He Lingchuan pulled it out and looked. It was unmistakably a bronze tube inlaid with gemstones, its top carved with a squat, pudgy beast.
Inside the tube, a faint red mist swirled.
A Dragon-Torture Pillar.
And it was General Red's version.
He had seen General Red produce a prototype with his own eyes and present it to Zhong Shengguang and Shao Jian to examine.
The materials of this Dragon-Torture Pillar looked far more sophisticated than the one he had haphazardly cobbled together from Juluo tree branches and colored glaze.
Naturally, the capacity might also differ.
His crude, makeshift version had nowhere near the capacity of the authentic model, and he had already handed it over to Shi Nan.
Where, then, had this one come from?
He Lingchuan patted the captive's face. "Quit your moaning. Where did you get this?"
The captive was still wailing from the injury to his leg and failed to answer.
He Lingchuan exhaled and, with a sharp crack, dislocated the man's shoulder.
"Aaargh!" The captive cried out again, his eyes rolling back in his head.
He Lingchuan genuinely worried the man would faint, which would force him to go through the trouble of waking him back up.
Fortunately, the fellow had tough nerves. A second later, he was gasping for air and begging for mercy.
He had finally realized what kind of man He Lingchuan was.
"Where did it come from?" He Lingchuan brandished the Dragon-Torture Pillar. "Don't make me ask a third time."
"M-My god bestowed it upon me," the man stammered. "Told me to deliver the souls of the dead on the battlefield!"
"Deliver the dead?" He Lingchuan raised an eyebrow. Back when he had marched with He Chunhua past Xinhuang Town, he had caught an acolyte serving National Preceptor Shuangye. That man, too, had been gathering nightmare energy with a Dragon-Torture Pillar, claiming he was collecting it to deliver the souls of the departed.
The difference was that that acolyte had genuinely believed the story himself, whereas the captive before him was plainly bluffing.
Was delivering departed souls an addiction now, that he had to rush out to the freshest battlefield?
"Which god do you serve?"
The man hedged for a long while, his eyes darting evasively. "C-Celestial God Baizhan!"
Sun Fuling had already walked over. She gave him a light kick with the toe of her boot. "A lie."
The force was minimal, but it jarred his injury, drawing a sharp yelp of pain.
He Lingchuan looked up. "How do you know he's lying?"
"When my students lie, they get that exact look in their eyes," Sun Fuling scoffed softly. "Trying to trick me into thinking their exercise books were burned when the bandit army attacked the city."
She added, "Those books are expensive. Each student gets only one a year."
"...Burned by what?" That excuse was absurd—practically on par with his own past antics.
"Fire arrows shot by the bandits, of course." Sun Fuling gestured toward the captive with a nod of her chin. "Their expression was identical to his."
He Lingchuan looked the captive up and down. "Do you want to lose your other leg as well?"
The man frantically waved his hands. "I want it, I want it! Have mercy, my lord, I beg of you!"
"The god you worship?"
The man swallowed hard. "I worship God Bilu!"
Bilu!
The faint trace of amusement on He Lingchuan's face vanished instantly.
Bilu was Nailuotian!
Shi Nan had already told him that before Nailuotian attained the rank of orthodox god, his title was Bilu!
No wonder neither Mitian nor General Red had ever heard of Nailuotian.
In this era, he was still just Bilu.
"God Bilu's acolytes—I mean, believers like you—are there many of you?"
"I don't know," the man said hastily. "I've never spoken with other believers."
"Then how did you come to worship him?"
"My family was destitute, and I failed at everything I set my hand to. But after I happened to visit a temple of God Bilu, offered incense, and bowed before the altar, my luck turned right around. I went to the gambling dens and won money. On my way home, we were caught in a mudslide; out of a party of forty, I was the only survivor..."
The captive gulped. "After that, the more devoutly I believed in God Bilu, the smoother my life became. One day, God Bilu appeared in my dreams and told me to collect nightmare energy on his behalf. When I woke up, this bronze pillar was lying right beside my pillow! It was a miracle—a true miracle!"
He Lingchuan toyed with the Dragon-Torture Pillar. "It seems God Bilu trusts you quite a bit. How many battlefields have you visited?"
In the world of Panlong, Shao Jian had departed nearly a year ago carrying a large batch of Dragon-Torture Pillars forged by General Red.
Given his efficiency, by now he had surely begun distributing them across the realm.
In other words, the gods had only just learned what the Dragon-Torture Pillars were capable of, and God Bilu had already seized the initiative, sending out his acolytes to gather nightmare energy.
At this stage, no god would possess many Dragon-Torture Pillars—one or two at most.
For this believer to receive one meant he was one of Bilu's most devoted followers.
"Four or five battlefields, large and small," the man stammered. "I always wait until the fighting is over, put on armor belonging to the victors, and walk a few rounds around the perimeter of the battlefield. Nobody pays any mind to me. But I didn't kill anyone! Really, I didn't! I only gathered nightmare energy!"
Indeed, he lacked the baleful aura of someone who had taken lives.
He Lingchuan fell into deep thought.
Whenever an opportunity or an emerging trend presented itself, there were always those who arrived early and those who arrived late. Those who seized it feasted on meat, while the latecomers were left without even broth.
The gods were no different.
Without a doubt, Bilu was among the quickest to react, riding the crest of the wave before anyone else.
Yet from another angle, he was likely still a wild god at this point, perhaps even an obscure minor deity that had yet to make a name for himself.
After all, Shao Jian was following Mitian's instructions: in the early stages, the Dragon-Torture Pillars were only to be distributed among minor deities and wild gods.
If the gods of Lingxu City, the orthodox deities, and the great powers wanted to get their hands on a Dragon-Torture Pillar, they would be several steps behind. Only after realizing that the nightmare energy gathered by the Tianluo Star from the mortal realm kept diminishing would they finally launch an investigation.
As the saying went, a large ship was hard to turn.
When an organization grew too massive, its reach became sluggish.
This window of opportunity was a blue ocean for minor deities, allowing them to seize their chance and grow in peace.
He Lingchuan also noted another detail: the captive claimed that his luck had turned around after worshipping God Bilu.
And in reality, his father, He Chunhua, had always called his eldest son a lucky charm, insisting on bringing him along even into the Panlong Desert.
Wait!
Back then, when He Chunhua went into the Panlong Desert, he had adamantly insisted on taking He Lingchuan!
He Lingchuan rarely dwelled on the past, but recalling it now, his father's actions sent a chill creeping over his scalp.
The Panlong Desert was a place of certain death. Why had He Chunhua insisted on taking his eldest son there?
Back then, he had wondered about it: no matter how Sun Fuping and Nian Songyu tried to sweet-talk him, a man of He Chunhua's nature would never venture out without a contingency plan.
Looking back now, he had taken his eldest son along—which meant he was bringing along the vessel of Nailuotian. Could his old man have intended to invite a divine descent at the most perilous moment to save his own skin?
Could that have been He Chunhua's true backup plan?
Fortunately, that journey had gone relatively smoothly, so He Chunhua never had to resort to that backup plan, and He Lingchuan had unknowingly dodged a bullet. What sheer, dumb luck!
"What's wrong?" Sun Fuling rested a hand on his shoulder. "You look awful."
"Nothing, just connecting a few dots." He Lingchuan snapped his attention back to the present. "Your name?"
"P-Peng Fang."
"How did you know a major battle was happening here?" He Lingchuan looked toward the east. "Did you follow the Jintao army over?"
Chapter 736