Finding a Breakthrough

Once the Coiling Dragon Desert becomes mundane and unremarkable, can the borders of the Yuan Kingdom remain so peaceful? That is a massive question mark; after all, the neighbors are no pushovers.

Fortune and misfortune are intertwined. Had the Grand Marshal not offered such generous terms, He Chunhua would never have wished for the Coiling Dragon Desert to vanish.

He fell silent for a moment, then whispered, "Chuan'er, do you think Commander Zhong's thirty-two years of holding the line were truly worth it?"

He Lingchuan thought to himself that since he was being asked, his father must already feel it was not.

"Not worth it," he said, feigning bluntness. "Coiling Dragon City fell regardless, and the Xiluo Kingdom was destroyed anyway. He spent thirty-two extra years, yet changed nothing."

"For the first twelve years, the Xiluo Kingdom lacked the strength to push west and reclaim lost territory; they didn't even know a million soldiers and civilians were holding out in the Coiling Dragon Wilderness. For the last twenty years, the Xiluo Kingdom tried several times to cede the Coiling Dragon Wilderness to the Xianyou State just to buy a moment of survival. If I were Zhong Shengguang, I would have been angered to death by a motherland that was so incompetent and constantly held me back!"

"The Xiluo Kingdom was once illustrious, with a national destiny spanning two hundred and seventeen years—a rare, long-lived nation in this world." This continent rarely knew peace; the shortest-lived regimes lasted only a few dozen days, and most small nations completed the full cycle of rise and fall within twenty or thirty years, so the Xiluo Kingdom had already endured quite well. "But when Zhong Shengguang guarded Coiling Dragon City, the Xiluo Kingdom was beset by internal strife and external threats. The nobility lived in luxury while the starving were displaced, and foreign enemies attacked relentlessly. The death knell of the end had already sounded." He Chunhua said no more after this, sighing as he stroked Zhong Shengguang's tombstone.

Father is thinking of himself, He Lingchuan realized, but he did not point it out. The current Great Yuan Kingdom was indeed a bit too similar to the Xiluo of yesteryear.

At this moment, the clouds parted to reveal the moon, illuminating the desolation of the city.

"Great Commander Zhong, isn't it lonely guarding this place all by yourself? Let me have two more drinks with you." He Lingchuan could not help but offer two more cups of wine to Zhong Shengguang. "It is a pity I could not pay my respects to the Red General, nor gaze upon the heroic bearing of that great man!"

Both Zhong Shengguang and the Red General were legends. As for He Lingchuan himself, he was even more curious about the mysterious Red General.

He asked He Chunhua, "There are shrines to the Red General in the city, yet there is no tomb, not even a cenotaph. Is it possible... that he didn't actually die in the final battle?"

"The Red General was struck by heavenly lightning summoned by the Xianyou State Preceptor at the cost of his own life. Seven bolts in total, and he was reduced to ashes on the spot. Soldiers from both sides witnessed it with their own eyes; there should be no mistake, otherwise, the morale of Coiling Dragon City would not have collapsed so suddenly." He Chunhua shook his head. "You are still young; you do not know that human strength has its limits."

Just as He Lingchuan was about to speak, two whistling sounds suddenly came from the northeast.

Two fireworks shot into the sky and burst into bloom.

That was the pre-arranged signal. He Chunhua took one look and said, "They found it. Let's go!"

Within two quarter-hours, the group gathered at the Mitian Temple.

It sat at the heart of the entire Coiling Dragon City, covering ten acres with layers of courtyards and rows of pavilions.

One could imagine that in the days when incense was thick, this place must have been a bustling scene of shaded ancient trees and throngs of visitors. Now, however, it had become a site of massive decay, a century after the looting and burning. The clear springs and lotus ponds had long since dried up, and the once-lush ancient trees had turned into withered husks that would never sprout new green again.

At least half of the exquisite architecture had been destroyed, especially the magnificent main hall dedicated to Mitian, which had been thoroughly razed—first pushed over, then set ablaze. As the group approached the original site, they saw only a few charred wooden pillars lying in disarray.

He reached out to break one, and it crumbled.

The Mitian Statue was a stone carving; even a segment of its forearm was as tall as He Lingchuan. Unfortunately, the group could not glimpse its original appearance, as the entire statue had been chopped into seven or eight pieces after being toppled, each section hacked by blades and axes before being smeared with ink.

The Allied Forces hated Coiling Dragon City and the Great Wind Army so much that they loathed their faith to the bone.

Once everyone had arrived, Nian Songyu held up a glass jar and said solemnly, "It is right here!"

He walked a circle around the pool in front of the main hall, and the Three-Corpse Insects in the glass jar changed direction accordingly. No matter which side he walked to, they always pointed toward the side wall, away from the pool!

"The pool?" Situ Han asked in surprise. "Are you sure it's this pool? If we get it wrong, we won't be able to fetch any more fresh water."

The Chipa Plateau had plenty of water, and the water features within the Mitian Temple were exquisitely crafted, with springs, streams, and as many as six pools.

The pool Nian Songyu had his eye on was just outside the main hall. Its shape was irregular, much like a wishing pool where people would toss coins. It covered about twenty-six or twenty-seven square meters.

Of course, it was empty now, containing neither koi nor coins.

Sun Fuping walked around the pool and pressed his hand against the edge in several places. "There are color differences in the masonry at the edge of the pool; it looks like it was patched later."

The group looked, and it was true. There were several repairs along the edge, the workmanship crude and uneven, far inferior to the original craftsmanship of the pool. It was clear that the later repairs were just that—repairs, and quite perfunctory ones at that.

"There is a significant gap in time between the old and the new. And since it was patched so crudely, it doesn't look like the work of the Coiling Dragon City people who worshipped Mitian, nor does it look like the work of the Xian-Baling Allied Forces," He Chunhua mused. "Could it be that this was done by the last unit sent by the Baling Kingdom?"

The prized disciples sent by Master Zhu Gen surely hadn't traveled thousands of miles just to act as masons, right?

If this pool had indeed been patched by them, they must have had a specific purpose.

He Lingchuan was more concerned with why the pool had been dug up in the first place.

Sun Fuping said sternly, "More importantly, why was the pool dug up, and by whom?"

Zeng Feixiong pointed to the scattered stones of various sizes on the ground. "Perhaps it was accidentally smashed by falling debris when the main hall was destroyed."

The temple had been ransacked, and with such magnificent buildings and statues collapsing with a roar, even the ground had been smashed into pits; what was so strange about a small pool being smashed through?

"Perhaps that is the effect the perpetrator wanted to fake?" He Chunhua pondered. "When Coiling Dragon City fell, the Allied soldiers would have certainly entered the city to loot, and their commanders would have been unable to stop them. Whatever these soldiers destroyed would be considered perfectly normal. If this pool looked like it had been destroyed during the looting, the Allied Forces wouldn't investigate further, which would hide the secret it concealed."

"At a time when hearts were filled with panic and the city was about to fall, who could have made such calm arrangements?"

The answer was on the tip of everyone's tongue. Nian Songyu murmured, "Zhong Shengguang, or his trusted aides. He had to open the pool and drain the water before the city fell."

If their guess was correct, the deeper meaning behind this action was worth investigating.

Decades later, the exploration team from the Baling Kingdom likely had a similar assessment and had patched the pool back up.

Situ Han came up to look, his face showing difficulty. "Are you all suggesting we pour water into this pool? Even if we pour in all the spare water from our two hundred people, I'm afraid we won't even be able to cover the bottom."