Where Immortals Once Walked

Immediately afterward, He Lingchuan’s vision went black.

It was as though he had closed his own eyes, except his head spun violently.

* * *

He Lingchuan still had no idea what had happened when someone suddenly shoved him hard. “Can you not stand here blocking everyone?”

He jolted.

The heavenly curtain, the starry sky, the gods, the scale, and the giant eyeball, all of it was gone.

He was standing inside the Hall of Worship. Around him, people streamed back and forth.

Everything continued as normal. Who cared that his world had just been overturned?

As he came back to himself, he also turned around and saw a middle-aged woman with fleshy cheeks glaring at him indignantly. “Are you praying or not? If you’re not praying, move aside. What are you standing here for?”

“Oh.” Not only was He Lingchuan not angry, he was almost grateful to her. “Please.”

He stepped aside. Lu Shishi looked at him with a smile. “Are... are you alright?”

“I’m fine.” He Lingchuan pressed a hand to his neck, brow tightly furrowed. “What happened to me just now?”

A wave of exhaustion suddenly swallowed him. Something wet trickled from beneath his nose.

“You suddenly stood still. I called you twice, but you didn’t respond.” Lu Shishi said with concern, “Ah, your nose is bleeding!”

“Mm.” He felt certain Lu Shishi knew exactly what had happened. “My head hurts badly. Is there somewhere I can rest? I feel like I’m about to pass out.”

She gave a soft cry. “Then let’s hurry back to the Cloud Gallery.”

“Mm.” He Lingchuan took one step, swayed twice as though he could no longer support himself, then let his entire weight fall onto her.

Lu Shishi had not expected him to collapse the moment he said he would, and she looked slightly surprised. Yet in the next instant, she supported him with one hand.

Oh? This girl’s cultivation isn’t weak. He had not noticed before.

Lu Shishi calmly held He Lingchuan up while waving to the nearby palace guards. “Come help!”

The palace guards usually looked at others through their nostrils, yet at her call, they flew over as if they had grown wings. They supported He Lingchuan and carried him out of the hall, completely ignoring the strange looks from the crowd.

“Who is that? Why are palace guards helping him out?”

The auntie who had shoved him earlier grew a little panicked and quietly hid herself in the crowd.

He Lingchuan pretended not to hear the whispers behind him.

He had not lied either. He truly felt awful. His head hurt as though it were about to split open, his back was soaked through with cold sweat, and his body felt heavier than a thousand catties.

Though he had no precedent to compare it to, he guessed this was probably the result of excessive mental strain.

From beginning to end, he had been standing in the hall. All the visitors could testify to that.

Yet the heavenly curtain, the starry sky, the scale pan, and the giant eye had not been illusions either.

What exactly had he gone through?

Since someone was handling things, He Lingchuan simply relaxed completely, closed his eyes, and pretended to faint.

The palace guard hoisted He Lingchuan onto his back and carried him all the way back to the Cloud Gallery.

The route was still full of bustling people, but none of it had anything to do with him.

He had suffered upheaval enough to overturn heaven and earth, yet the world did not care.

The Cloud Gallery was the reception room where subjects waited for their turn to receive an audience. It had no bed, but it did have couches. The palace guard set him down on one of them.

He Lingchuan did not open his eyes. Naturally, someone placed a pillow beneath his head, wiped his face with a warm towel, and covered him with a thin blanket.

Lu Shishi even asked, “Would you like some water?”

Of course, he nodded. So he lay in the young girl’s arms while she fed him warm water bit by bit.

Along the way, he also swallowed two small pills to replenish his spirit and qi.

To others, his breathing gradually evened out, as though he had fallen asleep.

To the Heavenly Palace lamp guardian, this was indeed a normal reaction after undergoing divine judgment. Some unlucky souls could not endure it at all and simply died on the spot.

He Lingchuan was drowsy, but he still forced himself to recall what had just happened.

When he had first entered that world beneath the heavenly curtain, he had thought his soul had left his body and been dragged by the gods into the void, or perhaps into some small world or soul land.

Everything around him, whether it be the gigantic scale, the vast starry sky, or the countless eyes, had seemed to fit that guess.

But once the curtain was torn open, the azure mark that suddenly lit up within the void had punctured the illusion at once.

That glowing azure mark, he had seen it before.

Last year, when he and He Chunhua went to the Panlong Illusion Realm, the “god” summoned by Nian Songyu had first charged into He Lingchuan’s sea of consciousness, intending to seize his body.

At that time, this mark had appeared deep inside his sea of consciousness, and that heavenly god’s avatar had been instantly driven out.

So when this azure mark appeared again, He Lingchuan immediately reacted.

To hell with small worlds, to hell with soul lands, that was my own mind!

Miaozhantian had not abducted his soul at all. She had charged in herself and even specially arranged a stage set, dressing up his sea of consciousness until even he, its owner, could no longer recognize it.

No, it wasn’t just Miaozhantian, there were also those gods watching from the side!

Those bastards had been throwing a whole party inside my mind! No wonder my head hurts! It’s as if it’s about to burst!

The gods had not cared in the least about the consequences of doing this, nor about He Lingchuan’s life or feelings.

In their eyes, what difference was there between a single human life and an ant? If they accidentally killed him, then he so be it.

But how could an ordinary person’s sea of consciousness withstand such torment?

The fact that He Lingchuan had not turned stupid, insane, or witless on the spot was thanks to Panlong City’s long tempering, which had made his soul far tougher than ordinary people’s.

However, He Lingchuan’s mood was also joyful, because the greatest crisis he had faced since arriving in this world had been narrowly overcome.

Miaozhantian’s all-conquering “Dharma Eye” had failed against him.

If the gods did not believe in the Eye of Truth’s power, they would not have used it on him.

In other words, if the scale had judged everything he said to be true, the gods would also take it as true.

He Lingchuan did not believe the Eye of Mulian had been merciful to him. That meant something on him had shielded him, or even distorted its vision, causing it to mistakenly believe that every word he spoke was true and valid.

By now, He Lingchuan no longer believed in coincidence.

There were people nearby, so he could not reach into his clothes. But he remembered clearly that when he stood alone before the gods, warmth had suddenly radiated by his chest.

Was that thing what helped me pass Mulian’s test?

Then have the gods dispelled their suspicions of me?

If the answer was yes, then from now on, his movements in Lingxu City would face far less resistance.

This risky trip up Mount Xu had indeed been worth it.

However, the gods’ malice and the variability of their methods had still exceeded his expectations.

This was another dimension of probing altogether. They had bypassed outer appearances and surfaces, directly interrogating the depths of his mind and heart.

What was strange was that none of the gods’ three questions had concerned the elixir of youth case.

He was clearly the person who had originally handled the elixir of youth case. He had thought the gods would at least ask about suspicious points, such as whether he had any connection to Mai Xuewen, or Xi Yunhe, and so on.

Who would have thought they would not mention any of it?

Did this mean that in the eyes of the gods, the elixir of youth case and the Generous Pot were not on the same level at all?

Perhaps it could not even compare to the State of Mou in the east.

Another doubt still lingered in He Lingchuan’s heart.

Why did the Generous Pot show no reaction?

His soul had always been firmly protected by the Generous Pot. The Soul-Stealing Mirror had already confirmed this long ago.

Yet this time, the gods had charged all the way into his mind, which was equivalent to breaking directly into his home, and the Generous Pot had shown no reaction at all.

Had it done so deliberately, to avoid exposing itself?

He Lingchuan thought back to how the Generous Pot had dealt with the Hundred-Faced Nightmare’s attack.

First, it had disguised itself as a dream, allowing Hundred-Face to enter Panlong City. Then it had sent out the giant red figure to devour it, and even the little juluo tree had gotten a share.

Was it using the same old trick this time, just in a different form?

But for He Lingchuan, that had been far too dangerous.

If the heavenly gods had been determined to take his life, could they not have extinguished his soul in an instant?

Thus, the Generous Pot had also taken a perilous gamble.

After all, if it had emerged to protect He Lingchuan, the situation would have slid into an irredeemable abyss.

Perhaps the heavenly gods had been waiting for exactly such a reaction.

After this incident, He Lingchuan finally confirmed one thing: The Generous Pot possessed intelligence. It could think!

The Hundred-Faced Nightmare’s judgment of it had been right.

It was alive.

Thinking of this, though the Generous Pot had technically put him through a terrible test today, He Lingchuan instead felt much more settled.

It could weigh pros and cons, and it could disguise itself. This meant that it would not expose itself for no reason just because it wanted a bite to eat. On that point, at least, He Lingchuan did not need to worry.

That was better than a dead object.

Forcing his exhausted spirit and weakened body to keep thinking was making him suffer. Once He Lingchuan had figured out these key points, he could no longer hold on. After giving the Soul-Stealing Mirror a few instructions, he sank into deep sleep.

Heh, the heavenly gods had forcibly invaded my sea of consciousness just now, and this incompetent mirror had sensed nothing at all.

What use is it?

* * *

He Lingchuan slept as though heaven and earth had gone dark, without even a single dream.

After who knew how long, someone shook his shoulder. “He Xiao, wake up. It’s time to go back!”

He Lingchuan forced his eyes open and saw Fushan Yue. His head was still heavy and foggy, struggling to even sit up. “You saw the Lord Emperor? Is it my turn?”

Fushan Yue rubbed his nose. “Uh, I saw him. But when the Lord Emperor heard you were injured and fainted, he said that you could go down the mountain and recover, and that there was no need for you to see him.”

He Lingchuan gave an “oh,” and everything became clear in his mind.

The Monster Emperor had never intended to meet a minor figure like him to begin with. Summoning him up the mountain had only been so the gods could properly inspect him.

Now that they had their answer, he was no longer important, and the Lord Emperor could not be bothered with him.

“How did you faint out of nowhere?”

“I was too tired.” Lu Shishi was right beside them, so He Lingchuan glanced at her, then pressed his neck until it cracked. “I probably haven’t fully recovered from the bombing.”

Fushan Yue made a sound of understanding and stood. “Then let’s go down the mountain.”

Smiling, Lu Shishi escorted the honored guests to the tower so they could leave through the teleportation array.

* * *

They returned by the same route, with no conversation along the way.

Back at the inn, Fushan Yue dragged He Lingchuan to the guest courtyard. Only after setting up a barrier did he ask, “What exactly happened?”

With his temperament and cultivation, how could he have possibly fainted in the Hall of Worship out of nowhere? Fushan Yue would bet with his knees that there was something strange in this.

He Lingchuan did not hide it from him. Holding his aching head, he described in detail how the gods had invaded his sea of consciousness.

His skull was still buzzing even now.

Of course, he omitted all mention of the Generous Pot.

Fushan Yue’s expression changed at once. “What? They dared act with such utter lack of restraint?”