Where Immortals Once Walked

Once Wave-Cleaving Slash had taken shape, it was He Lingchuan’s enemies who had to face the crushing force of the great wave.

He had come here to pay a polite visit, but since the other side did not appreciate courtesy, then he might as well turn it into a challenge.

The young man did not dare meet the blade head-on. He retreated seven meters diagonally to avoid its edge, and a black shadow seemed to flash across his back. Then his body plunged into the ground and vanished.

Earth escape? He’s able to use an escape spell that smoothly? He Lingchuan was startled.

The black shadow on the young man’s back had just ambushed He Lingchuan’s instep, but he had not been able to see clearly what it was. He only knew it was not a living thing.

He Lingchuan kept moving in an irregular pattern, not daring to remain in one place for too long. He spread out his spiritual sense, raised his vigilance to the limit, and held the mirror shield in his left hand, sweeping its light around him.

The Soul-Stealing Mirror suddenly warned him, “Two-thirds of a meter ahead to the left!”

He Lingchuan immediately stopped.

Sure enough, a bit of black shadow silently emerged from the ground underfoot and stabbed like a dagger toward his Yongquan acupoint[1].

No matter who was struck there, they would not be able to stop themselves from jumping.

This time, however, He Lingchuan had deliberately baited the enemy. His step paused only for an instant before sliding away, perfectly exposing the black shadow.

Fleeting Life arrived and cut the shadow in two with a single slash!

There was no solid sensation. As expected, it had no physical form. But as always, Fleeting Life was capable of cutting the formless and incorporeal, and the black shadow was no exception.

The upper half drifted down. It vaguely resembled a poisonous hook, with a swollen sac attached beneath it, but after only two breaths, it scattered into the air.

Before the lower half of the black shadow could shrink back underground, He Lingchuan straightened Fleeting Life and stabbed it viciously into the ground, all the way to the hilt!

Fleeting Life cut through soil even more easily than a hot knife through butter.

He Lingchuan’s estimate had been very accurate. This time, he finally felt the heavy, solid sensation of piercing flesh and blood.

Not to mention, he was wicked enough to grab the hilt and twist with the motion.

He could even faintly hear the pained roar coming from below.

“Junior Brother Qiu!” The Rongshan disciples at the side hurried forward to rescue him, one of them raising a hand and throwing two caltrops.

He Lingchuan dodged aside and retreated two steps.

The young man underground also circled farther away before bursting back up. The right side of his chest was drenched in blood.

Yet the moment he returned to the surface, golden light burst before his eyes with an intensity at least ten times stronger than the blazing sun. His soul was almost illuminated out of him.

Anyone would instinctively close their eyes and raise a hand to block it.

The moment he made that movement, he inwardly knew it was over.

Sure enough, a faint breeze arrived from behind him, and a cold blade was already resting against his neck. The other party asked leisurely, “Are we still fighting?”

The young man opened his eyes, but everything ahead of him was a white blur. His vision had not recovered at all.

He could only shout, “Stop! Everyone, stop!”

Yet at that very moment, the forest rustled again. A massive creature charged at He Lingchuan, accompanied by a furious roar.

The two trees ahead, each as thick as a watermelon, stood in its way, but it neither dodged nor slowed. It smashed straight through them, snapping both trunks. Amid the crackling crash, it grabbed one of the tree trunks along the way and swept it horizontally at He Lingchuan.

Trees broke before it. Stones split before it.

He Lingchuan had just defeated the young man surnamed Qiu and had no interest in continuing the fight. He put away the shadow-piercing lamp, flipped backward like a swallow, and retreated to Zhu Daniang’s side.

The shadow-piercing lamp was a treasure he had casually taken from the array eye of Mount Xu. Since it could illuminate the abdominal pattern on the spider immortal’s molt, it could also blind an ordinary person’s eyes. After He Lingchuan figured out how to use it, he felt it was a top-grade tool for ambushes.

The giant figure ahead followed him like a shadow, as if it bore some deep hatred against him.

Zhu Daniang was just about to teach it a lesson when Dong Rui crawled out from under her belly and shouted, “Seventeen, stop!”

The other party had nearly swung the log straight into his face, yet he showed no fear. Instead, he puffed out his chest and took two more steps forward, completely different from his earlier shrinking posture.

He Lingchuan did not push him aside either, because the giant figure rushing toward them dug its feet into the ground and braked hard, stopping abruptly.

The log was less than a meter from Dong Rui’s nose.

The dust kicked up by the movement made him cough several times in a row.

“Ah, ptooey, ptooey, ptooey! Move that away! How dare you be rude to your master!”

The other party really did toss the log aside, then roared twice at him. Its voice was filled with the joy of reunion, and it even rose upright and beat its chest with both hands.

This was a giant ape. Standing upright, it was three meters tall, every bit of it packed with bulging muscle. Its twisted face looked like a yaksha’s, and a thorn collar hung around its neck.

The moment it appeared, He Lingchuan recognized it as one of Dong Rui’s monster puppets: the ghost ape.

He Lingchuan remembered badly injuring the ghost ape on the Xia Province front line. Dong Rui had not brought it to participate in the Battle of Han River after that. Later, both men had been swept by the flood to Demon Nest Swamp, and Dong Rui had never mentioned where this monster puppet had gone.

That’s weird. Why is this thing suddenly in Rongshan’s forest?

The ghost ape still recognized him, because its small eyes were filled entirely with hatred.

An ape’s grudges were even smaller-minded than a human’s. He Lingchuan had wounded it several times in succession, and it had long since added him to its blacklist.

He Lingchuan seized the moment to take something out and press it against the wound on his foot, squeezing it a few times.

Looking at Dong Rui’s expression now, aside from delight, his face was filled with confusion.

But that did not stop Dong Rui from patting his own shoulder and saying to the monster puppet, “Come back!”

The ghost ape immediately shrank to the size of an ordinary macaque and was about to leap onto his shoulder.

The young man surnamed Qiu suddenly spoke and even beckoned to it, “Monkey, come here!”

His vision had not fully recovered, but from the sound and commotion, he knew the ghost ape had arrived.

The ghost ape froze. It looked back at him, then at Dong Rui, actually somewhat hesitant.

Of all the monster puppets Dong Rui had made, which one was not perfectly obedient to its master? The ghost ape was also the work he was most satisfied with, a creation with the highest degree of completion.

Yet it actually wanted to listen to a stranger?

Dong Rui’s face darkened, and he beckoned with his hand. “What are you staring for?”

In the end, the authority of its master, along with the habit formed through countless repetitions of training, won out. The ghost ape turned back, took two steps, and jumped onto Dong Rui’s shoulder, changing from a rampaging giant ape into an obedient little monkey.

This change seemed to shock all of the Rongshan disciples deeply, and even the attacks in their hands slowed.

Dong Rui, borrowing the lingering force of having subdued the ghost ape, said sternly, “I’ll ask you once more. Is treating guests like enemies a Rongshan tradition?”

The fierce young man shook out his leg. “No.”

The saber wound on his right shoulder extended all the way to his chest, flesh turned outward, white bone visible inside. He Lingchuan’s slash had cut very deep. If the young man had not dodged quickly, his shoulder would have been taken off.

After the interruption from the ghost ape, both sides had calmed down.

There had been no deep hatred between them in the first place, only a slight misunderstanding. Why fight to the death over that?

The young man pointed at the ground covered in white silk. “This place isn’t safe.”

At the same time, Zhu Daniang spoke, “Those damned things have hatched.”

Her sense of touch was sharp, and she could feel the movements coming from underground. The strange cicadas had broken out of the bellies and already devoured the mother bodies completely.

Only, at the time, their side had been fighting the Rongshan disciples, so Zhu Daniang had said nothing.

The moment she finished speaking, the soil churned. Dozens of strange, aberrant cicadas crawled up to the surface. Some could fly, some could jump, and all charged toward the crowd without hesitation.

Their momentum was like a pack of wolves starved for seven days and nights rushing at fat, tender sheep.

The fierce young man said to his companions, “Release the water.”

1. This is an acupoint located on the sole of one’s foot. ☜