After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 401: Chapter 400: How Is This Possible?

It was a good thing he was riding a Rock Sheep. A horse would never be able to leap up and down on such rugged, terraced fields.

”Faster, faster!” Hee Lingchuan urged the Rock Sheep, his tone surprisingly urgent. Shi the Second didn’t understand why and just assumed he wanted to rejoin the group. He even pointed the way for him, ”There’s a small path over there. It’s a bit steep, but if you go down that way, you’ll actually get ahead of the merchant team.” The winding mountain road the Guard Team was taking wrapped almost halfway around Wind Demon Mountain, so climbing the mountain was a shortcut for the two of them.

However, this shortcut was too difficult to traverse; a normal team couldn’t take it.

Just then, people started trickling in from several small paths. They were men and women, and they all marveled at the sight of the ancient ruins.

These were all guests from other merchant teams coming up to sightsee. They had all followed the designated routes and were thus quite a bit slower than them.

Just as Hee Lingchuan jumped near the path leading into the mountain’s belly, a long, drawn-out whistling sound, WOO-WOO-WOO, suddenly came from behind and below.

To be honest, the sound of the wind here was highly varied. You could hear what sounded like the howling of wolves, the wailing of ghosts, the roaring of tigers, and the whistling of people—you could hear just about anything.

But the whistling from behind was three long notes followed by two short ones, trailed by a series of rapid sounds. It was clearly not the natural wind.

Hee Lingchuan’s ears twitched. He turned to look and saw a person standing by the edge of the chasm, enthusiastically blowing a long whistle.

Other whistles were short, an inch long at most. But the greenish-blue whistle in his hand was like half a chopstick. It looked like bamboo but wasn’t, like jade but wasn’t, and even had nodes on its surface.

Moreover, the sound he produced was actually softer and richer than a normal whistle, sounding surprisingly like the song of a whale.

This person was also using True Power to blow the whistle, which allowed the sound to remain focused and not be drowned out by the surrounding noise.

No one could withstand the Wind Blades and Frost Swords on the mountaintop. Everyone, including Hee Lingchuan and Shi the Second, wore thick felt hats or scarves to cover their faces, leaving only their eyes exposed.

But this man had to lift his face covering to blow the whistle, revealing his true face.

Fushan Yue!

Seeing that increasingly familiar face, Hee Lingchuan’s heart jolted.

’The man really did escape Fufeng City in one piece, and he’s stubbornly continuing his mission.’

’But the Envoy from the Shanyu Kingdom clearly returned east to his country. Why didn’t Fushan Yue follow him? Why did he come here instead?’

’Could it be that his target has changed?’

Fushan Yue looked up and scanned his surroundings as he blew the whistle, his eyes turning red.

His actions were strange, but the other tourists didn’t try to stop him. Only one person complained, ”Keep it down! You’ll cause an avalanche!”

Only Hee Lingchuan looked around. He had been about to leap onto the stone platform path, but he suddenly turned the sheep’s head, making it jump directly into a deep recess on the side of the mountain.

The mountain face was riddled with such recesses, carved out by wind and snow. The large ones could fit a house, while the small ones could only fit a squirrel.

This was a dead end; there was no path forward from there.

There also seemed to be three large words carved into the rock wall, which required careful examination to decipher.

Shi the Second was confused. ”Brother Hee, what are you doing?” ’Aren’t we going down the mountain?’

Just then, another strange sound came from the mountain’s belly. It was like a trapped beast unable to escape its den, filled with rage and fury, and so it was as loud and resonant as thunder.

Most importantly, this sound was coming from the chasm!

It was as if some monster was about to leap out from within.

The guy blowing the whistle was also backing away, retreating all the way to the mountain face, but the whistling never stopped.

But just then, a young man in his early twenties was standing at the chasm’s entrance, mocking his companion. ”Hey, what are you afraid of? The Wind Demon was killed by the King of Treasure Tree ages ago. This little bit of noise is nothing but the wind blowing through an empty cave!”

The moment the words left his mouth, a violent gust of wind howled out from the chasm with a WHOOSH!

Without exception, everyone standing at the chasm’s entrance was blown away. The one who had just been mocking the others was the unluckiest; the gale flung him straight into the sky.

Hee Lingchuan shielded his eyes with his hand, estimating he’d been launched at least a hundred... no, a hundred and seventy or eighty feet into the air.

’Yeah, he’s dead for sure on the way down.’

The great wind that rushed out of the chasm didn’t flow out through the openings as it normally would. Instead, it circled again and again inside the ring-shaped mountain belly. With each pass, the wind’s force grew stronger and its howling grew louder, yet the ”volume” of the wind itself seemed to shrink.

The dozen or so tourists who had come up to sightsee were also out of luck and were immediately swept into it. Using them as a reference, Hee Lingchuan could see that the radius of their spin was getting smaller and smaller.

At the same time, gravel, sand, and packed snow from all around were also sucked in and churned together.

At first, these people managed a few screams, but they were soon knocked unconscious by the debris.

With these objects coloring it in, Hee Lingchuan could finally see the ”wind’s” appearance:

A classic tornado, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom.

At its very top were two dark patches, like eyes.

Hee Lingchuan, Shi the Second, and the Rock Sheep all stood firmly pressed into the depths of the mountain recess. The wind, as fierce as it was, couldn’t even budge them.

The only person still standing in the area was the whistle player. The tornado seemed to be deliberately avoiding him.

”Is... is that the Wind Demon?” Shi the Second’s eyes widened in shock. After a few stunned breaths, he suddenly cried out, ”How is this possible?!”

This path had been safe for centuries. He himself had traveled it several times. How could they suddenly run into the Wind Demon now?

Was he seeing a ghost?!

’Wasn’t the Wind Demon killed by the King of Treasure Tree?’

He hurriedly asked Hee Lingchuan, ”Brother Hee, how did you know this thing was about to come out?”

But Hee Lingchuan seemed to turn a deaf ear, instead focusing his attention on something else:

A Wind Lion Lord statue.

That’s right. There were also two Wind Lion Lord statues in this recess, one on the left and one on the right. The one on the left was as tall as a person, while the one on the right was three feet high.

Hee Lingchuan’s eyes widened as he examined the back of the Wind Lion Lord, asking a seemingly random question at the same time, ”There’s no wind in this recess. Why?”

To avoid being blown away, he had even hidden the Rock Sheep deeper inside. Who would have thought there would be no wind here at all? It was as if the tornado was selectively ignoring this recess.

Just now, he had taken a few steps back toward the opening and only felt a gentle breeze on his face, as if he were in a different world from the apocalyptic scene outside.

Shi the Second was still in a state of shock and dazedly repeated, ”Why?”

’With such a terrifying scene unfolding before them, how could Brother Hee be focused on such minor details?’

He moved to Hee Lingchuan’s side and saw that the snow on the back of the Wind Lion Lord had been wiped away, revealing fine lines.

’An array on the back of the statue?’

”It’s probably because of them,” Hee Lingchuan said, pointing down casually. ”Look at the terraced fields below. Are any of the ones with Wind Lion Lords nearby damaged?”

Shi the Second instinctively looked down and saw that, sure enough, the terraced fields with Wind Lion Lords were still covered in thick snow and hadn’t been sucked into the tornado. Meanwhile, the places without a Wind Lion Lord to guard them looked as if they had just been gone over with a vacuum cleaner—spotless and tidy.

’Of course, of course! The purpose of the Wind Lion Lords is to ward off wind and suppress evil!’

’No wonder the Piaomiao Sect places Wind Lion Lords all over its territory. They’re for warding off the Wind Demon.’

”These statues were all meticulously crafted and then inscribed with arrays. They’re not ordinary items,” Hee Lingchuan said, his confidence growing after a quick examination of the array.

Panlong City’s Wenxuan Pavilion housed a large collection of Array Maps, especially Battle Arrays, and he had read quite a few of them.

Even if he couldn’t master them, he could at least tell if one was authentic.

He glanced at Fushan Yue again and noticed that the man was indeed standing near a Wind Lion Lord. Even when facing the Wind Demon directly, only the hem of his clothes had fluttered.

By now, the tornado in the mountain’s belly was coalescing, growing smaller and smaller.

This shrinking, however, was not reassuring. Instead, it was like a balloon being compressed to its absolute limit, ready to burst when it reached the breaking point.

When the wind’s radius shrank to only thirty feet, the tornado let out a heaven-shaking roar.

As if in response, the sky, which had been perfectly clear a moment ago, suddenly echoed with rolling thunder. Great masses of dark clouds drifted in from nowhere, quickly blocking the bright sun.

The sky instantly darkened, the clouds hanging low and heavy like a shroud over a city.

Fushan Yue had already climbed to a high point. He now decisively stretched out a hand and pointed at the Guard Team on the mountain path opposite them.

The gesture was brimming with killing intent.

As if it had received a kill order, the tornado howled as it swept out from the golden peak of Wind Demon Mountain and charged toward the other side!

Shi the Second shouted, ”Is this man insane? He actually summoned the Wind Demon to attack the Guard Team!”

”He’s not insane, he’s just here to kill!” ’Fushan Yue always acts with a clear purpose. I wonder what he wants with the Guard Team this time. Could he also be after the King of Treasure Tree’s Spirit Seed?’

Hee Lingchuan scooped up some ice and snow from the ground and rubbed it onto the characters carved into the rock wall.

The white snow filled in the engravings, outlining the words. He could finally make out the inscription in the Ancient Immortal Language:

Wind Master Rock.

Shi the Second was stunned for a long moment before suddenly bowing deeply to Hee Lingchuan. ”Thank you for the warning, Brother Hee! Otherwise, the merchant team would have been finished!”

He could see it now, too. The Guard Team was the whistler’s target. Thankfully, he had listened to Hee Lingchuan and let the Stone Gate Merchant Team fall back several miles behind the Guard Team, thus avoiding becoming collateral damage.

This merchant team was the life’s work of him and his brother. If the Wind Demon had destroyed it, it would have been a devastating blow.

’A benefactor... this is truly help from a benefactor.’

”It was nothing,” Hee Lingchuan said with a smile, extending his leg to push a stone tile off into the mountain belly.

His footwork was good and his aim was true. The stone tile tumbled down the terraced fields, picking up speed until it finally fell toward the long chasm.

When the tile entered the chasm, it was like a piece of wood falling onto water. Right before Hee Lingchuan’s eyes, it hovered in mid-air for a while before suddenly floating back up.

This was the strange phenomenon Shi the Second had mentioned earlier, that ”falling objects do not sink” in the chasm.

A strong wind from below would blow any object that fell into the chasm back up.

’In other words, was the earlier anomaly in the chasm all because of the Wind Demon?’

’What was that monster doing in there? An ambush plus a power-up?’

’Fushan Yue blew the whistle, so... where did he get another Wind Demon?’

’Most importantly, why is Fushan Yue attacking the King of Treasure Tree’s Guard Team? Is this something a sane person would do?’

Hee Lingchuan thought for a moment, then conducted a small experiment:

He put both Wind Lion Lord statues into his Storage Ring.

The full force of the mountain wind immediately poured in, scouring every inch of the stone surface without mercy.

This confirmed Hee Lingchuan’s suspicion: the things really did ward off wind.

He put the Wind Lion Lords back, told Shi the Second, ”Stay here and don’t wander off,” then mounted his Rock Sheep. He started up the mountain face toward the peak, grabbing a few more person-sized Wind Lion Lords along the way.

’Can’t be too prepared.’