Where Immortals Once Walked

The remaining teams looked at one another, and unease began spreading faintly through the ranks.

The old veterans were all muttering under their breath, grumbling about how long their shift change would be delayed.

The garrison guarding the Storm Gate was supposed to rotate every six hours. This task was high intensity and highly dangerous, requiring constant vigilance.

But in reality, the guards had long since been changing shifts only every ten hours.

However, their hardship pay and supplementary rations were issued according to the original six-hour rotation—the money simply never reached the rank-and-file soldiers actually doing the work. As a result, complaints had been piling up for years.

Unfortunately, there was no way for these complaints to reach the heavens. In the end, they were complaining only for the sake of complaining.

Just then, several fireworks rose into the night sky across from them, shaped like lotus flowers.

“Huh, that looks like it’s near Tianji Peak? Did something happen on Mount Xu again?” Everyone understood clearly that those were signal arrows.

At that moment, a young man carrying a pack on his back came running over in a blur. He said to the garrison officer, “Sir, I’m delivering supplies to my team!”

The garrison officer went through the motions. “Which team?”

“The Yuan Family. I’m from Officer Yuan’s household.”

Most of the people remaining in the Grass Sea were logistics personnel for the competing teams. After fighting in the Fu Realm for many days, the teams inside had to rotate people and replenish supplies every now and then. Thus, humans and monsters often entered and exited the Storm Gate. There was nothing strange about it.

Because of the abnormalities in Mount Xu and Lingxu City, the garrison officer’s attention was not on an idle outsider. He casually waved a hand and said, “Alright, go in.”

During the first five days after the competition began, personnel entering and exiting had to be strictly registered. But by now, people were basically coming and going freely, and the garrison officer did not think there was any need to investigate closely.

As long as the thing entering or exiting the Storm Gate was not a duonao beast, he could not be bothered.

The young man nodded and bowed, then went in.

When he arrived in the Fu Realm, the guards stationed on the other side of the Storm Gate were likewise too lazy to bother with him.

This place was bare, without so much as a tree. Fortunately, the terrain was hilly. Once he crossed two little hills, no one would know where he had gone.

The young man circulated true energy and moved so quickly that it was as though he were flying. He moved with a gourd in one hand, and every dozen or so steps, he flicked liquid from it onto the ground.

In truth, what flowed from the gourd was not water, but some kind of pale yellow viscous liquid. It was semi-transparent and carried a strange, fishy odor.

He ran all the way toward the place where the storms were most concentrated.

Only a few dozen breaths later, the Lingxu guards stationed in the Fu Realm heard an unusually loud beast roar in the distance.

One after another, the roars sounded like several thunderclaps rolling across the sky.

Huh? Why are roars coming from that direction?

Because the distance was not too great, even the ground trembled.

The guards’ expressions changed. The commander seized a messenger, pointed toward the Storm Gate, and shouted, “The Giant Thunderclap Beast is acting abnormally! Hurry and inform the mortal realm!” With that, he kicked the messenger inside.

The Giant Thunderclap Beast roared twice more, then stopped.

The garrison waited for a while and heard no new movements. Only then did they secretly breathe a sigh of relief. Could it have just been a routine show of force?

But before long, the pebbles on the ground began to bounce.

A rumbling sound approached from afar, as though a vast army of horses and soldiers were advancing toward the Storm Gate.

* * *

Ahead lay the endless Grass Sea.

Thin ice had already formed along the lakeshore. In this season, only the reeds still stood tall enough to sway in the wind.

State Preceptor Qing Yang and Baizhantian pursued them all the way here, just in time to see the giant spider leap into the air and jump into the lake dozens of meters ahead, sending ripples spreading across the surface.

Into the water, then.

God Baizhantian’s gaze sharpened, and she strode forward.[1]

She did not even need to form a hand seal to run across the green waves as though walking on level ground. When she reached the center of the ripples, she raised her long spear and gathered power for about two breaths, then stabbed viciously into the water!

The spear tip entered beneath the surface and immediately extended thirty meters, growing three times larger. It could directly pierce all the way to the lakebed.

Most terrifying of all, all the water within seventeen of the spear tip froze completely. Living things could no longer move, only remaining still until the power of annihilation erupting from the spear tip silently swallowed them!

Within two breaths, she stabbed more than thirty times in every direction, stirring the water beneath her feet into muddy waves that surged skyward.

But no blood floated up from below.

It seemed the spider immortal moved very quickly underwater too.

Everyone knew that the Grass Sea’s underwater terrain was complicated. If an ordinary cultivator pursued someone here, they would probably have no choice but to give up. But God Baizhantian glanced at State Preceptor Qing Yang and said, “Find them.”

State Preceptor Qing Yang nodded, and the staff in her hand began to glow azure.

She dipped the staff into the lake and said clearly, “Local water spirit, come at once to pay respects!”

She repeated the words three times, then withdrew the staff and waited quietly.

The Grass Sea was so vast. If she went into the water herself, how long would it take to search? The best method was to ask the local power for help.

This was the outskirts of the monster empire’s capital, after all. The density of monsters here was rarely seen anywhere else in the world.

After more than twenty breaths, sure enough, a huge head emerged from the water and nodded to her in greeting. “The water spirit of the Grass Sea greets State Preceptor Qing Yang!”

It was a giant eel. Its head was half gray and half white, making it look somewhat faded. When at the bottom of the water, it probably resembled a reef. But once it opened its mouth, at least two dense rows of sawlike teeth could be seen within.

Though it called itself the water spirit of the Grass Sea, every stream, river, and lake from here to Mount Xu was in fact within its sphere of influence.

“There is a giant spider underwater, and a living human. Find them for us and keep them under watch, but do not alert them.”

The giant eel paused for two seconds before answering, “Yes.”

The Grass Sea Hunt had not yet ended, and there were plenty of humans here. Fortunately, one of the targets was a giant spider. Otherwise, how would it recognize them?

After receiving the order, it sank back underwater and vanished.

God Baizhantian frowned. “This is not good. Zhu Erniang and I fought in the Ancient Era. Her magical energy may be ordinary, but she has many tricks.”

“We have already mobilized troops, and we have the aquatic races of the Grass Sea assisting us. The longer this takes, the greater our chance of victory.” State Preceptor Qing Yang knew very well that the spider immortal’s body could not be maintained for long. “We will begin searching this area. Also, you should have another tracking method, yes?”

The gods had all manner of methods. She did not quite believe that Baizhantian would be unable to track the invader and the spider immortal.

God Baizhantian nodded and breathed out a mouthful of white vapor.

State Preceptor Qing Yang immediately saw a fine golden thread wrapped in strands appear within the vapor. However, it was faint and indistinct. In truth, calling it golden light would have been more fitting than calling it a golden thread, because it had not yet fully woven itself together. Instead, it diffused through the air like spider silk drifting on the wind.

“This is a karmic thread, used to follow cause and trace effect to find someone,” God Baizhantian explained. “During the fight earlier, I already took the chance to fasten it onto the spider immortal. But for the karmic thread to truly take form, it needs six hours.”

State Preceptor Qing Yang was curious. “So this is the legendary karmic thread? I thought it could be obtained at a glance.”

“With ordinary people, it can indeed be obtained at a glance,” God Baizhantian explained. “But the spider monster still possesses half-immortal power. I did not want it to notice immediately, so it is best to proceed slowly.”

In other words, only after six hours could they accurately grasp the spider immortal’s whereabouts.

That did not stop them from doing their utmost to capture her right now.

Before she had finished speaking, several dozen people came running from ahead. State Preceptor Qing Yang recognized their attire. These were all soldiers from the garrison guarding the Storm Gate in the Grass Sea.

“Why have you only just arrived?”

No one in Lingxu City would fail to recognize this identity token. But the soldiers looked at State Preceptor Qing Yang with hesitation on their faces. Who did not know that State Preceptor Qing Yang’s crimes had been exposed and that she had already been taken into Heavenly Palace’s custody?

State Preceptor Qing Yang did not reprimand them. She simply took the command token in hand, where azure light wreathed around it.

Seeing origin energy burst from the token in her hand, the soldiers had no more doubts.

Where authority remained, origin energy remained.

Whatever had happened to State Preceptor Qing Yang was beyond their understanding. They only needed to recognize the origin energy.

Thus, when State Preceptor Qing Yang asked again, “Why are there only these few people?” the garrison leader immediately replied, “The Giant Thunderclap Beast has rushed out of the Storm Gate and is rampaging through the Grass Sea. State Preceptor, please assist us!”

“The Giant Thunderclap Beast?” State Preceptor Qing Yang was startled. “How did it enter the mortal realm?”

A lord-level duonao beast like this had an extremely strong sense of territory and rarely left its own domain. More importantly, the spacetime barrier restricted aberrant creatures of that level. It should not be able to enter the Storm Gate. Thus, Lingxu City had never worried that a lord-level duonao beast would break into the mortal realm.

At this point, State Preceptor Qing Yang suddenly remembered the news she had heard some time ago: the Giant Thunderclap Beast had laid eggs, then resisted both a Fu Realm sandstorm and an attack from another quasi-lord-level aberrant creature, with warriors from the mortal realm also being caught in the aftermath.

The Heavenly Palace team that entered the Fu Realm had also submitted intelligence saying the Giant Thunderclap Beast might have dropped in rank, though it had never been definitively confirmed.

Looking at the situation now, that intelligence had been accurate.

Unfortunately, this report had not been taken seriously by the Grass Sea guards.

And what was going on today? Nothing was right anywhere. Mount Xu and Lingxu City had undergone sudden changes, and now even a beast lord of the Fu Realm had taken an interest in meddling with the mortal world!

State Preceptor Qing Yang had lived for a very long time and understood deeply what it meant when something happened too abnormally to be innocent. How could there be such coincidences under heaven?

Nine times out of ten, this accident was also connected to the invader!

She glanced at Baizhantian. The latter did not care in the slightest, not even moving an eyebrow. “What does a single duonao beast matter? Capture the invader first!”

In Baizhantian’s view, how much destruction could a duonao beast really cause? The mortal realm was Lingxu City’s home ground. They could simply mobilize more troops later and soon suppress it. By comparison, the invader had taken the spider molt and the divine object. That was the matter the gods hated and feared most!

State Preceptor Qing Yang also understood the priorities. With a silent sigh, she immediately said, “Form up into groups of five. Search this area at once. Also, go transfer two thousand men from the Grass Sea.”

She did not know that the Lord Emperor had already transferred five thousand men from the Grass Sea to reinforce the Heavenly Palace, leaving only one thousand behind. On top of that, when the Giant Thunderclap Beast had just made its violent entrance, it had immediately trampled through the area, catching the guards off guard and causing no small number of casualties.

These soldiers’ faces went pale as they said anxiously, “B-but the Giant Thunderclap Beast has already...”

State Preceptor Qing Yang’s tone sharpened. “Go!”

Two soldiers suddenly pointed to the side. “It’s here!”

State Preceptor Qing Yang and Baizhantian also felt the tremors beneath the ground and instinctively turned to look.

Originally, by crossing the long slope about seventy meters away, one could see the Grass Sea’s famous white sand beach. But now, hundreds of guards came running over from behind that slope, fleeing in this direction while shouting desperately. It was practically a rout.

Immediately afterward, a large group of beasts appeared behind the slope!

Duonao beasts!

They came in all sizes. The smaller ones weighed only 150–200 kilograms, about the same as wild boars. The larger ones, however, stood more than three meters tall and weighed over five tons, comparable to that of a giant elephant.

There were at least two or three hundred of them, and once they started running, the earth shook while loud booms filled the air.

And that was to say nothing of the Giant Thunderclap Beast leading them. It looked more imposing than all the followers behind it combined.

1. Seems like we’re referring to Baizhantian as a she now? Maybe because it’s inhabiting Lu Shishi’s body? ☜