Chapter 841: Que Beasts, the Lid, and Perfected Sanshui

Otherwise, Ling Jinbao could have pieced everything together at once.

As things stood, he could only guess that this fellow surnamed Hé was exceptionally cautious and unwilling to put himself in danger, so he had sent Zhang Lianhai and the others ahead to test the waters.

To be honest, in the eyes of ordinary Daoist sects, the Heavenly Palace was practically an unreachable, unfathomably powerful existence. Hence, Ling Jinbao actually found it rather difficult to believe that a dignified cloud envoy was this timid.

Hm, perhaps Hé Jing possesses more information about Panlong City and the Generous Pot, information that makes him unwilling to take any chances?

Hé Jing gave him a faint smile. “This was the Heavenly Palace’s arrangement. Hm, is Mr. Ling leaving already?”

So after squeezing me for information, I’m being shown the door? Ling Jinbao cursed inwardly, stroked his chin, and said, “Can I stay and watch? I’m curious.”

Hé Jing had not expected him to be this thick-skinned. His brow furrowed as he said, “My apologies. This is a treasured artifact of the Heavenly Palace.”

In other words, the scenes inside the city were not for outsiders to see.

Ling Jinbao chuckled and waved to his disciples. “Let’s go. We’re leaving!”

If he had still harbored even the slightest fantasy about getting his hands on the Generous Pot before, seeing Hé Jing and the others had extinguished it completely.

A cloud envoy had personally come. Even if there were scraps to pick up, they would never fall to the Jianyang Sect.

Sigh, forget it; it appears it’s simply not fated. It’s time to go home.

Ling Jinbao led his disciples farther and farther away without once looking back.

A Heavenly Palace attendant followed them for roughly one and a half kilometers before returning to report, “The Jianyang Sect has left...”

Hé Jing cut him off with a wave, his expression grave. “They were smart to leave. This city and that red light are both traps!”

After being modified, the Haofang Mirror could share the young attendant’s field of vision beside Zhang Lianhai. Whatever the young man saw, Hé Jing could see as well.

That was because Hé Jing knew perfectly well that this trip into Panlong City could be hiding lethal danger!

An unknown intruder had caused chaos in the Heavenly Palace and stolen a divine artifact. Afterward, the Generous Pot became whole again, and Panlong City began undergoing strange changes. All of that made sense.

It would have been stranger if two supreme treasures reuniting had caused no disturbance at all.

However, one crucial question remained.

Where was the person who stole the Generous Pot’s lid?

That person had gone to extraordinary lengths and taken enormous risks to restore the Generous Pot to completeness. Would they really just abandon the pot afterward and walk away? What would have been the point?

So the thief was almost certainly nearby, secretly keeping watch over the Generous Pot.

The Generous Pot was an exceedingly mysterious treasure. Even after the heavenly gods had studied it for so long, they still frequently argued over exactly how it was meant to be used. Still, Hé Jing understood one thing: this artifact was fundamentally difficult to control. The strange phenomena happening now might not even align with the thief’s intentions.

That was also why the Heavenly Palace had urgently ordered Hé Jing to hurry here.

However, the thief could easily take advantage of circumstances and turn them into a trap.

The only question was what they were trying to accomplish.

That was why Hé Jing would never be foolish enough to rush into Panlong City ahead of everyone. With the Haofang Mirror, he could remain safely in the desert and observe the changes inside Panlong City from afar.

And sure enough, the moment he watched closely, he spotted something wrong.

Earlier, when the red light had suddenly spread across the entire city, it had lasted only an instant. Yet, Hé Jing had personally seen the people atop Panlong City’s southern gate vanish.

But afterward, looking through the Haofang Mirror from the young attendant’s perspective, every faction inside the city continued moving about normally, as though none of them had found the spread of the red light strange. Even Zhang Lianhai and the others never mentioned it.

Why?

Hé Jing studied the expressions of the people inside the city, and a thought surfaced in his mind.

Could it be that they don’t know?

Just then, the Heavenly Palace attendant staring into the Haofang Mirror let out an involuntary cry. This was because he had clearly seen a gigantic hand suddenly emerge from the red light in the pool of the Temple of Mitian and drag someone beside the pool straight inside!

Hé Jing stopped in his tracks.

That pillar of red light clearly represents the entrance to the Generous Pot’s secret realm. Something actually came out of it?

Soon afterward, everyone saw one strange white-furred beast after another leap from the pool.

They also noticed that wherever those aberrant creatures passed, frost formed on the ground and tiny ice crystals condensed in the air. Obviously, the creatures’ native environment had to be one of ice and snow.

“Let’s go. We should move closer and take a look.”

As he kept watching the events unfolding in the city through the Haofang Mirror, Hé Jing led his men toward Panlong City.

By the time Zhang Lianhai and the others had hidden inside the tall tower to evade the monsters, Hé Jing had already reached the wide land bridge in front of the Chipa Highland.

Crossing this land bridge, which also served as a bridge over the moat, would bring them directly beneath the southern gate.

However, Hé Jing did not cross. Instead, he ordered everyone to remain where they were and wait for a long while.

Under their watch, the Panlong Ruins remained completely silent. Aside from the pillar of red light piercing the sky, there were no strange noises at all.

Only the desert night wind passed through the open archway of the southern gate, producing a low, mournful howl.

Just like always.

That is utterly off.

Inside the Haofang Mirror, Panlong City was plainly in complete chaos, filled with human shouts and roaring beasts.

How could Hé Jing and the others, standing outside the city, hear absolutely nothing?

The Panlong Ruins before them was simply a deserted city.

Where had all the people gone? And what about the aberrant creatures?

One attendant asked from beside him, “Lord Cloud Envoy, should we go in?”

Hé Jing waved him off and sank into thought. “I think I’ve heard of these aberrant creatures.”

The attendants did not dare ask more. Only his most favored disciple, Fu Liang, respectfully said, “Lord Cloud Envoy is unmatched in learning and breadth of knowledge throughout the Heavenly Palace. That’s exactly why you’re always so overworked. You had to go to Wan’ge Swamp, and now you’ve had to come all the way to the Panlong Desert.”

Within the Heavenly Palace, Hé Jing truly was renowned for his vast breadth of knowledge. Other cloud envoys, such as Bai Ziqi, might have been praised for their sharp instincts, but in this respect, they still had to admit inferiority.

Hé Jing sighed and said, “I went to Wan’ge Swamp, and then the Heavenly Palace fell into turmoil behind me. The Star-Plucking Tower nearly collapsed.”

Fu Liang immediately said, “If you had been at the Star-Plucking Tower at the time, surely Mount Xu would not have suffered so badly.”

Hé Jing glared at him. “Nonsense! The chief cloud envoy was there too. How dare you make such wild claims?”

Fu Liang gave an ingratiating smile. “The aberrant creatures, Lord Cloud Envoy. You were talking about the aberrant creatures in the city.”

“I remember you participated in the event in the Grass Sea north of Lingxu City, right?”

“Yes!” Fu Liang smiled. “This disciple went with the Heavenly Palace guards and even brought back two duonao beasts.”

“The Fu Realm connected to the Grass Sea is a small world,” said Hé Jing slowly. “And it is not the only small world connected to the greater world we inhabit.” He pointed at the scene in the mirror. “These aberrant creatures or aberrant beasts may have come from another small world. I believe they’re also called que beasts[1].”

His disciple looked surprised. “Que beasts?”

“Their white fur is abnormally dense, and some of them possess divine techniques for controlling ice and summoning snow. Hm, look at the one Zhang Lianhai just killed. It can harden its outer surface until it resembles rock, making it difficult for blades and spears to penetrate. That serves both as camouflage and as protection. Hm, and their blood... Their blood is dark violet. Once it flows out and comes into contact with the air, it crystallizes into violet crystal.”

“Five or six years ago, a violet crystal nearly one and a third meters tall was sold at the Dun Garden auction. It had three gradually shifting shades of color. That crystal had formed from the blood of a que beast. Once the crystal is broken—” He pointed at the mirror. “Just like that man is doing now, it releases a tremendous amount of cold air and then turns back into liquid.”

Inside Panlong City, one of the Heavenly Palace attendants curiously smashed a piece of crystallized violet blood and nearly froze himself solid.

Hé Jing said disdainfully, “No sense of priorities whatsoever. Is this the kind of subordinate Zhang Lianhai trains?”

But his expression soon turned grave. A gigantic beast was already walking past the tall tower where Zhang Lianhai and the others were hiding.

Zhang Lianhai had also noticed it and ordered everyone to remain motionless and silent.

Another human faction soon drew away the giant beast.

“The aberrant creatures emerging from the red light are getting stronger and stronger. That’s precisely why they were named que beasts. When they first invaded the mortal world, commoners saw their enormous bodies, as huge as gate towers and walls, and began calling them ‘que.’[2]” Hé Jing’s eyebrows knitted tightly. “They’re enraged, and many are wounded. Hm, who injured them before they came out?”

Fu Liang asked again, “Lord Cloud Envoy, how did monsters from another small world appear inside Panlong City? Could this place, like the Grass Sea, also be a junction between two worlds?”

Hé Jing waved a hand. “That isn’t something you need to know.”

Because the answer involved the treasure stolen from the Star-Plucking Tower—the lid of the Generous Pot.

On the night Mount Xu was thrown into chaos, the Heavenly Palace immediately imposed a gag order. Everyone at the Star-Plucking Tower who knew what had happened was forbidden to discuss the incident, especially the fact that a divine artifact had been stolen.

Of course, news like that could never be suppressed completely. The upper ranks of Lingxu City and those deliberately seeking information would inevitably learn of it.

But as long as it did not spread widely, that was enough. They certainly did not want ordinary commoners turning it into another piece of gossip over tea and meals.

There was a difference between insiders and outsiders. Naturally, the Heavenly Palace had not hidden such information from Hé Jing.

After seeing these aberrant creatures, he remembered an old legend concerning the pot lid.

It was said that after several immortals worked together to refine the Generous Pot, it began displaying extraordinary properties. The immortals were all astonished, but only one among them, Perfected Sanshui[3], believed that its emergence would cause more harm than good. He feared that later generations would lack the ability to keep it under control, so he vehemently demanded that it be destroyed.

No matter how much he argued, however, the other immortals refused.

In a fit of anger, Perfected Sanshui stole the pot lid, rendering the Generous Pot incomplete.

However, the different parts of this divine artifact could sense one another. Perfected Sanshui tried countless methods to block that connection completely, yet never succeeded. Naturally, the other immortals refused to let the matter drop and pursued him relentlessly.

Perfected Sanshui evaded capture countless times and fought through many battles. Then, just as the other great immortals were finally about to catch him, he disappeared.

Both he and the pot lid vanished without a trace. The immortals searched fruitlessly for a hundred years before finally giving up.

Two thousand years later, immortals had long since vanished from the world, yet the lid of the Generous Pot somehow returned to the mortal realm. No one knew how, but the Ke Family eventually found it and presented it to the Heavenly Palace as a supreme treasure to be enshrined.

Why did everyone in the Heavenly Palace merely worship it instead of claiming the lid of the Generous Pot as they did other divine artifacts?

The reason was extraordinarily simple. The thing simply refused to recognize a master!

No one could truly take it for their own use.

The immortals of old had failed, and so had the Heavenly Palace of later generations.

Hé Jing had only skimmed the old anecdotes about que beasts. After all, at his level, he encountered countless strange histories and bizarre stories every day.

But now, que beasts had actually appeared in the Panlong Ruins!

Hé Jing could only speculate that when Perfected Sanshui had been hunted until he had nowhere left to hide, that small world had opened, and he had simply fled inside with the pot lid. Once the small world closed again and the connection between the two realms was severed, the immortals of the past could no longer locate the pot lid precisely.

1. The word used for que here is an archaic form of the modern word for mistake, fault, or deficiency. However, I’ll transliterate them, as I have done for duonao beasts, because I believe it’s meant as a name here rather than carrying actual meaning. ☜

2. If you’re wondering what the word looks like, here it is: 阙. The outer part of that word, specifically 门, actually means gate or door. ☜

3. Sanshui here can also mean Three Waters. ☜