The Origin of Emperor's Flowing Dew

Heh, he certainly wished he could, but the City of the Dead—no, the Dafang Pot—was a hundred times more haughty than this mirror. It never made a peep, leaving him entirely to guess at its intentions. The mirror often spoke to him, so He Lingchuan was already accustomed to it chiming in out of nowhere, and he voiced his question. Hearing it, the mirror said smugly, "Wouldn't asking me have solved this right away?" "Oh?" This fellow actually had an answer? A pleasant surprise! He Lingchuan took the mirror out and held it face-to-face. "Let's hear it, then." "Actually, I don't have a definitive answer either." He Lingchuan instantly lost his enthusiasm. "Cut the crap, then." "This is called rigor, scientific rigor!" The "He Lingchuan" in the mirror looked a bit cross. "Never mind me, even the senior masters of the Tianyan Sect only had a few deductions!" "A deduction is better than nothing. Let me hear one." "The popular theory is that Emperor's Flowing Dew is an occasional massive eruption of spiritual energy from heaven and earth, like a volcano or an earthquake, bursting forth suddenly only after building up for a long time. But in the early Middle Ancient Era, eruptions of Emperor's Flowing Dew also occurred in rapid succession—sometimes once every few days, at longest once every few months. The most outrageous record was three times in three days." "Three eruptions of Emperor's Flowing Dew within three days?" He Lingchuan sucked in a breath of cold air, teeth aching with sheer envy. Hiss, how much cultivation could that be converted into! "The original explanation was inertia eruptions," the mirror continued. "After a massive volcanic eruption or earthquake, there is often a succession of follow-up eruptions and aftershocks. But a senior master of the Tianyan Sect named Tianshengzi spent over a century studying the patterns of Emperor's Flowing Dew's appearances, and he put forward a bold hypothesis—" "—He believed the appearance of Emperor's Flowing Dew was very likely tied to the fall of gods." "The fall of gods?" He Lingchuan seemed to have rarely heard the phrase. "The demise of gods? But after the Great Calamity—that is, before the beginning of the Middle Ancient Era—the gods had already left our world." There were no longer any gods in this world, so how could there be a fall of gods? "Those gods had to come from somewhere, and the Great Calamity merely drove the surviving gods back to their own world. But some were too heavily wounded, and they died after returning," the mirror continued. "And in the early Middle Ancient Era, Tianshengzi went to great lengths to obtain the times of those gods' demises. Then, comparing them with the eruption dates of Emperor's Flowing Dew—heh!" He Lingchuan flicked the mirror surface with a finger. "Stop keeping me in suspense! Where did you pick up such an annoying habit?" He didn't bother asking how Tianshengzi managed to obtain the times of demises in another world; it had surely been extraordinarily difficult. The mirror spun around on the table. "He discovered that eruptions of Emperor's Flowing Dew all occurred within two to three months following the fall of a god." "How many demises did he cross-reference?" "Twelve," the mirror chuckled. "Among them, three gods fell in succession, all within ten shichen! Tell me, could that really just be a coincidence?" The shortest recorded interval between eruptions was three times in three days, and two to three months prior, three gods had indeed fallen successively within ten shichen. The mirror was right; that was far too coincidental. "But Tianshengzi's calculated margin of error was up to a month," He Lingchuan pointed out the flaw. "Look at Lingxu City's predictions—their margin of error doesn't exceed five days." "Hey, over two thousand years have passed since then! Later generations ought to have made some discoveries and improvements, shouldn't they?" the mirror countered. "When Tianshengzi made his theory public, hardly anyone agreed back then. Even most of the seniors in the Tianyan Sect thought it was absurd. After all, Tianshengzi couldn't produce a shred of evidence." Hearing this, He Lingchuan nodded as well. Indeed, for something so elusive and far-fetched, where could Tianshengzi have found evidence? The Tianyan Sect's skepticism wasn't unreasonable either. The mirror said, "Still, who's to say later generations didn't adopt it?" "If Tianshengzi's deduction was correct, why would the fall of gods above prompt an eruption of Emperor's Flowing Dew in this realm?" These were monumental events occurring in entirely different worlds. "How would I know?" the mirror replied listlessly. "I only heard about this second-hand. By the time I came into being, Tianshengzi had long since passed away." He Lingchuan recalled the previous eruption of Emperor's Flowing Dew. At that time, the He father and son and the Auxiliary Army had just reached Fengling Ferry. Everyone had complained that the amount of dew was too meager, coming to a negligible share for each person. If what Tianshengzi said was true, counting back two to three months from that eruption meant a god had fallen. What had happened two or three months prior to that? A thought stirred in He Lingchuan's mind, bringing an inconspicuous event from the depths of his memory to the surface. Before the rebel leader at Woling Pass, Lu Yao, was killed, he had swallowed a black talisman. That was supposed to be his ultimate life-saving trump card, yet nothing happened, and Lu Yao was decapitated. He Lingchuan had shown the recovered black talismans to the Marquis of Songyang. She peeled back the disguise on the talisman paper and recognized it as a "God-Entreating Incantation"—a talisman used to offer one's own physical body as a vessel to invite a god to descend. As for why the talisman hadn't taken effect, it was because the god didn't respond to Lu Yao. At the time, the Marquis of Songyang conjectured that the god had either abandoned Lu Yao or was tied up with other matters and unable to descend—in short, stood him up. Yet hearing the mirror's words today, another hypothesis formed in He Lingchuan's mind: Could the god corresponding to that God-Entreating Incantation have already fallen? If his greatest backer was already dead, it would be strange indeed if Lu Yao could summon it. Counting back three months from the eruption of Emperor's Flowing Dew, a monumental event that shook the Yuan Kingdom's court and public had indeed occurred: The rebel leader, Hong Xiangqian, suffered a crushing defeat at Woling Pass! Originally, the rebel army had advanced north with unstoppable momentum, reaching its peak after seizing Woling Pass. No matter how the government forces encircled and suppressed them, they couldn't retake it, and even Shihuan and the capital were severely threatened. Lu Yao's God-Entreating Incantation was clearly obtained from Hong Xiangqian, which meant this "Holy Master Jiayuan" also worshipped a god of his own. In that case, were his string of victories and eventual defeat also connected to that god? Could it be that the god behind him suddenly fell, leaving Hong Xiangqian without divine backing, which became a crucial factor... one of the reasons for the rebel army's defeat? At least timewise, this sequence of events lined up. That brought up the next question: who killed the god backing Hong Xiangqian? The heavens and the mortal realm were already separated; those capable of slaying a god could only be other gods, right? It turned out that even gods weren't safe. "Hey, why are you spacing out again?" The mirror flashed a beam of reflected light at him. "If Emperor's Flowing Dew appears again three days from now, which god's fall would that be?" It seemed the divine realm wasn't peaceful either, He Lingchuan thought with gloating amusement. If a few more gods fell and the mortal realm received a few more rounds of Emperor's Flowing Dew, wouldn't his cultivation skyrocket? "The Demon Emperor definitely knows; the news came from Lingxu City," the mirror quipped sarcastically. "You should go ask him." "Who knows, maybe I'll really have the chance someday," He Lingchuan shrugged. "You never can tell." After tossing and turning for half the night, dawn would break if he didn't sleep soon. He Lingchuan undressed, lay down, and fell asleep the instant his head hit the pillow. Mirror: "..." Was this guy born in the year of the pig? *** Since they were already so familiar, He Lingchuan banged loudly on the door: "A'luo!" He shouted several times before the door finally creaked open. A'luo stood there in disheveled clothes, scowling and about to unleash a tirade, but upon seeing that the visitor was He Lingchuan, he lowered his voice: "What do you want!" Had it been Hu Min, he would have been cursed bloody. He Lingchuan was riding high in Panlong City lately; besides, A'luo had won quite a bit of money betting on him. Who could stay mad at their cash cow? He Lingchuan looked up at the sky. Wasn't the sun already high in the sky? "The sun's burning your backside. How can someone your age sleep at this hour...?" Before he could finish, He Lingchuan caught sight of a figure flitting past inside the house behind him. "Hm? Who's that?" "Nobody." A'luo shifted his body to block his view. "Just say it. What is it?" "Not going to invite me in to sit?" He Lingchuan chuckled. "Your herbal tea tastes pretty good." A'luo didn't budge an inch. "I need to go back to sleep!" "Sleep with whom?" They were both full of youthful vigor, so calling over a courtesan now and then wasn't unusual. After all, men had their instincts, and each got what they needed. But since A'luo wouldn't say outright and refused to let him see, it meant the person inside wasn't from the brothel. Seeing A'luo's expression growing fouler by the second, He Lingchuan cleared his throat and steered back to business. "That recipe for the Emperor's Flowing Dew ointment you gave me—can it be improved further?" "Is it not working well?" A'luo asked, somewhat puzzled. "I haven't heard anything about Emperor's Flowing Dew coming again anytime soon?" "I feel its potency is a bit weak. I'd like to get an advanced version ready just in case," He Lingchuan said. "My cultivation has progressed recently, so the formula might need adjustments." A'luo reached out to check his pulse and fell silent for a long time before saying, "Your cultivation has indeed progressed very fast, and the blockages in your meridians have cleared significantly. You can indeed use a stronger formula." The strong naturally required stronger formulas and more overbearing medicinal potency. For instance, the ointment General Red used would certainly differ from what ordinary people used... if she used it at all. "So?" "So I need to think it over carefully. Come back this evening!" A'luo took a step back and slammed the door shut with a bang. Had He Lingchuan not stepped back quickly, he would have had his nose smashed. It seemed the fellow didn't actually need time to think; He Lingchuan heard very light footsteps coming from inside, softer and lighter than A'luo's. He had just turned around when Hu Min came sprinting over from across the street: "Broken Saber, what are you doing here? We have a mission!" He Lingchuan felt a jolt of excitement. Had his first mission after joining the Gale Army finally arrived? Resting a hand against A'luo's door, he raised his voice: "Should we call A'luo along?" "It's a non-combat mission; we don't need him." Hu Min glanced at the wooden door. "He's home?" A'luo's muffled voice came from inside: "Not home!" Before his patience wore thin and he could shout for them to get lost, He Lingchuan and Hu Min tactfully walked away. Hu Min shared his experience as a veteran: "The first mission after joining the Gale Army is usually tough. That's tradition." Giving recruits an initial show of force was an old military trick. "Isn't it a non-combat mission?" "I don't know the exact details either, but higher-ups specifically assigned it to you, Willow, and Door Plank—the three newcomers." Hu Min chuckled. "Nothing for the rest of us." General Red had specially ordered He Lingchuan to form his own squad. For a recruit who had just joined the Gale Army, this was an exceptional promotion and honor. In wartime, military merit and capability spoke louder than anything.