Chapter 749: The Wind Brought by the Penal Dragon Pillar

Chapter 742: The Hot Trend Stirred by the Dragon-Punishing Pillar

He Lingchuan pulled it out and saw it was a bronze tube, inlaid with gems, and at its tip was an engraved, short, stout monster. Faint red mist swirled within the tube.

It was a Dragon-Punishing Pillar, and specifically, the Red General's version. He had personally witnessed the Red General present a sample to Zhong Shengguang and Shao Jian.

The material of this Dragon-Punishing Pillar was clearly of a higher grade than the one he had haphazardly put together using Guluo tree branches and colored glaze. Of course, its capacity might also be different. His crude version had far less capacity than the original, and he had already given it to the Spirit of Suffering. But where did *this* one come from?

He Lingchuan patted the captive's face. "Stop groaning. Where did you get this?" The captive, still crying out in pain from his leg injury, couldn't answer.

He Lingchuan let out a breath and then dislocated the captive's shoulder joint with a snap. "Ah—" the captive screamed again, his eyes rolling back. He Lingchuan genuinely worried the man would pass out, forcing him to laboriously wake him up. Fortunately, the fellow had a robust nervous system; the next moment, he was gasping and begging for mercy. He finally understood He Lingchuan's ruthlessness.

"Where did it come from?" He Lingchuan shook the Dragon-Punishing Pillar. "Don't make me ask a third time." "My, my god bestowed it," the man stammered, "to let me ferry the departed souls on the battlefield!"

"Ferry the departed?" He Lingchuan raised an eyebrow. When he had marched through Xinhuang Town with He Chunhua, he had also captured an attendant of the Frost Leaf Grand Tutor. That person also used a Dragon-Punishing Pillar to collect nightmare energy, claiming it was for ferrying departed souls. However, that attendant genuinely believed his own explanation, while the captive before him was clearly being evasive. Was ferrying departed souls addictive, requiring one to rush to the freshest battlefields?

"Which deity do you serve?" The man equivocated for a long time, his eyes darting around. "The, the All-Conquering God!"

Sun Fuling had already walked over and now lightly kicked him with her foot. "Liar." The force was slight, but it jarred his injury, making him cry out in pain.

He Lingchuan looked up. "How do you know he's lying?" "My students have the same look in their eyes when they lie," Sun Fuling scoffed. "Trying to convince me their homework notebooks were burned when the bandit army attacked the city." She added, "Notebooks are very expensive; each student only gets one per year." "...Burned by what?" That excuse was absurd, similar to some of his own. "By the bandit army's fire arrows," Sun Fuling gestured towards the captive with her chin. "His expression is identical."

He Lingchuan eyed the captive. "Do you not want your other leg either?" The man waved his hands repeatedly. "I do, I do! Please, have mercy!" "The deity you worship?" The man swallowed. "I worship the God Bilu!"

Bilu! He Lingchuan's faint smile vanished instantly. Bilu was Nairuoten! The Spirit of Suffering had already told him that Nairuoten's name before becoming a true deity was Bilu! No wonder Mitian and the Red General had never heard of Nairuoten. In this era, it was still just Bilu.

"Are there many disciples of God Bilu? I mean, followers like you?" "I don't know," the man quickly replied. "I haven't communicated with other followers." "Then how did you come to worship it?"

"My family was destitute, and I couldn't do anything right. But ever since I happened to visit a Bilu temple to offer incense and worship, things suddenly started going smoothly for me. I could win money at the casino, and on my way home, I encountered a mudslide where only I survived out of a group of forty people..." The captive swallowed. "The more I believed in God Bilu, the smoother my life became. One day, God Bilu suddenly appeared to me in a dream, asking me to collect nightmare energy for him. When I woke up, this bronze pillar was on my pillow. It's a miracle, a true miracle!"

He Lingchuan toyed with the Dragon-Punishing Pillar. "It seems God Bilu trusts you a lot. How many battlefields have you been to?" In the Panlong world, the large batch of Dragon-Punishing Pillars created by Shao Jian and and the Red General had been gone for almost a year. Given Shao Jian's efficiency, he would have already begun distributing the pillars across the world by now. This meant that the function of the Dragon-Punishing Pillar had only just become known to the gods, and God Bilu had taken the lead, ordering his followers to collect nightmare energy. At such a time, no deity would possess many Dragon-Punishing Pillars, probably only one or two. The fact that this follower had one indicated he was a fervent devotee of Bilu.

"Four or five battlefields, large and small," the man stammered. "I always waited until the fighting ended, then changed into the victors' armor and walked a few laps around the periphery of the battlefield. No one paid attention to me. But I didn't kill anyone, truly I didn't! I only collected nightmare energy!" Indeed, there was no murderous aura about him. He Lingchuan fell into contemplation.

When opportunities and trends suddenly emerge, some are early, some are late. Some seize the moment and reap great rewards, while others arrive too late to even get a sip of the soup. The same applies to gods. Undeniably, Bilu was among the quickest to react, one of the first deities to ride the tide. However, conversely, it was likely still a wild deity at this point, perhaps even a minor one yet to fully develop. This was because Shao Jian, adhering to Mitian's requirements, would initially only distribute the Dragon-Punishing Pillars to minor and wild deities. The gods of Lingxu City, along with other true and great deities, would likely be several steps behind in obtaining the pillars. They would only begin to investigate and pursue the matter once they noticed that the nightmare energy collected by Tianluo Star from the human world was continuously decreasing. As the saying goes, a big ship is hard to turn around. When an organization is too large, its feelers become less sensitive. This interim period was a blue ocean moment for minor deities to seize opportunities and strive for development.

He Lingchuan also noticed something else: the captive said that after worshipping God Bilu, he began to have good luck. In reality, his father, He Chunhua, always said his eldest son was a lucky charm, even insisting on taking him to the Panlong Desert. Wait a minute! Back then, He Chunhua *insisted* on taking He Lingchuan to the Panlong Desert! He Lingchuan rarely thought about past events, but recalling it now, his father's action sent shivers down his spine. The Panlong Desert was a perilous place, so why did He Chunhua insist on taking his eldest son? At the time, he was puzzled. No matter how much Sun Fuping and Nian Songyu tried to persuade him, given He Chunhua's character, it was impossible for him not to have a backup plan. Looking back now, he had taken his eldest son, which meant he had taken the vessel of Nairuoten. Was his father originally planning to invoke the deity at the most dangerous moment to save himself? Was this He Chunhua's backup plan? Fortunately, that trip went smoothly, and He Chunhua didn't need to use his backup plan. He Lingchuan, blissfully unaware, had narrowly escaped danger, truly a stroke of luck!

"What's wrong?" Sun Fuling placed a hand on his shoulder. "You look so pale." "Nothing, just some thoughts," He Lingchuan refocused. "What's your name?" "Peng, Peng Fang." "How did you know there was a major battle here?" He Lingchuan looked eastward. "Were you with Jin Tao's army?"