Once the Panlong Desert became ordinary and unremarkable, could the border of the Yuan Kingdom still remain peaceful? That was a massive question mark; after all, none of their neighbors were gentle pushovers.
Fortune and misfortune were intertwined. If not for the generous terms offered by the Grand Marshal, He Chunhua would never have wanted the Panlong Desert to disappear.
He remained silent for a while, then asked in a low voice, "Chuan'er, in your eyes, was Commander Zhong's thirty-two-year stand truly worth it?"
He Lingchuan thought to himself, *Since you're asking me, deep down you definitely think it wasn't.*
"Not worth it," he replied, feigning blunt candor. "Panlong City still fell in the end, and the Xiluo Kingdom was still destroyed. Spending thirty-two extra years changed nothing."
"For the first twelve years, Xiluo lacked the strength to push west and reclaim its lost territory, and didn't even know that a million soldiers and civilians were still holding out on the Panlong Wasteland. In the following twenty years, Xiluo tried several times to cede the Panlong Wasteland to the Xianyou Kingdom in exchange for a momentary respite. If I were Zhong Shengguang, dealing with an incompetent homeland that dragged its feet and pulled me down like that, I would have died of sheer rage!"
"The Xiluo Kingdom once possessed an illustrious reputation, its dynasty lasting two hundred and seventeen years. Looking across the realms, it was a remarkably long-lived state." This continent rarely saw peace; the shortest-lived regimes lasted only tens of days, and most small kingdoms completed their entire cycle of rise, fall, and demise within two or three decades. Thus, Xiluo had already endured remarkably well. "Yet when Zhong Shengguang defended Panlong City, Xiluo was plagued by internal troubles and external threats. The nobles sang and danced in illusory peace while starving refugees wandered displaced, and foreign enemies launched relentless assaults. The evening bells of doom had already tolled." He Chunhua said no more after this sentence, merely stroking Zhong Shengguang's tombstone with a sigh.
*The old man is thinking of himself,* He Lingchuan thought, but did not say it aloud. The current Great Yuan Kingdom truly resembled the Xiluo of old a bit too closely.
At that moment, the clouds broke and the moon emerged, casting its light over the desolate, ruined city.
"Commander Zhong, must be dull standing guard here all alone, eh? I'll have two more cups with you." He Lingchuan could not resist offering two more cups of wine to Zhong Shengguang. "A pity I couldn't pay my respects to General Red, couldn't behold his formidable heroic stature!"
Both Zhong Shengguang and General Red were legends. For He Lingchuan personally, he felt even more curious about the mysterious General Red.
He asked He Chunhua, "There is a living shrine for General Red in the city, but no tomb, not even a cenotaph. Is it possible... that he didn't actually die in the final battle?"
"General Red was struck by heavenly lightning summoned by the Xianyou National Preceptor at the cost of his life—seven bolts in succession, reduced to ash on the spot. Soldiers from both sides witnessed it with their own eyes; there shouldn't be any mistake. Otherwise, the morale of Panlong City wouldn't have collapsed so abruptly." He Chunhua shook his head. "You are still young. You don't yet know that human strength has its limits."
Just as He Lingchuan was about to speak, two whooshing sounds suddenly came from the northeast.
Two streaks of fireworks shot into the sky and burst into bloom.
That was the prearranged signal. He Chunhua took one look and said, "They found it. Let's go!"
Within two quarters of an hour, everyone gathered at Mitian Temple.
It sat at the very heart of Panlong City, covering an area of ten mu, with layers of courtyards and rows of pavilions and halls.
In its heyday of incense and worship, it must have been a bustling scene with ancient trees casting shade and crowds of visitors streaming through. Now, however, it had become an expansive wasteland left behind after more than a century of looting, smashing, and burning. The clear springs and lotus ponds had long dried up, and the once-lush ancient trees had turned into withered wood, never sprouting fresh greenery again.
At least half of the exquisite architecture had been destroyed. In particular, the grand main hall dedicated to Mitian was ruined completely—first torn down, then consigned to the flames. As the group approached the original site, they saw only a few charred wooden posts lying strewn in disarray.
A touch of the hand snapped one to pieces.
The statue of Mitian was a stone carving; the length of its forearm alone matched He Lingchuan's height. Unfortunately, none could glimpse its original appearance, as the entire statue had been chopped into seven or eight pieces after being toppled, each hacked to pieces with blades and axes, then smeared with ink.
The allied army hated Panlong City and the Gale Army, despising even their faith to the bone.
Once everyone arrived, Nian Songyu held the glass jar in both hands and said solemnly, "It's right here!"
He walked a circle around the pool directly in front of the main hall, and the Three Corpse Worms inside the glass jar shifted directions accordingly. No matter which side he stood on, they pressed toward the inner wall farthest from the pool!
"A pool?" Situ Han asked in surprise. "Are you sure it's this pool? If we're mistaken, we won't be able to fetch any more fresh water."
The Chipa Plateau had abundant water, and the water features in Mitian Temple were crafted with great delicacy, including springs, streams, and as many as six pools.
The pool Nian Songyu had set his sights on lay right outside the main hall. Its shape was somewhat irregular, resembling a wishing well where people tossed coins. It covered an area of roughly twenty-six or twenty-seven square meters.
Of course, it was empty now, containing neither koi nor coins.
Sun Fuping walked around the pool, pressing his hand against the rim a few times. "In several places along the masonry of the rim, there are differences in color. It looks like they were patched up later."
Everyone looked closer, and sure enough, there were several patched sections along the rim of the pool, crude and uneven, far inferior to the pool's original craftsmanship. Clearly, the later repairs were merely perfunctory patching.
"There are many years between the old and the new. And given how roughly it was repaired, this doesn't look like the work of the Panlong City folk who worshiped God Mitian, nor does it look like something the Xian-Ba allied army would do." He Chunhua mused, "Could this have been done by the final expedition sent by the Baling Kingdom?"
The proud grand-disciple sent by Patriarch Zhu Gen wouldn't have traveled thousands of li just to be a bricklayer, would he?
If this pool was truly patched by them, then they must have had a clear purpose.
What He Lingchuan cared more about was why this pool had been broken open in the first place.
Sun Fuping said solemnly, "What matters even more is why the pool was broken open, and by whom."
Zeng Feixiong pointed to the stones scattered across the ground and said, "Could it be that when the main hall was destroyed, falling rocks accidentally smashed it?"
The temple had suffered brutal looting. When such magnificent structures and statues collapsed with a roar, leaving craters in the earth, what was so strange about a mere little pool being smashed through?
"Or perhaps that was precisely the effect the mastermind intended to fake?" He Chunhua pondered. "When Panlong City fell, allied soldiers inevitably swarmed in to loot wildly, and their officers had no way to stop them. Whatever those soldiers destroyed would seem entirely normal. If this pool looked as though it were ruined during the looting, the allied army wouldn't look into it closely, thereby concealing the secret hidden within."
"When panic gripped the city as Panlong was about to fall, who could still make such calm arrangements?"
The answer was obvious. Nian Songyu murmured, "Zhong Shengguang, or his confidants. He needed to breach the pool and drain the water before the city fell."
If their conjecture was correct, the profound meaning behind this action was well worth investigating.
Decades later, the Baling expedition probably reached a similar conclusion and patched the pool back up.
Situ Han stepped forward, looked, and said with a troubled expression, "Are you saying we should pour water into this pool? But even if we pour in the spare fresh water of all two hundred of us, I'm afraid it won't even cover the bottom."
Chapter 38