A Secret Report from Years Past

Even if there appeared to be no one around, it was better to remain cautious. He had already noticed Bai Ziqi's attention on him, though the reason remained unclear. "How could you be so sure?!" The mirror was astonished, taking several breaths before the realization hit. "Oh... When did you make your move on him?" It had stayed on He Lingchuan the entire time—how had even it failed to notice? It was finding it harder and harder to keep up with this master of its. "Last night." He Lingchuan offered this small hint and elaborated no further. Last night, he had pursued the fugitives alongside Bai Ziqi, and Cheng Yu was captured by his own hands. Back then, Cheng Yu had been injured and knocked unconscious by the lamp spirit. When He Lingchuan held him by the collar, he had actually faced two choices: Devour his soul with the mirror, or deploy the nightmare. Using the soul-snatching mirror was the cleanest route, but it would easily invite Bai Ziqi's suspicion afterward—after all, He Lingchuan was the last person to touch Cheng Yu. Dispatching the nightmare risked complications from delays, since the nightmare would need to slip into Cheng Yu's dreamscape and devise a trap to kill him. However, the advantage was that Cheng Yu could wake up and say a few words after being brought back to Baishaqu— Yes, that had been He Lingchuan's explicit requirement for the nightmare. The nightmare was to strike only after Cheng Yu fell unconscious a second time. That way, Bai Ziqi would naturally miscalculate the time of the attack, clearing He Lingchuan of suspicion. So in the blink of an eye, he settled on the latter plan, brushing the Juluo twig carrying the nightmare across Cheng Yu's nose. Cheng Yu had already been unconscious then, making it effortless for the nightmare to slip into his dream. Now it seemed this risky gamble had paid off again. After Bai Ziqi brought Cheng Yu back, he set up everlasting lamps around him; any sinister presence approaching would trigger an alarm. Yet the nightmare had lain in ambush within Cheng Yu's dream a step ahead. How could it trigger any alarm? Bai Ziqi had only arrived in Baishaqu yesterday and immediately tried to give He Lingchuan a display of dominance. Yet little did he know, he had also been outmaneuvered by He Lingchuan. He Lingchuan finished playing his tune, and Jiao Yu the tiger bounded over, holding a cloth bundle in his jaws. Looking up, he said, "The Crown Prince has sent something for you." His spirits lifting, He Lingchuan hopped down and took the bundle. "Thank you." Jiao Yu said, "The Crown Prince said this is confidential. I will take my leave." He did not dare peek either. He Lingchuan patted the tiger's head, turned back inside, shut the door, laid down a warding barrier, and only then untied the bundle. "Oho, finally got it!" The mirror let out a whistle. He Lingchuan had no idea how it even produced that sound. Inside the bundle was a wooden box; opened, it revealed a stack of letters and manuscripts. This was the final item Fu Shanyue had promised: The records and correspondence documenting the black flood dragon emblem. He Lingchuan had helped him capture Cen Boqing and thrown in the death of Zhongsun Mou as an added bonus, exceeding the task Fu Shanyue had entrusted to him. He fully deserved all the compensation. These documents were kept in the Ruler of Chiyan's imperial study. For anyone else, entering meant risking death nine times out of ten, let alone quietly gathering related artifacts. Only after being elevated to Crown Prince had Fu Shanyue gained permission to enter and leave the imperial study. Looking at what he held, He Lingchuan smiled wryly. "Stingy guy, won't let me take the slightest extra advantage." There were a dozen-odd sheets here, varied in paper tint and texture. Aside from a few letters, some were even pages torn from different books. He Lingchuan naturally wanted to read the entire volumes, but Fu Shanyue had torn out only the sections recording the black flood dragon emblem—evidently to maintain secrecy. After all, these were taken from the Ruler of Chiyan's private study and carried an air of confidentiality. Resting on top was a silk scroll. Unrolled, it stretched out like a long banner. Specially treated, the silk surface looked slightly antique, but showed no moth damage or flaking pigment. This was the first time He Lingchuan had seen so many black flood dragon emblems gathered together. Counting casually, he found eighteen in total. Every emblem was hand-painted. The artist possessed exquisite fine-brush technique; every stroke held spirit and resonance, rendering even the flood dragon's gaze lifelike. Beside each black flood dragon emblem was a note specifying the location and time period where it had been documented. The earliest could actually be traced back 2,100 years ago, to the Yangxing tribe in the Sha River Basin. Where was the Sha River Basin? He Lingchuan racked his brain for a while, then gave up. He would take note of the name and look into it later. The following few locations also meant nothing to him, their eras similarly ancient. Then, he spotted the black flood dragon emblems from the Yuan Kingdom—two in total. Further down, He Lingchuan was struck with great surprise, as the three characters "Panlong City" leaped into view! The final five emblems on the silk scroll all hailed from Panlong City. More importantly, the artist had added a special note: all five emblems were drawn from the very same black flood dragon emblem in Panlong City, merely across different time periods. He Lingchuan quickly calculated: these five emblems had been recorded in the 3rd, 11th, 17th, 24th, and... 31st year of the Panlong calendar! Panlong City had existed for thirty-two years, meaning the excerpts chosen by the artist practically spanned the entire Panlong era. Like an epitome of an age. Why had he done this? He Lingchuan unrolled the scroll straight to the end to check the signature. The artist was named Song Wei, who styled himself Weishan Zhenren. This man noted that the first ten emblems came from ancient texts or ruins; only the emblems of the Yuan Kingdom and Panlong City had been surveyed and sketched in person while the cities still stood and the populace lived in peace, with practically zero discrepancy. In other words, he had personally visited the Yuan Kingdom and Panlong City, later collating his sketches into this silk scroll. Aside from the black flood dragon statue beside Panlong City's south gate, He Lingchuan had indeed seen the black flood dragon emblem in the streets and alleys. His neighbor's kid, Xiao Pang, had scribbled graffiti on walls several times depicting the black flood dragon, though his drawing skills were so poor the dragon's head looked like a dog's. He Lingchuan examined the five emblems from Panlong City closely. At first glance, they looked identical— Well, of course; they depicted the exact same emblem. Yet Song Wei wouldn't have been bored enough to spend over thirty years drawing five identical patterns just to turn in an assignment. He Lingchuan looked deeper, calming his thoughts, and noticed subtle differences among the five flood dragon heads. Compared to the 3rd year of the Panlong calendar, the one from the 11th year had slightly longer horns and two more whiskers. Such a minute change that He Lingchuan had almost needed a magnifying glass to spot it. The emblem from the 24th year showed an obvious shift. The dragon head appeared a size larger than before, with a longer face, more imposing whiskers, and more pronounced brow ridges. Most importantly, the pointed horns on its head had actually begun to branch! In all the black flood dragon emblems He Lingchuan had seen before—including on this scroll, and what he had personally seen in Panlong City and the Yuan Kingdom—the foreheads bore two smooth, unbranched pointed horns! Branching out made them resemble antlers. Or rather, resemble a true dragon. He Lingchuan drew a soft breath and looked at the final emblem. To his disappointment, the dragon head had not evolved further. Instead, it had regressed: the branched horns turned back into pointed ones, and its whiskers thinned out by a few strands. It was roughly comparable to the emblem from the 11th year of the Panlong calendar. Twenty years of evolution, all for naught—reverting right back to what it was at the very end. He Lingchuan looked back at the two emblems from the Yuan Kingdom. The interval between these two was not long, perhaps half a year to two years. After the King of Yuan succeeded to the throne following the abdication of the previous demon king, the Yuan Kingdom lasted only four years, three of which were consumed by war. Wartime border controls were strict; it couldn't have been easy for Song Wei to squeeze into the Yuan Kingdom, and the Yuan Kingdom was probably not as welcoming to outsiders as Panlong City, so he had only drawn two. These two emblems also differed slightly: the second dragon head showed growth compared to the first. This was fascinating. The five emblems from Panlong City, in particular, were like time-lapse photography, documenting the changes of the same flood dragon emblem across different eras. What was the purpose of this black flood dragon emblem? Why did it change? Like Song Wei, He Lingchuan did not believe the alteration was man-made, but rather an inherent change within the emblem itself. In the Yuan Kingdom, in Panlong City, and even in earlier ancient ruins, what had driven the "growth" of the dragon head? Song Wei offered his own speculation. Perhaps this emblem was a totem used to gather the faith of the city's people, much like the omnipresent temples across Beijia. The growth of the dragon head reflected the people's piety toward it. Or perhaps this dragon head was the insignia of some clandestine immortal organization. With it, a city could receive an unending stream of support from immortals. For wherever this dragon head emblem had existed, prosperity followed, as though under unseen divine protection. Protection? He Lingchuan pondered. He knew little about the Yuan Kingdom back then, but the Chipa Plateau backing Panlong City had indeed been lavishly rich, lacking nothing—from grain, ores, and timber to medicine, furs, and fisheries. Otherwise, it couldn't have sustained the soldiers and civilians of Panlong for so many years. Beijia had repeatedly tried to undermine it in secret, but failed every time. Did the dragon head emblem appear only in prosperous lands, or did lands become prosperous because of the dragon head emblem? Which was cause, and which was effect? Hard to say. Seeing that Song Wei reached no conclusion either, He Lingchuan felt a bit disappointed and continued flipping through the other materials. These were an assortment of letters, book pages, and notes. The paper was generally yellowed and brittle, shedding dust, requiring extreme care when turning pages. All old documents, dating back years. He Lingchuan's brow furrowed as he read. The fact that Fu Shanyue could only find these old relics meant there had been no new breakthroughs in research on the black flood dragon. One theory asserted with utter confidence that the dragon head might have been left behind by some immortal sect, serving as a conduit for mortals to communicate with immortals, who directed them to conquer the realm. He Lingchuan also found a battle report sent back by a spy from within the Yuan Kingdom. It provided considerable intelligence on the Yuan Kingdom's Thousand Stars City, including recent happenings in the city, decrees issued by the royal court, citywide wage and price levels, and so on—all summarized succinctly in a sentence or two. Among them, the black flood dragon emblem was actually mentioned. The spy reported that directly across from his lodgings was a black flood dragon emblem; he had observed it day in and day out, but never saw it glow or display any power. Except once, when a horse pulling a cargo cart on the street went wild, crashing cart and all straight into the wall. The wall was not thick and by rights should have been smashed clean through. Yet when the horse slammed headfirst into the black flood dragon emblem, its bones shattered and sinews snapped, the heavy cart broke to pieces, but the black flood dragon emblem remained completely undamaged. Only then did the spy realize that an exceptionally covert barrier surrounded the emblem.