[Buddha-Heart Lamp Transmission] Wu Song Imbued with Spiritual Power; [Emergency Circlet] Successfully Developed! (Continued)

At this, everyone drew in a sharp breath.

Who could have imagined that this seemingly ordinary Jiangnan water town concealed such earth-shattering ancient origins?

Lin Chen did not stop speaking. He had already perfectly connected every clue:

"Before this, I could never understand why Xiangliu, Gonggong's foremost vicious minister, after following Gonggong to unleash floods across Jiangnan, did not seize rivers and lakes with broader, deeper water veins.

Why did it insist on coiling itself within this Cao E River?

E'er, don't blame me for being blunt—"

Lin Chen turned and gave Cao E a reassuring look.

"A peerless fiendish beast on Xiangliu's level had terrifyingly lofty standards.

It simply would not think much of the domain of a mere local water goddess like you, E'er.

For it to expend such immense effort to turn this place into a poisonous marsh, it was clearly aiming at the mulberry while cursing the locust!"

Lin Chen's deductions grew ever more rigorous, peeling back the Outer Gods' vicious and meticulous scheme layer by layer:

"Its true goal was to firmly suppress—and perhaps even steal—the divine nature and authority left behind in this land by [Emperor Shun]!

Think carefully. Cthulhu had driven Gonggong and Wuzhiqi to unleash a world-ending flood.

And the sole key to breaking this deadlock was for us to go to Kuaiji Mountain and summon the spirit of that god of flood control—Yu the Great.

But how had Yu the Great obtained his imperial throne?"

Li Bai answered at once:

"The system of abdication! Shun abdicated the throne to Yu!"

"Precisely!"

Lin Chen snapped his fingers.

Rumble—

A bolt of dry thunder suddenly exploded in the sky, as though Lin Chen and the others' words had touched upon some forbidden heavenly secret.

"Because of the sacred karmic bond of 'abdication' between