Where Immortals Once Walked

Juju lowered its head toward the puppet. Its nose drew so close that the heat from it curled the puppet’s hair. “If you dare amuse yourself at my expense...”

“Do you think I’m so bored I came all this way just to play games with you?” He Lingchuan cut it off. “Even if I fail, I’m the one who suffers. What do you have to lose? At worst, you keep staying here playing with mud, eat a few mouthfuls less, and go on exactly as usual.”

White steam poured from Juju’s body, though whether or not it was from anger was hard to say.

In the end, however, it dug a small piece of hard rock from its chest, kneaded it in its claws for a long while, then drew in a deep breath over it.

With a dull thud, the thing landed in front of the puppet.

“Here, take it.”

Seeing the puppet try to wrap it in his clothing, Juju added, “It isn’t hot.”

The fire and heat had both been drawn away, leaving only a black stone sphere by the puppet’s foot.

He picked it up. It was only warm to the touch, about the temperature of a hand-warmer.

However, cracks across its surface occasionally glowed faintly red.

“This is an earthfire seed, and also my avatar.” Juju walked back into the magma pool and sank beneath the surface. Only its voice continued to echo. “Carry it with you. So long as you don’t leave Lingxu City’s territory, I can speak with you.”

The puppet quickly returned to the surface.

Once he left the stone cavern, clear water gurgled back in, rising rapidly.

In only a few dozen breaths, the pool was once again filled with warm spring water.

The cave abode’s gate had closed.

The puppet returned by the same route, climbing back up the mountain, crossing the stone ridge, and reaching Tianji Peak.

With his will seized, he felt no fear, so crossing the narrow “carp’s back” was effortless.

He stood there woodenly, surrounded by tourists coming and going, still holding the earthfire seed in his hand.

But now it was only a dull gray round stone. No one paid it any attention.

Suddenly, someone bumped the puppet from behind, and the stone vanished.

The puppet shuddered and abruptly came back to himself.

What happened?

He only remembered that strange young man blocking his way and telling him to help. How had he appeared on Tianji Peak in the very next moment?

He scratched his head in confusion, only to find that a few strands of hair were singed and curled.

Weird, can hot spring steam scorch hair?

In any case, he was safe for now. The man clenched his fists. He had to get down the mountain and settle accounts with that treacherous husband-and-wife pair!

A few meters ahead, He Lingchuan was strolling along with his hands behind his back, following the crowd as leisurely as could be.

Just now, the moment he approached the puppet, the divine bone amulet had grown warm.

Has the greedy thing taken a fancy to the earthfire seed too?

However, after snatching the round stone from the puppet’s hand, He Lingchuan had immediately stuffed it into the Soul-Stealing Mirror.

Yes. After several great supplements, the mirror’s soul land world had partly recovered. As long as its function was not affected, it could store a tiny number of objects.

He Lingchuan had not stuffed the stone seed into the divine bone amulet because he feared that the Generous Pot would simply eat and digest it.

The Soul-Stealing Mirror did not have that ability. More importantly, it was obedient. He Lingchuan could store and retrieve things whenever he pleased.

Then Juju’s voice came from inside the mirror.

Of course, only he could hear it.

“This is... a soul land?” Juju sounded a little surprised. “You brat, you still won’t even show your face?”

This “collaborator” had sent a puppet down into the cave abode, and Juju had not cared much. Its true body lay deep underground, but the earthfire seed it had given He Lingchuan was its eyes and ears. As long as He Lingchuan carried it and spoke with it, Juju would naturally learn what he looked like and where he was.

Who would have thought that the other party was hiding up on Tianji Peak and, with lightning speed, would toss the stone straight into a soul land? This inexplicable soul land was full of paper people flying all over the place. It could not see half a living creature.

Yet through the mirror, it could still speak with He Lingchuan.

The soul land’s existence had also cut off its ability to sense the seed’s location. It only knew that the earthfire seed had last appeared on Tianji Peak. But with so many tourists passing through, how could it be sure who had taken it?

“My apologies,” He Lingchuan said softly. “You’re suppressed by the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array, and you still have to guard the gate for the gods. I imagine there are times when you can’t act as you please. I’d better be a little cautious.”

That was the polite way of saying, “I’m afraid you’ll sell me out.”

Juju snorted, but it was not especially offended.

The more careful its collaborator was, the better the odds of success.

The Heavenly Palace had guarded against everything, all to prevent it from making contact with the outside world. And yet, look, had they not still failed in the end?

There was only such a thing as being a thief for a thousand days; there was no such thing as guarding against thieves for a thousand days.

* * *

He Lingchuan returned late. Using cultivation as an excuse, he turned down Fushan Yue’s dinner invitation and Jiao Yu’s request to play, then shut himself in his room.

With the door tightly closed, he casually cast a barrier. Only then did he say to the mirror, “I need to speak with Juju.”

A moment later, Mount Xu’s guardian spirit spoke from the mirror, “I’m sleeping. You’d better have a good reason for rousing me.”

“Let’s cross-check our intelligence on the grand array.” He Lingchuan kept his voice low. “The plan needs refining.”

When he had first arrived in Lingxu City, he had only two goals in mind. But as more and more intelligence fell into his hands, the plan had slowly taken shape.

He simply called it the Mount Xu Plan.

Juju gave a long yawn. “Speak.”

“The Grand Spirit-Gathering Array is not an original creation of the Heavenly Palace. The idea of a Big Dipper array was first proposed by the Grand Return Sect. During the Middle Era, spirit qi was constantly declining, and the Grand Return Sect wanted to gather all the spirit qi within 250 kilometers for itself. Unfortunately, even after attempting to set up a Big Dipper array several times, they never succeeded.”

“To borrow the power of the stars, the earthly array must correspond to the celestial stars and move in perfect synchronization with them.” As one of the Grand Return Sect’s old-timers, Juju had the most authority to speak on this. “In the Ancient Era, the Grand Return Sect already used a grand spirit-gathering array of its own. After the great catastrophe, the star patterns fell into chaos. Most importantly, the Big Dipper’s nine stars became ten, with the hidden Tianluo Star added. If the array could not correspond between heaven and earth, it could not take effect.”

“But the Heavenly Palace successfully built the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array because it used the array eye to correspond to the Tianluo Star, then placed the ancient spider monster’s molted shell inside the core as a medium between heaven and earth.” He Lingchuan thought it through carefully. “The spider shell’s abdomen is naturally marked with a star map that corresponds to the stars in the sky in real time, without the slightest deviation. With it anchoring the array, the Heavenly Palace doesn’t even need to calculate changes in the stars.”

Before coming to Lingxu City, he had found this strange. What treasure did the world’s greatest city not have? Why had they been so determined to steal Zhu Erniang’s molted shell? Had the nobles of this place really been so greedy for treasure that they snatched whatever they saw?

Now he understood the use of the spider shell.

Juju said in surprise, “How do you know that?” So this brat didn’t come completely unprepared after all. “Very few people know the origin of the spider shell. Even the officials who built the array eye only knew it was an ancient wonder. Fewer than two supervising officials could accurately identify it as a spider shell and explain its function.”

“Then I’m lucky, I just so happened to ask one of those two.” He Lingchuan let out a breath. Juju had confirmed his deduction. Zhu Erniang’s shell was indeed in the array eye.

Once the target was clear, the next step became possible.

Juju shook its head. “In the past ten years, one died of illness, and the other died suddenly. Seven days after he died, someone sneaked onto Mount Xu and was captured.”

Meaning, an intruder had once interrogated and killed an informed official, extracted information about the array, then infiltrated Mount Xu? He Lingchuan’s thoughts stirred. “Do you know that intruder’s origin?”

Juju answered with a question of its own. “Are you with him?”

“No.” He Lingchuan sighed. “To be honest, my information came from the victim, the original owner of that shell.”

Since he wanted to cooperate properly with Juju, he had to show some sincerity. He could not just keep making empty claims.

For example, he could tell part of the truth.

Juju was extremely surprised. “Ha? That mother spider is still alive?”

Clearly, it had heard of Zhu Erniang.

Considering that both of them were ancient greater monsters, it was not impossible that they had once known each other.

“She has territory, freedom, and is living rather well.” He Lingchuan rubbed his nose. “But she has always remembered the shell that was stolen from her. Since she is wanted and cannot easily set foot in Beijia, she entrusted me with finding a way to retrieve it.”

“First, Venerable Muling, now that mother spider. From your voice, you don’t sound old, yet you’re already running errands for quite a few old fellows.” Juju grunted. “Since that’s the case, you should know where the difficulty lies in breaking the array.”

“The array eye’s location?” He Lingchuan asked. “I heard it is usually concealed by the array, and only when the Tianluo Star shines does it reveal itself. Hm, even you can’t find it?”

“The Heavenly Palace is guarding against me most of all.” Juju sneered. “If I could smash the array eye, what would they use to suppress me? Not being able to find it is one thing. More importantly, the Heavenly Palace has to ensure I can’t touch it, even while I’m bound by the array!”

Those little whelps of the Heavenly Palace are truly cautious.

He Lingchuan sighed. “So the array eye is in the sky?”

Yes, when he heard the nightmare repeat Zaifu Kua’s intelligence, this part had surprised him the most.

Few people in the world probably knew that the main body of the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array was on the ground, formed by nine mountain peaks, including Tianshu Peak, but its array eye floated in the sky, its location constantly shifting.

“Correct. The Tianluo Star is a hidden star, and the array eye corresponding to it is also hidden in the void.” Juju said, “Only when the Tianluo Star shines does the array eye reveal itself.”

“If it were on the ground, I could dig a hundred meters down and still find it!”

“I remember that the Tianluo Star stays bright every autumn and winter?” He Lingchuan asked. “Then what about the array eye? Does it just hang openly in the sky?”

“How could that be?” Juju scoffed. “It can’t be seen.”

“Why?” He Lingchuan pressed further. “Is it still hidden in the void, or has it already floated into the sky, just invisible to the naked eye?”

Juju fell silent.

This was a key question. He Lingchuan would not allow it to brush him off, so he asked again.

Only then did Juju unwillingly say, “In any case, in the ten-odd years since the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array was built, I’ve only seen it twice.”

“Both recently?”

“In the past four months.”

He Lingchuan understood. Those were the two times that the Generous Pot’s aura had leaked.

In other words, Juju was not clear about the array eye’s normal state during autumn and winter.