"The Red General?" The Hee father and son exchanged a look. "The Red General died before Zhong Shengguang?"

"Zhong Shengguang had a host of fierce generals under his command, but if you were to name the greatest warrior on the battlefield, it would have to be the Red General." Sunx Fuping spoke with wistful admiration for the famous general of old. "For the following twenty years, the ironclad army of Panlong City was almost entirely his creation. According to the last will I recovered from a citizen of Panlong City, he wielded his troops with divine skill, dominating the battlefield and shouldering most of the pressure for Zhong Shengguang."

"Hmm. You should know, after twelve years of defending the city, Zhong Shengguang was already riddled with injuries and ailments. It was difficult for him to carry on. As the old saying goes, ’a general dies in a hundred battles.’ A will of steel is far from enough; you also need a body of steel."

"I’ve heard about that. Legend says the Red General once took a few dozen men on a reconnaissance mission behind enemy lines, only to run head-on into two thousand enemy soldiers from Xianyou. A few dozen men against two thousand. His followers were nearly all killed, but the Red General only fought more ferociously. He actually turned the tables and sent the enemy scattering, setting a legendary record of a handful of men chasing after two thousand. I don’t know if he entered the Overlord Body state..." At this term, everyone frowned, and Hee Lingchuan quickly cleared his throat. "Anyway, reinforcements eventually arrived, and Panlong City won a major victory. There are so many legends about the Red General in Black Water City, I could tell them for three days and nights and still not be done."

An exaggeration, of course, but people loved these kinds of epic, thrilling tales.

"That was the Battle of Black Pine Pass." Sunx Fuping nodded. "Do you know what year that took place?"

"I’m not sure." Hee Chunhua thought for a moment. "Was it after the negotiations between Xiluo and Xianyou fell apart, and Panlong City was besieged again?"

"It was the autumn of the very year the Xianyou Kingdom renewed its war on Xiluo, the Panlong Wasteland became an enclave once more, and Panlong City was again an isolated stronghold!" Sunx Fuping said slowly. "The wording in the will is also quite interesting. It says the Red General ’burst onto the scene,’ fighting back the tide of enemies from all sides and steadying the morale of the Panlong Army!"

As Sunx Fuping set the stage, Hee Lingchuan played his part, dutifully acting as the engrossed listener. "Exactly. A peerless warrior like that, the savior of Panlong City... how could he have had no reputation at all, only to ’burst onto the scene’ at that specific moment?"

He was as familiar with the legends of the Red General as anyone from Black Water City, but legends were just that—legends. With a fundamental lack of information, who would bother to scrutinize the historical details of events from over a century ago?

Nian Songyu chimed in, "The Grand Commandant reviewed the historical records and believes that since Zhong Shengguang’s offering to the Deities came first, followed by the Red General’s sudden appearance, the two events must be connected."

Hee Chunhua said, "So, you’re saying that besides the Grand Square Pot, the Deities’ aid was manifested in the form of the Red General?"

To grant two forms of aid at once—this Deity was truly generous.

"He was, at the very least, a crucial part of it," Sunx Fuping continued. "The Personal Guard’s last will also mentioned that the Red General left Panlong City on two occasions. Once he went to Xiluo, and the other time he reached the Xianyou Kingdom! The writer deeply regretted not accompanying him, or he might have had the chance to be stationed in his homeland instead of dying and being buried in the Wilderness."

The Hee father and son were astonished. "The Red General even went to Xiluo?"

"Weren’t we just saying that Panlong City was a besieged, isolated city?" Hee Lingchuan clicked his tongue. "How could he possibly travel to Xianyou... Hmm, what would he be doing in Xianyou?"

"That’s unclear," Nian Songyu said with a shrug. "When he left, when he returned, and what he did there—none of the materials we have mention any of it."

"Even for the greatest general in three hundred years, his feats are beyond comprehension. Perhaps he was an incredibly powerful Mage who also carried the destiny of the entire Panlong Wasteland." Sunx Fuping let out a long sigh. "However, I’m more inclined to believe that the Red General was no longer human. He had a Demigod Body!"

"A Demigod Body?" Hee Chunhua exclaimed. "You’re talking about a Divine Descent!"

"That’s right. A Divine Descent!"

The ever-composed Hee Prefect was, for a moment, both stunned and confused. But he quickly regained his composure.

"There are only three recorded cases of Divine Descent in all of history." ’Then again,’ he thought, ’the Red General’s achievements were so magnificent that attributing them to a Deity somehow makes more sense.’ "The requirements for a Divine Descent are said to be exceptionally strict; otherwise, there would be more than just a few examples."

Hee Lingchuan immediately searched the memories of his body’s previous owner for the words "Divine Descent," but after a long search, he only found a vague impression. The saying goes that Deities are always watching from above, but in truth, they exist beyond the heavens and cannot descend directly into this realm.

Although their true forms cannot enter, under extremely limited conditions, they can possess a human body through a "Divine Descent," which counts as an indirect way of entering the Mortal World.

A person who has undergone a Divine Descent is known as a Demigod.

"Mmm, Deities don’t usually interfere in mortal affairs, but there’s an exception to every rule," Sunx Fuping said. "In the spring of the thirty-second year of the defense of Panlong City, Xianyou and Baling gathered five vassal states to field a joint army. They also requested six hundred soldiers from the Northern Demon Kingdom’s Demon Army, and together they launched an attack of unprecedented scale against Panlong City. The fighting was said to be so fierce it ’leveled the mountains’—the entire Yindou Mountain to the north was razed to the ground."

"In that battle, all six hundred soldiers of the Demon Army were annihilated, along with the two Demon Generals leading them. Of the five National Preceptors dispatched by the Seven Kingdoms, three were killed and one was critically wounded. The casualties among common soldiers were too numerous to count. It’s said that for five years after this great war, ’eight out of every ten’ fields in the Xianyou Kingdom lay fallow because there weren’t enough able-bodied men left to farm the land."

Nian Songyu sighed. "Even as a member of the ultimately victorious side, the Xianyou Kingdom couldn’t withstand such losses. Just a few years after the war for Panlong City ended, civil war broke out, and the kingdom fractured into several smaller states. It has been mired in conflict ever since."

"The last will states that the Red General fell during this epic battle. Three days after he died, Panlong City was breached, and Zhong Shengguang took his own life."

"So that’s how it was." Hee Chunhua couldn’t help but sigh. "What a waste."

A pity that hundreds of thousands of loyal soldiers were buried in the Panlong Wasteland, yet in the end, they still failed to defy destiny.

"It’s more than a waste—it’s terrifying," Hee Lingchuan also sighed. "The army that the Seven Kingdoms could barely defeat has now become the Heroic Souls we must face. By the way, the Panlong Army’s strength was largely thanks to the Grand Square Pot, right? But Panlong City still fell in the end. Did the Grand Square Pot stop working?"

"That’s unclear." Sunx Fuping spread his hands helplessly. "It’s not recorded anywhere. It was hard enough for us to deduce this much from the limited sources we have. We’re just glimpsing a tiny part of the whole picture. The full truth, I’m afraid, may never be known."

Nian Songyu stood up and stretched. "We should get some rest. Starting tomorrow, we might not get another peaceful night’s sleep."

The meeting concluded.

The Hee father and son shared a small cabin.

The room was tiny, with just enough space for two small beds. When the two grown men lay down, they could barely stretch out their legs.

The bedding, however, was surprisingly dry and fresh, which Hee Lingchuan attributed to the desert’s aridity. The floor was a bit sandy, but free of any pesky critters.