Where Immortals Once Walked

Nian Songyu and He Lingchuan both seemed deep in thought, and the earlier tension between them faded.

It seemed that perhaps their fortune was finally shifting. Barely a cup of tea’s time later, another mutated beast took the bait.

This one had a bloated, hippo-like body, fin-shaped limbs, an absurdly long neck and tail, and a disproportionately tiny head.

It was low in intelligence and unwilling to let go once it bit down; this creature was even easier to reel in than the sand wyrms.

The only trouble was its sheer size. One walnut boat barely held it, and the overloaded vessel rocked dangerously under its weight.

Luckily, they were close to a stone bridge. Over a hundred soldiers hauled on the towropes and managed to drag the beast ashore.

Then came the butchering.

Buckets were borrowed from ruined homes across the city, and both creatures were bled out. Bucket after bucket of thick, viscous, reeking blood was transported straight to the temple.

They bled like overturned vats, and the stink was overwhelming.

He Lingchuan wrinkled his nose at the smell, silently praying the Generous Pot was not too picky.

Before the main hall, the pool of water turned redder and redder.

And at last, after thirty-some buckets of beast blood, the liquid began to spread.

“It’s working!” Sun Fuping was ecstatic, gripping the pool’s edge so tightly his knuckles went white. “More! Keep it coming!”

Finally, after the last few buckets had been poured in, the blood barely covered the bottom of the pool, forming a thin layer like red glass.

Zeng Feixiong and the others tossed their empty buckets aside. “Now what?”

“We wait,” said Sun Fuping, staring intently at the surface. “Just wait.”

Then, He Chunhua remarked, “The wind’s been gone for a while now.”

Only then did everyone realize that the ever-present desert wind had stopped. But when had it gone still?

At some point, the moon had slipped behind thick clouds, and the ruins seemed to grow dimmer with each passing breath.

Just then, the long-still water began to bubble as tiny pockets of air broke the surface.

“There’s a vent down there...”

Zeng Feixiong began to say, but Sun Fuping immediately cut him off with a sharp “Shh!” and raised a hand for silence.

The vast square of the Temple of Mitian was now eerily quiet. It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

This was, in itself, unnatural.

Then, more bubbles rose.

Sun Fuping crouched down, trying to get a closer look, when something burst from the water, nearly slamming straight into his face!

The others could only make out a dark, blurry shape, but that did not stop them from gasping in alarm.

Only those like Nian Songyu and He Chunhua managed to catch what it was. It was a wolf-like creature, with canine limbs and a tail, but its cracked, bark-like skin resembled rough tree bark more than flesh. Its hollow eye sockets held no eyes, only flickers of crimson ghost fire!

It lunged straight for Sun Fuping, jaws wide enough to unhinge to a full 120 degrees. It was as if it could swallow a man’s head whole. At such close range, in the blink of an eye, it seemed the old man was done for.

However, the state preceptor was nothing if not composed under pressure. Without flinching, he jammed his staff straight into the creature’s face.

The beast head on the staff opened its jaws and spat out a blazing red fireball.

The creature let out a shrill scream, then disintegrated into a cloud of ash.

Nian Songyu’s heart skipped, but then his eyes lit up. “A wrathful soul!”

This monster had no proper physical form. It was a wrathful soul, pure and simple.

People had long believed these wrathful souls lurked in the shadows of the Panlong Desert, ensnaring minds. But in truth, the real culprits had always been the Three Corpses Worms. This thing, this wrathful soul, was the first real one they had encountered.

Its appearance confirmed that they were on the right path.

Ash dusted Sun Fuping’s face, but he did not bother to brush it off. He was already bending down to peer at the pool.

He Lingchuan thought a little nastily. If he leans in any closer, the next one might jump out and ride his face.

At that moment, the entire pool was bubbling—louder, thicker, faster. It was as if a fire had been lit beneath it, and the water was about to boil.

Ripples surged out in concentric waves, and instead of fading as they spread, they grew stronger, until even splashes began leaping from the edges.

Waves lapped the rim of the pool and bounced back with even more force.

The expressions on everyone’s faces darkened.

If one stream of bubbles meant one monster rising... then the dense, roiling froth before them meant—

“Use the soul-masking powder! Light your life fires! NOW!” Sun Fuping suddenly roared, spinning around to shout at the top of his lungs.

That bellow, reinforced with true energy, exploded like a thunderclap, shaking the air in all directions, rattling bones and eardrums alike. The urgency in Sun Fuping’s voice could not be more obvious.

Everyone sprang into action.

Fortunately, the hundred-plus soldiers who had been used for the sand-fishing expedition had already taken their dose of soul-masking powder earlier. Now it was just a matter of Sun Fuping, He Chunhua, and the rest of the core group quickly taking theirs.

The moment the small pill slid down their throats, Sun Fuping barked out new orders, “Hold your breath and get to the pool’s edge. Don’t look back! These creatures are harder to deal with than the Three Corpses Worms!”

That last line sent a chill down everyone’s spine.

Sun Fuping reiterated, roaring even more forcefully, “Hold your breath! Hold it!”

And just as he spoke, the surface of the pool exploded.

It was like a volcanic eruption. The mouth of the volcano was the pool, and the seething lava it spat forth was a torrent of grotesque, innumerable, wrathful souls.

Some of them looked human, some like beasts, some like plants, while still others were a nightmare amalgamation of all three. They were creatures so warped, so foreign, that the living could not even begin to guess what they once were.

But what was truly nerve-wracking was their numbers. There were just too many of them.

There was no time to study any one form. All anyone could see was a vast cloud of dark vapor, like volcanic ash, erupting skyward before spreading outward in all directions.

And the sound was simply ghastly. Every single wrathful soul opened its maw and shrieked. The noise was piercing and anguished, so saturated with pain and fury that it seemed to claw at the soul.

No one needed to be told twice. Everyone instinctively clamped their hands over their ears and pressed their mouths shut.

Yet the screams bypassed the body entirely, echoing directly in the mind, shaking each person’s sea of consciousness, blurring sight, unmooring thoughts, tilting the world.

Most of the wrathful souls surged skyward, vanishing into the dark. But a few lingered, circling above the main hall, then swooped back down.

No one dared breathe.

State Preceptor Sun had not exaggerated. These things made the Three Corpses Worms look tame in comparison.

Each soldier had lit their three life fires, while the soul-masking powder suppressed the living scent of their bodies as much as possible.

These wrathful souls drifted among them, but treated them like lifeless statues, ignoring them completely before floating away.

He Lingchuan looked up and saw the night sky packed with circling souls. The sheer density of them was changing the weather.

The wind had returned.

Twenty breaths passed.

Then forty breaths passed.

Each breath unleashed thousands more wrathful souls. By now, tens of thousands had erupted from the pool, and yet, the flow showed no signs of slowing.

Outside Panlong City, the wind picked up dramatically. Sand tornadoes began forming. They were thin at first, but grew in size and speed until massive funnels stretched from sky to earth.

Aside from sand and wind, it felt as though the world held nothing else.

Eyes stung from grit, but none dared look away.

It was the season of mad sand, a force that had shaped the lives of everyone in Heishui City. However, how many had ever seen its true origin?

As the moments ticked by, the soldiers’ faces turned increasingly red, straining with held breath. Some of them looked to be on the verge of bursting like overripe plums.