It did not sound difficult, but He Lingchuan was not about to agree right off the bat. "Are there already gods ensconced on those two islands?"
Only with temples could there be worshippers. This minor deity had quite an enterprising spirit.
"Yes, but their influence is weak," Shi Nan replied. "One of them perished recently. Taking advantage of the vacuum, I want to build my temples there."
So it was grabbing territory. He Lingchuan gave it some thought. "I can build the temples, but future maintenance is on you. I won't be staying in this archipelago permanently."
Shi Nan raised no objection, then said, "Apart from the two showers of Emperor's Flowing Dew arriving half a month from now—between three and three and a half months out, there will be three more! One of them will be quite copious, and there's a chance two might fall back-to-back. Beyond that, it's hard to say."
"So frequent?" He Lingchuan's heart skipped a beat.
Either none fell for sixty years, or two fell in three years. Now look at it—five showers within just over half a year!
The frequent emergence of Emperor's Flowing Dew could only mean unrest in the divine realm, with celestial gods falling one after another.
Wonderful. A truly great thing.
Sure enough, Shi Nan said, "The divine realm has been somewhat turbulent lately."
Just "somewhat"? "Let's hear it."
The elderly woman bared her teeth in a smile at He Lingchuan. She had only a few teeth left, the rest just gaping gaps, giving her smile an eerie cast.
"Why are you so interested?"
"Who wouldn't be interested in secrets of the divine realm?" He Lingchuan said solemnly. "When Emperor's Flowing Dew descends, a celestial god has fallen. Does this unrest have to do with the Heavenly Palace Incident in Beijia last year?"
Shi Nan chuckled softly. "Yes, that is an important factor."
Yet it refused to say more; it had not let down its guard against He Lingchuan.
Their relationship was still in the exploratory stage, both speaking sweetly with daggers concealed, wary of a stab in the back.
He Lingchuan's brow twitched slightly.
A clever man listened for what was left unsaid and read between the lines.
From how Shi Nan phrased it, he understood: the Heavenly Palace Incident was merely one reason, not the whole picture—perhaps not even the main cause.
Then what was the real primary cause behind the divine realm's unrest?
Shi Nan deliberately evaded the matter.
He Lingchuan made a mental note of this, deciding to probe further at a later time.
"Now, regarding Nailuotian." Shi Nan hesitated for a moment before speaking. "Recently, an unsubstantiated little rumor has been circulating in the divine realm. Nailuotian seems to have run into some trouble of his own."
"In what respect?" Only He Lingchuan knew that Nailuotian's avatar had failed to return, having become a small tree inside the Dafang Pot instead. Yet the power of a celestial god—especially an orthodox god—was vast and boundlessly profound. Even losing an avatar should not be an unbearable loss.
It was the difference between having a chunk of flesh gouged out and having a leg snapped in two.
Therefore, He Lingchuan believed Shi Nan was referring to something else.
"How could anyone know for certain? He isn't going to announce it," Shi Nan murmured. "However, he was absent from an exceedingly important joint council between Lingxu and the gods. Even now, I haven't heard the reason."
He Lingchuan's eyes flickered, and he cut in, "Did you attend?"
"No." Insolent brat! Shi Nan sounded slightly displeased. "Do you want to hear this or not?"
"I do. Please, go on." He Lingchuan smiled. Was Shi Nan's rank simply too low, lacking the credentials even to observe?
"Furthermore, he has remained in seclusion lately, canceling meetings with several orthodox gods at short notice. That is rare—very rare."
"Just that?" He Lingchuan sounded disappointed. "The signs aren't distinct, and the deduction is a bit of a stretch, isn't it? For all we know, he shut himself away to divine his own fortune."
"The divine realm hasn't seen this much turmoil in a long time. As an orthodox god, and furthermore... to actually choose this timing to be absent and enter seclusion!" Shi Nan gave a soft cough. "Knowing Nailuotian's nature, he wouldn't do this without some compelling reason."
"Furthermore..."? Furthermore what?
He Lingchuan felt that what Shi Nan omitted was precisely the crux of the matter.
Shi Nan asked him, "How do I contact you after this?"
He Lingchuan said, "I'll seek you out in two months."
He still could not let Shi Nan track his movements.
With the transaction concluded, Shi Nan departed.
The elderly woman lay prostrate on the ground once more, muttering prayers, completely unaware that a deity had descended upon her flesh.
Having obtained the intelligence on Emperor's Flowing Dew, He Lingchuan also departed satisfied, not forgetting to unlatch the temple's doors and windows.
In exchange for parting with such precious intelligence, Shi Nan only asked him to build two shrines and locate another Dragon-Torture Pillar. It might sound like an unequal bargain, but in truth, a Dragon-Torture Pillar cost He Lingchuan practically nothing, and building shrines was just bricks, tiles, and a small sum of coin. Meanwhile, gathering a few snippets of gossip and intelligence from the divine realm required little effort on Shi Nan's part at this stage.
Both parties gained something, and their expenditures fell well within acceptable limits—only thus could this curious "friendship" between mortal and god endure.
Still, given how celestial gods typically behaved, not making outrageous demands was already proof of sincerity for further dealings.
Forming a relationship now opened the door to steady, long-term business later. He Lingchuan was well aware of this.
Strangers on the first encounter, acquaintances on the second. When he returned next time, he and Shi Nan would be able to engage in a more formal dialogue.
He was in dire need of news from the divine realm, making a greedy yet ambitious minor deity his best choice at present.
As for building the shrines, once he returned to Platinum Island, he entrusted the task to Fang Canran.
Upon hearing it, the latter offered just two words:
"Very well."
From that, He Lingchuan understood that Lingshan possessed a measure of influence in these parts as well.
***
The Yangshan Archipelago, Bone-Rod Reef.
Though called a reef, the island was actually decent in size; its shape simply resembled a bone rod, narrow in the middle and bulbous at either end.
The fissure of the earth fiend yin vein closest to the northern shipping lane of the Yangshan Archipelago lay on this very island.
On this cloudless, starlit night, a flying fox rode the wind above Bone-Rod Reef, circling twice as if confirming its position before slowly descending.
It chose to land in a depression along the island's flank, an area strewn with jagged reef rock that reached down to unknown depths.
Midnight had just passed. By rights, the earth fiend should have been surging forth, yet the entire island was clear, free of any mischievous gray mist.
Pits and tunnels crisscrossed beneath the reef rock. Only after searching several did the flying fox spot its objective:
Beneath a flat, white boulder was a pitch-black crevice.
The fissure was small and low; a human would have to squat down to see it.
Yet this posed no problem for the flying fox. It probed around the entrance for a good while, and only after confirming that no fiendish qi rose from the shadows did it cautiously crawl inside.
Only a handful of insiders knew that this was a surface breach of the earth fiend yin vein!
Across the entire Yangshan Archipelago, there were only seven such fissures. Yet the dense earth fiend they spewed forth was enough to turn most of the islands into a no-man's-land.
The flying fox had come under orders to see what exactly had suppressed or drawn away the earth fiend, preventing it from shrouding the archipelago.
In the past, it would fly to Longji Island on sunny days when the sun hung high to forage for fruit, so it was reasonably familiar with the fiendish qi. Even so, as it crept into this chasm, it remained exceptionally wary—taking two steps forward and retreating two steps, ready to pull back at any second.
Chapter 960