"

Luo De said while walking.

Logically speaking.

Knowing there's a time bomb beneath one's feet, normal reasoning would dictate controlling that hazard—if not dismantling it, at least preventing it from posing a threat again.

How could Sea Deity Island still dig this thing up and use it to threaten oneself? However, regarding Luo De's question,

Leidian Zhen is also helpless.

"Back then I lacked the military force to suppress Sea Deity Island, so it was Sea Deity Island relinquishing control of the Great Sun Palanquin."

"The Great Sun Palanquin was built by Sea Deity Island's ancestors using White Night Kingdom technology; I've tried, but with my and Ying's power, I cannot forcibly dismantle it."

"Later I placed seals on the Great Sun Palanquin, and also laid several layers of seals at the entrance to the Abyssal Palace, so the Sea Deity Island people would have no chance to contact the Great Sun Palanquin."

Leidian Zhen said up to this point.

Luo De then frowned and said: "But now the Sea Deity Island people have found a way into the Abyssal Palace and have undone your seal on the Great Sun Palanquin."

Since Sea Deity Island is now so confident,

there is no doubt.

What Luo De said is correct: Sea Deity Island has indeed succeeded in opening the Abyssal Palace, delving into the Great Sun Palanquin, and gaining the ability to threaten Inazuma.

The Foolish Ones.

"It seems they helped; otherwise, with Sea Deity Island's strength alone, they couldn't possibly break the seals I placed."

Leidian Zhen sounded somewhat annoyed.

Speaking of which.

Her divine power is weak, weak as it is.

But that is only relative to the other archons.

For Watatsumi Island, which has lost its god, she who holds the Electro Archon's divine position used the seal laid down with the Electro Archon's divine power; even if the seal's power has weakened, a group of mortals could not possibly break it with their own strength.

Moreover,

To prevent the people of Watatsumi Island from ever using the Great Sun Divine Palanquin as a trump card again, she laid down not just a single seal, but a set of as many as five layers of linked seals.

If there were no outside help, the arrangements she made back then would be enough to guarantee that Inazuma would never again be threatened by Watatsumi Island.

"These guys really are everywhere."

Luo De rubbed his nose, then, as if thinking of something, asked again: "Do you know about the Watatsumi Divine Spirit Festival?"

"No."

Given Raiden Shogun's erudition, he had also never heard of this name, which one could tell at a glance is related to Watatsumi Island.

"Then it seems this thing indeed appeared after your incident."

Luo De briefly recalled and then told Raiden Shogun about the Watatsumi Divine Spirit Festival: "Watatsumi Island does have a problem with holy land crystallization, and this Watatsumi Divine Spirit Festival is the ritual they use to reverse the holy land crystallization, with the help of Orobax's power."

"Orobax's power?"

Raiden Shogun visibly startled: "I recall he should have left nothing behind, after all."

"You remember correctly."

"So Watatsumi Island is the great serpent's power taken back from the Abyssal Palace." Luo De also suddenly thought of this.

According to what Raiden Shogun said,

She sealed the entrance to the Abyssal Palace, and the people of Watatsumi Island could not possibly undo it.

But the problem is that the Watatsumi Divine Spirit Festival is held only once every few hundred years.

The specific procedure is to wait for a suitable moment when a ley line flows, lift the seal on the Five Wounds Rock, thereby breaking the seal node between Coral Palace and the Abyssal Palace, then send someone into the Abyssal Palace to retrieve the blood-branch coral imbued with Orobax's divine power, perform the ritual, and carry out a reversal ritual on Watatsumi Island's increasingly severe holy land crystallization, so that it can temporarily return to normal land.

"Once every few hundred years."

"Then doesn't that mean"

Fortunately, Raiden Shogun is not currently in front of Luo De, otherwise he would surely be able to see an Electro Archon glaring with furious eyes.

Since Watatsumi Island has such a clear procedure and ritual,

that shows

Not long after Raiden Shogun's incident, they figured out how to enter the Abyssal Palace.

However, the seal power left by Raiden Shogun cannot be easily broken; they merely suppressed the seal temporarily, which is why they never had the chance to seek out the Great Sun Divine Palanquin.

Moreover, Watatsumi Island's own records have become that the seal on the Abyssal Palace was laid down jointly by the Watatsumi Great God and the primordial godfolk, while the rest of the records are all obscure ancient texts with little reference value.

In other words,

If it weren't for outside help, with the remaining documentary records Watatsumi Island currently has, they might not know that they still have the Great Sun Divine Palanquin as a trump card buried beneath them; otherwise, they would not have been suppressed by the Shogunate's forces from the start.

"This just shows that your seal is still effective."

"Those later generations of Watatsumi Island have simply not found a way to completely break the seal once and for all."

"The problem still lies with the Fatui."

As they spoke, Luo De had already arrived at the military camp where Kujou Sara was stationed.

Seeing each other again.

Kujou Sara, who already wore a weary expression before, now was even more weighed down by worry, constantly staring at the letters before her.

"You've come."

When Luo De entered, it was reported by a Tenryou Commissioner's officer, but now that Luo De has come, it cannot dispel even a bit of the worry on Kujou Sara's face.

In Kujou Sara's view,

Luo De is just a reckless man.

The kind of reckless man who acts without considering consequences, only looking at immediate results.

Although the operation to press the Three Commissioners was indeed effective, it nevertheless provoked a stronger backlash from Watatsumi Island.

"Looks like we've run into trouble."

"No wonder the Divine Maiden would come looking for me again to help you."

Luo De was speaking off the cuff, his eyes also glancing at the letter before Kujou Sara.

His eyesight is excellent.

At a glance he saw the letter Kujou Sara had just been reading, sent from Narukami Shrine, which confirmed that there was indeed an object of extreme threat beneath Watatsumi Island, confirming for Kujou Sara that Sangonomiya Kokomi was not lying, and that they truly have the capability to inflict irreparable damage on Inazuma.

"Has the Shrine Priestess said anything to you?"

Upon hearing that Luo De had been invited by Yae Miko, Kujou Sara immediately swept away her previous gloom, gazing at him with hopeful eyes.

"What could she say?"

"Now the advantage lies in Watatsumi Island's hands."

"Either we renegotiate with them, agreeing to some of their terms, or we gamble on whether they really dare to fight to the death."

What Luo De said were Raiden Shogun's exact words.

"Those people are all lunatics."

"If they have such a trump card in hand, then if we drive them to desperation, they will surely use it."

This is the reason the negotiations have again reached an impasse.

Kujou Sara and the Watatsumi Island forces had faced off for a long time, knowing they were not truly acting for the sake of Inazuma's people as they claimed.

That is a group of lunatics who will use any means to achieve their goal.

The tragedy on Yashiori Island is a living example.

Even those with no trump cards in hand can pull off something as extreme as slaughtering an island.

Now they have a trump card that lets them speak with a straight back, so what else would they not dare to do? Even if we know they're unlikely to actually go that far, they keep holding the threat of mutual destruction over the negotiating table just to gain leverage, so even Jiǔtiáo Suōluó wouldn't dare to bet.

Even if it's only a one percent chance.

What if?

What if these lunatics actually go through with it?

Then wouldn't I become a sinner of Inazuma?

Moreover, the attitude of Watatsumi Island toward the Thunder God is originally split into two clearly opposed factions.

The faction led by Sangonomiya Kokomi is conservative, willing to peacefully coexist with Inazuma—provided Inazuma preserves their religious independence and territorial autonomy—but she genuinely seeks negotiation with the shogunate, desiring no further war, even if it ends in mutual destruction.

And the other faction.

Namely, the usual extremist faction.

Even the conservative faction of Watatsumi Island considers them lunatics.

Their attitude is to slaughter every Thunder God follower, soldier or civilian alike, believing that Inazuma can have only one god—the Great Sea God of Watatsumi.

They were the ones who broke the Archon's resentment seal on Eight Brews Island before.

They are just a group of extremists.

They never calculate the consequences of their actions.

Moreover, according to information from Sangonomiya Kokomi, this group already knows Watatsumi Island's trump card, and if negotiations fail they will at any moment detonate the Great Sun Imperial Palanquin.

Such is the situation.

Luo De then remarked, betting that they wouldn't actually go through with mutual destruction.

He dares to bet, but Jiǔtiáo Suōluó does not dare to.

Then only one path remains.

Abandon the previous high-handed conditions, renegotiate with Watatsumi Island, and agree to part or even all of their demands.

But if we do that.

Jiǔtiáo Suōluó wouldn't be very willing.

She believes.

Lord Thunder God surely shares the same view.

Obviously we had already decided to completely bring Watatsumi Island under Inazuma's control, giving them no chance to rebel again, utterly dismantling their faith so they would never again have the opportunity to raise a slaughtering blade against Inazuma's people.

Now, because of a single threat from Sangonomiya Kokomi.

Not only me, but even Lord Thunder God has to hold back, daring not to bring up the previous conditions again.

This leaves Jiǔtiáo Suōluó not only unwilling but also more resentful.

When did Inazuma's Electro Archon also have to be threatened by others?! Standing beside her, watching Jiǔtiáo Suōluó's constantly changing expression, Luo De laughed and put forward the third proposal proposed by Leidiàn Zhēn: "Buy a little time, then in another ten or so days, the Thunderbolt General can come here in person and fundamentally solve the problem of Watatsumi Island at its root."

(End of chapter)