Chapter 868: Naraku Ten's Suspicion

What was coming would come, and what needed to be faced eventually had to be faced.

Smoke coalesced in mid-air, refusing to disperse, forming a human face.

Nailuotan's stern voice simultaneously rang out: "He Chunhua, do you know your sin?"

"Please, God, punish me." He Chunhua was prepared, lowering his gaze and offering no defense.

Having known each other for so long, he had some understanding of Nailuotan's character as a celestial deity.

Seeing him confess readily without prevarication, Nailuotan snorted, his anger subsiding slightly: "What happened in the Coiling Dragon Secret Realm? Explain clearly, don't miss a single word!"

Since its avatar had not returned, it was unclear what had transpired in the lower realm.

He Chunhua then recounted his experiences in the city, one by one, without embellishment or personal conjecture.

He knew that when the deity didn't want to hear opinions, it was best for others to remain silent.

He Chunhua also did not mention his various conjectures about He Lingchuan's actions to Nailuotan.

Nailuotan listened carefully, interrupting him occasionally to ask questions.

This detailed account lasted for over half an hour, during which He Chunhua himself drank two cups of water.

As for his injuries, he merely stated he was wounded by the Que beast. Nailuotan did not seem concerned and asked no further questions.

"Do you believe He Lingchuan knew from the beginning that you had entered the Coiling Dragon Secret Realm?"

Anyone who saw the towering light pillar in the Coiling Dragon Ruins would assume it was the entrance to the Secret Realm. Furthermore, although there had been seasons of fierce sandstorms in previous years, many factions had actually visited the Coiling Dragon Ruins. Not to mention, the last time He Chunhua entered the ruins, he brought over a hundred people. These soldiers couldn't keep quiet after returning to the city, spreading the news everywhere.

Later, those who heard the news would also be predisposed to believe that the pool in the Misty God Temple was the Secret Realm's entrance.

If He Lingchuan had known from the start that the Secret Realm began at the Coiling Dragon South Gate, then the changes within the Coiling Dragon Secret Realm would be inextricably linked to him.

He Chunhua said earnestly, "It seems Chuan'er knew he had a divine mark. He stopped me from summoning the gods several times in the Secret Realm. I think he might not have even realized he was inside the Secret Realm."

Nailuotan suddenly raised his voice: "Are you saying my avatar being trapped in the Grand Square Pot has nothing to do with He Lingchuan?!"

He Chunhua, having endured a terrifying night and then reported to him for half an hour while injured, was utterly exhausted. Yet he forced himself to say, "Currently, it seems the Grand Square Pot lured various teams into the Secret Realm for its own purposes, but this doesn't necessarily indicate a connection to Chuan'er."

Nailuotan immediately stated, "The Grand Square Pot intended to use your hands to eliminate the Que beasts that emerged from the red light pillar. A few months ago, there was chaos in Lingxu City, and the Star-Picking Tower lost a supreme treasure. I've only just learned that it was related to the Grand Square Pot."

"No wonder strange occurrences have been frequent in the Coiling Dragon Desert these past few months," He Chunhua thought, secretly disdainful. "Just found out? No one would believe that! Why wouldn't Nailuotan have shared such crucial intelligence with me beforehand?"

If He Lingchuan was still He Lingchuan, neither Zhong Shengguang nor possessed by the spirits of Coiling Dragon City, it was even less likely he was the mastermind.

Because his eldest son had no connection whatsoever to the shocking events at the Heavenly Palace.

"If that's the case, then the mastermind must be targeting the Heavenly Palace, right?" He Chunhua mused aloud. "He Jing, the Heavenly Palace's Cloud Emissary, did indeed die mysteriously at General Hong's Tomb."

"Mortgaging the Red Cliff trade route and seizing the Grand Square Pot in the Coiling Dragon Desert—these were all our proposed plans. Chuan'er came reluctantly," he said after a moment of hesitation. "I don't think it was him."

Nailuotan scoffed with a laugh: "He escaped the divine descent simply due to good luck?"

He Chunhua whispered, "He is a lucky general; his fortune has always been good. You are well aware of this."

"How do you know he didn't see through your tricks and simply went with the flow?" Nailuotan said coldly. "Didn't you say he had already discovered the divine mark in his mind?"

"I don't know," He Chunhua admitted frankly. "There are too many inexplicable aspects to this matter."

What happened in the Coiling Dragon Secret Realm was too vast and complex for anyone, including Nailuotan, to sort out quickly.

Moreover, through this unexpected turn of events, He Chunhua had realized something:

This god of destiny also seemed unable to accurately predict his own fate, otherwise, why would his avatar have become trapped in the Grand Square Pot?

He stammered hesitantly, "God, didn't you make... uh, preparations beforehand?" How could it still have failed?

Nailuotan was silent for a moment before replying, "Almost a year ago, changes occurred in Xu Mountain, and the divine object lost by the Star-Picking Tower is far from simple. I assumed it wouldn't be easy for the Grand Square Pot to refine it."

"Are you suggesting...?" He Chunhua pondered, "There's a trick to be played here?"

"Precisely. The Que beasts you encountered in the Coiling Dragon Secret Realm are the divine object's resistance against the Grand Square Pot. This struggle has likely been ongoing for a long time," Nailuotan said slowly. "That divine object had been enshrined in the Star-Picking Tower for nearly two hundred years and was already familiar with the aura of the Ever-Burning Lamp Spirit. Therefore, when I sent my avatar into the Secret Realm, I had it carry the Ever-Burning Lamp Spirit as a medium, hoping it would be accepted by the divine object and thus bypass the Grand Square Pot's traps."

"No wonder," He Chunhua realized. "No wonder your avatar disappeared after entering the Coiling Dragon Secret Realm." So, Nailuotan's avatar was guided away by the divine object, rather than being directly swallowed by the Grand Square Pot.

"Then... did the Heavenly Palace team not receive divine guidance beforehand?" He asked. "Why weren't they guided? From what I saw, the Heavenly Palace's Lamp Keepers and Cloud Emissaries bore most of the combat pressure within the Secret Realm."

Nailuotan scoffed with a dismissive laugh: "The true origin of this divine object is unknown even to the gods of Lingxu. They believed the divine object and the Grand Square Pot were originally one entity, and that the Grand Square Pot could refine it from the start. Little did they know there were so many variables within the pot!"

In short: a crucial intelligence gap led the Heavenly Palace team to misjudge the complexity of the Secret Realm within the pot.

"Besides, the Heavenly Palace team, like yours, entered the city directly from the beginning and weren't blocked from the Secret Realm. Why would they need guidance?"

The Grand Square Pot blocked its avatar, which was why the latter required the special guidance of the Bell Spirit Treasure Lid.

"Even if He Jing and others possessed the Lamp Spirit, attacking the Que beasts would immediately provoke a counterattack. Moreover, the Bell Spirit Treasure Lid has never communicated with humans. For two hundred years of worship, the leaders of the Star-Picking Tower have yet to receive a single shred of feedback from the divine object."

So, that divine object was called the Bell Spirit Treasure Lid? He Chunhua noted the name.

The question then arose: how did Nailuotan acquire the secret of a divine object that even the immensely powerful gods of Lingxu were unaware of?

What was the significance of this?

The relationships among the celestial deities also seemed complex. Although curious, He Chunhua did not ask further.

He could sense that Nailuotan did not wish to elaborate.

Moreover, even if Nailuotan knew the divine object's secret and could communicate with it, wasn't his avatar ultimately lost?

This indicated that Nailuotan had also failed, just like the Heavenly Palace team and the gods of Lingxu.

From the results, everyone was a loser; no one was superior to another, so there was no call for the pot to call the kettle black.

Of course, he wouldn't dare say such a thing aloud.

It was Nailuotan's turn to ask: "Whose hands did Heavenly Palace Cloud Emissary He Jing truly die by? You genuinely didn't see clearly?"

He Chunhua shook his head: "Bao Guanjie from Baling Kingdom was closest to him, and then Le Zhengqing also rushed over. I don't know which of them retrieved the Grand Square Pot."

"Bao Guanjie could kill He Jing?" Wasn't every Cloud Emissary a figure capable of holding their own?

"At that time, only four members of the Heavenly Palace team remained alive. He Jing had fought the King of Que beasts and was at his limit, unable to stand steadily and continuously spitting blood."

A dragon in shallow water is mocked by shrimp, but Bao Guanjie was also a renowned general from Baling, certainly no "shrimp."

"I highly doubt the pot you saw was the Grand Square Pot itself," Nailuotan mused. "The Heavenly Palace's loss of a treasure has made them a laughingstock, so they must have been seething for months. He Jing's expedition to the Coiling Dragon Secret Realm this time wasn't just to retrieve the treasure, but likely also to find the whereabouts of the thief who disrupted Xu Mountain months ago. Conversely, whoever killed He Jing could be that thief. From this perspective, Bao Guanjie doesn't seem to fit."

How much audacity would a Baling general have to kill a Heavenly Palace Cloud Emissary?

He Chunhua's eyes flickered. Was Nailuotan suggesting there was something fishy, and that Bao Guanjie was a scapegoat?

"Can you still catch up to the Baling people?"

"I can try, but it's unlikely."

"This matter involves the death of Cloud Emissary He Jing, and the Heavenly Palace won't let it go. If you don't want Beijia's wrath to fall upon you, you must pin this on the person named Bao."

He Chunhua replied, "Yes," as he was already thinking along those lines.

What was strange, however, was that Nailuotan, who had initially been furious, was now offering him advice. Was a god really so easy to appease?

He had expected to be flayed alive, if not killed.

Something was amiss; there had to be a special hidden reason.

"Your incompetence led to the entrapment of my avatar and caused me to lose an extremely important ability! Originally, you deserved to die a hundred times over," Nailuotan's voice was clearly gritting its teeth. "However, while you were in the Coiling Dragon Secret Realm, I performed a divination and found your fate line surprisingly clear, indicating you still have some use."

These two sentences made He Chunhua's emotions tighten then relax.

Nailuotan had once said that the worst outcome of this expedition would be the loss of an avatar. He Chunhua had secretly gathered intelligence over the years and knew that it cost an enormous amount of divine power for a god to send an avatar to the mortal realm. If an avatar was destroyed in the mortal realm, the loss was even more severe.

Competition was fierce in the divine realm, and no god wanted to suffer such a loss without reason.

But ultimately, an avatar was just an avatar; even if it perished, it shouldn't harm the deity's true essence.

This was also Nailuotan's confidence in taking the risk.

Yet now it claimed to have lost an "ability" of extreme importance.

What kind of ability could Nailuotan value so highly?

He Chunhua could feel its surging rage. Had Nailuotan not believed he was still useful, it would surely have unleashed its fury upon him.

He also noted that Nailuotan described its avatar as "entrapped" rather than merely "lost."

This implied that the avatar still existed in the mortal realm.

He understood instantly:

This was He Lingchuan's true objective!

A celestial deity could only send one avatar to the mortal realm following a mark. As long as this avatar was trapped, regardless of the reason, Nailuotan could not send a second one.