Chapter 795: Father's Intention

"Records are scarce, and your understanding of divine power is truly superficial!" Naluo Tian chuckled deeply. "The power of a divine descent is controllable and doesn't necessarily cause massive destruction. Moreover, different vessels have different capacities. Do you think I carefully chose a vessel and had you raise him until he was eighteen just to destroy him in one go?"

"Chuan'er, he..."

"I have other vessels that have hosted divine descents, and they are still alive and well, not mindless living corpses," Naluo Tian asked him. "You've been on the frontier for over a decade; you must be familiar with the past of Panlong City?"

"Yes," He Chunhua replied. It was a tragic history buried by yellow sands. He Chunhua disagreed with Zhong Shengguang's methods but admired his character.

"Then you should know that General Hong was a vessel for the Heaven-Shrouding God. She campaigned for decades; did she ever collapse?"

"Can Chuan'er... truly be compared to General Hong?"

"We haven't fully deciphered General Hong's secret to this day. However, He Lingchuan's aptitude can easily bear my divine descent." Naluo Tian was growing impatient. "I'm only putting a wisp of my avatar into him; it won't harm him much. Afterward, he'll still be conscious and call you 'Father.' What are you afraid of?"

He Chunhua didn't fully believe anything Naluo Tian said. He knew that all divine assurances had an ulterior motive, and Naluo Tian simply wanted him to cooperate with the divine descent ceremony. However, He Chunhua understood it was unwise to argue with a god. "Why did you specifically choose Chuan'er's body? You can tell me now, can't you?"

"Haven't I already told you? Mortal bodies are useless; they collapse as soon as we descend!" Naluo Tian sighed. "Only a few vessels can withstand our power to a limited extent. He Lingchuan's body is one such example."

He Chunhua persisted, "Why is Chuan'er so special? Can't I do it?"

For sixteen years, Chuan'er had been a carefree, mischievous child. He Chunhua wasn't disappointed; on the contrary, he believed a child's best years should be spent in joyful abandon.

He wanted him to be happy and carefree, until...

Alas, as his father, this was the only limited compensation he could offer.

But after Chuan'er returned from the Panlong Ruins, he seemed like a different person. He had become accomplished, yet also unfamiliar.

What if— what if the hope of bringing glory to the family lay with his eldest son, not his second?

"You?" Naluo Tian burst into laughter. "You'd be willing to sacrifice yourself for him, willing to take his place? Hahahaha, that's unbelievable."

He Chunhua opened his mouth, then hesitated. In that instant, a thousand thoughts raced through his mind, but ultimately, he couldn't utter the words "I'm willing."

Naluo Tian laughed for a long time before scornfully saying, "Indeed, you are still the He Chunhua I know! The He Chunhua who would sacrifice his own flesh and blood, his eldest and dearest son!"

He Chunhua secretly gritted his teeth. "Why is Chuan'er special?" From Naluo Tian's attitude, the special factor wasn't related to him as the father. "Is it because of Chuan'er's birth mother?"

"That involves the secrets of body and soul. You're a summer insect; you can't discuss ice. Such profound concepts would be beyond your comprehension," Naluo Tian continued. "When you sought my help, you happened to be near the Panlong Desert, and you happened to have a son who could serve as a perfect vessel. How do you humans describe such 'happenstances'—oh, 'serendipity.' Otherwise, how could I possibly respond?"

These humble humans never understood that gods were utterly indifferent to them. Their daily prayers, their earnest pleas, were simply unheard by the gods!

He Chunhua seized the opportunity to ask, "You said Chuan'er's destiny became unclear. I thought the God of Destiny's control over fate would be absolute."

Naluo Tian chuckled, "Mortals are the easiest to manipulate. Their lives revolve around eating, sleeping, procreating, and dying. They become complacent when things go well and blame others when things go wrong, never escaping their most superficial desires. How different are they from a flock of sheep? Their actions are all much the same; it requires no effort to calculate their ultimate end. But beyond that, things are different. The stronger one is, the more entanglements they have, the more they interact with this world, and the more unpredictable their destiny becomes. Take you, for example. To change your fortune, I had to expend a hundred times more divine power than changing an ordinary person's fate."

A shrewd listener not only pays attention to what is said but also to what is *not* said. One must understand how to discern implied meanings. He Chunhua immediately grasped Naluo Tian's underlying message:

It believed that He Lingchuan was no longer an "ordinary mortal." No longer a profligate young master tightly controlled by his father. No longer even easily controlled by "destiny."

This was terrifying. A mere pawn trying to overturn the board, and succeeding?

"Then..." He Chunhua pondered, "Can you control your own destiny?"

If the God of Destiny governed the fates of mortals, then who governed the fate of the God of Destiny itself? Naluo Tian was certainly omnipotent, but He Chunhua always felt that it wasn't as unconstrained as it appeared.

Naluo Tian paused briefly before responding, "That is not for you to ask."

He Chunhua knew he had overstepped, so he quickly changed the subject. "But Chuan'er has returned as Mount Rong's special envoy, overseeing the vast sums Mount Rong loaned to the State of Yuan. If something happens to him, what about those funds from Mount Rong...?"

"That's none of my concern," Naluo Tian interrupted him, impatiently. "You and your revenge are utterly tedious. Prepare the ceremony as quickly as possible. Do not make me remind you a third time!"

Then, the human face formed by smoke dissipated, and the seven incense sticks finished burning.

The room was filled with choking smoke, but He Chunhua sat motionless.

The divine mark on his eldest son had been placed long ago. For the past decade or more, Naluo Tian had never mentioned it. Why was it suddenly so urgent now? Was it afraid of losing Chuan'er's body?

No, it was more than that. Any divine descent was not easy for the deity's true form; it consumed an enormous amount of divine power. Divine power was precious; which deity would dare misuse it?

Therefore, there must be more significant, hidden secrets that Naluo Tian had not disclosed. It had mentioned that it, too, had experienced an upheaval, and that unpleasant changes had appeared in the cosmic order. Was that related to Chuan'er, or to the divine realm? Mortals, of course, knew nothing of the conditions or events in the divine realm.

Naluo Tian had also just mentioned the Panlong Desert, seemingly in passing, but He Chunhua instinctively felt it was genuinely concerned about it. What was in the Panlong Desert? He Chunhua's first thought was the ruins of Panlong Ancient City. That was the absolute central point in the Panlong Desert, the source of the annual sandstorm season. Even Sun Fuping and others had gone to the Panlong Ruins to search for treasure in an attempt to turn the tide of battle and win.

Treasure hunting... Hmm, could one of Naluo Tian's goals also be the Grand Square Vessel?