Chapter 146: The Incense-God Way

The Heavenly Palace Pavilion was truly a colossal entity that had its business spread throughout the twelve provinces. Its capabilities were beyond the imagination of ordinary people.

Within the entire county, it could determine where the water energy was most abundant.

"Zanglong River, could it have something to do with dragons?"

Su Nan couldn't help but speculate. In this world, he had not yet heard of anyone who had seen a dragon.

But it was certain that dragons existed.

Otherwise, there wouldn't be the word "dragon," and his Dragon Turtle Egg was somewhat related to dragons.

A place that could be considered the most abundant in water energy throughout the entire Tianyun County was bound to be extraordinary. Su Nan didn't believe it could exist without the presence of powerful monsters.

If it were in the past, it might have been challenging for him to obtain this information, and he might have had to investigate it himself.

But now, for him, it was just a waste of one precognition opportunity.

"Precognition."

"You arrive at the Heavenly Palace Pavilion and want to know specific information about Zanglong River in Pingyin County."

"After learning about your needs, the receptionist turns and leaves."

"You silently wait, and after one minute, the receptionist has not returned. You patiently continue waiting."

"After two minutes, the young woman finally returns and tells you that the corresponding information is worth 10 drops of Spirit-ranked monster blood."

"You pay with one initial-stage King-ranked monster corpse as compensation and finally obtain the desired information."

"Stepping out of the Heavenly Palace Pavilion, you open the note given to you by the young woman, and you learn that Zanglong River in Pingyin County is indeed related to dragons."

"Legend has it that a thousand years ago, Zanglong River was just an ordinary river until one day when a Dragon Monster at the Monarch Realm was severely injured and fell into the river."

"The river was stained red with blood, causing the originally ordinary river to undergo a transformation, and the Dragon Monster eventually died in the river."

"The grudge of the Dragon Monster soared to the heavens. After death, its Dragon Monster spirit did not dissipate but instead condensed into a vengeful spirit, intent on revenge."

"However, Zanglong River was the place of the Dragon Monster's death, and the vengeful spirit could not leave, fueling its hatred even more."

"To vent its resentment, anyone who approaches within a kilometer of Zanglong River, whether they are martial practitioners or monsters, will be killed by the vengeful spirit."

"There's actually a vengeful spirit formed by an Imperial-level Dragon Monster!"

After reading the precognition's information, Su Nan's heart sank once again.

He had already witnessed the eerie nature of vengeful spirits, something he had no power to resist. If it weren't for his precognition, he might not even know how he died.

The vengeful spirit of this dragon was different from the Dragon Turtle's vengeful spirit.

The reason the Dragon Turtle would attack passing monsters or martial practitioners was to protect its offspring.

On the other hand, the vengeful spirit formed by the Dragon Monster was solely driven by its desire for revenge.

The two were entirely different entities.

"It seems I can't go to Zanglong River either."

Su Nan shook his head. Based on the current information, Zanglong River was even more dangerous than White Water Lake, and going there would be suicide.

"Since the place with the most abundant water energy in Tianyun County won't work, I'll have to settle for the next best option."

He used precognition again.

In the following six precognitions, he was disappointed.

White Water Lake turned out to be the second most abundant place in terms of water energy in Tianyun County. The third most abundant place also had powerful monsters, although they weren't Monster Kings, they were still at the peak of King-ranked monsters, and there were two of them, making it something he couldn't handle.

The fourth and fifth places had no significantly powerful monsters, but the level of water energy abundance was far less than the top three, insufficient for hatching the Dragon Turtle Egg.

"It looks like I'll have to figure something out at White Water Lake."

Su Nan muttered to himself.

He planned to find an opportunity to investigate White Water Lake thoroughly.

He wasn't in a hurry to leave.

He also thought of the City God Temple he had visited not long ago and decided to use precognition again.

Looking at the number of precognition uses, the consecutive precognitions had consumed a large number of uses, leaving him with only eight uses now.

"Eight times should be enough for today."

"Precognition!"

"You arrive at the Heavenly Palace Pavilion and want to know information about the City God Temple in Tianyun City."

"After learning about your needs, the receptionist turns and leaves."

"One minute later, the young woman returns and tells you that the corresponding information is worth twenty drops of Spirit-ranked monster blood."

"You pay with one late-stage King-ranked monster corpse as compensation and finally obtain the desired information."

"Stepping out of the Heavenly Palace Pavilion, you open the note given to you by the young woman, and you are somewhat disappointed. The information on the note is meager, consisting of only two sentences."

"You learn that the monsters in the City God Temple are mysterious. Even the Heavenly Palace Pavilion has little information about them. They are suspected to be related to the Great Xuan Empire and are a product of the Great Xuan Empire's divine way."

"This information is too sparse for the price of twenty drops of Spirit-ranked monster blood?"

"It seems that the Heavenly Palace Pavilion doesn't know everything."

Su Nan shook his head. It was normal for the Heavenly Palace Pavilion not to have information on everything, even though it had extensive knowledge of lower-tier information. When it came to powerful beings, there were limits to what they could know.

"The Great Xuan Empire? What kind of power is that?"

Looking at the precognition's information, Su Nan was curious. This was the first time he had heard of this power.

Suddenly, he remembered the game introduction that appeared when he first logged into the game.

He recalled that the introduction began with a specific year: the 1785th year of the Great Xuan Calendar!

"Great Xuan Calendar, Great Xuan Empire... It seems that before the Great Yu Dynasty, there was another, even larger empire in this world."

"The divine way of the Great Xuan Empire, what is that?"

Su Nan became interested.

This was information he had never come

 across before, and he hadn't even heard of it.

Without hesitation, he used precognition once again.

"Precognition!"

"You pay with one early-stage King-ranked monster corpse as compensation and finally obtain the desired information."

"As you suspected, before the Great Yu Dynasty, there was indeed a more powerful empire in this world known as the Great Xuan Empire."

"The Great Xuan Empire rose to power and controlled the territory of the twelve provinces in just a short hundred years, lifting humanity out of the post-ancient era's decline."

"However, from its birth to its fall, the Great Xuan Empire only lasted for a hundred years, and the cause of its downfall was the Incense-God Way."

"The Incense-God Way?"

Su Nan's breath momentarily caught.

He understood that he might have learned about a cultivation system he had never heard of before.

"There are rumors that the Incense-God Way was a partial cultivation method discovered by the Great Xuan Emperor from an ancient forbidden place."

"This cultivation method didn't rely on bloodlines and could still be practiced even after the changes in the world following the post-ancient era."

"The Great Xuan Emperor rapidly ascended in strength using the Incense-God Way, surpassing others of the same level of martial practitioners."

"However, this cultivation method was not as perfect as it appeared on the surface. It had unimaginable drawbacks."

"At first, only those belonging to the core of the Great Xuan Empire had the qualifications to practice the Incense-God Way, and no one discovered these drawbacks."

"It wasn't until the Incense-God Way was widely disseminated after the Great Xuan Empire controlled the territory of the twelve provinces that the drawbacks became evident."

"Some found that those who practiced the Incense-God Way would be briefly influenced by negative emotions once they arose."

"As the number of negative emotions increased, those who practiced the Incense-God Way would eventually transform into bizarre beings controlled by their emotions."

"The news spread, and fear quickly spread. Everyone who practiced the Incense-God Way became self-conscious and feared being controlled by their emotions."

"However, the more they feared, the easier it was for them to be controlled by their emotions."

"In this vicious cycle, countless practitioners of the Incense-God Way transformed into beings controlled by their emotions, and the Great Xuan Empire collapsed within a short month."

"Beings controlled by negative emotions?"

"Could the three monsters in the City God Temple be those beings?"

Su Nan thought of a possibility.

Unfortunately, the information provided by the Heavenly Palace Pavilion was too scant to draw any conclusions.

"If I could learn the cultivation method of the Incense-God Way, maybe I could find out something."

Su Nan had another idea, and this time, he couldn't suppress his curiosity.

In the end, he couldn't resist using precognition again.

However, it left him disappointed.

The Heavenly Palace Pavilion had nothing!

"How could there be nothing? I think they just don't want to sell it!" Su Nan suspected.

The Heavenly Palace Pavilion could produce even extinct ancient monster clan scriptures, so he couldn't believe they didn't have the cultivation method of the Incense-God Way that had once flourished over a thousand years ago.

The most likely explanation was that the Incense-God Way was a forbidden knowledge, and the Heavenly Palace Pavilion refused to sell it.

"Well, it's not so bad. I obtained so much information without spending a drop of blood essence; I should be content." Su Nan consoled himself.

The information about the Great Xuan Empire had cost him a King-ranked monster's corpse in his precognition.

These were clearly not something an ordinary person could access.

And he could access them freely.

"This is just the beginning. As long as I have precognition opportunities, the Heavenly Palace Pavilion will be an endless source of information for me."

Su Nan tasted the sweetness of it.

He even considered trying to buy monster scriptures, ancient texts, and similar things through precognition.

However, this idea was destined not to be realized.

Whether it was monster scriptures or ancient texts, they were not merely simple written records.

"Among them are many things that can only be intuited and not spoken."

"Moreover, monster scriptures and ancient texts have extremely complex operational routes, which cannot be described by words alone."

"For now, knowing these things won't be of much use; the main thing is to focus on the task."

"I've already obtained the drug that can put Xuan-ranked monsters to sleep. Now it's time to see the specific effects."

Su Nan took out the jade bottle containing five drops of Soul-Breaking Water. He planned to test its effects through precognition.

While Soul-Breaking Water could put monsters to sleep, it certainly wouldn't render them defenseless like corpses. There was a high probability that the monsters would wake up if attacked.

In his plan, if Soul-Breaking Water could provide him with an opportunity to strike with all his might, that would be enough.

His gaze fell on Lang Thirteen's task.

Currently, among the three characters, besides two tasks that couldn't be completed temporarily, Lang Thirteen's task remained undone.

If possible, he naturally wanted to complete the task that would replace Xiong Yan as soon as possible.

Wutong Road.

Su Nan once again transformed into the appearance of Lang Thirteen and arrived here.

Old Yang and Eagle Gao looked puzzled, not understanding why Su Nan had returned so quickly.

"Besides you two, where are the other three of Xiong Yan's subordinates?" Su Nan asked.

Since he planned to replace Xiong Yan, he naturally wouldn't let the other three subordinates of Xiong Yan off the hook.

The two monsters were momentarily taken aback, but they soon realized that Su Nan had previously inquired about Xiong Yan's weaknesses. It seemed they finally understood Su Nan's intention and were shocked.

Old Yang cautiously asked, "Master, you don't intend to go after King Xiong Yan, do you?"

Eagle Gao hurriedly added, "Master, please don't! King Xiong Yan is at the mid-Xuan level, and you are no match for him!"

Both monsters were in a panic.

In their view, if Su Nan truly wanted to get the attention of Xiong Yan, it would be tantamount to seeking death.

Both of them had the bloodline servitude mark imprinted by Su Nan, and if Su Nan died, they wouldn't survive either!

Su Nan said, "Who told you I intend to go after Xiong Yan?"

He knew about this matter, and there was no need to disclose it to the two monsters.

Although the two monsters couldn't betray him, he still didn't plan to reveal anything until the matter was successful.

"Are you really not planning to take action against King Xiong Yan?" the two monsters continued to doubt.

"Are you two being foolish, or am I?" Su Nan looked at the two monsters as if they were idiots.

Once they were certain that Su Nan wasn't going to challenge Xiong Yan, the two monsters exchanged glances and breathed sighs of relief. Then, they suddenly became amused.

If Su Nan really wanted to enslave the other few monsters, they not only wouldn't oppose it but would also enthusiastically support it.

Eagle Gao quickly said, "Master, let me lead the way."

Guhu Street.

This was the territory of another monster named Black Tiger under Xiong Yan's command.

As soon as Eagle Gao and Old Yang brought Su Nan here, a muscular, tiger-headed monster appeared in front of them.

Black Tiger stared at Eagle Gao and Old Yang, clearly dissatisfied. "Eagle Gao, Old Yang, why aren't you staying in your own territory? Why are you here in mine?"

Eagle Gao sneered, making way for Su Nan, and said, "Black Tiger, let me introduce you. This is our master."

"Our master?"

Black Tiger was stunned, thinking he had misheard.

After a while, he finally came to his senses and burst into laughter.

"Hahaha, are you two idiots? You actually found a low-level Spirit-ranked kid to be your master? If King Xiong Yan finds out, he'll definitely skin you alive."

Then, he changed his tone, "If you really want to find a master, I can reluctantly take you in."

Old Yang and Eagle Gao didn't get angry at Black Tiger's mockery. On the contrary, they wore even bigger grins on their faces.

They wanted this kind of effect.

Both monsters volunteered, "Master, this guy dared to underestimate you. Do you want us to teach him a lesson?"

"Very well, both of you can go." Su Nan nodded.

Hearing this, Old Yang immediately launched an attack on Black Tiger, with Eagle Gao assisting him using his magic power.

"Are you really going to attack me? Aren't you afraid that King Xiong Yan will punish you when he finds out?" Black Tiger's face changed slightly as he faced the combined attack of two monsters.

Although Black Tiger was also at the Spirit-ranked Peak, he couldn't withstand the combined assault of two opponents of the same rank.

In just a moment, he began to struggle.

"You two stop, or I won't be polite to that kid!" Black Tiger said angrily.

Hearing this, the two monsters exchanged glances and their attacks became even more ruthless.

Black Tiger was furious, "You forced me to do this!"

With those words, he no longer paid attention to the two monsters and instead rushed straight toward Su Nan.

Black Tiger stared at Su Nan and grinned maliciously.

 "Kid, don't blame me. It's their fault!"

Seeing this scene, Old Yang and Eagle Gao both laughed.

This was exactly what they wanted.

Author's Note: I've been feeling something's not quite right; I've been writing, deleting, and rewriting. Today, I can only manage one chapter. I need to straighten out the following plot.

Thank you once again to everyone who subscribes and votes every day. Thank you for your support.

(End of this chapter)