Chapter 13: Hidden Plot
Lu Qingshan, accompanied by the King of the Black Rats, swiftly left the Chaotic Stone Forest.
"Where are we headed?"
Observing Lu Qingshan, who had been silent ever since they left the Chaotic Stone Forest, the King of the Black Rats hesitated for a long time before finally asking.
"Yuanshan City!"
The King of the Black Rats actually wanted to ask Lu Qingshan if it could leave since it had already confessed everything.
Being around Lu Qingshan made it terribly afraid.
However, seeing Lu Qingshan's solemn expression, it ultimately did not dare to voice its question.
Being a rat is truly challenging!
...
After walking for some time, a towering and majestic city appeared before Lu Qingshan.
Yuanshan City, one of the one hundred and eight prefectural cities under the command of Zhenjiang Prefecture.
As a prefectural city, Yuanshan City was home to dozens of large and small cultivator families and three First Grade sects.
Standing outside Yuanshan City, Lu Qingshan couldn't help but be evoked into a trace of reminiscence.
The one hundred and eight prefectural cities of Zhenjiang Prefecture were the starting locations for "Nine Heavens" players, in other words, the beginner villages.
His former beginner village was not Yuanshan City, but another prefectural city. Still, seeing this familiar scene, he couldn't help but feel a sense of affinity.
Lu Qingshan entered the city directly, and at the city gate, he was neither questioned nor charged any so-called entry fee, though the Black Rat on his shoulder greatly intrigued the city guards.
Who keeps rats these days?
The city's roads were paved with blue stone slabs, clean and orderly. Countless pedestrians, travelers, and snack vendors crowded the already spacious streets, making them bustling with activity.
In a world filled with demons and ghosts, and where Taoist magic existed, human towns flourished economically and in many other regards far beyond the ancient worlds that were dominated by science.
Lu Qingshan randomly picked an inn, got a top-floor room, ordered some wine and dishes, and began to drink alone in his room.
The King of the Black Rats looked around for a moment and finally couldn't help but jump onto the table to join him.
Lu Qingshan glanced at the King of the Black Rats but said nothing.
He needed to calm down now, put aside all distractions, and organize his thoughts thoroughly.
The Blood Pool, which appeared prematurely but was never mentioned in the storyline records, made Lu Qingshan feel that something was amiss.
He could sense that a layer of fog enveloped the history just before the outbreak of the Corpse Puppet Chaos.
And his task was to break through this fog with the vast information he possessed.
First of all, the existence of the Blood Pool must have its significance. Demon Cultivators would not build a Blood Pool without a purpose.
Since there was a purpose, whether successful or not, there must be a result.
The onset and process of an event could be very well hidden, but the result cannot be concealed. No matter what the outcome, it would inevitably have a significant impact.
Just like in ancient times, when princes conspired to seize power—if planned meticulously, everything might be silent before the outcome, but once the dust settled, whether a failure or success, it would be recorded elaborately in the annals of history.
Yet, recalling the historical storyline, indeed, there was no discovery of any events related to this Blood Pool far from Zhenjiang Prefecture.
Thus, there was only one possibility—it existed in the records in a rather obscure way.
One must deduce from the result which incident was related to the Blood Pool!
Lu Qingshan dipped his finger in the wine and gestured on the table.
He needed to review the major events that had occurred near Yuanshan City that year.
When he had just checked into the inn, he had inquired about the current time with the innkeeper.
The 20,000th year of Chang'an.
It was also the last year of this era. In a few months, the Corpse Puppet Chaos would begin.
After the end of the Corpse Puppet Chaos, the master of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion used the Heavenly Secret Mirror to probe the heavenly secrets.
In an instant, his hair turned white, and having reached the Mahayana stage, the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion Master's lifespan was exhausted almost instantly. Before dying, he left his last words: "The Abyss has arrived; from now on, the Sky Dome shall descend into turmoil."
In the second year, the Great Xia Imperial Clan changed the era name to Immortal Martial.
That year, everyone's attention was drawn to the Corpse Puppet Chaos and the demise of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion Master, so many minor details went unnoticed and were drowned in the river of history.
However, Lu Qingshan was different; he had deeply researched the plot of "Nine Heavens."
Names flickered rapidly through Lu Qingshan's mind.
He was filtering useful information.
Suddenly, a seemingly insignificant record in the vast ocean of historical records quietly emerged before Lu Qingshan.
The historical record, in the middle of the 20,000th year in Chang'an, on July fifteenth, one of the seven great Taoist Sects, the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, lost a branch of the Heavenly Secret Mirror near Yuanshan City while stationed in Zhenjiang Prefecture.
Due to the Pavilion Master's demise at the end of the same year, the entire Heavenly Secrets Pavilion was in mourning.
By the Immortal Martial Year, one significant event after another had occurred, so this matter was dragged out and eventually forgotten.
The missing branch of the Heavenly Secret Mirror thus became an unresolved case.
The Heavenly Secret Mirror, the sect-guarding Taoist Artifact of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, could probe the mysteries of Heaven and Earth, and discern the causality of the human world, possessing the ability to detect fate and avoid disasters.
Besides, the Heavenly Secret Mirror had another important ability: it could be split into numerous branches, each retaining a small portion of the main mirror's power.
Due to the magic of the Heavenly Secret Mirror, the Great Xia Imperial Clan had reserved a guarding position in every prefecture, entrusting a disciple of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion carrying a branch of the Heavenly Secret Mirror to oversee the area.
The Heavenly Secrets Pavilion monitors the world!
Lu Qingshan had always been puzzled by this segment of historical record.
The Zhenjiang Prefectural Guard, a Fourth Stage Nascent Soul Cultivator, how could he appear inexplicably in the small Prefecture City of Yuanshan and lose such an important branch of the Heavenly Secret Mirror there?
Something is not right!
Linking this with the Blood Pool that appeared near Yuanshan City, Lu Qingshan could already smell the scent of a conspiracy.
A segment of the plot... hidden away?
Lu Qingshan's eyes gradually brightened, his thoughts becoming clearer and clearer.
The Heavenly Secret Mirror, with its mysterious and unpredictable abilities, actually had many limitations; for instance, often the fate detected by the mirror was just an ambiguous image.
This required cultivators to interpret these images, deciphering their meanings.
And this aspect could often be exploited by schemers, who might deliberately create false appearances to mislead those using the Heavenly Secret Mirror.
That's it.
Such an important thing as the Blood Pool, how could the Illusion Array concealing it suddenly fail, and even without any guards present?
It was clearly the Demon Cultivators intentionally removing the Formation, allowing the Blood Pool to appear in the Heavenly Secret Mirror, drawing the Zhenjiang Prefectural Guard to this place.
To avoid exposing their identities in the Heavenly Secret Mirror, the Demon Cultivators needed to stay away from the location of the Blood Pool.
Even though the situation seemed incredibly strange, the disciples of the Heavenly Secrets Pavilion, as world overseers, would indeed come to investigate.
The purpose was simple: whatever the Zhenjiang Prefectural Guard lost, that was what the Demon Cultivators aimed for.
The branch of the Heavenly Secret Mirror!
If the branch of the Heavenly Secret Mirror were still there, how could the city of Zhenjiang Prefecture be left unguarded, allowing the Demon Cultivators to massacre the city!
Upon realizing this, Lu Qingshan's gaze deepened, and he recalled another matter.
After losing the branch of the Heavenly Secret Mirror, Zhenjiang Prefecture dispatched many cultivators to reside in various major Prefecture Cities.
Thus, when the Corpse Puppet Chaos began, although the Corpse Puppets' attacks on various major Prefecture Cities were extensive, the actual carnage caused was not terrifying.
But the city of Zhenjiang Prefecture was filled with skeletons!
Now, Lu Qingshan understood why such a result occurred.
The Zhenjiang Prefectural Guard very likely was misled by the Blood Pool near Yuanshan City.
He believed that the Demon Cultivators' target was just these smaller prefecture cities.
However, he hadn't anticipated that the Demon Cultivators' ambitions were vast enough to target the prefectural city itself, and they even succeeded.