Where Immortals Once Walked

He Lingchuan gladly accepted A’Luo’s help.

Meng Shan’s final swing had smashed straight into his left arm. The bone had snapped on impact, and the shock had rattled his organs as well. Even at the very last moment, Meng Shan’s strength had not diminished in the slightest.

What a damned troublesome opponent.

A’Luo squeezed along his arm and immediately clicked his tongue. “Your arm’s broken.” He shoved a pill into Lingchuan’s hand. “Swallow this. It’ll help with the internal damage.”

Afterward, A’Luo’s hands flew into motion, setting the bone, smearing medicine, and binding on a splint.

His technique was undoubtedly practiced, but it was anything but gentle. He Lingchuan hissed several times through his teeth, and his mind could not help drifting back to Sun Fuling’s gentle touch when she had changed his bandages before.

He glanced down from the arena and met her eyes.

Her eyes curved like a crescent moon, and her smile was as bright as a flower in full bloom. Judging by that expression, she must have made a killing on this match.

“Alright, all done. For the next seven days, don’t run, don’t jump, and don’t put any weight on that arm.” A’Luo finished tidying the bandage with brisk efficiency. Meanwhile, Meng Shan was carried away on a stretcher.

A’Luo and the other army medics hurried after him, eager to examine his condition. He Lingchuan descended the arena at his own slower pace. On the way down, patrolmen and soldiers stopped him one after another, giving him thumbs-up, clapping him on the shoulder—well, the good shoulder—and praising his skill nonstop.

Meng Shan had strutted around the northern and southern courtyards with his nose in the air for who knew how long. He had become an eyesore to half the camp. Now that He Lingchuan had flattened him, everyone felt that a long-standing breath of pent-up frustration had finally been released.

Outside the railing of Arena Seven, the commoners were still cheering themselves hoarse. The young women, in particular, were looking his way, their eyes shining like stars. This was a victor’s moment under the spotlight. Even the air seemed to shimmer with the taste of triumph and satisfaction.

He Lingchuan drew a deep breath. Coppery blood still tainted his mouth and nose, but somehow, his chest felt open and light. The world seemed clearer than ever.

Hu Min bounded up to him in two and a half steps, waving several thick gold ingots in his hand. “We’re rich, we’re rich! Yixiang Tower tonight, my treat! Nobody even try to fight me for the bill!”

He Lingchuan stared at the gold until his eyes almost crossed. “How did you turn your winnings into gold this fast?”

Hu Min jerked his thumb at Skinny nearby. The man was grinning so hard his cheeks could barely close, who knew which younger brother’s betrothal gift he had managed to complete this time.

Sun Fuling walked over, her tone calm as ever. “You’re badly injured. No alcohol for now.”

“How can you say that? Last time my leg was broken, and I still dr—” Hu Min suddenly felt her eyes narrow on him. A chill ran down his spine, and he immediately changed his tune. “I mean, I’m a lifelong bachelor, what would I know, right? But good dishes and good meat are still fine, yeah? I heard Yixiang Tower has a new dish called Twin Dragons Seizing the Pearl...”

He Lingchuan could not be bothered with his nonsense. He simply grinned at Sun Fuling, baring his teeth. “I won.” A promise is a promise.

She understood at once what he meant beneath the words.

Without comment, she fished a small mirror from somewhere and held it up to his face. “Look.”

He took one glance and nearly jumped.

That time, he had been sent flying and had hit the ground face-first. Now half his face was an angry, swollen red, bulging high and mottled with bruised blue and purple. Add in the streaks of dust and grit stuck there, and he looked thoroughly wretched.

“Right now? Are you sure about that?” Sun Fuling almost could not hold her laughter back. “Can you even feel your face anymore?”

In fact, he really could not feel his face at the moment. His face did tingle faintly, but it was mostly numb.

Fine, I guess I’ll put that promise on credit for now. He Lingchuan sighed, changed the subject, and asked, “How much did you win?”

“Not that much.” She pointed at Hu Min. “About ten times what he did.”

“Ten...”

Sun Fuling gave his good arm a light pat. “You really didn’t let me down.” One big wager, and she had earned back everything in a single sweep.

Skinny squeezed his way over, face glowing. He shoved a folded note into He Lingchuan’s hand. He glanced down and saw written in neat words: Owe nine hundred taels of silver.

“What’s this supposed to mean?”

“I couldn’t make proper change. I’ll owe you for now and settle up later!” Skinny was so busy that his forehead was damp with sweat, and he still could not stop smiling. The odds on He Lingchuan had been sky-high before the match, and now the profits were just as frightening.

He eagerly handed several ingots of gold to Xiao Maoliang, fawning as he said, “Boss Xiao, your winnings!”

“...”

So even Xiao Maoliang placed a bet on me?

Xiao Maoliang gave the gold ingots a little shake in He Lingchuan’s direction, his expression still as unreadable as ever. “Good work.”

He had a household to support. He was never going to turn down unexpected income.

Still, he was more proper than most. At least he remembered to ask about the fight. “Just now, you only used Swallow’s Return and Wave Cleaving?”

“Yeah, Swallow’s Cleave.” Used together, those two techniques produced wonderful results. Swallow’s Cleave could even evolve into Hawk Strike later on, increasing its ferocity even further.

However, that was a matter for another day.

“How did you withstand his roar attack?” Meng Shan’s Mountain-Shaking Roar had knocked commoners unconscious all along the edge of the arena. He Lingchuan had been less than a meter away and had taken the blast full-on, so one could not help but wonder how he seemed to be unscathed.

He Lingchuan chuckled and turned his right palm over. In the center of his palm lay two little balls of cotton.

He knew Meng Shan’s moves inside and out. Before the match, he had stuffed his ears in advance. When dealing with sonic attacks, plain hearing protection was often the most reliable.

Of course, shutting off one’s hearing was a risky move. He would not dare do this so casually against other opponents. What he really needed was a divine technique that could specifically counter this kind of invisible, intangible strike.

Xiao Maoliang froze for a second, then clapped him on the shoulder. “Not bad.”

He Lingchuan had lost to Meng Shan seven times, dying seven times in the dreamscape under that man’s hands. Today, he had finally turned the tables.

The sense of vindication, of suppressed resentment finally breaking free, was beyond words.

The knots in his heart had come loose.

One should never underestimate such emotions. Many cultivators hit a single crushing defeat and never recovered. Their hearts could no longer clear, their courage no longer surged forward. From then on, their path of cultivation slowed or stalled entirely.

For him, defeating Meng Shan was a milestone.

Only after kicking aside the shadow of this human-shaped grizzly bear did he truly feel that the sky was vast and the earth wide, and that from this day on, his future held limitless possibilities.

“Good. It looks like you’ve found your own path.” Xiao Maoliang was genuinely pleased. A good saber technique could be extended without end. Everything depended on how the wielder comprehended it. Given time, Panlong City might very well gain another fierce general.

Just then, the Martial Review Hall sent someone over to offer congratulations. After that, the man pointed at the board beside Arena Seven and asked, “Would you like to claim the ring? You can wait forty days before accepting your first challenge.”

Those forty days were allotted as recovery time—quite humane, really.

The board was the Arena Master List.

He Lingchuan took a look and realized that the position of arena master was not actually all that unique. There were already four names on the list.

Noticing his puzzlement, Hu Min leaned closer to explain, “Arena masters get injured too, and they need time to recover. Until they’ve actually been defeated, their names stay on the list. Those four all defended the ring successfully and have yet to lose.”

Skinny finally finished settling accounts with everyone and edged his way back in, cheeks still flushed with excitement. “Unless they’re too badly injured, arena masters have to accept a challenge within forty days if anyone issues one. Otherwise, it counts as a failed defense, and their names get removed automatically. Also, there can’t be more than ten names on the Arena Master List. If there ever are, the Martial Review Hall will pair up arena masters to fight each other.”

He Lingchuan looked up at the board. “So there are only five arena masters now because the others knocked each other off?”

“Pretty much.” Skinny nodded, then added, “Broken Blade, fighting on Arena Seven is better than seeking duels in the southern courtyard of the Martial Review Hall.”

“How so?” Since he did not understand, he simply asked.

“Once people know you’re an arena master, anyone without real skill won’t dare challenge you. But if you go to the southern courtyard to spar, you and your opponent might both be blind about each other’s depth.”

In other words, it was a question of efficiency. Being an arena master of Arena Seven meant your opponents would be pre-filtered for strength.

Both explanations rang true. After a moment’s thought, He Lingchuan agreed to become an arena master of Arena Seven.

He needed real combat, and fights with strong opponents were the fastest way to grow.

The Martial Review Hall attendant immediately wiped away Meng Shan’s name and wrote “He Lingchuan” in bold, bright red brushstrokes. Beside it, they added his identity: patrol guard.

On a busy main street full of people coming and going, this was extremely eye-catching. By the time everyone had finished breakfast tomorrow, half of Panlong City would probably know that Arena Seven had a new arena master.

He Lingchuan stroked his chin. He liked the sound of that.

Still, he was injured. Once he collected the arena master’s reward, he ought to head home and rest.

The Martial Review Hall’s main gate was packed with people, a seething mass pressing in to watch. One glance was enough for Sun Fuling. “Let’s take the back gate.”

“There’s a back gate?” He had come here eight times already to mess around and had never known there was even a back gate.

“Of course there is.”

So the group slipped along a side path by the northern courtyard and quietly slipped out through a small gate in the northwest corner of the Martial Review Hall.

The further north they walked, the quieter it became. Most of the people on this side had gone off to watch the fights, too. As he passed the fenced-in training grounds, He Lingchuan could not help but wonder if Zhong Shengguang and the others ever came here to stretch their limbs.

Outside the northwest gate, it was indeed much calmer.

Even so, the moment He Lingchuan stepped out, some forty to fifty people surged toward him with welcoming smiles.

Some wished to hire him as a resident expert for their merchant associations, offering generous terms. Some praised him as a brilliant, capable young man and hinted that they wanted him as a son-in-law.

Seven or eight young girls also flocked over, chirping noisily as they expressed their admiration. Two of the bolder, more enthusiastic ones slipped folded slips of paper into the splint on his injured arm, hoping to “seek guidance” from him someday.

He glanced down. The notes looked suspiciously like addresses.

They were sixteen or seventeen, the age when girls bloom like flowers. Their cheeks were rosy, and their eyes were bright with springtime energy.

His throat went a little dry. He coughed twice and was just about to say something when a sudden pressure swept out. Someone had released their aura, forming an invisible wall of force that pushed the crowd a meter and a bit back.

The girl closest to him almost fell on her bottom.

Skinny caught her quickly and smoothed things over in a rush. “He’s injured, he’s injured. Whatever you want to say, save it for later, alright? No crowding, no rushing. He’ll be guarding this arena for a long time yet!”

He Lingchuan turned instinctively, wanting to see who had forced the girls away.

Everyone else was merely watching the commotion with bright, nosy interest. As for Sun Fuling, she had tipped her head back and was staring with great seriousness at a magpie chirping on the roof, as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world.

At that moment, a carriage pulled up, and the group climbed aboard in a hurry.

Hu Min patted the driver on the shoulder. “To Yixiang Tower.”

He Lingchuan blinked. “We’re going right now?”

“It’ll be dark in two hours. We have to get there early to grab seats,” said Hu Min with a grin. “I already told Boss Xiao. He’ll come by later. With how you performed today, I’d say your chances of joining the Gale Army ahead of schedule are looking good.”

“Really?” That was an unexpected bonus. He Lingchuan perked up at once. “I won’t even have to become a squad captain first?”

“There are always exceptions. Special promotions aren’t rare in our line of work.” The carriage rocked along, and Hu Min swayed with it, still talking. “You risked your life to save General Nanke’s unit, and now you’ve defeated Meng Shan. Based on strength alone, you’re qualified. Of course, what I say doesn’t really count for much. It all depends on what the higher-ups decide.”

As the carriage turned a corner, Sun Fuling knocked on the wall of the carriage compartment. “Stop here. I’m getting out.”

“Huh?” He Lingchuan asked her, “You’re not coming to Yixiang Tower?”

“No, I’ve got something else to do.” The carriage came to a halt. Sun Fuling adjusted her veil and stepped down decisively. Before she left, she gave him a quick wink. “Don’t worry, I won’t go back on my word. See you at home.”

He could not see her expression beneath the veil, but He Lingchuan had the distinct feeling she was smiling.