After the Immortal Disappeared

Chapter 363: Chapter 362: Demon Immortal

General Youu already had his bow and arrow in hand. The Zhen Beast leaped to its highest point, seeming to hang for a moment, suspended in midair. At that very instant, its master drew his bowstring taut and loosed an arrow!

The arrowhead glimmered with purple light, a glow of concentrated Primordial Power. The shot was like a meteor chasing the moon, and with the Red Bird’s massive size, how could it possibly miss?

But in its moment of crisis, the bird shot upward, shifting the Copper Mirror with it. The arrow, which had been aimed at its heart, struck the base of its wing instead.

The Red Bird shrieked in apparent agony and plummeted from the sky.

At the same time, the Zhen Beast began its descent. General Youu, looking down from his perch, turned his gaze directly to Hee Lingchuan, his eyes filled with malice.

’This is big trouble.’ The young man hissed under his breath, turned, and bolted.

’What’s the point of staying and winning? Why would I bother with these paper people?’

But having learned a lesson from the Red Bird, he crouched low and leaped into the crown of a large tree, lest General Youu greet him with another arrow.

General Youu pointed in the direction of Hee Lingchuan’s escape. ”Capture the enemy general! Dead or alive!”

The Guards behind him roared their assent and spurred their horses in pursuit.

’The hell? Since when am I an ”enemy general”?’ Hee Lingchuan guessed the Divine Woman was ninety percent likely to be pulling the strings.

As he fled, he heard General Youu say, ”Many thanks for your aid, Senior Brother Qingxu!”

”It was nothing!” the Mage in midair snorted. ”These Demon Immortals are too brazen! If we don’t teach them a lesson, they’ll just keep coming back!”

’Senior Brother Qingxu? Demon Immortals?’

Hee Lingchuan silently committed these two terms to memory.

’So General Youu and Qingxu are fellow disciples?’

Besides, the language they were speaking was different from that of the present day. If Hee Lingchuan hadn’t truly put in the effort to study it diligently, and if he hadn’t had Sunx Fuling to practice and test with, he probably wouldn’t have understood a thing.

That’s right—they were all speaking the Ancient Immortal Language!

To this day, almost no living person knew how to use it.

’These Evil Ghosts are really committed to their roles. If you pretend something is real a thousand times, does it become true?’

The cavalry behind him were surprisingly fast. He had several close calls and was nearly caught.

If it weren’t for the crisscrossing streets and buildings, Hee Lingchuan would never have shaken them. In the end, he simply leaped into a large, burning residence. The cavalry couldn’t follow, so they could only rein in their horses, circle the perimeter, and report back when they couldn’t find any trace of him.

Only after they had left did Hee Lingchuan emerge from the inferno.

He wore the Divine Bone Necklace and had no fear of being seared by flames, not even the True Flame of the Red Bird.

But it was inevitable that his face would be blackened by soot.

The building was burnt to a shell and collapsed in an instant. No one dared to stand nearby, so he quickly left the scene as well.

After that frantic, life-or-death chase, Hee Lingchuan finally had a moment to consider his predicament.

Just moments ago, he had been about to reach the Gan Residence and catch Third Master Gan. Why had the Divine Woman waved her hand and transported him to this battlefield out of thin air?

’Obviously, even in this strange place, the Divine Woman can’t kill me instantly. Otherwise, why go through all this trouble?’

The last image he had received through the Eye Spider was of Third Master Gan making a Binding Pact with the Divine Woman, after which she had disintegrated into dust on the spot.

It’s true what they say: good words can’t persuade a ghost hell-bent on its own demise.

Third Master Gan knew the Divine Woman’s origins were sinister, yet he went through with it anyway.

In the end, he was defeated by his own fear.

Hee Lingchuan recalled the battle in the city. The Red Bird’s destructive power was astonishing; it could easily summon numerous Fire Dragon Scrolls, as if it could take on an entire city by itself. He doubted that even the Great Demons of the Northern Demon Kingdom possessed such abilities.

As for Hermit Qingxu and the other five, they could all fly—something clearly beyond the capabilities of today’s Mages. In the current era, where Spiritual Qi was scarce, what Mage could possibly fly?

Moreover, they called the Red Bird a ”Demon Immortal.” ’Could it be?’

A bold theory formed in Hee Lingchuan’s mind. ’That’s right. The paper man I killed earlier in the Purple Bamboo Garden claimed to be a Centurion under General Youu.’

’Does that mean the Evil Ghosts from both places have the same origin?’

’Yes, I need to get out of here as soon as possible.’

Just then, he saw another commotion up ahead. Several riders were fleeing for their lives with the Xiaolin Army in hot pursuit.

’Huh, so there are familiar faces in this strange scene after all?’

Hee Lingchuan recognized them at a glance. The ones fleeing were none other than Wu Jingsong and his men.

Only, they had originally numbered seven or eight, but now only three remained.

”This way!” he called out to Wu Jingsong.

Hearing his voice, the three men spurred their horses toward him, the pursuers close on their heels.

Relying on his Divine Bone Necklace to protect him from the flames, Hee Lingchuan jumped onto a blazing building, channeled True Power into his feet, and stomped hard on two round logs.

Wu Jingsong had just galloped past below Hee Lingchuan when he heard a loud CRACK. He turned to see massive, burning timbers falling from the sky, landing squarely on the heads of their pursuers!

The soldiers in the rear hastily reined in their horses, daring not to advance any further.

The massive timbers exploded twice more, sending sparks flying everywhere.

But one person walked out of the fire, strolling as if through a peaceful courtyard, fearless of the towering flames behind him.

Wu Jingsong and the others stared, dumbfounded.

Even though their senses were dulled at the moment, they couldn’t help but think, ’This kid is so cool.’

However, Hee Lingchuan’s coolness lasted less than three seconds, because another massive timber, also burnt through, came crashing down.

He leaped onto the back of Wu Jingsong’s horse. ”Go, let’s go!” ’What are these idiots staring at? Wasting the precious time I bought us.’

The four of them rode off in a mad dash.

After a winding, twisting escape of over a mile, the surrounding shouts of battle grew faint. With no pursuers behind them, Wu Jingsong and his men finally slowed their horses.

Hee Lingchuan asked him, ”How did you guys get in here?” ’These men had just been saved, yet here they are. The path to heaven was open, but they chose not to take it.’

”We searched around the lake a few times but found no clues. We were getting tired and exhausted, so we decided to head into the county to rest.” They’d been trapped for days with barely any food or water; it’d be strange if they weren’t thirsty and tired. ”We entered this place as soon as we came down the mountain. Lost four brothers, too.”

There were seven of them in total; four were killed, overwhelmed by superior numbers.

”You didn’t enter Wuze County first?”

”No.”

Hee Lingchuan more or less understood now. The place he had entered earlier probably wasn’t the real Wuze County either, but a strange space similar to this battlefield.

The question was, how were they supposed to get out?

”Whether it’s an Illusion Technique, an Array, or a labyrinthine space, there will always be a flaw, always a Life Gate left open.” This wasn’t because the caster was merciful, but because it was a Law. Without a Life Gate, the space itself couldn’t be constructed. He asked the cavalrymen, ”On your way here, did you notice anything out of place, anything that seemed inconsistent with the outside world?”

Wu Jingsong gave a bitter laugh. ”Everything here is different from the outside world. Everything is inconsistent.”

’Is the outside world a raging battlefield like this?’

”But I entered Wuze County first. It was only when I was about to stop Third Master Gan from making a Binding Pact with the Divine Woman that I was sent here,” Hee Lingchuan mused. ”Why not just throw me in here from the very beginning?”

Wu Jingsong asked, ”Was it easier for ’it’ to kill you in Wuze County?”

”Which means this battlefield wasn’t its first choice. Could it be because... it’s difficult to control?” Hee Lingchuan looked toward the burning city. ”The Evil Ghosts here are all deeply engrossed in their roles, each playing their own part. Perhaps they don’t take orders from ’it’ very well?”

Wu Jingsong was even more confused. ”What Evil Ghosts?” His soul might have been lost, but his intelligence hadn’t dropped. Why couldn’t he understand?

Seeing their expressions, Hee Lingchuan confirmed his suspicions were correct. He was the only one who could recognize the Evil Ghosts and paper people running all over the place; everyone else was deceived.

Just as he was about to speak, he let out a soft ”huh?”

The Eye Spider was suddenly moving far away!

He had been too busy dealing with the battlefield to switch perspectives, but he could always faintly sense the Eye Spider’s direction and distance.

The direction, needless to say, was exceptionally erratic—sometimes east, sometimes west. Hee Lingchuan couldn’t track it, as if he were at the center of a circle while Third Master Gan was walking along its outer ring.

But at that moment, he felt the distance between himself and the Eye Spider suddenly increase dramatically, so much so that the connection between them became faint and intermittent.

’Is the signal bad? Where did it go?’

Hee Lingchuan immediately switched his perspective.

The Eye Spider was still perched on Third Master Gan. From its vantage point, the scenery was no longer the Gan Residence.

There was a bamboo grove, overgrown weeds, a half-dilapidated building, and a pool of clear water behind it—

It seemed Third Master Gan had actually returned to the shore of Mochou Lake!

He ambled back to the small building, righted a chair, sat down at the table, and then placed the Mirror on it.

’A Mirror?’

By now, the Eye Spider had quietly crept onto Third Master Gan’s shoulder. Looking down from its angle, it had a crystal-clear view of the Copper Mirror.

The Mirror’s surface was no longer a polished bronze color. Instead, it displayed a scene of fire and black smoke, of a Demon Beast battling an army.

It looked less like a mirror and more like a screen.

The scene was so familiar—wasn’t it the very battlefield he was on? Except Third Master Gan had a bird’s-eye, panoramic view. Realization dawned on Hee Lingchuan:

’So I’m inside the Mirror?’

He suddenly recalled two details.

When he had rushed into the courtyard of the Gan Residence earlier, the huge Imperial White Marble Shadow Wall was painted with the Flowers and Moonlight Painting, but one side of it was blank.

That didn’t make sense.

The purpose of a shadow wall, besides concealing the view behind it and creating a sense of winding paths leading to seclusion, was often to feature engravings and inscriptions to add interest. The Hee Family had moved twice, and both times Madam Ying had paid special attention to the shadow wall.

That shadow wall had a painting, but where was the writing?

’A painting without an inscription is like a beautiful woman leaving home without her makeup—how could anyone recognize her?’

Earlier, he had leaped over the shadow wall without time for a closer look. But while clinging to the Full Moon Gate, he had glanced down and seen a line of small, crooked words:

*Mo the Second was here.*

It was at the base of the wall by the gate, hidden by plants, likely written with a charcoal stick an unknown time ago. If Hee Lingchuan hadn’t been looking down from above, he would have almost missed it.

Most importantly, the line of text was backward.

It was just like if he wrote a few words on his hand and then looked in a mirror; the words reflected in the mirror would be backward.

Thinking back from this point, he realized that after returning to Wuze County, he hadn’t seen a single plaque, sign, or couplet. Even the sign for the Purple Bamboo Garden had been completely obscured by swaying bamboo branches.

Thinking about it now, the master of the Mirror must not have wanted him to discover its secret.

But no plan is perfect. Even ”it” hadn’t noticed the small writing on the Full Moon Gate and naturally hadn’t erased it.

But that was in Wuze County.

”Head over there!” Hee Lingchuan looked around and gestured for Wu Jingsong to ride toward a nearby five-story pagoda.