Where Immortals Once Walked

The two creatures acted with a single mind, their strength surging in perfect unison as they heaved upward with terrifying force. Before anyone could do more than gasp, He Lingchuan’s body sank until everything below his waist was beneath the ground.

The youngest of the ferry-crossing ghostspawn paid a savage price for that feat. Seven or eight weapons crashed down on its exposed back, turning flesh into mush. Xu Chun, who had no idea where he had fished up a short spear, lunged and rammed the weapon straight through its torso.

Meanwhile, Willow, Skinny, and Duan Xinyu clung to He Lingchuan’s shoulders and arms, hauling him upward with all their strength, trying to yank him out of the ground like a stubborn scallion from mud.

The ferry-crossing ghostspawn ignored the pain it was suffering. Snarling, it reached to its chest and ripped out the embedded arrowhead that He Linghcuan had shot with a wet sound. That burst of pain seemed to ignite something feral inside it. With a backhanded swing, it struck Xu Chun square in the ribs, sending the man flying a whole three meters until he slammed against a stone wall.

After that, the ghostspawn threw its head back and roared.

Far off in the tunnel, the bone puppets answered that roar as if summoned by their master. Their ranks surged forward, their pace kicking up by a brutal thirty percent.

The injured ferry-crossing ghostspawn seemed to have awakened some dormant bloodlust. It tore into the patrolmen with maddened ferocity, refusing to fall even as new wounds opened across its skin. Its strikes grew heavier and sharper, and every single one of its blows was meant to maim or kill.

Doorboard caught the brunt of one such swing. The creature’s fist slammed into his shield with such force that both man and shield went tumbling over a meter away. Skinny was a little less lucky, taking a glancing blow to his left arm. A crack snapped through the air as the bone in his arm broke cleanly before he smashed into the wall and slid down, dazed as his head had nearly split open.

But in that same instant of chaos, the violent jolt loosened the ground gripping He Lingchuan’s body, allowing him to be freed. But then, the ground split open further, and from beneath, the second ghostspawn popped up like a grotesque mole.

He Lingchuan did not waste breath or words. His saber flashed low, hugging the ground as it swept across the creature’s neck. The blade sheared clean through.

The ghostspawn’s head rolled twice across the stone floor before coming to rest.

“Grab it! Now!” Green liquid had just splashed into his eyes, but he did not even bother wiping it. He dropped into a roll, scooped up the severed head, and clutched it tight. He absolutely could not let it touch the ground again.

This underground palace absorbed the power of any dead ghostspawn and transferred it to the strongest surviving one. The youngest was already nightmarishly powerful. If it inherited another talent or ability, especially one that allowed it to drag people through the ground at will, none of them would leave this place alive.

But then a searing pain stabbed through his left eye, causing his breath to hitch. He clamped a hand over his eye as he let out a muffled groan.

“Medicine powder! Medicine powder!” Willow fumbled desperately, pouring powder into his eye.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

He Lingchuan forced his eyelids open a sliver despite the agony. His left eye could register only smears of red and white—no shape, no depth, nothing.

With the green liquid having entered his eye, it was almost certain that he would be losing all vision in it soon enough.

Meanwhile, Duan Xinyu had immediately gone for the ghostspawn’s headless corpse. He pinned it against the wall with a long spear, leaving it suspended and away from any surface of the tunnel they were in. This way, they prevented the underground palace from absorbing its power.

He Lingchuan followed suit and impaled the severed head close by.

That was when the army of bone puppets finally arrived.

With a thunderous leap, the surviving ferry-crossing ghostspawn hurled itself into their midst. Bone puppets from all sides surged toward it like tributaries feeding a great river. Within a few breaths, dozens of the bone puppets melded into its body, fusing together into a full suit of armor—bone plates gleaming with a cold, chalk-white sheen.

As the bone armor formed on its body, even its joints sprouted jagged spikes.

A moment ago, it had been a creature drenched in blood. In the blink of an eye, it had become a white-boned general clad in ghostly war-plate.

It tore a rib from one of the puppets and scraped it twice along the ground. Incredibly, the crude bone reshaped itself in its grasp into a sword.

The moment the blade solidified, the bone puppet army charged as one.

The ferry-crossing ghostspawn’s patience was gone. Furthermore, outside this underground palace, something was changing rapidly, and this change seemed to be something terrible for it. It had to finish this battle quickly.

Divine techniques flared across the passage as every single one of the patrolmen hurled their trump cards.

He Lingchuan wiped the blood on his face, braced himself against the wall, and then he sprang forward to meet the first bone puppet charging at him.

* * *

Red Peak Town.

The sun was sinking to the west, painting the snow with a dull orange sheen. The avalanche clearing was nearly complete; only the final few tens of meters still had to be cleared.

High on the jagged rock spire, the guardian spirit had not been slacking either. It used spells to reinforce every precarious stone perched on the slope, ensuring none would tumble for at least a day or two.

Headman Hu arrived for the fourth time, craning his neck to peer toward the mountain path.

The path was naturally completely silent, with neither footsteps nor voices coming from it.

The patrolmen who had gone into the mine still had not returned.

Just then, the rapid beating of hooves echoed from the distance. It sounded like there were at least seven or eight riders.

Headman Hu’s face twitched. He raised his torch and turned.

In the dying light of the sun, he saw dark red armor.

The Gale Army!

The mine incident has escalated so far that it’s alarmed the Gale Army?

From its vantage point, the guardian spirit bounded down the rocks and loped toward the men, ears perked.

The riders halted before Headman Hu. The leader jerked his reins, and the warhorse reared before landing right where it had stopped.

Meanwhile, another rider trotted forward. This rider was Hu Min.

He dismounted in one fluid motion and asked, “Headman Hu?”

“Y-yes!” Headman Hu stammered. “Honored sirs, wh-what brings you—?”

Then he got a clear look at the officer leading the troop.

His knees buckled. His eyes went round with terror.

“How long have those three patrol squads been inside?”

Headman Hu’s tongue knotted. “A-a-almost... four hours?”

Hu Min nodded once, then his gaze suddenly sharpened as he asked, “Do you admit your guilt?”

“Huh?” Headman Hu flinched backward. “W-what guilt? I, I haven’t... Don’t—!”

A sharp snort sounded behind Hu Min from the mount of the leader of the riders. The warhorse’s warm breath puffed out like steam.

Headman Hu jolted like he had been struck, warmth trickling down both legs.

Then a cold, emotionless voice spoke, “Quartz, the patrol guards haven’t returned?”

The leopard monster’s name was Quartz[1]. It was the local guardian spirit and Commander Zhong Shengguang’s personal spirit pet. At this moment, it flattened its ears as it answered meekly, “Not yet.”

“Why didn’t you follow them inside?”

The leopard monster’s tail curled in flustered circles. It dared not say it had been slacking off.

How could it have known that the creature in the mine had already eaten more than a hundred people?

“Hu Min, question him thoroughly,” the red-cloaked man said, “The rest of you, come with me.”

“Yes, General!”

Headman Hu finally found his voice. “Red General, please spare me!”

No one responded.

As the riders dismounted and marched toward the mine tunnel, Headman Hu collapsed into the snow, sweat pouring down his temples despite the cold.

Hu Min’s voice rang frostily above him, “Thirty-seven miners went missing, and of those thirty-seven, two escaped while thirty-five are dead. Despite that, you delayed reporting it for two entire days. In those two days, you secretly led at least forty or fifty outsiders into the mine, none of whom returned. Add in today’s patrol guards, and that’s nearly ninety people lost.”

Headman Hu’s face turned pale-white. His jaw trembled as he toppled to his knees and slammed his forehead into the snow over and over until blood seeped across the white surface.

“Mercy, lord, please have mercy! I, I only followed orders! Please spare me!”

“You concealed deaths, and that crime alone has already caused catastrophe enough!” Hu Min’s fists clenched. “The creature in that mine slaughtered an entire northern village these past two days! That’s seventy to eighty people more!”

Headman Hu’s vision went black. A sharp buzzing filled his skull.

“In just three days, this thing has devoured nearly 170 lives, and that’s not even counting the local spirits and beasts!”

Gasping, Headman Hu croaked, “L-lord, that village has nothing to do with me! I didn’t know!”

“You didn’t know?” Hu Min let out a grim chuckle. “Interesting. Then tell me, why didn’t it eat your people? You were the closest, so why would it bother traveling further north instead?”

“I, I don’t know! We’re just a mining town!”

“Then explain why you delayed your report. Tell me who you contacted for extra manpower.” Hu Min’s voice lowered, colder still. “Give up the one behind this, and your punishment may be reduced.”

The punishments of Panlong City flashed through Headman Hu’s mind.

He collapsed fully, forehead striking the ground again and again.

* * *

As the final blockage to the entrance of the mine had yet to be cleared, the Red General advanced on foot with his troops.

Within about seven minutes, Red Peak Mine’s entrance appeared in view.

The entrance was obscured beneath the shadows of large trees, creating a largely different sight from what had greeted He Lingchuan and those with him just some time earlier. Meanwhile, the single-story houses nearby were half-concealed in the mountainside’s gloom.

The mine sat on the shaded face of the mountain, the darkness already thickening around it. The entrance yawned like a monster’s waiting maw.

The Red General asked Quartz, “How many monsters and wild beasts have vanished here?”

Quartz answered, “Over thirty.”

This meant that in just the span of three days, the creature inside the mine had devoured nearly two hundred living beings.

Even a vicious and maddened monster acting alone could not consume so many so quickly, at least not unless it had helpers, or was part of something far more dreadful.

“That’s quite a substantial number,” the Red General murmured. “But this also clearly means that the strongest ferry-crossing spawn emerged only three or four days ago.”

One of the Gale Army elites asked, “General, should we enter the mine?”

“No rush.” To ordinary eyes, these woods were quiet. But to the Red General, the air was thick with yin qi, almost steaming upward through the sunlight.

The moment he neared the mine, he could already sense the presence of the so-called “divine child.”

The newborn ghostspawn had grown arrogant. It had not bothered to suppress its aura at all.

Arrogance and gluttony—these traits made it easier to deal with.

The Red General produced a wide-mouthed golden basin, smaller than a washbasin, its three legs carved with hornless dragons.

He ordered Quartz and the others to gather snow from the branches of ancient locust trees, specifically locust trees over two centuries old, and deposit the snow into the basin. This mountain was rich with such trees.

The snow melted inside the basin. From the Red General’s point of view, the bottom of the basin was not flat. Instead, it was uneven, like tiny hills.

As he stroked the basin’s rim, the vessel warped and shifted. Before long, miniature mountain ridges emerged, valleys formed, single-story houses took shape, and even the outline of a mine entrance appeared.

It was a perfect replica of the Red Peak mining area, shrunk nearly to scale and submerged beneath a thin layer of shimmering water. When the model was fully formed, he plunged two fingers into the water and stirred clockwise.

As he did so, the wind picked up around him. It grew stronger, enough that the soldiers he had brought with him had to step back.

Mist billowed inside the golden basin. It was thin at first, then thick and opaque.

Interestingly, the mist swelled until it reached the lip of the basin, yet it never rose beyond, as if blocked by an invisible lid. It churned within like clouds trapped in a sealed sky.

Soon, the entire model drowned beneath dense white fog.

The Red General withdrew his hand, but the fog continued to roil.

Then, it seemed as if there was something within the fog swimming around. Soon, ridged dorsal fins emerged on the surface of the fog. These fins were long, sinuous, and winding, and a tail followed behind. The figure beneath then coiled over the fog like a serpent, like a crocodile, powerful and immense despite its miniature size.

And finally, it lifted its head.

It turned out to be a flood dragon, made entirely of the fog. Although it was formed from the fog, its horns, scales, whiskers, and jaw were all rendered in perfect detail, as if crafted by a master sculptor.

1. The original for this is 石英 (shí yīng), but I’ve decided to just call it Quartz since it sounds nicer and it doesn’t really appear much anyway. ☜