Chapter 198: It's Over—Qinghe Has Made a Huge Mistake!
Chizhou was engulfed in raging winds and torrential rain.
Chu Xingchen stood by the surging river, with Qinghe at his side.
Li Yingling remained within Chizhou City, while Xie Lingyu and Li Xingtian were separately arranged to go to Cangzhou City.
Their cultivation was only at the Golden Core Realm, and on a battlefield where the baseline was the Nascent Soul Realm, there were inevitably certain risks.
Xie Lingyu carried a protective artifact from the Heavenly Evolution Sect. If Cangzhou City turned out to be the main direction, she could at least ensure Li Xingtian's safety.
Li Yingling stayed inside the city. If anything went wrong, Chu Xingchen and Qinghe could rush to support immediately.
Therefore, the only ones formally entering the battlefield were Chu Xingchen and Qinghe.
This was the most prudent arrangement.
Additionally, because Qinghe had been excessively slacking off at the Cangzhou water veins, the number of array foundations set up there was far fewer than in Chizhou.
As a result, betting solely on Chizhou was the best choice, while Cangzhou served as a delaying tactic.
In the end, sometimes a bit of luck was still necessary.
Qinghe, being a flood dragon aligned with water, felt extremely comfortable amid the raging storm and narrowed her eyes contentedly. However, she asked with some confusion,
"You said they need to pry open the national fortune to steal the treasure, but we don't know how much commotion will happen when the treasure is affected. What if the disturbance is very small and we don't notice, and we get caught off guard?"
Chu Xingchen nodded lightly. "Then when we return to the Heavenly Evolution Sect, Sister Bai can let you serve as her mount."
Qinghe froze upon hearing this, a sense of fear rising in her heart at the thought that the utterly ruthless Granny Bai might actually make her a mount.
After all, when Granny Bai went berserk…
Qinghe looked flustered as she turned to Chu Xingchen, wanting to ask if he had any solution, only to find that he looked completely at ease.
She quickly realized that she did not believe this black-hearted kid would busy himself everywhere and then rely purely on luck at the critical moment.
He definitely had some method or hidden backup.
"Don't try to scare Qinghe. Do you think Qinghe is stupid?" Qinghe put her hands on her hips, looking displeased. "If you've got something or some method, hurry up and tell Qinghe!"
Chu Xingchen looked at Qinghe in surprise, not expecting this flood dragon to be less foolish than imagined.
At least she had some brains.
He stopped teasing her and took out the founding jade seal of the Xuanwu Kingdom's emperor from his spatial ring, explaining,
"We'll rely on this. The Xuanwu Kingdom's emperor lent it to us temporarily. By sending divine sense into it, we can perceive the national fortune."
"If the national fortune starts collapsing rapidly, we'll know the thieves are about to act. And I suspect this founding jade seal should also be able to sense that item."
Since both belonged to the same category of fortune and destiny, this was not mere groundless speculation.
Qinghe looked at the founding jade seal shimmering with radiant light, her fingers itching as she reached out to grab it, only for Chu Xingchen to dodge by raising his hand.
"Qinghe can't even take a look? You're really stingy," Qinghe said with a dissatisfied expression.
Chu Xingchen eyed her suspiciously. "Just looking? Don't let me fail to get it back from you later. This has to be returned."
Qinghe glared at him. "What doesn't the Heavenly Evolution Sect have? What's so impressive about a mortal kingdom's founding jade seal? Qinghe is just curious because she's never seen one!"
Seeing her disgruntled little expression, Chu Xingchen thought for a moment and handed the founding jade seal over to her.
With Xie Lingyu around, and Bai Xuanling as a fallback, he was not worried that Qinghe would refuse to return it.
Qinghe's dissatisfaction vanished instantly as she happily accepted the founding jade seal. The moment it entered her hands, an extremely intimate aura emanated from it.
Worthy of being a founding jade seal acknowledged by heaven and earth—it even carried dragon qi.
Qinghe fondly stroked the jade seal, then glanced sideways at Chu Xingchen.
This black-hearted kid claimed he borrowed it from the Xuanwu Kingdom's emperor, but wasn't that black-hearted granny always saying she had fished him out from somewhere as well?
These two black-hearted people really did seem to get along.
Who knew if this founding jade seal had been secretly stolen by this black-hearted kid.
Of course, Qinghe dared not say this aloud, since she currently could not defeat him.
Feeling an affinity toward the founding jade seal, and recalling Chu Xingchen's words about using divine sense to perceive national fortune, Qinghe let her curiosity take over and sent her divine sense inside.
Once her divine sense entered, an entirely different world unfolded within the jade seal.
Within Qinghe's divine sense, a clear map of the Xuanwu Kingdom's territory appeared. Most of the land was covered in a steady yellow aura.
Only the directions of Bingzhou and Chizhou were shrouded in dark clouds.
Bingzhou and a large adjoining area were almost completely pitch-black, while Chizhou was only about half-dark.
Qinghe felt an innate closeness to the yellow aura and an instinctive disgust toward the dark clouds.
She gently brushed the yellow aura with her divine sense and found it extremely friendly, giving her a feeling akin to petting a cat.
Driven by curiosity, Qinghe cautiously extended her divine sense toward the dark clouds over Bingzhou.
The moment she touched them, an intense sensation of revulsion surged forth.
Without any politeness, Qinghe manipulated her divine sense and lightly rammed into the dark clouds, treating it as a way to vent her frustration on behalf of herself and the yellow aura.
After all, this was merely a reference image reflecting the current state of the Xuanwu Kingdom.
After the collision, Qinghe observed the dark clouds for a moment and saw no abnormalities.
Just as she was about to withdraw her divine sense, she suddenly discovered that the dark clouds over Bingzhou grew violently denser and began surging madly toward the yellow aura of the Xuanwu Kingdom.
And the rate of devouring was extremely fast.
Qinghe was instantly dumbfounded by the sight.
Damn it—these dark clouds can't be touched! Why didn't this kid tell her?!
It's over—she's caused a huge disaster!
Qinghe hurriedly withdrew her divine sense and looked at Chu Xingchen, who was observing the river surface, her voice filled with panic.
"It's over! Black-hearted kid! Qinghe has made a huge mistake!"
Chu Xingchen looked at Qinghe strangely. Had this flood dragon lost her mind?
Standing here, she could still make a huge mistake? And what kind of address was "black-hearted kid" supposed to be?
Qinghe suddenly felt that the founding jade seal in her hands was no longer appealing and hurriedly shoved it back at Chu Xingchen, urging anxiously,
"Quick, take a look! Something's wrong inside!"
Before Chu Xingchen could even secure his grip on the founding jade seal, it began to tremble violently.
Very soon, fine cracks started to appear on its surface.
Qinghe stared at the cracks and felt her vision go dark.
It's over—this is a catastrophic disaster!
If she could still end up pulling Granny Bai's carriage after this, it would already count as Granny Bai showing mercy.
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